Welcome to Philly’s first full week of mandated unmasking. Or no mask mandates. Or truly boldfaced all-around public de-masking not unlike, say, when The Batman gets knocked out, and the bad guys tentatively start to strip off his mask only to get punched in the face.
There’s something not right about it. Because not everyone is truly comfortable being unmasked and moving within six feet of each other on the regular. I know that I’m not quite that comfortable, yet, being stripped of my mask and I need all of you to take a step back when in my space (six feet works, thanks), but that’s forever-a-me thing.
So, the masks are off everywhere. Even the bottom of Boldface, weekly – Masked Philly – now becomes a personality piece about local celebs and what they do in their non-celeb off-hours. Also, like The Batman, I like to think that if we need them, the masks will be back when some guy at City Hall flashes the signal. I don’t know where Kenney or Outlaw’s going to get a giant mask insignia, but first-things-first.
Sticking with The Batman theme, as far as villains go, what is going on with Ben Simmons? Like The Riddler, but without the giggling fits, we figured we put Simmons in the Arkham Asylum of basketball teams, the Brooklyn Nets, so that we wouldn’t hear his passive-aggressive whining until the sequel. Nah. Simmons-being-Simmons, rather than play against his 76ers ex-teammates on Thursday – with its new Commissioner Gordon, James Harden – Ben’s getting ready to air his grievances, after having been fined around $20 million by the Sixers for non-playing contractual obligations. Simmons’ Klutch Sports representation, The Penguin of our story, blames Philly work conditions for heightening Ben’s mental health issues which led to his inability to play. Does Alfred, the voice of reason at Wayne Manor, have a solution that doesn’t include saying something incredibly rude and unprintable for Simmons?
I’ll extend The Batman allegories just one more time to include Catwoman and tell you how the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders will start a search for 2022 season candidates. They’ll hold workshops March 15 (in person at the Linc) and March 16 on Zoom (check eaglescheerauditions.com for info and Zoom links) with formal Virtual Open Call Auditions on March 12. Expect to hear “Fly Eagles Fly” a lot.
By the way, not everything ‘Brooklyn’ is lousy: the NYC borough’s Other Half Brewing is opening a dive bar in Fishtown at what used to be the (now-closed) Goose Island Brewhouse. Just change the pipes, and scrape the old insignias off the mugs. Plus, Paulie Gee‘s pizza palace in Brooklyn at Greenpoint Ave. is opening a local slice room on S. 13th in Wash Square West at the address of the old Amis Trattoria.
Pouring out a 40 for the late, great North Broad Jimmy G’s cheesesteak-ery which shuttered during the pandemic, now means welcoming a funky-but-industrialized-chic apartment building erected in its place.
Philly’s Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast, doesn’t often verbalize his enthusiasm much – maybe for the upwards-moving number at Xfinity or a solid lunch at Jean-Georges. On Monday, however, he went wild over J-Lo and the Fresh Prince during Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (I know, its not sexy, but it’s an answer) “We launched a movie on Valentine’s Day, ‘Marry Me,’ our day-and-date the most-streamed movie we’ve had… And we launched a new drama, ‘Bel-Air,’ and it was the most-streamed new show we’ve had.” Both are on Roberts’s Peacock streamer. Good. Good. Another streamer, Amazon, just gave play to another local icon when Hari Nef – the first openly transgender woman signed to IMG Models and daughter of Philly ad exec David Neff – came out as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s nemesis, mean columnist L. Roy Dunham. Nef is also an author, and has previously starred-on-and produced for Assassination Nation and Transparent.
Unmasked Philly: Jesse Lundy
So, we’ll let you know if this changes (though you’ll know as much about this when I do), but my usual Masked Philly section now becomes Unmasked Philly and will discuss the hidden selves and inner workings behind local celebs. This week, Jesse Lundy: owner-booker-promoter-talent buyer of Point Entertainment, which works the glut of independent live music rooms in the area. He booked the Philadelphia Folk Fest, the Point in Bryn Mawr, he taught at Drexel, and – like that USPS commercial, Jesse’s been everywhere, man.
But who is Jesse Lundy in his private time? When he’s not booking, yelling at musicians and being yelled at by other musicians, he is… a musician.
“It’s exciting to be at a place where we can leave the house again,” says Lundy, a guitarist who all-but-stopped playing during the pandemic, even selling off a good portion of his six-string collection, “as I never knew if there’d be more paychecks, if we’d have to go hunting for squirrels to eat, or we’d ever have clubs or scenes in which to return.”
Now, Lundy is back, band-practicing like he did in 1995, with his still-unnamed trio with buddies Chris Bicksler and Alec Meltzer. “Playing guitar is how I identify myself when not being a concert promoter,” says Lundy who just bought a new Gibson Firebird 1. “I’ve played two gigs since March 2020 so I’m happy to do it again soon.”
Lundy is also toying with a live music project, featuring vocalist Nik Greely, that blues-ifies Grateful Dead covers. Bravo. Plus, when the pandemic hit, Lundy (who “saved everything”) wrangled his voluminous vinyl/CD music and promo tchotchke collection, cataloged it and turned it into a “side hustle” of which you can buy at Discogs (discogs.com/jesselun). “It started as a desperation move, turned into something satisfying and satisfies my OCD need to do things I can’t screw up.”
Immediately for Lundy is the double show-benefits he’s booked and co-curated for our friend, band manager and fellow live booker, Derek Dorsey.
“Derek’s a bud to the music scene forever,” says Lundy. “It’s a small group of people and dude needs help.” Suddenly plagued with a rare neurological disease (trigeminal neuralgia) and facing continuous excruciating pain, Dorsey needs financial and medical assistance. Do it. Dorsey has great karma coming to him as he never turned down anyone during his time running The Fire in need of a benefit.
So, Lundy has booked two charitable events for Dorsey—March 13’s singer-songwriter night, “We Live On” (starring Andrew Lipke, Toby + Zach from Dr. Dog, Ben Arnold) and March 15’s R&B and hip hop showcase, “For the Soul of It” (with Talib Kweli, Karl “Dice Raw” Jenkins and Schoolly D.), both at Ardmore Music Hall.
“Because he’s got roots in all live music in the area, Derek’s the one who got these artists to do this – not because he pushed, but because he is who he is to this community. Call it a royal command performance. Everyone wanted in. Everybody wants to support brother Derek.”
