NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO/REVIEW BY ED KING At 30 songs long ? 30 songs! ? it’s a wonder anyone will hear the end of this album, but that’s why I’m here. Never say never, Sloan. It feels like only last week that I came home from high school — having made a quick stop at the Sam Goody at Roosevelt Mall — with Elvis Costello & the Attractions’ latest, Get Happy!!, in sweaty hand. Oh baby! Through the wonders of a hitherto described process of “groove cramming,” the band and producer Nick Lowe managed to pack 20 soulful, fractured, […]
EXCLUSIVE: Inky Re-Hires Laid-Off Sports Columnist
Phawker has learned that Inquirer sports columnist David Aldridge, one of the people axed from the paper’s roster in two rounds of layoffs earlier this month, is now BACK on the job. He will resume his columnist duties for the next Villanova game. Aldridge, who is African American, was NOT one of the signers of a letter sent to the Inquirer ownership from the National Association of Black Journalists pointing out that a disproportionate percentage of the employees laid off were minorities. Owner Brian Tierney responded through spokesman Jay Devine that the company’s hands were tied by the seniority provision […]
PALACE COUP: UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION center SUSPENDED FOR DURATION OF ROYAL VISIT
PLEASE BE ADVISED: The National Constitution Center will be closed to the public until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 27 for a special visit of Their Royal Highnesses, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. The Center will be open to the public from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. Thank you! Ashley Berke Public Relations Coordinator National Constitution Center
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR ON WHYY Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski died on January 23, 2007, at the age of 74. As a foreign correspondent, Kapuscinski covered coups and revolutions in the developing world for forty years. Many of his articles appeared in a series of books that made him famous: The Soccer War, Another Day of Life, and Shah of Shahs. This interview originally aired in 1988. PLUS, Actor Forest Whitaker has been nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the film The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker played jazz musician Charlie Parker in Bird, […]
EDGY: From The Makers Of HUSTLE & FLOW Comes This Twisted And Torrid Slice Of Southern Gothic Pulp
BLACK SNAKE MOAN: Starring Samuel L. Jackson and his chain, Christina Ricci and her panties, and Justin Timberlake and his big fuckin’ gun.
S.A.D. Thought Of The Day
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents… some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” — H.P. Lovecraft, 1926
Way Back When, Before There Was A Native Rodent Population, Rats Had To Be Shipped In Fresh Every Day
[Photo Courtesy of PhillyHistory.org] 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 22,000 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 so goddamned SLOW, well, now you know. Phawker […]
THE DEVIL IN DELCO: Threesome Busted For Child Rapes & One Million Images Of Homemade Kiddie Porn
U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan said it was the “most horrific case” of child exploitation he had seen. Along with the million photographs, Worman’s computers contained “thousands” of videos that Worman produced of himself committing sexual acts on the children, Meehan said. “The level of depravity in this case is so destructive to those children who have been victimized,” Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green said. Meehan said authorities had been able to identify 12 victims. He said he was not sure they would be able to identify all the children Worman allegedly victimized. The victims “lived lives of […]
ROYAL TREATMENT: Chuck & Camilla In Town For 24 Hours Of Brotherly Love-Making & Mural Watching
Later in the afternoon, the couple will travel a few miles to West Philadelphia to meet with college students and to see at least one of the city’s 2,700 murals. The Mural Arts Program is one of the largest public art initiatives in the country.[…] Also in West Philadelphia, the couple will stop at International House, a nonprofit organization housing nearly 400 students, scholars and interns from more than 65 countries. The prince will hear a student panel discussion of urban regeneration in their respective homelands.[…] On Saturday night, the couple will attend a white-tie event at the Academy of […]
THE DECIDER: The Surge Will Work Because I Told It To Work And That’s How Things Work Around Here
FROM AMERICABLOG: In an interview, [Speaker Of The House Nancy] Pelosi also said she was puzzled by what she considered the president’s minimalist explanation for his confidence in the new surge of 21,500 U.S. troops that he has presented as the crux of a new “way forward” for U.S. forces in Iraq. “He’s tried this two times — it’s failed twice,” the California Democrat said. “I asked him at the White House, ‘Mr. President, why do you think this time it’s going to work?’ And he said, ‘Because I told them it had to.’ Asked if the president had elaborated, […]
WHAT I DID ON MY X-MAS VACAY
BY EVA LIAO This Christmas, my friend Emma got the new MacBook Pro, Adam scored a new skateboard, Nicole took a ski trip to Colorado and I got an enema. It’s not what you think, you perv. You see, this year I decided to forego the holidays, which was the easy part, and join my mom in holistic rehab, which was the difficult part. You see, my severely bi-polar mother has suffered from ever-worsening alcoholism for about 10 years now and so, oddly enough, rehabs hold a special place in my heart. For years they served as the backdrop for […]
BREAKING: Philebrity Smells FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET In Bob Brady YouTube, We Do Too
Watch it for a few minutes, and you begin to feel something weird; set to DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat,” the clip ruminates on a clip of Chaka Fattah speaking on the House floor, before moving to stock footage of young black men dancing in the street, then Mayor Street, then, absurdly, Mumia Abu-Jamal and stills from pro-Mumia rallies. Suddenly, Bob Brady’s face appears on the screen. The montage continues, until just about the end, where a legend bears: “THIS MAY, DO THE RIGHT THING,” followed by a shot of a “Fattah For Mayor” placard with “Fattah” x’ed […]