The End Of The World As We Knew It And We Felt Fine

WIKIPEDIA: On Monday[10], August 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000.[11] Approximately 69% of the city’s buildings were completely destroyed, and 6.6% severely damaged. Research about the effects of the attack was restricted under Allied occupation, and information censored until the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, restoring control to the Japanese.[12] Hiroshima was rebuilt after the war, with the help from the […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

HAVE MERCY, BABY: Duffy, TLA, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] TOP FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DUFFY LAST NIGHT 1.) It takes some measure of balls to sashay onstage for the first time in a city you’ve never played before and launch directly into your hit album’s slowest number, accompanied only by a guitar. Apparently our Ms. Duffy has balls to spare, because the love-don’t-cost-a-thing ballad “Syrup and Honey” had the crowded (yet inexplicably not sold-out) TLA shouting out their appreciation during the song’s pauses, waving their hands in the air like it was Sunday morning at the […]

RIP: Robert Hazard Dead At 59

BY ED KING At one point last night, while standing behind home plate at Citizens Bank Park and watching the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Florida Marlins, I was suddenly overcome by a spell of Philly Pride. Cranky, old Ed King actually got misty as he looked out over the field, took in the sounds from the crowd, and remembered the franchise’s rare past glories and frequent letdowns. This is my team, I thought. My team’s lovely little ballpark. For better and for worse, my people. An hour after having gotten in tune with my city, I arrived home to read […]

KILLADELPHIA: Homeless Love Triangle Turns Stabby

DAILY NEWS: While Tony Stewart stayed cool, lounging in the shade near the LOVE Park fountain, a bitter feud started to heat up between his girlfriend and another woman. “Man, they were up there fighting over me,” Stewart said yesterday, gesturing toward benches that line the other side of the park near JFK Boulevard. Cops said that the squabble reached a tipping point at about 3 p.m., when Stewart’s homeless girlfriend, Yvette Prince, slugged her rival in the head. The other woman, also homeless, jumped up and plunged a knife into Prince’s chest. Prince, 45, died of her injuries at […]

JUNK SCI: Big Box Organic

[CLICK TO ENLARGE] BY ELIZABETH FIEND LIVING EDITOR There’s a crisis in the organics world, and it’s called big business. Too much of a good thing has gone haywire. Organic food is so much in demand these days that there simply isn’t enough to go around. As a result, manufactures of organic products have had to outsource. What was once an industry of small family farms has mushroomed into a new kind of agribusiness, with direct financial ties to the likes of Wal-Mart, Kraft, Kellogg and General Mills. Yikes. Big business is finding loopholes in the legal definition of organic […]

All Of This Happened While You Were Watching TV

THE SNACK PACK: Snacks w/ BLOC PARTY DJs, Woody’s, Last Night [Photos by TIFFANY YOON] INQUIRER: “I thought this was Killadelphia,” said Kele Okereke, the singer of the London quartet Bloc Party, at the TLA on Tuesday night. “We were expecting something dangerous.” […] Under the strobing lights, the crowd undulated like a rolling sea, into which Okereke launched himself as the band neared the end of its set. As the band quickened its pace, stretching its rhythms to the breaking point, he floated on a sea of hands, safe from harm.

GAYDAR: My Life After Christ

BY AARON STELLA Ladies and gentlemen and fellow gay Americans: welcome to an all-new Gaydar! This week, we chronicle the slings and arrows of my family’s post-cult life and my first bold steps in discovering my sexual niche (all the juicy details included, not for the faint of heart gay). OK, here goes: In the December of my 12th year on this earth, my family and I left The Community, aka The Cult. It had become undeniable to us that we were being exploited, and despite my parents’ desperate desire for a wholesome Christian life, they couldn’t ignore the rampant […]

GIRL GERMS: Letter From Rock Camp

Editor’s Note: This week, on the campus of Girard College, Girls Rock Philly! is holding their summer Rock Camp for girls ages 9-17. The campers get their choice of concentrations in guitar, bass, drums, vocals, keyboard and DJ’ing. Our beloved neophyte rock diva, 14-year-old Jenn W. (Roxborough represent!), is on the scene and will be sending us dispatches from Rock Camp all week. Monday, Aug. 4 DEAR PHAWKER, We started off the day in the auditorium of the Elementary Building, with all the girls filing in to sit. I came to camp with my best friend C., so I already […]

RESURRECTION: The Second Life Of No Depression

Plans for a major overhaul of NoDepression.com — the website of the former bimonthly alternative/roots-music magazine No Depression — are well under way this summer, with the new site set to be launched in late September. NoDepression.com, which will be edited by the magazine’s founding co-editor Peter Blackstock, will include regular blogs by many of the magazine’s most frequent contributors, including Blackstock and fellow founding co-editor Grant Alden. The new site will also include record reviews and live reviews, features on emerging artists, news updates, the current website’s popular upcoming-releases list, reader-participant discussion forums — and, perhaps most significantly, a […]

JUMPIN JACK NEWS FLASH: Councilman Kelly’s Chief Of Staff Indicted On Corruption Charges

PHILLY CLOUT: City Councilman Jack Kelly’s chief, Chris Wright, [pictured making O-Face behind his boss] and three men involved in local land development were indicted this morning on federal corruption charges. Federal investigators say Wright used his post to help real estate developers Ravinder and Hardeep Chawla and their attorney Andrew Teitelman. Wright, the indictment said, received $16,000 in cash, gifts, a free apartment near Rittenhouse square and free legal services. “According to this indictment, Wright was bought by the Chawlas so that he would serve their interests, and ultimately his own, instead of the public’s,” acting U.S. Attorney Lauri […]

KILLADELPHIA: Machine Gun-Toting Asshole On Bike Shoots Up Camden, Caps Four Year Old In The Head

INQUIRER: A man mounted a bicycle shortly before 5:30 p.m. yesterday and pulled out a gun. He pedaled down Norris Street in Camden and opened fire, peppering the neighborhood with bullets, police sources said. Brandon Thompson, 4, was playing on the street in front of his house. The child was struck in the head. He died instantly. Just before dawn this morning, U.S. Marshals captured a suspect in South Philadelphia. Donald Benjamin Lindsey, 20, has been charged with the boy’s murder. Marshals arrested Lindsey at 5 a.m. on the 2000 block of South Bonsall Street without incident, said Jason Laughlin, […]