what's up the pike: chevy chase bank is dead

It's true - and kind of sad, I have to admit, even though just last week I was telling my local branch manager I'd had it and was about to switch banks. It's a volatile relationship, but the love is there. Anyway:

- The Gazette went up to sunny Philadelphia for a look at the Fillmore at the Theatre of the Living Arts, a music venue gobbled up by the Live Nation empire - the very same people who'll be opening a Fillmore-branded hall in Downtown Silver Spring. The whole point of the Gazette article seemed to be to placate people concerned about increased noise and crime around the new Fillmore - and it doesn't seem like it'll be a problem, given that the Live Nation security are so strict they'll take away your Sharpies:

"Since it's been introduced as the Fillmore, security has become a lot more non-relaxed, a lot more strict," French said. "My favorite memory of going to shows is bringing in a marker to hope to get the bands' signature on the ticket and now you can't even do that."

- Recording label Snail Sounds is creating a tribute album to Barry Louis Polisar, a children's singer-songwriter from Burtonsville who appeared on the Juno soundtrack last year. The twenty-eight songs covered - which span Polisar's decades-long career - have been re-done in different genres, he said in an e-mail to JUTP.

"They've done three different punk-inspired versions of my songs so far and plan to record a couple more for this project," said Polisar. "There's a Klezmer song sung in Yiddish and [my son] did one of my songs as a jazz piece." For more information, check out the Snail Sounds website.

- Just in case you don't already do a great deal of shopping in Rockville at stores we don't have on the east side, our friends along The Other Pike have launched a "Buy Rockville" campaign to bolster the local economy. They'll be on Rockville Central Radio today at noon to talk about it. Our local economy must be quite fine in East County, because the Peterson Companies - the good people who brought you Downtown Silver Spring - told the Post's Marc Fisher that their complex at Ellsworth and Fenton has "the strongest sales of any of its properties" throughout the D.C. area this holiday season.