BY AMY Z. QUINN We know how it is: so many words to read, so little time to surf for free porn. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you, freeing up valuable nanoseconds that can now be better spent ‘roughing up the suspect’ over at Suicide Girls or what have you. Every Thursday we pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer you towards the gooey caramel center of each edition. Why? Because we like you. ON THE COVER CITY PAPER: […]
NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: Nutter Names Top Cop
Mayor-elect Michael Nutter today named former Washington police chief Charles H. Ramsey as his pick for police commissioner, citing Ramsey’s “presence, record and passion” as key assets that he said will “turn the city around and bring about a new day in Philadelphia.” With nearly four decades of police experience, Ramsey comes to Philadelphia about a year after stepping down as the Washington police chief, a position he held from 1998 through 2006. Nutter made the much-anticipated announcement at the YMCA at 51st Street and Chestnut Street, one of the city’s most violent neighborhoods. Ramsey, who left as the top […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Pro golfer John Daly [pictured, above, with unnamed Girl Gone Wild] has won tournaments on five continents, including two of the PGA tour’s four majors. He’s also gambled away a couple of fortunes, trashed various hotel rooms, houses and cars, married four times, and downed enough booze to land himself in a string of emergency rooms and rehab clinics. These days, he says, he lives on Diet Coke and Marlboro Lights. “I guess you could say,” Daly writes in his recent memoir, that “I’m not exactly a poster boy for moderation.” Daly’s behavior has earned him fines and […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
HOOT NANNY: Perkasie At The Fire, Last Night FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PERKASIE AT THE FIRE LAST NIGHT 1. Country/folk outfit Perkasie might seem more at home performing in an old Texas saloon with a worn-out bar piano, but they manage to get folks at The Fire tapping their feet to a collection of catchy Southern-style tunes. Subject matter ranges from grillin’ and drinkin’ some beers to more subdued whistle-along ballads about small-town life. With alternative acts like Bright Eyes and Murder by Death making mid-career transitions into country territory, it’s refreshing to see a band like Perkasie […]
EXIT, STAGE LEFT: The Amy Winehouse Object Lesson Guide To Pop Stardom
Today’s Lesson: If you can at all avoid it, try not to call the audience “monkey cunts.” From the BBC: Amy Winehouse [pictured, right, at the Electric Factory this past spring] was booed by fans as she delivered a shambolic set on the first night of her UK tour in Birmingham. The singer also dedicated a song to her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, who is being held on remand pending charges including GBH. During the show, the 24-year-old told the crowd: “To them people booing, wait ’til my husband gets out of incarceration. And I mean that.” Shortly after the show […]
HECKUVA JOB, COOKIE: The Brother Of The Guy Whose Job It Is To Investigate Blackwater Sits On The Board Of Advisors For…wait for it…Blackwater!
Earlier today CROOKS & LIARS posted video from a House hearing dealing with allegations that State Department Inspector General Howard “Cookie” Krongard impeded investigations into corruption in Iraq. During the hearing, Krongard repeatedly denied rumors that his brother, Buzzy Krongard was on Blackwater’s advisory board — but on tonight’s Countdown we learned that lo and behold, after returning from a break in testimony, Krongard informed the Committee that he had just spoken with his brother and that he did, in fact, sit on Blackwater’s board and that he was recusing himself from any further matters dealing with the mercenary contractor. […]
HEAR YE: Raising Sand Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO
EXPLAINER: Why Hollywood Writers Strike
Shameful. Just shameful.
GAMBLOR: 18 Busted In Borgata For, Um, Gambling
TRENTON, N.J. — An illegal sports gambling ring run out of a high-stakes poker room in an Atlantic City casino was busted Wednesday and 18 people were arrested, including four with mob ties, a law enforcement official said. The four — affiliated with the Philadelphia mob — appeared to be the ringleaders, with six employees of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa also among those arrested, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the case.Five more people were being sought Wednesday. Borgata spokesman Rob Stillwell said the casino did nothing […]
CINEMA: I Was An American Girl
Runnin’ Down A Dream (Dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 4-DISC DVD, 2007) BY AMY Z. QUINN As per usual, Philly was ahead of the curve on Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. If you grew up listening to the radio around here, you know that the first two albums, the self-titled debut and You’re Gonna Get It! were common cause on the local airwaves by 1979, back when FM was the Internet of its day. Thanks to the dashboard radio in my sister Terrie’s ’72 LeMans, I feel like I was born with the words to a half-dozen of their songs on my […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Brian De Palma’s films include the horror classic Carrie, the crime epics Scarface and The Untouchables, and the first Mission: Impossible film. His latest release, Redacted, is a fictional take on a real incident — in which U.S. soldiers who raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl in Iraq. It has strong echoes of his Vietnam War drama Casualties of War. Inspired, in part, by reports he saw on the Internet about the 2006 incident, De Palma takes a raw, cinema-verite approach what’s essentially a faux documentary, telling the story with the aid of soldiers’ blogs, video diaries and […]
GAYBO: My Big Gay Double Diva Weekend
BY TOMMY ZANE GAYDAR EDITOR Platinum blonde was the color of the weekend, as Ramon and I attended concerts by two of rock’s living legends. On Saturday night, Annie Lennox, formerly one half of 80’s new wave band Eurythmics, gave an arousing, vibrant performance to a sold-out house at The Merriam Theatre, often bringing the audience to their feet. Presenting a career-spanning set ranging from “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” to the sobering, somber “Dark Road”, off her latest release, Songs of Mass Destruction. A frequently detached live performer, Lennox was playful and endearing, often joking with the packed […]
WORTH REPEATING: Crime & Punishment
“It costs $32,000 to keep somebody in jail, I am prepared to spend $10,000 to give him a job [when he gets out].” — Mayor-elect Michael Nutter on his plan to lower Philadelphia’s 76% recidivism rate, which includes a $10,000 tax credit to any city employer that will hire an ex-con [Hat tip to MalcolmXPark]