Icepack

Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.

by A.D. Amorosi

Look. It's Thanksgiving, right? There're turkeys to be fried, parents to be run from and a tryptophan haze to be avoided by any means necessary. This is no time for fighting. I keep two bottles of Chianti in both holsters to keep that message of peace afloat. And now that the Fairmount Park commishes decided to reconvene next week to reconnoiter on who gets Belmont Plateau for their big summery show-dom — Philly's EFC or Texas' Three Charlies' C3 Presents — I would like to sing a tune made famous by my pal and yours, George Strait. "All my exes live in Texas/ Texas is a place I'd dearly love to be/ But all my exes live in Texas/ And that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee." Fairmount Park pres Bob Nix: Let my country song guide your wise decision.

► With last week's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah/Black Stoltzfus show and Dec. 3's Peanut Butter Wolf/Madlib gig, we would like to welcome back Philip Chan's Starlight Ballroom/Club Polaris to the land of the living concert venue. Funny how a little murder outside the club could close it down for so long. I can't imagine any other club being told to shut down for a month for the same reason. If murder made closing a necessity, L&I woulda shuttered the whole town starting Jan. 2, 2006. That said, R5's first Punk Rock Flea Market happens Dec. 16 at the Starlight. Buy Chan a Christmas ornament.

► Hold onto to your capicola. Rumors that Gavone's — 10th and Wolf's snappiest tap room and hot saaauseege house — has closed are further fueled by the fact their phones got disconnected. Sad if it's true.

► Eric Vincent is having a good month. Not only has the Westin Philadelphia decided to extend his Wednesday "Sessions" into every Friday night as well — filling its lobby bar with singing/talking heads like Adrienne Hamilton and Michael Fitch — but Vincent's Curve Dominant Studio Last Monday monthly with Anam Owili-Eger has a new rhythm section (Come Dionysus') that he'll show off Nov. 26. Nicole Porter Wilcox will bring her vocal chords to Vincent's monthly jam as well as her own giddy electro trio the Jill Rabbits and the debut of her demon side project, Shevil. Spooky.

► We're hearing that the same Random House editors that made Tom Brokaw's book go Boom! have taken on Fox 29's Gerald Kolpan's bawdy Random/Ballantine book of historical fiction, Etta (the Sundance Kid's bitch, Etta Place) and that ICM is looking to make big bank on Kolpan. Hence the big-ticket editors, bits of rewrite and a spring '08 date maybe.

► Brittany Lynn might've been dragged from Shampoo. But her ass (and DJ Maria V's) is all over Sundays weekly Disco Bowl at Lucky Strike Drag Mafia doing the double-bump at Pure every Friday.

► Eeeevil house DJs are jumping mad. At least trancehouse head DJ MG is. "I'm tired and angry that I live in a city that used to love house music." Where did those kids go? He doesn't care. He wants you to experience his Anthrum Recordings and his Disco Circus nights — like the Anthrum Thanks-U bash he's doing at South Street's L2 Nov. 21 and if only three people show, he wants you to say, "Hey that was an amazing party." Then there's CP's Dev 79 who's not only beating Vango to a Blue Monday beat on said day — he's offering previews to the frantic baile funk "Heat Reasons" track he did with MC Edu K (zshare.net/audio/4765403517c492/). The actual Amazon/iTunes-available track is a split digital single with Starkey's "This Time Last Night." Get 'er dun.

► Food vets hot 'n' cold: Is Stephen Starr considering swanky Indian fare for spring '08's re-dux of Washington Square? If La Colombe's Todd Carmichael's running to explore the Antarctic (for good cups of joe? To save the globe?), what's wife/singer Lauren Hart doing the whole icy time? She ain't donning snowshoes.

Academy of Natural Sciences: Family Four-Pack of Tickets | Mango Moon | Prive | Bliss | Raw Dawgs Saloon | Cream and Sugar | S & H Kebab House | Cafe Nola | Copabanana | Hollywood Tans: $50 for $25

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

 

► WHOWHATWHERE: Who picked up the check when Michael Nutter brought Chuck Ramsey to Capital Grille, you know what with both guys on hold with new jobs? Money, old 'n' new, was in abundance when the Lenfests, the Biddles and the Shecters hit the Wellness Community of Philly's fashion show/luncheon with REQUIEM designers Raffaele Borriello and Julien Desselle at the home of Michelle Ball. Jay McCarroll hosted NSquared's "Gorgeous" fashion show Friday at the Park Hyatt. Week before that he was at Collab's gallery opening. Doesn't he design clothes in NYC anymore? What's worse? Playing with Fall Out Boy or gigging alone at The Fire wee early in the morning? That's what Plain White T's did last week for a MTV-U event.

► We knew Michael Smercomish couldn't have been serious when teasing about taking WYSP-FM's morning slot. Still we're glad Kidd Chris' ready to start his new A.M. gig there Nov. 26. We got worried.

► Matthew Izzo and Michael Anderer throw a "welcome to da Gayborhood" party for seafoodery Joe Pesce Nov. 28 at 1113 Walnut.

► Philly comic/ Duckumentary-iste Richie Redding needs you bad. He's in the finals of the Lucky 21 competition for $10,000 and a spot on HBO. "The contest is at Caesars Palace during Comedy Festival. I still live at home. Help me," says Redding, who asks you to vote until Dec. 5 at ziddio.com/Lucky21.

► End of era stuff: Philly's Historical Commission has OK'd plans for almost half of late Mayor Richardson Dilworth's house on WashSquare to be demolished for a condo. Erected in 1957, it was the true start of Society Hill and Old City's rightful prominence — something no shooting outside Dreemz could kill. Beyond the end of an era: a "goodnight sweet prince'" to Hy Lit, to WIBG, to WOGL and to all the solid gold sounds he made.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)