Icepack

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

by A.D. Amorosi

This writer has long dogged the efforts of Bart Blatstein. I've slimed him for making a mess of a mini-mall of Riverview's complex, putting the 'Yunk in Manayunk, and turning Northern Liberties' Walk-n-all into a prefab artists' enclave of boxy studios. One item in his list of architectural wonders intrigues me — his Piazza at Schmidts: all 80,000 self-contained open-air square feet, with condos and restaurants, state-of-the-art Jumbotron and a band box. It's like Nero's walled-up walk-in Rome with niftier landscaping and Tommy Up selling hamburgers. I'll buy it. In fact, I'll gulp the Kool-Aid and have a go at it like Mural and the Mint/Nichole Canuso will on June 15. And like Lee Jones' Sundae Sunday house party. That's right. Jones moved his family electro-music feast from its famously intended new home at Octo because he was unsatisfied with communication between venue and DJ, and the ever-changing opening dates. (Octo's now scheduled to open June 19, but Jones' Sundae bash at Piazza got a reported 3,000 peeps last Sunday so they're staying.) My first A.D. Fest at the Piazza — June 13 — features Needles Jones + Skinny Johnny's Technophobes, Lemon Treasures, several John Cecil Price ensembles, Large Marge plus more bands and films, with scads more free events and crying babies. Bart — you win this round. atthepiazza.com.

► That Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. thing tweeted for a month isn't the loan officer from your bank. It's 18th Street's basement boite located at the old Bar Noir space with vintage-styled cocktails from the recipe book of NYC's Death & Co.

► I've been thinking about old booze and woozy stories since I heard Frank Junker passed away last week. For 44 years, the gentlemanly Junker kept watch at U-Darby's Waterford Inn across from Tower Theater. He poured a neat drink, saw every celeb who passed through its doors and treated each no differently than he would a stranger. It was always funny to see this consummate bartender keep the rockers waiting.

► Fun rumor: Crumbling fa�ades along Walnut/Rittenhouse Row should've told you something. We're hearing that Apple's iShoppe might not locate itself at ye olde Brasserie Perrier as discussed but that rather an Adidas Y-3 store may sneak into that address — too early to tell which way the shoe'll fall.

► Speaking of pricey RittRow shoes to fill, well-heeled David Howard — front-of-house manager who opened Parc and DelFrisco's — just left the latter. Amicably, too. "I became the face of the restaurant when you walked in, which was great," says Howard. "But I like to mingle with diners, friends and staff. All I got to do was say 'hi' and 'bye.'" Howard just started a restaurant consulting thing and will be guest-bartending 'round town soon.

➤Bobby Schneck — Philly guitarist/tech/brother of author Eric Vincent — plays as a member of Aerosmith during their Toys in the Attic tour due to Brad Whitford sitting it out.

➤Ben ’n’ Glor’s, a just-opened Breyer’s ice cream shop serving cones ’n’ shakes on the corner of Ninth and Christian, has an unusual backroom entity: the first-ever Mikey Wild Art Gallery.

➤ That Megan Bridge en famille salon at their warehouse space in Kensington I mentioned last week opens Tue., June 16, for nine performances at 1714 N. Mascher at Cecil B. Moore. Performances are free, reservations are required, and must be made at least one hour before show time (267-679-4166, megan@meganbridge.com).

➤ Last week when I Clogged about World Café Live’s booker Karl Mullen leaving, I mentioned Laura Wilson, who used to book WCL upstairs, might be ripe for the job. She was and is. Wilson started quietly last Friday booking both floors.

➤ Right in the middle of the CD release tour of Philadelphia, Absinthe Drinkers lost a guitarist. No. We don’t know where he went, either. In the meantime AbDrinker Max Guerin is borrowing Chris Devenney from Guerin’s other band, the bluesy New Pony, for their L’Etage gig June 18.

➤ I know you watched the Tonys and care about Broadway minutiae. But did you know Moorestown’s Kevin Chamberlin will play Uncle Fester in April 2010’s Broadway version of The Addams Family, with Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia? The Kimmel Center is taking a leap and acting as one of the Broadway show’s presenting producers. Kimmel President and CEO Anne Ewers sent this out as part of its promotional notes: “We formed Five Cent Productions and invested in Elephant Eye Theatrical to take a proactive role in the creation of exciting new musicals for Broadway and stages around the world. It’s especially gratifying to have the first one, The Addams Family, come to fruition with a brilliant and exciting cast and creative team.” But Tom Warner, the Kimmel’s VP of programming, told me personally, while snapping his fingers Gomez-style (“around here snap, snap could just as easily refer to Jerry Blavat”), that the Kimmel’s participation with the Addamses is a result of their relationship with the producers that started a number of years ago. “It’s been brewing for some time — 2005 to be exact,” says Warner. “It is kinda cool though.”

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

➤ It’s a Large Marge/Rich Wexler kind of extravaganza when he brings — with me, A.D., as his co-curator — a psy-folk affair to National Mechanics June 15 with Mountain Man, Lux Perpetua and Little Flower in tow.

➤ WHOWHATWHERE: Everyone at the Picnic last Saturday was excited to see The Roots join forces with New Kids on the Block’s Jordan Knight and Donnie Wahlberg (oh, and Public Enemy, right) and some of the cast of characters from Philly 360° — the colorful book produced by Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. as part of its African-American tourism campaign (gophila.com/philly360). But while talking with six-string player Tim Motzer in the backstage area, I ran smack into former Revival booker/Scram manager Bob Denney whom I haven’t seen in a dog’s age. He’ll have lots of photography/online stuff to debut soon. Scott Weiner, another photog who’s debuting a Web thing (scottweinerphotographer.com), had a fun run-in last week. While snapping painter/medicine woman Jane Seymour at Mural Arts Program’s Wall Ball day event at 16th Street’s Western Community Day Care — doing her mural thing in the pouring rain — who should show up when most other people left but Joe Pantoliano. Joey Pants dropped by to see Seymour with his daughter after screening his No Kidding, Me Too documentary about mental illness at Friends Hospital whereupon Weiner handed the trio pretzels. Despite M. Night Shyamalan’s early wrap party at World Café Live several weeks ago, The Last Airbender is still shooting and Dev Patel is still around, checking out bands like Denali at First U. Church. The night before he stopped by the Roots picnic, Beanie Sigel hit Silk City with pal Freeway in tow. Newhart/True Blood regular William Sanderson was at University of the Arts shooting an episode of The Face is Familiar, a Starz network documentary series on character actors. A contingent sent from Saturn (or Germantown) of Sun Ra Arkestra members such as pianist Farid Barron showed unexpectedly at National Mechanics’ Monday midnight screening of the Arkestra documentary Points on a Space Age.

➤ Demetri and Mike Maroulis finally opened Demetri’s Mediterranean Cuisine on 45th and Chestnut.

➤Philly jazz keyboardist Bill Jolly is the grand prize winner of Hyatt’s The Big Welcome contest with a gift of 365 stays at any Hyatt across the globe, 1 million free airline miles to see the world and five years in which to use it all up.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)