Ladysmith Fish out of Water

It's been quite the ten days. Last weekend, I went with my brother and sister to go see Freshly Ground in New York. It was wonderful. This past weekend, Ladysmith Black Mambazo played at the Mann Centre in Philadelphia.

I've traveled around for some time now. (after my calculations, 8 of the past 10 years) The Mann Center is one of the best venues I've ever been to. Anyone who comes to visit maybe will be able to go to a concert there. Getting there is a whole different story and man does it work out for quite a story.

Philadelphia is built in the sensible grid pattern that many American cities are built in. Philadelphia was in fact the first "new European" city to be constructed that way. Anyway, the streets that run North to South are numbered from the Delaware River to the Schuykill River. East West streets are named after trees that grow here or places "in the colonies."

Now from Front Street to 50th Street, Philly is safe and normal. After 50th street it gets a little shady. Noel was kind enough to tell me that fact after I had to go to to 52nd street. I thought I would be green and take public transport to the venue. That meant I only had to take 2 subway lines, but I went to a different world. I took the blue line EL and transfered to the Green Trolley Lines. I was the only white person on the trolley and people started giving me weird looks. I was definitely out of my league. But you all know that it doesn't really bother me to be out of my league. I got off at my stop of 52nd and Lancaster. I had to walk. I noticed lots of greenery towards the north so headed that direction. When I got to some train tracks, I knew I was going the right direction. I called my brother though because I wanted another route back. It seemed a little too risky to walk back under the train tracks after dark, by myself and with my credit card. I did!

I stuffed everything into my underwear and just set off with a mission. I felt fine, just hurried not harried... until someone came my direction. The guy was with his girlfriend, so I wasn't too scared, until I notived how BIG this guy was. He greeted me with a hearty "How ya doin' dude?" I burst out laughing. I retorted with a "How YOU doin' dude!" and went on my merry way. As soon as I got to the stop, the number 10 trolley came and I was off.


The CONcert was amazing too!