NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO: Windows by The Lucky Dragons To be honest, we don’t know shit about these guys. Walk into AKA Music the other day and these sounds — sounds we had never heard before — are quietly fragmenting and recombining into new fractals in the background. It seems to be annoying most people in the store but we like it. A lot. What is this? we ask the clerk sitting at the register, poring over his Nancy comic. Without looking up, he just grunts something that later we figured out to be: “It’s Windows, the new album […]
IT’S ACADEMIC: Rendell IS Gamblor
FROM THE ALLENTOWN MORNING CALL: “The governor recently told the Lancaster New Era editorial board that for every one person addicted to gambling or who lost a pay check to gambling, he can show us 500 who go and have the time of their life. I wonder how these numbers were produced. They are far out of line with the best social science research in the state and the country about the numbers of people with gambling compulsions. Let us compare the governor’s numbers with those produced by national experts regarding the prevalence of gambling problems in the general adult […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Fresh Air from WHYY, December 6, 2006 ? Brian Whitaker is the Middle East editor for the British newspaper The Guardian, and his new book is Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East. Whitaker also runs the al-Bab Web site, which aims to provide Arab cultural and political information to non-Arabs. ALSO, Israeli gay rights activist Noa Sattath is the executive director of Jerusalem Open House, an organization devoted to fostering gay pride. Last month, the city hosted WorldPride 2006: Love Without Borders, an international pride gathering. A gay pride rally was held at a university stadium […]
HOLLA: Mr. Lif Literally On Fire After Tour Bus Crash Fux His Shit Up, ‘Everybody Essentially OK’ Sez Label
THE WOOK REPORTS: In the annals of hip-hop conspiracy theories, I guarantee this brush with def will force The Coup and Fishtown’s Mr. Lif to check themselves twice before they wiggity-wreck themselves for reals. I also theorize that this was due to interference from The Man, i.e. the same dark forces that found Robert Van Winkle, killed Tupac, and made Flavor Flav a reality television star. From CMJ: About an hour after their departure from San Diego, the tour bus carrying Mr. Lif, the Coup, DJ Big Wiz, Metro and friends tumbled across the highway and burst into flames. According […]
THE NEW PANIC: Sex Offenders Have REALLY AWESOME MySpace Pages
Just to be clear, saying you found sex offenders on MySpace is like saying you found sex offenders in the phone book. To which we say, would you like a medal or a monument, Sherlock? Of the almost two dozen pages on MySpace that matched names and cities of local sex offenders, law-enforcement officials confirmed nine were on Florida’s sex offender registry and six others “were probably” on the list, officials said. However, the lack of pictures and information on some of the pages made it difficult for officials to positively link all of the sites to sex offenders. Detectives […]
MAILBAG: Ah, You Said Pieter!
Hi there! This is Pieter from Holland. I maintain the online Tom Waits Supplement. Phawker has a link to this site. This is to inform you that the Tom Waits Supplement has been renamed Tom Waits Library and moved to a domain of its own. Would you please change the link(s) on your site(s)? Thanks! [Done. –Ed.] Pieter from Holland Tom Waits Library PREVIOUSLY: The Man Who Howled Wolf
GUNCRAZY: Pennsyltucky Councilman Wants A Gun In Every Home, As Final Bulwark Of Homeland Security
CHERRY TREE, Pa. – Cherry Tree is as small-town as it gets, with one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it intersection, about 100 families spread across the Susquehanna River valley, and virtually no crime. […] Which is why many folks are mystified about why a councilman wants all homeowners in this peaceful, rural nook of Western Pennsylvania to be armed and ready to defend themselves. His proposed civil protection ordinance, which urges residents to get a gun and learn how to shoot it, will be discussed tonight at a meeting of the Cherry Tree Town Council. The measure would make firearm instruction available at the […]
MIRWAIS: Kabuki Electro Sex Opera
“Disco Science.” WARNING: Some laser-shooting boobies included.
COMCASTIC: Royal Couple Leaves $15 Million Tip At Penn For Wife’s Cancer Treatment
Aileen Roberts, 51, wife of Comcast Corp. chief executive officer Brian L. Roberts, completed her last radiation treatment 11 days ago with a positive prognosis. But her illness may help save thousands of lives. It was one of several factors that led her family to donate $15 million to a new $144 million proton therapy center at the University of Pennsylvania. University officials and Brian, Aileen, and Suzanne and Ralph Roberts, Brian’s mother and father, plan to announce their gift today. Proton therapy uses a beam of tiny particles to target tumors so precisely that little damage occurs to surrounding […]
STOP SEPTA: Before It Kills Again!
25-year-old Zachary Wright of Cape Coral, Florida was walking home from the Eagles game with a friend when he man was struck by a passing train. Police said his body was thrown 60-feet due to the collision. He was pronounced dead at the scene. SEPTA authorities said the train was not carrying any passengers at the time of the accident. Authorities are interviewing the victim’s friend to determine why the men were walking along the tracks. KYW: Menace Of Public Transit Continues Unabated
FASTFOOD NATION: Do NOT Run To The Border
As Taco Bell reopened Long Island restaurants implicated in an E. coli outbreak, the fast food chain closed nine other outlets in suburban Philadelphia after Pennsylvania health officials reported an E. coli outbreak that sickened four people there. Health officials have not yet been able to pinpoint the source of the bacteria that has sickened at least three dozen people in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Nine people remained hospitalized in New York and New Jersey, including and 11-year-old boy in stable condition with kidney damage. […] E. coli is found in the feces of humans and livestock. Most […]
STALLONE Declines Offer To Be Interred In The Smithsonian, Offers Rocky Bathrobe Instead
The filmmaker on Tuesday donated several iconic items from his series of movies featuring the gritty Philadelphia prizefighter to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. “I knew I was getting old, but I didn’t think I would be with the dinosaurs so soon,” Stallone said, laughing. “No, actually, I’m really unbelievably overwhelmed.” Among the items were the robe Stallone wore to the ring for the climactic fight with Apollo Creed in 1976’s Rocky, the signature black hat and a pair of autographed boxing gloves from Rocky II (1979) and a pair of boxing trunks and […]
EARLY WORD: Neon, Manhole Steam And Big City Jazz
ARSNOVA PRESENTS: THE GOLBERG VARIATIONS Ben Goldberg, clarinet* Rob Sudduth, tenor saxophone Carla Kihlstedt, violin Trevor Dunn, bass Ches Smith, drums Wednesday, December 6 | 8pm Community Education Center 3500 Lancaster Avenue $12 General Admission *Clarinetist Ben Goldberg was a pupil of Steve Lacy‘s, and has performed with Andrew Hill, John Zorn and Roswell Rudd. He is featured on Wilco guitarist Nels Cline‘s latest recording, “New Monastary, A View into the Music of Andrew Hill.”