BLUE VALENTINE (2010, Dir. by Derek Cianfrance, 112 minutes, U.S.) If you’re expecting a warm-fuzzy remake of The Notebook, where romance-never-dies and love conquers all, think again. With Ryan Gosling assuming as the lead, along with Heath Ledger ex- Michelle Williams, it’s no wonder that such preconceptions arise, but, as the title suggests, this isn’t going to be all sunshine and lollipops. On the other hand, if you’ve come looking for a brutally realistic examination of love-on-the-rocks married life, accompanied by a reversal of typical gender stereotypes, then this is a film for you. From the get-go, the camera delves […]
THE HORROR: Forcible Abortion On Demand
DAILY NEWS: Fifteen-year-old Robyn Reid didn’t want an abortion. But when her grandmother forcibly took her to an abortion clinic one wintry day in 1998, Reid figured she’d just tell the doctor her wishes and then sneak away. Instead, Kermit Gosnell barked: “I don’t have time for this!” He then ripped off her clothes, spanked her, wrestled her onto a dirty surgical stretcher, tied her flailing arms and legs down and pumped sedatives into her until she quit screaming and lost consciousness, she told the Daily News yesterday. Nicole Gaither got an abortion from Gosnell in 2001. After four days, […]
SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM: State Supreme Court Strikes Down Philly’s Blunt Ban, Wiggers Rejoice
DAILY NEWS: A narrowly divided state Supreme Court has voided a 4-year-old city ordinance that was designed to curtail the use of cigars, cigarettes, rolling papers and other tobacco products as vehicles for marijuana and other illegal drugs, the court announced Thursday. The state’s high court ruled 4-3 that the ordinance, sponsored by Councilman Brian O’Neill, was inconsistent with state law regulating tobacco products and drug paraphernalia. The Pennsylvania law has a broad prohibition against the sale of any paraphernalia used to grow, harvest, package or use illegal drugs. But prosecutions are limited to situations in which the seller knows […]
Video Footage Of Reading Woman Tripping Into Mall Fountain While Texting Helps Millions Feel Superior
READING EAGLE: The fall on Jan. 12 was caught on security camera video that has brought her unwanted fame since it was posted Friday to YouTube and Facebook, where it has been viewed at least 1.6 million times. Many media outlets worldwide have shown the footage. Cathy is mortified by the incident and both laughs and cries when she talks about it. “My issue is I don’t think security was professional because they didn’t send anyone to check on me until 20 minutes later and I had already left,” Cathy said Wednesday in her first interview since the accident. In […]
THE HORROR, THE HORROR: How Holes In The Social Safety Net Let Monsters Like Gosnell In
BY JEFF DEENEY Let me begin by assuring anyone reading this from outside the region that the disbelieving moan of “What the fuuuuuck, Philadelphia?!” that reverberated around the world yesterday is being heard loud and clear here in the evermore ironically nicknamed City of Brotherly Love. Surely, the grand jury report detailing Kermit Gosnell’s filthy West Philly baby abattoir is utterly soul-shattering in and of itself, regardless of your proximity to the events. But many Philadelphians felt an additional, all-too familiar communal nausea watching the story go viral through the Twitterverse, first moving from the local media to national outlets, […]
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 […]
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With Sharon Van Etten
[Photo by DUSDEN CONDREN] BY PELLE GUNTHER Sharon Van Etten is the latest sad-eyed folkstress to set the twilight reeling in indie-town. With her shattered-glass songs and that tiny wind chime of a voice, Van Etten has captivated a growing legion of sympathetic sad-sacks and garnered pretty much across the board critical acclaim. Her latest album, epic, turned up on quite a few Best Of 2010 lists, including NPR’s, and for good reason. Although she easily falls in with other singer songwriter sorceress types, like Cat Power or Jenny Owens Young, Van Etten’s emotion-steeped delivery and beautiful, haunted melodies are […]
THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS: The Onion Plans To Launch Philadelphia Edition This Spring
DAN GROSS: The Onion, the popular news parody publication, is finally coming to Philadelphia. A print edition of the weekly paper, also online at TheOnion.com, is expected to launch here this spring. The paper is also looking for a Philadelphia city editor to oversee the local editorial operations though the bulk of the product will be the often hilarious news stories such as “Tip of Area Man’s Tongue Refuses to Relinquish Richard Crenna‘s Name,” and “Nation’s Porn Stars Demand to be F—ed Harder.” The paper started in Madison, Wis., in the late 1980s and also has print editions in Milwaukee, […]
LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER: Bigger Lovers Reunite, Re-Issue Their Debut, Play Rilly Big Show
EDITOR’S NOTE: Pat Berkery was Phawker’s first sports columnist. PATRICK BERKERY: Hey, Patrick Berkery here, drummer for The Bigger Lovers. Five seasons and change after closing up shop, The Bigger Lovers are reuniting to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our instantly out-of-print 2001 debut, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying” (originally issued on Black Dog Records on March 13, 2001) with a remastered vinyl and digital reissue coming March 8, 2011 on our own Miles Above imprint. It’s the first time the album has appeared in either format. The reissue – which includes two bonus tracks (available digitally) recorded during […]
PORTLANDIA: Where Young People Go To Retire
NEW YORK TIMES: It is always a risky proposition when anyone tries to codify the spirit of a proudly independent, nonconformist scene. (And in this case Mr. Armisen, a nine-season veteran of “Saturday Night Live” and resident of New York would seem to have less of a claim to it than Ms. Brownstein, a guitarist and singer from the Portland rock band Sleater-Kinney, which broke up in 2006.) But together Mr. Armisen and Ms. Brownstein, two guileless if unlikely collaborators, hope they possess enough street cred to serve as ambassadors of Portland’s counterculture and to present their version of it, […]
BACK TO THE FUTURE: Feelies To Release New Album On March 29th, Will Play World Cafe Live On May 17th
PITCHFORK: Back in October, we reported that jangle rock OGs the Feelies were working on their first full-length since 1991’s Time for a Witness. Well, their work is officially complete: Here Before, the first album from the Feelies in two decades, is set for release March 29 via Bar/None. MORE PREVIOUSLY: The Feelies are one of those inscrutable but beloved band’s bands whose influence far exceeds their royalty statements and, as a consequence, the period on the last sentence in their bio keeps turning into a comma. Borne of the suburban garages of North Haledon, New Jersey, they released Crazy […]
GRAND JURY REPORT: West Philly Abortion Clinic Was ‘House Of Horrors’; Doctor Charged With Murder
INQUIRER: An abortion doctor has been arrested and charged with the murder of a patient and seven live infants whose spines were severed with scissors at a West Philadelphia clinic that has been described as a house of horrors, officials said today. District Attorney Seth Williams said the doctor, Kermit P. Gosnell, was charged following a grand jury investigation. Gosnell, 69, lost his medical license last year after health officials determined his clinic posed “a clear danger to the public.” Gosnell was arrested this morning, officials said. He has maintained his innocence. The seven infants were born alive in the […]
WANDA JACKSON: Thunder On The Mountain
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Encouraged by one-time tourmate Elvis Presley to sing the tougher strain of rhythmic country music known as rockabilly, Wanda Jackson was peerless in her field from the start. Bob Dylan deemed her “an atomic bomb in lipstick.” Now, despite being nearly six decades removed from her raucous and feisty first sides (as well as a long detour into gospel music), Ms. Jackson remains the Queen. In 2003, she cut a comeback album with longtime devotees like Elvis Costello and the Cramps, and toured the revival circuit with other early rock ‘n’ rollers. But it’s her forthcoming album, […]