Philadelphia Dreaming

With the Philadelphia Eagles being eliminated from the 2019 NFL playoffs on Sunday evening, today was locker room clean-out day at the NovaCare Complex. It was a somber day as some players leave the Eagles’ locker room for the last time. There were a number of newsworthy tidbits from a number of players speaking on Monday, so here’s a roundup.

CARSON WENTZ

No. 11 spoke for the first time since news of his back fracture injury emerged after the Eagles’ Week 14 game.

It was encouraging to hear that the injury isn’t expected to be a long-term issue.

Former NFL team doctor David Chao weighed in on this:

Getting Wentz healthy (and keeping him that way) is obviously critical to the future of this team’s success. It sounds like he knows he has some doubters to prove wrong.

Q: With the level of success that Nick had, does it put more pressure on you?

WENTZ: It could, without a doubt. You look at that and you say it could put more pressure. You could say coming into the season there was more pressure. But I do everything I can to block that stuff out. I think right now, going forward, my focus is on getting my body right and to play this game freely the way I did back last year before the injury. Cut it loose and get rid of all that pressure and anxiety, and whatever it may be. Just play the game freely and that’s where I’m going to get to.

The feeling here is that some have gotten way too down on Wentz. I think people easily forget just how good he was in 2017. Let’s see Wentz have a full offseason to get healthy and work on his game. There’s reason for optimism when it comes to his 2019 outlook.

Nick Foles got better over time. Why can’t Carson?

Speaking of the Super Bowl MVP ...

NICK FOLES

Based on everything he’s said following the Eagles’ loss, it sure doesn’t sound like Foles will be back in Philly next season.

Nick Foles said he’ll always love Philly. Well, Nick, Philly will always love you, too.

BRANDON BROOKS

It really sucks that Brooks suffered an injury so late in the 2018 season that it could impact his 2019 outlook. Hopefully Brooks’ recovery timeline will allow him to be ready for the start of next season. The Eagles need their Pro Bowl right guard in the lineup.

BRANDON GRAHAM

I’m going to be so sad if the Eagles don’t find a way to keep my fellow BLG. He’s always such a happy guy who brings so much fun and positivity to the locker room. Not to mention he’s hell of a player who made the biggest play in Eagles history by strip-sacking Tom Brady in last year’s Super Bowl.

The good news is that it sounds like Graham, who is going to be a free agent, has a lot of interest in coming back to Philly. We’ll see if the feeling is mutual.

JASON KELCE

Over the weekend, conflicting reports emerged regarding Kelce potentially retiring before the 2019 season. Speaking after Sunday’s game, Kelce said he hasn’t made a decision quite yet. He sure didn’t slam the door shut on the possibility of calling it a career.

For the Eagles’ sake, hopefully Kelce isn’t leaving the game.

FLETCHER COX

Cox got banged up in the Eagles’ loss but he gutted it out as best as he could.

CHRIS LONG

Long, who turns 34 years old in March, is still under contract for the 2019 season. The veteran pass rusher gave some weight to retiring last year, however, so it possible he calls it a career. If that’s the case, the Eagles would save $5.3 million in cap space with only $300,000 in dead money. For what it’s worth, Long seems undecided about his future.

DARREN SPROLES

Earlier this month, ESPN reported Sproles told the Eagles he wants to play another season. Sproles turns 36 in June but he showed he still has some gas left in the tank. Sproles is set to be a free agent so the Eagles will have to sign him to a new contract. I’d guess we’ll see him back.

ZACH ERTZ

Ertz, Brooks, and Cox are the Eagles’ three 2019 Pro Bowl selections. Brooks definitely isn’t playing in the game and I’m guessing Cox isn’t either given that he’s in a walking boot right now. Ertz is the only player who might play.

MALCOLM JENKINS

As previously noted, made it through the entire regular season and playoffs without missing a single defensive snap. He also played 157 special teams snaps. Warrior.

NIGEL BRADHAM

Add Bradham to the long list of players who got hurt in New Orleans.

SIDNEY JONES

The 2019 offseason is a big one for Jones. After only playing in 10 out of 37 possible games over two years, he needs to prove he can get healthy. Jones is only 22 years old so it’s way too early to give upon him. But it’s time for him to step up.

It’ll be interesting to see how Jones fits into next year’s secondary with Rasul Douglas, Avonte Maddox, and Cre’Von LeBlanc all playing well down the stretch. Jim Schwartz favorite Jalen Mills will still be around and it’s not impossible free agent Ronald Darby could be retained.

GOLDEN TATE

I don’t think we’ll be seeing Tate return to the Eagles in 2019. It feels like he’ll get more money on the market than what the Eagles will offer.

DOUG PEDERSON

One of my favorite takeaways from Monday’s media session:

The Eagles don’t have the cap space to be super active in free agency but the allure of Pederson could potentially give the Eagles an edge when it comes to shopping for bargain bin guys.

Emotional intelligence!

THANKING THE FANS

The Eagles put out this video of players sending a message to the fans.

Updated 1:30 p.m.

While supervised injection site nonprofit Safehouse is currently sparring with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in civil court, plans remain on course to open a facility in 2019, leadership confirmed to Billy Penn.

Where will that facility will be located? The question presents a whole different battle — but addresses leaked last week are not necessarily the answer.

Already jittery about the country’s first drug consumption site opening its doors “in their backyard,” residents of Kensington and Harrowgate felt heightened tension after the Juniata News reported on Thursday that the nonprofit had “announced” five finalist locations in the area.

However, those published locations represented just a fraction of potential sites identified through a new geographic feasibility study, according to Safehouse Vice President Ronda Goldfein.

“Some may work, some may not work,” Goldfein said of the locations in the study, conducted by researchers at UPenn’s Injury Science Center. “There’s a whole lot that still has to happen. This [research] is just one piece of information we’re using.”

Safehouse leaders have looked at about two dozen sites in total — some identified by Penn researchers, others identified by neighborhood residents or simply driving around. At the moment, it remains unclear how the organization would proceed with acquiring such a facility.

“We could buy a building, we could rent a building,” Goldfein said. “We could put a trailer on a vacant lot.”

Longterm plans involve opening at least three supervised injection sites across the city, but the first will undoubtedly land in the Kensington area. A draft of the Penn study reviewed by Billy Penn identified three blocks where a possible brick-and-mortar location might work for Safehouse’s initial facility.

The researchers’ algorithm based the picks on a number of restrictive planning factors — the facility cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school. Nearby daycares, parks, alcohol distributors and police/fire stations are also a no-go.

Another factor that appears to have been taken into account: requisite support from City Council. While still in the heart of the city’s opioid crisis, the three sites all fall within a block or two outside Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez’s district. The councilwoman has stood fiercely against allowing Safehouse to open in her district proper, a position that is unlikely to waver in a tough re-election year.

The study didn’t identify specific brick-and-mortar properties — just general block numbers. But sources say one of the pitched sites on 1800 block of E. Hilton Street has a political tie to Safehouse leadership.

Real estate records show only three parcels on this narrow one-way backstreet at Kensington and Allegheny. One of them is owned by a family trust connected with the Philadelphia Suburban Development Corporation. The family-run real estate firm became an early investor at K&A with working ties to former Gov. Ed Rendell, who is now Safehouse’s biggest political champion.

Goldfein acknowledged she had met with the owner of the Hilton Street property, but said she didn’t know the owners of any of the other prospective sites. PSDC did not return a request for comment.

Nationwide, critics worry supervised injection sites will produce a honeypot effect that would attract more drug dealing and its attendant woes around the location. Studies have shown supervised consumption sites in other countries had no significant impact on drug-related crime, and are more likely to decrease public drug use and overdose deaths.

At the moment, Kensington and Harrowgate neighborhood groups remain opposed to a facility in the area.

Councilman Mark Squilla, whose district is the new target for the site, has been open to facilitating conversations — which so far have been limited. Part of the misunderstanding over the “announced” site locations was amplified by the fact that Safehouse leadership has yet to meet with neighborhood civic groups.

Impact Services, a social service agency nonprofit, says it supports the idea of a drug consumption site in the neighborhood. But not on the commercial corridor of Kensington Avenue or in the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

“We support a site in a medical setting like Temple Episcopal,” said Impact CEO Casey O’Donnell, “where a host of services can be offered and more robust research can be conducted to figure out what is actually effective in both keeping people alive and moving them towards recovery.”

More conversations will happen soon, both in the 19134 zip code — and hundreds of miles away.

Safehouse is hosting a trip to Toronto this week to visit existing injection facilities in the Canadian city. City Council members and some staffers are going, along with O’Donnell and Shannon Farrell-Pakstis, leader of the Harrowgate Civic Association. The trip is being funded by the Scattergood Foundation and an “anonymous family foundation,” per Goldfein.

Farrell-Pakstis said that even if the trip assuages her own concerns about a drug consumption site, her neighbors will remain opposed and she’ll stand with them.

“We know they’re not going to change their minds overnight,” Goldfein said, “but I applaud all of them for their willingness to have an open mind.”

Welcome to the Week 3 Colts Edition of WTS. This game marked the first time Wentz was back under center since last December, and any lingering doubts which may have plagued fans regarding his play style or durability should’ve been greatly diminished simply by watching his mobility and command, as well as his walking off the field in an upright position after absorbing over 9,000 sacks.

While this was an ugly, messy game, it held a level of importance that on a personal level, greatly improved my outlook for this season and beyond. Things that I looked out for in this game, such as the play calling creativity or discrepancies between Reich and Pederson, as well as Wentz taking that first “Welcome Back” hit, helped to calm my inner negledelphian.

That’s not to say that we don’t have work to do, because we do. However, I think back to how we looked in 2016, with Wentz suddenly starting after Bradford’s trade, aided by a newly assembled and severely underrated coaching staff trying to get the pieces to fit. I think Reich is a brilliant offensive mind and it sucks that we lost him this past off season, but I also think that our coaches will find a way to make the pieces fit again.

Thanks New England!

Some notes on the game:

1. Andrew Luck was the Colts leading rusher with 1 carry for 33 yards.
2. We won.
3. Fuck Dallas.

That being said, the NFL has a major problem with their new rules regarding “roughing the passer” (RIP Clay Matthews). The refs in general seem to exert too much power over the flow of the game, and that doesn’t make for a very entertaining product.

At least the game threads were somewhat amusing, albeit relatively empty. With a 1:00 pm kick-off and little to no fanfare, it was easy to see how spoiled we’ve become as fans. This is the first non prime-time WTS written since last January. It’s also the first WTS I’ve done in a while that wasn’t covering some massive controversy, huge trade, major FA acquisition, or national prime-time game... AKA we’re not lingering on the collective league mind. Nobody really had much to say about anything, and that’s probably a good thing at this point, because while the league is drooling over Mahomes and the Rams, we can silently work our shit out and get back to where we need to just in time for the post season.

The game itself was a sloppy, flag filled shit fest, played on a wet field between two familiar coaching staffs who scripted conservative game plans surrounding two franchise QB’s fresh off of injury...

Fittingly, reddit comments are back for this edition, so keep an eye out for them at the end of your regularly scheduled WTS. Also, at the requests of BGN members HoldTheDorial and SakPrescott, I wanted to compile a short yet sweet bonus collection featuring some of the best comments from both the Cowboys and Vikings pathetic game threads.

And when I say pathetic, I mean glorious.

Because the Vikes game was held at the same time as ours, I elected to pepper their comments in throughout, so please keep in mind that they were largely focused on their own “game”. As for the Cowboys, that really does deserve a WTS all to itself, so look for some variation of that around the bye week.

Special side notes on some of the NFL’s most “Special” teams & tidbits:

• The Bills traveled to “Minnesota” to blow out the Vikings. Nobody saw this coming, not even the Buffalo Bills official twitter page, who put up a pre-game graphic which had the team traveling to what seemed to be the border of Wisconsin and Illinois...

• The Browns beat the Jets, securing their first win since December 24th, 2016. It had to happen at some point, and the entire city rejoiced with free Bud Lights via citywide “Victory Fridges”, which unlocked simultaneously once the Browns were able to finally secure anything resembling a win. For those unfamiliar with this cruel and humiliating advertising ploy, Bud Light beer fridges were distributed throughout Cleveland, then locked and connected to each other via “Super High Tech Totally Awesome Bud Light WiFi Victory Fist Bump Lock System”, only to simultaneously open in the the rare case of a Browns win.

These inhumane yet highly amusing contraptions finally released their mock, semi-alcoholic piss water to Browns fans following their Thursday night victory over the Jets, who then took full advantage of this joyous and not at all humiliating event, and have been collectively drunk ever since.

Good for you Cleveland!

• In 3 games, the Cardinals have scored just 20 points, and the Saints have allowed 103. Not sure why I find that fascinating, but I do. I promise to bring this back up in the WTS week 19 edition.
• Four teams (GB, Min, Cle, & Pit) have a 1-1-1 record.
• Off topic, can somebody please explain to me what the fuck this is?

Gif God Norm’s Weekly Car ride:

On to the game, enjoy!

PRE-GAME WARMUPS & 1ST HALF

(Copyright ©2018 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.)

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top places for this East African cuisine around Philadelphia, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best spots to enjoy signature Ethiopian stews, veggie dishes or seafood with some sourdough flatbread.

1. Almaz Cafe

https://s3-media4.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/TFQikOLvCHj34Y0VPL21eQ/o.jpg" />Photo: Ben F./Yelp

Topping the list is Almaz Cafe. Located at 140 S. 20th St. in Rittenhouse, the cafe, which offers coffee and tea as well as its Ethiopian fare, is the highest rated restaurant of its kind in Philadelphia, boasting four stars out of 348 reviews on Yelp.

Reviewers especially recommend the chicken stew and the yellow split peas, served with injera flatbread. The cafe also gets top marks for its good value and friendly service.

2. Kaffa Crossing

Next up is Spruce Hill's Kaffa Crossing, situated at 4423 Chestnut St. With four stars out of 174 reviews on Yelp, it has proven to be a local favorite for its vegetarian combo platter, collard greens, large portions and great service.

3. ERA

Photo: Taylor S./Yelp

Fairmount's ERA, located at 2743 Poplar St., is another top choice, with Yelpers giving the Ethiopian bar four stars out of 163 reviews. It doesn't serve lunch, but is open late daily for dishes like doro tibs (marinated boneless chicken sauteed in onions, peppers, tomato and Ethiopian spices).

4. Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant

Photo: Alissa S./Yelp

Last but not least, there's Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant, a newer spot in Spruce Hill with 4.5 stars out of 46 Yelp reviews.

Yelpers call out its seafood dishes and the house-made honey wine with ginger and spices for special praise. Head over to 225 S. 45th St. to see for yourself.

Left: The real Joe Biden. (Photo via Michael Stokes/Wikimedia Commons). Right: Memories in Margate owner Jerry Blavat. (Photo via HughE Dillon/PhillyChitChat).

Memories in Margate has long been one of the main see-and-be-seen destinations at the Jersey Shore, and occasionally, a bona fide celebrity sighting comes out of it. Why, just last summer, Kellyanne Conway made a big splash at the iconic club, posing with owner/DJ Jerry Blavat, aka the Geator. So when I heard that Joe Biden was at Memories in Margate on Saturday night, it wasn’t exactly hard to believe.

“Joe Biden is in the house!” proclaimed Blavat’s official Facebook page at 10:49 p.m. on Saturday, with Memories in Margate as the check-in location.

Naturally, this being 2019, the Biden announcement was met with some hostility on Facebook.

Oh, yes, there was the guy who simply wanted to know if Biden could do the Bristol Stomp, referring to some dance that people used to do back when JFK was in the White House. And there were those who thought it was pretty cool that the guy who could very well be the next President of the United States would visit Memories on a random Saturday night.

But, by and large, Biden didn’t exactly poll high on Blavat’s page.

“Throw him out!” wrote one person. “Boooooo,” said another. And a few people referenced the controversy over Biden’s propensity for touching, with comments like “Creepy Uncle Joe” and “Warn the ladies’ room attendant.”

Since Biden is all over the headlines these days, exponentially more so than any of his opponents (for now), and given that his national campaign headquarters is right here in Philadelphia, I thought his appearance at a popular Jersey Shore club and the reaction to it were perfectly newsworthy.

Find me a good photo, demanded my editor. If Joe Biden was at Memories, there have to be photos on social media.

True enough.

But when I went looking for photos of Biden at Memories, I couldn’t find a single one. Kellyanne Conway at Memories was all over Facebook, but not the guy far ahead of Donald Trump in key battleground states?

I checked in with TJ Ducklo, the national press secretary for the Biden 2020 campaign. (Can you imagine being the national press secretary for the Democratic frontrunner and getting an email about your candidate at some Jersey Shore club?) But Ducklo didn’t have anything helpful to add — not even a simple confirmation or denial. Apparently he has more pressing issues to attend to.

So I went to the Geator himself.

According to Blavat, it turns out that Biden didn’t visit Memories on Saturday. (Note that the errant Facebook post was still up on Tuesday morning.)

“It was an impersonator who looked exactly like him,” says Blavat. “He was shaking hands with people, taking pictures, and asking them to vote in the primary. You couldn’t tell the difference.”

Blavat then went on to tell us that Biden used to come out to the dances that Blavat used to organize way back in the day in Delaware, where Biden grew up.

“I saw him years later,” remembers Blavat. “He told me his daughter Ashley was a fan.”

As for Biden’s actual whereabouts on Saturday night, he had no scheduled public appearances and his campaign isn’t revealing his comings and goings from the weekend, so it’s anybody’s guess.

And, yes, I’m totally leaving open the possibility that it was Biden at Memories, in spite of what Blavat said. One can only hope that a video of him doing the jitterbug surfaces as proof.

South by Southwest 2019 (SXSW) is the first iteration of the Austin megaconference to take place since the conclusion of the Amazon HQ2 saga, which sent self-reflecting ripples through North America’s innovation corridors.

Joining a chorus of cities and countries vying for the spotlight at SXSW, Amplify Philly — the homegrown, collective effort to raise our city’s profile on the national sphere — is doubling down on its initiative of a “Philly house,” a local bar transformed into a Little Philly of sorts, where local tech and entrepreneurship staples will spend three days stumping for the City of Brotherly Love. Last year, the pop-up Philadelphia at SXSW18 had a successful proof of concept.

On the docket for this year are six Amplify Philly-hosted panels on the official SXSW schedule, ranging from art and films to internet of things and women in innovation. Some 24 speakers will raise the Philly flag during the event’s programming.

“People who come to the Amplify Philly House will get to see firsthand why our city’s reputation is on the rise,” said Michelle Freeman, of events production company Witty Gritty who is again co-organizing the Austin initiative. “We think that this experience will make them want to get in on all of the exciting things that are happening in the City of Brotherly Love.”

(Thinking of making the trek to Austin? To get the most out of your time and money, here’s a roundup of survival tips from attendees to another massive megaconference, Las Vegas-based CES.)

The list of companies backing the Amplify Philly effort is as long as it is varied: from Comcast NBCUniversal to software firms Arcweb or Guru, but also insurance titan Independence Blue Cross and academic institutions Penn, Temple and Thomas Jefferson University or financial services firm like Vanguard via its innovation studio.

Dave Silver, the REC Philly cofounder who’s also an Amplify Philly co-organizer, sees Philly’s approach as a singular one in the often noisy SXSW landscape.

“From our bootstrap approach to fundraising, to the diverse programming lineup we’ve put together, no other city does it like us,” said Silver. “We’re excited to put Philadelphia in the spotlight again at SXSW, and show attendees what our city has to offer.”

Balboa Catering’s Chef Alex Garfinkel is teaming up with the South Street Headhouse District to launch a monthly summer supper series this May.

The proceeds of the ‘Monthly Alfresco Supper Club Dinner Series’ will go to the continued restoration of the Shambles, a historic Headhouse Square landmark and public open-air covered space that plays host to weddings and events.

The event series kicks off on May 22, and will feature dishes from Garfinkel and other top local chefs, locally-produced craft beers and spirits, and live music. Chef Ellen Yin, who heads up High Street on Market (and was recently nominated for a James Beard Award) will also donate bread from her restaurant at each event. Each event will take place at the Shambles.

Garfinkel, who is working with his wife Jocelyn to produce the event series, sees the Shambles as a “treasured” Philadelphia landmark — one that he hopes to improve through his fundraisers.

”We’re honored to be able to raise funds to improve and preserve the Shambles,” Chef Garfinkel said in a recent press release. “The idea that we can host collaborative culinary events featuring top local chefs and culinary artisans all while raising money for a quintessential Philadelphia landmark is something we’re very excited about.”

STATUS: The first event of the Monthly Alfresco Supper Club Dinner Series will take place on May 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Shambles. Details on later renditions of the series will be announced closer to date.

On a bright and humid day that feels more like summer than mid-October, The Bourse is hopping. People pour in from Fifth Street, waltzing past the marble reception desk, and making a beeline for the handmade pasta stall, the taqueria, or the coffee shop that sits front and center (the best seat in the house).

With food in hand, they head to the center of the first floor, to enjoy their meals under soaring, vaulted glass ceilings.

Some of them look like tourists fresh off the Liberty Bell line, but for many, this is just a welcome break from the work day—and that’s exactly what the designers had hoped for.

“Now it’s activating the neighborhood,” said Robert Lubas, BLT Architect’s project architect on The Bourse. That’s evident in the local vendors who come from around the city and the suburbs, and the new hours—they no longer close at five—plus a new liquor license that all the vendors share. But it’s also the case in the renovations themselves.

When D.C.-based firm MRP bought the building two years ago and started the $40 million renovation process with BLT Architects at the helm, they had one major goal.

“Restoring the glory,” Lubas said of the term that’s become a sort of motto for the look of the new Bourse building. Erected in 1896, it was originally used as a commodities exchange until it changed hands in 1979 and underwent a massive renovation that saw it turned into offices and retail.

Now, almost as if they’re doing an archeological dig, architects have worked to bring many of the original details back. That starts in the Fifth Street entrance, where they’ve raised the lobby back to its original two-story height. They’ve also restored the original wood archways, along with a boxy design in the wood that was hidden during the last renovation.

But the real stunner of the renovations comes in the middle of the food court, itself. The atrium, which was once divided into two floors of retail with escalators running between them, has been turned into one space with a curved glass ceiling nine stories above.

The atrium was once an orange-brown color, but BLT had it repainted white, to lighten it up and bring out the intricate, classical details on the column caps and beams that run across the atrium—both of which were restored as well. Additionally, the orb-like lights that covered the space and gave off a yellow glow against the brown backdrop, have been replaced with recessed lighting.

The original wrought iron railings have been restored along the interior of the space, as well as the original marble staircase.

Before the renovation, shops sat around the middle of the space, but now, approximately 30 stalls have been erected in the middle of it all. Each has its own metal latticework above, allowing vendors to decorate and install storage without blocking the light from the glass ceiling above.

As they worked, several of the building’s original details came out, like the original red tile mosaic on the floor. Workers continued that design throughout the space, Lubas said, staining the floor to match the original mosaic.

“The goal was to make it look both old and new,” he added.

They also found several diamond tiles in the floor, each with a number, which they believe used to mark where merchants would be in the building’s original form as a commodities exchange.

An old—and no longer in use—clock that sits at the far end of the atrium is yet another reminder of the space’s previous life over 100 years ago.

While the atrium is a main draw of the space, there’s still more upstairs. Most of the upper floors are used as office spaces, and are already occupied by tenants who have been there for years.

But part of the restoration included half of the 9th floor, which BLT Architects turned into an amenity space for the other tenants in the building. The space has large, floor-to-ceiling windows that gaze out over the atrium, and it includes several glass-walled conference rooms. There’s also a small dining area with wood tables, and stadium seating for working or relaxing.

The space plays with industrial-style elements, hearkening back—again—to the late 1800s-history of the building itself, Lubas said.

The Bourse is close to its end date, and they expect to have the space finished and ready for a grand opening in mid-November.

• Bourse Building: Renderings of Historic Building’s $40M Makeover [Curbed Philly]

Before we head out to a shoot, Amy and I (this is Tony) usually have a conversation to decide what kind of photographers we’re going to be that day. We realize that to most people that sounds like a ridiculous idea… but that’s our process. The answer often can get tweaked by logistics (like how much walking we’ll be doing, the time of day, weather… things like that) but most often is influenced by who we’re shooting for. That’s why we put so much effort into trying to establish relationships with the lovely people that we get to photograph.

Meredith and Erik were poster children for this. You see, before the shoot we had a feeling (based on the plan and knowing them a bit) that we were in for a pretty free-wheeling, fun night. We were right. On my Instagram I described it this way: On some days, our job is to start a fire. That means throwing in some kindling, then some small sticks, then bigger wood until we eventually figure people out. Other shoots are like setting off a firework. You light the match and run. That was Meredith and Erik. These two are electric… Which is exactly why we prepare the way we do. As you’re about to see, with some people it’s better to just wind up and watch them go.