It sucks to be dateless on Valentine's Day, and though this may shock many of you, even Street editors sometimes find themselves single on the eve of February 14. So we chose three of Philadelphia's more romantic restaurants -- Astral Plane, Valanni and Twenty Manning -- and all three agreed to provide a couple with a night they wouldn't forget. Then we set up three of our edz with three of Penn's eligible singles, and had photographers and the participants document their experiences, cinema verite style. There was no love at first sight, but good food and conversation was had by all -- and maybe even some freaky, freaky sex was had by some. (Or, conversely, maybe not.)
Astral Plane
Todd Grabarsky, one of the Street copy editors, is a 20-year-old sophomore from Los Angeles. He can't twist his arms into weird shapes, but he can juggle, and he likes to go for walks and be in nature (but doesn't want you to know that). He's says he's looking for "jappy girls. And someone who I can actually have a good conversation with. That's really lame, though. I like self-aware jappy girls. Jappy girls that are aware of the fact that they're jappy, and that kind of makes them less hardcore." His favorite band of all time is Oasis.
Gena Hermes Katz is a 20-year-old Tabard junior from Chicago. A fan of indie rock and "the typical movies you think I would like," Gena is looking for a guy who will "pick up shit after me when I leave it places, like my cell phone, and my wallet, and just follow me around and gather things. And then, someone to carry home diet coke for me from Fresh Grocer." Does she think it's all right to kiss on a first date? "Depends where."
Todd said: I went to her Tabard abode, and rang the doorbell, and she didn't answer for like five minutes, so I was waiting outside. One of her Tabard birds let me in.
Gena said: I came down to get him, and I fell down the stairs.
Todd: She's kind of clumsy -- I am too -- but I guess she was embarrassed. I didn't think she needed to be. But, yeah, she was kind of rambling on sometimes. I was nervous. She was nervous.
Gena: We had a glass of wine because I was nervous. He came into Tabard, and he's like, "What is this place?" and I was like "It's this weird secret society or whatever," and he's like, "Oh, is that like the Tebberd, Tebard place?" and I was like, "It's kind of like that." He gave me really beautiful lilies. We took a cab to Astral Plane, otherwise known as best restaurant ever. The decor is so cool, so cool. It looks like what I picture if I had a restaurant what it would look like.
Todd: We got there, and it was very romantic, the setting of it. There were rose petals all over the tables, and candles. We were kind of intimidated by the romantic atmosphere of the place.
Gena: The other people next to us were a little intimidated by the romance in the air, so they ended up going to the bar. They were like, "we're not that romantic."
Todd: The best moment of the date was when we were talking about High Fidelity for a long time, which is like both of our favorite movies.
Gena: We really clicked on our appreciation for vinyl records. I think I fell again, too, in my stiletto shoes.
Todd: I feel like I drank a lot more than she did, because I wanted to take advantage of the nice wine our waiter recommended.
Gena: He got a little drunk before I got drunk, so he started getting really smiley and goofy, and then he was like, yeah, wait, you should catch up.
Todd: I didn't want to go to the Tabard party afterward. I had previous engagements.
Gena: We bonded over our faith, 'coz we're both Jewish. We have a date to go to Hillel sometime, but I don't know. I guess I would like to get to know him better before I committed myself to another date.
Todd: We had a good conversation about traveling, because she's been a lot of places that are cool. I enjoyed the date.
Gena: He looks kind of like David Schwimmer. He's so sweet.
Todd: She's cool, but I did not want to kiss her at the end of the date.
Gena: If by hook up you mean shared long, enduring glances, than yeah, we hooked up, but if you mean -- no, not really. Did I want to hook up? I want to take it slow. I don't want to slut myself out. My mom says it's better to be prude, you know, because then you keep them wanting more. I don't want to give away the goods. Nice Jewish girls don't do that. I think he was satisfied with a hug, but I wore a borderline suggestive shirt, so I don't know.
Todd on Gena Gena on Todd
Sense of
Humor: 7 I don't know if it's his fault if he didn't get my jokes, or my jokes aren't funny, so I would say 8.75.
Sex Appeal: 6.5 or 7 6
Penn-ness: 6.5 .5
Easiness: Zero, zero, zero. None.
No. Not applicable.
Because she's not easy 7
Fashion
Sense: 7 8
Predicted
inches: N/A 10! 10!
Will you be spending Valentine's Day together?
Todd: I don't have Valentine's Day plans as a result of the date.
Gena: I think I want to take it slowly, so maybe not this Valentine's Day.
Valanni
Janice Hahn, one of Street's Film editors, is a 19-year-old sophomore from Hawaii. She likes gangsta rap, Franz Ferdinand, Cursive and "reggae like nobody's mother." She doesn't have Valentine's Day plans, and she likes "guy's-guys. I don't like it when there's a hint of girl in them." When she discovers that her prospective date watches Sex and the City sometimes with his housemates, she is not happy.
Henry James Goldblum ("Call me Jim,") is a 19-year-old sophomore from the Philadelphia 'burbs who broke up with his high school girlfriend two months ago. His last blind date "was pretty good, it was pretty fun. We went out a few times afterward. In the end she turned out to be kind of a moron, but we definitely had our good times." In terms of music, he likes "anything that's not popular. The moment it becomes popular I must stop listening to it." Right now he's really into T.V.
Janice said: He came to the lobby, and he had flowers. That was kind of surprising. At first it was a little awkward, but then we got to talking, and after the cab ride he paid for the cab, which was very impressive. We went to the restaurant, we started ordering drinks, yadda yadda yadda.
Jimmy said: At the restaurant they took the flowers and put them in water, and made them into a centerpiece for our table.
Janice: He asked me about architecture so I was telling him about that.
Jimmy: We totally had straightforward conversation. Lucid dreaming. We totally got in on that. It was cool. 360 degree vision -- rocking!
Janice: He thought I was the reporter, and he was freaking out about it. When he found out I wasn't he was like "Oh, good."
Jimmy: I actually thought she was writing the article, and I was really freaked out by that. That was probably the worst part.
Janice: It was a good date. It was fun. The most fun was probably when I started getting drunk. I stumbled to the bathroom because I was drunk.
Jimmy: She definitely had to pee a lot, but that's totally understandable because of all of the liquor we were getting. I had to pee a lot too. I was pretty nervous in the beginning, but I don't think I really embarrassed myself.
Janice: I really had a lot to drink. I think we were talking about politics. That was fun. Describing our mutual interests, though we didn't have that many. I don't know.
Jimmy: She's Asian and small, so she couldn't finish any of her food. The waiters kept taking it away, and I kept trying to get them to leave it for me.
Janice: We started talking about the tsunami, and that was kind of depressing.
Jimmy: I wasn't really feeling the whole romantic vibes. I think she would have hooked up with me.
Janice: He's cute, but he's not really my type. There's definitely good friendship chemistry -- we clicked and shit -- but I don't think there's any physical attraction on both parties. I didn't want to hook up with him. I don't think he wanted to either.
Jimmy: The best moment was the sex. Freaky sex. Freaky, freaky. I'm just kidding.
Jim on Janice Janice on Jim
Sense of
Humor: 8. Maybe even 9. 8
Sex Appeal: She wasn't my taste, but for
someone whose taste she was,
she'd be like a 7 5
Penn-ness: 3 8
Easiness: I don't think she was very easy.
I would have no idea.
I didn't get with her. 5 6
Fashion Sense: 6 6
Predicted inches: N/A "Like dick-wise? 6."
Will you be spending Valentine's Day together?
Jimmy: We probably won't spend Valentine's Day together, but I really hope that she has an awesome Valentine's Day.
Janice: No.
Twenty Manning
Grant Ginder, one of Street's Ego editors, is a 22-year-old Beta-boy senior, from Orange County. (Really.) His last serious relationship ended during second semester of his freshman year, after dating the girl for four years. He likes to read, smoke, masturbate and make fun of girls in Theta and SDT. An avid fan of alternative rock -- Damien Rice makes him weep -- and of Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson, Grant's pre-date Valentine's Day plans "involve a big bottle of Chianti, lots of tears and hateful wishes."
Jessica Fain is a 21-year-old senior from Providence. She likes lesbian-female music, rock -- REM, U2 -- and country. She also enjoys "movies that make you feel awkward or uncomfortable." She likes "people who are engaging in conversation. Who will act like they're interested in what you're saying and not like you have to prove yourself to them." She is about to graduate, and isn't looking for a serious relationship, but definitely thinks it's all right to kiss on a first date.
Jessica said: Grant came and picked me up at 7:45. He was on time. It was really fun. He was really easy to get along with and was really polite and would open doors for me and stuff. It felt like he was trying really hard to make a good impression.
Grant said: I got beef in noodles. It was kind of like pad thai with beef. It was really good. I didn't taste her meal. That would have been weird.
Jessica: The only awkward part was when the photographer came. It's so hard to maintain a conversation when there's like a guy living around you taking your picture.
Grant: The fucking photographer treated us like he was paparazzi.
Jessica: There was a point in the conversation when things just clicked. He's traveled a lot and I really like traveling, so we talked about that. I think the annoying conversation is, every senior is talking about what you're doing next year. I'm not doing anything -- he's not either -- so, that's annoying, but we had to have it.
Grant: She said one of her friends studied abroad in Sweden, and I said one of my good friends studied abroad in Sweden, and she was like "Oh, cool." We went back to her place, and her friend was there and I was like, "Oh, so you know this girl," and the girl was like "I hate her." There was like dead silence, and Jessica was like, to me, "Aren't you friends with her?" and I was like, "Yeah. Umm, yeah."
Jessica: Afterwards we came back and we were having a party at my house, so he came and hung out for a while.
Grant: We didn't hook up. We were both wasted, and we went back to her place, and they were having a party and doing jello shots, and it was not exactly the right environment.
Jessica: I didn't really want to, and he didn't try to, so I guess he didn't really want to...
Grant: Her cousin, at her party, was really embarrassing. He was asking really embarrassing questions.
Jessica: Sure, I'd go out again.
Grant: Yeah, I'd go out with her again. It was fun. She was fun
Grant on Jessica Jessica on Grant
Sense of
Humor: 8 10
Sex Appeal: 6 7
Penn-ness: I think she thinks
she's like a 2, and I think she's
closer to a 5 or a 6 8
Easiness: Not very.
I'm not saying like a prude. 3, 4 5
Fashion Sense: 7 Oh, 10. Definitely. He's way more stylish than I am.
Predicted inches: N/A "I don't know. He's not that tall." 7
Will you be spending Valentine's Day together?
Grant: Probably not. I'm guessing no.
Jessica: I don't think we'll be spending Valentine's Day together, though he did say he's going to facebook me.
