PHILLYCHITCHAT: GOT THE LOOK – BIKE FASHION LOVE. You know me I keep trying to find a good brand name for my random photos which include fashion. How’s this for a title?
This guy bikes around Philly with a motorcycle helmet on. His wife has a matching helmet, but wasn’t with him on this day.
Illadelphia
Dinner
Pretty in Pink
The best falafel
Waiting for green light
Rittenhouse Square. See you tomorrow. Batten down the hatches.
This year, Phashion Phest celebrates its 18th year with a mobile fashion event. Picture a bus pulling up to a busy Center City location, models exit the vehicle and present a mini fashion show at several locations throughout the day. Imagine a fashion flash mob! In the evening, the main event will take place at The Shops at Liberty Place and will feature an extraordinary fashion show and salon presentations of the latest fall trends and a lavish cocktail reception. More Info and Tickets… Phasion Phest is part of Philadelphia Fashion Collection, check the newly released schedule here
Sherman is releasing his latest and greatest initiative today: to help combat bullying for both parents and their kids that are returning to school. Check out what parents and kids can do at accordingtosherman.com
In one of his last scheduled live remotes from B-Bar at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa on Tuesday afternoon, WIP’s Howard Eskin received a special surprise from the Borgata Babes and Pastry Chef Brian Lore. Eskin, who has been broadcasting his afternoon show live from Borgata for over 6 years was presented with a large cake decorated in Eagles green wishing him all the best in his future endeavors.
Eskin’s last broadcast is slated for Friday, September 2, although he will “still continue as part of WIP as part of the Eagles broadcast, as part of the pregame shows and other broadcasts.”
Last week I walked through Old City and it was quite sad to see so many empty store fronts, something Walnut Street suffered through recently. But today when I strolled Rittenhouse Row things were looking up…
iPhillyChitChat: Bold recruiting: Rep from Athleta, athletic clothes by Gap opening on Walnut St, went into Lululemon athletica wear & tried 2recruit workers
Today I walked by the old Children’s Place at 1722 Walnut Street where construction workers were erecting a “construction curtain” on the building where Gap’s Athleta is going to be located. The guys on the job said to look for a Halloween opening, which is kinda odd and out of season, well except for the Philadelphia Marathon on Nov 20, 2011
Across the street Lago’s is getting a facelift
Newman Galleries, rumor has it that Free People clothing store is opening on the first floor. No word on where Newman Galleries is really going, hopefully the second floor. Ill miss the art work in the window.
The construction worker on this site said he had no clue what was being built here on the 1600 block of Walnut Street,
but if he’s going to clean out the renovation debris one bucket at a time, it’s gonna be a long time before the project opens.
on 19th Street off of Rittenhouse Square and near Spruce Street, a hair salon, no massage parlor is opening.
The Shake Shack as previously been reported everywhere, has the liquor license up in the window at 20th & Sansom. The only business that vacated so far is Iluminire. Still left is the barber, shoe repair, adult book store and dry cleaners.
Around the corner on the 2000 block of Sansom Street the Print It is becoming a nail salon, cause we just don’t have enough of them.
And then a few doors down is the former Noble restaurant, that is now to become Stephen Starr’s 21st restaurant. OMG that is awesome. Oh and that reminds me.
I had lunch at a.kitchen with my friend Kayla on Monday. (I really should be at work, but it’s so beautiful out.) The food was Upper East side good, she said. I agree. It’s fine dining food, at a reasonable price if it were dinner, but it’s not going to appeal to everyone for lunch. 2 entrees, 2 ice teas, 1 dessert (goat cheese, salted ice cream and blueberries – very good), 2 coffees for a total of $47, $57 with tip. The good news, the dinner menu is almost the same with the same prices and that is a reasonable dinner.Feastival is coming, buy your tickets Here
Dancing With The Stars’ Karina Smirnoff joined Borgata in support of the property’s new wellness program, Borgata Healthy Choices, on Saturday, August 20, 2011, to teach 15 lucky associates her DWTS-inspired fitness class, “Shape Up with Karina”, at The Water Club’s Immersion Spa. Karina joined her father – New Jersey resident, Glenn Smirnoff – for dinner at Izakayathat evening, noshing on Michael Schulson’s Spicy Tuna Cracker and Edamame Dumplings, before heading to MIXX Nightclub where she hung out in the deejay booth with Miami Heat’s DJ Irie.
Also in town this weekend was pop sensation, Joe Jonas, who arrived on Friday, August 19th, to catch a performance by one of his favorite deejays, Kaskade, who was performing to a sold-out crowd in MIXX Nightclub. On Saturday, Joe enjoyed a massage at Immersion Spa before joining his group at Wolfgang Puck American Grille. Following dinner, the group headed over to mur.mur nightclub where Joe met up with L.A.’s DJ Politik before toasting his 22nd birthday with a tier of cupcakes by Borgata’s Executive Pastry Chef, Thaddeus DuBois.
(thanks to Borgata for this info & pixs)
Joe Jonas recently said they he’s still friends with his brother Nick’s ex- Selena Gomez, who you know was jut in Philly Thursday until Saturday with her next boyfriend Justin Bieber. Here’s my segment on Fox 29 Philadelphia Monday Morning chatting about their visit to Philly.
As a storm was brewing outside the Academy of Natural Sciences, a party was heating up inside celebrating Philadelphia Geeks at the First Annual Philadelphia Geek Awards.
What is a Geek I wondered, so I headed to Ask.com and ginasimpson answered: A geek is just another name for a nerd or a dork. It’s someone you might have teased in high school, but ultimately they ended up making the most money and bought stock in Microsoft years ago.
I discovered on Friday night that Geeks are curious, intuitive, quirky, fun, a close knit clan of friends who are more than willing to share ideas with the world through blogs, podcasts, websites, forums and twitter.
Since the essence of geekiness has been around for centuries what better place to hold the 1st Annual Philadelphia Geek Awards then at The Academy of Natural Sciences on the Parkway. Above presenter Sarah Baicker (#SPORTS!: Outstanding Achievement in Ludicrous Displays Last Night – Nominees: Bring Your A’s Game, Pennant, PhillieBot: Winner PhillieBot [next year Philliebot promises to get it over home plate, or at least to the plate.) and Kierstan Williams decked out for a good time.
Geeks were cool before Lady Gaga confirmed it: Jason Poole, Paul Colloman (Nominees: Mega Bad Movie Night (Academy of Natural Sciences),) and Jennifer Hall (http://www.phillyrawrblog.blogspot.com/)
Vinny Parrella, Allison Berger, Carly Latiss, and Lara Williamson. Geeks can wear sneakers and still look fly at a Black Tie.
They’d get the award for the cutest Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia couple. Mikey Il and Allie Harcharek
Michael Wilkins and presenter Anna Goldfarb of Shmitten Kitten, (No heads were bitten off after this picture was taken)
Steve Rivera and Jay Verdibello (Jay I think I have an idea about that 2nd job.)
Emily Ibarra and Lindsay Lewis
Stepping out: Christine Yoo and Oscar Phillips
Why didn’t I grab a camera bag full?
Padraic Maroney, Megan Smith, Brownstone PR (Megan is an MS Ambassador and tells me that on Tuesday Opa restaurant (1311 Samson) will be donating 10% of the proceeds of your check to her effort in raising $3,000 for MS) with Mr Philadelphia Al Lee, Indep Visitor Center Social Media guru.
Designer Aleksandra Svetlichnaya and Marshall Fleming.On with the show…
Welcoming, Introductory Remarks Geekadelphia Co-Founders Eric Smith & Tim Quirino
Geeks are not afraid of being fashion forward
or to show pictures of their pets in lieu of thank you’s: Annie Heckenberger of Outstanding Achievement in Geek / Techie Local PR & Social Media. (Annie Heckenberger and Matt Vlahos taught me everything I every needed to know on Twitter.)
Christopher Wink of Technically Philly presented the Outstanding Achievement in Geek Culture Journalism to Conrad Benner of Streets Dept (A photo blogger who captures the art of the City with a gentle soul.)
Collin Flatt – The Feast presents Best Geek Themed Noms & Beverages to Tom Kehoe, Yards Brewery & their concoction E=Mc Beered
Intermission: I predict that 2011 will finish out as the year of the Geeks, and push the foodie bloggers to the back of the burner.Doug Keith and Meghan Ross
Philly Geek Awards Prom King & Queen: Melissa Morris Ivone and Robert Ivone. Good Choice. Ya gotta go check out her FB page, she’s Molly Ringwold for the twenty second century.
Jo Anna of Geekadelphia after presenting Outstanding Achievement in Local Comic Art Award to Tony Trov & Johnny Zito
Matthew Vlahos, Vlahos PR photographs Outstanding Achievement in Appealing to Geeks in Arts & Culture winner Gerri Trooskin and Josette Hamerstone for Philadelphia Science Festival. Matt did an outstanding job in promoting the event.
Winner in oustanding Contribution to the Philly Indie Game Scene! Pulse (Cipher Prime), Kerry Gilbert and Dain Saint look on as co-winner, founder, worker William Stallwood does a Palance on the stage.
Oh then it was my turn to present an award: It’s hard to believe that I am now on TV, but still get stage fright when talking to large groups of people, but I am. I’ll tell you a secret, Fox 29 approached me a long time ago to appear on Good Day and I turned it down because of this situation, but I was more scared to present this award so within a week after Eric called me to present this award I took the job (mid-July). I thought it would be good practice. Let’s just say I’m better on TV; AND what I really wanted to say to all the nominees is: I shoot events 3 -4 times a week. I know how much work goes into these events, and you really all should be very proud of yourselves.
Best New Annual Local Event
Nominees: Mega Bad Movie Night (Academy of Natural Sciences), Philadelphia Tech Week (Technically Media), Philadelphia Science Festival (Various Institutions), Philadelphia Type-In
Best New Blog: Drink Philly, with an honorable mention going to Naked Philly. Speaking is the fox that runs Naked Philly. It’s apropo that these two are side by side on the stage under this award because after Naked Philly spills your secret on his blog, which is mostly about real estate and dirty little secrets behind the transactions, you’re gonna need a drink.
Actually my BF is a geek and he makes my life so much easier to be PhillyChitChat. PLUS we have a cool networking system in our house, and every gadget known to man.
(Watch me on Fox 29 Philadelphia Good Day on Monday for more stories and photos.)
This morning Disney star/singer Selena Gomez stopped by Center City KMart to promote her new clothing line “Dream Out Loud”Folks starting lining up as early as 9PM the night before for the 11AM meet and greet.
Like Nikki Bagonis, Zoe Protin and dad Del Protin from North Jersey. (They enjoyed natures light show Thursday night)
How cute Julia and Alexis Hagan with friend Lauren Carpenter. The girls stayed up all night making these cute shirts. Dad Christopher Hagan was happy to wake up early and bring the girls down by 5AM
fans
a line of about 500 Selena fans. They love the Beibs but it was all about Selena for them.
She was sweet. A little shocked that we knew that she was at Vetri for dinner last night. I thought it was a good idea I don’t mention I knew what movie they went too too. (This top is from her new collection. It’s adorable.)Here’s my coverage on PhillyMag about last night.Then a reader text me to say that Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were spotted near Rittenhouse Square around 18th Street. I had been at lunch at Rogues Gallery with a friend I hadn’t seen in about 3 years, we parted and I darted to the Square area. People around 18th & Chestnut were in a dither and I realized that the twosome must have passed by recently. I asked people and they pointed me in the direction. I got to the Shops at Liberty Place and asked some guy who was calling someone and had a big smile on his face, he said they went inside. WOW really. OK off I went. Girls were freaking out on the escalator they said he had just gotten off. They ran down then ran up behind me shrieking. I spotted them and said to the girls stop screaming you’re going to scare them. Are you a paparazzi they said, we want your picture. Later, then we spotted them as they were at Smoothie King ordering.
At first Selena, 19, and Justin, 17, were not very welcoming as they ordered at Smoothie King on the 2nd level. By this time a large crowd had arrived. I wish I had taken the shot of the crowd but I was a little worried for them and kept talking to them. Justin wanted me to just shoot Selena alone because he told me this is her big day. She’s promoting her new clothing line and has a concert tonight. I said I know I photographed her this morning, and I would make sure that my readers knew that she was in town to promote both of those events. (I did take a few shots of her alone at the Smoothie place, but did not put them here. In fact I also held back a few other great shots for my agency.) I actually asked them if they needed help with leaving. Justin said he goes here all the time and never had a problem before. (maybe that was before he had 12 million followers on Twitter and almost every tween has an account and phone.)
Finally I said to them let me get one of the security guards, you will not be able to leave safely with the 100 or so fans screaming your name and chasing youse. Finally a Shops at Liberty Place security guard did walk them back to their hotel, which they appreciated. The guard told me that when they walked through Rittenhouse Square it was mobbed with lots of tweens and peeps taking cell phone photos. Justin was wondering where how all the people knew they were there. (They probably thought I called them or something. Earlier he gave me a few good shots and asked if I would stop following them as maybe it wouldn’t draw such attention to him. I complied, but Justin you have 12 million twitter followers, I’m not the one drawing attention to you baby baby.) (See the huge crowd on the escalator)
BTW He ordered the Strawberry Hulk LARGE and it was $9.35 cause I had to have one. The Biebs is influential. When I left I tweeted my sighting, and a few fun things. Not fun: The two superstars arrived without any bodyguards, which is crazy and naive.
Selena Gomez is in town today to promote her new clothing line at KMart called: Dream Out Loud. She’s doing a meet or greet with fans at 11:30AM, but I would think if you are not there right now, then you are outta luck as she’s only signing for 100 people. She arrived Thursday with her boy toy Justin Bieber in tow. Last night they had dinner at Marc Vetri’s restaurant on Spruce Street, Vetri. After dinner they headed to Delaware Ave to catch a movie at Riverview, 30 Minutes or Less. The teens were home by midnight and tucked in bed. Selena also performs at the Mann Music Center tonight at 6PM.
Updated: Pixs and Story of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez as they take a walk around Philly & have smoothies at Shops of Liberty Place.
Greenhouseis coming to Philadelphia this winter. I heard about this project a few months back, and now I am happy to report it’s gonna happen (the ink is almost dry). It’s affiliated with the Greenhouse in New York, which is the First Eco-friendly Multi-functional event space, perfect for events & parties of all sizes, as well as a club, lounge, get away. It’s on the 700 block of Chestnut Street joining Union Trust, CHIFA, and Jone’s, and is located at 721 Chestnut Street. It will be very similar as the NYC and Florida Greenhouse concept, but with more of a Philly vibe cause the folks developing it are all local and are involved in other projects in the City that we already frequent.
Celebrity Sightings: Del Frisco’s was a revolving door of celebrity sightings last night. Nate Allen safety from the Eagles in. The next table had a mixed group with Bran Chamblee from the golf channel, former VP Dan Quayle who I hear loved the baked “POTATOE” and Vinnie Del Negro, former NBA player and head coach. We just walked in the big bopper, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard with a party of four but the one who trumps them all and arguably the best left handed pitcher to play the game Steve Carlton in the house with a party of seven. I on the otherhand was sighting a lot of locals along Rittenhouse Row Restaurant.
In these last few weeks of August come to an end, the streets of Philly seem a little less congestion with the neighbors eking out the last days of their vacations at some exotic place. One are that never seems to have a lack of people is the 18th Street Rittenhouse restaurant row where I ran into quite a few interesting people. At Rouge I spotted Sharon Pinkenson and Joe Weiss dining window side. Sharon tweeted two days ago. That “There is a silver lining.” I had heard rumors that Bradley Cooper was coming back to film something in the Fall, was that a hint about that movie? I put some thought into it and check Bradley’s IMDB and saw that he’s filming “The Silver Linings Playbook” with Robert DeNiro, Jennifer Lawrence and Barbara Hershey, who was in everyone’s favorite tearjerker movie with Bette Midler, in the Fall. So I’m going on record there will be Bradley Cooper sightings in Philly come this fall.
Also spotted were Charles and Elise Pizzi eating with Fred and Irene Schabel. Then I ran into Betsy and Holden Hummel. Betsy is the president of Rittenhouse Square. They’re also working on the graffiti problem, but she tells me that because the limestone, the limestone has to be physically removed and then taken to a service where they suck the paint out of the purist material. Look for the new lights and cameras to be installed giving the park an even safer feel, which might also deter vandalism. In October the Friends of Rittenhouse square are planning to through a Harvest Festival for the kids.Michael Spain Smith outside of Parc around Midnight last night.
Kristyn Aldrich, Shola Olunloyo and Monica Glass from 10 Arts, curbside at Parc.
Jill Rizen, Stacey Kracher and Liza Tedeschi doing a drive by at Devon where I was eating with Justin Wineburgh, Aly Green, and the usual suspects. They told me about Adrien Hardy spinning at Rogue Gallery and I was on my way with Kristyn and Monica. To my surprise I found Manny Romano and Adrien Hardy both spinning. I’m a big fan of both their music. I hadn’t been to the Rogues Gallery and what a mistake, it was nice, clean, and had a great atmosphere. No remanants of the scary TA Flannery’s which had been it’s previous incarnation. The one thought I had after leaving around 2AM, is there gonna need a bigger place, once this gem is discovered it’s gonna be packed most nights, and especially on the weekends. Co-owner Anthony Sembello tells me they have a full serve menu, and every night something is going on with an emphasis on dancing Wed – Saturday. They even have an ’80s night for my readers who keep asking me about a place for them. They do catering, a happy hour and have a late night menu too. Check them out at 11 S 21st Street. There’s a parking lot across the street.
Kesha at the Q102 Performance Theater yesterday with Joe McCollum of Clear Channel.
Dr. Oz is coming to Philadelphia September 12, 2011 on Fox 29 at 4PM. A producer from the show came to town yesterday and taped a few promos using Philadelphia folks dumping Dr Oz’s toxic 10 times. You have to tune in on 9/12 to see what those toxic items are. Above Julie Dorenbos and Fox 29’s Jen Frederick, who participated in the dumping. Dr. Oz is visiting several other cities in the country getting them to dump their toxins too.
At Rashada Siojo’s (on right) new salon, Siojo, 244 Race Street in the Old City, Roger Mudd was giving FREE Blow Out’s yesterday. I posted it on my FB and Nicole Paloux stopped in and took advantage of Roger’s expert talents. I was in Old City and randomly stopped by. Cute shop, really unique.
The following pixs were taken in Old City yesterday.
These are all over Old City
This looks like fun this weekend
The Painted Bride is getting a new window
Race Street Pier
One of my fav murals
Seriously does this house on Elfreth’s Ally have to look like it wasn’t painted in centuries
Interesting art near 3rd and Arch
I forgot to post Joselio Hanson’s cake the other night. Looks beautiful, but is it edible?
This guy bikes around Philly with a motorcycle helmet on. His wife has a matching helmet, but wasn’t with him on this day.
Illadelphia
Dinner
Pretty in Pink
The best falafel
Waiting for green light
Rittenhouse Square. See you tomorrow. Batten down the hatches.
