Events
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Visit California Wineries the Classy Way with San Diego Beer, Wine & Spirits Tour
Story, photos/videos by Cassie Hepler Did you know that San Diego, California wineries are the original real deal booze in the valley? Everybody talks about Napa Valley being the first but that’s just not true! It all began in sunny San Diego with those horrible jug wines, which now have a private label for some of their fancier brands. That was just one of the interesting facts we discovered on our San Diego Beer, Wine & Spirits Tour with total chill Californian tour guide Diana. Another tasty morsel of information is that California produces 90 percent of the wine for the United States which is mind boggling! To be immersed in…
- Dessert, Drink, Entertainment, Events, Explore with Cassie, Fashion, Food, Latest News, Restaurants, Style
Philly Restaurant and Bar BLUME Blooms at VIP Preview Party
Photos, story by Sharon Kozden Growing restaurant mogul Teddy Sourias and Craft Concepts Group unveiled Blume, their latest restaurant and bar concept during a VIP preview bash on a warm April evening. Located in Rittenhouse on the former site of Cinder, Copper & Lace, Blume drew crowds eager to pose before its window’s larger-than-life, Peter Max-like colorful butterfly decal. Inside, a ceiling covered in plants and bearing the establishment’s name twice as nice and in lights hovers over a relaxing banquette seating area. Between décor design elements (don’t miss the wall of realistic roses!), that are both whimsical and sophisticated, Blume is Philly’s summertime hot spot to be, sipping cocktails,…
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Mayor’s Masked Ball at Philadelphia’s Convention Center Raises Over $760,000 for UNCF
Philadelphia’s Convention Center boasts escalators of amusement park-ride proportions. Story, photos by Sharon Kozden “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Galas and balls may not be everyone’s (as the Brits say) cuppa char. I, however, would be hard pressed to decline an invite to either. That said, and while the prospect of a evening at home in my comfies, chowing Chinese takeaway and watching a flick in the cuddly company of my fur babies is a thoroughly enticing one, an occasional night on the town offers a desirable change of pace. I relish an opportunity to bust out the glam finery of cocktail dresses and gowns, wield a…
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Fulfill Your Flying Squirrel Fantasies with iFLY Indoor Skydiving
Story by Cassie Hepler, video by Suburban Men Who hasn’t had a dream of flying? If you haven’t, that’s weird and a bummer. Ever since I was like 5 years old, I would have a consistent dream of being chased through the jungle by a lion, falling off a cliff and stopping short of the bug-like smush on the ground for a good chunk of my youth. As an adult, it morphed into flying yogi cross-legged style through the air always to an old farmhouse. Where this farmhouse exists I have yet to learn however looking forward to finding it someday! Alas, I digress. But the need to fly through…
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Hopping into Spring with Fishtown Hops at Sugarhouse Casino in Philadelphia, PA
Story, photos by David Krakow It is of course a paragon of journalistic integrity that one should not write a subjective story infected by mood. If I had just finished a knock down, drag ’em out with my wife or boss, I probably wouldn’t turn around five minutes later and pen a piece on mindfulness. It was with this potential conflict in mind that I gritted my teeth while staring at an uninspiring plate of nachos during a recent Saturday night visit to the new Fishtown Hops. The conflict? On this particular afternoon, most of the many television sets above the bar and seating areas were showing a playoff game…
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WXPN’s Xponential Music Festival is Summer Staple in Camden, New Jersey
Story, photos by David Krakow Ah festivals. The all-you-can-eat buffets of concert going. Although I’m of an age where folks went to concerts mostly and festivals hardly at all, they do hold a special place. I was living in San Francisco at the beginning of the 1990s and was able to jump on the Lollapalooza bandwagon with such folks as guiding spirits Jane’s Addiction, Alice In Chains and some new Seattle quintet called Pearl Jam. Later that decade I moved to New Orleans and took in two Jazzfests. By that time they were already as much pop and rock fests as jazz fests but any musical fest in New Orleans…
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Catch a Buzz at PA’s Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences Boozy Botanicals Art Deco-Era Event
Whatever lies behind Door 19 must be more mysterious than anything in the proverbial door numbers one, two or three. Story, photos by Sharon Kozden “Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.” — John Dewey I suspected that I was in for a wild night at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University‘s Door 19 event, cleverly named Boozy Botanicals. My vivid imagination envisioned scenes straight out of Little Shop of Horrors, all man-eating plants and specialty cocktails infused with the likes of stinging nettles or mugwort, ferns and fronds serving as swizzle sticks. Maybe my previous assignment at the Academy (Xtreme Bugs, featuring…
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Experience Best of Times, Wurst of Times at Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant in Phoenixville, PA
Foodies will pretty much follow anything that leads to food. Story, photos by Sharon Kozden Achtung! Attention, that is and full disclosure: I’m apparently intolerant of craft brews, which I discovered at the wurst of times, namely Oktoberfest. This would ordinarily be of no concern; however and just prior to learning of my sensitivity to these more potent beers, I accepted an assignment at Phoenixville, PA‘s Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant. Did I mention the event was a celebration of Oktoberfest (clearly not a big month for beer consumption)? To compound the irony, I reside in Phoenixville, where such boozy establishments saturate the Borough. Since I’d never encountered an issue…
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Restore Medical Marijuana Center Opens Second Cannabis Dispensary in Elkins Park, PA
Extracts, capsules, serums, salves, liquids via syringe and tinctures make for a variety of choices of one of Restore’s featured brands. Story, photos by Sharon Kozden Restore Integrative Wellness Center has done it again! They opened a second medical marijuana dispensary on Old York Road in Elkins Park, PA this fall. Restore has the distinction of being Philadelphia’s very first such outlet, when its premier location was launched in the spring of 2018 in Philly’s Fishtown section (just across from the Fillmore). Both dispensaries are similar in size and staff, all of whom are at the ready to dispense not only product but a wealth of information and knowledge. A…
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Philadelphia Film Center Rolls Out Red Carpet for Paul Dano, Screens Directorial Debut of ‘WILDLIFE’
The theater formerly known as the Prince Theater was renamed; marquee now boasts new signage. “And there are words, significant words, you do not want to say, words that account for busted-up lives, words that try to fix something ruined that shouldn’t be ruined and no one wanted ruined, and that words can’t fix anything. Telling.” – Richard Ford, Wildlife Story, photos by Sharon Kozden The 2019 Academy Awards are in the bag, the suspense over until next year. Your personal favorites either won iconic trophy statuettes or were left out of the picture. For the record, I was disappointed over Glenn Close’s loss. And yet, one of the best things…
