Stop it! HARRY SHEARER: What is the possible journalistic explanation for splashing Cho’s self-dramatizing poses and self-justifying bullshit over network and cable air? Did we learn anything useful during the spate of interviews of Charlie Manson years ago, except that he was one crazy motherfucker? Cho’s pathetic outpourings deserved to be put back where they came from–in a small room, with FBI guys sentenced to read/see and parse them Instead, a hundred thousand self-pitying mentally ill young men (and women?) have just been shown the road to glory one more time. A society in which it’s easier to become famous […]
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 […]
EARLY WORD: My Fleeting House
Tim Buckley was an experimental vocalist and performer who incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, and avant-garde rock in a short career spanning the late 1960s and early 1970s. He often regarded his voice as an instrument, a talent most exploited on his albums Goodbye and Hello, Lorca, and Starsailor. He was the father of musician and singer Jeff Buckley, also known for his three-and-a-half octave voice, who died in 1997. Buckley released his debut album Tim Buckley on Elektra in 1966. A folk-rock album, it contained psychedelic melodies written with input from Beckett. He went on to release Goodbye and […]
VIET NOW: Today’s Death Toll In Baghdad = SIX Virginia Tech Massacres — Just Sayin’
BAGHDAD — Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 178 people and wounding scores — the deadliest day in the city since the start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital two months ago. [Note: Video footage has been sanitized for the protection of your peace of mind]
KILLADELPHIA: Meet Akbar The Fireman MC — Savin’ Little Kittens In Trees, Wastin’ Pigs, Keepin’ It Real
The Fraternal Order of Police is burned up over a local firefighter’s saying he wanted to “turn pigs into bacon bits” in the lyrics of a rap song he wrote. So, in this post-Imus age, when the police union did not get the apology it was expecting yesterday, it called for the immediate firing of Rodney Jean-Jacques, 30, who moonlights as rapper Cal Akbar. Jean-Jacques remains on the payroll at Engine Company 9 in Mount Airy. The matter is under investigation, according to Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers and a spokesman for Mayor Street. Philadelphia Fire Fighters Union Local 22 […]
EARLY WORD: No Tears On Prom Night
Click flyer for more info. We hear Needles Jones may be throwing his tiara into the ring. Oh my!
VELVET UNDERGROUND: Venus In Furs
Live at Andy Warhol’s Factory.
LIVE ACTS: Mad Shit Going Down At The Mann, Yo
BY AMY Z. QUINN There are moments — say, on a swampy summer evening when Lucinda Williams’ between-song patter is accented by the rumble of August thunder, or when you’re 17 and dancing at an REM concert instead of at your Senior mixer — when the Mann Center for the Performing Arts is a magical place. And yeah, in recent years the quality of the acts booked at the Fairmount Park venue was spotty at best, but don’t blame that all on the Tweeter Center. Because fact is, no matter how good the performer, the biggest problem with the Mann […]
GUNCRAZY: Peace Through Superior Firepower?
IT’S THE GUNS EVEN THOUGH we know more than we did Monday about who was responsible for the horrific carnage at Virginia Tech, the details are still unfolding, and so is the public discussion that tries to find sense or lessons in this tragedy.What we do know: The innocent young people who were slaughtered were not even finished being identified, and their families notified, before gun- rights advocates were broadcasting their specious argument, the same argument they used after the shooting of 10 students in an Amish school in Lancaster just six months ago: Forget controls on gun ownership, this […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Journalist Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe just won a Pulitzer Prize for national-affairs reporting. In an April 2006 article, he detailed how often President Bush has used “signing statements” to assert the right to bypass provisions of new laws; Savage’s article prompted Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) to call for hearings investigating the matter. Instead of vetoing bills, Savage reported, Bush has quietly used “signing statements” — official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill to be followed when implementing a new law. Other presidents have also used this power, but Bush […]
GUNCRAZY: THE BABY FACE OF EVIL
Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior [majoring in English], arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., officials said. The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women. ABC, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the note, several pages long, explains Cho’s actions and says, “You caused me to do this.” […]
MEDIA: Former Inky Newsroom Brass Win Pulitzer
The Race Beat, a masterfully researched account of civil-rights-era journalism by Gene Roberts, former executive editor of The Inquirer, and Hank Klibanoff, a former Inquirer deputy managing editor who is now a top editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has won the Pulitzer Prize for history, the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University announced yesterday in presenting its annual awards in arts, letters and journalism. Subtitled The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (Alfred A. Knopf), the Roberts/Klibanoff book took its two coauthors almost 15 years to complete. The Inquirer’s Michael Bryant was a finalist in […]