Posted 7:11 PM by Gene

Another RENDELLFEST, this time on Broad, tied in to a largely will-o'-the-wisp "international arts festival" supposedly tied to France though it was hard to tell the connection from the tray lousay jazz-rock bands, and definitely tied in to the Annenberg estate, which had nothing better to do with the money. An alleged 100,000 to 150,000 -- a reasonable guess -- crammed into eateries that on normal Saturdays would be all but out of business. People jostled into the Kimmel Mausoleum (for whose dubious benefit this was staged) to see an eighty-foot-high Erector set construction of the Eiffel Tower but they weren't cramming the gift shop as that was hidden by coming-attractions decals. Strangely -- or perhaps not so strangely given our perpetual distemper despite the Phightin' Phils -- the goody packs at the media tent went mostly unclaimed. I know EDDIES would be beside themselves but if this neighborhood were so crammed every blasted day it would be unlivable. The only thing for a single middle-aged white male to do was to scan the crowd for young attractive females, and God knows girl-watching among dirty old men is already a most melancholy hobby; I found one who uncomfortably reminded me of a woman I met eons ago on the Chestnut Hill local with whom I struck up a conversation but somehow never saw again. It is not pleasant thinking yourself the only man alive in a crowd of 100,000. Tonight (as last night, apparently in rehearsal) we got acrobats or dancers or something performing on a scaffold suspended by a hundred-fifty-foot crane, the whole contraption rigged with or accompanied by bells and making the appealing sound of ten thousand wind-chimes. One could imagine a spectacular if new-agey display of light and beauty but from my perspective it was a dark low-watt fizzle despite frequent stupid cheering. Thankfully the whole affair ushered in a white crowd, which is the whole point; Monday we go back to being an impoverished industry-free taxpayer-leeching plurality-black-and-poor city with a broke school system and little hope for the future save more RENDELLFESTS -- like this one in three weeks.

An odd sight: Outside the Academy tonight dozens of overmade-up strangely look-alike girls demonstrated an appalling lack of taste with short skirts (many fringed) and unappealing colors (lots of gray) and metallic high-heels this side of the disco age. One could call them tarts; I won't. At first I thought it was ballet but I remembered cultural events at our AHTS COMPLEX are off-limits to people under 65. No, these were students at a second-string university studying to be fashion designers and joining their no-doubt Walter Mittyish president in honoring Tommy Hilfiger. Last year at a similar event they honored an alumnus, his boss at Phillips-Van Heusen. Another honoree is the head of the Carl Icahn factotum Federal-Mogul (paaaaaaaaaaaarts for sale), which may not have much to do with Tommy Hilfiger. REALLY GUYS.... Anyway, the girls chatted and draped arms around one another and took pictures, and while many were no doubt airheads (certainly so designated by their dress) they had such an obvious bursting exquisitely feminine joie de vivre as to remind a sad middle-aged white male he was forlornly looking for a reason to live.