[Photos by JEFF FUSCO] PHILLY DEALS: Joon Associates Inc. and its President, Joanna Pang, asked for court permission to reorganize the Troc, lately a rock-and-roll concert venue, today in US Bankruptcy Court in Philadelphia “to obtain a breathing spell from creditors while it negotiates a restructuring of its debts” according to the petition (US BC E.Pa. 11-16432). In her filing, Pang notes the high cost of cutting Ticketmaster a share of the proceeds for every show in the face of declining sales, along with declining ticket sales and unrelated litigation costs, for a cash flow squeeze that has started to […]
ARTSY: David Lynch To Release Crazy Clown Time
[Illustration by DAVMO] Visionary filmmaker David Lynch will make his solo debut as a musical artist this fall with Crazy Clown Time. Produced and written by Lynch, the album’s 14 original songs spotlight him on guitar and vocals. The album will be released on November 8 by independent British label Sunday Best Recordings / PIAS in America. Two tracks released late last year – “Good Day Today” and “I Know” – already have American and British critics buzzing about the album. The Los Angeles Times writes: “Frightening effects and mysterious lyrics: this is Lynch’s most unexpected venture to date.” The […]
BALLAD OF BUDDY ROEMER: He’s Singin’ Our Song
DAILY BEAST: Roemer officially announced his candidacy for president last month in New Hampshire, committed to returning power to the people. From his address to the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans: “I will attempt to beat the tyranny of the big check. If we don’t do this, the change that’s necessary to rebuild America will never happen. Because Washington is bought and sold.” On why change is needed: “Real people don’t have a voice in Washington, D.C. Special interest money controls the discussion… I will take no PAC money. I will take no special interest money. I will accept […]
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With The War On Drugs
[Photography by GRAHAM TOLBERT] BY MEREDITH KLEIBER You’ll be hard pressed to find a harder-working musician in Philadelphia than Adam Granduciel. When he’s not on tour with his own band, Philly’s own The War On Drugs, he’s either touring with The Violators, the band of close friend (and Drugs founding member) Kurt Vile, or completely engrossed in finessing experimental recordings in his Fishtown home studio. The War On Drugs’ new album, Slave Ambient, is essentially the product of those intense home-studio recording sessions, enhanced by Granduciel’s astute songwriting and the commanding synergy of the band. I caught up with Adam […]
POLICE: There Were Two Teen Wolf Pack Attacks Outside The Curfew Zone Last Weekend
FOX 29: Near Fairmount Park, around 34th and Huntingdon in North Philadelphia, police sources say a 50-year-old man was knocked from his bicycle, by a 13 year old, 15 year old and a 16 year old. They punched, kicked and stomped in the man in the head. His bike and watch stolen and he ended up in Temple University Hospital. People there are worried that teens flushed out of Center City and University City will attack elsewhere. Then at 12:40 a.m. on Sunday, the second attack was at 47th and Walnut, just five blocks outside the crackdown zone. A 22-year […]
KENSTERDAM: Where The Philadelphia Police Maintain An Unspoken Truce In The War On Drugs
DAILY BEAST: The Daily Beast spent a night at this open-air market for pills and needles, talking to users and prostitutes about what’s come to pass for normalcy in Kensington: hard-core drug use without police interference. Heroin isn’t sold here much—that trade is controlled by Latin drug crews in the Badlands. But users who buy in the Badlands come to Kensington to shoot up. Addicts duck into vacant lots on the Avenue after returning from dope corners a couple of blocks away and, barely concealed by high weeds, casually cook and shoot speedballs. People are hanging out everywhere, turning tricks […]
WARREN BUFFET: Take My Money — Please!
WARREN BUFFET: Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent. If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a […]
TEXAS HOLD ‘EM: Calling Perry’s ‘Texas Miracle’ Bluff
[Illustration by WMxdesign] HUFFINGTON POST: The Bureau of Labor and Statistics found that Texas’ jobless rate has steadily crept up in recent months, not plunged to zero as Perry would have the nation believe. Unemployment was over 8 percent in June. New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, and a slew of other states beat Texas on the employment numbers. And New York and several other states that outshined Texas did it without gutting environmental and labor regulations, slashing taxes, and with bare boned spending on education, housing, unemployment benefits and health services, as in Texas. Even the […]
SIDEWALKING: She & Hymn
Hymn For Her, Psalm Salon, Saturday night by MEREDITH KLEIBER PREVIOUSLY: Q&A With Hymn For Her
GUIDED BY VOICES: Game Of Pricks
In The Fall from Steve Cutts on Vimeo. “I’ve gone up on your house, weep to water the trees, and when you come calling me down I put on my disease.”— Robert Pollard
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I don’t know about you, folks, but I’m flat out fed up with hearing about “what needs to be done” to turn the country around. Who DOESN’T know what it is that we have to do something about? I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with the “blame game”– from BOTH sides. I’m sick and tired of being preached to by the weak-kneed and the well-heeled in Congress. There isn’t a cupful of courage or compassion between them. But most of all, I’ve about had it with my PRESIDENT! Where is he hiding? Is he on […]
THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: The Beatles At JFK
It was 45 years ago that the Beatles played South Philly. The Colonel was there and he never forgets. Look for it Tuesday on a Phawker near you. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! PREVIOUSLY: THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: Pictures Of Lily Philly PREVIOUSLY: THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: The Life Of Brian PREVIOUSLY: THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: Me & Keef RELATED: It is precisely 9:36 p.m. in West Philadelphia on the second splendidly summery September night of 1964, and exactly six minutes ago everything suddenly changed. For teenage Philadelphia, the calendar just flipped, along with everyone’s wig, to a new era. It will be years before […]