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 the local media, […]
KILLADELPHIA: Gunman Now Deadman
Police internal affairs and the homicide division have taken over the investigation into a police-involved shooting early Tuesday morning in South Philadelphia. Philadelphia police were called to the 1200 block of South 19th Street at the turn of midnight Tuesday when neighbors reported a man screaming. As officers arrived on the scene, authorities say, a man [NOT pictured] exited a home and approached them, pointing a shotgun. Despite warnings, the man refused to drop his weapon. Police fired one shot that struck the suspect. He was rushed to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he died. KYW: Guns […]
I AM JADED FUCKIN’ INDIE GUY: The New Modest Mouse Is Hard To Love, But Even Harder To Hate
BY ED KING ROCK CRITIC Whew! My head hurts from all the time I’ve spent with the latest Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. This thing’s hard work. When did the world get so smart that they all get it and I’m not sure I do? This band is moving units, right, and you can’t attribute their appeal to hot looks and sweet hooks. In an act of brutal self-analysis, I persevered. And yes, I’m a better man for having done so. For the first few spins, all I could think of was why I […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: Bob Brady For The Deaf
Marty: Do you own a gun? Bob Brady: Yes. Do you know why I have a gun? I have children and grandchildren. JONATHAN VALANIA REPORTS: Bob Brady would be the perfect mayor for this city — if it were 1945. Big, beefy, with hands the size of Easter hams, grandfatherly in a Sopranos-esque kind of way, he is the prototypical loveable ‘Big Lug’ and as Philly as an old soft pretzel. Marty just asked him his prime motivation for wanting to be mayor: “We have to be safe as a city.” Solution: bring back beat cops. A return to the […]
GAYBO: Breaking Up Is Hard To ‘Tube
BY TOMMY ZANE GAYDAR EDITOR Okay, so Ramon and I split up. I don’t want to talk about it — suffice it to say, he’s an asshole. While licking my wounds, let’s eat bon-bons and trawl YouTube together. We’ll commiserate and I will show you something most straights aren’t supposed to see: The Top Five Most Horrifyingly Bad Queer Clips On The Net. C’mon! Let’s get gay the Gaybo way — without ever having to leave your chair! Or, gay — you can get it on computer now. 5-Liberace and His Diamonds Liberace was the original “sister,” all dolled […]
PROMOPHILIA: ‘What Kind Of Fuckery Is This?’* You Made Me Miss THE ARCADE FIRE Gig!
The Amy Winehouse show has been moved from the TLA to the Elecrtic Factory and moved up a day — to the same day as Arcade Fire at the Tower. This is like being handed a scalpel and having to decide which half of the siamese twins lives and which half dies. Damn you, Gods of the Guest List! WHY? WHY DO YOU MOCK ME SO? *From “Me And Mister Jones” by Amy Winehouse, now playing on Phawker Radio (along with Arcade Fire and new Wilco)
HOT DOCUMENT: ‘I will miss this newspaper and you’
[To The Inquirer Staff:] For the past five years I have served as the Managing Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and it has been a service of great joy and, at times, of great turmoil. But it has always been the most interesting, challenging, vexing and rewarding thing I have done in my professional life. Now, however, after much thought, I have decided it is time to do something else. I am leaving to accept a partnership offer with a private-investment firm directed by a man I have come to like and admire over the past eight months. That man […]
BREAKING: Anne Gordon, Managing Editrix, Is Leaving The Inquirer
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE: Pictured from left to right, Anne Gordon (with head down), Amanda Bennett, former editor of Inquirer, Joe Natoli, former publisher of the Inquirer. Developing…
LIVE AND DIRECT: Chaka Fattah For The Deaf
JONATHAN VALANIA REPORTS: When you live blog at WHYY, this is what you see. For reasons still not quite clear, you cannot sit in the actual studio with Marty and Chaka Fattah and if you ask why they say “Look, you seem like a nice kid. You don’t want me to get Patrick Stoner to come in here and straighten you out, do ya?” No, siree, you say, shaking your head vigoriously. And so, you are escorted to a nearby conference room where you watch radio on the television — in this case a Hi-Def flat-screen curiously framed by Barney […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
WISH U WERE HERE: Beretta 76, Rick D Tribute, Tritone, Last Night
KILLADELPHIA: Homicide # 137 A Done Deal
Police chalked up the city’s 137th homicide of the year Sunday around 1:30am in the city’s East Germantown section following a triple shooting. Officers have been busy interviewing a number of people. Shots rang out in the 1900 block of Stenton Avenue just outside Charlie’s Little Spot bar. It was a triple shooting that left a 31-year-old woman dead and two men wounded. KYW: Drunks + Guns = Last Call