Great, isn’t it? If SOPA  (Stop Online Piracy Act) Bill passes, creative and educational videos like this will no longer be available to the masses.

SOPA aka Protect IP Act were the buzz words earlier this week and SOPA was brought up in the House for debate on Wednesday.

Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market, including the resultant revenue and jobs, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws especially against foreign websites.  Opponents say it is censorship,  that it will “break the internet”, cost jobs, and that it will threaten whistleblowers and other free speech.

The bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who requests the court orders, the actions could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal  from doing business with the infringing website; barring search engines from linking to such sites and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyprotected content a felony. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement.

Credit

A visual demonstration of what would happen if  SOPA passes the House:

I do love my interwebs, since I had the time and awareness to do something, I did.

I wrote my reps via Electronic Frontier Foundation and got this response from Pat Toomey (R-PA):

November 17, 2011

He basically assures me nothing, other than “I’ve heard what you have to say”. At least he knows how I feel. Which is what I wanted.

It’s vital to keep the internet “broken” as they say, to allow an area for the free flow of ideas and expression.

Contact your reps or you can link to HERE as well.

Menu

Rainy Day Philly, means food truck time!

Lucky Old Souls Burger Truck. LOVE Park.

LOVE Park for Some Burgers

Overall , good. My first burger came out very rare, but they quickly fixed it up with a medium well for me and offered a comp Soda. I had the standard burger with special mayo sauce, it was a little light on the spices, though the mayo specialty was tasty.

FRIES!!!!

Fries were served cold, but I’ll give that to the 30-40 degree weather, and I wasn’t a big fan of their ketchup sauce. I will say this, they were fried to my liking nice and dark and crunchy. I would definitely order them again, without the ketchup sauce.

I do admire them for keeping it local and keeping fresh.

NYC Day!

First Stop: Brooklyn Bridge/Brooklyn Heights Tour via Big Onion Tours

Meeting at the City Hall Park we headed through the park, walking between the back of City Hall (where OWS took over later) and Tweed Court House.

Part of the Tweed Courthouse, now home to the Department of Education

Manhattan Municipal Building

The Manhattan Municipal Building, built because the original City Hall could not house all the government agencies needed to run the city. The building itself displays intense iconic symbolic features, including five cupolas atop the building representing the five boroughs.

Brooklyn Bridge: Manhattan Entrance

Fun Facts of the Brooklyn Bridge

Fact No. 1: The Brooklyn Bridge officially opened to the public on May 24, 1883. Emily Roebling  (wife of Washington Roebling) carried a rooster across the bridge as a symbol of victory.

Fact No. 2: The bridge was originally called the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. It was officially given the name “Brooklyn Bridge” by the city in 1915.

Fact No. 3: Con man William McCloundy was sentenced to 2 1/2 years at Sing Sing Prison for “selling” the Brooklyn Bridge to a tourist in 1901.

Fact No. 4: When it opened, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world, the first steel-wire suspension bridge, and the first bridge to connect to Long Island.

Fact No. 5: On its first day open to the public, 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed the span.

Fact No. 6: On May 30, 1883, a rumor that the bridge was collapsing spread through the crowds on it, causing a stampede. At least 12 people were killed in the ensuing panic.

Fact No. 7: On May 17, 1884, showman P. T. Barnum led 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge to prove that it was stable.

Fact No. 8: For several years after its construction, the Brooklyn Bridge was the tallest structure in the Western hemisphere.

Fact No. 9: Each of the bridge’s four supporting cables is 3,578 feet, 6 inches long and 15 1/2 inches thick, and contains 21,000 wires that, combined, would have a total length of 14,060 miles.

Fact No. 10: The bridge turned out to be a tragedy for the Roebling family. The designer, John Roebling, died from tetanus after a ferry crushed his foot as he was scouting locations for the bridge. His son, Washington Roebling, of Trenton, N.J., fell prey to the bends from his time in caissons laying the foundations for the towers, and became an invalid. Washington’s wife, Emily, became the de facto head of construction in his stead.

Brooklyn Heights

Truman Capote's Home: For Sale, 14M

Renovated historical home

Two Types of Brooklyn Brownstone

Arthur Miller's Home

The Brooklyn Heights Promenade: Where the Tour Ends. PHOTO CREDIT

The Promenade

Second Stop: Pommes Frites Inc. 

I had heard about this fry shop from G-Love, and I could use the inspiration to get my fry truck in motion.

Yea! Delish!

Fries for My Eyes

Standard fries with five sauces, oh lawdy.

1. Smoked Eggplant

2. Curry Ketchup

3. Mayo/Ketchup with onions

4. Barbeque

*5. Specialty made dip (because I was talking to them about my truck!*

I love you New York.

Happy Birthday Kizzbot!

Off to Ohio with Justintime, Wait, Wait I Need to Pose, and Kizzbot for a full weekend of Birthday celebrations.

Does anyone know what to expect from Ohio?

No?

Correct.

…..but there is are great sights to see in this “San Francisco of the East”

North Market

Indoor Market of Columbus

Balcony View of North Market

The Book Loft

37 rooms of books. Each room has it's own music.

Short North

Welcome to Short North

HipstaMatic on a Sunday Morning

Ohio State University

Justintime promoting safety awareness at the library

The original OSU building.

Wait, Wait... Waiting in the rocker.

Justintime

Dan Savage...we thought about waiting around..but we had beer to get to.

Muggle Quidditch

Karaoke at Club 20

Dive Bar Extrodinairre

Food Trucks

Friday Night Food Trucks

Pizza Food Truck

Birthday Time for Kizzbot!

Sup! Happy Day!

Ohio's first pickle shots at Betty's Fine Food & Spirits

Kizzbot and Wait, Wait

Betty's bathroom

Shenanigans

BattleShip, Justintime, The Captian, Rolled Rick, Kizzbot, and Wait, Wait

Kizzbot

betsyvonawesome and Wait, Wait

Wait, Wait and Justintime

and it ends all with a lil’ Snus.

Snus

Happy BDay Kizzbot!

People were gathering around the window. Most of the people who walked by the window appeared a little surprised as I and like myself, they stopped and looked. Two Post-It pads were on the ground, green and blue. One by one people read notes and eventually a few added their own messages.

Each note had it’s own personality, some very serious… “I’ve used Apple for four years….”

Others were more eclectic and those were my favorite.

Beer Hall Seating

Philly’s own Brauhaus Schmitz had an Oktoberfest this weekend. I met up with ATeam, G-Love, Kizzbot, and Wait, Wait, I Need to Pose  for beer, dancing, and overall hot mess times.

Brauhaus Beer Hall

The set up of the fest was doable overall. Good traffic patterns,  bathrooms and beer vendors spaced apart, and plenty of room to stand or sit.

I became a fan of Kristina tonight. Meet Kristina…..the porker.

Kristina

Photo Credit

Dancing

Ski Shot

Wait, Wait, I Need to Pose and Kizzbot

The fun thing about day festivals…is the chance to take a house party break and watch some TiVo!

House Party Break with Kizzbot, Wait, Wait, and ATeam

House Party Break with ATeam, G-Love, and Kizzbot

Prost!

Shooting Break

Over a year ago, I started production of a film series with Flat World Media Production  for a local hospital, A Day in the Life,  featuring my favorite South Philly guy, Frankie. We completed the series several months ago. The films have done really, really great, which you can’t ask for more. But something more did come along.

Frankie got sexy.

Sexy Single, that is. He is featured in the yearly reveal of Philly Sexy Singles. See his Philly.com spread HERE.

See him in action, below.

Panda and Big Owl

Crushing cans can be a lot of fun. I’m all for interactive games at the bar and Milkboy did not disappoint. Panda, Big Owl, and I headed out for happy hour. After ordering the Slyfox IPA, we headed over the much anticipated, “The  Crusher” hanging off the wall by the bar.

and THAT sir, made my night.

Boxer Dancing

Photo Credit

Show: Les Ballets de-ci de-la

Location: The Prince Theater

Job: Usher

Primary Responsibility: Guard the elevator and pass out programs.

Outcome: I was almost taken out, run over actually, by two VERY eager attendees…..but maintained ultimate control with simple hand gestures of reassurance.

Reward: Voucher credit for a Live Arts Show and the chance to watch the movie.  I realized I still do not appreciate dance as I should. Throughout the movie, I was thinking, “What the hell….????”

Tidbits of the Night:

1. Though the film was free and it was general admission, tickets were still sold

2. Another moment of “Philly: Big City, Small Town”. I saw a few familiar faces from previous shows

Next Up: Cashing out my vouchers to go see Pig Iron’s : Twelfth Night, Or What You Will

Show: Red Rovers

Location: Back to the old furniture warehouse in Northern Liberties

Job: Fire watch

My "Everyone stay calm. I'm in complete control" Look

Primary Responsibility: Watch for fire.

Be the beacon of safety, the light-ray of hope in a chaotic moment.

Should say...."Do Not Enter....without the smart guidence of me"

Outcome: Decent seat in the house and I got to potentially use a walkie-talkie and flashlight like Nancy Drew in book #23.

My View

You can’t deny a show that gets its audience involved and they stick around.

The Audience

Reward: a free show and a ticket credit for another Fringe show

Tidbits of the Night:

1. The rover was only designed to last for 90 Mars days

2. The show can not start until all Fire watch are present. L & I would shut the show down for entire festival.

Next up: Les Ballets de ci de la