Hot Hot Heat Meetup

First thought on the gigantic Meetup: it was so rediculously hot it actually took away from the event and what was going on. It was in the attic/upper lodge room thingie of the brewery. There were fans in the corners of the room, but they turned off several of them to hear the speakers better, but I couldn't hear the speakers no matter where I stood. The only speakers I could hear were Chris Bowers from MyDD.com and Patrick Murphy.

We got lost going there too. It's almost completely unmarked. We circled several times before spotting a cop at a gas station who directed us to park on York & Martha Sts. and to look for flags. We parked. We saw an 8.5" x 11" pink sheet of paper taped to the side of a building. You couldn't have seen that from a car driving down the block. It didn't help that for some reason I thought it was on Ambler St instead of Amber St. But it's actually on Martha St so nothing helped I guess.

We got in about forty minutes into the gathering. I spotted Susie laying on a couch in the back of the room, parched and hot. Grabbed a glass of water for her. A lot of the Philly Drinking Liberally crew were there. I saw Duncan, Joe, Matt, somegirl, Eligere, Rep. Mark Cohen and I'm sure I'm missing some others I said hi to. Forgive me, it was rediculously hot and I couldn't take much in.

I saw a ton of regulars from the Philly For Change Meetup like Charles, Simon, Sam, Hilary and a host of others I can't think of off the top of my head.

It was just so hot. I really couldn't pay attention to the speakers. I literally had sweat dripping down my face, down my back and I'm sure through my UFOs. I took some photos of the speakers, but they're shitty and I didn't have the patience, in the hot hot heat, to get into better position or get in the way of the other very very hot people in attendance who had the primo seats up front.

I'd say the most effective speaker of the night was Pat Murphy [8^th District] simply because he was the easiest to hear. He called himself the Paul Hackett of PA. Baby-faced with a deep voice, he spoke to the crowd and got us listening, which was hard to do considering people were mingling and drinking the free ale. I couldn't imagine drinking in that heat, I just had some water and sodas.

I really couldn't hear Lois Murphy: 6^th District, Lois Herr: 16^th Distrcit, Ginny Schrader: 8^th District, nor Paul Scoles: 7^th District. But I can go to all of their websites and read up - ah the world of infinite information on the internets.

I wonder what everyone else's take is.

Chris Bowers' take:

Knee Deep In the Big Boozy
Now this is what I remember: 150-200 people, beer flowing freely (literally), everyone looking forward to victory rather than back at our past defeats, seventy or eighty huge applause lines from the evening's speakers, countless connections being made, direct actions taking place on site---yes! This was Democracy for America at its best... [read on]

Susie's take:

Yep, it’s starting to smell like a real organization. The event was held at Yards Brewery and the owners donated free beer (although I don’t drink beer, my beer-buzzing friends call Yards’ Philadelphia Pale Ale their favorite).

It was ungodly hot with no A/C. I mostly spent the evening in search of a cool breeze, without much luck. (Ended up stealing ice cubes from the office refrigerator and then wiping myself down with them. Hey, it helped.) Did some talking, some handicapping of the various races and networking with the other members of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, etc. Tried to hunt down a job, too – got a couple of good leads... [read on]

Kyle's take:

The August meetup of Philly for Change brought progressives from every corner of the region to a brewery on the outer limits of the city. Turnout was good and the event attracted about 120 or so liberals.

I couldn't help but feel a bit odd waiting for the program to begin. This was my first political engagement in local Philadelphia politics. Fortunately, Duncan (aka Atrios) arrived soon after I did. We discussed the threadbot I run for Eschaton and his rising fame in Philadelphia Weekly. And yes, he does sweat like the rest of us... [read on]

Duncan's take:

Chris Bowers, Albert, Kyle, and Susie all have reports on last night's Meetup, including the all important Eschaton Sweat Report with a Beat. It was attended by various local candidates for office. I think '06 will be the year we sweep all of the Republican Reps out of the suburban Philadelphia counties. Though they'd all better start showing up to Drinking Liberally, like Patrick Murphy, Chuck Pennacchio, and Alan Sandals, as that's the only way to get elected in this town...

BooMan's take:

Okay. I'm back from a long night of politicking and consuming free beer. We had a meetup at the Yards Brewery, which is both a brewery and a decrepit semi-abandoned factory in a bad part of town.

We listened to 5 Democratic contenders pitch their candidacies for the four GOP owned seats they are contending for. And we drank free beer. Did I mention that the beer was free. Anyway, I met some of the candidates and I chatted them up and told them how they should quit playing pattycake and post some diaries at BooTrib if they ever want to get anywhere in this world... [read on]

Matt's take:

The turnout was huge, especially on a night when the heat index was of Limbaughian proportions.

All of the candidates were impressive, but I was especially taken with Patrick Murphy, a young war veteran who hopes to follow in the footsteps of Paul Hackett. Murphy is engaged, photogenic, and passionate, and I think he has what it takes to make a real difference in 2006 and beyond. It’s so gratifying to see that soldiers like Paul Hackett and Patrick Murphy have come back from Iraq, and are now speaking out about what they saw and taking part in the political process... [read on]

Comments

[Mark]

"I couldn't imagine drinking in that heat"

Dude, it's never too hot for beer. And it was free!

[albert]

I've had beers [2] in Florida while it was about 95 outside, 90% humidity, sitting in a 110+ hottub. But it was too hot last night in that attic room. I have no idea how those people were drinking. Granted, they were out of cups slightly larger than the teensy dixie cups, but still.

[Dave]

Wow, sounds like a really bad time overall. Now I don't feel so badly for missing it.

[albert]

A bad time? Nonono, just too hot. I had zero problems walking around and talking to the various people in the crowd, just hearing the speakers. Networking was the bigger part methinks.

[eRobin]

I was there. It was a great time. I thought I saw you but you were taking a photo and then you were talking to someone and then I couldn't find you again. I didn't talk to any blogger but Chris. And I ticked off a Paul Scoles guy with my prediction of an overwhelming Casey loss in '06. Since they ran out of name tag stuff early, I made one from a Lois Murphy sticker, which must have made it look like I was on her staff because I was fielding Murphy questions all evening. Button tip: People read right to left so put the one you want people to read on the left side of your chest. I had a Ginny sticker on too and nobody saw it.

[Matt]

Darn, eRobin -- I wish I knew you were there -- it would have been great to meet you.

nice report, Albert!

[Gabriel Winant]

I’m a student at Stanford, grew up in Philly, and have done a lot of work (for my age) in progressive politics. I’ve worked for Dean (in Burlington, actually—the most amazing experience of my life), Hoeffel, Tom Daschle, and Rendell, and I’ve been curious ever since it first started to blossom what makes the Philly progressive netroots scene what it is. I’m applying for a grant this fall to take an academic look at it, and its ramifications for the local and national party, as well as for the nature of politics generally.

Anyway, to get the grant from Stanford to do this (I need an apartment in Philly, etc., because my parents moved, alas) I have to submit the proposal this fall. So if there are people who would be interested in being interviewed next summer, as ridiculously early as it is to ask such a thing, it’d be very helpful if you could drop me an email at gwinant@stanford.edu.

Thanks a lot, and hope to be in touch.

PS I'm cross-posting this or similar comments on a bunch of Philly blogs. Sorry if I'm being a bit aggressive. Such is the world of low-level research at Stanford.