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OBIT: Bruce Langfeld, Rocker, Writer, Sad Man
BY GAYLE RONAN SIMS INQUIRER STAFF Bruce Langfeld, 45, singer-songwriter and guitarist for roots-rock band Bag of Hammers and others in the 1990s, was found dead on Sunday in his Center City apartment. Jeff Moran, spokesman for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, said the cause of death is pending lab tests. “He was last seen alive 10 days prior to his body being found, but the report does not indicate he was dead that long,” Moran said. “No one has told me that foul play is suspected.” “My brother struggled with depression most of his life,” said his sister, Nancy […]
SPANK THE MONKEY: Philly Judge Strikes Down Fed Porn Law
Writing that he “may not turn a blind eye to the law in order to attempt to satisfy my urge to protect this nation’s youth by upholding a flawed statute,” a federal judge in Philadelphia this morning struck down another of Congress’ attempts to restrict pornography on the Internet.U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. ruled that the 1998 Children’s Online Protection Act was ineffective, overly broad and violated First Amendment’s free-speech clause because it was not the “least restrictive” way Congress could have tackled the thorny problem of children’s access to pornography on a personal computer. The law, known […]
DVD REVIEW: IDIOCRACY
(2006, directed by Mike Judge, 84 min., U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Can Big Business take a joke? Maybe not, as Mike Judge appears to have found out with his latest film Idiocracy, which quietly slipped out on DVD a few weeks ago. Although wildly uneven, Idiocracy is one of the most eccentric Hollywood comedies ever produced, and further solidifies the creator of “Beavis and Butthead” and “King of the Hill” as one of the truly subversive voices in mass entertainment. So why did 20th Century Fox, which surely would like to keep a talent as successful as Judge […]
MEDIA: INQUIRER KILLS SHISTER COLUMN
LONGTIME Inqwaster television columnist Gail Shister (pictured, below right) has been stripped of her assignment, in a move that’s been met with surprise and disapproval by many at that paper and at the Daily News. On Tuesday, Shister was told she would no longer be writing her widely read column, and would instead be asked to do more pop-culture television features, she confirmed yesterday. “We’re all part of a new world here, and I never thought I’d be immune, but I’m not ready to uncork the champagne yet,” Shister said of her disappointment. “There are better ways to utilize my […]
THAT CAT’S SOMETHING I CAN’T EXPLAIN: Syd Barrett Love Letter Sketches Surface 40 Years Later
[Via THE FIRST POST] As everyone should know by now, the late Roger “Syd” Barrett started Pink Floyd in 1965 and left the group in 1968, eventually finding a reclusive peace in his native Cambridge. But while he will be remembered as the founder of the British psychedelic sound, who foundered on the rocks of mental illness, he would probably have preferred to be known as a visual artist. From entering polytechnic at 16, to leaving Camberwell Art School after his foundation course, he painted big, abstract oils – a vocation he resumed in his forties, when he became a […]
HIZZONER ’07: Mayor Duh?
BY JILL PORTER “I’M NOT A dumb candidate. I just play one on the witness stand.” At least you’d hope that’s what Bob Brady would say after his disturbingly unimpressive court appearance yesterday Tuesday. The congressman was evasive and combative, and seemed clueless about simple financial concepts. He proclaimed more than once that he didn’t understand questions he was being asked. Brady testified in a hearing to decide whether he should be ousted from the mayor’s race, based on allegations that he omitted required information from the financial-disclosure forms he filed with his nominating petitions. And you have to wonder […]
THE EARLY WORD: Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord
KESWICK THEATRE FRI., APR. 6 @ 8 PM & SAT., APR. 7 @ both 5 & 9 PM During these shows, patrons are respectfully requested to bring non-perishable, non-glass food items to benefit Philabundance, www.philabundance.org, an organization dedicated to providing hunger relief in the Delaware Valley. A collection bin will be in the lobby throughout the week and all are welcome to contribute during regular box office hours.
Hoping Against Hope, Rescue Teams Work To Unearth George Washington’s Slaves; ‘Unlikely Anyone Still Alive,’ Says Expert; ‘You Gotta Believe,’ Says Mayor*
BY JOSEPH SLOBODZIAN OF THE INQUIRER Calling it the first step in “digging for the truth,” Mayor Street and National Park Service officials this morning broke ground for the memorial to the first presidential residence – and to the slaves who lived there serving the first president.”We’re digging for the truth about the start of this country and the great tragedy of slavery, which affects everything we do in this country today,” Street told a crowd of about 150 at the corner of Sixth and Market Streets on Independence Mall. Street then climbed into the cab of a green track […]
Philly Pretzels Sent To War On Terror, Army Hoping To Render Taliban Sluggish And Couch-Bound With Warm Doughy Goodness
Some US troops in Afghanistan are getting a taste of Philly courtesy of a South Philadelphia soft pretzel company. A picture of 13 US Air Force members in Afghanistan, armed with automatic weapons and soft pretzels, is now on display in the front entrance of Federal Pretzel Baking Company. The general manager of the store, Richard Bezila, says he sent a box of pretzels earlier this month to Master Sgt. Larry Polettie of Delaware County (front row, left), who is serving in Operation Enduring Freedom: “With it being a fresh product I had no idea what would happen.” So did […]
3,300 Years Old, Boy King Still Puts Asses In Seats
That King Tut can sure draw a crowd. In just over six weeks the Franklin Institute’s Tutankhamun exhibit has attracted 616,000 visitors. That’s already 13,000 more than the fascinating Body Worlds exhibit, which ran there from October 2005 to April 2006 and which was previously the most well-attended traveling exhibit in the city’s history. [Via Dan Gross]
BUSH TO CONGRESS: Blow Me
WASHINGTON – Flexing their political muscle against the White House, Democrats in the House and Senate are insisting that President Bush’s top aides describe their roles in the firings of eight federal prosecutors on the record and under oath. A House committee was to vote Wednesday to authorize subpoenas for political director Karl Rove and other administration officials despite Bush’s declaration a day earlier that Democrats must accept his offer to allow the officials to talk privately to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, but not under oath and not on the record. Would he fight Democrats in court to […]