April 13-19, 2006
Naked City : Icepack
What did we learn from the week-that-was other than that scribes come much cheaper than Isome'll do it for $220,000; others for a little office spaceand that a humid spring day in Love Park gets gamey when striking cab drivers and immigrant-rights protesters converge? We learned how doggone swank cinema is, what from your overebullient reaction to a just-ended PFF. You sweated a storm when Larry Clark stopped unannounced to his Wassup Rockers screening; got titillated when Marc Brodzik mentioned Steve Albini and Shellac might contribute a song to Hard Coal; even swarmed TLA lawyer Justin Weinburgh because, as pal to William Penn Charter School alum/producer J.C. Spink (23 films in production!), you touched the hand of the man what touched David Cronenberg. Bet Justin got laid out of this fest! When Lee Daniels blabbed incessantly (like he do) about his next two films starring Mariah Carey, then Lenny Kravitz and Robert Downey Sr. talked about Dave Chappelle filming Putney Swope 2, you swooned. Know what got my inner filmnerd hot? Yakking with Trenton's Jeff "Don't Call It a Music Documentary" Feuerzeigfanziner/Dean Ween buddy/The Devil and Daniel Johnston director. Jeff had lots of adored minutiae moments about Daniel Johnston; like when he put his own creepy cassettes into French fry containers during his employment at McDonald's, "thus creating his own brand of Happy Meal." Wanna know Feuerzeig's fave Devil scene in Johnston? Check next week.
Done deal: Mos Def's definitely filming, come summer, Tanya Hamilton's Germantown Black Panther-romancer Stringbean and Marcus. Done deal: Emmanuelle Delpech-Ramey left Pig Iron Theatre; she's off on her own, teaching, talking with fringe fests abroad.
WHOWHATWHERE: Kinky Boots' Joel Edgerton hit The Raven Friday with some very drunk people. Meal-ticketless Nick Lachey and pals supped at Buddakan, staying there till near closing. Several Coldplayersband, crewhung at Monkey Bar where they got regaled with punk rock stories by David "Hot Club" Carroll. George "Sulu" Takeithe only Star Trekkie to look slenderized by that skintight uniformhit U of P's Penn Hillel building as part of a speaking tour for the Human Rights Campaign. While Tom Goes to the Mayor/Philly expat Eric Wareheim ate at the downmarket La Lupe, his partner Tim Heidecker went upscale, showing people his recent stabbing scarsjoking about connecting the wounds to make a happy faceat L'Etage above Beau Monde. Heidecker worked at the creperie in '98. And what's this rumor about Beau/L'Etage owners Jim Caiola and David Salama charming the pants off the Old City Civic Association by even considering buying David Cohen's Revival building?
Who else is coming back? Earl Dax, who split for NYC, is bringing his outrageously lit-witty, muse-ical drag star pal (and don't we all have one?!) Dina Martina to L'Etagetwo Wednesdays, April 19 and 26. Then there's Brit/former-Fishtownie Sharron Kraus' return-home shows (The Khyber, April 19; plus Big Jar Books and Khyber again before she leaves in June) celebrating her new CD The Black Dove and its seasonal song-cycle stylee. And what about us, Sharon? "If England is my wife then Philly is my mistress," says Kraus, who'll record one album with Espers and one with Gill Chadwick of Golden Ball. "I love them both and don't want to let go of either." Cities she means. Not those damned creepy folkies!
Now that King Jeremy's done with making movies (his short was a highlight of PFF), he can team up with Barry Mehan for an actual psychobluesabillynrollya'll 3-Eyed Jacks gig at Bar Noir April 17 before Mehan busies himself with the King Britt/Dozia Back to Basics Band reunion show April 19 at World Café Live. Speaking of WCL, ex-WCL bar manager Darren Nowicki (who also used to be a PR guy hawking Don Argott's Pornosonic stuff) is now at Devil's Alley on Chestnut Street. Yet, he's hawking the mostly female syn-world-beat band, 11-piece Aphrodesia's gig April 15 at NXNW. He keeps telling me how sexy they are. D, we love them. But you need to get blowed.
The very trippy, very smartly poetic Yarrows have been sending out gig e-mails for weeks, requesting fans to BE YOUR OWN YARROW, inviting anyone on their mailing list to get up and do a song. The results can be heard April 13 at Khyber. But I bet if you hit www.theyarrows.com, they can sneak in one more fan.
Will Sufjan Stevens and Philly's Denison Witmer stop in at Rosie Thomas' April 13 show at WCL to reproduce the songs the trio's been working on, secretly, in NYC?
FINALLYMark Bee got the keys to Silk City. What's first? Says Bee: "Sitting down and taking a long look. Redo(ing) the bathrooms and kitchen. Keeping the layout the samethe diner's a fucking classic. I'll probably get Pete Dunmire to cook." (Bee's N. 3rd will get a different chef then? "Prob'ly.") "It won't turn into a swanky bar. Or a beer garden. Though I am doing something like a beer gardenmaybeout front where that useless parking lot area was. I'm enclosing that." OhBee's Silk'll still have shows and DJs. But. "I'm taking my time." (Maybe he'll buy another fucking classiclike Bob 'n' Barbara'swhile he waits.)
Happy birthday to my sweetie hairdresser on fire, Scott Chestnut of After Hours on Strawberry Street; to his neighbor Stacie George, the Heyday booking lady having her birthday bat mitzvah at Khyber April 15 with Sweatheart and Chromelodeon; and mazel 'n' tov to those newly married journos Jenn Graham and Stu Bykofsky.