BY JEFF DEENEY TODAY I SAW a one-eyed cat with no tail, blocking the entrance to a unit in Bartram Village, a low-rise housing project in the Southwest. When he saw me coming he looked back at me defiantly until I started up the steps; he was slow to jump into the garbage-strewn grass, walking off with a limp. As the cat walked away, I could see that the tail wasn’t missing so much as it was torn off. A shred of it remained, stuck up in the air at an odd angle. Bartram Village is a sprawling complex […]
RITA PAVONE: Il Geghegè
Look at her go! [Hat tip to EVA LIAO]
WE KNOW IT’S ONLY ROCK N’ ROLL BUT WE LIKE IT
AIN’T NO FORTUNATE SON: John Fogerty, Tower Theater, Last Night 1. It is estimated that John Fogerty owns half of all the baby blue plaid cowboy shirts in the known world. That is a lot. 2. John Fogerty sings like an old bullfrog under a swampy moon waiting to be kissed. You can hear the fireflies. 3. John Fogerty plays guitar like lightning striking a train trestle on a mountain pass. Right before the thunder clap. 4. John Fogerty has written at least seven songs that reside on the very highest floors of the Tower of American Song. 5. The […]
R.O.C.K. IN THE 215: Trolleyvox Gets Props In NY Times
THE TROLLEYVOX Folk-rock lives on in the Trolleyvox, an indie Philadelphia band with the chutzpah to release a double album: “Your Secret Safe/Luzerne” (Transit of Venus). “Luzerne” features the guitarist Andrew Chalfen and the singer Beth Filla, in quiet songs and fingerpicking guitar, while “Your Secret Safe” plugs in and adds a rhythm section. Making no secret of its respect for the Who and the Byrds, the full band puts brasher riffs behind clear-cut melodies and lyrics just circuitous enough to be worth untangling: “The anecdotal evidence/The deviance, the decadence/Mix up all the elements.” [via NEW YORK TIMES]
TONIGHT: Who Will Stop The Rain?
John Fogerty tonight at the Tower.
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
BAD MEAT IN THE CAN: PA Meatpacker Recalls 1 Million Pounds Of Tainted Beef WASHINGTON – The giant agribusiness company Cargill Inc. said Saturday it is recalling more than 1 million pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria. The ground beef was produced between Oct. 8 and Oct. 11 at Cargill Meat Solutions’ plant in Wyalusing, Pa., and distributed to retailers across the country. They include Giant, Shop Rite, Stop & Shop, Wegmans and Weis. Cargill learned the meat may be contaminated after the Agriculture Department found a problem with a sample of the beef […]
CINEMA: The Devil And Denzel Washington
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD (2007, directed by Sidney Lumet, 117 minutes, U.S.) AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007, directed by Ridley Scott, 157 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Talk about a Dream Factory. The modern Hollywood press machine now holds the power to make the backstory of a new theatrical release the front story, in a way that practically lets a film review itself. I’ve read, heard and viewed so many stories about how the 83-year-old master director Sidney Lumet was in top form with his latest crime drama, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, that it began to […]
GAYBO EXTRA: Boys And Girls In Love
By the Rumble Strips, who play the Fillmore November 29th. [Hat tip to TOMMY ZANE]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
NUCLEAR PLANT WORKER ARRESTED FOR BRINGING PIPE BOMB TO WORK PHOENIX (AP) — Security officials at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant detained a contract worker with a small explosive device in the back of his pickup truck Friday, authorities said. The worker was stopped and detained at the entrance of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks. Security officials then put the nuclear station on lockdown, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving the facility. Authorities described the device as a small capped pipe that contained suspicious residue. Capt. Paul Chagolla with the […]
CONFETTI BETTY: Hail to the ‘FLILF’
BY AMY Z. QUINN There’s a moderately entertaining Brazilian electro-pop band you’ve probably never heard of called CSS, which is short for Cansei de Ser Sexi. That’s Portuguese for “I got tired of being sexy,” a quote attributed to a Beyonce grown weary of her bootylicious image. I’m thinking of this Tuesday night as I watch Elizabeth Kucinich, the leggy redhead whose husband (you may have heard) is running for president, being swarmed by cameras. She’s a few feet from me in the “Spin Alley” area set up in the student center at Drexel University after the Democratic debate, where […]
HOT DOCUMENT: We Are Watching You
Hi, Mr. Valania, As you probably know, a lot of the people from my journalism class you visited last Tuesday have pretty strong opinions about some of the things you said, particularly when you talked about journalism being a useless major. Some students, and my professor, George Miller, disagree with what you said. On our class blog, he wrote that you were “Dead wrong.” and that journalists need to have a specific background they can only get by majoring in journalism. I’m working on an article about what you said [for the Philadelphia Weekly], and I’ve talked to a lot […]