BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE CITY PAPER Forty years ago, South Street was doomed, left for dead by city planners who had scheduled the street for demolition to make way for a proposed Crosstown Expressway that would connect I-95 to I-76. South Street then was nothing like South Street now — a funky post-hippie/post-punk/post-cool amalgam of shops, bars and fooderies, aka Philly’s Haight-Ashbury, a land-locked asphalt boardwalk where teenagers from across the tri-state area flock to see and be seen (and stage the occasional flash mob). Back then, South Street was hardly a jewel in the city’s crown; in fact, […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] FRESH AIR Before a prostitution scandal ended his political career, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was a crusading prosecutor known as the “Sheriff of Wall Street.” As New York’s attorney general, he targeted corruption and shady business practices at some of the biggest financial institutions in the country. Filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new documentary, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, suggests that Spitzer’s demise wasn’t just about sex — that the many enemies Spitzer made on Wall Street and in the New York state capital at Albany may have contributed to his political demise. […]
MUST SEE TV: Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans Tour
Powerful stuff. Haunting, sad, metaphorical, etc.
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 […]
CITY CONTROLLER: Missing $164 Million In Real Estate Taxes Is Possibly Missing
MY FOX PHILADELPHIA: A spokesman for Controller Alan Butkovitz says officials are trying to confirm if the city received the money from title companies, but can’t say if it’s missing or not. Philadelphia’s controller says city officials haven’t been able to confirm if $164 million in real estate taxes have been transferred electronically to the city over the past five years. MORE ALSO: Police said the teens, ages 15 and 16, admitted to them that they put the cat in the microwave, turned it on and then threw it out a third story window of a Juniata home. The cat […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In a recent profile of Boehner, Vanity Fair‘s national editor Todd Purdum wrote that [John] Boehner “was among the architects of the strategy by Republicans in both houses to resist the president at every turn, regardless of whether they thought his proposals made sense or might be good for the country.” Now that Boehner is poised to become the next speaker of the House, Purdum tells Terry Gross that the 10-term Ohio Rep. is likely to run the place with a less obstructionist hand. “I think what he did [during the last term] was hold together an unruly […]
TECHNO: Where Your iPhone Comes From, And What It’s Like To Live And Die There
GIZMODO: I traveled to China to report on Foxconn and Shenzhen as part of a special feature for WIRED, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the magazine. In the meantime, here’s a small glimpse of some of the things I saw while in Shenzhen. Foxconn’s factory in Shenzhen, China, is home to about half of its 420,000 workers. They make many of our gadgets and computers, then walk to dormitories on the 2.1-kilometer-square campus. I got to look inside. [Above] A dorm room. Eight workers sleep in four bunk beds in a room about the size of […]
BOMBSHELL: Bruce Wayne Admits He IS Batman!
MYFOXPHILLY: The admission is unveiled Wednesday in the final pages of “Batman and Robin” No. 16 that marks the last issue in a run by Scottish writer Grant Morrison. The acknowledgment in the final pages comes as Wayne holds a news conference where he asks those gathered: “Some of you may have wondered … how does a man like Batman afford to constantly update his crime-fighting technology? Where does his money come from? “Well, the answer is me.” MORE
STAMPEDE: America Gets The America It Deserves
NEW YORK TIMES: Republicans won control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, riding a powerful wave of voter discontent as they dealt a setback to President Obama two years after his triumphal victory. And while the G.O.P. made strong gains in the Senate, Democrats were positioned to maintain their control of that chamber. Democrats were dealt significant losses, particularly in the House, where Republicans recorded a series of wins from New Hampshire to Virginia and Indiana to Florida, knocking out well-established incumbents and freshmen alike, all of whom struggled to overcome opposition to the Democratic Party’s agenda. Representative John […]
JUST DO IT: Vote Early And Often
You know what to do.
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Michael Caine‘s memoir, The Elephant to Hollywood, recounts the highs and lows of a career that has now spanned more than five decades. (The title refers to the part of London — called Elephant and Castle — where Caine grew up.) In it, he candidly talks about his journey from South London to the screen, detailing his battles with stage fright and his jaunts around the world once the films Zulu and Alfie catapulted him onto the international stage. He also details how early in his career, he worked hard to make audiences realize that he and Alfie, […]
SIDEWALKING: When The Music’s Over
Gov. Ed Rendell, Moving America Forward Rally, U of Penn, 6:45 PM JEFF FUSCO RELATED: Gov. Ed Rendell approached two men eating in the food court at One Liberty Place in Center City Philadelphia during the lunch hour rush Monday. After obliging them with talk about the Philadelphia Eagles (Rendell predicted a 10-6 season and trip to the playoffs for the Birds) he said, “But tomorrow. Tomorrow. Vote.” Then he leaned in and said, “You know they’re trying to screw the president, right?” MORE
ELECTION FORECAST: A Perfect Shitstorm
MOTHER JONES: The day before the election, pollsters are predicting that the Democratic wipeout could be even bigger than expected. There’s no question that the GOP will take the House, but Gallup suggests that Republican net gains could give their party a bigger House majority than any party has achieved before. […] The GOP needs to win just 39 Democratic seats to take the House, but projections are now up to 60 seats or more, with over 100 seats in play. And if Republicans end up on with an overwhelmingly majority, they will feel even more emboldened to find every conceivable […]