Philly Chit Chat

Something Wicked comes our way…

A ‘Wicked’ party was held Wednesday on the steps of the Academy of Music with the cast members of Wicked as they celebrated of the musical’s 1,000th performance on tour
Left to Right above: LESLIE BECKER (Midwife, u/s Madame Morrible) ; original tour company cast members: BARBARA TIRRELL (Madame Morrible). and TERRA LYNN ARRINGTON (Ensemble); TOM FLYNN (Dr. Dillamond), and BRAD WEINSTOCK (Boq). In the back is Steve Quinn, Company Manager.

Leslie Becker told me a funny story that occured the very first night of the Wicked tour last year when it played the Academy of Music for the first time; (SPOILER ALERT) as Glinda floated down in the bubble it blew the fuse on the electricity and the stage went dark. The old girl just couldn’t handle the wattage of Wicked and it’s magic. After a maintenance break, a few adjustments, the show went on and the Academy’s electricity never failed again. It has been the only glitch the show has ever experienced in Philly and they of course told me that the Philly audience was the best, giving them a standing ovation every night.

BARBARA TIRRELL and TERRA ARRINGTON sign autographs for their young fansIf you haven’t seen Wicked yet, pick up the phone, or click here http://www.wickedthemusicaltour.com/ and GO SEE IT, (I must confess, I have seen it FIVE times)

A Wicked time on Broadway err I mean Broad Street…

If you have a minute, you really outta read some of the comments left by the Def Leppard fans on my Monday posting. They are as loyal and tenacious as those Claymates that gave me an ear whipping a few weeks back!

On my way home from work I thought I would run by the local “celebrity” hotel to see if Mark Wahlberg was staying there while filming his new movie in town. When I walked up to an appropriate spot to wait for Mark I ran into an “autograph collector” that I met a few weeks back at another event, so I knew I was in the right place. After a bit of time some scraggly old man got out of his driven town car with some golf clubs. As the doorman help him take his golf clubs out of the trunk, the surprised “collector” ID’d him as Rick Savage, the bassist from Def Leppard. In actuality he’s really not that old considering he was born in 1960, but apparantly has lived a hard life. I read that he’s been sober for a few years, and now
he golfs in between gigs. About 10 minutes later the lead singer Joe Elliott (thanks for the correction Admin of http://www.defleppardsol.com) strolled out of Rittenhouse Square with his wife and walked towards the hotel. Now again I had no idea who he was, thankfully the “dealers” did and called out his name, he turned and I shot this, foolishly, I didn’t bother running up and asking for a better photo as I really didn’t know who he was and truthfully I’ve become a lazy paparazzi during these dog days of Summer.It was just as well one of the “collectors”, was a big fan, and did go up and ask for a ‘graph and a photo “with”, Elliott signed for him, but refused to pose saying he “looked like shit.” But I do know one thing…after playing at Hershey Park, PA on Sunday, Def Leppard chose to stay in PHILLY over NYC, which is only 33 miles south of their next gig tonight at Jones Beach (with Foreigner/Styx) ), Long Island NY (NATCH!!)

Just Added!
Senator Joseph Biden
Promises to Keep
Monday, August 27 (12 noon) FREE

Let’s see who can make it over to the library for a noon book reading… the employees of Family Court, the homeless hanging in the Shakespeare Park and I guess the folks who drive in from the suburbs who work at Logan Square. OK I am just jealous, I can’t make it in on my lunch hour to hear him put his foot in his mouth, like I know he will! Would it have been to hard for him to come up for a night time reading?

Yesterday I recieved this email from a friend visiting Philly: I am working on “The Happening” this Monday at 30th st station. This is the M. Night Shyamalan film with Mark Wahlberg. Over the next couple weeks they’ll be filming throughout the City. I will keep you posted.

I hope to run over at lunch and catch the happening filming somewhere in 30th Street Station

Really, c’mon this had to be discussed before. Some of you may know that I just moved back to Philly after being in NYC on a business trip for 18 months. While I was away Tivioli opened. I google “Tivoli an ugly ass building”. Nothing came up, but someone must have noticed? I mean really they have three competing brick color schemes. WHY was it necessary to add the light brown one on the top floor? Do people want to live near Center City that much that they would live in an ugly building?

The demure, but beaming Laura arrives at Twenty-21 where her birthday celebration begins A stellar group of her closest friends were there to celebrate another successful year well lived. (pictured here are really some of the mover and shakers of Philadelphia. Lft to right James Zeleniak of Punch Media PR; yikes, yikes, Birthday Girl Laura Burkhardt (Publisher of Philadelphia’s WHERE magazine); Thom Cardwell; Jeff, Carrie Nork, Cashman & Associates; yikes, Dennis & Steve, owners of Tavern on Camac; David Wagman, owner of Capriccio; James Duggan, BUCKmonkey, and Steve McCann http://www.phillygaycalendar.com/
The pastry chef at Twenty-21, the GM and Laura Burkhardt
After a few cocktails, and cake, it was off to the Park Hyatt for the Afterparty
and more cocktails and merriment
Surprise guest, Jesse Archer from the movie “Four Letter Word”, plus noted author of “You Can Run: Gay, Glam, and Gritty Travels in South America (Out in the World)” who has a reading TONIGHT at Giovanni’s Room 5:30PM!!! (Giovanni’s Room is located @ 345 South 12th Street, Philadelphia) Don’t ask about that banana I have no idea!!

Then it was up to XIX for a few more cocktails and merriment and more people met us there
That’s all they really want ~~ Some fun When the working day is done Girls ~~ they want to have fun Oh girls just want to have fun, They want to have fun, They want to have fun…
Laura Burkhardt, Matt Miller, Jesse Archer, hmm Philly Pops GM, Victor Castro and coming through the door EmyLaMarco. It was so much fun to be a part of Laura’s birthday celebration, she is a generous women who really cherishes her friends, and who’s friends adore her.As the clock struck midnight it was just our luck, that Matt Miller, owns one of my favorite pizza places, put in a few pie orders to satisfy our taste buds. To just call it a pizza place is really an understatement, it really is a restaurant that serves pizza, the best pizza in town – www.myspace.com/13thstreetpizza. Helping to pass out the pizza’s is JD Coleates, owner of Triumph Brewing Company and Jeff who is cute and studying Sports Medicine and is single and available.After a few cocktails he confessed that one of his secret ingredients in his pizza: “IT’s in the cheese, I use ‘Grande Cheese’ and almost no other place does. It’s expensive at about $2.00 a pound, but it really makes a difference” and he’s right it does. (he only uses local produce too) Did I mention that he has a chef on the premise that creates other signature dishes. OK I am gushing, sorry, but when I find a quality product I really do want others to enjoy in my finds. (But don’t take my word for it, after a google search: http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=750) Look out in future for another Matt Miller production as their is another foodie place that he will be opening on 13th Street.

Remember years ago when City Hall was ensconced in scaffolding so that William Penn and its tower could be waterproofed. (Taking the button literally, the City appeased us by taking the scaffolding off William Penn, but we still had to endure another couple years with the tower being encased)Well Twenty Years sure goes by fast and it’s that time again. This time though, only William Penn will be undergoing the waterproofing and will be scaffolded; And once again tourist will be forced to return to their hometowns with stories and photos our beautiful building wrapped in metal and wood. The dirty deed is set to begin in about 12 days on August 20.Although the outside observation tower will be closed, the inside observation tower will be opened. Do you see the portholes about 20 feet from the bottom of the observation deck, that will be the cramped quarters for the view? No word on discount ticket prices for the scaled back viewing area. You think they could have waited until tourist season was over or how about before they started charging money to visit the observation tower? So hurry, with your friends, family and Aunt Mary, and visit RM 121 for your timed $5 ticket to see the view from the outside unobstructed observation tower and grab your cameras to get that virgin shot of William Penn atop of City Hall
before it’s too late and they begin this again

Why didn’t they do William Penn at the same time as when they did the Swedish and Indian Figures?Tourist one: “I was in Philadelphia this summer, and visited the magnificent City Hall. The only problem was part of the building was enscounced in scaffolding.” Tourist two “I was in Philly 5 years ago and went to City Hall, the building was amazing, the tours were free, but the building was in scaffolding.” Some things never change.The curse of William Penn doesn’t always have to do with our sports teams! Can I blame this on John Street somehow?
I hear the project should only take 30 days. How many of us really believe that?

see update to this story at: http://www.phillychitchat.com/william-penn-is-not-getting-wax-job-yet_30/