ASSOCIATED PRESS: ROCHESTER, Minn. — Al Franken won a resounding endorsement for the U.S. Senate on Saturday from Minnesota Democrats, quickly dispatching with concerns about jokes that offended some and promising a tough challenge to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.”To the people of Minnesota, let me say this: I’m not a perfect person,” said Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer. “I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers. But I’ll tell the truth, I will keep my spine, and I will work for you.” Franken’s only competitor, college professor and peace activist Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, withdrew after […]
EVERY TUESDAY: The Afterlife Of A Statistic
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, the man who brought you Today I Saw, 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. Look for it every Tuesday on Phawker! Why? Because we love you! [Photo by JUSTIN ROMAN]
EARLY WORD: Sharon Jones Has Nice Bones
[Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER There was a prevailing mood of giddiness in the air at the Fillmore one night back in December, a palpable sense that we were lucky enough to attend a very auspicious occasion, one above and beyond the usual concert experience. A sense that we were all active participants in poetic justice, and by ponying up for a ticket and selling out the joint, a long-neglected talent was finally getting her turn in the sun. As Sharon Jones will be the first to tell you, record executives have long told her […]
MEDIA: Philadelphia Media Holdings Defaults On Loan
BLOOMBERG: Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC lenders blocked a June 1 interest payment after the company, owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, fell into technical default on loan covenants, Standard & Poor’s reported. The two sides are negotiating to resolve the default, Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary & Data said today, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of a Citizens Bank-led phone call Wednesday in which lenders learned of the missed payment. The company is seeking an $8 million equity investment, S&P said. In January, Chief Executive Officer Brian Tierney warned of “a dire situation” if costs weren’t cut by 10 percent by […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Today marks 40 years since the death of Robert F. Kennedy. He was assassinated shortly after midnight on June 5th and died on June 6. His campaign for the presidency in 1968 was considered by many as inspiring and contemporary observers have noted parallels to the candidacy of Barak Obama. Guest host Dave Davies talks about the Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign for the presidency with author THURSTON CLARKE and Penn professor TOM SUGRUE. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3 Hour 2 Tune in for a rebroadcast of Dave’s interview about Leni Riefenstahl, the Controversial […]
KILLADELPHIA: 2 Shot Dead At Holy Innocents
INQUIRER: A double shooting at a Catholic elementary school early this morning left a man and a woman dead before dawn. Gunshots rang out at 4:10 a.m. at the Holy Innocents Catholic School in Philadelphia’s Juniata section, police said. Two women were sitting in a van parked on the school’s grounds when a gunman approached and opened fire. The shots fatally wounded a 19-year-old a woman. The man, 27, then turned the gun on himself, police said. * The Archdiocese of Philadelphia cancelled classes today for several hundred students who attend Holy Innocents and the adjoining St. Lucy Day School […]
THE HILLARYCRATS: Still Bitter, But Not Stupid
[Illustration by ALEX FINE w/ apologies to Shep Fairey] BY AMY Z. QUINN I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say Alice Paul, OG suffragist and Jersey Girl nonpareil, would not vote for John McCain as some protest of how the Democratic primary played out. Women’s rights and the struggle against racism were — are — too inextricably linked to think she’d hold a grudge against Barack Obama. Neither should we. Hillary Clinton always said, and I believe her, that she would enthusiastically support the Democratic nominee — even if it wasn’t her. I told someone Wednesday that […]
Five Things U Should Know About M.I.A. Last Night
1. Last time I saw a show at The Armory, the Breeders were opening for Nirvana. Now I remember why it’s been 14 years before I went back for more. Leaning into the slight incline of 33rd and Market like a rigid salute, the Armory was literally designed to shelter tanks, thus it is built like a brick shithouse — and it sure sounds like one, too. 2. Still, there is something fitting about an fundamental peacenik like M.I.A. transforming this mouldering edifice of the military-industrial complex into roiling rave of shock-and-awe dance jams and kaleidoscopic hip-hop and packing it […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Trouble With The Roots
[Illustrations by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA A friend of mine has a funny-ass I-met-the-Roots-and-made-an-ass-of-myself story. This friend, for obvious reasons, shall remain nameless, but for sheer entertainment value, let’s refer to him hereafter as Horsecock.Around the release of 2002’s wonderfully artsy-fartsy Phrenology, good ol’ Horsecock and his girl went to see the Roots perform at Indre Studios. Joining the Roots for said performance was one Cody ChesnuTT, the dirty South rubber-band man who lent his Smokey Robinson-like pipes to the single “The Seed (2.0).” Later Horsecock and his girl ventured up to an impromptu VIP after-party on Indre’s roof […]
How Hillary Becomes Chief Justice Of SCOTUS
VIA NEW YORK TIMES: WHEN a majority of Supreme Court justices adopt a manifestly ideological agenda, it plunges the court into the vortex of American politics. If the Roberts court has entered voluntarily what Justice Felix Frankfurter once called the “political thicket,” it may require a political solution to set it straight. When the court overreaches, the Constitution provides checks and balances. In 1805, after persistent political activity by Justice Samuel Chase, Congress responded with its power of impeachment. Chase was acquitted, but never again did he step across the line to mingle law and politics. After the Civil War, […]
LOSING MY RELIGION: Advertising The Enlightenment
INQUIRER: Mounted by a consortium of local atheists, it is an invitation to the area’s atheists, agnostics, skeptics, rationalists and religious freethinkers (no one label fits them all) to overcome their differences and form a coalition. “Our mission is not to convince fundamentalists to change their position,” Steve Rade, a Huntingdon Valley businessman, said last week. He donated the $22,500 needed to mount the billboard, which appeared May 1 and is to remain until the end of August [on I-95]. “What we want to do is give people questioning their beliefs a place to go for more information and to […]
HEAR YE: Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Place
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Why? Because we love you! RELATED: Spiritualized play TLA July 29; tix go on sale Friday INTERVIEW: Spaceman 3 VIDEO: Interview with jason and sonic about spacemen 3 breaking up
THE BEATDOWN: Cops Find Gun
INQUIRER: Hidden beneath a blanket of high weeds, detectives found the gun used in a triple shooting that led to a videotaped police beating on May 5, authorities said yesterday. The gun — a Glock 9 mm — was found last week in an overgrown, wooded area along North 2nd Street, not far from where cops stopped three shooting suspects in a gold Grand Marquis and delivered a barrage of kicks and punches in an incident that sullied the city’s reputation. Ballistic tests matched the gun to fired shell casings found at 4th and Annsbury streets, North Philadelphia, where police […]