Inqlings: Robin's bookstore to be 'salon'

Here's the next chapter in the saga of Robin's Bookstore:

When we checked in last month, the 72-year-old shop on 13th Street just off Sansom, believed to be Philly's oldest independent book seller, was to move upstairs into a smaller space at the end of January.

The plot continues with neighbors

Marcie Turney

and

Valerie Safran

, who own the restaurants Lolita and Bindi, the retail shop Open House and the market Grocer - all on 13th between Chestnut and Sansom - taking over Robin's ground floor.

On one side of the property, next to Lolita, they will open an urban flower/garden shop called Verde, where Turney also will sell a line of truffles and other confections. The couple, hoping to open May 1, plan to rent out the other side.

Robin's, which will have a new entrance, is getting out of the new-book business, says owner

Larry Robin

, who plans to open upstairs in February. The new operation will have a space for used books, signings, readings and performances. "I consider it a cultural salon," Robin says.

NBC10 has finally gone HD, and this means full-time work for makeup artist

Carie Brescia

, who has been rehearsing with NBC10 anchors and some reporters. High-def "shows everything - like you're standing right in front of the person," says Brescia, who says most of the newsies' mugs were in good shape. She steered afternoon anchor

Jamison Uhler

, for example, into a slightly darker concealer. Brescia favors false eyelashes for the women - "they make the eyes pop" - but morning anchor

Aditi Roy

says she is not convinced they're worth the 10- or 15-minute installation if there's a chance one will fall off. Somebody, call OSHA.

Saying he wants to do his own thing, chef

Matthew Levin

has vacated the Rittenhouse Hotel's Lacroix restaurant after two years. Levin, a Culinary Institute grad, says he has a financial backer for a restaurant; location is still secret. Chef de cuisine

Jason Chichonski

is running Lacroix for now.

Not long after being laid off from his art director's post at Philadelphia Style mag,

Jesse Southerland

has landed as associate art director at Philadelphia Magazine.

As CN8 winds down on its way to becoming the Comcast Network, today marks the last day of live production on

Art Fennell Reports

and

Money Matters Today

with

Mary Caraccioli

; the last live

Your Morning

with

Connie Colla

and

Greg Coy

will be tomorrow. A Comcast spokesman said that Fennell's and Caraccioli's shows would go into reruns and that paid programming would replace

Your Money

until new programming - not yet announced - begins in January. The last live

It's Your Call

with

Lynn Doyle

will be next Thursday; it will go to a half-hour taped show in January. Doyle, Fennell,

Larry Kane

and

Robert Traynham

will be part of the Comcast Network.

CBS3 will air a holiday special of local attractions from 7 to 8 p.m. today;

Kathy Orr

and

Doug Kammerer host

.

The four

Von Trapp

children and their father, here to perform with the

Philly Pops

, toured Eastern State Penitentiary in Fairmount yesterday. They expressed horror when they learned that prisoners in solitary were not allowed to sing. Not even a little "Lonely Goatherd"?