TIME: Marco Rubio may or may not be ready to hold the most powerful job in the world, but one thing is clear: He’s certainly prepared to run for it, at least in the modern Republican Party. If there was any doubt on that score, it was settled during an interview on ABC News on Sunday, when he checked one of the most important boxes on any GOP hopeful’s job application: declaring that he did not, could not, would not, believe that climate change is real. “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our […]
BEING THERE: Lana Del Rey @ The Skyline Stage
Photo by DEREK BRAD Controversial ruby-tressed ingénue Lana Del Rey captivated a sold-out crowd at the Skyline Stage at the Mann Music center last night with a mesmerizing 14-song set of her darkly shimmering retro-pop. Del Rey is about to drop her much anticipated album Ultraviolence, which was produced by Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach and cut live in the studio with a Del Rey fronting a seven piece band. Last night, with her big fluttering eye lashes, bee-stung lips, and prevailing air of smoldering carnality, Del Rey looked like a 1940’s pin-up dream girl that just stepped off the […]
TONIGHT: The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Is On Fire
May 13, 1985. MOVE was an obnoxious cult of bullying pseudo-revolutionary fools (a back-to-nature group that sets up shop in the wilds of Powelton Village?) taking orders from a schockingly inept leadership hellbent on an apocalyptic confrontation with the Philadelphia Police Department, which was appallingly racist, beat-first-ask-questions-later brutal and taking orders from a shockingly inept leadership looking for some payback. Ten thousand rounds later, when it was over, 11 MOVE members, including five children, were incinerated in a holocaust ignited, and then allowed to burn out of control, by a satchel of C4 dropped on the roof of the […]
EARLY WORD: Sole Power
Aids Fund Philly and Kevin O’Brien Studios presents a discussion with Art & Sole author Jane Gershon Weitzman about her book showcasing approximately 150 of the more than 1,000 fantasy shoes she discovered and commissioned for display at the Stuart Weitzman retail shop on Madison Avenue. Guests will receive a signed copy of “Art & Sole” and a gift bag which includes a Kevin O’Brien Scarf and other goodies. Plus, a raffle ticket for fabulous items from: Merritt Young Gallery, Tim McFarlane, YOMI t.g.m.b., In Liquid, Mural Arts Program, Trinity Framing, Nickolette Phillips Design & Tayloring, A Girl Named […]
EXCERPT: The Man Who Knew Too Much
GLENN GREENWALD: The relatively lighter mood we had managed to keep up over the prior few days now turned to palpable anxiety: we were less than 24 hours away from revealing Snowden’s identity, which we knew would change everything, for him most of all. The three of us had lived through a short but exceptionally intense and gratifying experience. One of us, Snowden, was soon to be removed from the group, likely to go to prison for a long time – a fact that had depressingly lurked in the air from the outset, at least for me. Only Snowden […]
EARLY WORD: Phantasm Of The Opera
Maverick American force of nature, John Zorn visits Philadelphia for a rare solo organ performance at the non-sectarian Girard College Chapel, an acoustical and architectural environment of commanding grandeur. One of the largest pipe organs in Philadelphia, the Chapel’s organ is the last authoritative Ernest M. Skinner (of Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company) statement and stands as one of the most powerful pipe organs ever built in the United States. Often crediting Lon Chaney in the silent classic Phantom of the Opera as a primal influence, Zorn’s first instrument was the organ. It wasn’t until 2011, however, during Thirdbird’s BLINDSPOT Festival […]
MINDY JONES & MOBY: The Big Dream
Directed by David Lynch. RELATED: This story starts in Moby’s apartment on a sunny pre-9/11 morning in New York city. Moby and his neighbor David Bowie are sitting on the couch strumming “Heroes” on acoustic guitars. They are prepping for a Tibet House benefit concert at Carnegie Hall organized by Phillip Glass. This is too good to be true, Moby thinks to himself. What if it isn’t? What if I’ve lost my mind and I’m institutionalized and just hallucinating this? Does it even matter? Just go with it. As hallucinations go, you could do a lot worse. Then Moby thinks […]
FREDLANDIA: The Nicest Punk In Show Biz
Fredlandia Everyone knows (and loves) funnyman Fred Armisen from Portlandia and SNL but few know how he got there. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, kid. How do you get to Portlandia? Trenchmouth. MAGNET goes to 30 Rock to walk a mile in the wing tips of The Nicest Man In Show Business and untangle his punk rock roots By Jonathan Valania “Do you have Questlove’s cellphone number?” Beyonce’s drummer asks nobody in particular. She twists around from her perch in the front seat of a black Escalade that NBC has sent to ferry us from a […]
Jack White Explains How Vinyl Records Get Made
THE VERGE: Jack White is hellbent on pushing the envelope on vinyl. For the release of his latest album Lazaretto, White already broke a world record last month by recording and pressing the LP’s title track in less than four hours. Now, the artist and his indie label Third Man Records have produced what he calls an Ultra LP, a record with multiple playback features baked in especially for analog music aficionados. Given all the work to make the record stand out, it’s clear that White and Third Man went above and beyond to show their appreciation for the format. The 11-track […]
Principal Plus Four Teachers Arrested In Standardized Test Cheating Scandal Probe
PHAWKER: So let me get this straight, 138 educators were being investigated for forging false positive results when grading their students standardized tests. But just ONE principal and FOUR teachers, from a low-income neighborhood elementary school no less, are charged with ‘fostering a culture of cheating? Seems more unrealistic than the test results they are in trouble for fudging. INQUIRER: The principal and four teachers at Cayuga Elementary School in Philadelphia’s Hunting Park section have been charged with fostering a culture of cheating on standardized state tests there over a 5-year period, Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced Thursday. MORE […]
Win Tix To See Thievery Corporation @ The Tower
We have a pair of tix to see D.C. space age bachelor party music swingers/reggae-dub/acid jazz/bossanova/special beat delivery servicemen Thievery Corporation at the Tower on Saturday May 10th. To qualify to win the tickets all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (see right, below the masthead). Trust us, this is something you want to do. In addition to breaking news alerts and Phawker updates, you also get advanced warning about groovy concert ticket giveaways, advance movie screenings and other free swag opportunities like this one! After signing up, send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM […]
BEING THERE: Against Me! @ The Troc
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Ever since he was young Against Me! singer Tom Gabel had a secret: he suffered from gender dysphoria, meaning that while he was outwardly male, he self-identified as female (for more on this see here.) Gabel suffered through 15 years of living a dual life in Against Me!. By day he was a standard-bearer of punk cred in a macho and insular hardcore scene, performing upwards of 200 shows a year. By night, after the show back at the hotel room, lonely but free at last, he would cross dress. In 2012 Gabel made the courageous […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR When the World Series of Poker began in 1970, it was a pretty modest affair — seven veterans of the game competing for just the honor, no prize money. Today, more than 6,000 players pay the $10,000 entrance fee for the No-Limit Texas Hold ’em Tournament. ESPN televises the final table, and last year the winner took home more than $8 million in prize money. Novelist Colson Whitehead was a decent amateur card player when Grantland made him an offer: They’d pay his $10,000 entrance fee if he’d spend a few weeks training, then enter the World […]