U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT: The petition, started on November 14 and flagged this morning on Politico, has gotten 623 signatures as of this writing, 24,377 short of the 25,000 threshold required for an official White House response. “By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense,” the succinct petition states. There is actually a surprisingly rich Internet debate about what building a Death Star would cost. Some students at […]

Landings at San Diego Int Airport Nov 23, 2012 from Cy Kuckenbaker on Vimeo. All landings at San Diego Int Airport on Black Friday Nov 23, 2012 between 1030am and 300pm in 26 seconds.

Photo by HUGGIE! BY JOE PAONE IGGLES CORRESPONDENT This week on “As the Bird Turns,” things get even more bewildering. But that’s why you keep tuning in, right? Right?? The defense reached yet another new low, barely offering token resistance to a Dallas offense that hasn’t exactly set the world on fire this season. Our old nemesis Jason Witten once again had his way with us, but so did all of the other Cowboys skill players. Tony Romo threw only five incompletions—none in the second half (!)—and averaged 11.2 yards per attempt and 13.8 yards per completion. Let that sink […]

  Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have confirmed details of an upcoming North American tour in support of “Push the Sky Away”, the fifteenth studio album by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, to be released in February 19, 2013 by Bad Seed Ltd. on CD, vinyl, digital download and as a deluxe edition. Sharon Van Etten will support for the duration of the tour, which commences March 14 in Dallas and currently runs through April 3 in Denver. Tickets for the Keswick Theatre performance on Tuesday, March 19 go on sale this Thursday, December 6 at 12PM. Check […]

  NEW YORK TIMES: I found online that you recently gave a 10- or 12-minute extemporaneous speech to a minor-league baseball hall of fame. Even in a moment like that, are you playing a role or being your authentic self? BILL MURRAY: Well, I think there’s an authentic self. Thank you for reminding me. [The audience laughs.] No, it’s true. You go on automatic sometimes, where you’re just reacting, as opposed to being your authentic self. Up here I can talk like a turkey and be funny, but it’s not necessarily my authentic self. Unless I’m watching myself. I spoke […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK At 9:15 pm Friday night, a prim, diminutive woman-of-a-certain-age glided onto the Keswick Theatre stage wearing a sparkly dress that would befit a princess, waving a mic like a magic wand, and was greeted with a loud ovation from a crowd waiting to see the most banned woman in country music history – Loretta Lynn. In the ’60s, Lynn pulled on the biggest pair of cowboy boots she could find and kicked open the doors of the country music boy’s club. She wasn’t banned for bad behavior but for singing candidly about infidelity, birth control, motherhood […]

  DAILY NEWS: Zed’s Dead is an electronic band that took its name from the Quentin Tarantino thriller, “Pulp Fiction” – a film that includes a grisly overdose scene – and at the band’s performance last night at the Electric Factory, fact mirrored fiction when at least four people overdosed at the show, causing the gig to be cancelled, according to the fire department and social media.  Initial reports from the Associated Press said police responded to the Electric Factory at 7th Street near Callowhill around 8 p.m. and found nine concertgoers passed from possible overdoses. Several bloggers reported that the overdosers ranged in age from 15 to […]

  Phawker’s Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Valania will be moderating a Thinkfest panel discussion on the Philadelphia music scene tomorrow at 9:15 in the Grand Ballroom of the Rittenhouse Hotel. THE NEW SOUND OF PHILADELPHIA IVAN BARIAS This Grammy-nominated producer of duo Carvin & Ivan, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC), cultural ambassador, and the president of Philly’s Recording Academy chapter has brought a new wave of energy to Philadelphia. JOSH DUBIN One of Philly’s greatest proponents of the arts, Dubin—Special Projects Coordinator for the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy—weaves art into the fabric of the […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK Once upon a decade or so, Neil Young revives his Jurassic quartet Crazy Horse and stomps on the terra. The Horse gallops across the land like a modern-day four horsemen, performs in front of ridiculously huge, American flag-bedecked, mock amplifiers (as seen on the cover of Weld) and takes no prisoners. Clad in obligatory denim and flannel, Neil led his troops into battle last night at the Wells Fargo Center. Not sure exactly who they were fighting, but safe to say Crazy Horse won. He swayed and howled and did violence to  his guitar, firing off […]

  BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR PHILLY POST Like pretty much everybody not named Tom Corbett, I like Ed Rendell. A lot. How could you not? He’s big, hairy, loud, part grizzly, part cheesesteak, publicly questions the testicular fortitude of entire nations, brought the city back from the brink of death, etc. Plus, he’s a jedi when it comes to the dark arts of retail politics: shaking babies, kissing hands, slapping backs while guffawing on cue, shaking down donors, settling scores, holding grudges, and, most importantly, making you believe in your heart of hearts that he is on your side, even […]

NEW YORK TIMES: “When he used to be asked how he’d like to be remembered, he said, ‘I don’t care, I don’t care if I’m remembered,’ ” Ms. Harrison said in an interview, affectionately imitating George’s clenched Liverpool accent. “And I really think he meant that. Not in a sarcastic way, but it’s like: Why do you have to be remembered? What’s the big deal?” These many sides of Harrison — the artist and the archivist; the mystic and the mystery — are all on display in a new three-and-a-half-hour documentary, “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” directed by Martin […]