Icepack

Correction: An item in the March 27, 2003 edition of Icepack about the relationship between a DJ and his girlfriend contained a quote from someone claiming to be the girlfriend. The quote actually came from a third party posing as the girlfriend via e-mail and contained inaccurate information.

Anyone who’s dug WXPN and its institutions (like World Café, before it became a theme restaubar) since the dawn of real independent radio, should remember when things looked dicey for the U of P station. After students broadcast controversial sexual material in the late ’70s, WXPN was mostly taken out of the students’ hands. For their trouble, the kids got WQHS, broadcast locally on Resnet Channel 2. I don’t even know what that means. But this past January, WQHS launched a major webcast (www.wqhs.org) so listeners everywhere could hear their freakophonic station. Since it’s a station run by the students/for the students, it needs money. (WQHS gets 15 percent of its yearly budget from the university and must raise 85 percent itself.) So along with a CD/LP sale during Spring Fling (April 11 and 12), The Foundation at The Rotunda hosts a benefit for WQHS with Spoon and ex-Archer of Loaf Eric Bachmann’s latest band, Crooked Fingers, on April 6 (Check p. 36 for more on him and the show). Get there, you indie fucks.… U of P P.S.: It’s Pi Lam’s Human BBQ time April 5. Dig not only Kid 606, Rye Coalition, Dalek, Atom & His Package, Of Montreal and The Rogers Sisters, but local rockers Hail Social, who just wacked out demos with Terry Yerves (AM/FM).… The rumor that Pennsylvania Ballet was trying to buy the 11-month-shuttered Sameric Theater spot at 19th and Chestnut for offices and classrooms was squashed as of Tuesday. "We did indeed look at the space, but just decided it wasn’t possible, financially, at this time," says Ballet public relations manager Denise C. Venuti.… And now the bad news: Basic Black Books (at The Gallery), one of Philly’s best and boldest independent bookstores and a staple of the African-American lit community, may not get its lease renewed. Lecia Warner, owner, has brought in the likes of Omar Tyree, Terry McMillan and Mary B. Morrison to read and sign books. She and Basic Black are valuable. Write Lecia (at bbbgallerymall@aol.com) and bug your City Council people (like Blondell Reynolds-Brown) now.… I hear Laurel Canyon’s Frances McDormand may still make it to the Philly Film Fest after all. "She really wants to," says a source close to the star.… The Cozmic Cat/Lorne/Jon Gill split CD EP From Philly With Love just got a major distribution deal with Downtown 161 in NYC.… If you haven’t noticed (and I hear a lot of guys around Philly’s financial district have), two entrepreneurs named Gina and Phoebe have taken over New City Tavern at 20th and Ludlow and remade it into the slowly-getting-swanky Blue Horseshoe, complete with Caribbean chefs, tangerine-colored decor and café doors for warm weather so that those Stock Exchange types can cool down.… City of Hope flew Hugo Boss’ Norman Vosko and Pileggi Boutique’s Mark Baumgardner and Joan Pileggi to L.A. to be honored at Babyface’s house, in anticipation of CoH’s annual June awards ceremony, which, this year, will occur in Philly. The medical treatment/education institution is looking to open a major research center in town.… While CP’s Sean O’Neal gets ready to bring Warmth label freakazoids Lovesky to Philly in April, Warmth goes quid pro quo by releasing Flowchart’s new 12-inch (with a remix by Rob Paine) and CD in April.… WhoWhatWhere: Kindred’s TLA gig -- which the sexy marrieds opened with "War" -- got visits by Damon Bennett, Jill Scott and Ursula Rucker onstage. Philly expat/ESPN sportscaster Susie Kolber stopped at Cuba Libre’s Wine Brats jawn last week. Kolber mentioned she and ABC will broadcast the first Monday Night Football of 2003 from the Linc (Lincoln Financial Field) with the Eagles beating Tampa Bay Buccaneers within an inch of their fucking lives. Pittsburgh Penguin Mario Lemieux lunched at McCormick & Schmick’s.… To mark the release of The White Stripes’ new disc, Elephant, ask Col. Tom Sheehy to take you on a tour of Mitten Hall at Temple. It’s the anniversary of MC5 playing there in 1969.… Make sure you hear Eddie Bruce crooning Tony Bennett tunes at Maggiano’s April 5 and 6. You’ll go from rags to riches. Honest.… Victor Fiorillo and Devin Williams host April 9’s Mecca Karaoke Smackdown at the Troc, which promises $500 to the "best" singer. But you got to convince judges Psydde Delicious, Elizabeth Fiend and wrestling champ Billy “The Real Deal” Reil.… Rob TBTMO and his Hologram team welcome tons of out-of-towners: Alabama’s Accelera Deck and Satellite Grooves from South Carolina to La Tazza on April 3 and I Am Robot And Proud from Toronto and DJ Skylab from Vienna to Silk City April 6. Transient, from Lancaster, will be at Silk too.… ICA gets Blue on April 5. Not sad, just cool. A dance party to benefit exhibition and educational programs in West Philly.… The Young Werewolves finished recording their CD with Andy Kravitz at Norristown’s BrickHouse Productions and celebrate by chewing up La Tazza April 4.… Happy b-day to Eric Weiss and to Striped Bass, who celebrated 10 years by giving me a hangover.

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August 25, 2005
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