[Image via BITS AND PIECES] BY MAVIS LINNEMANN Bananas and zucchini always take the spotlight when it comes to quick breads and muffins. Everyone dives for banana-nut muffins and savory-sweet zucchini bread, but what about that amazing underdog in orange? Pumpkin, I believe, is here to save the day. I fell in love with pumpkin baked goods about 10 years ago when I was working for Swiss pastry chef Jean Paul at his namesake bakery, Jean Paul’s Pleasures, in Cincinnati. Every year about this time, Jean Paul would begin making the most incredible cookies I’d ever tasted and, of course, […]
TONIGHT: I Walked With A Zombie
ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: ERICKSON, ROKY: ’60s psych/garage-rock pioneer, demon-crazed ’70s solo artist, acid casualty, drug-war martyr, patron saint of alt-rock’s fringe dwellers. In 1968, Erickson, then singer for Texas’ psychedelic avatars the 13th Floor Elevators, was busted for possession of a small quantity of marijuana and offered a choice: 10 years in prison or a stretch at Rusk State Psychiatric Hospital. He opted for the padded cell. Already half-fried from Herculean doses of psychedelics, Erickson was subjected to a cruel regimen of “experimental” drugs and electro-shock therapy and was released three years later a diagnosed schizophrenic. Telegraphing the horror within, […]
EARLY WORD: Laugh, Clown, Laugh
Tonight marks the beginning of the third-annual Philly SketchFest, a week-long series of comedy events, featuring a collection of rib-tickling skits, stand-up, and improvisation, courtesy of the Philadelphia Comedy Collective. The event features celebrity judges along with guest hosts including Doogie Horner from NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and locally renowned writer and performer Don Montrey, known for, among other things, his Philadelphia comedy show “DIE ACTOR DIE.” The Philadelphia Comedy Collective is made up of the Philadelphia Improv Festival, Philly SketchFest, and the Philadelphia Joke Initiative, which have all pooled together this November to celebrate the first-ever Comedy Month in […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Restrepo At The NCC
The National Constitution Center and National Geographic Channel will host a screening of the feature-length documentary Restrepo on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 6:30 p.m., in conjunction with our Art of the American Soldier exhibition. Following the screening, filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington will participate in a discussion about the film. winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, chronicles a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, considered one of the most dangerous outposts in the U.S. military. The film will make its world television premiere on the National Geographic Channel on November 29. Prior to […]
SPORTO: Bring On The ‘Skins 2
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY It was the Running Into the Kicker penalty early in the 3rd quarter that was the last straw. Before that, a couple of borderline calls had gotten the referees on the crowd’s bad side, but when the zebras bought Colts punter Pat McAfee’s kick-and-flop, the crowd had had enough. A big early lead gone, still bitter about the Phillies, this was the Philadelphia Sports Collective’s first chance to vent after two weeks stewing about the Eagles collapse against the Titans and the Phillies flameout. Oh, and the Sixers poor start (just kidding!). Now the crowd […]
TONITE: We Don’t Need No Education
Pink Floyd the Wall by NOT a FIRE exit Roger Waters’s performance of The Wall kicks off a three night stand at The Wells Fargo Center tonight, with repeat performances on Tuesday and Thursday. Tickets are available for all three nights. INQUIRER: One show at the [Spectrum], which is slated for destruction, sticks out in Waters’ mind. As a result, he says, the song “Comfortably Numb” “resides in the Spectrum.” “I was getting ready to do a gig there, and I had some stomach bug. Terrible, terrible stomach cramps. We had a doctor come into the hotel and say, ‘Well, […]
RAWK TAWK: Life According To Brother JT
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Garage-punk savant, drone-rock wizard, acid-dazed psychonaut, human ouija board, holy fool of the Internet — Brother JT is a man of many hats. He’s been a puppet, a poet, a pirate, a pawn and king. He’s been up and down and over and out — and he still really likes the LSD thing. He’s come to tell us all that the emperor has no clothes, the sky is falling, God is great, we’re already dead, and yet despite all that life is beautiful. He’s also leading the protest movement against the war going on in this country […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Guided By Voices @ The Troc
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Funny how Gen X used to mercilessly mock its predecessors for endlessly revisiting the Woodstockian ecstasies of its youth, as though nostalgia were a generational affliction instead of a universal symptom of aging. Now that the gray-bearding of Gen X has commenced, its members have proved no less immune to the impulse to revisit the pleasures of their gloriously misspent youth. Exhibit A is Guided by Voices’ sold-out “Hallway Of Shatterproof Glass Tour,” which reunites the so-called classic lineup of the Dayton, Ohio, indie darlings for one more beery, fist-pumping, scissors-kicking sing-along of their […]
WORTH REPEATING: Drunk, Naked And Courtney Love Is No Way To Go Through Life, Son
[Photo by HEDI SLIMANE] NEW YORK TIMES: Shortly after 8 p.m., Ms. Love burst into the room with the Marchesa dress slung on one arm and the noted German Neo-Expressionist artist Anselm Kiefer on the other. She was entirely naked and leaning on Mr. Kiefer for support. She made one lap around the room, walking in front of a photographer, an assistant, a hairstylist and me. She pulled over her head a transparent lace dress that covered up nothing, and demanded my assistance — “Not you,” she said to Mr. Kiefer, who was bent over trying to help her — […]
ALBUM REVIEW: The Growlers’ Hot Tropic
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD Returning with pounding lo-fi neo-surf-rock, the Growlers create a little brother for their 2009 psychedelic monster, Are You in or Out? The brand-new EP, Hot Tropics, sounds like a collection of B-sides from the Growler’s debut— but that’s not a bad thing. They’ve patented a new brand of hypnosis in their rehashing of surf-rock and drugged-out droning. I found these guys in the The State Theater lobby at Penn State, schmoozing with the college students. Just about to open for Dr. Dog, they wanted to sell a few discs before getting on stage. The South Cali band […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Bassnectar & Beats Antiques
BY PELLE GUNTHER Walking into the Electric Factory, the glow stick littered pavement told tales of many an enthusiastic raver’s shattered dreams as security confiscated everything they could find a reason to take. Watching the vibrantly dressed fans enter the venue, as glow sticks were pulled from shoes, out of sleeves, from hats, pants and god knows where else, the security’s failure at the art of security became painfully clear. Once inside the venue the amount of successfully-smuggled contraband-rave materials on display was astounding. But these fans brought their rave A-game for a reason: This frigid 5th of November (my love […]
THE EARLY WORD: The Club Is Open
The classic ’94-’96 GBV lineup plays the Troc tomorrow. The show is sold out. Stay tuned for a complete report…
ALBUM REVIEW: Black Mountain Wilderness Heart
The words “psychedelic rock” can be an easy turnoff for some, especially those who have no truck with hair-wagging peddle-hopping stoner-rock. However this is something entirely different. The heavy-riffing Canadian psychedelic outfit known as Black Mountain has been causing quite a stir with their latest release Wilderness Heart, which feels like listening to an immaculately-preserved mix tape of late 60s/early 70s psychedelic rock you found in your hippie uncle’s basement. The album starts it off strong with the Zep-tastic “Hair Song.” Its very Americana chord progression makes me want to sip Coca-Cola on the sidewalk outside a corner store while […]