ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Reviving Liberties, brining tongues, the Octomom of the ring and more.

WXPN FM's syndicated World Cafe radio program hosted by David Dye got ranked #8 on the top 20 sources for indie music by Billboard mag's Maximum Exposure issue.

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ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Reviving Liberties, brining tongues, the Octomom of the ring and more.

POSTED: Thursday, November 15, 2012, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Icepack Illustrated

If you’re even thinking about that second casino license, the application deadline is due now, Nov. 15, to the Pennsylvania Gaming Board by the end of the business day. So far, Bart Blatstein and his friends at Hard Rock gaming, Wynn Resorts, Penn National Gaming and the Goldenberg Group are supposed to be ready to drop $50 million to the Gaming Board if they get the license. We’re guessing these boys have the loot. But do they have the pencils to fill in the dots by today?

Philly big media week: Oyyyyyyy, c’mon now. First Arthur Kade got a new vocation (“celebrity interviewer”) on Extra for having interviewed Gen. David Petraeus’ m-m-mistress Paula Broadwell on his self-named blog. (Two things here: First, I think he calls himself that and second, how come the one day in nine years I’m not watching premium cable do I have to see Kade? KAAAAAAAADE.) Then Celebrity Boxing promoter Damon Feldman, who we love but he’s straining the bromance here, got hit upon by Radar for trying to get back the diamond ring he “engaged” Octomom Nadya Suleman with when she fought for him in Feb. 2012. The pricey publicity stunt gone bad — 1.5 carats, a $7,500 diamond ring marriage proposal now unrequited — got filed this week with the Marple Township Police Dept.

The first Philadelphia Annual Philadelphia Dog Fashion Show is back for year two this weekend at the Hyatt at the Bellevue, Nov. 16, and the whole event from the cocktail reception to the pooch runway walk to the Philadelphia Boys Choir performance benefits the PSPCA Humane Law Enforcement. Not only will your door charge purchase the HLE Team new bullet proof vests, you’ll get to see Philly DA Seth Williams, the dog show’s honorary chairman, model on the catwalk. I mean dog walk.

Spied some filming of the kinda-Jekyll/Hyde-crime-drama Do No Harm last night by 11th Street near the old Sound of Market record store, got word that they’ll hit up Old City today (between 4th and 5th on Chestnut at the Bank Building) and that the whole she-bang will be back on NBC by February 2013.

Speaking of series, I ran into auteur Lee Porter at the Jimmy Rollins Family Foundation Night in Paris at the National Constitution Center on Monday (see below). Porter reminded me that his FirstGlance Fest award-nominated, comedy web series My Ruined Life from his Retro Peel Productions would debut its second season on Nov. 17 at L’etage with its cast and crew on hand. Can’t wait for the soiree and MRL’s season two.

Before there was Standard Tap and the 700 Club, there was Liberties at 705 N. Second with its cool Victorian bars, a great brunch and fine-as-wine pizza. Things are re-heating at Liberties starting this week with David Kane (David Ansill’s right hand man at the legendary Pif as well as Bar Ferdinand) taking over the food program there with upscale comfort food at what was Northern Liberties’ first true hang.

It’s banjo time on S. 48th Street. Folklorist and plucker Stephen Wade hits up Crossroads Music on Nov. 18 for a wild banjo session and a history lesson.

Drexel University president Constantine Papadakis would be proud. I remember talking with the late great DU prez like 12 years ago (man, time flies) with his little girl Maria at his side. She used to intern on The 10! Show when I was a weekly, sometimes daily, contributor and she was always this fresh faced ray of sunshine before my second pot of coffee kicked in. Now, we’re congratulating the Emmy Award-winning Maria on her recent gorgeous nuptials (at the Academy of Music, no less) and her new gig at Philly.com, her first bit being her own perspective on that recent mega-wedding. Brava.

Speaking of weddings, congrats to Philly soul man John Legend and Sports Illustrated model Chrissy Teigen, who after having been engaged nearly a year, are planning to get married in January 2013 in North Carolina.

The Roddenberries’ Scott Johnston will be very excited by this news: Paramount will drop the first nine minutes of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness in IMAX 3D at digital IMAX theatres around Philly (and beyyyyyyyyyond) beginning Dec. 14. Nanoo nanoo.

The whole Avram Hornik/Four Corners Dolphin Tavern takeover wasn’t a surprise as I’ve been tracking the kitschy cool strip saloon’s ups-and-downs throughout the last 18 months. But just like Hornik’s re-make and remodel of Broad Street’s Boot & Saddle, don’t expect things to happen quite so soon. We’re hearing that both places are on slow boil rather than a rush to open. But hey, Passyunk Post says the Dolphin will get an upstairs dressing room for its dancing lovelies, so atza nize.

I’ll have more on the new Stephen Starr/Joe Carroll Fette Sau next week, some observations on the newness of the Girard and Frankford eatery. But I’ll say that the rustic BBQ garage across from Johnny Brenda’s is brining and barbecuing tongue this week. Can I tell you how frigging awesome that is?

WXPN FM’s syndicated World Cafe radio program hosted by David Dye got ranked #8 on the top 20 sources for indie music by Billboard mag’s Maximum Exposure issue. “With two hours a day of new music and an in-depth interview on every show, it’s great that Billboard recognizes that indie music fans have a major radio and online resource in the World Café,” says Dye in a statement. In the meantime, World Café just released two new CDs of highlights, a 20th anniversary edition of Live at the World Café and the Live at the World Café Volume 33 starring The Civil Wars and Bon Iver.

That long abandoned eyesore/one-time food spot at 538 N. Fourth just got filled by cheesy meaty goodness as bros David and Michael Frank opened Del Rossi’s Cheesesteak Co. at that address.

WHOWHATWHERE: Our phones lit up with texts last night while I was at dinner with the news that Bradley Cooper graced a Ritz East screening of Silver Linings Playbook with his presence and a shot of asking him questions like “What does it feel like to no longer be People magazine’s sexiest man on Earth?” Where was I? In Chestnut Hill at Al Paris’ cool quaint Heirloom BYOB for his first collaborative dinner on Germantown Avenue with ex-Lec Bec Fin CEO and French master chef Georges Perrier. In between the two sold out seatings, Perrier told the crowd he was happy to come out of vacation/semi-retirement for his old pal Paris and that he would do this again as soon as Al asked him. “How about tomorrow?” said a beaming Paris. If they do it again — make them do that scallop and shrimp mousse with Maine lobster, sea urchin cream and black morels. A-mazing. Jimmy Rollins and his wife, Johari, hosted their annual fundraiser at the National Constitution Center on Monday night and the whole Parisian-themed event for Prevent Child Abuse PA. Not only was the place packed with guests like Ryan Howard and his fiancée, WDAS’ Patty Jackson, Bernard Hopkins and Schoolly D (the rapper wore a matching Rollins chapeau and told me he planned to go on tour with Public Enemy soon). Willy Herrera from Drew Estate Cigars rolled a few awesome stogies (including one coffee cigar that was divine) and Edyta Sliwinska and Alec Mazo from Dancing with the Stars twirled and tango-ed their asses off. Yes and Asia guitarist Steve Howe unexpectedly (because neither band is in the area) stopped into AKA Records in Old City last week and purchased several Joni Mitchell CDs. “He grabbed copies of Ladies of the Canyon, Blue and Court and Spark and was the total gentleman,” says AKA owner Mike Hoffman. Anthony David and Youngblood Hawke visited WDAS FM and Radio 104.5’s iHeart Radio Performance Theater respectively while hawking their latest albums. Lisa Marie Presley made a rare live visit to the area — this time to Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. And Theisman-award winning footballer Joe Montana is out and about shilling booze, now for Aviation Gin at the Wine and Spirits Shoppe right by City Paper’s doorstep.

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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.

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