BY JAMIE DAVIS J. Tillman, or Josh as he prefers to be called, is most widely known as the drummer for popular indie-folk rockers the Fleet Foxes. However, since 2005, Tillman has been steadily releasing a steady stream of solo albums that traffic in the same kind of woodsy, peaceful easy feeling that has made the Foxes so beloved by the skinny jeans crowd. He has released six albums in four years, and is currently touring his most recent release, Year in the Kingdom — yet another gorgeously somber acoustic affair, with heartbreaking lyrics and immensely sad instrumentation and arrangements. […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: Scrapple TV News
All the news that shits. With your host, A.P. Ticker.
LETTER FROM TOKYO: 65 Reasons Why I Love Living Here, Why Japan is Better Than America, And Why Tokyo Is One Of The Greatest Cities In The World
BY EVA LIAO TOKYO CORRESPONDENT A few weeks ago I wrote a post disclosing all the things I dislike about Tokyo and peeps be acting like I was ready to jump off the deep end. My incredibly considerate, but mislead roommate actually gave me a hug after reading the post because he thought I was depressed. Three other people had the same reaction. People! Beefs with Tokyo does not equate to unhappiness. Not in my book, anyway. Rather, I saw my “beef” as a coming to terms with reality, an acceptance of sorts that allowed me to simply appreciate things […]
WHY WE LOVE ABE: The $60,000 Letter Lincoln Sent To Kid’s School Teacher Who Accused Kid Of Lying About Having Met The Commander & Chief
BBC: A letter written by former US President Abraham Lincoln to a schoolboy nearly 150 years ago is to go on sale for $60,000 (£36,000) in Philadelphia. George Patten was with his journalist father when both met the commander-in-chief. The American Civil War leader wrote after the eight-year-old was mocked by his disbelieving classmates. The handwritten signed note confirms the pair met and was sent two weeks after the president’s inauguration. The letter reads: “Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln.” Lincoln put pen to […]
REVIEW: Julian Casablancas Phrazes For The Young
BY JAMIE DAVIS The cover of Phrazes for the Young shows singer The Strokes’s singer Julian Casablancas sitting in the middle of a room, surrounded by various objects designed to show the combination of antiques with modern technology. There’s an old arch-top guitar with a guitar hero neck, a phonograph with a digital console etc… You get the point. He’s taken the ’80s, and seeing what would happen if all that synthy nonsense was going on in the ’60s. His band, The Strokes was widely credited with kicking off the New Rock Revolution of the early 2000s, which was […]
BIG BROTHERLY LOVE: Philly Admin. Of Indymedia Bucks Spooky Fed Fishing Expedition, Lives To Tell
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY On January 30th, 2009 Kristina Clair — a Linux administrator living in Philadelphia, who just happens to share server space with Indymedia.us, a left-leaning online news aggregator — received a subpoena from a federal prosecutor in Indiana demanding the web site’s visitor logs in conjunction with an undisclosed grand jury investigation. Specifically, the visitor log for June 25th, 2008. The subpoena did not just ask for specific names or IP addresses; instead it demanded the names and IP addresses of all 10,000-plus people who visited the site on that day, where they came […]
SMELL YA LATER: Dad Vail Regatta Sails To Jersey
DAILY NEWS: The Dad Vail Regatta — held in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill since 1953 — is officially moving the 2010 race to North Jersey. Regatta spokesman Harry Stinger confirmed last night that the event would be moving about 90 miles northeast to Rumson, N.J. “We are thrilled that the Dad Vail Regatta has decided to relocate to Rumson,” said John Ekdahl, mayor of the Monmouth County town. “We think the event will have a tremendous economic impact not only for Rumson but for all of the surrounding Two River towns,” he said, referring to the area along the Navesink […]
HOT DOC: City To Invest 500K In ‘Creative Economy’
PHILADELPHIA, November 17, 2009 — The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, in partnership with the Department of Commerce announces a new grant program to support job creation in Philadelphia’s creative sector. Grants will be available to nonprofit and for profit creative businesses for facility projects linked to job creation such as renovated office space, mixed-use facilities, artist workspace and creative industry incubators. The total funding allocated for the program is $500,000, funded from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. “We are thrilled about this program – the first […]
INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT: Timothy Geithner Held The Door While Wall Street Robbed The Store
[Artwork by STEVE BRODNER] HUFFINGTON POST: A brutal report issued Monday by a government watchdog holds Timothy Geithner — then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now the nation’s Treasury Secretary — responsible for overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs. The authoritative new narrative describes how, while bailing out insurance giant AIG last fall, a team led by Geithner failed nearly every step of the way. Instead of bargaining with AIG’s numerous counterparties to resolve its billions of dollars in souring […]
NOW HEAR THIS: Beck & Wilco Do Skip Spence’s Oar
ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: Spence, Skip: Like Syd Barrett, Spence was a crazy diamond who reached for the secret too soon. After wandering in and out of grace in the late ’60s, he spent the next 30 years howling at the moon in a trailer park oblivion of welfare and disease, until his death in the spring of 1999 at age 53. The original drummer for Jefferson Airplane, Spence went on to sing, compose and play guitar with Moby Grape, a powerhouse San Francisco psych-pop group that seemed destined for a commercial glory that would never come. In 1968, while in […]
Q&A: Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby
EDITOR’S NOTE: This sexy time Q&A with sexologist Susana Mayer, host of the Erotic Literary Salon, originally ran in May of 2008 on the occasion of the salon’s inception.The next one is Tuesday November 17th, details after the jump. PHAWKER: So, just to bring the reader up to speed: Your name is Susana Mayer, you are 60-years-young, you live here in Philadelphia, you are the creator and host of The Erotic Literary Salon and you are a sexologist. What exactly is a sexologist? SUSANA MAYER: It is the study of how we give and receive pleasure. PHAWKER: And you were […]
EXPERTS AGREE: The Chamber Of Commerce Is Undeniably A Pimple On The Ass Of Progress
HUFFINGTON POST: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is soliciting funds to pay an economist $50,000 to study health care reform legislation and issue (what the lobby presumes) will be a negative review, providing ammunition to shoot down health care reform in the Senate, according to The Washington Post. The Newspaper obtained an e-mail from James P. Gelfand, the senior manager of health policy at the Chamber of Commerce detailing how the plan would work: “The economist will then circulate a sign-on letter to hundreds of other economists saying that the bill will kill jobs and hurt the economy. We will […]
IGGLES: The Brain Is A Terrible Thing To Taste
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Is the Eagles’ season over? Of course not. At San Diego was always going to be a stern test. But I can’t say I’m encouraged. The Charger running game gashed the Eagles defense, and the secondary is besieged with injuries. It’s not that hard to make the playoffs in the NFC (the Eagles at 5-4 are still tied for the 5th playoff spot). The remaining schedule is not that tough (is anyone afraid of Denver anymore?). But if the Eagles lose next week in Chicago to the dismal Bears, then I’ll be ready to turn […]