DEVELOPING… PREVIOUSLY: Head Of Walter Reed Relieved Of Duty PREVIOUSLY: Walter Reed Mess Hall Now Serving Up Big Steaming Bowls of SHUT THE FUCK UP PREVIOUSLY: Iraq Amputee Disinvited From Bush Photo-Op For Wearing Shorts In Summer Time
Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
Back when we were starting a band, the guitar player wanted to call it One Percent Off. Walking through the produce aisle of the grocery store one day, he said, he saw a sticker on some arugula that said 1% Off and it struck him as a eureka moment. “The whole goddamn world is one percent off!” he said. Unfortunately we went with The Floating Doo Doo Balls instead, which in part explains why you never heard of us. But the good news is that boy finally got the help he so obviously needed. We bring this up because it’s […]
THE EARLY WORD: Meet The Phawker
For reasons that continue to elude us, the folks hosting this event asked us to be one of the so-called celebrity judges. And for reasons that, again, continue to elude us, we said yes.
NPR FOR THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Melle Mel was the original vocalist on The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. This month Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five will be the first hip-hop act inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Many rappers regard The Message as an inspiration, as well as a political message. Melle Mel also rapped on the updated version, The New Message. DJ and hip-hop forefather Grand Master Flash broke out more than 20 years ago with hits that included “The Message” and “White Lines (Don’t Do it).” Part of his success came out of […]
GAYBO: Horny Weather At The Prince
BY TOMMY ZANE “Leslie, Lena. Lena, Leslie.” Dropped by the Prince Music Theatre to catch a sold-out performance of Stormy Weather: Imagining Lena Horne, starring the incomparable Miss Leslie Uggams and a strong supporting cast. The era of Sharleen Cooper Cohen’s Stormy Weather was an ugly period in American race relations, i.e. separate water fountains for blacks, etc. Lena Horne is the first black woman to sign a major contract with a Hollywood studio (MGM) and dared to forge a career as a Leading Lady in Hollywood at a time when black performers were resigned to play mammies and maids, […]
Philly Civil War Museum Moving — Very Slowly
You may never have heard of the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia, but not because it hasn’t been around for a while. It was founded in 1888, by members of a veterans group called the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and it’s the oldest Civil War museum in the nation. It has resided since 1922 in a brick row house on Pine Street. For most of that time it was simply the Civil War Library and Museum; in 2003 it added “Underground Railroad” to its name. Philadelphia, with a large free black […]
AD: ERNIE KOVACS For Dutch Masters
Seems that back in the ’50s, smoking actually saved lives. Those were the days…
LIVE FROM THE MILTON MAN MARCH
When you’re laughing, the whole world laughs with you.
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 […]
NPR FOR THE DEF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Martha Raddatz has been to Iraq 12 times since the American invasion. She has a new book about a battle that was a turning point in the war, an April 2004 fight in Baghdad’s Sadr City. Raddatz says it was then that American troops realized they were facing an insurgency. The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family is about the soldiers who fought that battle, and their families. One of the soldiers in the battle was Casey Sheehan, the son of antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. ALSO, Pulitzer Prize winning […]
BREAKING: Head Of Walter Reed Relieved Of Duty
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army said Thursday that the two-star general in charge of Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been relieved of command following disclosures about inadequate treatment of wounded soldiers. Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman [NOT pictured], who was commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command as well as Walter Reed hospital, was relieved of command by Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey. In a brief announcement, the Army said service leaders had “lost trust and confidence” in Weightman’s leadership abilities “to address needed solutions for soldier outpatient care” at Walter Reed. The Army and the Defense […]