Icepack

Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Published: Jul 29, 2008

The other day someone asked why I write so little about the travails of Philly's talking heads — the Larry & Alycia Show, bow-tie daddy weathermen and the slimier brethren, hard-jawed reporters who've had their panties sniffed. It's not for not knowing crazy early on what's happening. The bitchiest-ever gossips are newsies. I get so many rumors about TV staffer blowjobs and other improprieties, Icepack could run in CP's back pages with the tranny escort ads. (I hear rumors about print peeps, too, but with less money attached.) I don't run shit 'cause I don't care. I've made celebrities out of soap in this town, but nothing John Bolaris does interests me unless he'll eat a child on camera. They're not real celebs (though I do get woozy since Dawn Timmeney grew her hair and Bill Henley started gelling his 'do a tad). They're peers who wear more makeup than me (YES THEY DO). Mendtegate will pass and whoever wrote whatever in some ill-gotten manner will realize that saturation makes sense only when it's butter on lobster or barbecue sauce on ribs. Until then, let's eat a baby.

► Pantysniffing? Divine Philly comic Danny Ozark used to have another job: "Rap Bandit" for The Source and Vibe in the '90s. Ozark the scribe is featured in the U.K.'s Hip-Hop Connection mag's August ish (hhcmagazine.com) as a part of the publication's look at that decade. "It doesn't surprise me. I'm more beloved a million miles away than here," says Ozark. "I'm like Steady B — big in Bejing."

► Evil Master director R.C. Horsch is notorious among sin-cinema connoisseurs for frank, intense films often found through New York F*ck Factory studio. He's friends with equally intense multi-instrumentalist J. Cecil Price and his Baptist Preachers whose soon-to-debut Nekkid is a powerful soul punk epic. They'll combine forces (not the first time, but that's a long story) at Aug. 4's Monday Night Club at the Balcony for what promises to be grand. Plus, I'm hearing that Scott La Rock — Hole and a Heartbeat Web owner, Fresca chef, all-around swinging dick — is starting his white-boy rap phase at Khyber Aug. 15.

► Glen Knapp's Philadelphia Young Playwrights organization just got a $25,000 Champion in Action grant for its work in kids programming from Citizens Bank, NBC 10 and the whole Philly.com crew. Nize. PYP, more theater about banks is in order.

► I hear that Courier-Post casino columnist Chuck Darrow is starting a gaming column this week at Daily News. Actually he told me so at the tasty opening of chef Michael Schulson's swanky Izakaya in the Borgata. Which is where Jonas Bros fan and Vango Zee DJ Lee Jones (he roomed next to the Bros in Harrisburg) will spin on Mondays. That's cool. But where'll Jones' Sundae block party go in September once Bubble House pulls its speakers indoors?

► Philly's most powerful new poet-MC Oshone Mailk starts a reading/rapping/spinning weekly Thursday happy hour at Glam July 31. Request "Will You Be My Shelter."

► Venus 7, the sweet DJ star of Sofitel's fashion runway events and lo-so-many-other soirees, joins DJ Tronco and Get Naked/Evicted star Cyoni at Vango Aug. 4.

► P.W. McHugh's punk-blues band Grubstake debuts its fifth CD, Make an Animal Noise, at Fergie's Pub Aug. 2. I choose a pig snort.

► WHOWHATWHERE: Who got caught smooching at the Providence nightclub's first anniversary at the Tropicana? Warped tour stars Katy Perry (she's usually busy kissing a girl) and Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy. During a signing/showing of his work at King of Prussia's Wentworth Gallery, Paul Stanley wasn't so happy to be photographed in front of the KISS member paintings he did. Local photog Scott Weiner made him stand in front of Ace and Gene anyhow. Coldplay used Dobbs for two days as a rehearsal space for their new tour drummer. Bon vivant Harry Jay Katz hosted a reunion-of-sorts last week.

► Rumor has a National Lampoon comedy room (put together by a few Helium exes) coming to Dave & Busters on Columbus Avenue and opening imminently. And talking about spaces-within-spaces: We're hearing that the vault inside the due-in-October mega-steakhaus Union Trust might function as a sweet small house music club.

► NY: Gotta go to Jones Beach Aug. 3 for Spank Rock's "Big Box" stage at the Rock the Bells rap-fest with Amanda Blank, Afrika Bambaataa and Tyga. Gotta head to Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park Bandshell for Mose Allison, Dr. John, Roberta Flack and more memorializing the late legendary Philly producer/radio jock Joel Dorn on Aug. 13 for a live event thrown by his son Adam and Upper Darby's Hal Willner.

► My heart is broken over two recent deaths. The first was Kae Williams Jr. from Breakwater — a disco-era Philly funk unit signed to Arista and managed by Bill Eib. Williams Sr. was a WHAT/WDAS jock, and Jr. wrote for Change and had his "Release the Beast" sampled by Daft Punk. Christopher Tucker's passing last Friday got to me even more. The Orphan Family/Situation member was an often-corresponding pal who'd send notes about his upcoming music and stories. I found one on my computer the day he died. Saying that Tucker was one-of-a-kind doesn't scratch the surface. Condolences.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

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