My Town: South Philly
Marah Goes To the Heart of It
If it’s true that the music industry can be messy, Marah -- “the best rock band you’ve never heard,” as the press oft describes them -- is living proof. The Philly-bred, brothers-led band with a scruffy, soulful, salt-of-the-earth sound has been climbing and then slipping down the ladder to international success since the late ‘90s. Along the way, they’ve acquired devoted fans in high places, like Bruce Springsteen (who recorded a song with them on their 2002 album Float Away With The Friday Night Gods), Steve Earle (who signed them to his Artemis Records in 2000), horror writer Stephen King, and Nick “High Fidelity” Hornby, who wrote a gushing Op-Ed piece on them in the NY Times two years back. But still, Marah has yet to make it big. That is, beyond South Philly, the blue-collar Italian suburb where brothers Serge and Dave Bielanko are considered the best thing since Sinatra.
Here, Serge and Dave discuss what they think are the best things about their old stomping grounds of South Philly. Take it all with a grain of salt from the Soft Pretzel Factory:
Anthony’s Italian Coffee House
We have one certain table we always sit at, and we sit for hours, drinking coffee, pontificating…We’ve finished a lot of songs there. It’s a good place to finish songs. And, it’s in the Italian market, one of the coolest open-air markets on the East Coast. There’s a lot of soul there.
South Philly Taproom
They host our after-parties when we play shows in Philly. It’s close to where we rehearse, and they have a bunch of Marah on the jukebox. It’s a really cool place with amazing food. They put it in a neighborhood that has no business having a nice bar and restaurant. The area’s really rundown, but it’s cool. It’s a secret part of town – you’re not gonna see any tourists going there.
Wawa
It’s like 7-11, but cooler. It’s a 24-hour grocery store with a sandwich thing. They have them in D.C. too – but it must be a Philly business because they stretch within a 100-mile radius of the city.
Suit Corner
It’s incredible. Seriously. You can buy a suit there for like $99 -- and it comes with a big hat. And they have alligator shoes too. The suits are all bright blue and orange – like a florescent orange that would be good for deer hunting. There have been times when we’ve gone for nice dinners and have all bought suits there. It’s really tacky, but funny. It’s the last of those stylish nightclubbing shops. Eventually, it’ll be gone.
Soft Pretzel Factory
It’s sort of a new phenomenon, but every night after all the clubs have closed, all the punk-rock kids congregate there, and buy pretzels for 10 cents. They open really early in the morning -- at 4am, the pretzels are just coming out of the oven. It’s something I’ve never indulged in. But if you’re punk-rock or into soft pretzels, you should check it out.
Pier 70
We’re adding a place that doesn’t exist anymore. We used to go catfishing at night here, but they closed it down and won’t let anyone go there anymore because of the nightclub there that collapsed. We wrote a song about it, Cat Fisherman. It was a really cool place.
Go There:
Check out Marah, marah.com; and get their latest album 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, $17, amazon.com
Anthony’s Italian Coffee House, 903 S. 9th Street, (215) 627-2586; anastasiocoffee.com
South Philly Taproom, 1509 Mifflin St., (215) 271-7787; southphiladelphiataproom.com
WAWA, wawa.com
Suit Corner, 300 Market St., (215) 922-4639
Soft Pretzel Factory, 7366 Frankford Avenue; softpretzelfactory.com
Maybe it was our fault for telling US Helicopter not to give them any special treatment -- we wanted an honest road-test! But we never in a million years expected that they would provide the worst service possible by LOSING THEIR LUGGAGE! How on God’s earth, we thought, as we listened to Maggie’s frantic message from the airport, does a tiny helicopter with only a couple of passengers lose luggage? 
Ever since opening its Echo Park doors in 2000, the eclectic, eccentric boutique Show Pony has offered a platform for fledgling designers and artists to showcase their work. “Everything is kind of unnecessary,” says owner Kime Buzzelli. “It’s like a weird lab. There are no rules, no boundaries.”
The approach is working: Buzzelli’s Show Pony has secured an A-list following (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Zooey Deschanel, Rain Phoenix and Sarah Sophie Flicker, to name a few), as well as a new East Coast outpost in downtown Manhattan’s perennially hot vintage store, Screaming Mimi’s. 
Next time you’re on the verge of collapse from the city’s unrelenting summer heat, refer to this list: We’ve picked three swanky hotels (and one better-than-expected Holiday Inn) to have a drink, sit poolside, and pretend you’re hanging out on the Amalfi coast. Some will cost you, some – if you’re slick enough—you can enjoy for free. But, all offer at least some reprieve from what looks to be a hellaciously hot summer. And, who knows, you may want to stay the night.
The QT 
Le Parker Meridien 
Name Some Influences:
Favorite Poets:
Favorite Clothing Store in L.A:
Eighteen months ago, if you watched TV at all, you probably learned about Aleta St. James, who, three days before turning 57, gave birth to twins -- the second oldest woman to do so in the U.S. And, if you ask her how she finally got pregnant after three miscarriages, she’ll claim it was a result of fertility meditations she performed with local shamans in the Amazon jungle and Machu Picchu. 
Then, there’s the trip to Peru, a country St. James first became interested in when she decided to have a baby. “I wanted to connect with the energy of such a primal environment,” she explains. This fall, she’s headed there again with a group for a 10-day spiritual adventure to the ruins of the ancient Inca city, Machu Picchu, and then deep into the Amazon jungle. Here, she discusses the trip’s highlights. In her own words:
Inca Trail
Aikitos
Peter Schneider Lodge
“She is always pulled together in a gracefully laid-back yet kooky way,” stated Mirabelle Marden in Vogue last fall about her Rivington Arms gallery partner, Melissa Bent. “I would agree with that,” says Bent, dressed in a deconstructed Veronique Branquinho sundress and brown leather Rondini sandals. “You can only get them in St. Tropez,” she points out, shoveling chopsticks full of Kelley & Ping pad thai into her mouth.
So, what do you think?
“There aren’t any porn magazines for women, because women aren’t really interested in them,” says Diva Pittala, the Italian co-designer of clothing label Pleasure Principle, who, three years ago, launched Dickbreath along with filmmaker Maximilla Lukacs.
is a pocket-size scrapbook devoted to the silly, stylish, often sick perversions of the downtown set. In the third annual issue, now on newsstands, there are grainy black & white photos of girls straddling skeletons, Snow’s found Polaroids of someone looking like the she-dude in Silence of the Lambs, childlike drawings that Ackermann did with her daughter featuring a cat doing the tango, and pages of fully-charged prose: To rise with this cloth each time slightly touching perhaps even hurting paining a bit – yes to pain more – to ride more on/in – just by this piece of cloth coming up your ass each time ever so slightly yes…
Three months ago, no one this side of the equator knew the difference between Wolfmother and the equally-obscure indie-rock band Wolf Parade. But then, Wolfmother’s self-titled debut album was released in the U.S, and they played South by Southwest, then Coachella. At which point the Australian, ‘70s-style hard-rock trio became known as “that Sabbath-sounding band that’s actually kinda awesome.” Then, Rolling Stone named them one of the “10 Artists To Watch,” Apple picked their howling guitar-riffer “Love Train” for an iPod commercial that started airing last month and hasn’t stopped, every girl wanted their baby, and every guy wanted lead-singer Andrew Stockdale’s afro. Not really. But suffice it to say, they got BIG.
Name Some Influences: 
Best Thing About Blowing Up: 
How do you run a highly successful business and still spend much of your time screwing around? Do like Blinde Optics founder and extreme-sports freak Richard Walker and build a 2,000-square-foot skate bowl in your Nolita showroom (“we only skate from 7pm on,” he assures), work with factories in France and Italy located conveniently close to two of the world’s best snowboarding spots (Chamonix and the Dolomites), strike business deals with wily Australian surfers, and make friends with “storm trackers.”
Walker -- whose slick, sci-fi frames have been worn by Lenny Kravitz, Bono, Madonna, and the cast of The Matrix -- sadly had to move offices last January, and bequeath the skate bowl to Chelsea Piers. But he hasn’t stopped traveling the globe looking for the next big bowl to skate, wave to surf, and immense mountain to snowboard down. Feeling the heat, we asked him where in the world the best surf is. Below, his favorite spots 
New Jersey Shore 
By the time most of us have eaten our second meal of the day sitting at a computer screen, Grayson Fertig, 26, has finished his second highly-intense physical training session. And it won’t be his last before heading home. Such is the daily schedule of a professional bobsledder, who’s also squeezed in an additional career/ultimate male fantasy as a physical trainer at Chelsea Piers for some of the most exquisite female bodies on earth. He asks we don’t disclose who his clients are (you’d be respectful, too, if it meant securing your up-close positioning with sweaty European, Russian, and South American supermodels), but suffice it to say, they fill the pages of Vogue and Sports Illustrated.
Are you feeling awesome?
But the benefits of breathing deep are undeniable…
It’s a Friday night in Paris at Hotel Amour. The ground-level restaurant is “complet,” as the French say. A crowd of Americans have filtered into the courtyard garden for a cocktail; and a couple of Italian girls, who have just devoured macaroni & cheese, green salad and cheeseburgers, are responding to prurient advances from male hotel guests.
Situated in the swanky 9th arrondissement (walking distance between the picturesque streets of Montmartre and the strip clubs of Pigalle), Hotel Amour has become the hot topic of conversation in the City of Lights since opening in May. However, contrary to hearsay, the four-story establishment doesn’t offer any of its 20 rooms on an hourly basis.
A.P.C-dressed staff and free Kiehl’s products: Each of the rooms has been amorously decorated by a selection of artists and designers, including Pierre LeTan, Sophie Calle, and M/M. No two accommodations are alike, and the stylish decor ranges from limited-edition Bearbrick figurines and Larry Clark skateboards, to Terry Richardson photographs, vintage paperback books and ‘70s cult-porno magazines.
There’s a line from a Hits Magazine review, describing the striking sound of Scottish torch singer Angela McCluskey’s vocals. It reads: “[They] will make you remember the first time you heard Miles blow his horn or Billie sing the blues.”
Best known for “Breathe,” the 2003 new age-y aria featured in a Mitsubishi commercial, McCluskey has been making music since 1991, when she came to L.A. as a film publicist by profession and singer in spirit. Along with a friend from London named Shark, she formed the band The Wild Colonials, set up a weekly show at Café Largo, and began attracting a cult following that included Winona Ryder, Bono, Michael Stipe, and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She then collaborated with French band Telepopmusik, released her first solo album entitled “The Things We Do,” realized she’d “lived the American Dream four times now,” and settled into a cozy kind of success.
“I never feel like I have to be The Pop Star,” she admits. “I’m happy selling 100,000 albums, touring a little, and having a life. I’m not willing to give my whole life to it. It’s depressing. Everyone wants a bit of you. You’re always in that hotel room, on a bus, on your own, and the phone isn’t ringing. Guys get the girls, but girls get nobody -- the guys who talk to you are insane; and your best friends are your hair and makeup artists. I’d rather be home watching The Sopranos.”
and L.A. Most recently, it was Brighton, England that piqued her interest. 
As far as dentists go, there are those who breath heavily through their noses and have piles of old Redbooks for reading material, and then there’s Chris Perez, a handsomely unshaven cosmetic dentist, who is considered the guy to go to within the fashion industry. He works out of a groovy chic Soho office complete with art and design publications, wears premium denim (usually 45rpm, but today, Kicking Mule), is married to the senior art director of Ralph Lauren, counts everyone from Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Craig McDean to all the near-perfect Eastern European and European supermodels with not so perfect teeth as his patients, and would rather discuss crazy new tech gadgets than root canals.
How did you discover it?
What’s your favorite feature on the phone?
Despite their bland name, you gotta respect the band The Kin: Here are two brothers, born in Sydney and based in New York, who -- without the help of a record label -- have opened for big acts like Bon Jovi and Men At Work, and played one sold-out show after another (including one last February at Bowery Ballroom where Shakira celebrated her birthday). They’ve also self-produced and self-released four albums, sold over 7,500 units, and amassed a small army of fashionable fans from Tokyo to Toronto. And to be fair, they weren’t always called The Kin. They started out as The Harlequin, a far more interesting name that was shortened because that’s what Aussies do to words.
Click above to watch QuickTime Movie of The Kin's "Go" (4.19 MB)
Rafe Totengco didn’t waste time becoming one of New York’s most acclaimed accessory designers. Four years after launching his eponymous collection in 1995, the Manila-born FIT grad was nominated for the CFDA’s Perry Ellis Accessory Designer Award, only to win Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Award the following year. Since then he’s been accessorizing every stylish It Girl from Karen O. and Daria Werbowy to Lindsay, Mischa, and Eva Longoria. The allure of his designs? A perfect blend of urban-cool and beach ease – much like Rafe himself.
What I love about Boracay is that it’s small, so everything is 5-10 minutes away, the food is reasonably inexpensive and fresh, and the beach is amazing. I have friends who live there, so every time I go it's a bit of a reunion. You can party or chill -- there's something for everyone. You can forget about all your troubles, at least for a little while.
What I love most about Boracay is that it's way off the beaten track. From New York, it takes about 18 hours to get there. It's a little bit of paradise once your feet hit the white sand beaches. Almost immediately, a sense of calm overtakes you and everything else just drifts away. The only thing necessary at that point is a cool green mango shake.
The Iron Army guys have always gone gonzo on their jeans. Years ago, they’d buy used ones, bleach them at laundromats, scrape them with sandpaper, and stitch them back up using their mother’s sewing machines and patches made from old shirting. Today, they’ve found another, highly interactive way to “wear art,” as is their company motto. It entails a 50-yard roll of raw denim and as much partying as possible.
Back in 2000, Todd Ashley and Christian Camargo became the reigning kings of cool when they opened up Fast Ashley’s, a muscle-car dealership/ full photo studio/righteous party space on a yet-to-be-hip strip of Williamsburg. Suddenly, every member of the fashion corps who could drive a stick-shift had them on speed dial.
2. Bullitt - 1968 Mustang Fastback: Only Steve McQueen can look cool in a tweed jacket with elbow patches. 
Around 1903, a pair of selvedge denim jeans only cost 79 cents in the U.S. At that point, the Wright Brothers had just flown for the first time at Kitty Hawk; overalls were the big look, as Levi’s wouldn’t invent belt loops until the ‘20s; and Stronghold, an L.A.-based brand introduced in 1895, was the most popular blue jean maker around.
Come the end of June, Stronghold will open its first shop in an 80-year-old former boxing gym (favored by Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard) on Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice Beach. “This street’s got a big heritage,” explains Paradise of the draw. “There’s a rich art, music and surf scene. Also, Abbot Kinney is a seven-block strip that you can actually walk, which is rare in L.A.” 
Equator Books
Antique surfboards, kitsch-y furniture from the ‘30s and ‘40s that people had at their beach houses back then. The store’s been there a long time. The guy who opened it was a pioneer.
hippest place around.
A new movement in guerrilla marketing is taking hold, and video game heavyweights Rockstar Games are on top of the trend. The modern advertorial recipe for success: offer hipsters and industry insiders a second home stocked with all the free booze, food and entertainment any borderline video game junkie could appreciate.
“It’s just to get girls, really,” joked Hunter -- seated low on a couch, wireless controller in hand -- of his interest in the video game in front of him.
And, despite complaints we’ve heard (one industry insider asked: “Why can’t I throw the paddle, or stick it in somebody’s head?”), Rockstar kept their Table Tennis clean enough for the kiddies. Unlike the notoriously-violent Grand Theft Auto, this one is rated E for Everyone.
Even DJ Clarissa Steed, who at first refused to play on account of finding “video games and table tennis really dorky,” ended up taking part, and winning second place in the tournament.
