GUNCRAZY: Murder, Mayhem And The True Blue American Values Of Transgressive Marketing

Five shootings in city just since Tuesday Police so far have no suspects in any of them By CHRISTINE OLLEY The wave of gun violence in the city continued this week with the shootings of five more people – all wounded since Tuesday. The first crime scene unfolded shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday on Larchwood Avenue near 59th Street in West Philadelphia. That’s where cops said they found a 19-year-old man who had been shot once in the right ankle. […] Less than an hour later, detectives were trying to determine why a 25-year-old man was shot twice in the […]

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Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?

This week it’s kind of a no-brainer and besides after last week’s Moby Dick-sized Cover Warz tell-all we’re gonna keep this one short but sweet — for the winner that is. The loser, of course, will spend a week munching the cold and bitter turkey sandwich of shame, doubt and self-recrimination. But please, don’t take it too hard. Remember, this is only a game. And so, onto the commentary: CP laid this bizarre egg of a cover image that looks, best we can tell, like a bird-on-man gang rape to illustrate their WHY PHILLY ACTUALLY SUX self-haterade. Remember City Paper, […]

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THANK YOU FOR SMOKING: Big Pharma Bummed By Dem Congressional Control; Let Us Get Our Violin And Play A Few Bars Of ‘WELCOME TO CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY’ AKA God’s Intended Soundtrack For The Reaping Of Obscene Profits

Drug companies are particularly hungry for Democratic help, including the industry’s trade association. “We woke up the day after the election to a new world,” said Ken Johnson, spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. “We’re going to have tough days ahead of us.” A post-election e-mail to executives at the drug company GlaxoSmithKline details just how tough. “We now have fewer allies in the Senate,” says the internal memo, obtained by The Washington Post. “Thus, there is greater risk over the next two years that bad amendments will be offered to pending legislation.” The company’s primary concerns […]

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STOP THE PRESSES: Uncle Sgt. Byko Says Grace

“As we prepare for Thanksgiving Day, we imagine the new owners of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com sitting down in their more-than-comfortable homes for an elaborate meal with their families. They have a lot for which to be thankful. They have great wealth. They are smart, they have worked hard, and they have earned it. They enjoy secure jobs, they enjoy secure income, they enjoy secure retirement plans, they enjoy the peace of mind of knowing their families will never do without. Why would they deny some of the same peace of mind to their employees, who also […]

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THE BLOGS ARE COMING, THE BLOGS ARE COMING, RUN! Media Criticism Doesn’t HAVE To Be This Clueless

Or compromised. Unless your name is Ted Beitchman, and you are still — STILL, after four years — trying to punch a hole in the Philly mediascape with that glossy money-pit/inept score-settler/high-priced coupon flyer known as REALPHILLY — and getting about as far as a renegade spermatazoan trying to break on thru a Trojan Extra Thick. Hat tip to reader Philly Guy for the heads up. He reads it so we don’t have to. But check this sad swing at wannabe 215 Murdoch-ism. We just happen to speak Beitchman, so let us translate: Pay no mind to that moonbat slander […]

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NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane Wednesday, November 22nd Hour 1 Aside from Thomas Eakins’ painting “The Gross Clinic” at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, what other important works are in hospitals, schools, and non-museum institutions in Philadelphia? We talk with MICHAEL LEJA, Professor of American Art at the University of Pennsylvania and PENNY BALKIN BACH, Executive Director of the Fairmount Park Art Association. Hour 2 Being on your best behavior during the holidays. We talk manners with Johns Hopkins professor PM FORNI, author of “Choosing Civility: The 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct.” Then, New York Times ethicist RANDY COHEN helps us […]

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TRIBUTE: Nobody Will Love You Like Robert Altman Loved You

BY DAN BUSKIRK Last year I was teaching a summer film appreciation class to a bunch of middle-schoolers. You know what it\’s like if you?’re trying to pick out a film for any group, it’s impossible to come up with anything that somebody in the crowd isn’t going to roll their eyes at, but I’ve been doing this for a few years and I’ve come up with a batch of movies that really seem to work with kids. Still, I always want to try out something I haven’t shown before so last summer I decided to try out Robert Altman’s […]

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SGT. BYKO, INKY/DN Labor Mouthpiece, Responds To New Papers-Of-Record Owner’s Alleged Plans To Import Scab Labor Over The Internet; No Word Yet On Rumored Plans To Replace Newsroom With Cheap Migrant Labor Or Just The Standard 50 Monkeys With 50 Typewriters

VIA BYKO: If They Did It: Here’s How Philadelphia Media Holdings Would Hire Scabs Nov. 21, 2006 Contact: Stu Bykofsky Philadelphia Media Holdings, the company that cries poverty while demanding devastating cuts from Guild members, seems to be gearing up to spend a fortune on scabs to produce our papers and drive our trucks. The Philadelphia Weekly reported today that an ad seeking “replacement workers” (aka scabs) was recently posted on careerbuilder.com. The mystery company seeks scabs to come to an East Coast city to work as reporters, photographers, graphic artists, news assistants and truck drivers in the event of […]

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LAST CALL: Crowd Pleaser Nate Wiley Dead At 82, End Of ‘Longest Job Goin’

Nate Wiley and the Crowd Pleasers Bob and Barbara’s, 1509 South St. Last call. This is the house that Pabst Blue Ribbon built. The walls are covered floor to ceiling with Pabst memorabilia spanning several decades–from the corny caucasoid ’50s when Danny Kaye shilled for the brew, to the blaxsploitation ’70s when he was replaced with a Foxy Brown lookalike. The one constant in all those ads over the years is this catchphrase: “Now at Popular Prices.” That’s the asking price for Nate Wiley and the Crowd Pleasers, which has been cranking out no-cover-charge soul-powered organ jazz at Bob and […]

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