Pay no mind to the fact that this girl is only 10 years old. This fucking rocks, yo.
KILLADELPHIA: 2 More Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
INQUIRER: Philadelphia police last night were investigating two homicides in different sections of the city. A 19-year-old man was shot in the abdomen after getting into a fight with three men at Chew Street and Chelten Avenue in East Germantown yesterday afternoon. The victim, who was not identified, was pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m. Police said they were looking for three suspects. A man in his mid-20s died at 6:41 p.m. at Temple University Hospital after being shot in the chest in the 2600 block of Silver Street in North Philadelphia. He was with a 26-year-old man who was shot […]
HERE COMES THE JUDGE: The Pope Takes Manhattan
NEW YORK TIMES: Let me say at the outset that I am your classic stumbling, grumbling, trying-to-sort-it-all-out American Catholic. I consider myself a practicing Catholic because I dearly need the practice. My family and I attend Sunday Mass with some regularity, though not always at the same parish — in case anyone is taking attendance. Our older child goes to catechism class, as will our younger child when she is of age. I have eaten enough stale crumb cake at after-Mass socials to earn penance for at least a few of my many venial sins. Pope Benedict XVI plans to […]
MONICA: What Is Johnny Doc Hiding?
BY MONICA YANT KINNEY OF THE INQUIRER Say you’re a powerful union boss who chairs the city’s Redevelopment Authority, serves as a Delaware River Port Authority commissioner, presides over a South Philadelphia waterfront neighborhood group, and dreams of being mayor or, for now, state senator. It’s 2005. You earn $175,000 that year and decide to renovate your home. Do you (a) rent a place for the duration of the messy six-month project or (b) live for free at a luxury waterfront apartment building owned by a prominent developer? John Dougherty chose b. Personally, if I wore as many hats as […]
THE LAST LAUGH: Heath Ledger As The Joker
DAILY TELEGRAPH: Chilling promotional images of Ledger portraying the Joker from the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight, have been released — nearly three months after the Perth-born actor was found dead in New York. From the movie’s promotional material to the trailer, Ledger appears to be the main attraction, with Christian Bale, who plays Batman, taking a back seat. The film also stars Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman and Christian Bale — reprising his role as Batman. Ledger’s role as the smudge-faced villain is tipped to be his greatest performance, prompting early buzz that he could […]
SIGNED ‘BITTER IN PENNSYLTUCKY’: An Open Letter To America From The Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania
To Whom It May Concern: We live in small towns and rural areas throughout Pennsylvania and we support Barack Obama for President. A few days ago, Sen. Obama made some comments that his opponents are now using to make him appear as if he is something he is not. Instead of speaking to us honestly about how they intend to solve the problems we are facing, they are playing the same old Washington games that accomplish nothing. What Sen. Obama said is that over the last 25-30 years, working class people in places like Pennsylvania have been falling behind, and […]
BOB DYLAN: Forever Young
About a month ago, a friend of Phawker forwarded a series of public service announcement YouTubes made by her uncle imploring the president to restore the cuts he has made to cancer research (SEE BELOW). The spots were made by an ad exec named Jerry Hunnicut (aka Uncle Jerry) and his son Matthew, who also works in advertising (if you have seen a Coke ad in the last few years, you have seen his work). Don’t know all the details, but Uncle Jerry was diagnosed with terminal cancer and told he had a year to live. More recently, Uncle Jerry’s […]
SONGS MEAN ALOT, VOL. 1 Matt Pond PA, “Last Light,” from the album Last Light
BY JOE WARMINSKY A confession: Although I’m a fellow Keystone Stater, I ignored Matt Pond PA until a few months ago, and I’m not even sure why I decided to listen to Last Light, the long-running band’s 2007 disc. Guilt? Housecleaning? Doesn’t matter. Bingo, voila, whoo, it’s front-loaded with a majestic title track that shoves aside alt-rock’s amorphous, self-conscious present and instead intelligently honors the ancient “120 Minutes” aesthetic: The production is proudly slick; the drums have some of that big ’80s sound; the guitar riffs are firm, but also classically shoegazerish; and the vocals are pushed frontward. And there […]
CINEMA: Film Festival Guidance
WHAT WE DO IS SECRET (2007, directed by Rodger Grossman, 92 minutes, U.S.)BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC What is no secret is that the old-fashioned Hollywood bio-pic is over-due for an overhaul; why hasn’t first-time director Roder Grossman received the news? Indistinguishable from about fifty percent of VH1’s Behind The Music scripts, this bio of quintessential L.A. punk Darby Crash and his briefly viable band The Germs hits most of the same notes as Judd Apatow’s Dewey Cox parody from last winter. The Germs‘ music still kicks ass and E.R.s Shane West (collecting the Festival’s Rising Star Award at Saturday’s […]
MEDIA: How Chris Matthews Is Hurting America
We are at a loss to explain to exactly what, besides halitosis and hot air, Chris Matthews and David Shuster bring to the table in ANY discussion, let alone one about politics. It beggars disbelief that these two are paid good money — Matthews reportedly makes $5 million a year to spew this drivel! — to handicap a presidential election, but then again, the last eight years simply could not have happened without these mice among men. And just for the above exchange, which is about as inane as it gets, these two get to share ASSHAT OF THE WEEK […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Author Philip Roth began his writing career in 1959 with the publication of Goodbye, Columbus, a collection of stories about Jewish communities in America following World War II, which won the National Book Award for fiction. Since then, Roth has written nearly 30 novels, including American Pastoral, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1997. Most recently, he published Exit Ghost, the final novel depicting the story of Nathan Zuckerman, Roth’s so-called alter ego. In 2001, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded Roth its prestigious Gold Medal for Fiction. Roth turned 75 in March, and […]
THRILLS, CHILLS, SPILLS: Amazing Car Chase
Apparently this went down in the Great Northeast back in October, but totally eluded our radar. Won’t be the first time nor the last. Be that as it may, this a helluva car chase, if you like that kind of thing. Apparently the guy had just robbed a bank, and he sure drives like it. Hats off to the Philadelphia police department. Barring the officer with his boot grinding perp’s face into the street while the cops cuff him (which, although we ordinarily frown on such extra-judicial justice, an argument COULD be made that dude fucking had it coming, and […]