Philly Chit Chat

Who were these folks waiting for on Saturday at a mall 20 miles north of Philadelphia in Langhorne, PA If I said she was a living doll, and recently on TV danced as a living doll could you guess
she’s a little bit country (and has an interesting black dot next to her left eye, could you explain that?)her PR sign needs to be updated too, she’s about 30lbs lighter than this photo Here’s Marie Osmond and her “twin” assistant Susie greeting some of the folks who waited up to 6 hrs to get their Marie Osmond dolls signed at the Boscov’s at the Oxford Valley Mall
The crowd awaits their turn, men, women and children waited patientlyAlthough I held back some of the best shots for media publication, here’s a nice side shot of Marie who at 48 is hot, I mean a really hot cougar, a mama of EIGHT and sincerely a nice women. She told me honey, if you want a better shot why don’t you come up on stage with me and take a few. I didn’t have to be asked twice!!Marie said she lost about 30lbs doing Dancing with the Stars and highly recomends itI think this guy was confused and thought she was doing a DOG Signing. Marie insisted at standing and signing her dolls, she even posed with every single fan who wanted to. Can I tell you that is not something many celebrities will do at a signing, it was really amazing. Have I ever mentioned what a bitch Rachel Ray was/is. http://hughe2030.blogspot.com/2006/12/celebrity-sightings-continue-in.html . RR in Philly would only pose with a few kids (like they really watch her show and buy cookbooks, I’m not bitter, ok maybe a little). OK back to Marie Osmond, a real CLASS ACT!! Marie have you thought about writing a cook book?

Oh yeah, and you know what, Susie’s job was to take the fan’s camera and shoot their photos with Marie, and then Marie would stand up and pose for them too!!

I always wondered what a Vango was like when I often stopped by Sue’s for some produce. Last Tuesday I found out as I attended a social event aboce the orange sign.

The event was held upstairs in the lounge. I thought the entrance way was cool with the wallpaper of vodka bottles
and the orange glow of the unique chandelier on the lounge level you can still sit down and have a bite to eat
and at the bar you can smoke? I asked someone why and they said because their liquor sales were higher than their food sales. Hmm sounds funny to me. I had a few nibblings and the food seemed good, people seemed happy with their drinks, but I guess if what you are looking for is a cool place to drink and smoke, Vango’s might just be the spot. I hear they have a cool deck where you can lie on a bed and look at the stars in the warmer weather.

I photographed her last Friday night attending a private screening at the Tribeca Grand in NYC. What’s that on her left hand, does she have carpel tunnel from making all those license plates in the slammer? all these photos were ones i took: http://socialitelife.buzznet.com/2008/02/01/lil_kim_is_a_vision_in_green.php

Remember back in November when I posted about the “Zoning Signs” going up on the PNB building and mentioning that the new wording would be “Wachovia” on two sides of the tower top, and the Wachovia logo on the other two sides, well I was wrong or they changed their minds. (See http://phillyskyline.com/archive_0710.htm on the issue with much better graphics that I could ever do)

Well rumor has it that things have changed drastically since that entry, and it has gone from bad to worse.They are going to wrap the bell tower part of the building like a SEPTA bus. Now instead of replacing the PNB letters with “Wachovia” and it’s logo on all four sides, the tower structure will be “wrapped” in the “Wachovia” logo with a SKRIM. Folks you will no longer be able to see the Founder’s Bell, which is the world’s largest ringing bell. You will still be able to hear the bell, as the material is pourous. I thought how can this be, isn’t the building designated historic. I found out that according to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places: (2000) only the Founders Memorial Bell is designated as Historic, not the building. (This Photo: tsmyther )

Since they aren’t touching the bell maybe that’s why they think it’s ok to just wrap the bell tower in an advertisement. What are they thinking? Now the Wachovia sign will be placed below the tower on a ledge. At night only the Wachovia sign will be lit. The PNB lettering will be removed at a huge cost, in the Spring. That’s the reason for the two year delay since the first “Zoning Notice” was put up in 2005; without getting into specifics, it had to be determined who owned the sign and who was going to foot the enormous bill to remove it. There was a verdict, but I don’t know if the info is priviledge or not so I am not going to divulge that information. And to make matters even worse I hear they are just trashing the letters, I guess someone needs to get the scrap mental funds, but couldn’t they just offer the 26 ft high, 13 foot wide letters to anyone? How about a “P” can’t anyone use a “P”?

This is my last entry for the week as I will be in NYC photographing celebrities at Fashion Week. http://www.confessionsofapaparazzi.com/ follow along.