Somewhere along Route 11, upstate New York, last week by JEFF FUSCO
Texting While Walking Is Not Illegal In Philadelphia; Cops WILL NOT Start Issuing $120 Tickets
CBS PHILADELPHIA: The program, dubbed “Give Respect, Get Respect,” was launched at the beginning of May, aimed at reining in bad behavior by motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians in Center City (see previous story). Since then, some tickets, but mostly warnings have been handed out. But Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler says starting in August, more citations will be issued. Pedestrians who text while they walk without looking ahead will also be targeted. The citations include $120 fines. MORE PHAWKER: Oh for fuck sakes! Of all the unsolved crime in this city, THIS is a priority? Really? Sixteen THOUSAND people have been […]
IT’S ALWAYS RUMMY IN PHILADELPHIA: Q&A with Brian McManus, Noted Author & Professional Drinker
Whenever we recall our gloriously misspent season in the dives, aka our 20s, we remember the good times, and those that served, and those that gave their lives, and those lines from Howl: “Who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night…who sank all night in submarine light of Bickford’s floated out and sat through the stale beer afternoon in desolate Fugazzi’s, listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox.” For one long, blurry, Bukowskian year, PW Food and Music editor Brian McManus was living those words. […]
BLOOD ON THE HACKS: Whistleblower At The Center Of The Murdoch Phone Hacking Scandal Found Dead
[Artwork byIAN DAVID MARSDEN] THE GUARDIAN: Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege [former News Of The World Editor/spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron] Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned. According to a police statement: “The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing.” Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the […]
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT: Phawker Scoop Triggers A Front Page Story In The Philadelphia Inquirer
INQUIRER: Signs of Jamaica abound at the Penn Relays, the 116-year-old track-and-field festival held each April in Philadelphia. Food carts sizzle with jerk chicken. Fans sporting the green, yellow, and black of the Caribbean nation’s flag sit together at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field, and roar. Each year about 40 teams are drawn from more than two dozen Jamaican high schools, with an additional four to six club teams composed of older runners. Now, however, it seems that some Jamaicans who applied for visas to compete in the Relays in years past were “mala fide applicants . . . […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ long-awaited collaboration The Harrow and the Harvest came out in June, marking an almost eight-year wait for fans of their 2003 album Soul Journey. The 10 songs that make up the new album deal with some heavy subjects: identity, loss, unfulfilled expectations, death and desperation. “We’ve kind of half-jokingly said that this record is 10 different kinds of sad,” Welch tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “And there are 10 songs on it.” On today’s Fresh Air, Welch and Rawlings perform an in-studio concert featuring several songs from The Harrow and the Harvest, and […]
ANNIVERSARY: Frank Rizzo Still Making ‘Atilla The Hun Look Like A Faggot’* 20 Years After Death
INQUIRER: The crowd surrounding the Frank L. Rizzo statue Saturday afternoon seemed to be in a time warp, as the former Philadelphia mayor’s entourage and admirers came out to pay their respects. The Quaker City String Band played as dignitaries arrived on foot and in cars, some following the motorcade that came down Broad Street from Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham to the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall. Saturday marked 20 years since Rizzo died of a heart attack while campaigning for a third term as mayor, a job he had held from 1972 to 1980. Even in […]
THE FRACKING SONG: My Water’s On Fire Tonight
RELATED: Talisman Terry, the “friendly Fracosaurus” star of a coloring book published by Talisman Energy, will no longer explain the natural gas drilling process to youngsters after the company announced plans today to stop distribution of the controversial children’s book. “Talisman Terry’s Energy Adventure” was a 24-page booklet that explained natural gas drilling in kid-friendly fashion and could be downloaded from the Calgary-based energy company’s website. It had been distributed at community fairs in northeastern Pennsylvania through the company’s Good Neighbor program. Talisman Terry’s message is overt and unapologetic: drilling for natural gas in formations like the Marcellus Shale is […]
MURDOCHALYPSE NOW: Rebekah Brooks Arrested By Police; Chief Of Scotland Yard Resigns In Disgrace
[Artwork by SSOOSAY] NEW YORK TIMES: Earlier Sunday, the British police took Ms. Brooks, 43, into custody after she arrived at a London police station by appointment. The timing, two days before a separate parliamentary inquiry into the crisis, drew a skeptical response from opposition lawmakers who said the arrest might inhibit Ms. Brooks’s ability or readiness to testify before the panel while she is the subject of police inquiries. David Wilson, a lawyer representing Ms. Brooks, said she “maintains her innocence, absolutely.” It was the latest twist in a series of events that has transformed Mr. Murdoch from a […]
HOPELESS: Obama Caves On Elizabeth Warren Who Is Reportedly Mulling Running Against Scott Brown
HUFFINGTON POST: Wall Street Journal report on Friday that Obama was not expected to nominate Elizabeth Warren, who was instrumental in setting up the agency but faced stalwart opposition from Republicans. Elizabeth Warren confirmed the news of Cordray’s nomination in a statement to The Huffington Post. “Rich has always had my strong support because he is tough and he is smart-and that’s exactly the combination this new agency needs,” she said. “He was one of the first senior leaders I recruited for the agency, and his work and commitment have made it clear that he will make a stellar director.” […]
MY AWESOME GEEZER CONCERT ADVENTURE: A Perfect Circle At The Festival Pier Saturday Night
BY MIKE WOLVERTON In a parallel universe, A Perfect Circle would be Rock-and-Roll Gods, appealing in equal measure to metal meatheads, pretentious art-rockers and even the ladies. But in this universe, A Perfect Circle has a problem. Their dynamic singer, Maynard James Keenan, is also the frontman for a much bigger band (Tool), which is his top priority. That means that while Tool is recording or touring, A Perfect Circle is stuck in a holding pattern, working around Keenan’s availability. The excellent debut album (2000’s Mer de Noms) was followed in 2003 by the fantastic Thirteenth Step. A year later […]
EATING: The Second (Or Third) Coming Of Neil Stein
[Photo by BRADLEY MAULE] FOOBOOZ: Once one of Philadelphia’s most talked about restaurateurs, Neil Stein has spent his time rather quietly since his January 2007 release from SCI Schuylkill, where he served a yearlong sentence for tax evasion and wrote about the prison food. But now the man who was at the helm of a restaurant revolution and brought us the concept of outdoor dining is ready for his comeback. This morning, Stein confirmed that he plans to open a restaurant at 1801 JFK, a space currently occupied City Garden, the Chinese restaurant. MORE RELATED: There’s an old saying: You […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: No More Mr. Nice Guy
Above: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act, BY WILLIAM C. HENRY What with all the fabrication, phoniness, and out and out fiction being farted forth from the mouths of Boehner/Cantor et al. vis-a-vis the budget balancing/deficit reduction stalemate, there couldn’t possibly be a more perfect time for some good old fashioned fiscal “factualizing.” Here we go. R E A D M Y L I P S America: Social Security has never added ONE PENNY to the deficit! Not one fucking red cent! And, ANYONE who tells you that we can’t afford to maintain Social Security […]