Icepack

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

by A.D. Amorosi

There's true bloody good effort put into Halloween's parties. Lee Jones' "Fangbanger" with Silk City masquerading as Merlotte's looks gory, and TJ Kong's 12-hour, 12-band "Murder Show" at the Ukie is spooky. But the day belongs to Henri David and his eponymous Ball at Sheraton Center City, which is de rigueur and dressed-to-the-nines. "For a minute, peoples' costumes were getting stale," says David. "Some even store-bought." THE HORROR. Yet David noticed last year that new art school students were coming, making the ball a zestfully happy youth-quake. "I judged a costume designing contest at Philadelphia University weeks ago and felt like the pope when I walked through the door. Kids love me. So did the dean, who allowed me and his students to give him a drag makeover." Oh, Henri.

My news from Power 99's Powerhouse 2010: 1) Local spinner Diamond Kuts is now pink sensation Nicki Minaj's new DJ (nice seeing Minaj bring Drake his b-day cake and a kiss at Wells Fargo). 2) Recently ex-P 99 late-night host Golden Girl (Lisa Natson), notorious from her days with Lil' Kim, is supposedly leaving Philly for L.A. next week to film a (hopefully) syndicated talk show with her husband as co-producer. It'll be half Jerry Springer, half Wendy Williams, the latter GG once replaced on-air when Wendy returned to NYC's WBLS-FM.

Mistress of the open mic (National Mechanics, Triumph) Dani Mari does a gig where she doesn't have to listen to everyone perform first. It's the release of her passionate debut CD, Impulsive, at Connie's Ric Rac, Oct. 29.

Stephen Starr's new project won't involve vintage chandeliers, wurst or food trucks. Starr and wife January Bartle had a baaaybee, Julian, last week. Congrats, parents. One of Starr's exes, Rat's runaway chef Kevin Sbraga, previews his baby (a still unnamed or located restaurant) Dec. 9 at Azalea in the Omni Independence Park.

Philly Latino music mouthpiece El Malito and slamming MC Alien Architect unleash new pared-down ensembles (pretty much solo) at Fire, Oct. 28.

Chef Jim Coleman lost his place at WHYY's A Chef's Table, but word hazzit he's gained a big post as executive chef at World Café Live Philly and the due-soon Wilmington WCL.

At last week's Philly Film Fest (see citypaper.net/criticalmass, Oct. 22) producer J. Andrew Greenblatt and director Mark Erlbaum celebrated their new Café. Still, Erlbaum was happy to talk about a next collaboration he hopes to lens soon. "It'll have a desert," he said when asked if the unnamed script will film locally. Greenblatt, who notes this spring might be cutting it close to start a new film, says the ready-to-go script is more surreal than Café. "As for the desert, it's like Sharon Pinkenson says, Philly has plenty of soundstages. We can make a desert."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)