Yesterday I did a fun piece on Philly Mag about Whoopi Goldberg and Raven-Symone at Valley Forge Casino Music Fair on Saturday Night

Here’s a few more interesting tidbits. On Saturday night Whoopi met fans backstage before she hit the stage. Many of the fans brought gifts, and this young man, Quintin Mayfield, brought a story. He told Whoopi that they had met 10 years ago, at a the show “Wake Up With Whoopi” She was his “Make a Wish” as he was diagnosed with a chronic illness. Whoopi spent a lot of time with him and she signed the back of his photo for him. It was super sweet to witness this interaction.

Then I went all crazy girl fan on Whoopi. I watch her nearly everyday, and really appreciate her contributions to society. I’ve photographed her many times in NYC when I was a working celebrity photographer. She was always super sweet. Sad she’s had such a difficult year with deaths of great friends and mentors like Robin Williams and Mike Nichols. Then her mother and brother died within a few years of each other.

Whoopi started out her act relating her brother’s death. Now you wouldn’t think that was funny, except how she was told and by who. It was her brother’s girlfriend, who was hysterical and seemed to be making a lot of familial decisions until Whoopi found out they were only dating for one month. It was a great delivery. Reminds me of the episode on Good Wife when Will dies, and Diane confronts an intern who’s been there for a week, crying hysterical. Diane fires her on the spot, less funny, but same principle.

Then there was a period, no pun intended, where Whoopi talked about menopause, vagina’s and dicks. That was less funny to me, but the crowd laughed uncomfortably, hysterically with husbands pointing at wives.

 Then she tackled current affairs starting with Ben Carson, then Donald Trump, lots of laughs, even though the audience was split GOP/DEM. You’d be surprised how many Republican’s like Whoopi’s sense of humor.

 At one point in the show, Whoopi stopped and pointed to an audience member and said “Lady stop recording the show. Put down your phone. This show is for you, it’s intimate, personal and it’s happening right now. Don’t spoil it by watching it through a view finder.” And that was that, everyone seemed to put away their phones and enjoyed watching Whoopi in real time. After the stand up routine Whoopi took questions from the audience for about 35 minutes. It was great. She advised people on life, love and even adoption. Stressing to one gay couple that it would be great if they adopted an older child around 5 – 7, those kids are the ones that need the most love.

She was propositioned over and over for appearances on the View but stressed she had no pull in getting people scheduled. She spoke of her co-workers and said there is no stress with them. “We all have co-workers, and it’s a normal workplace. Sometimes you get along, sometimes you’re at each other, but for the most part it’s a normal day.” She loves her job and says she’s not going anywhere, anytime soon. She wakes up every morning, looks around at her digs and says, wow I live like a queen. To maintain that lifestyle, she has to have a job that can afford that.

Old City was once once of the hot neighborhoods in Philly, but in the past few years it started to cool down as Center City’s Rittenhouse Square, East Passyunk and Northern Liberties took off.

I’m here to tell you that’s its finding it’s footing and is well on it’s way back. When I was contacted to shoot the Old City Festival this Sunday, I asked what’s happening in Old City, ie business’ and new development. 

During the 90s and 00’s I used to be a tour guide for the Philadelphia Foundation of Architectural, so I know the neighborhood well and especially the history of the buildings. I wanted to get a tour of my old stomping grounds and I did this past Tuesday.

Old City Arts – Wood Turning Center

I met with Job Itzkowitz. Executive Director, Old City at the business district headquarters 231 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 to
get a tour of the neighborhood and ask a million questions. I think he
was surprised how much I knew about the neighborhood and how curious I
was. I was excited to share my tour spiel with him too cause I don’t get
to use it much anymore. We were joined by that Kory Aversa guy, you
know him, PR extraordinaire. He’s been working hard to get the word out
about the festival this Sunday.

Above is The former Shirt Corner. The iconic Old City building on the corner of 3rd and Market streets was replaced by the Shirt Corner Apartments,
a slick new living space with 59 rental units, and a couple
street-level commercial storefronts housing a CVS Pharmacy and
healthy take-away joint Snap Kitchen. Check out the mural they have inside the lobby here. Job showed me two of the windows fronting for CVS, will be used for rotating art exhibits. They have hinges that allow the windows to swing out to change the exhibit. Pretty cool. I really like how the builders blended the building into the neighborhood buildings with it’s perfected Federal Style design.

Old City is like Philly’s Silicone Valley with it’s tech business’ and cool co-working space Indy Hall. “In recent years, the corridor from roughly Market Street in Old City through Northern Liberties has been gradually filling with tech and web-centric office buildings and shared workspaces. Many there are calling it ‘N3rd Street,’ a play on “North 3rd Street.” (Technical.ly Philly)

As well as the standards like Roche Bobois and Dane Decor, which draws designers down from NYC to check out their furniture and home accessories.

Last Friday, Open Source kicked off their project at Bok school with a blockbuster opening party

Despite
the torrential nor’easter rains a good showing of people turned out to
enjoy the festivities. I couldn’t make it as I was covering another
awesome event down the street, the opening of Opera Philadelphia, check
out the gala complete with tent set up in the middle of Broad Street,
HERE. Any who I had Mural Arts send me a few pixs from their party too. 

Mural Arts partnered with Mole Street, a Philadelphia experiential marketing and entertainment booking agency to secure an exciting line up of performers for the event. Washed Out’s Ernest Greene, a young guy from Georgia (via South Carolina) who makes bedroom
synthpop that sounds blurred and woozily evocative. Many will be
familiar with the band’s tune, Feel It All Around, from the opening
credits of the hit IFC TV show, Portlandia. In addition to recording and
touring with a band, he takes time out to bring his DJ Set to select
venues. These often sold out shows bring a perfect party vibe.

Washed Out (DJ set)

Open Source Curator Pedro Alonzo, Mural Arts Program Execut ive Director Jane Golden, City Councilman Mark Squilla (Photo by Bill McCay)

   

 Johnny Buss (Mural Arts Program Artist)

 Tracy Buchholz, Isaiah Zagar, Liann Fenderson

 Lucy Price, Andrew Schmidt

Guests enjoyed an open “pour” session with the Dufala Brothers, who will be working out of Bok all month long. The Dufala Brothers will create a waste transfer station in the Edward Bok Vocational School in South
Philadelphia. The station is conceived to recycle aluminum from local
scrappers, which will be repurposed by the artists to make art.

 Nicole Steinberg

 Stephen Ives

Step and Repeat and the below Photos by SteveWeinik

 Phil Asbury, Open Source Artist Shinique Smith, Open Source Artist Odili Odita

 The Open Source Hub is officially open!

I remember catching one of Whoopi Goldberg‘s first comedy shows back in the 80s, she cracked me up. Then she got an HBO special, then Billy Crystal saw her, and she was on her way.  Now “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg will
perform stand-up comedy on Saturday, October 10, 2015 at the Valley Forge Casino Event Center
(Convention Center) at
8:00pm (doors open 7:00pm). Tickets are still available HERE

 Goldberg is going to have you laughing in the aisle, cause she’s not afraid of taking on subjects that are making the headlines in today’s news, and putting it out there in Whoopi’s honest truth. Probably espousing views that we think but would never dare say. 

Saturday I went to my 2nd cousins’ Stephanie  wedding to her soul mate Zach

It’s a well known fact now that Connor Barwin likes to bike to work. (remember that’s how he found Ralph Brooks Park as he passed it on his way to work; then he helped renovate it through hard work and sweat equity.)

Connor told USA Today transportation alternatives was always an important principle in his life. “It’s something that I’ve always understood. Obviously my dad’s a city manager so he talked about public transit, he was always trying to improve the transit system in Detroit when I was growing up. When I played in Houston, which is not a public transit-friendly city, I did ride my bike and I did their one train line that they had more out of principle,” he said. 

“But when I moved to Philly it was great because they have more of a real public transit system, a real subway system, now they have a real bike sharing program so when I use it, it’s purely out of function not principle which is great.”

Capital One, the official banking sponsor of the City of Philadelphia’s bike share program Indego, partnered with Connor Barwin and several bloggers in Philly to promote the popular co-sharing Bikes  and offer a $5 off deal for your first month’s membership.

It was a beautiful day for a ride. Linda Vertlieb, Frugal Philly Mom takes a #selfie with Connor

I jumped in a car and said follow those bikes, I need to beat them to the stadium.

Indego recently opened up additional bike stations in Philly: 9th and Arch streets, 19th and Lombard streets, Girard and Leopard streets, 38th and Lancaster streets, 10th and Reed streets, 17th and Girard streets, 6th and Fairmount streets, 21st and Catherine streets, Broad and Federal streets, and 24th and Sansom streets. 

Yesterday I was in Old City, there’s an Indego station on Market Street that sits in the street. I was told it was the most used station out of all of them in the City. It’s near 2nd Street.

1. Go to rideindego.com, click the “Become a Member” button and choose “Indego30” membership.
2. Enter your Capital One debit card’s first 6 digits as the promo code.
3. Hop on a bike!