For a week or so now, the entire nation has focused in on us here in PA.

And not just because they want to know if we like Obama more than Clinton.

Last week, all eyes were in a dead lock on us because we, the suburbanites of Philadelphia and it's surrounding areas got a new brother to love (no tongue though) --Stephen T. Colbert. For the birthing bedrock of modern democracy, Philly hadn't had a mantle to polish off on in modern times, outside of Rocky. We're known as the town with sports teams that blow every shot they get. That, and cheesesteaks. America knows us through cliches and founding fathers. Historic Philly and modern image Philly are as separated as Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. The dark side of the force and the Jedi. Morrissey and the rest of The Smiths.

And now, perhaps, the fate of America's next decade lies in our hands. Irony is a funny man. And Stephen Colbert is his nephew.

Colbert's series of shows from Philly last week reminded me that loathing my Philly roots is something to be proud of, something to brag about and shovel in people's faces, flaming piles of it. He came to Temple University with jumper cables for us and his quality brand of hard-nails not-so-journalism, and he gave the PA Primary exactly what it needed. Not in-depth coverage, but leverage. That's what he's always done with his show, but now he was just down the road from us.

So, we the Scene & Heardicans of blogosphere nation had to see it for ourselves last Thursday for the taping of his final Philly episode. That was the big one, with Obama, Clinton, and a hilarious John Edwards. We came, we saw, we Colberted. And it was immaculately awesome. And that's The Word. (Or The Ed Word, whatever.)

Now, tomorrow, is the big day. The big Tuesday. The big showdown. It's the Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton duel of our day. So, as another quality outlet of fiery journalism, we here at Scene & Heard will be using our blogging time to cover the PA Primary, our way. And that's by dissecting what we witnessed at the Colbert taping last Thursday. And maybe tossing in some Harvey Dent campaigning too.

For Part 1 of this series, we're going to look at what happened while the cameras weren't rolling. Colbert, BEHIND THE SCENES.

First, a lot of people wanted to get in, and many droves of wrist-strongies didn't. Heck, we barely did. I ended up with a seat in the very back row, after standing and waiting for more than 2 hours. While about 700 people strong packed into the Annenberg Center's lobby to stand in one joint crowd for a treacherously long time, the usual string of Philly chants made their rounds. From the Eagles chant to repeated waves of "a*s-hole." At the time though, we didn't realize he had such an uncanny list of surprise guests to be waiting for. Though the swarming secret service dudes gave us an idea there'd be at least one guest of note.

Once sat, the producers prepped us, told us the part we had to play in the show (cheerleaders on coke, essentially). The opening comedian made a good point when the crowd began to throw some Hilary boo's his way. This is a Comedy Central show, not a CNN news program. Anyone that shows up is Colbert's guest, including us, and no one cares about an audience member's disapproval of anyone on the show. Pro-approval only. So that set the tone, and we went on.

What didn't you see in terms of entertainment that I did?

Benjamin Franklin rocking out on his walking cane like a guitar.

Some excellent music between sets, Green Day, Rancid, REM, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros..

Colbert feeding Ben Franklin Doritos. Franklin losing them in the air and having to dig through his coat to find them.

Colbert doing show-stopping handstands.

Colbert: "To give you an idea of how much hairspray is in my hair, I just held a handstand and my hair did not move."

Profuse apologies from anyone involved with the show for making us wait long, before dissing Penn State alumni.

Colbert fielding questions from the crowd, out of character. One such question was "what is your idea of a perfect date. His reply was goofy and swarmy turning serious, "getting home in time to see my kids these days is good enough for me."

Much more quality air time from all the guests that was cut from the final half-hour product. Hillary's fixing of the screen was much more involved, asking more questions of Jimmy, before fixing it to ironically make way for Obama's video conference at the end of the show.

The first third of the show, or so, also had to be re-shot because the producers played the wrong footage of the previous night's debate.

A heavy dose of Colbert. The whole experience was just incredible. It took an ironic and deeply sarcastic comedy program to unearth the truth not only about what these democratic candidates can offer the future of our country, but also the truth of what it means to be from Philadelphia... and what it means to be American.

Tomorrow, Primary Day, I'll dive into the Philadelphia / patriotic side of things I came away from The Colbert Report with last week, along with something of an endorsement.