The wait is over Rumor Night Club Philly at 15th and Sansom St is now opened.
You’re probably not going to hear this song in the newest club that opened this past weekend in Philadelphia, Rumor the long awaited night club. The Emerald City of Trance.
Buzz started last year about a new exciting club opening in Philly by Atlantic City promoter Mark Marek, who opened and managed G Lounge about 5 years ago. Although his new club is also in the basement of a building, many of the comparison’s stop there, well except for one of my favorite bouncers manning the door.
In the past 5 years, VIP rooms, bottle service and NYC entrance fees have hit this City, but for that price you are whisked away for a few hours into a fantasy glamorous night of fun, dancing and friends. Now if you can afford the bottle service for the VIP room (The Vault) at Rumor, I say go for it. It is definitely the best one in the City by far. It’s beautiful, spacious, plenty of room to dance with your buds, or just a great place to get away from the crowd, because that’s what going on outside of this room. 
The full service bar in the VIP room. 
As you descend the stairs of the old Roy’s Restaurant building, you will be greeted by a welcoming pink light and what I would call the main bar, kinda social room, and the only area that has seating if you do not have bottle service. 
Even though the space was huge, by midnight it became packed as this is also where the entrance to the club is, and the entrance to the VIP lounge, and well everyone thinks they’re a VIP so it was a shit show with people dropping names trying to get in the exclusive hideaway. I can assure you at this club they will be reserving it for actual VIPS and Bottle Service folks. (See the huge doorman, that is the VIP Vault on right.)
Legendary club promoter Dan Contarino is making magic happen at Rumor these days. He’s got the golden touch and he’s a really nice guy.
The VIP Vault is an imposing piece of real estate in Rumor, and at some points if feels as if it squeezes the other rooms. On either side of the Vault between rooms you can find hallways like this, but it is also a welcomed relief that you can cruise a complete circle. This is the only club I can think of in Philly where you don’t have to walk through the dance floor to get to the other side, which is a good thing, well unless you liked getting groped which isn’t so bad either.
This is the pop 40, house music, dance floor or one as of the Cashman girls told me the NYC room vibe room. On the left is a nice sized dance floor, banquette and bottle service. There’s a bar at one end, and the DJ on the other. In between the two rooms is a long hall with about 12 bathrooms on either side. They are individual and monitored by a guy, so kids one person at a time, really.
The other dance room is my favorite, It’s the Trance, Global room where you will find the likes of legendary DJ’s Issac Jordan, Markus Schulz, Mark Knight and other favorites from the circuit spinning. Rumor is to become a destination spot for Trance, House, Techno, Electro, Dubstep, Breaks, and Drum & Bass festivals, gatherings and all out fun. 
Nothing in Philly comes close to this kind of genre of music, except maybe the Weiss brothers’ Voyeur in the Gayborhood. (I only wish Rumor’s was a little bigger.)
James Duggan, Alexa, Kate Beaver and Thom Cardwell
Julianne Martin and Kristie Gonzales. Haven’t seen Kristie since she left town to take a position at ABC in Fresno. She loves it out there. good to see her.
Mike Jerrick, Michelle Chyatte, and John Bolaris. Check out Mike and I on Fox 29’s Good Day on Monday for our recap of the weeks event. (I’m on Fox29 Good Day now, twice a week, chatting about who went where, what happened and what’s coming up.)
James Boney and Arielle Johnson. James and I will be hanging out with Mike Vick at G Lounge tonight. Every Sunday home game, Vick and friends have a celebration party at the club, even if they loose. “It’s only one game.” Someone recently told me.
Tim Nork, Carrie Nork Minelli, Chris and Tiffany Nork and Dino Minelli
Did I mention I left my note book at home? A whole bunch of fashionable people with Hacina Saadi and the always beautiful 6ABC’s Shirleen Allicot.
Above is the entrance to the club. When I went to leave last night I was directed to exit through a door that was “a fire exit”. I’m not sure if that’s normally the exit, but you definitely need to ask someone where it is as there are a lot of doors marked Fire Exit. Maybe it was just because last night was so packed they used it.
There is a guy standing there but it’s not marked specifically that it’s anything but the fire exit. The steps are really steeps, I see a lawsuit waiting to happen. Even though it’s common sense I would throw up some hold onto railing signs here warning peeps, especially the ones in super high stilettos that may have drunk their weight in Comos.
All in all Rumor is a welcome addition to the Philadelphia night club scene, especially having it in Center City. Usually you have to travel to Delaware Ave or to NYC to enjoy a club of this size. Get there early because I hear that because of the crowds Mark Marek closed the doors by 1AM both Friday and Saturday, which is a smart thing to do.
With lots of beautiful women. Finally Philly has an array of clubs to choose from, and they are all within walking distance. These days with the popularity of Philadelphia as a hot spot, the population of Center City rising there shouldn’t be any problem filling all the clubs.
About 1AM it was time for me to roll out of there because it was opening weekend the place was packed and I was curious how the other clubs were doing. It was a mob scene outside. 500 Degrees was packed, I felt sorry that Shank’s had left the area as the owner told me he was holding on til Rumor opened to catch that late night crowd, but I guess the wait was too long.
I walked down Sansom Street and the entire area had an electric excitement, even Agapios “Willy” Bouikidis’ 1518 Sansom St. has music at night (Great food too, and karaoke on Friday night he told me a few weeks back), Advice: Do NOT DRIVE DOWN SANSOM STREET if you want to get anywhere fast on a weekend night: See above video.
I checked out Whisper first. DJ Royale always packs them in and 
tonight was no different. There was a nice line outside, and a packed house inside. A huge birthday party complete with balloons and dancing girls could be seen up in the Boxed VIP lounge. Whisper has my favorite VIP lounge cause you can see the dance floor. Plus I love that they have a lot of seats (that aren’t bottle service) in the balcony area for my tired ass to sit on and mingle.
I headed over to G Lounge. They too had a crowd, maybe it wasn’t the crowd that ushered in the NYC 6th Boro feel 5 years ago (When I wrote that I had just returned from NYC and got so much grief from it.), but it’s a crowd that spends money. I know I have pleaded this before for a club to do a Polyester, oldies, 80’s club, and G Lounge is where I would love to see Jerry Blavet come in weekly and do a party, maybe on a Friday night, maybe once a month. My baby boomer readers, and XY Generation are looking for a place to groove. Although if any of the other clubs would like to step up to the plate and fulfill that wish one night a week, maybe an off night like Wed or Sunday that would be great.
I didn’t include Recess in this assessment because that club is a different genre tucked away in Old City. I love Recess, it’s a different vibe, it’s like going to Cheers, everyone knows your name, the music is always top notch, you can party til dawn (open til 3:30AM), you can be dancing next to John Clark, Bam Margera, GN Kang, John Doe and Jason Thompson and there is no pretense; it’s exclusive and intimate by virtue of it’s size, and best of all there’s a parking garage above it.
Walking back to my car I ran into OPA restaurant to say hi to my buds, owners George and Vasiliki Tsiouris. I ran into a long time PhillyChitChat reader, Lindsay. You know if you tell me you’re a reader, then I’m gonna wanna put your pix on PCC. Sam Milarofsky, Yemi Bello, Lindsay christian and Billy Feingold. Sam and I are going to The SoCo Fiery Pepper Grand Launch Party at Ladder 15 on Wednesday. You wanna go? Check it out here. Tell em PhillyChitChat sent you, if you can remember.
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=228832667165942
Wayne Bowman & Mr Philly Gay Calender Ric Andujar
The contest was broken up into three parts, with entertainment in between segments. The University of the Arts Dancer’s were amazing
Then the contestants were introduced. Jason Brown representing Matthew Izzo clothing store and hair salon.
Here is Ken Medley doing his best tribute to Bernie Mac
Dennis Kinney represents STIR Philadelphia. 
Matt Vlahos says if Derek’s a trainer, he will be switching his membership because he wants that body, er he want’s his body to look like his body.
You will see more Speedo bikini swimsuit swimwear in the next few photos than on any other beach besides Rehoboth Beach “Poodle Beach” Here’s Matthew Maguire in his Speedos;
Ric Andujar representing 
I was backstage when Steve McCann of 
One of Philadelphia’s most dynamic performers, Marisa K. Devine, is performed at the event. The performance featured an exquisite set design, Asian themed resplendent costumes,
The judges hard at work
At one point Brittney Lyn played I’ll show you mine if you show me yours…
His 15 Minutes of fame begins NOW. Here three of his new fans want to pose with him, David . writer Gary Kramer, and director Robert Gaston, who should probably get Johnny’s infor and cast him in his next film.
Congratulations to John Caputo Mr Gay Philadelphia 2008
and Benny Andersson (orginal members of ABBA); she had an idea to produce a play using ABBA songs, as she was a huge fan and knew there was a story that could be weaved around these songs. Björn and Benny were nervous, they were very protective of their work, soon their fears were put to rest.
She commission Catherine Johnson to write a screenplay about love, loss and triumph. When the script was finished tapped Phyllida Lloyd to direct the piece. Three strong women were behind the success of this musical about three strong women. Mama Mia opened on April 6th 1999 at prestigious Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End. October 2001 heralded the Broadway premiere at The Winter Garden Theatre. And it was at that time that I saw the musical, it was just the life that NYC needed after the tragedy that befell the City the month before. – A few months back I photographed the Lincoln Center Salutes Meryl Streep event. At the time I had no idea who this bloke was, but now that I have seen the movie I know why he was at the event. Actor Stellan Skarsgard [Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has sent wedding invitations to the three men who might be her dad: Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), Sam (Pierce Brosnan) and Harry (Colin Firth)]
Meryl Streep seems to channel her inner silliness; hitting every note effortlessly, with an appealingly light pop voice, she prances through the movie as if ever-so-slightly tipsy. She twists her lines into appealing little knots, and does a bit of comic business involving a cordless drill that’s almost a movie in itself, and this is why the film is so great, it’s not to be taken seriously, it’s trivial, fun, lighthearted and totally Streep. And when was the last time you heard an audience clap at the end of a song in a movie, ok that’s right Dreamgirls, well they did it tonight too, but I’m not going to tell you which song, you will just have to see it for yourself.
The downside of the movie: OK, let’s get this out of the way: Streep is 20 years too old for this role. Any attempt to put the characters’ histories into a coherent time frame will result in a splitting headache and I did spend a good part of the movie trying to figure out what age Meryl is supposed to be, finally the daughter states her age and I thought, THAT’S RIGHT!! This is a movie and we are supposed to suspend our sense of reality. My advice: Just roll with it.
But then again Meryl’s real daughter Mamie Gummer born 8/3/1983, so it could happen? Sassy little thing isn’t she. Here she is at the Film Society event I mentioned, it was in April 2008
One more downside, Pierce Bronson was miscast, but who cares, he’s so handsome. Ironically one of the songs he sings is SOS, and I just wanted to laugh when he sang that line.
but I could see that in a few hours kids of all ages would enjoy lots of things to do and
eat
do
listen and dance 
but as I made my way down the Parkway I saw something new this year
it was NBA on the Parkway?? It is a new day, where did that come from, was it on the schedule? I’ll look… “What’s more, the NBA Nation Presented by SPRITE tour bus will roll into Philly with interactive games, videos of the 50 greatest NBA plays and other hands-on activities. ” Yep there it was, as part of the Fiesta on the Parkway. Guess they weren’t going for any world record line dances this year, but these kids were breakdancing, do they still call it that?
Breaking News: Here’s the new 2008, new administration logo on which the parade participants will stop and perform tonight. Gosh I hope it doesn’t rain again this year.
Here’s the Will Smith family now. Mom Jada Pinka-Smith (Looking hot) watches over Willow and son Jaden as the get “lit up”. (Interesting the daughter is named Willow (after day Will Smith), son named Jaden (after mom Jada Pinka-Smith) born July 8, 1998
Austin Macdonald: Born July,17,1995 greets his fans
The Smith Family again
Abigail, you know the little girl from “Little Miss Sunshine”, she also starred in Charlotte’s Web where coinkinky Julia Roberts was the spider, Charlotte. Connections, it’s all about who you know. Across the street you can see the fans who have lined up to see a glimpse of a few celebrities. If you want to see a good premiere coming up check out Mama Mia with Meryl Streep on 7/16 at the Ziegfeld in NYC.
” Farmer’s Walk – Competitors carry heavy objects weighing from 275-400 lbs in each hand for a set distance, and compete for the fastest time. A variation involves use of a heavy frame with parallel handles” In this instance this contraption weighed 800lbs. Gerard Benderoth
Gerard Benderoth, Philadelphia City Hall and the World Flags along Ben Franklin Parkway. The flags represent countries that are members of the United Nation.
Phil Pfister, who was the Met-Rx World’s Strongest Man in 2006.
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