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 27,000 BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of 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 […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Writer-director Todd Haynes is responsible for an eclectic array of films, from the elegantly bio-paranoia drama Safe to the glam-rock celebration Velvet Goldmine and the Douglas Sirk homage Far From Heaven. His latest experiment: I’m Not There, a kind of fantasia on the public personas of Bob Dylan. Six different actors — including Cate Blanchett — play the famously protean singer. HONORABLE MENTION: The National Book Foundation presented Terry Gross, host of WHYY’s Fresh Air, with the 2007 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. The award recognizes important contributions Gross has made to the […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
STUDY: Kind Bud Is Even Kinder To Cancer Patients Very interesting research from the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. It’s work that’s been going on for several years, and according to researchers there, they believe a compound called CBD — that’s cannabidiol — could be the first non-toxic agent that could show possible help in treating metastatic forms of cancer. Metastasis is when cancer starts to spread throughout the body. Now, what’s interesting about this is that CBD is an ingredient found in marijuana. However, it has no psychoactive properties. The bottom line here is that it should […]
DVD: Back When Sesame Street Was Keepin’ It Real
NEW YORK TIMES: Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia. Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of […]
FOR THE RECORD: Natalie Portman Is Happy With Wes Anderson Nude Scene And, Hey, We Are Too
DALLAS MORNING NEWS: You might have read about it in the recent Parade magazine cover story penned by the actress. Except – shocking – she didn’t actually write it, even though the words “By Natalie Portman” adorn the cover. “They do an interview with you then sort of write it for you,” she says by phone. “They claim that you wrote it, but that’s not really how it works. They interview you like you’re interviewing me, then they just write it in the first person.” OK, so nobody was thinking about nominating Parade for a Pulitzer anyway. But it seems […]
Hyski O’Rooney McVoutie O’Zoot Has Left The Building
Hy Lit, 73, one of Philadelphia’s pioneer disc jockeys, died yesterday at Paoli Memorial Hospital of what his son termed “bizarre complications” after a knee injury. Mr. Lit was on hand for much rock-and-roll history as it played out in Philadelphia. He played Rolling Stones music early on and accompanied the Beatles to the city in 1964. A dashing figure with a face for television, he also hosted dance shows on WKBS in Philadelphia and a New York station. Another longtime fixture in local radio, disc jockey Jerry Blavat, last night called Mr. Lit’s death “the end of the era […]
KILLADELPHIA: 4 Dead Since U Went To Bed
A deadly night across the city as four people were shot and killed. Four people died in three separate shootings that happened around 2am as bars were closing. Homicide detectives say those two shootings appeared to have started with arguments in bars or clubs. Two people were shot in a parking lot near Front and Chestnut Streets around 2am. A 23-year-old man died from a gunshot wound to the head, another man suffered non-life threatening injuries. At about the same time, several people were shot at Broad and Sommerset Streets where two men died; a 37-year-old and a 25-year-old. At […]
SAD: Kanye’s Mother Dies After Tummy Tuck; Kanye Breaks Down Onstage In Paris During “Hey Momma”
LOS ANGELES — A judge has quashed the arrest warrant for a plastic surgeon who operated on the mother of Kanye West. The warrant was issued Friday morning when Dr. Jan Adams did not show up for a hearing in a civil case unrelated to the death of West’s mother, Donda West. Courtroom assistant Becky Liu says Adams showed up later in the morning and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Tracy Grant canceled the warrant. Adams has said little publicly since the death of Donda West. She died Nov. 10, a day after Adams performed a tummy tuck and breast […]
WE KNOW IT’S ONLY ROCK N’ ROLL BUT WE LIKE IT
STRIPED WHITE JETS: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Starlight Ballroom, Last Night BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER First, a bite of crow: in the interest of full disclosure, I must confess to being among the few critics that did not clap my hands or say ‘Yeah’ when CYHSY first blazed across the night sky of the blogosphere two years ago, leaving behind of phosphorous tail of spent Pitchfork hype and Brooklyn hipster cachet. But it would seem that either they have changed or I have, or perhaps a little of both. Judging from CYHSY’s taut, expansive and altogether persuasive […]
WORTH REPEATING: How To Sell The City
Just stumbled upon this on UWISHUNU, which, it is no secret, is “created and fully moderated by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation.” When the city’s marketers are using MIA as tourist-bait, truly a “new day” has dawned in Philadelphia. Update: The VIP package is SOLD OUT! ***You can still purchase MIA tickets from Live Nation. You should also check out Philly Like a Local for another cool way to stay in Philadelphia. Sri Lankan-British rapper/singer/songwriter Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, better known as MIA, is coming to Philadelphia’s Electric Factory on Saturday, December 1 to support her new album, Kala. It’s […]
INSTA-REVIEW: Raising Sand
NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT Today I set out to listen to and share my thoughts on the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album, Raising Sand. This collaboration, which the artists have taken great pains to say is not an album of “duets,” was produced by T-Bone Burnett. I’ve been looking forward to hearing it in its entirety. I must note that unlike most of my Insta-Reviews, I couldn’t help but hear snippets of some of these songs on the artists’ recent radio interviews, but I’ll try to keep my thoughts as fresh as possible. You have […]
HEAR YE: Robyn Hitchcock I Often Dream Of Trains
NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO HEAR YE: Led Zeppelin Mothership NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! INSTA-REVIEW: I’m Not There Soundtrack NOW PLAYING: ON PHAWKER RADIO! HEAR YE: Ween La Cucaracha NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! HEAR YE: Radiohead In Rainbows NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO
SHOCK & AWE: 15 THINGS THOU SHALL NOT KNOW ABOUT DAVID DYE AND THE WORLD CAFE
1. All things considered, he’d rather be a DJ than an author. As part of the relentless media blitz for his recently-published book The Best Of The World Cafe, Mr. Dye has been jet-setting from one affiliate to another, planting the flag in exotic capitals of commerce and culture such as Akron, Louisville and Milwaukee. There, he is invariably greeted by a grateful populace as the man who brought water to the arid, choice-less deserts of the airwaves over middle America; a welcome, earthy alternative to the grating crackle and slick drivel of corporate radio. Having just touched town in […]