CNN: Bernie McDaid was an 11-year-old altar boy when his priest began molesting him, one of some 50 boys who have said they were molested by the same man. Like so many victims of abuse, McDaid’s young life spiraled. He turned to drugs and alcohol in his teen years, struggling to cope with what “Father B” had done to him. On Thursday, he finally got a chance to do something he’d hoped for decades: He met with the Holy Father and told him about the abuse he had suffered.”I basically told him that I was an altar boy … a […]
CINEMA: I Found My Thrill
MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS (2007, directed by Wong Kar Wai, 90 minutes, U.S./Hong Kong) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITICIn the mid-’90s, the music cognoscenti had become enamored with the Brazilian ’60s rock group Os Mutantes, whose mix of Beatle-ish harmonies, fuzzed-out guitar and eccentric arrangements gave them a sound like no other. In 2000, resurgent interest in the band led to an issuing of a previously-unreleased 1970 recording session. Titled Technicolor, it featured Os Mutantes revisiting the prime moments of their repertoire, this time singing not in Portuguese but in English. Same great band, same great songs — so how could […]
THE EARLY WORD: A Change Is Gonna Come
DAILY NEWS ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA: THE CHOICE in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary is not only the one between a white woman and a black man. It’s a choice between the past and the future. Should Democrats choose someone who will employ hard-won — even bitter — experiences gained in a past Democratic administration, or reach beyond political truisms toward a new (and untried) model of governing? Neither choice is obvious. Perhaps that’s why the race has gone on for so long. But the long slog through 44 primaries and caucuses has confirmed for us that Sen. Barack Obama’s vision of […]
HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN: NRA Gets Court Injunction Against Gun Laws, Tells City To Drop Dead
PHILLY CLOUT: Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan this morning ordered the city to stop any enforcement of five local gun control laws passed by City Council last week and signed into law by Mayor Nutter. That includes any drafting of regulations or officer training by the Police Department on how to enforce the laws. The National Rifle Association, acting on behalf of gun groups, owners and shop operators, had asked for the order while it sought a hearing on whether the local laws violate state law and run afoul of the state Constitution. Greenspan found that many of […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
MAHOGANY RUSH: Mahogany, Johnny Brendas, Last Night BY TIFFANY YOON Phawker got a bit held up watching the Democratic debate at some dingy dive bar, and missed Andrew Gilligan’s shoegazin’ trio :ravens:and:vultures. Phawker watched Gilligan and the sisters of :ravens:and:vultures: before at Pi Lam, and was sad to miss the band perform at one of our favorite venues. The second band Phawker missed because of the mother&%$& debate missed was Arc in Round, with members of Philadelphia’s own Relay, a great experimental indie band that’s been raved by CMJ and Spin. Phawker curses the 26th Democratic debate and wishes it […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR As the race for the Democratic nomination heats up in Pennsylvania, campaigns are spinning the local press at a pivotal moment. Philadelphia Daily News senior writer and occasional Fresh Air guest host Dave Davies [NOT pictured, left] offers an inside-the-tent view of his state’s primary circus. He’ll tell us what goes on behind the scenes as the campaigns’ staff and surrogates give their talking points and daily spin to the local press. ALSO, During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Rhode Island’s Lincoln Chafee was often called the body’s most liberal Republican. A determinedly mainstream legislator now registered […]
A LETTER FROM ANNE DICKER: Help Me Help You
Dear Phawker Readers, There’s a war going on in South Philly this Tuesday – it’s Election Day, and the residents of the First District have to find a replacement for Vince Fumo. Hopefully, someone who won’t think stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars is totally kosher. Let’s fight the machine..and have fun! My name is Anne Dicker. I’m a tough broad (but nice, really, I am nice) progressive 34-year-old who lives in Queen Village with my husband. I am the only independent, honest, FBI-free candidate in the race, but I need your help. [EDITOR’S NOTE: As per the request of […]
LIVE & DIRECT: From The 26th Democratic Debate
BY JONATHAN VALANIA They are already calling it The Gotcha Debate. Lucky us! First up, we discuss how Obama is a latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, NPR-listening, America-hatin’ so-and-so and why that is so bad, and don’t you agree Hillary? Stephanopoulos just asked Obama if Reverend Wright loves America as much as he does. What next, loyalty oaths? Dude volunteered to go to Vietnam, George, where were you? * Now for a brief yet pointless detour into vox populi with a coupla questions from embittered Pennsyltuckians. Joe Stupid Sweater from Pittsburgh wants to know why Hillary lied about sniper fire in Bosnia and what […]
LOU REED: Kill Your Sons
Via Italian Television. That’s the mighty Robert Quine in the shades and the baldheaded with the cigarette. Dude was shred incarnate, rest his soul. Lou Fucking Reed. Saturday at the Electric Factory! Woo-hoo!
HOT DOC: Open Letter To The Drive-By Media
[via ATTYOOD] Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, It’s hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, “a shameful night for the U.S. media.” It’s hard because — like many other Americans — I am still angry at what I just witnessed, so angry that it’s hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that “media criticism” — especially when […]
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW: East Germantown
[Photo by JUSTIN ROMAN] The Valley of the Shadow is an ongoing series documenting how those in Philadelphia’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods publicly mourn and commemorate their dead. Jeff Deeney knows these neighborhoods well from his days as a social worker. The hope is to shine a light on the city’s untouchables, brighten the darkest corners and gather-and-share ultra-vivid and all-too-real stories of loss, grief and remembrance. BY JEFF DEENEY One of the hard things about being a social worker in Philadelphia is seeing your client’s block turn up in newspaper crime reports. Sometimes details about shootings and homicides […]