Philly Chit Chat

I know this doesn’t have anything to do with Philly, but it has something to do with me and I’m from Philly. And I know can I get any lazier. I just copied and pasted my entry from my other blog Confessions of a Paparazzi for today and pasted it here. But I am really excited that I will be covering this event. It’s not easy getting approved to shoot Fashion Week, you have to reach a certain level of reliability in getting published. I was turned down last season. I was still planning to go to NYC to cover the festivities, I was just going to shoot it from outside in the cold and wet weather. In fact it’s supposed to snow 2/2 & 2/3 in NYC.

DISCOVER A NEW YOU IN THE NEW YEAR AT THE CITY FITNESS HEALTH FAIR Guests will enjoy fun activities, healthy snacks, cool giveaways and prizes! WHO: City Fitness, Northern Liberties newest full-scale gymnasium, is hosting the City Fitness Health Fair with guest host Blaire Galaton from the Booker Show! Special guests Ace DJs & Social Entertainment, Baby Boot Camp, Back on My Feet, Body Blendz Zone, City of Hope, Dr. Smith’s Footcare, Fuze Beverages, Get There From Here, Kildare’s, Las Cazuelas, My Touch of Healing, Riverside Rehab, the Red Cross, Nurse Partners, Triune and more are scheduled to attend! City Fitness trainers and an in-house nutritionist will be on premise to provide fitness counseling and dietary support. WHAT: The City Fitness Health Fair is a free, public event for all ages and levels of fitness. Bring friends and family to learn expert tips on staying healthy in 2008. Activities include massages by Triune and Riverside Rehab; healthy cooking demonstrations by Kildare’s and Las Cazuelas; health screenings by Nurses Partners and City Fitness; Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy by My Touch of Healing; yoga demonstrations and cardio classes for kids by City Fitness; and more. Body Blendz Zone and Fuze Beverages will provide freshly squeezed fruit juices, delicious smoothies and vitamin-packed beverages. WHERE: CITY FITNESS 200 Spring Garden Street Philadelphia, PA 19123 215.923.4114 WHEN: Saturday, January 19, 2008 11 AM to 3 PM Fitness will offer a membership discount of no money down and $59.99 a month starting in March.

First the Drudge Report posts this on it’s site at 3PM Wednesday. I shuddered I guess the rest of the country believed what they read in Travel & Leisure Magazine about the ugly, crazy people who live in our fair city.On the bright side Philly likes watching Philly and they tuned in in record numbers Fox is still pleased with the numbers, but will they come back next year?

I was walking by the Packard Building, er I mean Grande the other day, and I noticed the familiar orange application.
I guess I missed the notice about the House of Blues not going into this space as the application states that Del Frisco’s is instead. It is a great space, but how many steak places can Center City, specifically the Broad and Chestnut area support? There’s already Capital Grill, Ted’s Montana, The Grill, Smith & Wollensky and my favorite place
Fago de Chao. Which I might add should lower it’s salad bar price, currently at $20, and start a advertisement campaign directed at women. The reason: Not only is the salad bar delicious, but last week when I was there, there was about 120 people at 1PM, 100 were men. It’s better than moving to Alaska to find an eligible guy.

A friend in NYC tipped me off to the Ozzy coming to town and told me he would be staying at the Ritz. Sure enough after work yesterday I passed by and saw the motley crew of “autograzzi” standing by the side door where the Ozzy bus was parked. Not surprisingly when I arrived the crew refused to tell me anything, although they asked me if I was a “Fan”. No I replied. “A paparazzi.” “Yep, but I don’t jump out of bushes and I usually ask before I shoot.” After about an hour wait, Ozzy’s bodyguard came out. Had us all line up, and then said no video, no excessive photographing. A minute later he led Ozzy out, telling us that Ozzy would be right back, no video’s no flash photography. Ozzy looked very frail, kept his head down most of the time, but if I wanted to I could have gone in low and shot him, but I just didn’t feel it and I knew that it could ruin it for the dealers if I hosed him down with flashes. Ozzy got in the bus, and we waited outside. I thought maybe he was going to come back out, but what he did was send his bodyguard out and retrieve the items to be signed. Which is great, because when an item is signed in a controlled area the ‘graph comes out much better. The guys asked me why I didn’t hose him down (Photograph him), and I told them if I did that there would have been a good chance I would have frazzled him and he wouldn’t have signed for them. They agreed, and said most guys would have just shot anyway, but they really appreciated me passing on him. Then they showed me some of the things they got signed. This is a drum head, it’s worth between $150 – $300. One of the guys got a guitar signed. The guitar cost $60 for the dealer, but after it’s signed it sells between $400 – $700. Ozzy appreciates it when someone brings the whole guitar to sign, he signs his full name “Jack Osbourne” The dealer told me he’s gonna keep it for an investment ie until Ozzy dies. When a dealer only brings the face plate to sign. He only signs the place Ozzy Osbourne, like this one that I found on EBay. The faceplate is later attached to the guitar. This one will sell between $200 – $500 I guess as a pity prize the dealers showed me pictures and told me stories of Zakk Wylde, guitarist for Ozzy, who they saw earlier exiting from Capital Grill around 3PM. He was toasted and friendly they said. He posed with each of them, at least twice changing his pose. Gave them all hugs and kissed them on the cheek. (Isn’t that the universal sign for a hit?) Unfortunately for me he left the hotel about 4:30PM, before I had made it over to the Ritz, but when he left he posed and signed some more. All in all the dealers had an excellent payday, HughE not so good:(