This curious illustration has been indelibly etched on our hard-drive ever since we first saw it on the back of an REM tour program in 1984 (Tower Theater, DBs opened if memory serves). Ostensibly, it’s an old-timey ad for a bicycle maker, but what is that monkey doing with that parrot? And what the hell were they doing up on that mountaintop? Back in 1984, when we were convinced that Michael Stipe was some kind of latter-day Delphic oracle in thrift-store rags, we were sure there was some mystical significance encrypted in this surrealistic tableau. Ah, teenagers.
JIMMY KIMMEL: I’m F*cking Ben Affleck
Though we wouldn’t have thought it possible, this even funnier than “I’m F*cking Matt Damon.”
MANCHURIAN CANDIDATES: Drudge Runs Dueling Photo Ops Of Clinton & Obama In ‘Islamofascist’ Garb
THE NATION: Barack Obama has had to spend hours on the campaign trail debunking the lie that he is Muslim. This story first circulated via a right-wing email smear campaign, as my colleague Chris Hayes documented, but has since taken on a life of its own, spawning more and more fantastic conspiracies about Obama. Today the story took an even more bizarre turn, when Drudge posted a picture of Obama dressed as a traditional Somali elder on a trip back to Kenya in 2006. The photo of Obama, in a white sash and white turban, was clearly meant to stoke […]
TODAY I SAW: The Untouchables II
BY JEFF DEENEY If you caught yesterday’s comments on the Inky’s big three part series, “Homelessness in Philadelphia,” you know that I felt it wasn’t looking so strong out of the gate. It was another collection of phoned in quotes from the usual suspects who contributed to the paper’s last ten articles on homelessness, some nominal street reporting that read like it was done in a single afternoon and a sensational accompanying photo of a ramshackle shelter, the sight of which anyone who’s ever worked a day in center city already knows all too well, that didn’t provide any extra […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
WHEN ANCHORBABES ATTACK: Alycia Lane Set Free “I just want to say I’m so glad this is over,” said former CBS anchor Alycia Lane, as she left a New York City courthouse this morning. “And I want to thank all of those who supported me and believed in me. And I just look forward to moving on with my life now.” At the hearing (and as we reported would happen) Lane’s attorney David Smith and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Michael Greenman agreed to an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, or ACD. It’s essentially a six-month-long slow dismissal of her case. […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
A GHOST IS BORN: Jeff Tweedy & Wilco, Tower Theater, Saturday Night BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Saturday night at the Tower theater, Wilco was merely great. The qualifying “merely” is hard to explain, because on the face of it Saturday night had all the makings of a bragging rights concert experience. Totally jazzed, way sold out crowd? Check. Storied, acoustically-friendly venue? Check. Legendary opening act, one John Doe, tragically ignored by most in favor of the beer line? Check. Must-see headliners with a live rep for fireworks ready to throw down? Check. Perhaps the only thing missing was […]
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: Nader To Fuck It All Up
[Artwork by MILA JOHNSON] POLITICO: Ralph Nader, 74, announced on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’ll run as a third-party, anti-corporate candidate for president this fall, which would be likely to drain votes from the Democratic nominee and provide a huge boon to Republicans. Democrats say they will work behind the scenes — and use court challenges, if necessary — to try to thwart his access to ballots. The longtime consumer activist said on “Meet the Press” that Washington has become “corporate occupied territory” and that none of the current presidential candidates are sufficiently addressing corporate crime, labor rights or […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
WILCODELPHIA: Last night Wilco was selling these posters for $25 and all proceeds went to the Anti-Violence Project of Philadelphia. Good on ’em.
TODAY I SAW: The Untouchables
BY JEFF DEENEY The Inquirer’s first attempt at serious homelessness coverage in a long time, imaginatively titled “Homelessness in Philadelphia,” saw the first of its three parts run in the Sunday paper. You might remember back in November that I took a swipe at Inky writers Jennifer Lin and Joseph Slobodzian for peddling the same weak sauce the Inky usually peddles when it comes to homelessness and linked to a hard hitting series by the Boston Globe that did it right and won accolades. Imagine this: four months later Lin and Slobodzian return with a series just like the Globe’s that […]
WORTH REPEATING: It’s The Incompetence, Stupid!
FRANK RICH: Clinton fans don’t see their standard-bearer’s troubles this way. In their view, their highly substantive candidate was unfairly undone by a lightweight showboat who got a free ride from an often misogynist press and from naïve young people who lap up messianic language as if it were Jim Jones’s Kool-Aid. Or as Mrs. Clinton frames it, Senator Obama is all about empty words while she is all about action and hard work. But it’s the Clinton strategists, not the Obama voters, who drank the Kool-Aid. The Obama campaign is not a vaporous cult; it’s a lean and mean […]
SOLD: Four Hundred North Broad
INQUIRER: Patriot Equities LP of Wayne says it has agreed to buy the Inquirer and Daily News headquarters in Center City and will seek to rezone and refurbish part of the underused complex for retail services. Philadelphia Media Holdings, which owns the building along with the two newspapers, the Philly.com Web site and other publications, will not comment on terms of the sale or plans for the site until a definitive agreement is signed, said Bill Luff, managing director at the Philadelphia office of Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate firm advising Philadelphia Media Holdings. Philadelphia Media says it plans […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
GATHERING OF THE TRIBES: Human Be-In, Media Bureau, Last Night [PHOTOS BY TIFFANY YOON/CLICK TO ENLARGE]
BEING THERE: A Star-Studded Interview With I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Director Sam Jones
BY JONATHAN VALANIA In honor of you-know-who playing the Tower tonight (look for pix tomorrow, and an Inquirer review up Monday) and the Oscars on Sunday, I give you this Q&A with Sam Jones, the director of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and photographer to the stars. Sam recently called out of the blue to tell me how excited he was about this band he was working with from Chambersburg, PA, called The Shackeltons. I told him I would check out these Shackeltons if he would sit for an interview, because that’s the way show biz works, Sammy. […]