Archive: October, 2009
Michael Klein, Philly.com
More than two months before Christmas, CBS Radio is starting the holiday music derby -- but it's doing it on the HD-2 station of WOGL (98.1) and on various CBS websites: WOGL.com, 610WIP.com, TheBigTalker1210.com, KYW1060.com, and 94WYSP.com.
HD radios are required to hear the over-the-air signal. The station will be on from Thursday (10/15) through New Year's Eve. WOGL's HD2 station has an all-1970s format, thus depriving me of my disco.
The station is also available free on AOLradio or the Yahoo launchcast application on the iPhone.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Anthony “Tony T” DeCarolis and “Wildman Joe” Marchetti are keeping their fingers warm for Oct. 30 when Jolly Weldon throws the grand opening of Jolly’s Dueling Piano Bar near Rittenhouse Square (2006 Chestnut St.).
Weldon is promising a happy hour (6 to 8 p.m.), a small-plates menu under $10, and no cover charge at his 125-seat venue.
"Romper Room for adults," he calls it.
The concept of dueling pianos harkens to New Orleans during the Depression. It's been tried around here; a joint at 20th and Arch Streets recently closed after making a go of it for a couple of years.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Gladwyne's Todd Carmichael, holder of a record for walking across Antarctica to the South Pole, says he is aborting his latest quest: walking more than 400 miles through Death Valley.
According to his blog, maintained by brother in law Brian Hart, he has run into "a real slugfest in soft sand," making it hard to pull his equipment cart.
Carmichael, co-owner of La Colombe coffee, set out from the Mojave Desert town of Baker, Calif., on Friday. The blog says he has reluctantly called for a pickup midday Thursday.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Beck's Cajun Cafe is set for a Oct. 26 opening across from Di Nic's and Tootsie's Salad Express in Reading Terminal Market.
Beck is Bill Beck, who from 1996 to 1999 owned Pompano Grille and Bohemian Bistro Lounge at what is now a bank building at Fifth and Bainbridge Streets.
He's promising muffaletta, to-order beignets, eggs royal, fried oyster po' boys, and chicken, andouille and shrimp gumbo.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Toto and Claire Schiavone, who own Moonstruck on Oxford Avenue in Fox Chase, have inked a deal for a second restaurant, in Blue Bell's Village Square shopping center on Dekalb Pike just north of Township Line. Former occupant was Bourbon.
They'll call it Beccofino -- an Italian concept that Toto Schiavone says will create a "farmhouse kitchen" atmosphere centered on a woodburning oven in the middle of the dining room.
He says 95 percent of the food will come out of the oven.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Temple University says Reese Witherspoon will film softball scenes for the James L. Brooks comedy at the Ambler campus' softball field on Monday (10/19), with a Tuesday rain date.
The school advises that it's a closed set, so gawkers won't get very far. Security will be tight.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Reality star Jon Gosselin, visiting the Main Line for a court date in Norristown about the finances of him and his estranged wife, Kate, ate at the bar at Radnor's 333 Belrose last night with a male friend.
After eating beef sliders and Old Bay fries, and sucking down one Crown and ginger, he left a $15 on the $35 tab.
Quite generous. Kate Gosselin is petitioning the court for support and claims he has drained their assets.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Jayson Grossberg -- who won raves hither and yon for Alphabet Soup, his BYOB in Audubon, Camden County -- says he's pulled the plug.
He and wife Alix just had their second daughter, "and I didn't want my kids to be 16 years old and look back and say, 'I only saw them one night a week,' " he told me. "In the end, I wanted to be with my family more."
Grossberg, who lives on the Main Line, an hour away, said he had tried to leave the restaurant in other people's hands, "but it wasn't the same. I have to be there."
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Lawyers for World Wrestling Entertainment are opposing a trademark application filed by the Wine School of Philadelphia for the term “Sommelier Smackdown.”
By using "Sommelier Smackdown," the Wine School is accused of infringing on WWE's trademark of the word Smackdown, which it uses for its wrestling events.
Last month, WWE lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Wine School, threatening legal action if it does not stop.
Michael Klein, Philly.com
Clarence Clemons, the saxman driving Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, is out with a memoir (Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales), and he'll sign copies at 1 p.m. Sunday (10/18) at Chester County Books & Music in West Goshen Center (975 Paoli Pike, West Chester).
Clemons' Facebook page teases:
• The amazing story behind the final hours of making Born to Run
• What happened when Clarence and Ringo Starr were sitting in a hotel room and Clarence got the call that Bruce was breaking up the band.
• How Bruce and Clarence met that dark, stormy night at the Student Prince
• The E-Street band's show at Sing-Sing prison where all of their equipment blows out right as they took the stage
• The secret that Robert De Niro told Clarence and Bruce they had to keep for 25 years.
