I got so busy in the spring social season that I dropped Woof Woof Wednesday. I’ve heard your barks, literally people have asked me to return the weekly column. So here goes, no slobbering on the computer screen please….
Gavin McKay and Trent Berrier at Glen Onoko Falls trail with their pup. Mike and I are planning to go to the Allentown area, plus Jim Thorpe for Labor Day Weekend and will have to check out the falls.
buzz Woof woof Wednesday is about all kinds of pets really
I saw cows near Morgantown, Pa. I got one shot off before a car came along and beeped. It came out just as I envisioned it.
Catching up on posts, this one happened in June, but I did have the photos on Fox 29. I’m running the photos here for two reasons, one it was a great event for a great charity, and I also wanted you to know about a show coming up on August 21 with Rus Gutin.
I don’t get out to many shows as I’m always on the run but when I was invited to cover a PAL charity event with a few of my favorite people.
Like Mike Jerrick, co-anchor at Fox 29,
who got a little help from his friend Alex Holley, who was more than happy to hold his “cue” cards while he did his schtick.
Proceeds from the event will go to the Philadelphia FOP Survivors Fund (www.fop5.org), which provides financial and other support to survivors of Philadelphia police officers killed in the line of duty.
“We sincerely appreciate what Punch Line is doing,” said Steve Weiler, vice president FOP Lodge 5. “Without events like this, we wouldn’t have anything. We need every nickel to spend on helping the officers’ survivors. There’s always someone in need who calls us and reaches out to help.”
Stars Stand Up for Fallen Officers is part of the two-week celebration marking the opening of Punch Line Philly, Live Nation’s first laugh lounge on the East Coast. Punch Line Philly is located in Fishtown, just a few steps away from The Fillmore Philadelphia, hailed as “the most beautiful live rock music venue in the United States.”
There’s nearly nothing I can relay here from the comedy acts as my ears are still burning
FISHTOWN PREMIUM (COMEDY) “Champagne Comedy on a Beer Budget.”
Sunday, August 21st, 2016 @ 7:30pm!
w/ Headliner: Comedy Central’s SEAN DONNELLY!
Special Guest: OddBall Comedy Festival’s LUCHANA GATICA!
Featuring: #CherryHillaDelphia’s own, RUS GUTIN from Comedy Records!
Hosted by: Garbage Time’s JAMES MATTERN!
Doors @ 6:30pm / Show @ 7:30pm Buy your Tickets now @ bit.ly/295SLmA!
Last Thursday was the much anticipated Philly Magazine’s Best of Party.
Bringing together lots of local chefs where guests could sample some of their finest dishes. Here’s the crew from Garces Events
Evan Turney, of Varga Bar and soon to be Butcher Bar withValerie Safran, who with long time business partner Marcie Turney were trailblazers in creating a food empire in Midtown Village with the wildly popular Bud & Marilyn’s, as well as Barbuzzo, Lolita, Jamonera, Little Nonna’s, and retail stores Grocery, Open House and Verde
Madison Leonard and Melissa Leonard
Paul Sales with Laura and Adam McCluskey
Townsend Wentz and team
Mole Street’s Brian LaPann Band entertains the VIP crowd
Best Dressed in the City – Brandon Morrison and Stacey Kracher
Catherine Bouvier and Eric Sales
A DJ Booth with a view – Adrian Hardy
Eva Kasanovic, Carlo Fiammenghi and Julie Lazano
Saxbys owners Nick and Haley Bayer
my bud Sandy, the receptionist from Philly Mag.
Soon to be dad Kyree Tyrell, and our bud Marilyn Russell, BenFM
Do blonds have more fun? Drew Bergman is going to find out this summer. I guess friend Sarah could tell him. Drew is single, and is ready to mingle. Drop me a line if you want a safer meet and greet than grindr?
I think you can tell why this shot didn’t make Philly Mag, as they requested
OK now if you’re not too tired to look at more photos, I put my heart and soul into choosing the ones that are on Philly Mag. Check out the Link
Good Monday morning. Lots of happenings in the dog days of summer here in Philly. Hope everyone made it out to the 2nd Street Festival. I met old friends, and I mean old as in grade school friends for lunch at LaScala’s Burn in Marlton NJ. They have the hottest long hots that will be memorable the entire week for me. This week I’m gettng ready to cover the Girl Scouts Smores Competition in Chesapeake. Remember I went there last year and stayed at the Hyatt on the Chesapeake. It was fabulous. So glad they asked me back again this year to shoot it. Let’s see what’s happening with our neighbors….
Congrats to longtime couple Michael Schulson and Nina Tinari on their marriage Saturday at Le Cheri. The bride wore creame, the groom wore sneakers and the flowers were by Ten Pennies.
Congrats to Perry O’Hearn, Owner of Philly Phitness and 6ABC’s Melissa Magee on their engagement which happened in Hawaii during the DNC and you know how I missed things then.
Ian Larson and Jamie Reibenbach had their engagement photos taken by Phil Kramer. The duo are set for their nuptials in orange, which is perhaps why Jamie is wearing orange?
Don’t know what to do with that wedding dress after the ceremony, why make tiny wedding dresses for bears. They’re so cute.
Jameer Nelson stopped by D’Angelo’s for dinner Friday night. I was there and saw he was with two friends dining al fresco.
On the mend, baby Rocky. Keep those prayers coming.
Christopher Wink, Technical.ly and Shannon Wink, Billy Penn commissioned this awesome mural on their home by artist Sean Martorano.
Despite the crazy heatwave and on and off rain, lots of folks turned out to support the monthly charity event that supports the emerging needs of the LGBTQ community through advocacy, grantmaking, scholarships, programming and education. www.dvlf.org
DVLF’s annual TOY event has become an anticipated and popular event. It has been named, “Best LGBT Fundraiser” by the Philadelphia Gay News. TOY raises money to support the mission of DVLF and provides toys for patients at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and those served by Action Wellness. Held every December, it is a cocktail party, dance, and silent auction that welcomes over 400 guests. Your support will allow us to meet the emerging needs of the LGBT community while supporting some of the area’s bravest children at the holidays
Join DVLF on August 8th for OurNightOut-Philly at the hottest new venue in Philadelphia, the Logan. For this prestigious event, we will be collecting a $10 donation that will benefit DVLF.
Philly Gossip: Maria Papadakis Engaged, Baby News & Retail
While the DNC was going on Philadelphia’s news and gossip was still happening.
Maria Papadakis, the bubbly, blond who brighten many a room with her contagious smile splashed onto the social scene about 6 years ago, after graduating from Drexel University she began to build a communications career appearing on local TV promoting the best charity events and parties in the City. Eventually she moved on to Philly.com and Comcast Sportsnet to produced entertaining shows with Kyree Tyrell, who now runs My New Philly. Life really began after meeting the love of her life, professional soccer player Chris Konopka, though friends at a charity event. Chris career took him from Philadelphia Union, to Toronto FC, then earlier this year he headed to Scotland to play pro ball there. Back on US soil, Chris will be playing for Portland, Or, this season, and since the beginning of their relationship Maria will be right by his side.
Congrats Jason and Haley
Last Friday Chelsea Handler was enjoying drinks outside of Parc. She posed for photos and said hi to everyone who recognized her.
Congrats Tara Malloy and Brian Fletcher
In case you were wondering where the Halloween Store was going to end up on Walnut Street, wonder no more 1702 Walnut.
Congrats to former CBS3 Philly’s Chris May who has returned to his home town Little Rock, Arkansas and at KATV News.
Congrats
Internet celebrity Marie Madore spent the weekend at Hotel Monaco last weekend.
The AT&T Store that has been threatening to go into 15th and Walnut, seems to finally started it’s build out. Strangely enough they took the wrappings off the windows so we can watch the whole messy thing.
Check Philly Mag later today for pics from the Best of Party, and back here on Monday I’ll have the rest. Have an awesome weekend, see you on social media.
Hillary for America is releasing a new web video giving supporters never-before-seen, backstage access to last week’s Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. Supporters get to witness primetime speakers including President Obama, Vice-President Biden, and former President Clinton before and after their remarks. Over four nights, the Democratic National Convention had over 100 million TV viewers plus millions more on social media.
The new video shows a optimistic, forward-looking, and historic convention where Clinton made history by accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. She delivered a message to all Americans about the universal values that define us as Americans and challenges we face. She called on Americans to join her and stand together, because we are stronger together – America is at its best when we work together to solve our biggest challenges.
Good Thursday morning, sorry I’ve been a little lax in my posts this week TIME has caught up with me and I am got sick with a fever and migraine. I didn’t drink enough water last week, and my body decided to punish me. OK here are the celebrities I saw last week. You may have seen these other places, a couple I have never published, but I have a bunch of stories and will tell you how I found these people.
Just as I suspected there would be a lot of celebrities, I was surprised though that there were not A List, and by A List I mean current in People or Us Magazine celebrities, roaming about Philly. They were on stage at the DNC, but most seemed to head back to where they came afterwards despite the many, many, parties happening nearly 24/7.
Although I was working with the DNC2016 on certain events and parties, the above calendar was sent to me by 3 readers, and I really appreciate it as it helped me understand what events were around. Ironically none of the 3 events I photographed that day are on this calendar. PLUS You can tell how early a draft this was as the Lady Gaga/Lenny Kravitz party is on a Tuesday night, when it eventually was scheduled on Thursday at 1PM. Rumors were Secretary Hillary Clinton would appear, but I knew that was never true having photographed movie premieres for years. A star will not show up at someone elses’ event even within days of a movie premiere, least those photos get published and not the ones of them on the red carpet at their own event.
Most of the rumored must do parties like Funny or Die, Google, Twitter, and Spotify were DUDS and I skipped most of them after hearing from my insiders, but I did do 3 hrs of sidewalk time for Funny or Die as my insiders insisted Will Ferrell and friends would go. I was angsting cause it was up against the Cory Booker party at Tiki Lounge, but guess what Cory didn’t even show up to his own party. Another party it was up against was “The Stone Pony in Philly” Now wouldn’t you think that was a Bruce Springsteen party, I did. I sent people over there to Old Bookbinders. When they texted me that they actually got into the party I realized it couldn’t be a Bruce event, those parties can’t be crashed. It wasn’t Bruce, my friends weren’t even sure who it was. I did miss the Grace Potter and Friends at Electric Factory, and Joe Walsh at World Cafe, both events I hear were amazing. I think that’s where my celeb friends went.
Definitely the best events I covered with the most celebs were the Creative Coalition events. I remember during the RNC 2000 they had events so I started doing research. But as luck would have it the online news source Billy Penn published a list of calendar of events. I wrote them and they said they’d get back to me. At the same time I was chatting with my friends Susan Helfrich and Rich Wolf,Breaking Glass Pictures, who BTW have a film out right now starring Susie Celek, Fight Valley, get it on Demand, and those two I discovered were involved with Creative Coalition. They connected me, I was able to cover a cocktail party where Creative Coalition wanted to raise awareness about tweens, and teens and OTC drug abuse. There were only two photographers there, their house photographer and moi. After the event the PR Henry said I like your work style, you’re polite, and not on top of everyone, here’s a list to the rest of our events.
Dean Norris – best known for portraying DEA agent Hank Schrader on the AMC series Breaking Bad and Under The Dome at Creative Coalition lunch raising awareness of drug abuse of OTC by Tweens and Teens. At Hotel Monaco.
Nearly every day they had an event, but I only went to 3 of them as my schedule permitted. But what a great experience, and noble causes they took on with their band of celebrities. Troian Bellisario, Alison Pill, Josh Gad, Ashley Judd, and Kevin McHale – poor things couldn’t get a hotel room in Center City and had to stay out at the Airport Hilton. Ashley Judd spent some time at the Wells Fargo Center watching the DNC. Word was spotted in the Cadillac Grille with Aretha Franklin watching the historic night when Hillary gave her speech.
Penn alumni Elizabeth Banks at OTC event. She played Vince Papale’s wife Janet in Invincible. She also produced a celebrity-studded video in support of Hillary Clinton using Rachel Platten’s hit Fight Song, which was shown Tuesday at the convention. She also appeared at a luncheon to raise awareness on teen obesity. I decided I didn’t want to be an example of what an adult looked like and skipped that luncheon.
Josh Gad likes his checkered shirts I see (like me)
Katy Perry stayed at a private condo at the Barclay, but moved over to the Rittenhouse Hotel when Orlando Bloom flew in. They spent sometime at the Library Bar as well as many of the celebrities that appeared on stage at the DNC.
Monday night I went to the Wells Fargo Center. It was memorable. I got wet with a lot of great people. I didn’t really get to explore the hall as much as I thought I would, IT WAS PACKED. Plus I was with my friend Sheila Hess and we were enjoying our stay in the IBX Box with this fabulous view. My goal for the week wasn’t to shoot who was on the stage, I really wanted to shoot who was behind the scenes in the hallways, in the lounge areas, behind the scenes, the press room, share it with you here as well as on my social media. If you’re following me on Snapchat, those people get all the dirt.
Tuesday was busy: Ashley Judd was making an appearance on behalf of Creative Coalition on Day to to raise awareness around DC Statehood on the 2nd day of DNC at Loews Hotel. – I spoke with her. She was enjoying the City. Had lunch at the new Ruth Chris. Said everyone was nice, and she was happy to be working with the Creative Coalition on worthy causes.
At DelFrisco’s 3 – 5PM Congressional Black Caucus. Lots of great people were attending, I love that I saw Judge Greg Mathis, and his bff Fareed Ahmed. This photo appeared in Philly.com online. Did I mention I was working for Philly Media. They approached me a few weeks before and I was honored to shoot for them. They let me do what I do, they didn’t know which parties I would be hitting, they didn’t know the parties as I mentioned I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone and I didn’t, and when I do that I wanna do my best. I think I did it. My plan was to contribute to my regular outlets, but I forgot to schedule time for that. I think I got 2 columns into PhillyMag, one each for the Metro and 7 or 8 for PhillyMedia. Plus I was on Fox 29 Good Day 5 times, and interviewed for stories twice and once for Chasing News.
Tuesday: Kimmel Center 4 – 6PM Client EnRoute hired us to shoot this party and this shot was taken by PhillyChitChat contributor Andre Flewellan. To celebrate the 2016 Democratic National Convention, international law firm Dentons LLP held a party last week to honor “Dentons Democrats.” Guests included former DNC Chairs Joe Andrew and former Gov. Howard Dean.
On my way to the Barnes, I saw the cars lined up for Bill Clinton at The Logan Hotel to take him to Wells Fargo where he was speaking that evening.
Tuesday: Comcast throws VP Biden a Goodbye Party at the Barnes Museum. A random Fairmount neighbor was walking by and the sweet Eva Longoria posed with her.
Oh Lucy Travers has a Mary Dougherty scarf on, she arrived with longtime Rendell friends Morgan Fairchild and Gary Barbera.
Tuesday night I worked on my columns and prepared to go on Fox 29 the next day so I stayed in and missed Bill Clinton’s party at Reading Terminal. But Chole Grace Moretz was there. The next day I got a sighting at the Sofitel of her and her boyfriend Brooklyn Beckham. I was bummed I didn’t have time to hang at the hotels as I thought I would. Turns out most celebrities stayed at either Sofitel or Palomar across the street, with Snoop Dogg staying at Hotel Monaco,
Lady Gaga, Idina Menzel, The Clintons, Obamas and Bidens all staying at the Logan Hotel at some point during the week – Note that Pope fence is up, because President and VP were now both at The Logan. If you look back on when Bill Clinton was leaving the Logan on Tuesday, no fences.
Guests going through the front door had to go through serious security
DNC VP Nominated Tim Kaine and family stayed at the Sonesta
Debra Messing was everywhere last week, and had time to have a twitter war with Blake Shelton, advising Gwen Stefani to dump him because she thought he supported Trump. OH BOY. She apologized when he said no such thing. On to happier news: Idina Menzel left the Ritz hotel Tuesday after a Democratic women’s tea. A policeman stopped 4 lanes of cars to help her across. She said wow the Philly Police really know how to make a gal feel special.
I love this photo. This was a Q&A with Fitz from Scandal and Carol from West Wing. It was a lot of fun.
Melissa Fitzgerald, Hrishikesh Hirway (who cohosts a West Wing podcast with show star Josh Malina), and West Wing star Richard Schiff participated in a game of “West Wing Quizzo” at PoliticalFest 2016. Melissa called her friend and costar Allison Janney to help her out with a question. Janney was at work on her show “Mom” and was rushed for time. Richard called costar Bradley Whitford. Both had teams consisting of mega fans of the show. Melissa’s team won.
Then I headed over to hear Congressman John Lewis at the African American Museum
My piece on Fox 29 when Alex Holley, Mike Jerrick and I break into song as the night’s talent rehearse
The it was on to the Wells Fargo. I got the only cab in Philly with no A/C and the windows busted out. Then when I wasn’t paying attention the guy took me from 10th Street made a right on Chestnut and down to Delaware Ave, I said buddy I’m tourist where you going? Ugh, nightmare. This is the reason people take ubers. Any I left that hot situation and found this hot situation in the Press Tent with Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover. Crazy press. Poor Danny Glover passed out from the intensity of the situation and people. He recovered and held a smaller press conference on why he felt Nina Carter deserved her day at the DNC Podium.
Wednesday night I trolled the halls for shots of interest. Word has it she liked Aston Cigar Bar, as did many of the celebs who headed there late night. Bradley Cooper stayed with his mom and girlfriend in his house in Abington. He told Jimmy Fallon, earlier this week he still lives there part time.
“During rehearsal [for the July 27 “What the World Needs Now” musical number], after the bulk of the song had been sung, we were asked to walk downstage and form a line while continuing to sing the refrain, ‘What the world needs now.’ We were told to encourage the audience to join in. Maybe clap. In performance, as we walked down to the lip of the stage, the energy of 30,000 people met us halfway. I’ve never felt anything like it. The energy was overwhelming. I hate to be so cliched about this, but it was one group hug through song. We really do need love, sweet love.” (THR)
I was super surprised that only Richard Kind showed up at the Fergie concert later that night, especially because Tyne Daly’s (green dress) brother Tim is the President of the organization.
Wednesday late night: The BET party at Coda was the same night at the Fergie concert and I was credentialed for her so on Wednesday night that’s where you found me. I hear Common stopped by Coda and that evening. Fergie was amazing, and her reunion with Taboo from Black Eyed Peas was musically a show stopper since it was rumored she and the band were no longer talking, especially since they booked a show against hers at the nearby Fillmore Philly. Fergie’s show also went on a bit late, about 130AM because the DNC went on a little longer than expected. In fact for the rest of the weeks parties everything was an hour later than originally planned. This was another Creative Coalition event. TCC raises funds for arts and music education in schools. Will.I.Am he went to the Spotify Party at the Barnes.
Thursday was work all day day, trying to get all my columns in, and photos to the wire service. No sleep for me either, I had been up for nearly 28 hrs by the time I went on the air at Fox 29 at 9AM. Mike and Alex are laughing cause I was reporting how Jerry Springer and Lance Bass both ate at Estia the day before, but not together.
I skipped the DNC and opted for an hour nap and dinner with John McDevitt, who was my wing guy that night. I had to choose between Snoop Dog and Hillary Clinton’s party. I chose Hillary. I had heard rumors that Bill was going to go to the Snoop Dog event. The Secret Service had already done a sweep, and were on stand by, but as I mentioned earlier everything was delayed and at 2AM the SS pulled out. Snoop went on about 3AM. Thanks to party crasher Melissa Leonard for this shot. Party crasher is a harsh term, she shows up to a party and somehow gets invited in.
Before taking the stage at her afterparty, Hillary met with her most generous supporters like Richard Garriott, who is the 2nd private citizen to fly into space. He paid $30 million to do it. He invented the video game Altima and he and his wife, Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux, are big Hillary fans. She even started the Entrepeneurs for Hillary group.
Clinton held an appreciation party for her supporters, including sponsors, volunteers and workers from her campaign at the Kimmel Center. A lot of notable people showed up including Debbie Wassermann Schultz, Anthony Wiener, his wife Huma Abedin, and son Jordan, Debra Messing, Kate Walsh, Dustin Lance Black and Darrin Criss.
Hey people, sorry I’m delayed this week with posts. I guess my body is paying me back from no sleep last week and I’m sick as a dog….I wish I had made it to this press conference today cause i love those donkeys. Here’s what happened.
The Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee for the Democratic National Convention today held a press conference to provide final details, information, and statistics on the very successful “Donkeys Around Town” program. Following the end of the Convention, the donkeys have been available for delegations to take home with them; so far, 52 donkeys have been claimed.
“The donkeys were a great success and produced excitement for both delegates and local residents,” said former Pennsylvania Governor and Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee Chair Ed Rendell. “The large number of donkeys that have already been claimed bears out the affection that the state delegations had for them.”
As of early this afternoon, the donkeys that have not yet been claimed are: New York; Connecticut; Guam; Puerto Rico; and American Samoa. That number may decrease by the end of the day as today is the deadline by which interested delegations must claim their donkeys. –
WHHHAAAT nobody claimed New York?
From July 20 to July 28th, the Host Committee held an app-based scavenger hunt, on Scavify, to encourage individuals to find as many of the donkeys as possible for prizes. To play, users were required to complete a task on the app at each donkey they found to prove that they had found that particular donkey.
The eight-day scavenger hunt had a total of 2,213 participants who completed a collective 26,587 tasks. Fifty-seven users, or 3% of all participants, completed tasks at all donkey locations. The top donkeys where tasks were completed were: Pennsylvania (33%); California (31%); Connecticut (30%); Georgia (30%); Colorado (30%); and Kansas (29%).
Gov. Rendell said, “The scavenger hunt produced interest well beyond our wildest expectations.”
The scavenger hunt yielded prizes for over 1,360 participants. A total of 432 participants completed tasks at more than 31 donkeys, and were eligible for entry into the grand prize drawing, which was awarded by raffle.
The grand prize drawing took place on Friday, July 29th, and the winners were:
Maria Hutchinson of Voorhees, New Jersey, winner of the Philly Overnight Package: a two-night stay at the Hyatt at the Bellevue, gift certificates for dining at XIX Restaurant, two Steven Starr restaurants and Jim’s Steaks.
Elena Cupingood of Center City, Philadelphia, winner of the Ultimate Sports Package: tickets to the 2016-17 seasons of Philadelphia professional and college sports teams, including:
o 2 tickets, Lasalle Men’s Basketball
o 4 tickets, Penn Men’s Basketball
o 4 tickets, Temple Football Game on Sept. 10
o 2 VIP tickets, Drexel vs. SJU Men’s Basketball
o 2 tickets, Villanova Men’s Basketball, any game at Wells Fargo Center
o 2 tickets, Villanova Women’s Basketball, any home game
o 2 tickets, Villanova Football game, any home game
o 2 tickets, St. Joe’s University Women’s Basketball Game on Dec. 3
o 2 tickets, St. Joe’s University Men’s Basketball Game on Nov. 12
o 2 club box tickets, Sixers
o 2 tickets, Flyers
o 2 tickets, Phillies 2017 home opener, plus 2 tickets to 3 additional games in the 2017 season
o 2 tickets, Eagles vs. Redskins on Dec. 11
The Donkeys Around Town program generated significant enthusiasm on social media, producing approximately 2.5 million impressions on Instagram and a potential reach of approximately 36.8 million people on Twitter.
The Host Committee today also announced that, due to the high level of maintenance they require, the donkeys will be taken in from their locations and placed in storage on August 23rd. The donkeys were installed on July 1st and, over the course of the month, were maintained by “donkey doctors,” who were volunteers responsible for making sure the donkeys were clean, upright and in their proper locations. Now that the Convention has ended, there are fewer donkey doctors to care for their patients, and so the donkeys will be stored at ClientLink, a distribution warehouse in Montgomeryville, as they are crated and shipped to their home state or auctioned here in Philadelphia.
Happy week after DNC day. I promised you the DNC Celebrity post, but it’s not today. Today I am under the weather and sleeping a lot. I think I over did it or was it the mayonnaise I ate the other night that was out too long, anyway here are a few of my fav pixs that encapsulate the memories of the DNC that you might not have seen yet. I have a lot of favs that you already saw.
Where does this banner go in the future?
I think everyone knows the stories now, when you were dropped off at the Wells Fargo, the shuttles and cabs could only get so close, about 5 blocks from the door. In between you and the door were two security checkpoints. On the first day of the DNC there was a horrific storm, and it came up fairly fast. I was in a shuttle with lobbyist Holly Kinser, The Kinser Group, Sheila Hess, City Rep and a few other notable people. We didn’t have an umbrella, and tried to wait out the storm. Eventually Holly took control of the situation, jumped out of the car, went to all the emergency vehicles around us and obtained 3 umbrellas. It was a valiant effort, although with rain going sideways only the makeshift poncho she created would have helped, to a point as it was paper towels. Either way it was a great memory for the first day, and we’re still laughing about it.
It was all worth it.
The first night I was in the IBX club box, and caught Cory Booker and Michelle Obama speaking.
I enjoyed the many parties I went to, this is the Comcast party at the Comcast Center, which was produced by Scott Mirkin, ESM Productions. Great displays of flags and stars. This party encompassed the entire plaza, the lobby and then a side tent for the beer garden.
I skipped Tuesday, but headed to the DNC on Wednesday. I discovered there was a press entrance,
with food trucks and huge tents to welcome us while we work.
Occasionally a press conference would pop up.
It was lovely, but I was so thirsty as there was no free water to be had. I felt the bern with prices for a bottle of water set at $4.50. I choose to go inside the Wells Fargo Center and find the water fountains. I stopped at every single one to get my free share of water and curse the day of the $4.50 water bottle. I thought the cookies and sandwiches were better priced.
One of my favorite places to catch celebs and notable politicians was the media floor. Here I ran into Mark Segal, who had just run into Eric Holder, who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, from 2009 to 2015.
Then occasionally I would run into fun people like this.
I wasn’t to fond of sitting in the press area, or even going to the floor. It was hot, and there were plenty of photographers to capture the night. As you know I went to places where there were no other press, or very little, that was my jawn for the DNC Week. Wednesday night I hung with my crew from Fox 29, I left before Lucy and Ian’s news broadcast at 10PM, which they did from this booth. Did you know if you were inside the Wells Fargo when the VP, President, or future president arrived, then you were “locked” in until they left. I had parties to cover so I left at 9PM every night I was there.
I did catch Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless as they had their reunion on stage singing “What The World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love.” I think Tyne spotted me, I used to go to all her shows in NYC. I have a Tyney crush.
OK this is my favorite shot, I wish I had grabbed this gals name cause I want her in my column in the September issue. Flawlees.
my bud Sandy, the receptionist from Philly Mag.
Clinton held an appreciation party for her supporters, including sponsors, volunteers and workers from her campaign at the Kimmel Center. A lot of notable people showed up including Debbie Wassermann Schultz, Anthony Wiener, his wife Huma Abedin, and son Jordan, Debra Messing, Kate Walsh, Dustin Lance Black and Darrin Criss.
