1. Lead singer Yasuko O. is cute as pie, which is a delightful contrast to her seemingly bad-ass reputation. Live, she barks, chokes, shriek and screeches her incoherent English lyrics just as she would on any album. But then she stops to take a breather and she’s all smiles and peace-fingers. 2. My guess is that 75% of last night’s crowd has an Asian fetish going on (which is fine by me). When Yasuko stopped mid-set and said to the crowd, “we have tee-surts, um… tee-shuts, hehehe, tee-shirts!” half the crowd swooned at the sound of her adorably broken English […]
SECOND OPINION: 5 MORE Things You Should Know About Jay-Z Last Night At The Fillmore
H TO THE IZZO: Jigga, The Fillmore, Last Night 1. Live hip-hop could use more live instrumentation. Jay-Z’s 8 piece band, plus DJ, breathed new life into classics like “99 Problems” and ” P.S.A” giving them the deep kick and crunchy shred that only a live band can deliver. 2. Black is gangsta. From Hov’s upside down Betsy Ross Flag (the one with thirteen stars) T-shirt with black stripes instead of the traditional red, white and blue version, to the band decked out in vintage black suit vests, white shirts and black ties — Hov’s political statement can be summed […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
SHINING PATH: How Richard Gere Got His Buddha On As Richard Gere tells it, it was in 1978 that he literally and figuratively found his humanitarian path. “After [the film festival at] Cannes I went to India and Nepal,” he recalls. “It was outside of Pokhara, at the edge of the Himalayas, I took a walk through a village. There were no vehicles. I saw a hand-lettered sign that said, ‘Tibetan refugees.’ I walked up the path and it was otherworldly — it had a Brigadoon or Lost Horizons quality. Their minds and hearts were different from anything else I […]
MAILBAG: Taxation Without Representation Is Tyranny
DEAR PHAWKER, True Democrats and True Republicans want the same thing. I am a Republican who supports Paul. I have been Republican since I could vote. To me, it is a matter of tactics. The greatest danger we face as Americans is Monopoly. But the greates monopoly in the US is not a corporation, it is a territorial monopoly of jurisdiction and taxation ie. the Federal Government. Government and corporate interests each weak on their own, collude to form a cartel that is not for the people. Corporations, by themselves, are weak because they are forced to give the consumer […]
TONITE: Melt Your Banana
BY EVA LIAO Melt Banana is/are/was/always will be cool because A.) they’re Japanese, B.) they have mad style and C.) they are the reigning lords of zig-zaggy schizoid, make-you-want-to-thrash-until-you-vomit, one minute songs that blur the line between music and seizure. They’ve been around since 1992, which makes them pioneers of sorts in the Japanese noise rock scene. They’re lead singer is a precious little Japanese girl who you might otherwise mistake as the girl down the street who does your dry cleaning. Lead singer Yuksuko O. will rape your eardrums with incoherent shrieking. Everything will move very, very fast. You […]
KILLADELPHIA: 3 More Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
DAILY NEWS: Izim Greer, 19, was shot once in the head shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday inside a home on 65th Street near Gesner, said Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl. Greer was pronounced dead at 3:05 a.m. by medics on the scene, police said. Police arrested John Bradley, of Saybrook Avenue near 65th Street, and charged him with Greer’s slaying, Riehl said. He said the shooting had been prompted by a dispute over Bradley’s girlfriend. Shortly after 12:30 a.m. yesterday, police found the body of a 23-year-old man on 7th Street near Poplar, North Philadelphia. The victim had been shot in […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
Florida Gets Medieval On Ass Of GOP Legislator Caught In Potty Sex Sting Florida State Rep. Bob Allen’s troubles may only get worse. Seconds after he was convicted Friday of soliciting a sex act in a park bathroom, legislative leaders were discussing how to remove him from office. The lawmaker is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for the second-degree misdemeanor charge and could face a maximum 60 days in the county jail and a $500 fine. Prosecutors said after the verdict was announced that they intend to seek jail time. Because of the nature of the crime, prosecutors said, Allen […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Norman Mailer once wrote that before he was 17, he’d formed the desire to be a major writer. That wish certainly came true. One political campaign, two Pulitzer Prizes and an unprecedented level of controversy later, he became a literary grandee unlike any other. This interview originally aired on Oct. 8, 1991. ALSO Author Robert Kuttner writes in The Squandering of America that many of the economic policies and regulations established during the New Deal have since been replaced by a more business-friendly free market system. Kuttner is the founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. Here is […]
TONITE: Got 99 Problems
But getting into the Fillmore tonight ain’t one! Look for our INSTA-REVIEW later tonight…
WILLIE NELSON: Imagine
Save lives now!…What? You’re too busy, or too clever or too cool to ‘save lives now’? Which one is it? We need an answer. HURRY UP and pick one, people are dying!
IMAGINE: What $611 Billion Could Buy, Besides Bullets
BOSTON GLOBE: If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group. The amount got us wondering: What would $611 billion buy? 18 MONTHS OF FREE GAS FOR ALL U.S. drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days. * CONVERT ALL THE CARS IN AMERICA TO ETHANOL […]
TODAY I SAW. . .
BY JEFF DEENEY TODAY I SAW a young white couple with two small kids, arguing underneath the 60 bus shelter at Frankford and Allegheny. Dad wore a white hooded sweat jacket, patterned with red-outlined skulls. The skulls were arranged arbitrarily, like they were piled on top of each other. He wore construction boots air brushed with graffiti tags along the uppers. His girl wore a Rocawear winter jacket that had a tight, knitted waist and fur around the hood. She had on skin-tight jeans that her redheaded children, one boy and one girl, clung to. Her complexion was pasty […]
SPECIAL REPORT: Ron Paul Drops Peace Bomb
And nobody got hurt.