DAILY NEWS: IT WAS ELIOT NESS and the Untouchables, as played by the Keystone Kops. More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location. The alleged offense: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control […]
MUST SEE TV: Zach Galifianackis’ SNL Monologue
RELATED: The considerable cult that has grown up around Galifianakis’s performances over the last few years, both live and on video-sharing sites like YouTube, has done so largely because his routines are, arguably, the most unpredictable in contemporary comedy. A typical hourlong set might meander from carefully composed, conceptual one-liners à la Steven Wright to profanity-drenched tirades against members of the audience to slapstick to solemnly tacky musical interludes (Galifianakis is an able pianist) to Andy Kaufman-esque attacks on the genre that seem less concerned with eliciting laughs from the crowd than with confounding its notions of what comedy or, […]
RIP: Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous Dead By Own Hand
NEW YORK TIMES: Mark Linkous, a singer-songwriter whose music, released under the name Sparklehorse, was renowned in the indie-rock and alt-country worlds for its dark, allusive themes and fragile beauty, committed suicide on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 47. He shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friend’s home, said his manager, Shelby Meade. Lt. Greg Hoskins of the Knoxville Police Department confirmed that the police responded to a call at 1:20 p.m., and that Mr. Linkous was pronounced dead at the scene. According to his family, Mr. Linkous owned the gun that he used. MORE […]
TRUTH IS OUT THERE: Pentagon Subway Shooter Was A Bi-Polar Truther, Armed And Off His Meds
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The man who opened fire in front of the Pentagon had a history of mental illness and had become so erratic that his parents reached out to local authorities weeks ago with a warning that he was unstable and might have a gun, authorities said Friday. It’s still unclear why John Patrick Bedell [pictured, above] opened fire Thursday at the Pentagon entrance, wounding two police officers before he was fatally shot. The two officers were hospitalized briefly with minor injuries. Bedell was diagnosed as bipolar, or manic depressive, and had been in and out of treatment programs for […]
EARLY WORD: Chi-Congo
Down Beat magazine published a review of a John Coltrane performance referring to the music as “anarchistic” and as “a horrifying demonstration of what appears to be a growing anti-jazz trend.” This review documented one of the most controversial moments in the history of jazz: the advent of Free Jazz or “The New Thing.” IHP and ANW’s fifth concert series, Anti-Jazz: The New Thing Revisited, celebrates the 50-year trajectory of Free Jazz. The series, while bearing in mind landmark contributions such as Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and John Coltrane’s Ascension, is a glimpse at the current state of the phenomenal Free Jazz […]
POTUS To Make Monday Housecall At Arcadia Univ.
On the morning of Monday, March 8, 2010 President Obama will visit the Philadelphia area and deliver remarks on health insurance reform at Arcadia University. This event is free and open to the public, however, tickets are required. Tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis on Saturday, March 6 at 3:30 PM in the Hospitality Room of the Kuch Recreation and Athletic Center at Arcadia University. EXHUMING MCCARTHY: Lynn Cheney’s Farenheit 9/11 HUFFINGTON POST: Back in January 2007, Ted Olson — then a lawyer in private practice but previously a lead counsel in Bush v. Gore […]
CINEMA: Steal This Movie
THE ART OF THE STEAL (2009, directed by Don Argott, 101 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The Art of the Steal is nothing if not bold; it calls out Governor Ed Rendell, The Annenbergs and The Pew Charitable Trusts on charges of greed, conspiracy and vulgarism. EvenInky reviewer Carrie Rickey has been sited with charges of conflict of interest since the film opened. Passions run high when discussing the Barnes Foundation and its treasure trove of Impressionist and Modern Art and it gives the film a sense of urgency similar to those newsy documentaries about he folly of […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: Piggie Of The Week
This week A.P. shames the predatory Pennsyltucky capitalists that own and operate private prisons and paid judges kickbacks for sentencing children who had committed minor crimes at best to jail time in their facilities.
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
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 […]
THE NEWEST DEAL: Nutter Proposes Soda Tax And $300 Garbage Collection Fee To Cover Budget Gap
KYW: Saying “nothing worth having in life is free,” Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter on Thursday morning delivered a nearly $4-billion budget to City Council. And he asked for the lawmakers’ support for two firsts: a tax on soda and a fee for trash collection. Nutter proposed a flat $300 per year, per property trash fee (see previous story) and a two-cents-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks (see related story). He said these will bring in an extra $184 million per year to save city services. MORE RELATED: William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CDC chief Thomas Frieden […]
THE EARLY WORD: Now It Can Be Told — ‘Benny & The Bums’ Is Actually Ben Vaughn In Disguise!
Now it can be told. Others have been sworn to secrecy, but not us, baby. That’s not the kind of swearing we do around here. We have it on good authority that this so-called ‘Benny & The Bums’ that is allegedly playing the M Room on Sunday is none other than Ben Vaughn in disguise! Not sure the reason for the secrecy, but if true — and we are 99.9% on this — then Sunday night at the M Room is a no-brainer. The grown-ups know what we’re talking about. Kids, school yourselves down below and plan accordingly. Yes, it […]
HOT DOC: The Yardley Playboy Mansion Party
Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and Yardley Borough Police DepartmentPress Release – March 4, 2010 Re: Incidents occurring in Yardley Borough on February 20, 2010, related to the Sixx-Pak Entertainment’s “Playboy Mansion Dance Party” Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler and Yardley Borough Police Chief James O’Neill issued the following statement today concerning the events which took place in Yardley Borough on the night of February 20, 2010. The investigation by the Yardley Borough Police in consultation with the Bucks County District Attorney’s office has to date not yielded evidence which would support criminal charges against the organizers of the […]
EXCLUSIVE: Animal Collective Flick Coming To Philly
The four-years-in-the-making Animal Collective film, Oddsac, will screen at International House on April 16th. The band is scheduled to attend for a post-screening Q&A. The film premiered at Sundance and screened at NYC’s School of The Visual Arts last night. We were in attendance and boy are our synapses tired! Dense, non-linear, lo-fi and head-fuckingly psychedelic, the 60-minute film is eminently reflective of the scary-beautiful soul of their music. As you read this, Animal Collective is in the middle of two three-hour performances at the Whitney as part of an art installation. Local angle: Oddsac was directed by Philly homeboy […]