*NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! WHY? BECAUSE WE LIKE YOU! *Warning: Explicit language [Photo source: Coffee & Cigarettes]
NEWS CLUES: ‘So Local It Hurts’ Edition
Jannie Gets Out The Way Of The Barnes Move, For $12 Million And Naming Rights City Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell’s three-year holdout against moving the city’s youth detention facility to her West Philadelphia district paid off yesterday, as the city, state and school district announced plans for a $12 million community center named after her late husband. “This plan has been a long time coming, but the result was worth waiting for,” said Blackwell, who had refused to introduce legislation required for a new Youth Study Center at North 48th Street and Haverford Avenue without something “positive” for the community. […]
DRUG TEST: Frisking The Inquirer’s Super-Weed Bust Story For The Straight Dope On ‘The War On Drugs’
So the Inquirer is trumpeting a big marijuana bust on City Line Avenue that took 16 pounds of the dreaded “AK47″off the street, denying buzz to untold scores of suburban dad-rockers currently pumping iron out in the garage like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. A potent type of marijuana known as AK47 – so strong that some users are treated in emergency rooms for overdoses – has hit the Philadelphia area. Today, police laid out 16 pounds of the stuff [NOT pictured, above] they said they confiscated from a high-level dealer who supplied the suburbs: Michael Cascioli, 31, of the […]
BREAKING: British Teacher Sentenced To 15 Days In Sudanese Slammer For Teddy Bear Incident
KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) — A Sudanese court found a British teacher guilty of insulting religion and sentenced her to 15 days in prison Thursday for allowing a teddy bear to be named “Mohammed,” British authorities and her lawyer reported. Gibbons, 54, was arrested Sunday after she asked her class of 7-year-olds in Khartoum to name the stuffed animal as part of a school project, the British Foreign Office said. She had faced charges under Article 125 of Sudan’s constitution, the law relating to insulting religion and inciting hatred. Appearing somber and dazed, Gibbons arrived at the central courthouse in Khartoum […]
VALANIA/SWEENEY FEUD: A Never-Ending Fount Of Dubious ‘Hipster’ Humor Since 2006!
From Today’s Metro, where Quizzomeister Johnny Goodtimes holds forth on some Philly wrestling matches he’d like to see: Philebrity founder Joey Sweeney vs. Phawker founder Jonathan Valania in a Hipster Death Match: This match disappoints promoters, as the hipsters think that this whole idea is “lame” and, after entering the ring, just exchange shrugs and discuss some crappy band. Actually, I’m pretty confident that any fight between those two would involve some girlie slapping, soft weeping, a blurry Photobucket slideshow and at least one smoke break. And the entire evening ends with Jill and Ruthie ditching them to go for […]
GUSTAV HOLST: Mars, The Bringer Of War
From The Planets.
RUDY TUESDAY: Who Could Hang A Shame On You?
BY AMY Z. QUINN You know how people like me always point out that New Yorkers hated Rudy Giuliani up until 9/11? And how many hearts softened toward him after, but it didn’t make anyone trust him more? That’s partly because everything the right wing hated about Bill Clinton in the ’90s — the two faces, the skirt-chasing, the marriage nobody could figure out — Giuliani was living, the whole time, back in the Empire State. So now it’s an hour before the CNN/YouTube GOP debate and the Giuliani camp is surely backstage scrambling to script some responses to this, […]
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Why?
Click image to activate Internets.
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Sharon Jones, head of the old-school funk and soul band Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, is working it. She and her band have a new album, their third, called 100 Days, 100 Nights. They’ve been touring to support the album, and Jones was recently part of the cast of Berlin, along with Lou Reed. She also shot a part for the upcoming Denzel Washington film The Great Debaters. Jones shares a hometown with the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. Though she moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when she was little, she spent months of every year in Augusta, Ga., […]
BLACKWATER WHITEWASH: Head Of State Dept.’s Blackwater Investigation Tells Staff To Shut It Down
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Before we get started I should tell you in the interest of full disclosure that the bitchin logo above is actually for the band Blackwater, not the mercenary army controversial independent security contractor we are about to discuss. However, A.) it is a bitchin logo, and B.) I am pretty sure these guys are too high or drunk to notice or care. So, let’s move on. This story is very convoluted and you really have to read the whole article to get your bearings on this, but in a nutshell: Long before the ongoing FBI probe into […]
MAILBAG: My Country Tis Of Thee?
AP photographer Bilal Hussein won the Pulitzer Prize for this 2004 photo of insurgents fighting the Battle Of Fallujah. He as been held in custody by the U.S. military without charge for the past 19 months. DEAR PHAWKER, Again, George Miller is my favorite professor. Today in my Journalism and Society class (which is responsible for introducing me to Phawker), Jim MacMillan came to talk about photojournalism, but more importantly Bilal Hussein. MacMillan personally knew Hussien. He was one of the members of the team who won the Pulitzer Prize. Watching MacMillan speak about a collegue and friend was tough-you […]
MADLIB: Slim’s Return
[Hat tip to EVA LIAO]