ROAD TO EXCESS LEADS TO THE PALACE OF WISDOM: Excess, Medusa Lounge, Last Night [photos by TIFFANY YOON/CLICK TO ENLARGE]
WORTH REPEATING: When The Internet Disappears
[via THE CRAP I WAS THINKING] I’ve been without access to most of the web via my Comcast broadband service for about 5 hours now. This is an extra pain this weekend, because I need to log in to my work VPN to do some system maintenance, and I can’t get there from here. My wife, who never likes being without the web, called in to Comcast, and after an excruciating 40 minutes listening to the 20-second hold music loop, got a tech rep who said that the AT&T backbone is down for all of Pennsylvania. It does seem like a […]
WORTH REPEATING: McCain Booed At Lorraine Motel
HUFFINGTON POST: Senator John McCain, “who says he will court the African-American vote this year and campaign in places Republicans often shun,” spoke in Memphis on Friday to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.But his speech was met with boos and interruptions from many in the audience, as he apologized for repeatedly opposing the creation of a holiday to celebrate King’s legacy. (The image of a black man holding an umbrella over McCain’s head while he gave the speech didn’t exactly complement the moment.) McCain voted against the creation of a […]
TONITE: PHAWKER’S FIRST FRIDAY GUIDE
BY TIFFANY YOON LIVING ARTS CORRESPONDENT Every First Friday of the month, galleries around the city graciously open their doors and bottles of wine for both the local hipster Great Unwashed looking to get buzzed cheap and beret-clad tourista Philistines from suburbs in search of a little BMW boho-edge. Local merchants and busking musicians line the sidewalks, creating a de facto slalom of hand-made bric-a-brac and subterranean homesick blues. Yes, cynics may bitch, but First Friday is nothing short of an embarrassment of riches and we are not afraid to say so. Having long-since outgrown the gentrified confines of Old […]
HEAR YE: Moby Last Night
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Why? Because we love you, ya big dummy!
CINEMA: Philadelphia Film Festival Guidance
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC In too many ways, Philadelphia is not much of a cinema town. We have fewer screens than most cities our size, no full-time repertory theater (a fact that irks me daily) and too many foreign films just do not open here. But for a the next couple weeks, we can pretend we all live in a first-run town, as the 17th Philadelphia Film Festival spreads out across six area venues to supply more film choices than anyone can consume. The Festival has followed the same basic template since the TLA folks took it over a […]
EARLY WORD: Where Have All The Good Times Gone?
[illustration by ALEX FINE] Do yourself a favor: Cue up “Waterloo Sunset” by the Kinks (SEE BELOW). Ah. Don’t you feel better already? Music in the left speaker, vocals in the right — totally old-school. That twinkling strum of brotherly guitar and gently piddling snare, those drowsy sha-la-las drifting upward while the bassline tumbles downward, and the comforting sentiment that even the shittiest day on earth ends with a glimpse-of-paradise sunset. That, my friend, is the sound of your father’s Britpop. They don’t make singles like that anymore — Damon Albarn has long since stopped even trying. Sadly, the Gallagher […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Sensible Subway Violence
SUBTERRANEAN JUNGLE: Another Brutal Subway Attack By Gang Of Teens By Tyesha Tazwell’s count, there were a dozen of them — six girls, six boys — hanging around together. One of the girls tried to get Tazwell’s attention by uttering a polite-sounding “Excuse me.” Then they pounced. Tazwell, 24, said it took only a few seconds for the teens to knock her to the ground. They pounded her face with a barrage of kicks and punches, stole her purse and chanted “Watch your mouth! Watch your mouth!” when she finally got to her feet and tried to get help. Police […]
You Can Kill A Man, But You Cannot Kill His Dreams
BBC: To many, 40 years after his death, Martin Luther King has become a sort of secular saint. In 1968, many whites in Tennessee saw things differently. He was a rabble-rouser, an agitator, possibly a Communist. In a society built on open racial divisions, his arrival in Memphis in support of striking black sanitation workers was a source of white anger and resentment. In that very different America, not everyone was saddened by his death. Dr King died of a bullet wound to the throat just after 6pm on 4 April. He had been standing on the balcony of the […]
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Withholds Election Returns, Arrests Foreign Journalists, Raids Opposition Party
[Still from Zimbabwe Countdown directed by MICHAEL RAEBURN] NEW YORK TIMES: Zimbabwe’s government staged separate police raids on Thursday against the main opposition party, foreign journalists and at least one democracy advocate, raising the specter of a broad crackdown aimed at keeping the country’s imperiled leaders in power. With the government facing election results that threaten its 28-year reign, security officers raided the Miekles Hotel in central Harare on Thursday afternoon, searching rooms that the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had rented for election operations, said Tendai Biti, the party’s general secretary. About the same time, a […]
WHEN SUPERMODELS ATTACK: Naomi Campbell Arrested For Assaulting Cop In Airport Kerfuffle
TIMES OF LONDON: The spokesman said: “At 17.11, officers were alerted to a disturbance at Terminal 5. Officers attended, and subsequently a 37 year old woman was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer and was taken to Heathrow police station where she remains.” Unconfirmed reports suggest the model was due to catch a 4pm flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles but had apparently mislaid one of her three items of hand luggage. She then apparently demanded airport staff find the bag and turned down their offer to forward it on. As the incident escalated, staff asked her to leave […]
TAWK RADIO: Q&A With WIP’s Anthony Gargano
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] PREVIOUSLY: “Just wanted to give a little positive feedback — amazing blog! I stumbled on to the site a little while back, and it’s very well done. I think the site is thoroughly enjoyable, creative and rich! I enjoy something that will make people think or explore, that will reach them on another level. I’ve always tought if you truly want to reach people and express yourself, why settle for the topical? Reach them in a place where you force them to think. I’m not talking negatively or positively — I’m talking both, talking inspiration, whether […]