BY MICHAEL ‘Fich’ FICHMAN Baseball is America’s perpetually redeeming characteristic. I care too much — I’m a harsh critic, a cynic. Sometimes I’ll hate something just on principle. I think too much, can’t relax. I’m always thinking about which 10 things I need to be doing, instead of doing them. But in the spring, I’m mellowed out and ready for baseball. This is a music column. However, I used to be a sportswriter and hey, a guy can like both pickles and ice cream, sometimes at the same time. I’m gonna throw together some kosher dill pistachio mint for yinz […]
FORECAST: BLACK HOLE SUN
We are seriously thinking about NEVER taking this down. Ever.
NPR FOR THE GODLESS: Golden Calf Radio
FRESH AIR The Irrationality Of Belief In God. Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme into the lexicon, helping found memetics. In 1982, he made a widely cited contribution to the science of evolution with the theory, presented in his book The Extended Phenotype, that phenotypic effects are not limited to […]
MEDIA: Evolve Or DIE
For the first time in years, every sector of television news lost audience in 2006, and newspapers, despite garnering a larger audience than ever for their content via online platforms, faced increasingly downbeat assessments of their business models, a new report from the D.C.-based Project for Excellence in Journalism finds. According to the fourth-annual edition of State of the News Media, shifting economic fundamentals are spurring mainstream news organizations to try to build audience around “franchise” areas of coverage, specialties, and even crusades. Cable’s”argument culture” is giving way to an “answer culture,” a growing pattern that has news outlets, programs, […]
GUNCRAZY: Robbery Attempt Leaves Teen Paralyzed
BY DAVE GAMBACORTA OF THE DAILY NEWS Police say it was during this routine stroll that the lives of Leon [Harris, 17], an honor student at Upper Darby High School, and Michael and her brothers intersected. At 9:47 p.m., Michael’s brothers Breon Jones, 15, and Ronald Johnson, 17, jumped out of the SUV and approached Leon. Police say they asked him for cash – he had none – and told him to get into an alley. Frightened for his life, Leon turned and ran. Jones shot him once in the back, police said. Leon fell; the bullet had hit his […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
THE MAN COMES AROUND: Norman Mailer, The Free Library, Last Night [Photo by Eva Liao]
HIZZONER ’07: Judge Says Rules Are For Other People, Says THE MACHINE, Er, Bob Brady Stays On Ballot
BY WENDY Luzerne county Common Pleas judge Patrick Toole found Brady should have disclosed pension contributions the carpenters union makes on his behalf on his candidate?s statement of financial interests. But Toole said Brady acted ?in a reasonable and responsible manner? in filing out the form and should be allowed to amend his filing. ?Whenever possible, election contests should be decided by the hand of the voter in the election booth and not by the pen of the judge in a judicial chamber,? the judge found. He concluded that Brady was not required to disclose his city pension, because he […]
The Case Of The Vanished Owner, The Silent V.P. & The Newspaper That Got Scooped On Its Own Sale, Possibly
As you may well have heard by now, the following item appeared in Michael Klein’s Inqlings column in this Sunday’s Inquirer: The Philadelphia Weekly is on the market, according to publishing sources around town. I hear that the asking price for the freebie formerly known as the Welcomat is north of $25 million and that Review Publishing LP has signed confidentiality statements with prospects. It’s not clear whether other Review papers — the Atlantic City Weekly and the South Philly Review and the Southwest Philadelphia Review — are involved. Neither publisher Anthony A. Clifton [NOT pictured], who’s owned the paper […]
TODAY I SAW…
BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by the local media, which […]
THE EARLY WORD: PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HAND OF THE MAN WHO STILLED THE WATER
[This is a picture of Joe Boyd, with hat, at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when Dylan went electric.] This is Joe Boyd’s Wikipedia entry: Record producer Joe Boyd was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He first became involved in music promoting blues artists while a student at Harvard University, and in 1964 made his first visit to Britain, returning the following year to establish an overseas office of Elektra Records. He was eventually to settle in London.He became best-known for his work with British folk and folk rock artists, including the Incredible String Band, Martin Carthy, Nick Drake, John Martyn, […]