[Photos by SOCHEATH SUN] BY REBECCA GOODACRE On Saturday night Philadelphia’s Naval Yard played host to probably the most glamorous matriculating class in the city when Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design mounted its annual Fashion Show celebrating the work of its most recent graduates. With an international reputation and a forward-thinking, interdisciplinary approach to design, Drexel Fashion School produces undergrad and graduate collections of undeniable originality and flavor. The fashion show was stage at Urban Outfitters’ Corporate Headquarters and the contemporary décor and design of the building was the perfect backdrop to the several hundred […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Long Live Dr. Death Dignity
[Artwork by JACK ROUX] BY WILLIAM C. HENRY We ought to declare Friday, June 3rd, National Human Rights Day and nickname it JK Day in recognition of one of the human rights movement’s most honorable, tireless and least appreciated champions. It’s the day Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the perennially outgunned “David” in his valiant war against the rights robbing Goliaths of government and religion, finally got his oh-so-well-deserved enduring day of rest. God knows he gave it his best. I, for one, would like to express my sincerest sorrow over the passing of a man willing to spend more than EIGHT […]
EARLY WORD: The Roots Of The Matter
Click HERE for tickets. You know you wanna! PREVIOUSLY: Like France, the picnic remains proof positive that, despite wild-eyed Tea Party protests to the contrary, socialism actually can work. Everyone brings something, we all share, and everyone lives relatively happily ever after — sometimes anyway. Such was the case at Saturday’s third annual Roots Picnic at the Festival Pier in Philadelphia. Senegal’s horn-y, percussion-heavy Baja and the Dry Eye Crew brought the world beats. Face-painted, ukulele-strumming one-gal-band TuneYards brought the weirdness. New Orleans rapper Jay Electronica brought the conspiracy theories (specifically the damning federal indictment of “Candyman”). Detroit’s Mayer Hawthorne, […]
TONITE: The Original Dirty Bomb
BEATPORTAL: After years of a seemingly unbridgeable divide between Detroit’s techno community and the city’s rock ‘n’ roll die-hards, the Dirtbombs come blazing through with a surprising rapprochement. The veteran garage rockers have recently released Party Store, a fiery collection of covers of Detroit techno classics. That’s right: the five-piece band tackles some of the greatest tunes in the canon—A Number Of Names’ “Sharevari,” Cybotron’s “Cosmic Cars,” Innerzone Orchestra’s “Bug in the Bassbin,” and even DJ Rolando’s “Jaguar”—in a bluesy, down ‘n’ dirty fashion complete with dual drum sets and fuzzed-out lead guitar reminiscent of Elvis’ Sun Studios sessions. MORE […]
CINEMA: Back To The Future
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011, directed by Matthew Vaughn, 132 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK Certainly a step up from the last X-Men installment in 2006, the somewhat lush X-Men: First Class has so many intriguing elements I’m surprised how its impression vaporized once the film was over. The film is not without ideas: you’ve got the origin of the conflict between one-time friends Magneto and Professor X, the story of the mutant group’s birth, you’ve got Nazi Germany, Las Vegas, the Cuban missile crisis and January Jones decked out in leather like a refugee from Barbarella. Directed by British Matthew […]
NEIL YOUNG & DEVO: Hey, Hey, My, My
DANGEROUS MINDS: Released only on VHS and Laserdisc in 1995, Neil Young’s film Human Highway, filmed in 1978, contains this marvelous footage of Young and Devo having their way with Hey Hey My My. Match made in heaven sez I ! Enjoy this excellent quality clip before the corporate music police take it down. MORE PREVIOUSLY: ‘NEIL YOUNG’ & SPRINGSTEEN: Whip My Hair PREVIOUSLY: Top 5 Things You Should Know About Neil Young Last Night PREVIOUSLY: DEVOLUTION FOR DUMMIES: Q&A With Mark Mothersbaugh, Composer, Painter, DEVO-lutionist
SIDEWALKING: Big ‘Ol Jet Aeroliner
Naval Yard, Thursday 4:17 PM by JEFF FUSCO
WEINERGATE: The Plot Thickens
[Photo by BRANCO] POLITICO: The woman who was sent a lewd photo from the Twitter account of Rep. Anthony Weiner says she doesn’t think the New York Democrat’s account was hacked, but that he may have been trying to send the photo to a porn star with a similar name. Gennette Cordova, a 21-year-old college student from Seattle, posed for a photo shoot with The New York Post on Thursday and shared her side of the story. “Her name is Ginger — it makes sense he might have mixed us up,” Cordova said, referring to Ginger Lee, a stripper and […]
How Can Anyone Oppose A Soda Tax To Fund Schools?
PHAWKER: An extra 25 cents on the cost of a Diabetes-inducing beverage that would fund school buses and all-day kindergarten is unacceptable? How could any reasonable person, who’s name is not Coke or Pepsi, oppose this? TEAMSTERS LOCAL 404: Curbing obesity and improving health may be how some legislators describe the soda tax, but the truth is, it’s all about the money. Soda taxes were proposed last year in Pennsylvania and New York and, thanks to Teamster input, swiftly turned down by legislators. Hundreds of Teamster members work in the soft drink distribution business and the threat of a tax […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Filmmaker Mike Mills’ parents met in junior high school. For 45 years, they lived together, raising Mills and his older sisters, until Mills’ mother died in 1999. Six months later, Mills’ father — a 75-year-old retired museum director — announced that he’s gay. Mills’ second movie, Beginners, is loosely based on his own relationship with his father, Paul. The movie stars Ewan McGregor as a graphic designer whose 75-year-old father, played by Christopher Plummer, has just come out and wants to experience the gay life he denied himself when he was married. Mills says he remembers the day […]
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON DRUG POLICY REPORT: The War Is Over, The Drugs Won
WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The global war on drugs has failed,” said a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy due to be released Thursday. The report calls for a frank dialogue on the issue and encourages governments to experiment with the regulation of drugs, especially marijuana. The 19-member commission includes a broad spectrum: former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia—all countries that have faced brutal drug violence. Former Secretary of State George Shultz and former […]
BLOTTO #15: Now I Wanna Be Your Dawg
BY LANCE DOILY Well, it took me waking up half drunk at 4:30 in the morning to the sound of two dogs ripping apart a pigeon behind the Foodtown in Paterson to realize I needed a lady. I can’t say I’ve let it get to me much in the past, since I’ve always been more of a stroke guy. While all the others were out drinkin’ and whorin’ until dawn, I’d be the guy hanging out with a fifth and a tug magazine, rifling off a few rounds into an old pair of sweats. It got to the point where […]
SIDEWALKING: Thick As A Brick
Trenton Ave. and Huntingdon St., Kensington 7:20 AM by MEREDITH KLEIBER