Icepack Illustrated: Childish Gambino, Big Ang, Pati LaBelle and some new old Coltrane.
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
News, gossip, goings-on.
Sad news to start: Philadelphia film producer, publicist, festival programmer, longtime TLA Releasing cohort and all-around hero of LGBTQ cinema Lewis Tice died Tuesday at the age of 44. Not only did he push TLA into the releasing biz (see flicks like Mysterious Skin) and hold producer credits on gay film fare like Bear City, Tice was a tireless cinema buff. He was funny, too, and always up for a chat about the movies. I’ll miss him.
John Coltrane’s musical vaults, especially those sessions that remain unreleased, have long been jazz’s holy grail. In the last several years, I’ve spoken with Coltrane producers and collaborators who have mentioned lost latter-day sessions in the saxophone colossus’ Philly home as well as in local churches he attended, all in various states of re-mastering. On Sept. 23, Coltrane’s birthday, Impulse!/Resonance will release one of the most treasured sessions Offering: Live At Temple University — a Nov. 11, 1966, performance with Coltrane, his wife/pianist Alice Coltrane, drummer Rashied Ali, reeds and flute man Pharoah Sanders and bassist Sonny Johnson. Bootleg aficionados know that tapes of this gig (one year before his passing) have been around forever, but with only a segment of the show available and with lousy sound. A portion of the sales will go to the John Coltrane Home and the preservation of his one-time Dix Hills, New York residence. I wonder if Philly’s Coltrane House can get a piece of that money?
Two weeks ago, I started Icepack Illustrated with a funny story about Philly’s Mob Wives New Blood star Natalie Guercio getting into a hot brouhaha with a Delilah’s Gentlemen’s Club bouncer while her pal, Ryan Banks watched. This week, Radaronline.com finally picked up on that same story, added a blurry photo and news of charges that went un-pressed.
By the way, in that same Icepack Illo, I had Patti Labelle visiting Keven Parker’s Ms. Tootsie’s on South Street after her surprise appearance at the TLA’s Marsha Ambrosius show. Last weekend, she stopped at Parker’s Soul Food Cafe at the Reading Terminal Market to celebrate its first anniversary in song (“If Only You Knew”). Is Lady Marmalade (creator of this city’s finest cookbooks, 1999’s Labelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About) cooking up something with Parker? She doesn’t make many personal appearances and when she does, suddenly they’re all with Parker. Hmmm.
How close is Top Chef alum Spike Mendelsohn’s Good Stuff burger on S. 18th Street? Close and good enough to host a job fair.
Philadelphia’s Black Rock Continuum gets celebrated in a big way this weekend when several of my absolute favorites gather on the Trocadero’s main stage, Sat., April 5. In the last several years, I’ve written cover stories on Joe Jordan and features on Blayer PointDuJour. Yet, I’m proudest of having spread the gospel of Pure Hell, punk rock’s first black act, long before this 2002 feature on the passing of Michael Sanders, a.k.a. Spider, Hell’s drummer. They might have only released one single in their time — “These Boots Are Made for Walking”/”No Rules” — but they did it first.
You say you like movable museums? The Philadelphia Public History Truck from Temple University has its first exhibition on April 4 outside of Little Berlin on the 2400 block of Coral Street. Their initial subject is a serious one: the factory fires that ravaged that neighborhood last year when the old Thomas Buck Hosiery caught fire.
WHOWHATWHERE: Last week, I reported on Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme’s auction of his cherished collection of outsider and Haitian art at Philly’s Material Culture, a gallery with as long a connection to this city as the director himself (see Philadelphia, Beloved, and his participation in the Marian Anderson Awards). Demme showed up at a Caribbean food-filled pre-auction party where he greeted well-wishers (like the Greater Philadelphia Film Office’s Joan Bressler) and answered questions. “Wow, I wish I had held onto the very first piece of Haitian art that I bought, but sadly I traded it away years ago,” he said when asked about his collection. Demme also accepted congratulations when I mentioned his next film with Meryl Streep and Diablo Cody. Speaking of Philly-loving film directors, M. Night Shyamalan and the cast and crew of his new televisual project Sundowning, whooped it up at a wrap party (that was fast) at Stratus Lounge. After several private pre-opening Prince Theater events with the singer of cabaret songs, singer Mark Nadler wowed crowds at the Prince with I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Musik from the Weimar and Beyond which runs through April 12. Nadler graced opening night’s after-party and chatted up all attendees. Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Pierre Robert and Lloyd Price (wow) joined my pal Jerry Blavat on Thursday at the Chart House to celebrate the Geator’s upcoming Atlantic City Golden Nugget residency — Geator Gold Dance Parties — every Thursday through Labor Day. If one Mob Wives star wasn’t enough for a single column, Big Ang showed up the other night for a dinner party at the Coastline in Cherry Hill, NJ. Donald Glover, I mean Childish Gambino, sold out the Electric Factory on Friday with an alluring showcase dedicated to the conceptual notion of rich kids at war with Twitter. Really? MIX 106.1 got a visit and a song or two from pop lass Ingrid Michaelson. When renowned criminal attorney Alan Dershowitz stopped by Harrison Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania Museum to discuss the pro-Israel documentary The J-Street Challenge, he got as many boos as cheers. What’s up with that?
