Lee Hazlewood: 1928-2007 The pop svengali’s obituary Lee Hazlewood, the pop svengali who wrote the Nancy Sinatra hit ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin”, died of cancer in Las Vegas on Saturday (August 4). He was 78. Hazlewood, originally from Oklahoma, was the man credited with much of the success of Sinatra‘s career — modelling her image and writing songs for her. He wrote and produced nine albums in total for her. After writing songs as a child, Hazlewood began his musical career as a DJ in Arizona in 1953. [via the NME] Mr. Hazlewood was also an eccentric visionary […]
Church Lady Refuses To Do What Jesus Would Do
LOVE BY STU BYKOFSKY OF THE DAILY NEWS Just before tourist season began, the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, in Franklin, tucked into the northwest corner of the state (aka, God’s country) warned people to steer clear of Philly. It was not a formal boycott, says AFAP President Diane Gramley, a pleasant, God-fearing woman. She wanted to spawn what I call a Boycott Lite because the city went “overboard,” she says, to lure gay tourists (aka Sodomites), through advertising to gays, such as the 2004 Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation’s “Get your history straight and your nightlife gay” TV commercial […]
DOOMSDAY: It Was 62 Years Ago Today
WIKIPEDIA: Hiroshima was the primary target of the first nuclear bombing mission on August 6, with Kokura and Nagasaki being alternative targets. August 6 was chosen because there had previously been cloud over the target. The B-29 Enola Gay, piloted and commanded by 509th Composite Group commander Colonel Paul Tibbets, was launched from North Field airbase on Tinian in the West Pacific, about six hours flight time from Japan. The Enola Gay (named after Colonel Tibbets’ mother) was accompanied by two other B29s, The Great Artiste which carried instrumentation, commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney, and a then-nameless aircraft later […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR It’s been a busy congressional season — contentious hearings with Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez in the hot seat, revisions to the nation’s domestic-eavesdropping laws, major ethics-reform moves and of course debate about what to do about Iraq. Journalist Carl Hulse, who reports on Congress for The New York Times, reviews the legislative session. ALSO, Fresh Air‘s critic says Steve Buscemi‘s new film Interview — a remake of a two-character psychodrama by murdered Dutch director Theo van Gogh — isn’t politically incendiary, but it’s powerfully dramatic. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Will Rupert Murdoch redefine business journalism? This October, News […]
JUNK SCIENCE: The Revolution Will Be Televised
TONIGHT, Aug. 6th, ON CABLE TV, Philadelphia BiG TeA PaRtY’s Chew on This, written and hosted by Elizabeth Fiend part of DUTV’s Special Indy Movie Presentations Time: 8:53 pm, EST (15 min.) Comcast channel 54 or 62 Chew on This (15 min.) Part game show, part food show and all parts fun, this video is a feast of eye candy and an earful of information, full of Philly food facts and fun fur hats. BiG TeA PaRtY creates their own quiz show by playing the games Dicey Dinner and Tic Tac Tofu. Even Ben Franklin, one of America’s greatest thinkers […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
WHAT’S NEW, PUSSYCAT: Tom Jones, Resorts, Atlantic City, Last Night [SLIDE SHOW] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Last night, I took my mom to see Tom Jones in Atlantic City for her 67th birthday — cue up an image of a horned-up blue-haired old lady, and then multiply it by a thousand and you start to get an idea of that scene Sunday night at Resorts’ Superstar Theater. Can’t honestly say that mom turned me onto a LOT of music when I was a kid, but two faves — The Mamas & The Papas and Tom Jones — inhabit a special place […]
TAO OF EVA: Made In Taiwan
BY EVA LIAO TAIPEI — Most people probably think of Taiwan as some freaky place way over there in Asia where all their shit is made. And by and large, that is true. Your favorite sweater from Urban Outfitters? The 24-piece Tupperware set you got on sale at Costco? The bike seat you had to replace ’cause yours got stolen last weekend? In all probability they are “Made in Taiwan.” But this tiny little island holds a great personal significance to me for it also happens to be the place where my parents were born and bred, long before they […]
KILLADELPHIA 2: Hot Lead Is The New Thorazine
Witnesses and cops gave various accounts of what happened in the 30 minutes from when cops arrived at Henry’s house in Ogontz until her son was shot dead shortly before noon. Did 23-year-old Jason Henry lunge at police with a 14-inch butcher knife, giving an officer no choice but to shoot, as the police claim? Or was Henry simply trying to regain his composure after being stunned by a Taser gun, as witnesses claim? The only thing cops and witnesses agree on is that Henry began throwing sharp objects — including a knife and a drill — out of a […]
KILLADELPHIA: 1 More Dead Since U Went To Bed
BY KYW’s HADA KUZNITS Homicide detectives are investigating the city’s 252nd murder so far this year. They say it happened around 6:00am Sunday morning near Broad and Fitzwater. Police were flagged down by a passing motorist who tipped them off that there had been a shooting. They found a man lying dead in the street at 731 South Broad Street. The victim had been shot twice — once in the back and once in the leg. He was taken to Jefferson hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6:30am. Homicide detectives say they have spoken to witnesses but so […]
INCONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION: Serf & Turf
EDITOR’S NOTE: Inconspicuous Consumption is a new weekly Phawker feature by mystery columnist ALLAN SMITHEE. According to Wikipedia, “Alan Smithee is a pseudonym used between 1968 and 1999 by Hollywood film directors who wanted to be dissociated from a film for which they no longer wanted credit. It was used when the director could prove to the satisfaction of a panel of members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers that the film had been wrested from his or her creative control. The director was also required to keep the reason for […]
THE EARLY WORD: Macho Libre
Lucha Libre — hugely popular in Mexico — involves jumping off stuff, flips, crazy whacked-out holds, multiman tag-team matches and of course secret identities protected by masks. The only thing that could stop you from loving Lucha Libre is that la frontera is 2,000 miles away. Thank goodness for Chikara, the professional wrestling association that hosts Lucha Libre events here in Philly. Best part? They’re holding a dynamite 10-match event. A mere $15 gets you the whole shebang, including “Trios Action” with Delirious, Cheech and Cloudy going up against Soldier Ant, Fire Ant and the terrifyingly named Worker Ant.–ALLI KATZ […]
CINEMA: Bergman, Antonioni, Apatow
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC SAN FRANCISCO — As Philly slowly melts into its mid August stew I slipped off this week to San Francisco, where it is a good twenty degrees cooler and I can lounge around in my sweater all week and entertain some thoughts other than, “Geez, it’s frigging hot today.” The plan was to relax and maybe file some wildly irrelevant pieces on the Pacific Film Archive’s Max Ophuls festival or Alpha video’s reissue of Jean Hersholt‘s Dr. Christian series. Instead, my ride to the airport arrived with the news of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman‘s death, […]