ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Anne, Natalie and Miss Janet (if you're nasty)

POSTED: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Ice Cubes | Icepack Illustrated

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Black Banana bartender-turned-art-teacher Terry Saulin is exhibiting her newest sculptures and drawings at Tiger Strikes Asteroid on April 1, followed by a city-wide Spring Arts Festival re-opening on April 15. Go.

The father and son team of Bob and Brandon Bitros are opening Interstate Draft House in Port Fishington at the old Moe’s spot on E. Palmer Street. Good for foodies who miss Azure (the Bitros owned that) and their familiar family manner. Bad for Moe’s and aficionados of tap room culture like me.

Alex Styer, the trumpeter from the exquisitely funky Experience Kef, has a day job helping to run the Philadelphia Arts Alliance (PAA). This weekend (starting with the a big bash on March 31) he’s pushing the PAA’s show of wearable art, ARTwear and its hand crafted jewelry and accessories show/benefit. ARTwear runs until Sunday and features dozens of craft practitioners along with the event’s curators Bruce Hoffman and my old buddy Doug Bucci, both of whom will hold special presentations throughout the event. Pay in.

Philly’s favorite son of Latino electronica, El Malito, took my advice and is working with my favorite producer of Latino exotica (and the man behind last weekend’s Caravan Fest at Electric Factory) Aaron Levinson. Levinson brought in sampler/DJ Starkey, and the rest will soon be history if I have any say.

Bear with me. As I write this next bit, I think of the line in A Christmas Story where Darren McGavin is opening the large wooden box mailed to him with “fraaa-geee-lay” on the front. As he’s pulling hay from the package, he repeats that he’s won a major award. I like the pride of a guy winning a major award, whether it turns out (as in McGavin’s case) to be a plastic leg-lamp in a fishnet stocking or master chef Georges Perrier gathering two prizes during two culinary events. First he’s getting a gift for 40 years of culinary excellence at the Flavors of Philadelphia fundraiser for the American Liver Foundation (ALF) at the Loews Hotel on April 5, the first time that the ALF foundation has honored anyone at this event. Then during the opening night soiree for the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts on April 7 at the Kimmel, he’ll be honored with the Culinary Visionary Award. After that Perrier will host chef Mathieu Viannay of La Mere Brazier from Lyon, (Perrier’s hometown) for a special menu at Le Bec-Fin April 13-15. Yum.

I’m sitting here with a full copy of the, Life Fantastic in my hand from Philly’s Man Man and it is hurting my head in the very best way. Since Anti (their label) has asked me not to review it quite yet, I will comply. But I must say that “Shameless” is epically long and all twisted up while “Steak Knives” is MM at their vintage vexing best.

Jazz Appreciation Month is coming. Grilled Cheese Month is coming. So is Poetry Month. To celebrate the latter, PhillyCAM is doing April Folly on April 1 with DJ K-Tell, scores of guys with cameras (including City Paper emeritus Bruce Schimmel) capturing footage of the poetry fun at the PhillyCAM studio 232 Vine. If you can’t get there, turn on Comcast 66/966 and Verizon FIOS 29/30 that night to catch the event along with shows like Celebrities in the Basement and The Mike Holla Show.

March 31 and The Marvelous on S. 40th Street — that’s the day and the place where composer/guitarist Nick Millevoi holds his release jam for yet another magically noisy CD, Black Figure of a Bird.

WHOWHATWHERE: Oscar winner Natalie Portman shopped at Joan Shepp on Tuesday because her fiance Benjamin Millepied is choreographing bits of the Pennsylvania Ballet’s “Building on Balanchine,” at the Merriam Theatre. Millepied worked with a bunch of the Pennsylvania Ballet dancers on Black Swan so there. Oscar host Anne Hathaway also stopped at Joan Shepp recently so expect visits from the little girl from True Grit and Helena Bonham Carter shortly. OK. Just deal with the Jersey Shore crew while they’re still in the states. They’ll be heading to Italy in a minute. Jenny “J Woww” Farley and her new beau Roger Matthews hit Whisper last week and The Situation will be at the Wine & Spirits store at Franklin Mills Mall at 5 p.m. then Parx Casino in Bensalem at around 9:30 p.m. Both appearances are for his launch of Devotion Vodka in Pennsylvania. Somebody send me a bottle. Oh, let me tell you about the weekend in Atlantic City. I wasn’t with my photog when he shot Dennis Rodman before his DJ slot (yes, DJ slot) at Dusk where he hung out with boxer Roy Jones Jr., tried to unscrew casino light bulbs and hugged everyone within reach. But the Janet Jackson show at The Borgata and all that stuff that followed it? Sweetness I say. She put on a helluva show of hits. After the Friday show at mur.mur (the Borgata club), Joey Fatone showed up and hung with Samantha Ronson in the DJ booth. (Fatone has been hosting The Price is Right nights in AC and will start filming Mancation in the area next week). The next night, dimpled television host Mario Lopez dined at Bobby Flay Steak and met the Flay-ster himself before catching Jackson’s show and hosting a party at mur.mur. That same night at the Borgata’s MIXX, Janet’s ex Jermaine Dupri spun with Sky Nellor and held court for rapper Busta Rhymes who performed “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,” and “Pass the Courvoisier, Part II.” Not to be outdone by Jersey that weekend, the action centered on the Ritz-Carlton where Travis Barker (who was on the Wells Fargo bill with Lil Wayne and Nikki Minaj) hung out. Wayne was not to be seen at the hotel and Minaj eventually made her way to Atlantic City for host duties at The Pool at Harrah’s.

Speaking of being on film, Philly’s chamber-noise-pop sensations Creeping Weeds shot a video for the single “Light In The Window” at Johnny Brenda’s from their forthcoming new CD Creeping Weeds. Bravo them. I’d love to tell you where they are playing April 1, but I can’t because the West Philly house that they are playing with is suddenly undergoing heat from the police and are no longer allowed to do shows. So the Weeds is going underground, playing in the basement and in secret. Fans? You just have to figure it out.

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About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

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