Gig

For the five men reluctantly confronting midlife regrets and recriminations in The Gig, it's more than the chance of a lifetime. It's the opportunity to spend a vacation doing "a real job. " They are dentists and used-car salesmen so mired in routine that they look out at the world from a chin-deep rut. Their one solace is the four hours they spend together each week playing Dixieland jazz of decent, but still amateur, caliber. The chance offer of a gig - two weeks as genuine professionals at Paradise Manor in the Catskills - promises more than a fortnight's freedom in Frank Gilroy's charming and accomplished comedy.

Brian Eno said of the Velvet Underground that while only a thousand people purchased its 1967 debut, every buyer started a band because of it. The same can be said - minus 100 - of The Red Krayola. Mayo Thompson invented a brand of psychedelic rock and avant-garde folk touched by politically informed lyricism when his Texan ensemble released Parable of Arable Land. That debut has inspired the current vanguard of freak-folkies. Thompson's latter-day experiments in post-punk, too, influenced rock's new avant garde, from Tortoise to Gastr del Sol. Without nostalgia to guide or weigh him, Thompson - guitarist and singer - delved into his catalog for a rare Krayola gig at International House on Thursday, with Tortoise drummer John McEntire and Gastr guitarist-singer David Grubbs.

FOR ANYONE else, being a morning-drive radio personality in Philadelphia would simply be a great job. For Larry Mendte, being the co-host of WWIQ-FM's "Philly's Morning News" is exponentially more significant. The gig, which Mendte started when the station signed on earlier this spring, represents a chance to atone for the unseemly scandal that was ignited when it came out publicly that he had hacked the email account of Alycia Lane, his former news co-anchor at CBS3. "Because of my missteps and because of my great mistake, this is a chance at career redemption," said Mendte, who served six months on house arrest after being convicted in late 2008 of the digital snooping.

Nobody's more amazed than Suzie Brown at how music has changed her life. Tomorrow night at Tin Angel, she'll be onstage, long dark hair, dark eyes, sweetly singing her love songs about mixed messages and tender feelings. But just last week, a decade of dedication finally landed her in another heartfelt gig - talking arteries and angina, statins and EKGs with patients three days a week at Albert Einstein Medical Center. Becoming a cardiologist - not surprising for a daughter of two doctors.

Andrea Patrick says fiance Fabian keeps asking her, "Now what time is that gig on the 19th?" Hey, that's no gig, that's his wedding. After almost seven years of courtship, the 1980 Miss Pennsylvania and the 1950s South Philly singing phenom plan to wed a week from tomorrow. Patrick told us that she and Fabian, who share a home outside Los Angeles, met while she was jogging and he was walking a dog early one morning. "This really ferocious-looking dog comes sniffing up to me and Fabian said, 'Don't worry about Louie.

A week in the life of a free-lance West Coast jazzman: Phone rings in the Agoura, Calif., home of reedman Vince Trombetta. It's a bandleader who has a gig for him. Catch: the job's a one-nighter in Cherry Hill, N.J. The guy's mysterious about the nature of the gig, though he specifies a tuxedo and enumerates the instruments required. But the bread's good and the transportation's prepaid. "Look at it this way," urges the bringer of jobs, "it's a free ride home. " (Trombetta, see, left Port Richmond for Lotusland a dozen years back but has legions of relatives and friends in these parts.

Heads should have rolled backstage after Des'ree's concert Friday night at South Street's Theater of Living Arts. It was an important show for her. Although her second visit to Philadelphia (she opened for Seal last fall), this was her first stateside appearance "under her own steam," as she put it. Representatives from her record label (Sony 550) were among the packed house providing added pressure to shine. But from the sound of hissing, popping speakers and temperamental mikes, her technical crew couldn't quite get it together.

Carl Cox has played some big gigs. A year ago, as a high school junior, he was named first-chair saxophone in the New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble and in the New Jersey All-State Wind Ensemble - more or less an acknowledgment that he was the state's best teenage saxophonist. Last summer, he went to the by-invite-only Governor's School of the Arts at Trenton State College. He even has a CD out (well, one was made of the all-state band's Atlantic City concert). And he wants to make music his life, go to New York, make it big. But Cox, 17, is finding out that it is the little gigs that can be, as they say in jazz circles, just lights out - literally.

It's become pretty obvious that in this place and time, there is but one Queen Bee. And her name is Oprah. The rest of us are just drones. So when it was announced this week that an Oprah-themed gift shop is being built across the street from the talk-show tsarina's Chicago studio, the venture struck me as a rare failure of imagination for the Winfrey empire. Oprah playing cards, stationery, key chains and calendars? Come on, that's small potatoes for such a towering and beloved figure.

"SEPARATE but equal" may not fly as far as our nation's educational system is concerned, but it's working out fine for Dito van Reigersberg and his alter ego, Martha Graham Cracker. Van Reigersberg, 40, is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Philly's acclaimed Pig Iron Theatre. Martha Graham Cracker is the drag queen he has portrayed, mostly in cabaret shows, for the past eight years. And, it appears, never will the twain meet. "It's different," said van Reigersberg during a recent chat.

A SEISMIC SHIFT is occurring in the entertainment firmament. Justin Bieber has been booed in London. The Biebs, who's 19 now but sings to a legion of girls just a few years removed from "Sesame Street," apologized Tuesday to his young fans - and their PO'd parents - after they accused him of taking the stage inconsiderately late for a concert. Bieber insisted that he was only 40 minutes behind schedule, and blamed "technical issues," but show time on the ticket for his roughly 90-minute gig was 8:30 (the O2 Arena said that he was due to go on at 9:30)

It used to be that everybody had one: A Polish/Ukrainian/Jewish/Italian uncle who embarrassed you by playing the accordion at family functions. After all, weren't those things just for Mummers? Times are changing: Liberty Bellows, the one-stop accordion shop and school in the Italian Market, is moving in February to get a bigger showroom and a performance space. In the last 10 years, the 64-year-old Acme Accordion School in Haddon Township - yup, there is one - has seen a steady increase in students in their 20s. And as Bruce Springsteen and Arcade Fire incorporate accordions into their repertoire, the squeeze box is turning into a tool of cool.

MORNING HOST Bill Anderson , of 900 WURD-AM, is expected to announce on his Wednesday "Wake Up With Bill" show that Friday will be his last day at the station. Anderson, a former Daily News Sexy Single, has told friends he will be dabbling in television in the near future. He appears regularly on Fox 29's "Good Day" but denies that's where he's going. "I wish I could say more, but I really can't," Anderson said Tuesday. "The decision to leave was mine, and the station has been great about supporting my decision.

It was a Ford Econoline Van, the flat-front version. Alki Steriopoulos was 20, driving that van. Full tank, empty head. That empty head cobwebbed with fatigue, because it was New Year's Day and he'd been up all night playing piano in a band, then partying with a girl he'd met that night, then scrambling into that van to drive from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis and another gig. Came within inches of driving that van into the back end of a gasoline tanker...

LOVE, IT'S been noted, is lovelier the second time around. But how about being Fox29's sports director and lead fun-and-games anchor? "It's intriguing the second time around," said sports-broadcasting titan Howard Eskin who, earlier this month, began his second tour of duty at the local Fox outlet. "Is [it] better the second time around? It was great both times. " The 61-year-old mouth that roars, who appears weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m., was initially seen on Channel 29 between 1986 and 1991, when he served as the first sports anchor-director on the station's then-groundbreaking "Ten O'Clock News.

She of the black perfume, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame- preserved meat dress, and more outlandish costumes than a Halloween superstore in Vegas won't stage her Philly concert until February, but tickets go on sale Friday. The gig is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the Wells Fargo Center, with prices ranging from $49.50 to $175. Eight other U.S. and Canadian dates on her Born This Way Ball tour, including Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall on March 2, will also be up for grabs at 10 a.m. through www.LiveNation.com . The other gigs: Vancouver, Jan. 11. San Jose, Calif., Jan. 17. Los Angeles, Jan. 20. Las Vegas, Jan 25. Toronto, Feb. 8. Chicago, Feb. 13. Washington, D.C., Feb. 25. Two New York performances are among nine that go on sale at 10 a.m. Sept.

NORTH PHILADELPHIA's Raheem Jefferson of Black Box Promotions has sued rappers Juelz Santana and Jim Jones and a publicist/booking agent named Lynn Hobson in Common Pleas Court. The suit alleges that the artists showed up late for an April 2010 concert at the Legendary Blue Horizon, drank Moet champagne backstage . . . and then never performed. Hobson's firm, HobbieCom, got a $12,500 deposit up front and additional money the day of the show, the complaint states.

"I THINK IT'S awesome how Philly's become such a vegan-friendly place," said Kate Jacoby, likely one of the two people in town most responsible for that happening. With her husband, Rich Landau, Jacoby was co-owner of Horizons, a trailblazing vegan restaurant at 7th and Kater streets that closed a year ago this weekend. From its origins in 1994 as a natural-foods juice stand in Willow Grove, Horizons evolved over the years and in 2006 moved into Philadelphia, forever altering the local conversation about vegan dining.

FOR ANYONE else, being a morning-drive radio personality in Philadelphia would simply be a great job. For Larry Mendte, being the co-host of WWIQ-FM's "Philly's Morning News" is exponentially more significant. The gig, which Mendte started when the station signed on earlier this spring, represents a chance to atone for the unseemly scandal that was ignited when it came out publicly that he had hacked the email account of Alycia Lane, his former news co-anchor at CBS3. "Because of my missteps and because of my great mistake, this is a chance at career redemption," said Mendte, who served six months on house arrest after being convicted in late 2008 of the digital snooping.