Now playing on PHAWKER RADIO! Comes out March 3rd. She plays the Keswick Theater on April 10th. PREVIOUSLY: As of 2005, Patsy Cline’s 12 Greatest Hits sold 10 million copies. Not bad for a ghost. She got on a plane to Kansas City in 1963 — just a couple years into her newfound fame as the sweetheart of the Nashville rodeo — and never came back, disappearing into the ether of immortality like Amelia Earhart in spurs. Her ghost has been haunting American music ever since, and any vaguely countryish thrush will have to suffer comparisons. Just ask KD Lang. […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Knocked Up & Lonely In Olney’ Edition
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 […]
MONKEY SHINE: Please Don’t Feed The Animals
TIME: It might be hard to imagine that a chimpanzee — familiar from zoos, animal shows and slapstick comedies like Cannonball Run — could be capable of the kind of savage violence inflicted on Nash. Travis himself was reportedly a beloved figure around Stamford; he was recognizable from television commercials, could bathe and dress himself and use a computer — qualities that made him seem dangerously close to human. But adult chimpanzees might be better described as superhuman — a 200-lb. chimpanzee is five to seven times stronger than a person of the same size, especially in the upper body. […]
FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: Too Many Dicks
Flight of the Conchords performs two shows at the Tower on April 18th.
THE PSYCLONE RANGERS: Tilt-A-Whirl
Damn, that guy can sing! PREVIOUSLY: Ain’t Goin’ Down TANGENTIALLY RELATED: Touch and Go Records, a pillar of the Chicago music scene and independent music worldwide, announced Wednesday that it is drastically shrinking its business, cutting ties with 20 independent labels and laying off an unspecified number of employees. “The current state of the economy has reached the point where we can no longer afford” to provide manufacturing and distribution services for the labels, including stalwarts such as Chicago-based Drag City, All Natural, Overcoat. Flameshovel and Atavistic Records; Merge in North Carolina,; and Kill Rock Stars in the Pacific Northwest, […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Journalist Jane Mayer expects that an upcoming Supreme Court case will force the Obama administration to clarify its policy towards fighting terrorism — and to define its stance on preventative detention of suspected terrorists. In her article, “The Hard Cases”, which appears in the Feb. 23 issue of The New Yorker, Mayer details the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, an alleged Al Qaeda sleeper agent who has been held for more than five years in an isolation brig, despite the fact that he never stood trial or was convicted of a crime. Though Marri was seized and […]
GAYDAR: Golden Showers Make Nice Flowers
Madcap drag troupe The Dumpsta Players, are back this month with a geriatric extravaganza. This time around, it’s all about the gold—the golden years to be exact—and who better can throw their sassy wisdom and eye-sore pastel clothing around than the Floridian foursome: The Golden Girls, in, “Golden Girls Gone Wild!” Times are hard. The girls’ roof needs a-fixin’ but they don’t have the dough. They should’ve probably cut back on the cheesecake, huh. But since that’s not going to happen, the girls are forced to whore themselves out into the cheap and easy world of reality TV. Rose sets […]
ARTSY: Call Me Isaiah
IN A DREAM: Theatrical Trailer from Herzliya Films on Vimeo. Synopsis: Over the past four decades, Isaiah Zagar has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals. In A Dream is a documentary feature film that chronicles his work and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Julia. It follows the Zagars as their marriage implodes and a harrowing new chapter in their life unfolds. MORE Opens April 17th at the Ritz at the Bourse.
Professional Primate Goes Beserk, Then To Heaven
ASSOCIATED PRESS: STAMFORD, Conn. – Travis the chimpanzee, a veteran of TV commercials, was the constant companion of a lonely Connecticut widow who fed him steak, lobster and ice cream. He could eat at the table, drink wine from a stemmed glass, use the toilet, and dress and bathe himself. He brushed his teeth with a Water Pik, logged on to a computer to look at photos and channel-surfed television with the remote control. But on Monday, the wild animal in him came out with a vengeance. The 200-pound animal viciously mauled a friend of his owner before being shot […]
HASSAN CHOP: Founder Of TV Network Designed To Improve Islam’s Image In U.S. Beheads Wife
[“Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Carravagio] ASSOCIATED PRESS: ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The crime drips with brutal irony: a woman decapitated, allegedly by her estranged husband, in the offices of the television network the couple founded with the hope of countering Muslim stereotypes. Muzzammil “Mo” Hassan is accused of beheading his wife last week, days after she filed for divorce. Authorities have not discussed the role religion or culture might have played, but the slaying gave rise to speculation that it was the sort of “honor killing” more common in countries half a world away, including the couple’s native Pakistan. Funeral services for […]
A-ROID: Yes He Did
NEW YORK TIMES: Every time Alex Rodriguez defaulted Tuesday to saying he was stupid, naïve or ignorant for taking steroids, I thought of Dean Wormer’s words to the flunking frat boy Flounder in “Animal House:” “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.” And pleading youthful amateurishness to actions taken at 25, 26 and 27 is no way to go through baseball, either, if you’re injecting yourself, or your cousin is injecting you, with boli, believed to be the street name in the Dominican Republic for Primobolan. “He kept using the excuse of naïveté and curiosity […]
THE EARLY WORD: Headbangers Ball
[Artwork by Daniel Kent] TRANSLATION: Badmaster Records celebrates its 4th year on Feb, 26th 2009 @ Kung Fu Necktie. RELATED: Founded in March 2005, Badmaster is an eclectic homegrown music label that fosters local musicians and artists. Now on its 17th release, Badmaster continues to lend a hand to the local with an MP3 Collection of local area musicians entitled DIS-ADELPHIA planned to be released digitally on Feb, 26th in conjunction with the label showcase @ Kung Fu Necktie. The compilation will feature unreleased tracks by U.S. Girls, Birds of Maya, Satanized, My Mind, Hot Guts, Mincemeat or Tenspeed,Talk Me […]
HOT DOC: What Kind Of Man Reads Phawker?
Hi, phawker (phawker). Barack Obama (BarackObama) is now following your updates on Twitter. Check out Barack Obama’s profile here: http://twitter.com/BarackObama Best, Twitter PCMAG: Is it finally time to take the Twitter plunge? The free service that lets users micro-blog 140 characters at a time had accumulated around 1.9 million users as of December 2008, according to comScore. If you are just now jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, or are intimidated by your inexperience with Twitter etiquette and acronyms, allow us to share some Twittery tips that will make your experience easier and more enjoyable. MORE HOPE: Let The Stimulation Begin! […]