Icepack

Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.

by A.D. Amorosi

I'm too disgusted this week to start off cute. Cut to the chase. Here's ?uestlove: The Roots will be the house band for Jimmy Fallon's take on NBC Late Night when Conan O'Brien moves to The Tonight Show in March '09. That explains why they were hanging with Fallon at Kung Fu Necktie last week, shooting film. Plus for all y'all multiplex-loving cineastes, The Soloist isn't opening this weekend as t'was s'posed to. Blame Paramount for shoving the film with Robert Downey Jr. , who plays ex-Philly Inquirer scribe Steve Lopez, and Jamie Foxx (roaming through Philly soon to film Law Abiding Citizen with Gerard Butler and maybe Catherine Zeta-Jones) to April '09. Maybe Downey's Philly's bad luck charm? Localite Terrence Howard is out of Downey's Iron Man 2.

► Vango may have had a few bump-run visits from My Name is Earl-star Michael Rappaport (filming Philly's Monie Love for his Tribe Called Quest documentary) and The Cheetah Girls (they ate some beef). But DJ Venus7 — house goddess extraordinaire — joins in Lee Jones' pre-T-day fun Nov. 26.

► When dusky chanteuse Marianne Faithfull releases her two-CD Easy Come Easy Go soonish, look for production courtesy Upper Darby's Hal Wilner and a cover of Espers' "Children of Stone" on the liner notes.

► The news is coming from the bartenders that on Nov. 22, JC Dobbs will have its liquor license. That's good as a lot of boozehound old-heads will attend The Third J.C. Dobbs Reunion Concert with hosts Debbi Calton, Randy Kotz and Michael Tearson, players George Manney's Last Minute Jam, Kenn Kweder, Soul Survivors' Mike Zeigler, Nik Everett, Essra Mohawk and a tribute to the late great likes of Chris Larkin, Robert Hazard and Tom Gallagher. 

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► World Café Live's mainstage booker, Karl Mullen, confirmed a sad rumor: that the recently hired Upstairs@WCL booker/songwriter Alison Polanis just got let go and that Mullen will book both floors for now. Sob.

► We're almost looking forward to the reunion of Old City's way-'80s Comedy Factory Outlet. Andrew Dice Clay and Chris Rock gigged at the bricked-up standup waterhole. So did Clay Heery, who'll return from L.A. to join old Zoo co-hort John DeBella in hosting the Nov. 28/29 events at Comedy Cabaret on Roosevelt Boulevard. Tix at comedycabaret.com/northeast. And I'm hearing comedian/guy with nice hats Steve Harvey will spend bunches of December hosting his syndicated radio show (available here at WDAS) from Phill.

► Which reminds me: Losers is a novel written by Northeast native Matthue Roth for Scholastic Books' non-children's division. Roth tells me the book is about Russian Jewish immigrant geeks in Philly. Prowler, an "Amazing New Band" (according to WXPN), plays at the novel's climax. So Roth, Loser and Prowler will celebrate the book's release at Tritone Nov. 22 with a party/reading/lose-off of sorts.

► Harry Jay Katz and his gal Debra Renee Cruz will host erotic weekly singles mixers (say that three times fast) on Wednesdays, starting Nov. 26, at Club Risque on Columbus Boulevard.

► Remember I mentioned TLA Entertainment's Rich Wolff and how he either flew the TLA coop or got flown from it? Now Wolff and another TLA-er, Rich Ross, formed Rich Releasing, a North American film distribution company that'll commence in '09. We hear Wolff'll lead the pack and it'll have lots of erotica, gay and straight and plenty of documentary stuffs. Plus TLA's Alex Jackson is exec director of sales. Congrats.

► I love Philly's Heavy Hand. They have that Zep-Soundgarden vibe that's handily raunchy and dark. Apparently, others love them, too. Documentarian/ex-RuffNation film guy Craig Carpenter (doing a Philly music flick with interviewees like Larry Gold) will shoot the Heavy Hand show at North Star Nov. 20. Plus Walt Bass from Studio 4 is recording the NoStar show for a due-by-December live CD, with its next studio CD ready to release for Feb. '09.

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► Two top local chefs I've written lots about — Dominique Filoni at Parc, Terence Feury from Maia — just left their respective kitchens last week. Was it something I ate?

► Chris freAKAnature used to be a Philly boy we knew from the jam-funk band Fathead. Then he moved to Princeton, N.J., with his wife and had two kids. But he hankers for Philly. And his Vitamin F is sweet and soulful. So he'll hit the Fire Nov. 21 just to feel some Philly breeze in his hair.

► WHOWHATWHERE: Yes, A Bronx Tale's Chazz Palminteri was at Chris' Jazz Café with Joe Piscopo to see Matt Davis' quintet. Yes. Bam Margera led a few film crews to his West Chester club, The Note, then on to his house Tuesday afternoon to skate around, in anticipation of the release of Where the #$&% is Santa? (Bam's got a doc in the works with one of #$&%'s co-stars, Brandon Novak). But when Bam's pop, Phil, didn't make it to his fight in Damon Feldman's Celebrity Boxing Federation match at Marple Arena, it led off a whole bad chain of events that resulted in its other participant — dick-sliced John Wayne Bobbitt — not being allowed to fight due to high blood pressure. Bobbitt left telling well wishers he'd soon be fighting WYSP's Danny Bonaduce. Not according to Feldman. "Danny is scheduled for Jose Canseco (Jan. 17) and Bobbitt hasn't proved anything yet, so we have to see what Bobbitt does in a match," he says. "No one can beat Bonaduce if they have no matches."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)