Icepack

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

by A.D. Amorosi

When we started this column in 1967, still grieving the death of Jayne Mansfield, we weren't writing about restaurants and television. We were too choked up and coked up to eat and too jittery to concentrate on somebody like Taylor Swift crying because somebody hurt her feelings. There were no feelings, lady. Or sobbing — no nasal passages for it. Times change; gossip, too. We stopped the blow, began to eat and had just enough of a nervous system left to watch TV, feel for wounded pseudo-country singers and let their tears overflow into this column. But one thing was a constant before we commenced to eat Village Whiskey's foie gras-topped burgers, swigging bourbon and crying during MTV's VMAs — we cared about clubs and club life. It was our world then. Still is — dancing and loud house music makes the world go round. NOW WHO'S THE DRAMA QUEEN? That said, there're changes coming. Like whodathunk King Britt would go from remaking "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" to his new job, curating shows at the Painted Bride with his lady Rucyl Mills? That starts with Sept. 26's Flying Lotus show. Or that Mistress of the Deep Ms. Phoenixx would become a chaperone to Woody's all-agers? Thank God Dan Contarino's starting Gay Sundays at G Lounge Sept. 20 (with DJ Reenie Kane) and a straighter after-party at G's sister-space Denim (with Justin Bruno and Tronco) so Phoenixx'll have some adults to talk to.

► There's the closing of the Weiss bros' Pure that happened not-as-suddenly as you think on Sept. 12. Such sweet memories. Yet, come Sept. 25, the Weiss' re-pop Pure's top as Voyeur with a sleek design courtesy Ricardo Rivera of klip//collective. As long as Mistress Natasha is there, I don't care if Voyeur sells kosher hot dogs — I'm dancing. The other news the other day was that Lee Jones' Sundae Sunday outdoor house parties were unceremoniously evicted (Sept. 11) from their summer home at the Piazza in NoLib-ia (the original agreement had them there through September). The Piazza people, we hear, are gung ho for football screening parties instead. Jones wasn't too mad about the Dear John letter. Sundae spent Sunday at Octo ("ironic as Octo's fucking us over in the first place made it so we wound up at The Piazza," laughs Jones) until Sept. 12's pre-arranged Jamie Foxx after-concert party started at 9 p.m. After that, they did Silk City, where, starting in October, they'll play all day, morning to night. As the mirror ball turns.

► Walnut Street's Jason Matthew Salon and Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation party hard Sept. 17 with a Casino Night charity event benefiting the fight against childhood cancer. NBC 10's Lori Wilson and CBS 3's Doug Kammerer and jeweler Steven Lagos are amongst the guest dealers. Watch out for Kammerer — he's got fake sleeves for changing dice on you.

The Absinthe Drinkers — Philly's finest Poe-meets-Pavement cabaret rockers — hit New Hope and that sleepy burg will never be the same. Their "Dr. Thujone's Traveling CarnEvil" (with stripped-down burlesque queens Randi Warhol and Anastacia) play John & Peters Sept. 18. Speaking of New Hope, Sept. 25's first annual WEEN Awards do not involve chocolate, cheese, Dean or Gene. Instead the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network honors the ladies — like Vivica A. Fox — on a pink carpet. So maybe Ween could go. Closer to home, the Frances Anne Wister Award goes to Joe Rishel, senior curator of european painting before 1900 at Philly's Museum of Art, 5 p.m., Sept. 17, at The Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania, 1630 Latimer St. Foundry Communications and IndiePix Films just made a date for the shown-on-HBO documentary In a Dream. The film — about a father's art turned into an American family's destruction from director Jeremiah Zagar starring mosaic master Isaiah Zagar and Eyes Gallery doyenne Julia Zagar — comes out on DVD Sept. 29. Book it and buy it. There's tons of additional torturous amazing footage not found in the originally aired version. WHOWHATWHERE: Along with that OCTO after-party, Jamie Foxx was seen skulking around the Ritz-Carlton. About the same time, blocks away, my old dear friends Tom DelColle and Margarita Passion DelColle brought Dan Aykroyd — in town to promote his Crystal Head Vodka — to the Raven where he wound up having a couple of drinks and reciting Poe's "The Raven." "He took some pictures, signed some shit and generally was a decent guy," notes Mr. DelColle. Despite living at the Piazza spots in NoLibs, Tony Danza (still filming that Teach thing and will it never end?) comes down to Sout' Philly and the Ninth Street Market's axis of goodness — Claudio's and DiBruno's — when he decides to do some food shopping. Because he does not want to hear (a la Popes of Greenwich Village) about how tough his mozzarella is sometimes. Congrats to Jumatatu Poe whose first physical theater company Idiosyncrazy Productions kicks itself off Oct. 3-4 at the Jeanne Ruddy Dance Performance Garage. Anyone remember that you read here first about how the fall of AiA Bookstore meant the rise of a swanky Kimpton Co.'s new Hotel Palomar, at 17th and Sansom? They gots a chef for that-thar new restaurant of theirs: Guillermo Tellez of Striped Bass-fame is at Square 1682, the Pal's divine upcoming dining room. Before there was a Fashion Week (three days, whatever) there was Sharon Waxman's Phashion Phest. It was glorious then, glorious-er now and goes into extra innings for the 16th annual Phashion Phest Sept. 23 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, 6 p.m. Do this, dressy bessys. Philadelphia has a premiere five-string bassist whether you like it or not and his name is E.J. Simpson and he's from Maggi Pierce and E.J. He is a Star Trek nerd. He has a genuinely magical, honestly heartfelt new CD, Heart like a Tiny Jewel, under his non me bass You Purple Virgin and he'll play the Blinking Lincoln whether I like it or not, Sept. 18 for its release party. It's worth the effort so GO damn you GO.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)