Ben Franklin Bridge, 8:11 AM by JEFF FUSCO
Martha Raddatz Wins The Vice Presidential Debate
NEW YORK TIMES: Let me say a few words about the really astonishing person who appeared at the vice presidential debate on Thursday – the moderator. Martha Raddatz of ABC News didn’t ask puffy questions like Jim Lehrer did at the presidential debate. Or let the candidates get away with vague non-answers, as Jim Lehrer did. Ms. Raddatz acted like a working journalist instead of a television personality from her first question, on Ambassador Stevens’ death: “It was a pre-planned assault by heavily armed men,” she said. “Wasn’t this a massive intelligence failure, Vice President Biden?” Later, she […]
REMAIN IN THE LIGHT: An Exit Interview With Artist And Open Air Creator Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
BY BRANDON LAFVING ARTS CORRESPONDENT Open Air, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s synchronous, bat signal-esque ballet of light has been illuminating the Philly nightscape since September 20th and will continue to do so until October 14th. Open Air is interactive in the best sense of the word. The installation’s 24 dancing searchlights are choreographed by the voices of participants who submit messages via the Open Air web site or iPhone app. It’s kind of like those dancing flowers we all thought were so funny and cute back in the 90s, but with light sabers. In the midst of all the stress and […]
THE ROLLING STONES: Doom And Gloom
Guitar/drums/bass-wise, this is easily the best Stones single since “Start Me Up,” but Jagger’s trite lyric sinks this into the depths of sad, septuagenarian hackery. He makes a few limp stabs at being topical and relevant before lazily falling back on the same old tired ticks and tropes he’s been leaning on like a crutch since the mid-70s. After namechecking war, famine, flood, greed and ruin on the verses, the big resolve on the chorus is…wait for it…”Baby won’t you daaaaaaaance with me.” Jagger, please.
CONTEST: Win Tix To See An Exclusive Press Screening Of The New Led Zep Concert Movie
UPDATE: Tonight’s screening has been postponed to Monday night. Been a long time since we rock n’ rolled, hmmm? (Actually, it’s only been a few hours, but stick with me, I’m going somewhere with this) Tomorrow Monday night at 7:30 PM there will be a special press screening of the new Led Zeppelin concert film Celebration Day at the Rave in University City. We have pair of tickets to give away to the 24th Phawker reader to sign up for our mailing list. In addition to email updates about new and special Phawker content, mailing list subscribers get special advanced […]
Taliban Shoots 14-Year-Old Girl In The Head For Advocating For Women’s Education In Pakistan
HUFFINGTON POST: Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was admired across a battle-scarred region of Pakistan for exposing the Taliban’s atrocities and advocating for girls’ education in the face of religious extremists. On Tuesday, the Taliban nearly killed her to quiet her message. A gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school in the volatile northern Swat Valley and shot Malala in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded. The young activist was airlifted by helicopter to a military hospital in the frontier city of Peshawar. A doctor in the city of Mingora, Tariq […]
SIDEWALKING: The Way We Were
Babs, Wells Fargo Center, 8 PM last night by JEFF FUSCO PHILLY MAG: If you were wondering what the view (or at least the camera view) from a $200 Barbra Streisand seat looks like, let [THIS PHOTO] serve as documentation. I wasn’t supposedto be sitting in section 204a, where I snapped this photo. No, my free $500 review ticket (provided by Streisand’s publicist) was second row center. As in two rows from Streisand’s glory. But my 62-year-old mom, who had the 204a seat, tripped and fell on her way into the Wells Fargo Center, breaking her glasses, spraining her wrist […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Menomena
These guys ain’t no joke, but this video is f*cking hilarious. We have a pair of tix to see them tomorrow night at Union Transfer for the 12th person to sign up for our mailing list (SEE right, below masthead). Go on. What are you worried about? That we’re gonna leave a bag of flaming dog poop on your door step? No, no, no. Not your physical address, your email address. What are we going to do? Leave a bag of flaming dog shit on your email doorstep? Is there such of a thing? Oh, who can keep up with […]
BOOKS: A Q&A With Punk-Noir Surrealist Charles Burns, The Edgar Allan Poe Of Right Now
Illustration by ALEX FINE EDITOR’S NOTE: Cartoonist/illustrator Charles Burns, master of the punk-noir macabre, will be discussing his work at the Free Library tonight. To mark the occasion, we sent him some questions about The Hive (Random House), the just-published second installment of his new graphic novel trilogy, his first major work since 2005’s Black Hole. However, before we get to the Q&A, there are 10 things you should know about Charles Burns. They are.. 1. Though born and bred in the high rainyland of the Pacific Northwest, Charles Burns has resided in Philadelphia — Northern Liberties, to be exact […]
INTERESTING: Lady Gaga And MIA Visit Assange
THE ATLANTIC: MIA tweeted at Gaga on Sunday night, “if ur at harrods today , come visit Assange at the Ecuador embassy across the st. im there. ill bring TEA and CAKE.” A full 24-hours later, Lady Gaga posted a photo of her and the Wikileaks founder with a stain on his shirt. Somebody even snapped a couple of photos of her leaving the embassy. It’s unclear if MIA showed up. Who knows what the two of them talked about. However, thanks to the enthusiastic droves of Lady Gaga fans on Twitter, we’re reminded of the time that Bradley […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Pete Townshend @ Penn
Currently promoting his new autobiography Who I Am (see below), Pete Townshend will be speaking at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on Wednesday at 7 PM. This event is COMPLETELY sold out, but we have a pair of tickets to giveaway to the 27th reader to sign up for our mailing list. The sign up window is just to the right of this post at the bottom of the masthead. (Don’t worry, we will never share or sell your email address, unless you do something really bad on national television and the cops make us […]
ARTSY: An Extremely Rare And Factual Q&A With Cartoonist & Illustrator Extraordinaire Chris Ware
BY RITA BOOK* In the hands of Chris Ware, the funnies aren’t particularly funny. Unless, that is, lonely misfits and their existential lives of quiet desperation is your idea of comedy gold. Ware’s deeply felt, darkly told and beautifully illustrated stories, including the partly autobiographical “Jimmy Corrigan” and “Rusty Brown,” have won awards in the U.S. and abroad, drawn comparisons to “Ulysses” and Duchamp, and landed the Chicago-based cartoonist on bookshelves, museums and galleries, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Esquire. Ware’s latest, the groundbreaking and gorgeous “Building Stories,” has already been called his magnum opus and a […]
CONCERT REVIEW: ZZ Top @ The Keswick
Men’s Room, Keswick Theater, Friday night by JONATHAN VALANIA BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER It is a well-known fact that only two things will survive the coming Apocalypse: cockroaches and Keith Richards. A betting man would add ZZ Top to the list. After 40 years of chrome, smoke and BBQ’d blooze licks, their party time ubiquity shows no signs of diminishing. Wherever there are men on scaffolding, they will be there. Wherever Harley meets Davidson, they will be there. Wherever stripper meets pole, they will be there. Wherever a DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS sticker meets a mud-caked pickup truck […]