Icepack

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

by A.D. Amorosi

You know how you go months without doing what you promised yourself you'd do? My August note-to-self includes hitting the Napoleon exhibit before it leaves the NCC, calling and laughing at the people who'll take over that South Second Street spot that used to be Lounge 125 (and Butter and a half-dozen other joints) for the doomed-before-it-starts Recess, and writing congratulatory notes to the assholes crafting Michael Vick dog jerseys. I'd also like to say "good job" to those putting together, on Facebook, a reunion of The Kennel Club. Walnut Street's '80s post-punk salon (it used to be the deee-lightful shackle-laced gay space Rainbows) was a palace for Philly's decadently disenfranchised and run mostly by the late David Wildman and Lee Paris. It was, to quote, Larry David, pretty pretty good — rife with local live and DJ faves. A reunion despite Wildman/Paris' absence is awkward but, OK: Who doesn't love seeing peeps you've avoided since 1986? Besides, few from those days know what Facebook is. Most living Kennel-ers are in AA or too drunk to go to AA. Plus, their Facebook page says dumb things like if they don't get Johnny Brenda's or RUBA, the "next best thing" is "the old Revival which is National Mechanics although it's not the most comfy place." Winning new friends was never Philly punk's strong suit. Let's see where this lands.

► Speaking of elders, remember we thought re-making J.C. Dobbs — South Street's rock-a-rollingest bar of the '70s and '80s — based on the delirium tremens of new owners Heshi Schlachterman and Hank the Drag Queen was daft? Especially since they couldn't get a liquor license? Don't get a boner but I'm hearing Dobbs may get that license in a sec. Hey, Kennel Club, Dobb's'd be a fourth or fifth best thing.

► Black Landlord wants to talk about adoption. Blue Maxx Goat doesn't need you to adopt him (though most of us have at one point). Philly's horniest act and its fearless frontman want to raise adoption awareness. Aug. 30 at 941 Theater, they and Brown Sugar — Philly's only advertised African-American Rolling Stones cover act, with Jay Medley, Keith Diablo and Michaels Tyler and Mosley — do so over barbecue (and such) from El Camino Real, Standard Tap, Abbaye and Society Hill Hotel.

► Arch Street's Le Méridien Hotel — the historic renovation of the Georgian revival-style Horace Trumbauer YMCA building with breathtaking views of City Hall and a 75-foot ceiling — should open between the second week of October and Nov. 1.

► No longer content to just be my 10th Street neighbor, Jason Dilks is opening another nice SliCE pizzeria at 17th and Sansom.

► You gotta adore a country-abilly gospel album with such dramatic crooning a lyric like "I feel like a schmuck" sounds frightening. Philly's high theatrical prince Ladyfingers drops Open Your Robe and plays Tritone Aug. 27 before hitting Canada for six weeks. Go.

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

That Oct. 5 Os Mutantes show that Village Green Booking nearly put into West Philly’s Blockley Pourhouse is heading to World Café Live instead.

➤ WHOWHATWHERE: Sundays you’re either a Mad Men man or a True Blood man. You’re not both. It’s just not done. But come Monday there’s TiVo and there we find Mad guys like Betty Draper’s pop, Gene (a Main Line native), yelling about eating at Pat’s Steaks while visiting his daughter and dapper Don Draper. If they ain’t talking about the Italian Market Pat’s, I’ll eat sharkskin. Speaking of Italians eating skin, Tony “Teach” Danza ate at El Camino Real, therefore breaking the chain of Darling's Diner nosh outs — for now. And you know who you might see more of? Scott Storch, the producer and one-time member of The Roots who just lost his Miami mansion (10 bedrooms, 16 baths) to SunTrust Bank who just took back ownership of Storch’s spot. Shame, that.

➤ Danny Ozark — comedian, co-host of the Dani & Danny open mic — has been part of Jesse White’s Trans/LGBT Pigeon Arts program for a while with a portion of their busy work/meeting time at A-Space (47th and Baltimore) about the mash-up of altering books. It’s all about reconstructing their journey — or journeying through reconstruction. The fruits of their labor unfold with “Unfolding Identities: Chapters Of Self” on Aug. 29. The first is in the afternoon at the A-Space, and later that evening at Yoga Sutra on the 1400 block of Walnut Street. “I’ve been blown away by how the process of altering a book can be such a cleansing and honest journey of discovery,” says Ozark. “It’s like stand-up comedy but without the drunken hecklers.”

➤ If you are a bad boy who has personality to spare and won’t saw your girlfriend’s fingers off if you’re pissed; if you are a woman who is tired of not getting what you deserve from your man and not afraid to die — you’re prime couple fodder for MTV and Philadelphia Casting’s Is She Really Going Out With Him? Send a picture of the two of you and a bio about that toxic relationship to project@philacast.com. And remember, if you live that long, you have to be available for shooting three days in October/November of this year.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)