PhilaPhile

Paolo Nutini

We went to see Paolo Nutini on Friday night at World Cafe Live. A very nice show from a young, Scottish singer. He's a big hit with the young ladies who screamed to Paolo throughout the concert, "I Love You." He has a gravely, sometimes cracking voice that is different in a good way. It's funny listening to people compare his voice to different artists. One person said they thought he reminded them of David Bowie. I heard a little Simply Red. My wife heard bits of Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, and Joe Walsh from The Commitments. Whatever we think we hear, I think we all agree that he has his own, unique sound.

His concert was fun but a little short. During the encore they covered a Gnarls Barkley song which made me think they were out of material after performing all of the songs on their CD. For about 3/4 of the concert it appeared as if the band was there merely as back-up to Paolo. The last 3 or 4 songs they were finally allowed to perform some solos and I was left wanting more from the entire band.

I have one question about World Cafe Live, "Who's running this place?" After purchasing my tickets fairly early I get an email telling me about parking. In the email they mentioned something for those who "upgraded to the mezzanine level". I didn't have the option of upgrading when I purchased the tickets. How does that work exactly? Since my wife and I wanted to have dinner before the concert the mezzanine would have been an option that I would have chosen. Eventually we were seated at a table in the Upstairs Dining area after sitting at the bar for awhile during happy hour. During our dinner we couldn't hear each other because of the music blaring from the DJ on stage. We ordered a salad and a Crab Cake sandwich. We were served our food without utensils. How does that happen? At the bar downstairs I purchased a beer and a glass of wine. The wine was served in a small plastic cup that was barely half-full.

Despite these somewhat minor inconveniences most of the people who work there are extremely nice. And they do bring in a lot of good artists. I was excited about the possibility of seeing the John Butler Trio performing there March 5th. Tickets went on sale at noon Saturday, February 3rd. I got back to the house Saturday afternoon at 12:20 to purchase tickets but I was to late it was sold out. Oh well I messed-up. I checked the John Butler Trio Web site only to learn that the tickets actually went on sale on January 27th through musictoday.com. The local club only gets the tickets that haven't been sold up to that point. This is not mentioned on the World Cafe Web site. I know they probably don't control the ticket sales but they should let you know the real purchase date. Well that's my rant. I don't think any of these problems will hurt them in the long-run as long as they keep the talent coming in. But my wife, the business consultant, believes they will pay in the future if they continue to be mismanaged. We'll see.

tags: Paolo Nutini World Cafe Live Philadelphia University City

Drexel University Men's Basketball Team

Yesterday I saw the Drexel University Men's Baskeball team play Virginia Commonwealth University at the DAC. Drexel lost 75 -68 in a very good game against a perrenial power in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). If you want to see some very good basketball you've got to get down to see Drexel play. You better hurry they only have 4 home games remaining.

Unfortunately, the Dragons didn't have one of their best players, Frank Elegar. Elegar was suspended by the CAA's commissioner, Thomas Yeager, for a flagrant foul he committed at Delaware University on January 20th. For some reason the decision to suspend Elegar wasn't handed down until after their next game against UNC Wilmington on January 24th. Why did it take so long to enforce the suspension? Maybe things really do move more slowly down there.

Could it be that the CAA, located in Richmond, Virginia was deliberately attempting to assist it's hometown team VCU? Drexel should have won the game anyway. Just far to many turnovers. And they can't redeem themselves in the regular season becasue they only play VCU once.

Congratulations to the CAA for keeping the confederacy on top. Couldn't have VCU competing against a team that might beat them if they had their full complement of players. I bet ya'll are down there whistling dixie over this one. "I wish I was in the land of...."

tags: Drexel University Colonial Athletic Association basketball Virginia Commonwealth University

Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System

I attended a free classroom training course on the NIS at the University of Pennsylvania yesterday.NIS consist of 4 applications, neighborhoodBase, parcelBase, crimeBase, and muralBase. The data for the applications, except muralBase, are provided by the City of Philadelphia. Data for muralBase is supplied by the Mural Arts Program.

The training is easy to follow and pretty straightforward. I attended the introductory course, there is also an advanced class. The information is designed for use by non-profit organizations, community groups, and anyone interested in improving their neighborhood.

tags: 19104

the rock garden music program

I have some catching up to do here. My daughter attended a music camp this summer, the rock garden music program, run by Peter Dellaplane. They met at the Crefeld School in Chestnut Hill. At the end of camp they performed at the World Cafe Live Upstairs. It was a great experience for her and I think helped to provide her with a bit of self-confidence. She's already indicated that she would like to attend the camp again next year.

tags: 19118

World Cafe Live

My wife and I went to see Jonatha Brooke on Saturday at the opening of World Cafe Live. It's located on Penn's campus and it's a great venue for music. The upstairs is open 7 days a week with live music everyday. The downstairs seats 300 at tables and a bar. There's a mezzanine with tables and seating, it was closed for a private party so I didn't have a chance to look at it. I think the mezzanine would be my preference for seating.

Tickets were $50 for the show, $40 if you were a member of WXPN. The price does not include dinner. I've heard some of J.B.'s songs on the radio but had not bought any of her CD's. I will now. She was fantastic. Her band was also very good. The yardstick I use for evaluating perofrmers is comparing their live performance to their recordings. She's much better live. At one point Eric Bazilian came out and played two songs with her and the band. They were good together. He's very familiar to folks in Philly because the Hooters were a local band. Back in the day we did some good partying with the twinbill of Cafe Ole and the Hooters.

The dinner part of opening night was incredibly disappointing. As our waiter must have said to us at least 10 times, "but you have to remember it's opening night and we're still working out the kinks." But there's no excuse for not having enough food on opening night. My wife and I came ready to eat good food and listen to good music, in that order. Our waiter was a bit slow and apparently new at his profession. But that is usually forgiven as long as the eats and drinks are sufficiently good and plentiful. It was neither. We ordered a glass of Chardonnay at $9 and a glass of Pinoit Noir for $8. The wine was fine but the amount was disappointing. We received 1/3 of a glass. The next time it was 1/4 of a glass. We complained and were told that the manager would be sent over at the break, he never showed.

We ordered dinner and were told we should also order back-ups because they may have run out of our first choice. They didn't have either of our choices on their limited menu. We then received our appetizers, one of which we did not order, but we accepted it because we were hungry. The crab cake appetizers were $14 a serving. It was somewhat dry. The hommous with crispy wedges of pita bread cost $7. It was O.K. but the size of the serving was small. In the end we ordered 5 glasses of wine and 3 appetizers. Our bill before tip was $79.

Next time I'll try the upstairs cafe. For my wife's view of the concert and dining experience check out her blog.

tags: 19104