WATCH: South SillyCAM, South Philly’s Own Community Web Series
Philly’s ongoing makeover, where one man’s revitalization is another’s gentrification, can often be an unpleasant thing to watch, and hardly ever sweet, and even more seldom funny. Which is why the open secret that is the South Silly Facebook Group is often a salve for city dweller’s soul (and, sure, occasionally a host to a flame war or two, but this is the nature of online neighborhood forums). On South Silly, more often than not, you really do get a sense of community, a mix of both lifers and Silly-come-latelys that simultaneously drive and comment on the present-day South Philly experience. It’s not always harmonious, but it does show the thing that lifetime lovers of South Philly have always known about this most beloved section of the city: South Philly works because it is a melting pot that never stops cooking.
And now, you can see some of it right up there on your Apple TV. SouthSillyCAM, produced by South Silly Moderator Sam Weinrott, is a new show (just two episodes old) that brings to life, in ten-minute episodes, the dear souls who make South Philly (and often South Silly as well) tick. It displays perfectly, in a kind of loving public-access TV way, the eccentric characters and true blue standbys of the neighborhood. And like the place that inspires it, you kind of want to jump through the screen and live there, even if you already do.