ASSOCIATED PRESS: BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Cate Blanchett won the supporting actress Golden Globe on Sunday for the Bob Dylan tale “I’m Not There” during an awards show truncated from glitzy banquet to dry news conference because of the Hollywood writers strike. Marion Cotillard won for best actress in a musical or comedy for a remarkable personification of singer Edith Piaf in “La Vie En Rose,” playing the French icon from youth through middle age and into her ailing final years.Javier Bardem won for supporting actor in “No Country for Old Men,” playing a merciless killer tracking a fortune […]
VIET NOW: Killing The Blues
Bodies of Federal soldiers, killed on July 1, 1863 Gettysburg, Pa. NEW YORK TIMES: Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.” Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak. The New York Times […]
KILLADELPHIA: Cops Kill Ex-Mayor’s Nephew
INQUIRER: Lt. Frank Vanore said that Timothy Goode, 24, of the 1000 block of Pratt Street, was involved in a drug deal Friday night in Germantown. Vanore said that when police moved in, Timothy Goode ran to Logan Street and turned toward police with a gun. Officers shot him twice, in the side and lower back. He died at Temple University Hospital. A 9mm semi-automatic handgun and a bag containing 45 crack vials were recovered nearby, police said. Plainclothes narcotics officers had been staking out the area of 200 Clapier St. where, police said, numerous drug transactions had been reported. […]
Q&A: Meet The Real Mr. Burns
[As Told To JONATHAN VALANIA] 1. Though born and bred in the high rainy land of the Pacific Northwest, Charles Burns has resided in Philadelphia — Northern Liberties, to be exact — for the past 21 years. “Well, the view out my studio window has changed a bit,” he says, when asked how the ‘hood has evolved over the years. “It used to be homeless guys pushing shopping carts, now it’s mothers pushing strollers.” 2. Mr. Burns is probably the most important graphic novelist of his time. He we would never agree to this, so don’t bring it up if […]
MAILBAG: “A Paranoid Man Is A Man That Knows A Little About What’s Going On” — William Burroughs
DEAR PHAWKER, Thought you might be interested in this story that is bubbling around underneath the mainstream media. You’ve seen that HBO documentary about how dangerously screwed-up those electronic voting machines are? Hackable Diebold machines were supplied to 80% of New Hampshire’s districts. Seems Hillary won overwhelmingly on these machines where Obama overwhelmingly won on the hand-countable machines, defying all statistical probabilities. CNN fleetingly mentioned in their exit polls had Obama ahead by 8% points, in line with all recent polling which charted a steady rise over the last few weeks for Obama and a steady waning of Clinton’s. With […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
PORNO FOR THE DEAF: They Hear It Even When You Can’t While many a hearing person has muted a porn video, it’s nice to have a choice about what you want to hear — or see — and what you don’t. Deaf Bunny (NSFW), the first deaf-owned and deaf-staffed porn company, launched in August with the mission of making porn accessible to deafies and their hearing partners in as many forms as possible.Through subtitles, sign language, cartoonish thought bubbles, full audio and blatant use of technology, anyone can understand the complex plot and tangled relationships portrayed in the company’s first […]
ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Top Five Things You Really Should Know About The Wu-Tang Clan At The Troc
1.) RZA wasn’t in the house — he’s not part of Wu-Tang’s current tour — and not a single track from the Pride of Shaolin’s latest album, 8 Diagrams, was played, but nobody minded, least of all the drunk white dudes who rapped along to “Bring The Pain” like they were away at Senior Week ’94. 2.) Even without The RZA, the Clan was not lacking in personnel — GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Cappadonna, Inspectah Deck and others made appearances, passing the mic (and, uh, other things) freely and generously back and forth across the stage during a […]
OBAMA: Lady Gov Of AZ Follows Kerry Endorsement
ASSOCIATED PRESS: PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, The Associated Press has learned. The endorsement is a major gain for Obama in his race against chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. Napolitano, one of several female governors, is the most prominent Democrat in Arizona and her endorsement could be significant in a state now regarded as winnable by a Democrat after decades as a near-lock for Republicans. The state holds its primary Feb. 5. Napolitano was elected governor in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. She previously was U.S. attorney for Arizona during […]
AFTER INNOCENCE: Why The Caged Bird Sings
BY JEFF DEENEY Hearty and much-deserved congratulations go out today to Nick Yarris, whom the Inquirer reports received a heaping settlement in his wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against Delaware County. You might remember Yarris from the searing 2006 documentary, After Innocence, which profiled wrongfully convicted men exonerated by the nonprofit Innocence Project, a national coalition of legal clinics that advocates for the release of prisoners who can be conclusively proven innocent by DNA evidence. Yarris got tangled up with the law as a young drug addict in the early ’80s and through a series of unfortunate circumstances and bad decisions (which […]
CINEMA: The Twilight’s Last Gleaming
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Acclaimed experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs (named by the Whitney Museum as one of the one hundred greatest artists of the twentieth century) delivers his life’s work with the nearly-fifty-years-in-the-making masterpiece Star Spangled To Death. No wonder the movie’s running time is an elephantine six hours-plus. Think of it as Picasso’s La Guernica come to life, with laughs added. Nearly fifty years in the making, Star Spangled To Death sums up everything that fascinates and distresses the filmmaker. Sifting through the cinematic junkyard of the last century to display a delirious melange of ham-fisted political propaganda, […]
MAYOR NUTTER: Rapper’s Delight
Reason #6,784 why we like Mike.