ASSOCIATED PRESS: LONDON – A British court on Wednesday acquitted a former pub manager of taking a bribe to drop assault charges against Amy Winehouse’s husband. A jury deliberated for three hours before finding James King not guilty of trying to pervert the course of justice (the equivalent of obstruction of justice in the U.S.). The singer-songwriter’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, has admitted beating up King in a barroom fight in 2006 and then offering him $400,000 to keep quiet about it. King, who suffered a broken cheekbone, said he was intimidated into withdrawing the assault claim. Three other men also […]
NO PARKING: Aggravation Just Got More Expensive
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Philadelphia Parking Authority says rising fuel costs are forcing it to increase the fee for towing your car away if it’s confiscated by police. Each day, about 100 vehicles are towed in Philadelphia under the city’s “Live Stop” program. That program targets drivers who don’t have proper registration, or who have invalid, suspended, or revoked driver’s licenses. Corinne O’Connor, the Parking Authority’s director of on-street operations, says a Live Stop job can take hours. She says tow trucks get stuck in traffic, just like everybody else, and the Parking Authority has to cover its costs. The Live […]
LISTEN LIKE THIEVES: My Bloody Valentine
DOWNLOAD: My Bloody Valentine (2008) Live @ ICA London 13/06/2008 SOME GUY ON THE INTERNET: They just reformed after 16 years out. I went to see them on Sunday, on the 3rd of a 5 night residency at a really great venue in London. My ears are still ringing – man, that was by far and away the loudest gig i ever saw in 20 years of gig-going – tons of people were walking out holding their ears looking utterly bewildered…… SOME OTHER GUY ON THE INTERNET: Glad to hear they haven’t toned it down. I remember seeing them open […]
SECOND COMINGS: Meet Jesus Of Siberia
THE GUARDIAN: Four thousand feet up a mountain deep in the Siberian taiga, the middle-aged man appears in a velvet crimson robe, long brown hair framing a beatific smile. He sits down in a log cabin perched on the brow of the hill. It is a room with a stunning view. The snowy Sayan mountains sparkle in the distance. The silver and pink of the birch forests shimmer in the clear sunlight. Down to the right, the pure blue water of Lake Tiberkul mesmerises. Behind the cabin, for much further than the eye can see — a thousand kilometres — […]
JC PENNEY: I Has Sex Tape?
GAWKER: That JC Penney commercial, which featured two teens practicing for a naked romp in the basement? The one that won a prize at the Cannes Lions Awards this weekend and spread quickly on the Web yesterday? It was an unauthorized fake, and executives at the department store are royally pissed. “It’s obviously inappropriate and nothing we would ever condone,” Penney’s chief marketing officer told the Wall Street Journal. “We’re very disappointed that our logo and brand position were used in that way.” Thus began the blame game over who unleashed this mutant sorta-sex tape, one that will seem oh-so-familiar […]
DEMOCRACY NEEDS YOUR HELP: Tell Senator Arlen Specter NOT To Feed The Telecom Lobbyist Beast
Dear Jonathan, The House passed a version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) last week that included retroactive immunity to the telecom companies that conspired in Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. And now, as the bill heads to the Senate, it looks like we have one last chance to stop this massive erosion of the rule of law. Thankfully, we have a few champions, like Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd, who look poised to fight this to the very end, but they can’t do it alone. They need both strong support from progressive senators and the vote of those senators […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Pregnancy Pact With The Truth
Pregger Teen Denies Pregnancy Pact, Calls 17 Pregnant Friends A ‘Coincidence’ One of the pregnant teenage girls at a Massachusetts high school denied that 17 students had entered a pact in an effort to get pregnant and called the high rate of pregnancies “unlucky” and a “coincidence.” “There was definitely no pact,” Lindsey Oliver, 17, [NOT pictured] who became pregnant when she was a junior, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” today. “There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together. I think it was […]
ADAM ACURAGI: The Bottom Of The River
One Take New York filmed Adam Arcuragi at an underground flea market. Each Saturday, two levels of a standard, dingy parking garage turns into a full-blown Chelsea flea market.When Adam Arcuragi and band rolled in with instruments, wary vendors objected, reasoning – apparently – that the delightful, stompy sing-along “Bottom of the River” might distract customers from spending their cash on a stack of vintage post cards or a maybe-working Tupac Shakur clock. But Arcuragi and company charmed ’em and a woman with an infectious smile actually emptied a trash tub to provide the band a bass drum. Oh, and […]
GAMBLOR: No News Is Good News
DAILY NEWS: Lawyers for the Daily News and the Inquirer are seeking to block efforts to force 10 reporters to testify about their sources in the probe into now-indicted slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples. A lawyer for the papers’ owner said that the subpoenas issued recently to the papers and the reporters – as well as several other Pennsylvania journalists – by lawyers for DeNaples “were really designed to harass members of the media.” “We believe that the subpoenas really are an attempt to intimidate the press and to deter the reporters from writing articles about the defendant that they […]
KILLADELPHIA: One More Dead Since U Went To Bed
INQUIRER: Police this morning identified a 37-year-old car wash employee who was fatally shot at work in North Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. Fassara Kouyate, of the 200 block of Birch Street in Kensington, was shot at 4:47 p.m. near the intersection of Broad Street and Lehigh Avenue, police said. He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead at 5:20 p.m. No arrests were reported.
WORTH REPEATING: Confederacy Of Dunces
KAREN HELLER: Council incumbency is nearly papal in its security. Members die in office. People with IQs no higher than toasters cakewalk through elections in perpetuity, all the while able to collect multiple incomes and pensions while slogging through three months of no legislation. The only time a member gets ejected by a somnolent citizenry is when he or she does something truly heinous. Like driving without a license for 25 years. Philadelphia is such an oasis of promise that any little boy can grow up to be a member of Council. Provided Daddy was mayor first. Three former mayors’ […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
HOW ARE YOU: Daniel Johnston, Popped Fest, WCL, Sunday Night BY SIMONE SECCI FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Popped festival 2008: same graphics, same format, fancier names (Gogol Bordello, Daniel Johnston) and locations such as World Café Live and there was where your favorite Philadelphia-adopted Italian reporter was last night to delight his ears. Sunday night there were two stages, with the upstairs more oriented to a dancier, hip and more uncommitted entertainment and a downstairs where a various bunch of more or less underground rock acts gather the attendance. First on stage Gildon Works offered a really great live show of indie […]
SHOOTING HORSES: Jersey Jerk Cops To Killing ‘Cutie’
INQUIRER: A Lindenwold man pleaded guilty today to shooting a rodeo horse with a bow and arrow in Franklin Township, Gloucester County, then leaving it to bleed to death in a field near its owner’s home. Jason Allen, 20, was hunting for deer with two friends in January 2007 when they came across “Cutie,” [NOT pictured, left] he told a Gloucester County Superior Court judge. The steel-tipped arrow Allen fired struck the show horse, owned by a Tuckahoe Road family. Allen, along with Kamren Johnston, 25, and Mark A. Simmerman, 21, were arrested a month later and charged with multiple […]