NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006

FRESH AIR A concert and conversation with Los Straitjackets, the Nashville-based indie-rock band that’s made a name performing surf-rock classics from behind Mexican wrestling masks. The group’s latest album, Rock en Espanol, Vol. 1, features Spanish language versions of rock ‘n’ roll hits from the 1960s. Tracks include “De Dia y de Noche” (“All Day and All Night”), popularized by the Kinks, “La Hiedra Venenosa” (“Poison Ivy”), made famous by the Coasters, and many more. RADIO TIMES Two former interrogators talk about the techniques used by the U.S. in Iraq and the work being done to develop new rules and […]

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DEAD MAN TALKING: Johnny Doc Is Not Afraid

In addition, Dougherty already was on the outs with many leaders of the city Democratic machine because of a feud with the party chairman, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, that resulted in his ouster last year as party treasurer.Dougherty is “a dead man walking,” one top Democratic elected official said. “He’s created so many enemies, so much animosity.” Still, it is a measure of the respect and fear that Dougherty inspires that the above official – and many others interviewed for this story – did not want to be quoted by name. One reason is that, despite his political losses of late, […]

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THE EARLY WORD: Waiting For Rogaine

It’s all Ionesco, all the time! A performance event of absurd proportions We’re wide awake! On June 29 & 30, one of Philly’s most adventurous companies will go to absurd lengths to perform Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist classic, The Bald Soprano. A sensation when first produced in 1998, A 24-Hour THE BALD SOPRANO is being revived by Brat Productions as part of their 10th-anniversary celebration. Original director (and Brat founder) Madi Distefano returns to helm the performance marathon that American Theatre Magazine called “The best-ever theatrical critique of Suburban banality.” “There is NOW no other way of performing Ionesco’s absurd comedy!” […]

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SATULLO: Regrets? Too Few To Mention, Except…

A big one: endorsing Jim McGreevey over Christine Whitman in 1997. I was deputy then, and supported Whitman, but I lost that discussion. Jim McGreevey. Good Lord. We should have come out strongly against stand-alone casinos in Pennsylvania. Slots at racetracks seemed a plausible, limited gambit to raise needed money for schools, but we should have seen that, in corrupt and secretive Harrisburg, casinos would metastasize. We should have come out sooner against the Iraq invasion. INQUIRER: Oh, NOW You Tell Me

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KILLADELPHIA: 2 More Dead Since U Went 2 Bed

Just after 10:30 last night, two men were shot to death in their West Philadelphia home, police said. Kevin Tingle, 45, and Terry McCray, 36, both suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were found inside the front doorway of their home in the 700 block of South 56th Street, police said. They were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where McCray was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m., Tingle at 11:08. Their deaths bring the city’s homicide total for 2007 to 180. INQUIRER: This Is How The Sopranos Ends, Not With A Bang, But A Double Homicide In West […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Internet Killed The Mass Media Star

The Golden Age of mass culture didn’t end just because the Internet let people do their own thing. It ended because people looked at the low — and steadily declining — quality of mass-marketed television, radio, news, films, and music and concluded that they could do better. And they are often right, not necessarily because the amateur productions are so terrific (though sometimes they are), but because the big media productions are so often dreadful. Like U.S. car companies in the 1970s, the television networks, movie and record studios, newspapers, and radio stations grew comfortable in their protected positions, and […]

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THE WINNER: “Now, let’s get that Brazilian started.”

Congratulations Mike Guggino You Are Going To See Lee Scratch Perry! Enjoy! The City of Philadelphia’s photo archive contains over 2 million images that date back as far as the late 1800s, i.e. the last time a Republican won in this town. In all seriousness, this is an INCREDIBLE visual record of the city’s evolution and a relatively new web site, PhillyHistory.org, is making it available for online consumption and purchase. To date, some 27,000 images have been digitally scanned, at a rate of roughly 2,000 images a month. So, if you’ve been wondering why the line at Kinko’s is […]

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Q&A: Daily Show Comedian Paul Mecurio

Comedy Central’s Paul Mecurio & Brian Regan, Tomorrow Night At The Tower. PHAWKER: You gave up a successful career as an investment banker on Wall Street to become a comedian — a profession that pays migrant worker wages to most of its practitioners. How come? Is your mom still pissed? PAUL MECURIO: I really got a connection from creating jokes out of thin air and having people respond to them. There was nothing like that feeling on Wall Street. PHAWKER: Everybody thinks being a comedian is nonstop laughs, but what is the worst part about the job? PM: The subjectivity […]

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We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

OF YOUTH AND YOUNG MANHOOD: Kings Of Leon, Electric Factory, Last Night EVA SAYS: When the Brothers Followill arrived on stage wearing jeans so tight they made even the hormonal 16-year-olds blush, I was skeptical. Admittedly a little flushed as well, but skeptical nonetheless. (I mean, if I wanna watch bone smugglers in painted-on Wranglers, I’ll go to The Cave, right?) But as soon as the drummer kicked in with the throw-me-down-and-fuck-me beat to “Taper Jean Girl,” and Caleb opened his mouth and out came that sweet, snarling whine — well, I was bouncing right along with the all the […]

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