Month: January 2017

People Watching at the Mummers Parade

Sorry these are late, they were supposed to go into an outlet I service but they were slammed and these were too fun not to put somewhere.PS if your photo is not here it’s going into Liberty City Press next week.

When I go to the Mummer’s Parade, I enjoy the sights and sounds on and off the parade route. Like the tradition that has been going on for over 100 years, I too have traditions, faces to shoot, places to shoot and parties to attend. There’s always lots of fun and interesting people to capture on New Year’s Day in Philly

This is practically the only Mummers shot you will see in this post.

Every Year I wonder how are they going to incorporate the year in a sunglasses. These were the best.

Warm Cheese-steaks anyone?

Marc Schade, Realtor with Long and Foster, and Tania Schade, VP of FluidEdge Consulting Annual New Year’s Day Party

And Captain Noah

The most stylish couple on the street. Her shoes are glittering New Years that say taxi on the front

BTW if you’re looking for the Glittering New Year’s Party Pixs they’re
Here at Philly Mag
and here at Philly Style Magazine
and at Metro Philly Here

Then I headed to the Kimmel Center for their annual Family day. As you can see by the resolution wall, the place was jammin all day. I love that they have this alternative. We’re really lucky.

Check out the Kimmel’s Schedule for
lots of great events going on there this year.

Count em, 3 kids and they’re all wearing hats. I love her.

Ann Marie Nacchio, Allied-THA putting smiles on kids faces

The Union League intact. The steps and railing were in place by New Year’s Day. Remember earlier in the year how a guy pulled off railing to sell for scrap metal destroyed the steps as well.
Happy New Year, one and all.
Tomorrow I will run the Best Parties of Philly 2016
And on Monday The Best Dressed of Philly 2016

Finally a best of column for 2016. It was a little sparse this year for celebrities, even with the DNC, although I did quite a few including Eva Longoria, who I am now following on Instagram stories and she gives it up on that platform. You’re there with her for the highs and lows, but mostly for the face masks, dinners and beach time. It’s fun. We can all be a fly on the wall now. These shots are in no particular order cause I have a killer headache after giving up sugar and diet coke on Sunday. For the next two days I’ll suffer the worse part of withdrawal so bare with me, I’d rather be under the covers.

This shot really takes me back to my days in NYC when I learned my craft of shooting celebrities either on the red carpet or as a paparazzi (o). This is Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom leaving Vedge restaurant. SO I got a text that Katy was eating with Orlando, Cory Booker, and M Night at Vedge around 1130PM the Saturday night after she was performed at the Mann as a fundraiser for Hillary; I was shooting a client job at Vie until midnight and couldn’t leave, biting my nails til the end. (This was the story of my life during the election this year, I missed a lot of celebrity encounters because I was on a client shoot.) I called two of my friends to cover the doors until I got there, and lucky for us we all got shots. I love that Katy is giving us good eye contact.

But the photo that ran everywhere was this one as it showed her America flag bag much clearer. Mission accomplished, we got great celebrity shots and Vedge got great national coverage.

Adopted son Jon Bon Jovi. He’s always contributing his name and money to organizations in Philly. For a bit of time he was part owner of the Philadelphia Soul Football team. He was in town in November at the Thomas Jefferson Gala to present his good friend Bill McDermott, CEO SAP the Award of Merit for his work with TJH.  They kinda look alike I think.

Bethenny Frankel, star of the Real Housewives of New York, founder of Skinnygirl, author, chef, and fan favorite. Brought all the boys and the girls to her appearances this year. She signed Skinnygirl bottles at a liquor store on Chestnut Street, where she had her handlers delete a photo on my camera of a baby and mother posing with her. That was my money shot cause girl I need something else fun besides your skinny in my shot. Nice dress though, at least it’s not black.

Shane Victorino returned to town to be honored by a former Phillies’ great, Jamie Moyer. Here he is with the Middleton‘s who are majority owners of the Phillies. Did you know in the beginning of my career I was asked not to reveal who they were, and I obliged. Now it’s out in the open, they’re the owners of the Phillies. I don’t know why that was, maybe to give them peace. But I will tell you this, they are very philanthropic.  As for Shane, he and Melissa love Philly so much, they’ve kept their house here and visit at least twice a year to catch up with friends.

The Bacon Brothers – Kevin and Michael, with their sisters Karin Bacon, Hilda Bacon (l) and longtime family friend Angie Foster at a fundraiser for the Rail Yard held at Union Transfer. They Give Back!!

Every year this crew comes and does promos for Dining Out for Life, Ted Allen, Pam Grier, Daisy Martinez and Mondo Guerra. Love them. They’re at Hotel Monaco.

Dr J and his wife Dorys at the 3rd annual Erving Ball at the Sofitel Hotel. Cashman & Assocs ran this red carpet like they’ve been doing Hollywood premieres for years. Very professional, everyone got the shots they needed, plus the girls had cue cards to ID the guests. That’s how it should be done if you want press for your event done properly.

The best photo of the year. When I shot it I didn’t understand what it was Debra Messing meant by this shirt, which was Susan Sarandon saying she didn’t vote with her vagina so she was voting for Bernie, then for Jill Stein when Bernie lost the primary. This was a huge photo for me getting over 100ks impressions on Twitter and nearly as many on Instagram. I could have pulled the rest of my hair out when my flash didn’t go off and illuminate the scene, so it wasn’t picked up by the national media via my wireservice, but the message got out. Happy Wednesday. I’m off to my first meeting of the year…. until tomorrow peeps.

Happy New Year!! Hope everyone had a restful, and reflective week off. I sure did, didn’t publish much and my brain feels like mush, this rain isn’t helping. OK I resolute that I won’t miss a day in 2017. I will publish by 7AM every morning like I did 10 years ago, oh BTW this is PhillyChitChat’s 10 year anniversary as I stated 07/07/07. I already broke promise for today. I was up practically all night creating columns about the glittering, glamorous NYE party I covered for UpcomingEvents.com on Saturday night for PM, PSM, and the Metro; any who tomorrow I will be back on time. Plus I promise to get the Top Ten 2016 columns up. OK I have a little gossip/tidbits happening. I will publish another column on Sunday, returning to my regular Sunday/Thursday PhillyGossip/Tidbit columns.

I think all the Christmas Trees come down today. Here’s the one at the Art Museum.

Congrats Ben and Kristen. I didn’t see as many engagements over the holidays as I thought I would. Maybe at Valentine’s Day.

Congrats to Eddie Keels (publisher of Philly Current) and his wife Elise Keels on the birth of their bouncing baby girl.

Oh not such a sweet ending for Sweet Cafe, which started out in business with the name Sweet Ending, but I guess people were getting confused with what exactly they were selling. At one point there were two Sweet Ending Cafes, here and in the Gayborhood at 12th and Walnut. That property is owned by the Weiss Brothers and is in the Woody’s complex, a LGBTQ nightclub. It closed about 2 years ago and became a Mexican eatery, which is exactly what I would want to eat in between gyrating on the floor upstairs. OK not, and no one went. It closed last year and boated a Hillary For President sign. After the election it opened as Glow Bar. Originally they were going to call it the Fishbowl, Weiss told me.

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The cupcake craze crumbled about 5 years ago, many of the yogurt stores have melted out of business. The new craze you ask: pizza on the menu in restaurants like Vetri, Cinder and Harp & Crown (must try the Octopus pizza) to name a few.

Speaking of glass corner properties, Capital One Cafe at the Latham Hotel, is nearing it’s opening date. For the longest time they just had the blue window covering with the words ATM, their logo and knives and forks, which was definitely a huge hint to what I scooped was going there last year (2/17/16) before they even put up the blue covering; then last week they added the signage. No word on what’s going to go into their smaller spot across the street, but the good news is FINALLY something is going into this corner spot that will be successful.

Shoshanna Schiller, Partner at Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, LLP’s dad took this amazing photo of Carrie Fisher, which was making the rounds last week.

The Daily News always knows how to capture the moment in a headline

Thanks for the hospitality Brandon Morrison and Stacey Kracher Saturday night. What a view too!!

Last night I captured the City Hall Christmas Tree one last time. How awesome was Christmas Village this year.
OK let me get to work on those year end columns before another year end is upon us.