THE WORLD CAFE Filtering classic rock and pop hooks through a willfully lo-fi aesthetic a la Pavement or Guided by Voices, Philadelphia’s Dr. Dog sounds both timeless and immediate. Formed in 1999 as a recording project for two members of the more traditional indie-rock band Raccoon, Dr. Dog became a full-time gig when Raccoon folded in the early ’00s. Dr. Dog’s first two records, 2001’s Psychedelic Swamp and 2002’s Toothbrush, were both self-released but failed to make an impact outside of the Philadelphia area. Still, the band’s fortunes changed when My Morning Jacket’s Jim James handpicked Dr. Dog to open […]
MONOPOLY: Comcast Reports $837 Million In 1st Quarter Earnings; Contribution To City’s Tax Base = $0
PHILADELPHIA — Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable television operator, said Thursday its first-quarter profits surged 80 percent, helped by a one-time gain from the dissolution of a joint venture with Time Warner Cable. Comcast posted net income of $837 million, or 26 cents per share, in the quarter compared with $466 million, or 15 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. ASSOCIATED PRESS: Hey, Aren’t They Headquartered Here In Philadelphia? In Fact, Aren’t They Building The TALLEST Goddamn Skyscraper In The City? So What’s Philadelphia’s Fair Share? ZERO For The Next 10 Years Because Of A […]
ZOOPHILIA: Elephants Leaving Town Very, Very Slowly
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Three female African elephants from the Philadelphia Zoo will be packing their trunks to move to Western Pennsylvania sometime in the fall, Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium officials announced yesterday. PREVIOUSLY ON PHAWKER: Alas, The Great Philly-Pachyderm Assimilation Experiment Fails, Elephants Refuse To Play Ball, Still Shit Where They Like And Refuse To Order In English At Geno’s Or Offer No-Bid Contracts To Corporate Weasels
HIZZONER ’07: New Poll Has Nutter Tied With Knox For Lead
A new poll on the mayor’s race shows Michael Nutter (center) surging, and front-runner Tom Knox stalling. The survey of 450 registered Philadelphia Democrats shows Tom Knox dropping slightly from the previous poll to 20 percent, with Michael Nutter surging to 18 percent. David Patti is with Pennsylvanians for Effective Government, which commissioned the survey: “The election now comes down to a statistical dead heat between Michael Nutter and Tom Knox.” The others are having a tough time: “Congressman Chaka Fattah has fallen to third. And Congressman Brady and Dwight Evans are a distance distant fourth and fifth.” KYW: Breaker […]
HIZZONER ’07: Street Still Campaigning Against Katz
This week brought word that Sam Katz has dropped his GOP party affiliation, a move that opens the door to a possible run in the general election as an independent. Mayor Street believes an independent could be viable this year, just not Sam Katz: “I think he’s fooling himself if he thinks lots of Democrats are going to go flocking to him, running away from the Democratic nominee. I think that’s a little pie-in-the-skyish. It’s not going to happen.” The Mayor goes on to suggest that Katz should give up his dream of running City Hall: “Sam ran a couple […]
POP IN TAPE: Stop Snitchin’ Is A Slogan, Not A Solution
BY MICHAEL FICHMAN Last Sunday, when Cam’ron appeared on “60 Minutes” (videos here) and tried to explain how his credibility as an artist was subject to his obedience to the Code of the Streets, he neglected to acknowledge the consequences of an imperfect code. Furthermore, he didn’t rhyme the same word over and over again, nor did he suggest that he and Anderson Cooper should tip Cristal and run trains until Gawker or Bossip find out. But I digress. The “Stop Snitchin” credo is rooted in the distrust borne of centuries of systemic racism — much of it at the hands […]
Today I Saw…
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, which […]
BOBBY “BORIS” PICKETT: Monster Mash
WASHINGTON POST: “Bobby “Boris” Pickett, whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music’s most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69.”
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
SPACE LORD MOTHER: Acid Mothers Temple, First Unitarian, Last Night [Photo by ERICA CORBO]
FROM THE DEPT. OF WTF: Jilted Lover Mows Down Mother, Daughter and 5-Year-Old With Maxima
BY DANA DIFILIPPO OF THE DAILY NEWS Steaming and screaming, Wykia Townsend was fury incarnate, allegedly there to confront her romantic rival in a love triangle, investigators said. Before Charlese Burrows, her mother, Donna, and several children frolicking in the late-day sunshine on Germantown Avenue near Somerset Street, could react, Townsend stomped on the gas pedal. Her Nissan Maxima roared onto the sidewalk and into the family, hurling bodies into the air. When the engine quieted, Burrows, 33, her mother, Donna, 47, and her 5-year-old niece lay broken and bleeding near the battered car. Townsend and her passenger — whom […]
SOLOMON BURKE: Cry To Me
The viddy’s a little, well, YouTubish, but THIS SONG — ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, all the lawyers in glass towers, all the homies in the ‘hood (we know you’re readin’ this, don’t front) and all the ships at sea: Please rise and set your computer speakers to LOUD-ASS for King Solomon!
MEET THE PHAWKERS: Yer Kids Too Fat? Piggyback Rides Breaking Your Back? Miss Fiend Can Help
Sure, it was fun to be the fattest city in the fattest nation on Earth for while, but the novelty is wearing, um, thin. All kidding aside, we are facing an unprecedented epidemic of obesity and diabetes. It’s feared that the current crop of school age children will be the first American generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents — due solely to poor eating habits. The smart solution? Don’t wait until it’s too late for these kids! Get kids invested and schooled in healthy eating from the get-go. Join Elizabeth Fiend in a series of cooking […]
L&I Shuts Down Citywide Psychic Friends Network; Turns Out Fortune Telling Is Illegal In Pennsylvania
(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA — A sweeping raid by Licenses and Inspections led to misfortune for Philadelphia fortune tellers as all psychic businesses were shut down due to a decades old city law. It turns out fortune telling in Pennsylvania has been illegal for more than 30 years. A 1971 law makes it a 3rd degree misdemeanor for “A person (who) pretends for gain or lucre to tell fortunes or predict future events by cards, tokens, the inspection of the head or hands of any person.” The seers, including five fortune tellers, were unable to foresee the issuance of cease operation […]