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

Georges Seurat Models (1887-88), oil on canvas, 79″ x 98″ Barnes Foundation RADIO TIMES While Philadelphia’s City Council has approved a lease agreement which would enable the Barnes Foundation to move to the Parkway, Montgomery County is floating a new plan to keep the Foundation in Lower Merion. We revisit the Barnes Foundation debate with GRESHAM RILEY and ROBERT ZALLER, who have been discussing the issue online in the Broad Street Review and at a May 21st public forum at Drexel. FRESH AIR Louise Arbour, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and onetime chief prosecutor in the Yugoslav and […]

GAYBO: Philly Radio Is Gayer Than Ever!

BY TOMMY ZANE GAYDAR EDITOR Is the buzz true — does Philly have a new “gay” radio station? Their name and slogan sound gay enough: “My 106.1 — Feel the energy!” Sounds like an ad for a Miami circuit party, if they could just cut the energy with GBH. A recent peek at an 11 a.m. weekday playlist includes ultra-’90s gay club hit “Show Me Love” by Robin S., equally queer ’90s diva Cathy Dennis with “Touch Me (All Night Long),” No Doubt’s “Hella Good,” and the unofficial overplayed song of 2006, “Unwritten” by uber gay Natasha Bedingfield. However, as […]

FORECAST: The Hotness

Summer heat has arrived in advance of the season’s official start on Thursday, with the temperature expected to reach 91 degrees today and 92 tomorrow. The weather will then sink to a more seasonable level, into the mid-80s. ACCUWEATHER: Here Come The Warm Jets      

KILLADELPHIA: Two More Dead Since U Went To Bed

A 22-year-old man died this morning after being shot in the stomach in North Philadelphia. Police have also released the name of man fatally shot on Saturday. Today’s shooting took place shortly before 12:30 a.m. in the 3400 block of Huntington Street, Officer Beth DiDonato said. The victim was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:03 a.m., she said. The shooting raises the city’s homicide total for the year to 185. On Saturday, Pablo Hernandez 3d, 33, died after being shot in the thigh in the 500 block of Moore Street in South Philadelphia. Police […]

LIVE & DIRECT: Bonnaroo Day 3

BY EVA LIAO AND MAVIS LINNEMANN MANCHESTER, TENN. — We got a late start yesterday, spent the morning recovering. Some asshole started blaring Jay Z from his car at 7:30 in the morning. We all moaned and grumbled. 6 p.m. Ben Harper opened with a killer jam to “With My Own Two Hands.” Harper showed the audience a side they don’t usually hear on his albums. Known for his impassioned guitar skills, though not always evident in his recordings, his work on the slide guitar really highlighted his raw ability. John Paul Jones made a special appearance for a balls-to-the-wall, […]

LIVE & DIRECT: Bonnaroo Day 2

[Click image for slideshow] EDITOR’S NOTE: Phawker has two of its best correspondents on the ground at Bonnaroo. All weekend long, assistant editor EVA LIAO and her trusty sidekick, book critic MAVIS LINNEMANN, will be hanging out with guys named Dude and That Other Dude, consuming unknown substances and blogging photos and scene reports straight from the primeval muck of Bonnaroo to your mind’s eye. Hope you appreciate that these chicks are sweating their tits off in Vietnam-like conditions so you don’t have to. I sure do. BY EVA LIAO AND MAVIS LINNEMANN MANCHESTER, TENN. — Friday went like this… […]

THE EARLY WORD: The Valerie Project

BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Next week Philly will reprazent at the Jarvis Cocker-curated Meltdown Festival, to be held in London’s prestigious Southbank Centre. After a week featuring resurrected rock acts Roky Erickson, The Stooges and Devo plus Beth Orton singing Disney tunes with Pete Doherty & Shane McGowan (for sake of their health please keep those two apart) the week will climax with with the Philadelphia conglomeration known as The Valerie Project sharing the bill with the former Pulp frontman’s closing set. Originally formed for a screening at UPenn’s I-House last year, The Valerie Project will tune up for […]

NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006

THE WORLD CAFE World Cafe host David Dye is joined by Wilco for music and conversation drawn from their new album, Sky Blue Sky. This release features Cafe favorites “Impossible Germany” and “What Light,” and is an early candidate for album of the year. The record is rooted in acoustic based material that harkens back to the band’s alt-country roots.

TODAY I SAW…

[Photo by RACHAEL SHIRLEY] BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by […]

“There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes/Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose.”

BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Funny how the more wars change, the more they stay the same. In 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, John Prine, quintessential Americana songwriter, then fresh out of the Army and well-acquainted with the FUBAR Catch 22s of a soldier’s life, wrote “Sam Stone.” You may not recognize it from the title, but you have heard this song. Detailing the post-traumatic stress of a Vietnam vet all but abandoned by the country he nobly served, the lyric goes: “There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes / Jesus Christ […]

EVA SAYS: LIVE & DIRECT FROM BONNAROO

EDITOR’S NOTE: This weekend Phawker has not just one, but two, of its best correspondents on the ground at Bonnaroo. All weekend, assistant editor EVA LIAO and her trusty sidekick, book critic MAVIS LINNEMANN, will be blogging photos and scene reports straight from the primeval muck of Bonnaroo to your mind’s eye. Hope you appreciate that these chicks are living in a stifling tent and sweating their tits off so you don’t have to. I sure do. EVA SAYS: Here we are in Manchester, Tennessee, roasting in 95 degree weather under our makeshift tent (we didn’t exactly know how to […]

INFANTICIDE: Abortion By Commode

Sometime overnight, a 20-year-old woman squatted over a toilet, gave birth to a girl and left the infant submerged in the commode for an undetermined duration, said Lt. Philip Riehl of the homicide unit. “She gave birth to the child while seated on the toilet, but she did not immediately remove the child” from the toilet, Riehl said. The woman’s grandmother called 911 shortly after 7 a.m., and the baby was declared dead at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania at 7:20 a.m. The mother remained in stable condition there yesterday. DAILY NEWS: It’s Gonna Take A LOT Of […]