NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO: RAY’S VAST BASEMENT BY DAN BUSKIRK I am willing to wager double nickels on the dime that you have never even heard of what is quite simply the Best Album of 2007: Ray’s Vast Basement‘s Starvation Under The Orange Trees. Well, now you have. Starvation is the San Francisco band’s third release and it’s their most fully-realized disc to date. Their name stems from their highly theatrical past: The band’s early shows were mixtures of staged scenes and musical performance, conjuring the fictionalized history of a tiny corner of the rocky coast of Northern California […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Viggo Mortensen stars in Eastern Promises, a new David Cronenberg thriller set in London, in the dangerous underworld of sex trafficking. It was written by Steve Knight, who wrote the screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things. Cronenberg and Mortensen’s last collaboration was the acclaimed 2005 film A History of Violence. Fresh Air’s music critic Milo Miles considers the work of the art-punk band Sonic Youth; the group’s 1988 album Daydream Nation has just been reissued in a deluxe double-CD edition. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Preview of the upcoming Iraq debate in the U.S. Congress. Did this week’s Iraq progress […]
FRINGE DWELLER: Recommended
Sweetie Pie Azuka Theatre Theater, 80 minutes Azuka Theatre presents Sweetie Pie, the latest work by local actress/playwright Madi Distefano. A love story, a tragedy, a rock & roll fable, Sweetie Pie is a modern-day myth that examines life and death in a world where people are dying to be famous. Click Here for Showtimes * Several Witty Observations (a la Gombrowicz) Dada von Bzdulow Theatre Dance, 65 minutes Based on the writings of Polish playwright and novelist Witold Gombrowicz, Several Witty Observations made its U.S. debut at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City in November 2006. […]
GAYBO: Special Dark Shadows Geek-Out
BY TOMMY ZANE GAYDAR EDITOR OK, I admit it. I’m a bit of a Sci-Fi geek. I’m not sure whether it was news of Johnny Depp’s rumored involvement in a Tim Burton full-length feature film or what, but I decided to descend upon the 40th anniversary convention of ’60s cult classic gothic TV soap opera “Dark Shadows.” Jonathan Frid, who played campy sympathetic vampire Barnabas Collins, scared a generation of pre-teens and housewives out of their wits every afternoon at 3:30 on ABC for 5 years over the course of 1225 episodes. And alas what was once groundbreaking daytime television […]
EARLY WORD: The Belt, The Boot, The Check
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VIET NOW: Local Boy Killed In Iraq
INQUIRER: A 20-year-old Marine from Atco who dreamed of becoming a police officer after a stint in the military was killed by an improvised explosive device this week in Anbar province, Iraq, the Department of Defense said yesterday. Lance Cpl. Jon T. Hicks Jr., a 2005 graduate of Hammonton High School, died Monday with Cpl. Carlos Gilorozco, 23, of San Jose, Calif., during combat, the military said. MORE * RELATED: The Op-Ed by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq questioning the war drew international attention just three weeks ago. Now two of the seven are dead. Sgt. Omar Mora […]
KILLADELPHIA: Mass Transit Meets Mass Murder
INQUIRER: When gunfire erupted in Olney about 1 a.m., Malcolm McLaughlin kept driving his SEPTA bus even though a bullet had struck him in the back, a SEPTA official said. A bullet also hit one of the bus’ nine passengers in the hand.McLaughlin was driving the Route K bus from East Falls to Frankford, when two men started shooting at each other near Front and Champlost Streets. “He was able to drive that bus about five blocks after being injured and keep the rest of the passangers safe,” said SEPTA spokesman Felipe Suarez. “So it’s a pretty heroic story if […]
STAR WARS: Kanye Leaves Fiddy’s Dick In The Dirt
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – Kanye West looks set to win the closely watched duel with rival rapper 50 Cent for the No. 1 slot on next week’s U.S. pop album chart, according to preliminary sales data issued Wednesday. West’s “Graduation” sold an estimated 437,000 copies during its first day of release Tuesday, ahead of 310,000 for 50 Cent’s “Curtis” and 107,000 for country star Kenny Chesney’s “Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates,” according to a new “Building Chart” devised by tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. [via REUTERS]
HAMMER OF THE GODS: Zep To Get Led Out, Again
LONDON — One of the most eagerly awaited concerts of the decade will celebrate the life and work of Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records and much missed mentor to some of the greatest names in music. The incomparable Led Zeppelin will headline the tribute to the man who founded Atlantic Records in 1947. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones will be joined by Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer John Bonham.
FRINGE DWELLER: Recommended
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged] Marathon Theater Collective Theater, 90 minutes Have you ever wanted to read all of Shakespeare’s work but you just couldn’t find the time? Well, don’t worry because we’ve done it for you! Watch us cram the Bard into ninety minutes of insanity, chaos, and hilarity! Marathon Theater Collective presents The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)! Click Here for Showtimes * The Jersey Devil Jersey Devil Scheme Theater, 68 minutes From its sinister afterbirth-covered beginnings, to its wicked child-devouring days, this nightmare follows the Jersey Devil through Camero country. A fast-paced, three-man freak […]
FEIST: 1,2,3,4
DELUCA: Of course, it’s Feist’s “low-fi”-ness, her “analog mind,” that makes her so appealing to ad men — not to mention music-programming coffee-shop baristas — who are looking for a chic, soulfully human sound.
NPR For The Deaf: We Hear It When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Thomas Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, discusses this week’s long-awaited progress report from Gen. David Petraeus [pictured] and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the top two American officials in Iraq. Ricks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of the best-selling book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. It’s just come out in paperback. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Reaction to Iraq update to Congress. We’ll talk with Max Boot, a senior fellow in national-security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and is author of War Made New: Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern […]
MAILBAG: ‘WHYY Isn’t A Democracy’
Dear Phawker, I didn’t hear anything about not contacting the WHYY Board directly. There’s been so much sent out about this that it probably hasn’t made the rounds yet. I guess it would look dictatorial if it were written down somewhere for record than when just uttered in a meeting. It sounds more like a suggestion then and can be easily denied. But this board is made up of the CEO’s contemporaries and cohorts. They have more important things to deal with, they are unpaid volunteers, who’ve raised or given money to the station (I’m sure they want to get […]