PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH Sunday June 7th 7:00PM DOORS / 8:00PM SHOW Trocadero Theatre 1003 Arch Street, Philadelphia PA www.thetroc.com All Ages Welcome On Sale this Friday April 24th at Noon! Tickets available at ticketmaster.com, Charge by phone 800.745.3000 and at the box office. Performing songs from their current album ‘A Woman A Man Walked By’ and their previous collaboration ‘Dance Hall At Louse Point’ the pair will be backed by Eric Drew Feldman, Giovanni Ferrario and Jean Marc Butty. Polly and John are currently on tour in the UK, where their opening night show in Brighton has been […]
VANILLA VICE: Asher Roth Is All That
INQUIRER: Asher Roth isn’t like other rappers. The rising star whose debut album Asleep in the Bread Aisle went straight to No. 1 when it was released on iTunes on Monday hails from nowhere near the hood. The 23-year-old rhymer grew up in the middle-class community of Morrisville, in Bucks County. His hip-hop calling card is “I Love College,” an ode to higher-education hedonism born of his experiences while sort-of studying to be an elementary-school teacher on the leafy campus of West Chester University. That song, which Roth calls “satire at its finest,” has sold nearly a million copies since its release in January, and been […]
HIGHER LEARNING: This Is Your Brain On Steroids
NEW YORKER: Adderall, a stimulant composed of mixed amphetamine salts, is commonly prescribed for children and adults who have been given a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But in recent years Adderall and Ritalin, another stimulant, have been adopted as cognitive enhancers: drugs that high-functioning, overcommitted people take to become higher-functioning and more overcommitted. (Such use is “off label,” meaning that it does not have the approval of either the drug’s manufacturer or the Food and Drug Administration.) College campuses have become laboratories for experimentation with neuroenhancement, and Alex was an ingenious experimenter. His brother had received a diagnosis of […]
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED: You Cannot Hide
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall. The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said yesterday. Gary Sutton Jr., 40, of New Milton, and Charles […]
THIS JUST IN: Folk Festival Line-Up Announced
Among the top attractions at the 48th annual PHILADELPHIA FOLK FESTIVAL are Sonny Landreth, Del McCoury Band, Iron and Wine, Tom Rush, Rebirth Brass Band, Justin Townes Earle, Tony Trischka, Langhorne Slim, Alela Diane, Joe Pug, Works Progress Administration, Ellis Paul, Sara Hickman, The Low Anthem, Women in Docs, The Folk Brothers, Erik Mongrain, Frog Holler, Caravan of Thieves, Enter The Haggis, and Marissa Nadler. Local musicians that have been garnering tremendous praise will also be featured throughout the weekend including Adrien Reju, Boris Garcia, Chris Kasper, Zach Djanikian, Wissahickon Chicken Shack, and Slo-Mo featuring Mic Wrecka. As if this […]
STYLE COUNCIL: TopStitch Is Top Notch
BY LAURA YACOE TopStitch is making all the right moves. From their old second story spot on Market Street, they’ve officially made the big move to the ground floor of 54 North Third Street. I loved the hidden-away-vintage-haven appeal of their former location, but this one is unbelievable. Same awesome vintage and jewelry selection and interior designing by Bahdeebahdu, but now they’ve devoted the entire second floor of their new home to the sewing studio. The upstairs sewing studio classes are taught by Emily Geddes, who also produces the clothing line emmaluv. Emmaluv is a collection of handmade reconstructive vintage […]
CRAIGSLIST KILLER: The Baby Face Of Evil
BOSTON GLOBE: Boston police arrested a Boston University medical student yesterday in the slaying of a New York woman at a luxury Back Bay hotel last week and an earlier attack on another woman. Both victims had advertised personal services on Craigslist. After an intensive manhunt along the Eastern Seaboard, Philip Markoff, 22, of Quincy, was stopped by police around 4 p.m. while driving south on Interstate 95 in Walpole, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said at a press conference last night at police headquarters. The second-year medical student was charged with fatally shooting 26-year-old Julissa Brisman April 14 at […]
Chorus Of Voices Calling 4 Torture Special Prosecutor
NEW YORK TIMES: Pressure mounted on President Obama on Monday for more thorough investigation into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, even as he tried to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice. Mr. Obama said it was time to admit “mistakes” and “move forward.” But there were signs that he might not be able to avoid a protracted inquiry into the use of interrogation techniques that the president’s top aides and many critics say crossed the line into torture. And while Mr. Obama vowed not to prosecute C.I.A. […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #17 Better late than never. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might even learn something.
Q&A: Meet Richard Lloyd, The Man On The Marquee Moon
Richard Lloyd & The Sufi-Monkey Trio play Johnny Brenda’s TONIGHT! BY ED KING I owe the Philadelphia Free Library (Cottman Avenue branch, to be exact) an apology. And some money. I used to transfer SEPTA buses to and from school at that spot. There was a pretty cool record store next to the library with punk and new wave records. A couple days a week I’d stop in the store and marvel at the records, posters, and buttons. It was at this store I’d buy the latest copy of Trouser Press, which was tapping me into a way out of […]
SECOND AMENDMENT: The Right To Bear Harms?
NEW YORK TIMES: Where were their parents? That was the thought I couldn’t shake ten years ago as news broke from Littleton, Colo., and all cameras were aimed at Columbine High School. It was my first national tragedy as a parent, and my perspective took me by surprise. A few years earlier I would have put myself in the shoes of the terrified students, huddled in classrooms, hiding under tables in the library. But on April 20, 1999, I felt for the parents. Racing toward the school building, stopped by police tape and SWAT teams, learning their kids were safe […]
TORTURE MEMO: Prisoner Waterboarded 183 Times
NEW YORK TIMES: Waterboarding, the near-drowning technique that top Obama administration officials have described as illegal torture, was used by C.I.A. interrogators 183 times on one prisoner from Al Qaeda and 83 times on another, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum. The release of the numbers is likely to become part of the debate about the morality and efficacy of interrogation methods that the Bush administration Justice Department declared legal even though the United States had historically treated them as torture. A former C.I.A. officer, John Kiriakou, had told ABC News and other news media organizations in 2007 […]
RIP: Author J.G. Ballard Dead At 78
THE GUARDIAN: The novelist JG Ballard, who conjured up a bleak vision of modern life in a series of powerful novels and short stories published over more than 50 years, has died after a long battle with cancer. MORE THE TIMES ONLINE: Pinteresque, Dickensian, Shakespearean. Not many writers are so distinctive and influential that their name becomes an adjective in its own right. J.G. Ballard, who died yesterday morning after a long battle with cancer at the age of 78, was one of them. “Ballardian” is defined in the Collins English Dictionary as: “adj) 1. of James Graham Ballard (born […]