PHILLY.COM: Philly’s top cop has issued a memorandum to eliminate any confusion about a civilian’s right to record, videotape or photograph officers in a public space. The two-page memo by Commissioner Charles Ramsey circulated throughout the department on Sept. 23, roughly two weeks after the Daily News reported on several incidents involving cops who had wrongly arrested bystanders for using their cellphones to record what they considered violent arrests and who later emerged from police custody with smashed phones and no footage. “It is not illegal to videotape a police officer,” Ramsey said in a phone interview. “Cameras are everywhere. […]
SIDEWALKING: Semper Fi, Brother
Marine manning the picket line at #OccupyWallStreet by TIM SCHREIER SALON: The establishment press’s primary “problem” with the Occupy Wall Street protest is that those silly kids don’t have a concrete demand. Or they have too many demands. Or their demands aren’t realistic. This is silly. The movement’s “demand” is economic justice. Its goal is plainly to remind everyone that the bloated, obscenely profitable financial industry is sitting on vast piles of money while everyone else struggles, and to focus outrage about that situation where it belongs.[…] The solution, if I may take a page from the official Washington Grown-Ups’ […]
JAZZER: Meet Wade Dean
[Photo by HOWARD PITKOW] BY ZIVIT SHLANK Saxophonist, composer and educator Wade Dean is a true gem of the Philadelphia jazz scene. His passionate improvisations and scholarly, yet, youthful exuberance has and continues to be praised by both audiences and his musical peers. Born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he was always around music. His mother was a pianist in the local churches. His uncle is a baritone saxophonist who plays in the Count Basie Orchestra, the last musician hired by Basie himself. He earned his Bachelor’s in Music Education from the University of South Carolina, and then moved onto […]
Win Tix To See Matthew Sweet Perform Girlfriend
Matthew Sweet’s guitar-pop masterpiece Girlfriend turns 20 this year. Good grief, where does the time go? Those who’ve lived through its glorious flowering in the early 90s can attest to the album’s deathless classic status, as for those who haven’t, if you like rock music, trust us, you already love this album, you just don’t know it yet. Sweet’s honeyed, golden-boy vocals and study-at-the-feet-of-the-masters songwriting is kicked into overdrive by the astonishing six-string fire power of Television’s Richard Lloyd and the dearly departed Robert Quine. Hail, hail rock n’ roll! They sure don’t make ’em like this anymore. To mark […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In early 2010, Republican strategists launched a new project called RedMap. The idea was to flip as many state houses across the country to Republican majorities during the 2010 election cycle — particularly in states where congressional redistricting was pending. “The thinking behind it, which was very ingenious, was that state legislative races are cheap and if you can just put a bit of money into them and flip the statehouse, then you can control the redistricting process, which in turn gives the Republican Party a great advantage in putting members of Congress in the House of Representatives,” […]
SIDEWALKING: And So It Begins
#OccupyPhilly, Dilworth Plaza, 12:27 PM by JEFF DEENEY RELATED: “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” said Eleanor Walker, a 70-year-old retiree who worked in human resources for corporate America. “It seems like the American people have been sleeping. When this happened, I said, our time has come.” MORE RELATED: Mike Fox, 27, of Haddon Heights, who recently finished a seven-year hitch in the Army, explained the Guy Fawkes mask on the back of his head, saying it represented “Anonymous” – a name used by activists behind the recent uprising in Egypt. MORE PHAWKER: Dear Peter Mucha […]
FACE PALM: Stupid Is As Hateful Does
This is a screengrab of Westboro ‘God Hates Fags’ Baptist Church’s head-troll-in-charge tweeting that her goon squad will picket Steve Jobs’ funeral…wait for it…on her iPhone! And on the eighth day, God created irony, and it was good. [VIA TWITTER]
LIFE LESSONS: It IS Class Warfare & We’re Losing
With your life coach AP Ticker!
WISH LIST: The Real Death Panel
MSNBC: American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials. There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House’s National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate. The panel was behind the decision to add Awlaki, a U.S.-born militant preacher with alleged al Qaeda […]
DEENEY: Why K2
THE FIX: Over the past few years waves of drug-hysteria stories about new synthetic substances have flooded the media; headlines shouted that emerging drugs like the stimulant mephedrone were being sold legally, marketed as “bath salts” body products and wreaking havoc on the minds of drug abusers. Even as legislators scrambled to ban this demonized new test-tube high, habitual substance abusers in drug-soaked inner cities like Philly shrugged. Who needs bath salts when you can get whatever you want, whenever you want, at high potency and low cost on one of the city’s hundreds of drug corners? But one new […]
RIP: Steve Jobs, Wizard Of Oz, Dead At 56
“He was selling magic, everyone else was selling technology.” — John Scully, Former Apple CEO NEW YORK TIMES: Steven P. Jobs, the visionary co-founder and former chief executive of Apple, has died at 56. Apple said in a press release that it was “deeply saddened” to announced that Mr. Jobs had passed away on Wednesday. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” the company said. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. MORE RELATED: Steve Jobs has never been shy about his use of psychedelics, famously calling […]
DECISION 2012: Smell Ya Later!
NEW YORK TIMES: Sarah Palin is not running for president. Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, ended her inscrutable cat-and-mouse game with the political establishment on Wednesday by saying that she would not join the field of Republican candidates seeking her party’s nomination, but would still work to oust President Obama. “Not being a candidate, you are unshackled and able to be even more active,” she said on the Mark Levin show. “I look forward to using all the tools at my disposal to get the right people in there who have a servant’s heart.” The decision from Ms. […]
LORD OF THE STRINGS: Q&A With Bert Jansch
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following interview with Bert Jansch was originally posted back in April when he opened for Neil Young. We are re-running it again upon learning the sad news that he passed away yesterday at the age of 67. The Guardian has an excellent obit you can read HERE. *** “As much of a great guitar player as Jimi [Hendrix] was, Bert Jansch is the same thing for acoustic guitar…and my favourite” – Neil Young Legendary folk guitarist Bert Jansch, who opens for Neil Young at the Tower tonight and tomorrow, emerged as one of the leading lights of […]