[Photo by Marvy!] INQUIRER: Confronted with a possible $430 million shortfall in the next fiscal year, Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman has asked her top administrators to prepare contingency plans to cut 20 percent, 25 percent, and 30 percent of their budgets. The directive was contained in a brief e-mail sent Dec. 29 to members of Ackerman’s leadership team, according to district sources. The plans were due at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and top administrators are scheduled to gather for a budget meeting Friday morning. The district, which has 162,000 students and nearly 24,000 employees, currently receives 55 percent of […]
STEALER’S WHEEL: Stuck In The Middle With You
DAILY MAIL: Baker Street singer Gerry Rafferty has died at the age of 63. Rafferty, who is also best known for his 1972 hit Stuck In The Middle With You with his band Stealer’s Wheel, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family, said daughter Martha this morning. The Scottish-born singer had been admitted to hospital in Bournemouth last November with liver failure. MORE
CHENEY: If I Only Had A Heart
[Artwork by PADRAIC O’REILLY] NEW YORK TIMES: At 69, Mr. Cheney’s heart will never beat at full strength again, doctors say. His new mechanical pump — a partial artificial heart known as a ventricular assist device — leaves patients without a pulse because it pushes blood continuously instead of mimicking the heart’s own beat. Most pulse-less patients feel nothing unusual, but the devices do pose significant risks of infection. They are implanted as a last resort either for permanent use or as a bridge to transplant until a donor heart can be found. Mr. Cheney, who has participated in some […]
EARLY WORD: Lullabyes For The Common Man
MERGE: Julian Koster and The Music Tapes will be delivering lullabies at bedsides from bedroom to bedroom, and house to house during a tour that stops in Philadelphia on Friday. Featuring new songs as well as some of the gentler songs from Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes and the 1st Imaginary Symphony for Nomad, lucky hosts will be visited at the bedtime hour by the most lulling of music tapes songs, by the sounds of the glowing and enchanting “Ghost Orchestra,” Singing Saws, Stories, and so forth. To invite The Music Tapes to your house, send an invitation to:LullabyeDeliveries@gmail.com […]
MUST SEE TV: Rendell On Colbert Report
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c March to Keep Fear Alive INQUIRER: Last night Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania’s irrepressible outgoing governor, threw his hat into the ring of what may be his new career: talk-show guest. During an appearance on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, Fast Eddy displayed his gift for light banter, parrying with host Stephen Colbert. The comedian had teed up the governor during his monologue, playing the now infamous radio interview in which an exasperated Rendell called us “a nation of wusses.” Rendell did not back down from his plank of rugged individualism, saying, […]
HIZZONER: The Problem With Nutter’s Black Problem
[Artwork by HUGGIE!] PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: Who can blame Michael Nutter, though, for […] bristling at the fact that he was — again — being forced to publicly defend his authenticity as a black man?As the Mayor puts it to me, in an interview in his office a few weeks after the party, “I’m fully secure and clear about who I am, where I came from and what my life experience has been as an African-American.” Then he adds, “The fact of the matter is, neither you nor anyone else has walked into Ed Rendell’s office and said, ‘Are you white […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Gogol Bordello At The E-Factory
[Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] EDITOR’S NOTE: This concert review of Gogol Bordello’s show at the Electric Factory last Wednesday somehow got stuck in the pipes of the Internets. Ordinarily, it would be far too after the fact to run a review at this late date, but we are going to make an exception because it’s Gogol fucking Bordello. Because, dammit, when we say we are going to review a Gogol Bordello concert, well, as God is our witness, that Gogol Bordello concert gets motherfucking reviewed! Our word is all we have. BY PELLE GUNTHER The Electric Factory almost guarantees a […]
HEALTH SCARE: Uninsured Climbs To 50 Million
ALTERNET: Last week the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured issued a new report giving a grim assessment of the toll the recession and high unemployment has taken on the nation’s workforce: the number of uninsured rose to 50.0 million in 2009, an increase of 4.3 million. There are now nearly as many uninsured non-elderly people as those receiving Medicaid or other public insurance (such as CHIP, the children’s insurance program, Medicare and military/veterans coverage). MORE RELATED: Republican leaders in the new House say they’ll hold a vote next week to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. The […]
KENSINGTON STRANGLER: Hell’s Angels
BY JEFF DEENEY The media discussion of the Kensington Strangler has at this point strayed pretty far from the essential questions, so I would like to try to bring it back to center. When I say the discussion has strayed from the essential questions and has stopped really informing media consumers I would point to Dave Davies’s unfortunate interaction with Mayor Nutter on WHYY last week. The intent here isn’t to beat up on Dave, because I think nearly all agree that he’s about the best we have going in terms of Philly reporters. But the fact that even Dave […]
UNEXPLAINED: All At Once 5,000 Black Birds Fell Out Of The Sky Over A One Mile Radius Of Arkansas
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Environmental service workers in the US have been picking up the carcasses of about 2,000 red-winged blackbirds that fell dead from the sky in a central Arkansas town. The birds had fallen on Friday night over a one-mile area of Beebe, 40 miles from Little Rock, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area. The workers from US Environmental Services started the clean-up on Saturday, and confirmed the last dead bird was removed at 11am on Sunday morning. Beebe mayor Mike Robertson said workers wore protective suits for the removal […]
REWIND 2010: Our Favorite Albums Of 2010
ALBUM OF THE YEAR ARCADE FIRE The Suburbs In a more accurate world, if you looked up anthemic in the dictionary, you would invariably find a picture of the Arcade Fire. Rousing, heartfelt, and everyone-can-sing-along have been, heretofore, the hallmarks of the Montreal band’s recorded output and on The Suburbs, they continue passionately pounding out sweeping, densely layered, stadium-shaking soundtracks for people who have long since made peace with the fact that sooner or later the world will break your heart. If nothing else, Arcade Fire proved that the profound sense of loss – of innocence, of control, of loved […]