icepack

by A.D. Amorosi

Let’s start 2004 anew. The Iggles host Green Bay, which means y’all need to run and figure out where Brett Favre and Al Harris eat. A pool is going in atop Stephen Starr’s four-story Continental 2, to the applause of Rittenhouse area business owners. Those Blackhaus schnapps billboards are down (a misleading ad campaign led consumers to think they were being sold a band, not a drink). Who thought a German punk act held appeal for any demographic, anyway? After hosting an LGBT gala with Patti LaBelle and Ed Rendell at The William Way Center, Mayor John Street’s campaign committee took $5,000 per couple for an inaugural dinner. And I heard a remix of Chubby Checker’s "Limbo Rock," which means regga-hop is officially over. Nothing is new. Dag.Ö I’ll tell you what’s new: Many months ago, I asked Loie/Lucy’s Avram Hornik about Snow White restaurant at 19th and Chestnut, when he was spotted scoping it out. I asked if he was planning a new restaubar (I knew he wasn’t there to eat). His company peeps denied it. So it’s funny that now, Hornik is reportedly putting his Argentina Grill above the diner. A new name and a new space are in store for Manayunk’s Grape Street Pub. Its owners, Joseph Cahill and Robert Coyle, are moving GSP (now Grape Street Philadelphia), into a bigger, newer entertainment complex. GSP relocates from its old spot to the four-story, 7,000-square-feet-per-floor building at 4100 Main St., a former textile mill. GSP’s first few floors will split into lounges, DJ rooms, acoustic stages and bigger rock-out rooms, while the other floors will house a full-service, one-stop maze of music-biz offices like Discmakers, Impact Artist Promotions and GSP’s own production/management jawn (as well as the offices of concert promoter Jack Utsick). Yeah, but can you bring those buffalo wings from floor one to floor four?Ö When I wasn’t looking, Liz Lixx’s Thee Minks dropped Songs About Boys on Steel Cage.Ö When you weren’t looking, Drexel’s MAD Dragon Records -- the label/studio/industry program I talked up last spring -- got the cover of CMJ. The CMJ news caps off a banner year for MAD Dean Jonathan Estrin, who also brought fashion professor Emil De John into the Drexel fold. Speaking of De John, his lecture series featuring top Manhattan industry folks is a bit hit, and it’s rumored that De John will bring a whole crowd in for a spring ’04 party to be titled "Hollywood to Philly."Ö Undergirl scoped by Interscope and Sympathy for the Record Industry, Pepper's Ghost by Hybrid/A&M?Ö Lawyer couple Sally Mattison and Bernie Resnick’s Philly clients have a lot to celebrate as ’04 begins: Jae Staxx snagged the music supervisor gig on Eve’s TV show, Timbaland’s bro, Sebastian, got a song, "Take Off," in the Sony flick You Got Served and Trina, an Atlantic artist repped by Kevon Glickman, is on TVT’s Crunk & Disorderly. The duo also now rep reggae icon Beenie Man, who’s on Missy Elliott’s "Don’t Be Cruel."Ö While B2K announced their breakup to Power 99’s HotBoyz after playing Philly during the holidays, Eric Wareheim’s SOLA played their "final rock event ever" at Tritone, with Wareheim leaving for sunny L.A. at the end of January. What will become of his comic duo, Tim and Eric? Could they have finally hooked up with their old friends at Mr. Show and the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim? Stay tuned.Ö WhoWhatWhere: Teri Hatcher mixed vodka and champagne with cousin Steve Snyder at 32°. Talking head Gary Papa hit Bar Noir for New Year’s Eve.Ö Philadelphonic Jam Session’s "West Side Sessions" start a Thursday weekly Jan. 8 at Mill Creek.Ö MilkBoy Studios’ Tommy Joyner and Jeff Dernlan of Manayunk Music Exchange join Bruce Reinfeld’s Polar Creep. Catch their debut at The Khyber, Jan. 8.Ö Chaddsford Winery’s Mark Cochard received the Wine and Spirits Education Trust’s fourth-level degree diploma in wine and spirits. This puts him one step away from Master of Wine.Ö After wowing habitués of Camden’s Sixth Street Lounge, Kameelah Waheed & Gov't Cheese hit The Khyber Jan. 11 with their rock-funk frenetics.Ö Dena Marchiony and Stu Shames celebrate the first anniversary of the Philadelphia Songwriters Project, Jan. 8 at N. 3rd, and with Jan. 11’s monthly at the Adrienne featuring Amber deLaurentis (in from Vermont), Mutlu, Nancy Falkow and Helen Leicht.Ö Condolences to family and friends of John Rambo, the promoter behind Ulana’s 13th Child parties and a pal to the perf-art and goth communities, who died in a car accident in Cherry Hill. While friends at Bar Noir’s Sex Hero/"Punk-Funk" event and North Star’s Carfax Abbey gig mourned his passing, a wake for Rambo will be held Jan. 10 at Ulana’s (for information visit