DAILY NEWS: She was born with the last name of Peace, but anything but that befell the young mother Monday night as she was walking to catch a SEPTA trolley at the 69th Street Terminal. Samara Peace, 18, of Sharon Hill [pictured below, with Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood], was carrying her 7-month-old daughter, Samya, close to her chest when, about 11 p.m., a young man later identified by police as Carlos C. Boothe, 19, of Upper Darby, approached her on Lennox Road near Penncock Avenue and asked for her phone number, she said. At the same time, a […]
CINEMA: The Fraud, The Horror & The Rapture
ELECTILE DYSFUNCTION (2008, directed by Mary Patel & Joe Barber, 93 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Philadelphia City Paper columnist Mary Patel teamed up with co-director Joe Barber for this exhausting but not exhaustive look at the gaping flaws in the U.S. electoral system. It’s a Grand Central Station of talking heads, all delivering little more than soundbites. And while I love a diversity of opinion, I’m not sure what unique perspective Elliot Gould and Schoolly D bring to the stew. Freely mixing in the angry and clueless public with disgustingly hardened insiders, Electile Dysfunction never drums up […]
TOKYO PUBLIC TRANSIT: Size Matters
And you thought SEPTA sucked!
NO WAY OUT: The Blight At The End Of Tunnel
NEW YORK TIMES: The senior commander of multinational forces in Iraq warned Congress Tuesday against removing “too many troops too quickly” and refused under stiff questioning to offer even an estimate of American force levels by the end of this year. Those comments from Gen. David H. Petraeus were met by sharp criticism from a senior Democrat, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, that the Bush administration had adopted “a war plan with no exit strategy.” General Petraeus said that security progress has been “significant but uneven.” Under questioning, he declined to estimate American troop levels beyond the withdrawal by July […]
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW: There Will Be Bloods
[Photos by JUSTIN ROMAN] EDITOR’S NOTE: 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 The air around the Norris Apartments — the high-rise housing project on the eastern fringe of Temple University’s campus — is thick with blunt smoke on […]
CONTEST: The Beast And Dragon, Adored
You could win two tix to see Spoon Thur. at the sold-out E-factory! Stay tuned for details… MP3: “Cherry Bomb Country” [Hat tip to ALLAN SMITHEE]
NO. LAWRENCE MIDNIGHT SINGERS: 100% Mobile
Directed by Scott Colan. Featuring ex-Cordalene frontman and Cantina Los Caballitos server extraordinaire Jamie Olson! Catch them Saturday at Fergies.
FEST PICKS: Spine-Tingling, Sperm-Injected Revolution
SPINE TINGLER! THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY (2007, directed by Jeffrey Schwartz, 78 minutes, U.S.)BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It’s hard to resist this documentary bio on the B-Movie King, mostly because Castle himself was such an irrepressible character of child-like enthusiasm. His was a story made for Hollywood: A young boy, orphaned by age 11, finds a home in the theater, then bluffs his way into success as a big-screen producer. Castle hooked up with many of the most colorful showbiz characters of the last century, working closely with Orson Welles, Bela Lugosi, Roman Polanski and, in a humorous episode, […]
NEWS CLUES: ‘All Politics Is Polygamy’ Edition
GUY NOIR: Feds Reveal Details Of Fumo’s Snooping On Political Friends & Foes Prosecutors yesterday filed a 93-page document in federal court identifying more than 2,000 potential exhibits in their prosecution of state Sen. Vince Fumo. Fumo, who announced last month that he would not seek re-election, is set for trial in September. The disclosure of the evidence by prosecutors — ordered by the federal judge presiding over the case — relates to many of the charges against Fumo. Among the more interesting items on the evidence list: A Sept. 22, 2002, fax from Frank Wallace, a private investigator hired […]
CHINESE DEMOCRACY: Just Do It
Boy on his father’s shoulders, Paris, earlier today. [Photo by VESPA RIDING GRANNY] NPR: Police in the French capital said Monday that the last part of the Olympic torch relay in the city had been cancelled after they were forced to douse the symbolic flame several times and carry it in a bus to avoid anti-China protesters. The announcement followed a day in which the police were forced to play a game of cat-and-mouse with protesters in an effort to keep them at bay as the relay took place. Security officials in Paris extinguished the Olympic torch five separate times […]
HEARY YE: Matmos Supreme Balloon
Now playing on Phawker Radio! More details after the jump…
ROB LOWE: Blackmail Is My Life
[portrait by ROB MUNRO] BY ROB LOWE FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST Harassment in the workplace, sexual or otherwise, is something I take very seriously. In my home and on the set, I have been surrounded for years by hardworking women (and men) whom I respect and whose rights are to be protected. But when people make false claims of harassment particularly for financial gain, it must be defended vigorously and openly, for it weakens the claims of legitimate victims. A former employee is demanding my wife Sheryl and I pay her 1.5 million dollars by the end of the week […]