Month: September 2020

Greg Seltzer – The Man Behind Philly Music Fest

September 15, 2020 Authors, Entertainment, Music, Writers 00:39:35

He’s a CPA, mergers & acquisitions attorney, author, and founder of the Philly Music Fest. He is Greg Seltzer and he’s our guest on this episode of The Philly Blunt.

By day, Greg Seltzer is a major player in the world of mergers and acquisition law. By night, he’s an author of two books The 1965 Project: The Intersection of History and Music in 1965 and The 1968 Project: The Intersection of History and Music in 1968 and the man behind the annual Philly Music Fest.

Philly Music Fest is unlike any other music festival in the country in that it is a multi-day multi-venue festival exclusively featuring bands with Philadelphia connections. Local food and drink companies provide all the beverages and food during the festival. All the proceeds from the event go to local music-education programs throughout the Philly area.

The 2020 version of the Philly Music Fest will be live performances live-streamed from the Ardmore Music Hall on September 24th and 25th.

Greg sits with us to discuss how the Philly Music Fest came to fruition, the difficulties of organizing a music festival during a pandemic, his work in negotiating a lease between the NHL and Citizens Bank Park for the Winter Classic hockey game, his discovery of jazz in State College, and how historical events shape the music released in the years following.

During the Blunt Round, Greg discloses the amount of Phish shows he’s attended and it’s a pretty ridiculous number, as well as some local bands and artists that we all should be listening to these days.

LINKS:
Philly Music Fest: www/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter

Inga Saffron – Pulitzer Prize-Winning Architecture Critic

September 15, 2020 Authors, Entertainment, Writers 00:39:04

Inga Saffron came to Philadelphia in 1985 to work as the Philadelphia Inquirer as a Suburban Reporter. She spent five years as the Inquirer’s Eastern European correspondent and eventually became their architecture critic in 1999. Since then, she’s been writing about Philadelphia’s changing skyline and neighborhoods. In 2014 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for her work at the Inquirer.

Inga sat with us just after the news broke of the 76ers submitting a development proposal for Penn’s Landing. She provides great insight on that proposal and what the future development of Penn’s Landing might and should look like. We discuss how the city can develop Penn’s Landing while keeping it a destination that the general public can continue to utilize.

Tax breaks are always in discussions when developers approach the city. Inga shares talks about the possibilities of tax breaks and whether or not the city still needs these tax breaks or abatements at this point.

She talks about the immediate and long-term effects that working from home has on center city life and businesses, her mellowing-out on the Philly Mural Arts Program, her hatred of large video screens around town, and whether or not streeteries and cafe dining is her to stay in the Philly.

Inga even shares with us her teenage crush and favorite city takeout joints during COVID-19 in the Blunt Round.

She has a new book out called Becoming Philadelphia that you can purchase HERE.

LINKS:
Twitter/Instagram/Inquirer