No 'Questlove' love for Kenney

AHMIR "Questlove" Thompson of the Roots hopped on the Facebook and did some Tuesday morning quarterbacking of this year's family-friendly-but-definitely-less-hip Fourth of July concert on the Ben Franklin Parkway.

Mayor Kenney did not fare well.

"So uh July Fif. How y'all feeling Philadelphia? That's what y'all wanted . . . right?" Thompson asked in a sarcastic 4:12 a.m. post.

That was followed soon after by a lengthy screed that was part postmortem, part hissy-fit aimed at Kenney and his underlings.

"That was arrogance in the HIGHEST order courtesy of your new leader. In our face it was 'hey we wanna try something new' - we were like 'not sure if you're aware of the precedent we've been setting but unless you try something 'better' you might not wanna lose 'cool points' w your city on something you can easily for your benefit GET cool points from," Thompson wrote in a pre-dawn rant.

Context: The Roots had headlined the concert since 2009, but the city went in a different direction this year after Kenney moved into Room 215. The problem, according to Thompson, who very much wants you to know this, is that the city also lost the Roots' connections when they kicked them to the curb.

"We have the talent," he wrote. "We have the creativity. We have the know how and experience and more importantly THE RESOURCES!!!"

All right, dude. We get the idea. Stop yelling. This is like that time we drank way too many Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpins and started tweeting from our living room floor.

Clout reached out to Kenney after we heard he might've wanted to put his own stamp on a concert lineup that he felt had become too closely associated with former Mayor Nutter. You know, make it less of a "Nutter thing," as one tipster put it.

Not so, says Kenney spokeswoman Lauren Hitt. Under Nutter, the festival was largely run out of the City Representative's Office, so the mayor had been more involved in booking talent, she said. But Kenney had "limited to no involvement in the talent selection," according to Hitt, because the festival is now run by the Welcome America! board of directors, which selected Live Nation to produce and book the show.

"The Mayor really likes the Roots," Hitt said.

Welcome America CEO Jeff Guaracino said this year's concert was focused on Philadelphia performers (or those with ties to the city) and included a tribute to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. And TV ratings were up, he said.

"It's not a Nutter-Kenney thing," Guaracino said. "It's a Philly thing."

But Gamble and Huff were big in the '70s, man. What's on tap for 2017? Can we expect a return to the Roots and the big-name talent they might rustle up?

"We love the Roots. We'd love to have them on a future July 4th," Guaracino said. "We have a great relationship with the Roots. They're an awesome band. Bring Jimmy Fallon, too. Bring the whole show to Philly!"

Hear that, Questlove? They love you. They really do.

Uh-oh. Snafu over at the Streets Department, which apparently moved too quickly on a sign to honor a relative of City Councilman David Oh.

The 3600 block of Hamilton Street in Powelton was supposed to have been named "In Ho Oh Memorial Way" to remember In Ho Oh, the councilman's 26-year-old cousin who was murdered by a group of teenagers in 1958 near the apartment where he was living while attending the University of Pennsylvania.

The murder became national news, particularly after word spread that In Ho Oh's parents in Korea had asked for leniency for the killers - and raised money for their post-prison rehabilitation. A photo of then-Mayor Richardson Dilworth weeping at Oh's funeral was printed in newspapers around the country.

"It is our hope that we may somehow be instrumental in the salvation of the souls, and in giving life to the human nature of the murderers . . . In order to give evidence of our sincere hope contained in this petition our whole family has decided to save money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational and social guidance of the boys when they are released," In Ho Oh's parents wrote.

It's a beautiful letter.

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago. Councilman Oh learned that the Streets Department had put the sign up without his knowledge and that it read, "In HO Oh Way," with a capital "O" and no "Memorial" before way.

"I got a surprising photograph of the sign," Oh said yesterday in response to our questions. "It was up and we didn't know anything about it. It was incorrect."

Oh said the Streets Department was "very kind about it and went right to correcting the sign." He said it will be the first street in Philadelphia to be named in recognition of an Asian American. An official naming ceremony is set for July 29.

In Ho Oh is buried at Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church cemetery in Society Hill. The city paid for his burial. The inscription on his tombstone: "To turn sorrow into Christian purpose."

You know who could use a lesson in Christian purpose? Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, who continues to alienate the region's Catholics with his old-man-yells-at-cloud approach to running one of the nation's largest archdioceses.

Last Friday, Chaput released a new set of guidelines saying that Catholics in same-sex partnerships, unmarried Catholics, divorced Catholics, and even those who have remarried but without an official church annulment, must "refrain from sexual intimacy" to receive Holy Communion. He called them "irregular" relationships. Classy.

Kenney on Wednesday denounced Chaput's guidelines as "not Christian," then the Catholic League attacked Kenney on Thursday for being "un-American." We're staying out of that tiff.

Of course, Chaput was just reiterating - in the most tone-deaf way possible - official church teaching, which also "holds that the prayers a priest utters over bread and wine during Mass transform them physically into the body and blood of Jesus," in the words of Inquirer reporter David O'Reilly.

Whatever Catholics believe, Archbishop, Clout is pretty certain most don't believe in seeking your express written consent to engage in "sexual intimacy" with their partners.

Clout's official decree on this matter: Let's just go back to the days when we all silently agreed to ignore the church's most far-flung and antiquated beliefs and instead keep our eyes on the big picture - loving each other.

Or, at least, treating each other with a modicum of respect, not denouncing loving couples as "irregular" because they don't have the proper paperwork.

You gotta learn to look away sometimes, Chuck. Let people live.

Can we get an Amen?

Staff writer William Bender contributed to this column.

benderw@phillynews.com
215-854-5255 @wbender99