Philebrity

FUNDRAISERS | When Broad Street Ministry — long a force for good in Center City, offering a bevy of services to those unhoused and/or in deep poverty — rebranded a few years back as Broad Street Love, they also refined and redefined their mission somewhat in just two words: “Radical Hospitality.” Behind that is a pretty broad (forgive me) notion of care and compassion, and to put that in motion, Broad Street Love always needs funds, donations, and awareness of its mission.

BY JOEY SWEENEY | Good day, I am a 50-year-old man newly obsessed with the 1980s pop group called Wham! (Their exclamation point, not mine, but kudos to them for having it, because it makes it impossible to end a sentence with their name and put any other punctuation after it without looking like a typo.) The reason I’m obsessed with Wham! right now is likely the reason you are, too: The eponymous documentary on them currently among Netflix’s top new releases.

The Death of Mister Softee Jingle Genius Len Waas Settles Any Lingering Debate Over What The Best Summer Song Is On April 19th, 2016, longtime Philly ad men Les Waas died at the age of 94. (He's best known around these parts for crafting the immortal Melrose Diner jingle). As unforgettable as that classic is, it is overshadowed by Waas' other big hit: the theme that has become synonymous with summertime.

Now Playing: “Dad Max,” Doogie Horner’s YouTube Comedy Special Many folks know Philly author/comedian/illustrator Doogie Horner from a broad array of things that never really give you the whole story about him: Maybe it’s from his run on back in the day, or his ghost book or his . But the fact of the matter is this: He’s fantastic at pure-form standup, and why he’s not on Netflix with Sheng and the gang is beyond us.

We Asked AI To Show Us What Some Cool 1980s Philly People Looked Like And Welp, Here They Are BY JOEY SWEENEY | What is AI for, exactly? Fuck if we know, man! And while we do know that it’s good for taking folks’ jobs away, apparently (but not really), we’re currently messing around to see if our hunch is true: Editorially, it’s more of a toy than it is a legitimate tool. So let’s start here: We love learning about the city’s history of cool people.

Murderers, artists and heroes all share one thing: The experience of how what you do over a day or two can alter the course of your entire life. On March 18 and 19, 1963, Astrud Gilberto was in a New York City recording studio with her then-husband, João Gilberto, along with Stan Getz, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and a handful of engineers and session musicians. They were there to record what would become Getz/Gilberto, one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time.

Friday Decency compels me to not bury the lede here: It is Pierogi Weekend. This is not a drill. It is Pierogi Weekend. IYKYK and IY don’t K now YK. Emotionally adjacent: The beloved Yo La Tengo at Union Transfer. Elsewhere: Quasi at JB’s, and Taylor Kelly at Milkboy. Saturday Is New Age the New Rave?

First, the good news: If you’re reading this, you’ve outlived the generation of Philadelphians who believed that trees were gross and more trouble than they’re worth. (Trust us, this was definitely a thing.) The not great and surprising-until-you-think-about it news: Philadelphia lost over 1,000 football fields worth of tree cover between 2008 and 2018. Also, Philly’s spread of trees is uneven: Lower-wealth neighborhoods have a decidedly lower number of trees per block.

Friday First things first: Throughout the coming days, beware, and may God damn to hell, the Erin Express in any form it takes. Avoid it like chlamydia, my children. Here’s one way: Go see non-douche-adjacent live music, such as Colony House, the kings of Tik Tok Americana (it’s a thing!), who are at TLA, or the genre-traversing Paolo Nutini at Union Transfer.

BY JOEY SWEENEY | I do not know where I’d even begin to research the prominence of screen doors gracing the rowhomes of metro Philadelphia across the last five or six decades. And beyond that, I have a very strong hunch that no such data exists. Who would keep it? Why would they keep it? How?