THE MORNING CALL: Elmer Goris spent a year working in Amazon.com‘s Lehigh Valley warehouse, where books, CDs and various other products are packed and shipped to customers who order from the world’s largest online retailer. The 34-year-old Allentown resident, who has worked in warehouses for more than 10 years, said he quit in July because he was frustrated with the heat and demands that he work mandatory overtime. Working conditions at the warehouse got worse earlier this year, especially during summer heat waves when heat in the warehouse soared above 100 degrees, he said. He got light-headed, he said, and […]
IDIOCRACY: They Don’t Call It Jackass For Nothing
Steve O the morning after deliberately running into Mike Tyson’s fist for Charlie’s Sheen’s Comedy Central Roast. Best line goes to William Shatner: “Who’s the warlock now, BITCH?!?” But hands down the award for Most Vicious And Hilarious goes to Amy Schumer.
The Real Death Panels Are In The House Of Rep.
WENDELL POTTER: Because of my nearly 20 years of experience as an executive of two large insurance firms, I was asked to provide my perspective on the legislation at a hearing today of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. One of the bills would eliminate a provision of the reform law that requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of what we pay in premiums on actual medical care. The insurance industry tried without success to keep that provision out of the final bill, so they are solidly behind the effort to do away with it. As […]
WILCO: Born Alone
TIME: In 2002, Wilco was a reasonably successful and well-known alt-country band—formed by frontman Jeff Tweedy after the dissolution of his previous group, Uncle Tupelo—that had put out three solid albums. But then it released Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a genre-hopping gem of musical perfection that is inarguably one of the best albums of the past decade. After one listen of “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” people who didn’t normally like alt-country found themselves wondering if maybe they liked alt-country. College kids liked it. People in their 30s and 40s—people with kids, people who’d stopped caring about new music and […]
PATRICK MURPHY: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Or Die
THE ADVOCATE: Patrick Murphy, the Iraq War veteran and two-term congressman from Pennsylvania who “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal activist Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach recently called “the right man at the right time to take on this battle,” has not given up politics despite a narrow loss in the 2010 election. (He was one of 63 House Democrats to lose their seats.) The former West Point constitutional law professor and current partner in the Philadelphia law firm Fox Rothschild is vying to become the first Democratic attorney general in the state in three decades. Murphy is one of several key […]
EARLY WORD: OMG Radiohead Is Coming! Run!
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] Radiohead has confirmed two shows at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom to take place September 28 and 29. Tickets will go on sale at 10:00 AM on September 26 at www.ticketmaster.com. There is a 2 ticket limit per household. All tickets will be available for pick up at will call the evening of the event beginning at 6:30 PM and entry into the venue is required immediately upon receipt. No tickets shall be distributed prior to the event. In addition, Radiohead will appear on a very special one-hour episode of The Colbert Report featuring multiple songs and […]
COURAGE OF HIS CONVICTIONS: NPR Travel Guru Rick Steves Fights For His Right To Roast A Bowl
Not really surprising that Rick Steves, possibly the mellowest man on NPR, likes to unwind with a doobie at the end of the day. What is surprising, or more accurately disappointing, is that he is the only one with the balls to stand up and be counted. We’re still waiting for Terry Gross to come clean. ‘Twenty years of Fresh Air? I was high the WHOLE time!’ Or something like that.
RIP: Fear & Loathing At Cheesesteak Junction
BY MIKE WALSH I never met Joey Vento, but in 1986 I purchased a home about a block-and-a-half from Geno’s and the infamous cheesesteak junction (Wharton, S. 9th, and E. Passyunk). Back then, the intersection was popular, but it wasn’t the loud, crowded, 24-hour-per-day hotspot it is today. A large, stone church occupied one corner, and the other restaurants and shops you see today at the intersection had not moved in yet. The neighborhood was not in good shape in the mid-80s. Many homeowners had abandoned the neighborhood, and hundreds of single family homes had been converted to apartments. […]
LIFE LESSONS: You, The Sad Clown
With your life coach, AP Ticker!
FRINGE REVIEW: Extremely Public Displays Of Privacy
BY BRANDON LAFVING Philly’s own New Paradise Laboratories broke new ground at this year’s Fringe Fest with Extreme Displays Of Privacy, a three-act live thriller that straddles almost every fence currently dividing up the performing arts. Act I commenced with an interactive website (http://extremelypublicdisplays.com) that presents a series of edgy and exhilarating video cuts, photographic montages, and music tracks to set the stage for the budding relationship of Fess Eliot, an aging singer/songwriter, and the gorgeous Beatrix Luff, a sublime and diabolical anti-heroine. Beatrix wants to teach Fess how to get attention, and the ennui-laden songwriter is just depressed enough […]
BOOK: The Man Who Wasn’t There
[Illustration by EDDIE GUY] NEW YORK TIMES: Why have so many people in the Obama administration vented to Mr. Suskind in the first place, when the president was only partway through his first term? Like many of Bob Woodward’s sources a lot of them are motivated by spin, score settling and second-guessing. Given the stalled economy and the president’s sliding poll numbers, some former staff members are playing the blame game early, while others seem to be hoping to goad the president into a reboot and a more aggressive stance before the 2012 election. Mr. Suskind — a Pulitzer Prize […]
U SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION: Occupy Wall St.
Dear patriots, rabble-rousers, revolutionaries, On Saturday thousands of us will occupy Wall Street. We will wave our signs, unfurl our banners, beat our drums, chant our slogans … and then we’ll get down to business and hold several people’s assemblies to decide what our “one demand” will be. Shall we demand that President Obama reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act; outlaw flash trading; impose a 1% tax on all financial transactions? These are good ideas but not very energizing. How about we demand the revocation of corporate personhood? Feels a bit too abstract. Many Americans don’t fully grasp what’s at stake with […]
SIDEWALKING: Gentle On My Mind
Irvine Auditorium, post-Glen Campbell concert, last night by JONATHAN VALANIA DAN DELUCA: “I’m not Minnie Pearl, but I’m just proud to be here,” he said on taking the stage to John Hartford’s “Gentle On My Mind,” on which he immediately displayed the undiminished guitar picking skills which made the Delight, Arkansas native a standout member of the 1960s group of Los Angeles studio players known as The Wrecking Crew. Campbell, who stands 6 feet tall but cut a larger than life figure as he moved about the stage in black shirt and jeans and blue blazer, had other schticky stage […]