BY JONATHAN VALANIA Okay Mr. Punk Friggin’ Rock. Before we even get started, you need to come down off your high horse. Take it slow, big fella. You’re not as young as you used to be, and it’s a long way down. All right, both feet on the ground? Good. Yes it’s true, the Sex Pistols played at the Donald’s Trump Marina casino on Saturday night, and you know what? They rocked, without apology. Like they meant it, man. At this late date–some 25 years removed from the filth and the fury of their snot-caked birth–what more could you ask […]

BY BRANDON LAFVING FRINGE CORRESPONDENT The stage front appeared simple enough – an old wooden façade, an antique piano, and a banjo suitable for a ventriloquist’s doll. Then the hands came out. One at a time, each slid aside a false panel in the wall, bearing a gift to top off the scene. They brought: a miniature, sepia-hued globe, a mechanical metronome, a birdcage that would be more appropriate housing for a ladybug, and a toy cannon. Once these accoutrements had been added, the lead role, Mister Punch himself entered through a trap door and unlatched the metronome. The show […]

[Illustration by ALEX FINE] NEW YORK TIMES: A little-known Republican businessman from Queens, channeling voter discontent with President Obama into an upset, won election to Congress on Tuesday from the heavily Democratic district in New York City last represented by Anthony D. Weiner. The Republican, Bob Turner, a retired cable television executive, defeated Assemblyman David I. Weprin, the scion of a prominent Democratic family in Queens, in a nationally watched special election. With 84 percent of the precincts counted early Wednesday, Mr. Turner was leading Mr. Weprin by 54 percent to 46 percent, according to The Associated Press. MORE

BY ZIVIT SHLANK For 12 years, Ars Nova Workshop has been presenting live music that is distinctly unique and adventurous, unafraid to challenge their audiences’ perceptions of jazz and beyond. It’s the perfect platform for performing artist Jen Shyu. From her father’s classical music collection and the Broadway show tunes that captivated her as a youth, to her travels to the Far East to learn indigenous styles, her musical journey is certainly unique. Her evocative, multi-faceted, and polylingual styles of voice, composition and movement have been mesmerizing audiences all over the world, stretching the boundaries and redefining what it is […]

[Photo by KzAkabueze – ONEin12] CHRIS HEDGES: What was played out in the weeks after the attacks was the old, familiar battle between force and human imagination, between the crude instruments of violence and the capacity for empathy and understanding. Human imagination lost. Coldblooded reason, which does not speak the language of the imagination, won. We began to speak and think in the empty, mindless nationalist clichés about terror that the state handed to us. We became what we abhorred. The deaths were used to justify pre-emptive war, invasion, Shock and Awe, prolonged occupation, targeted assassinations, torture, offshore penal colonies, […]

POP CHART LAB: This shirt envisions what could have been had Bill Murray landed the role of Han Solo. The first in a series of The Lost Roles of Bill Murray shirts. These light grey shirts are constructed from a blend of 10% polyester and 90% ringspun cotton, which is the softest, smoothest, most awesomely infographical cotton available. MORE

Anyone who dares call his/herself a foodie in this city already knows that Philadelphia’s second annual Feastival will take place tomorrow evening from 6-9 pm at Pier 9. Live entertainment, some of which has been appropriated from the Live Arts Festival, will accompany one of the most distinguished repasts on Earth that night: 75 of Philadelphia’s top restaurants and bars will be offering tastings, including names as illustrious as Buddakan, Capogiro, Lotus Farm to Table, Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel, Fish, Tria, and Xochitl. For entertainment, Montreal’s 7 Fingers, whose show Traces has toured the United States for years, innovative […]

HUFFINGTON POST: As the wealthy continue to accrue capital — helped by policies like a low tax on profits from stock and real estate sales — and the less well-off classes try to make do in a pitiless economic climate, corporations appear to be finally recognizing the reality of the prosperity gap, and tailoring their product lines accordingly. Manufacturers like Procter & Gamble, the household-goods giant responsible for everything from Charmin and Old Spice to Tide, are concentrating their efforts on luxury and bargain items, putting less emphasis on products aimed at the middle class, the Wall Street Journal reports. […]

Beirut plays the Electric Factory on November 13th.

 Third & Fairmount, Sunday 12:34 PM by JONATHAN VALANIA RELATED:  The T.A.M.I. Show was all about showcasing the new. James Brown arrived at the Civic Center and was promptly informed of what the Stones already knew. “I remember James coming up and saying ‘Of course I’m the last act on the bill, right?’ ” says Steve Binder, director of the T. A. M. I. Show. “I told him, ‘No, actually you’re going to be followed by the Rolling Stones.’ James looked at me and smiled and said, ‘Nobody follows James Brown.’ ” Backstage the five Rolling Stones, weary from endless […]

BY BRANDON LAFVING FRINGE CORRESPONDENT I have always wanted to rip that stiff-necked Victorian collar right from under Bill Shakespeare’s chin, you know, just to let  the man breathe, let loose and have a bit of fun. These sentiments seem to be shared by the Underground Shakespeare Company, which presented its own new and improved adaptation of Henry IV in the Philly Fringe this year with musical interludes, cheap sex, and bloody brawls that punctuate the original script with bawdy home-on-the-range, goodness. This is not the first production of the Underground Shakespeare Company, which was founded in 2001 by Akiva […]