On the heels of my Ruffhouse cover story — in case you missed it: The reborn label’s got Lauryn Hill and Beanie Sigel signed, and the latter is rushing to promote his new album before starting a two-year prison stint — a question came up. Sigel’s got gigs in LA and NYC booked, but where are the Philly shows? He only has a few weeks of freedom left. Well, along with the news that director Ron Howard and producing partner Brian Grazer will film Jay-Z’s Made in America shows Sept. 1 and 2 on the Parkway comes word of last-minute machinations between Ruffhouse, Live Nation and Jay-Z’s peeps to not only get Beanie on the Made bill, but to make Sigel part of Hova’s set as a sort of happy reconciliation. Those who know their hip-hop history remember that the two were once thick as thieves, that Sigel was signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation joint through Def Jam and that there was brotherhood between them long before there was beef. Let’s make this happen.
Brian Dwyer may hold the Guinness World Record for pizza memorabilia, but he’s gunning for one more item before his Pizza Brain opens any moment now along Frankford Avenue’s burgeoning commercial corridor: a Little Caesars’ Brain Teaser Simon Says machine from the 1990s. Maybe you have one? Why else would you have gone into a Little Caesars, then or now? “Certain shops, especially the one near my house growing up, had this particular ‘Simon’ game. It was simple enough, a memory game consisting of colors and sounds, and the higher you could go remembering the patterns, the higher the stakes. If you got above 50 points, you won a free drink, Crazy Bread, even a small pizza. I played it regularly, always trying to win myself free Crazy Bread, so I used to go there and waste a few dollars in quarters trying to beat my score from the time before. Keep in mind this came from an era that pre-dates Caesars’ $5 Hot-N-Ready model that most people know today.” This sort of obsession is why Dwyer holds a world record, ye, who are noshing on Stella. If anyone has any knowledge of the whereabouts of one of these machines, Dwyer will “lay a big fat wet kiss on their left eye, then track that baby down and give it a nice new home.”
Looking forward to what chef Jen Zavala (Top Chef, El Camino Real) has in store for her soon-to-be-driving Cherry Bomb food bus with biz partner/baker Christina Clark? Check out their Hen’s Revenge monthly this Monday at Prohibition for a sample.
A fond farewell is due NBC-10 anchor/news guy Terry Ruggles, who just announced that he’ll retire in December. If you’re 40-or-older you’ll remember that he’s been around since you had your first baby mullet. Byeee.
More eye-kissing when Icepack gets illustrated at citypaper.net/criticalmass.
