ABC NEWS: Cars and trucks streamed inland and chemical companies buttoned up their plants Thursday as a gigantic Hurricane Ike took aim at the heart of the U.S. refining industry and threatened to send a wall of water crashing toward Houston. Nearly 1 million people along the Texas coast were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, which was expected to strike late Friday or early Saturday. But in a calculated risk aimed at avoiding total gridlock, authorities told most people in the nation’s fourth-largest city to just hunker down. Ike was steering almost directly for Houston, where gleaming skyscrapers, […]
KILLADELPHIA: 2 Dead In Playground Massacre
INQUIRER: A “vicious and cowardly attack” at a West Philadelphia playground last night left two men dead and three others in critical condition, Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said at a morning news conference. At about 10:30 p.m., two men in hoodies started firing as trophies were being presented after the championship game of a youth basketball league at McAlpin Playground, 36th and Aspen Streets, in the city’s Mantua section. At least 15 shots were fired. The organizer of the league – Miles Mack, 42, of the 3400 block of Spring Garden Street – was taken to the Hospital of the […]
LIPSTICK ON A WARPIG: Palin Tells ABC News’ Gibson That War With Russia Might Be Necessary
ABC NEWS: When Gibson said if under the NATO treaty, the United States would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help. “And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable,” she told Gibson. MORE OBVIOUS FOLLOW-UP QUESTION THAT WAS NEVER ASKED: Governor, you are aware that […]
THE EARLY WORD: Time For Action, Jackson
[Click image to activate Internets] Sarah Palin Is Definitely NOT F*cking Matt Damon
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When Bush Can’t
FRESH AIR Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and a retired Army colonel, discusses his new book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. He argues that pragmatic realism has always been the core of American foreign policy, and current politicians would do well to remember that. Excerpt: ‘The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism’ by Andrew J. Bacevich Chapter One The Crisis of Profligacy Today, no less than in 1776, a passion for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness remains at the center of America’s civic theology. […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day
BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Caged live canaries hang from the ceiling above an ominously lit stage; on the floor miniature electric trains thread through scattered piles of coal, winding and encircling and passing through tunnels. To the right side of the stage is Ivana Jozic, performer and partner choreographer to the interdisciplinary art-lion Jan Fabre. Clothed in a yellow sundress and cap, Jozic sits in a rocking chair and moves between kissing a suicide note and pressing it endearingly to her bosom. All this, and the performance hasn’t even started. As the performance begins, Jozic recites the suicide note, […]
PAPERBOY: Captain Kangaroo Will Know What To Do
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
FRINGE PICKS: The Melting Bridge To Nowhere
The show must go on Jérôme Bel France’s Jérôme Bel, one of the most sought after choreographers in the world, will set his Bessie Award-winning, internationally renowned contemporary dance epic, The show must go on, with a full cast of twenty Philadelphia-based dancers. The Philadelphia premiere marks the first time a U.S. cast has ever performed the piece, which will be held at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater (260 South Broad Street). The local cast includes dancers diverse in age, race and disciplines including classical ballet dancers from the Pennsylvania Ballet, hip-hop dancers from Rennie Harris Puremovement, and student performers […]
CITIZEN MOM: Baby Mama Drama
CITY PAPER: After three days that contained enough absurdist theater to qualify for the Fringe Festival, the image I’m left with from the Republican National Convention is of the future Mrs. Levi Johnston — you know her better as Bristol Palin — standing onstage with her family and the McCains, being showered with the kind of wild-eyed applause usually reserved for that other rock star in the presidential race. There she was, all of 17, having sprouted a baby bump and a sketchy-looking fiancé since arriving in Minneapolis, and feeling the love from an arena — and a nation — […]
CINEMA: The Breeders
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC If you think the McCain/Palin ticket would be a nightmare for reproductive rights, this month’s Andrew’s Video Vault brings to life a pair of disturbing visions that imagine the worst of what such a future could look like. Rain Without Thunder, the rarer of the features, is still unavailable on DVD. This early nineties film brings us to the year 2040 when a young girl and her mother are imprisoned for procuring a European abortion after America has descended into a Theocratic State. Filmed in a pseudo-documentary style where actors address the camera directly, the […]
IF 9 WERE 11: How We Are Getting Played In Pakistan
NEW YORK TIMES: “When the Americans kill innocent people, we must take revenge,” he said. Tell me about that, I asked Namdar, and his aides again shook their heads. Finally Namdar changed his line. “Well, we can’t stop anyone from going across” into Afghanistan, he said. “I’m not saying we send them ourselves.” And with that, Namdar raised his hand, declining to offer any more details. By many accounts — on the streets, among Western analysts, even according to his own deputies — Namdar was regularly training and dispatching young men to fight and blow themselves up in Afghanistan. An […]
LOSING MY RELIGION: The Vandals Stole The Jangle
PETER BUCK’S SIGNATURE RICKENBACKER GUITAR STOLEN AFTER R.E.M. SHOW IN HELSINKI, FINLAND BAND OFFERS REWARD FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO ITS RECOVERY Burbank, CA — R.E.M. has announced that Peter Buck’s signature Rickenbacker guitar was stolen from the stage immediately following the band’s performance last night at Finnair Stadium in Helsinki, Finland. The instrument is Buck’s iconic signature Rick, which has been the staple of the guitarist’s arsenal both live and in the studio since the band released its first EP Chronictown in 1982. The guitar means a great deal to Buck and to R.E.M. It is R.E.M.’s sincere hope that […]