City Butterfly

SOCIAL NOTES & NEWS FROM YOUR FRIENDS IN THE 570

Fireworks, music, art and Santa?
Where can you see live entertainment, original art and Santa on a hot, July night?
Scranton, of course.
And that’s where our flight begins (and ends) this week. It was just too hot to fly across county lines this week and we had plenty to keep us occupied in the Electric City with Fourth of July festivities earlier in the week and First Friday to kick off the weekend.
Vice President of the United States Joseph Biden was in town to help fellow Scrantonians celebrate Independence Day, and it was a beautiful night for festivities on Courthouse Square. As always, the Philharmonic League of Northeastern Pennsylvania put on a smashing show and got everyone in the spirit before a gorgeous fireworks display. Whether you watched the show with a few thousand of your closest friends downtown, or with a slightly smaller group on your front porch, a good time was had by all.
One day of rest (or barbecuing and swimming) and one day of work later, it was time for First Friday. AFA was among our first stops. We just couldn’t wait to see the second floor, newly-opened to the public. As we hiked up the stairs to the airy new space, we spotted two familiar Keystone College professors, Cliff Prokop and David Elliot. We also saw local illustrator Ted Michalowski, as well as Joe and Jennifer Piconi, and Joseph McAuliffe to name a few. We shimmied down what we dubbed the “secret” stairs (so cool!) and fluttered over to Spruce Street, where there were plenty of people out and about near the Square.
At Freed Love, we ran into local author Brian Fanelli and his lovely girlfriend, Jenna Casaldi, taking in the work of artist Brian Langan. We wanted to speak to him about our favorite piece, Passion, but he was nowhere to be found, until…
We flew into the Bog on Adams Ave.
We’ll get Bogtastic in a minute. First, we had to stop by and see what Santa was doing on the corner of Spruce St. and N. Washington Ave. Yes, that’s right, Santa. He was “ho ho ho-ing” all over the place, and sporting a summer look — Hawaiian shirt and shorts — while reminding kids that he’ll be back in November for the Greater Scranton Jaycees Santa Parade. At one point, in between handing out coloring sheets and candy canes with his elves and fellow Jaycees, Dawn Dempsey, Amy Surridge, Colleen Joyce, Tony Patte, Dave Crosby, Chris Kelly, Chris Dymek- Gallacher, Mike Gallacher, Jen Radz, Santa (a.k.a. Tom Osborn), Santa cooled off by dipping his toes in a wading pool. The kids loved it, and more than a few adults got a kick out of it, too.
By this time, the heat was getting to us and we needed to cool off in some air conditioning and grab a cool beverage. Also, we still hadn’t found Brian Langan. It was like playing Where’s Waldo on Courthouse Square. To the Bog!
And that’s where we found the elusive rockstar-slash-artist-slash all around good guy mixing it up. There were lots of familiar peeps there, too. We saw the bar’s famous owner Brian Craig while we were there. We also saw Kate McDermott, Morgan Evans and Elizabeth Davis, as well as Samantha Urbanick, just to name a few.
It was a great way to end a busy night. We can’t wait to see who we run into next week.