FRESH AIR Writer and director Quentin Tarantino discusses his new film, Inglourious Basterds, which blends elements of the spaghetti western with those of World War II films. Tarantino’s other films include Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill films. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 We devote the hour to the life and work of Senator Edward Kennedy. Our guests include historians ROBERT DALLEK and JULIAN ZELLIZER. Then, Washington Post political reporter DAN BALZ joins us to talk about the Kennedy’s influence in politics and in the Congress. Hour 2 Vogue has set the standard for fashion and fashion magazines for […]
THIS JUST IN: Judge Approves Vick Bankruptcy Plan
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A judge in Virginia has approved a plan for Michael Vick to repay $20 million to his creditors and emerge from bankruptcy. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro approved the plan Thursday on the condition that Vick retain a personal financial planner to manage his future earning with the Philadelphia Eagles. Santoro says while Vick is “at the pinnacle of his profession,” he has proven unable to manage his finances in the past. The plan was overwhelmingly approved in a ballot of creditors. After the hearing, Vick was scheduled to return to Philadelphia to make his debut with the […]
ONION TV: Does Using A Minotaur To Gore Terror Suspects Constitute Torture?
Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?
THE EARLY WORD: Black Mirror
[Click to activate Internets] ARCADE FIRE: Black Mirror Arcade Fire • Black Mirror (Official Video) from Tracy Maurice on Vimeo. Arcade Fire- Black Mirror from Tracy Maurice on Vimeo.
STOP THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK: State Senate OKs Bankruptcy-Averting Sales-Tax Hike For Philadelphia
[Illustration by JOHN HENDRIX] INQUIRER: With solid support from the Philadelphia delegation, the state Senate moved yesterday to break a summerlong deadlock over letting the city raise its sales tax to avoid what Mayor Nutter terms a financial “doomsday.” On a 38-9 vote, the Republican-controlled Senate approved a bill that would allow the city to increase the sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent, and also to defer $230 million in employee pension costs for two years. Mayor Nutter, speaking to reporters atop a marble staircase in the Capitol, made it clear he didn’t like everything in the bill […]
RIP: Pop Songstress Extraordinaire Ellie Greenwich
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Ellie Greenwich emerged as a songwriter when America itself was on the cusp of everything, a whole set of conventions unspooling under the power of rock ‘n’ roll, the civil rights movement and the incipient counterculture. Her American polyglot upbringing prepared Greenwich, who died today at age 68 of a heart attack, for what she became: one of the great sound alchemists who turned the ambiguities of youth into the essence of American pop. Able to sing, arrange and produce as well as pen indelible hits, Greenwich found her artistic home within New York’s Brill Building, where […]
FUNNY PAGES: Get Ready To Ruuuuuuuuumble!
[By Brian McFadden via BIGFATWHALE.COM] PREVIOUSLY: THE TOWNHALL TEMPER TANTRUMS WILL BE TELEVISED PREVIOUSLY: TEABAGGED: ‘Outrage’ At Constitution Center Staged By Goon Squad Hired By Lobbyists For Big Medical PREVIOUSLY: Wall St. Dancing On The Grave Of The Public Option
PHAWKER TAWK: W/ The Vivian Girls
BY BRITTNEY BARRETT Named after the slippery hermaphroditic heroines of Henry Darger‘s The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, the Vivian Girls have built a burgeoning career out of channeling the same sense of adventure and exploration possessed by their namesakes. That’s about as far as the comparisons — given that Darger is best known for his winding, 15,000 page bizarro epic, the girls are defined by their emotional realism and punk-rock brevity, speeding through their debut in a flurry […]
MUST SEE TV: Breakfast At Sulimay’s
This week the wrecking crew reviews new music from Amanda Blank and Radiohead. NPR: In the back booth of Sulimay’s Restaurant in Philadelphia, you’ll regularly find three saucy old-timers. Between them, they’ve lived almost 100 years in Philadelphia’s Fishtown, but these three aren’t just fixtures of the neighborhood diner scene. Ann Bailey, Bill Able and Joe Walker have become surprisingly popular — as pop music critics. As Walker, 84, explains, “It is the music of the age — it is the music of the young people. And it’s what they’re going to remember years from now, with nostalgia. I don’t […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Follow The Money
[Click image to enlarge] HUFFINGTON POST: In a nod to the House Republicans who devised a chart supposedly showing the bureaucratic nightmare that would result from Democratic health care reforms, the Campaign for America’s Future has devised a chart of its own, titled “Who’s Paying to Kill Health Reform?” It’s a tangled web, with big lobbying firms, industry groups, and Astroturf organizers all linked to townhall meetings. Reflecting a widely-held view among progressives, the big kahuna behind it all is the health insurance industry, via trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans. MORE RELATED: Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly […]
BREAKING: Ted Kennedy Is Dead
BOSTON GLOBE: Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who carried aloft the torch of a Massachusetts dynasty and championed a liberal ideology during almost a half century in the Senate, but whose personal and political failings may have prevented him from realizing the ultimate prize of the presidency, died Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis Port. He was 77 and had been Senator Edward M. Kennedy battling brain cancer. Senator Edward M. Kennedy Overcoming a history of family tragedy, which included the assassinations of a brother who was president and another who sought to occupy the White House, Kennedy seized on […]
LIVE AID: Great Moments In Philly Concert History
This is an open call for your two cents. 215 Magazine has asked us to pen a piece about the most notable moments in the last 50 years of Philly concert history — both the best of the best and the worst of the worst — and we’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter. Drop us a line at feed@phawker.com and let us know the 10 best (and/or worst) concerts you have attended in the 215, all genres apply and no venue is too big or too small. Please include a phone number as we may want to […]
BOOK REVIEW: Best Friends Forever
BY SYDNEY SCOTT Your name is Addie Downs, you live in your parents’ house in Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, where your days are spent taking care of your troubled brother and your nights are spent looking for Mr. Right on the Internet. It’s the night of your high school reunion and you’ve decided not to relive those horrible moments with people you have no interest in seeing again, specifically your former best friend. But, your planned night-long Food Network marathon is cut short when your former best bud shows up on your doorstep claiming to have killed someone. Thus begins Jennifer […]