BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY BOR-RING. Most years at this time the NFL reminds us why it is the only sports league where the regular season is more exciting than the playoffs. The regular season has fantasy football, survivor pools and up to sixteen games per week. Sure there are bad games every week, but with 8 or 9 early games and 4-5 late games, there is plenty to hold your interest throughout regular season Sundays. In the playoffs, we are held captive by one-game-at-a-time. And when the top teams (Colts, Saints, Vikings) are so much better than their opponents, […]
BREAKING: Old City Shooter In Custody
DAILY NEWS: An area grad student is under arrest and a 23-year-old man remains in critical condition following a shooting in front of the Fox 29 studios in Old City early yesterday that was, of course, caught on camera. Officers on club detail heard the gunshots ring out at 2:31 a.m. and rushed to the scene at Market Street near 4th, police said. The victim, whose name has not been released but who is reportedly a student at Villanova, was found with numerous gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen, shoulder and hands. He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, […]
CELEB: Look What Happened To Dakota Fanning
RIGHT TV: Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning make-out in ‘The Runaways’ and is it ever sexy! Kristen and Dakota got hot and heavy while filming a scene for the much anticipated new movie. The two girls became pretty close friends on set and really close during a scene that the director is saying will be “explosive.” While the movie is not exactly a biopic, it is more a rendering of Joan Jett and Cherie Curry’s characters. “It’s about 15-year-old rock stars, the rise and fall of kids,” producer John Linson said. “We’re trying hard not to let that get taken […]
WORTH REPEATING: Sympathy For The Devil
Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth […]
SOURCE: Jay Reatard ‘Not Murdered At All’
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] PHAWKER: Just heard back from a trusted and informed source on the ground in Memphis who tells us the “Jay Reatard was murdered” meme is a dog that won’t hunt. It all started when the local Fox News affiliate blared the news that the homicide division of the Memphis police department was investigating Reatard’s death, failing to mention that that is standard procedure for all DOAs. Pitchfork picked it up and ran with it and it went semi-viral. The story has since been pulled from the Fox News affiliate’s web site, Pitchfork still has it up. […]
Tax Returns For Wyclef’s Haiti Fund Raise Red Flags
SMOKING GUN: The Haiti earthquake has already triggered hundreds of thousands of donations to musician Wyclef Jean’s charitable foundation, which expects to raise upwards of $1 million a day in the disaster’s wake. However, Internal Revenue Service records show the group has a lackluster history of accounting for its finances, and that the organization has paid the performer and his business partner at least $410,000 for rent, production services, and Jean’s appearance at a benefit concert. Though the Wyclef Jean Foundation, which does business as Yele Haiti Foundation, was incorporated 12 years ago–and has been active since that time–the group […]
BREAKING: Cop, Student Shot At The Bridge
MYFOXPHILLY: Philadelphia police said two people were shot, one of them an off-duty officer, inside a busy University City movie theater Friday night. Police said it was an off-duty Harrisburg Capitol officer who attempted to stop a box-office robbery around 7 p.m. in the lobby of The Bridge Cinema de Lux, located at South 40th and Walnut streets. That led to an exchange of 12 gunshots, during which the officer was struck in the shoulder. Police said a 20-year-old college student and innocent bystander was hit in the left leg. MORE
WORTH REPEATING: Hell On Earth
PW: When wild pigs and dogs eat a human corpse, they leave the feet. The photo is too gruesome to print here. The torso and head are missing. The pelvic bone, thighs and legs have been licked clean of all skin and muscle, leaving just bones that, without size perspective, could easily be mistaken for well-devoured chicken wings. Except for the left foot, still intact, and the right foot, still wearing a sock. Local immigration lawyer Tom Griffin took the photograph of the dismembered corpse in 2004 on the road leading out of City Soleil, the Haitian neighborhood sometimes called […]
POLL: Just Two In Five Adults Read Newspapers Daily
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DEFENSE: Just two in five US adults (43%) say they read a daily newspaper – either online or in print – almost every day, while 72% read one at least once a week and 81% read one at least once a month, according to a December 2009 Adweek Media/Harris Poll. The study found that one in ten adults (10%) say they never read a daily newspaper. Daily newspaper readership skews heavily toward the older age groups, the poll found. Almost two-thirds of those ages 55+ (64%) say they still read a daily newspaper almost every day. Younger […]
CINEMA: The Dude Elides*
[Illustration by DAN JOHNSON] CRAZY HEART (2009, directed by Scott Cooper, 111 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC A great country song finds strength in simplicity, you can guess the lyric’s rhymes and sing along with the melody on the very first time you hear it. Crazy Heart, a new character study showcasing Jeff Bridges as an aging musician, is true to the form: it is weary-hearted tale that rolls out plot twists that you can spot from two verses away. Bridges brings his laconic wit to the character of Bad Blake, a once-popular country performer and songwriter (somewhere […]
HAITI: Give Locally, Act Globally
[photo by Gerald Herbert/AP via THE BIG PICTURE] HAITIAN PROFESSIONALS OF PHILADELPHIA: Many of us are still in a state of shock but we have hope that we can assist Haiti’s relief. As an organization that prides itself in keeping the rich culture of Haiti alive in Philadelphia, the Haitian Professionals of Philadelphia (HPP) send our deepest and most sincere condolences to our Haitian family in our area and around the world. From the generous donation of Blue Star Jets, we have secured a private jumbo jet to transport medical professionals and supplies to Haiti. We are in need of DOCTORS, NURSES […]
BOBBY CHARLES: No Use Knockin’
VARIETY: Singer-songwriter Bobby Charles, who authored hits like Fats Domino’s “Walking to New Orleans” and Bill Haley & the Comets’ “See You Later Alligator” and recorded highly personalized swamp-pop in his own right, died Jan. 14 at his home in Abbeville, LA. He was 71. The cause of death was unknown immediately, and a medical examination is pending, according to Charles’ spokeswoman. Born Robert Charles Guidry in Abbeville, he was a white Cajun performer who gravitated to rock ‘n’ roll and R&B as a teen. Signed to the Chicago blues and R&B label Chess, he cut “Later Alligator” in 1955. […]