BY ADAM BONANNI Jim Beasley looks damn proud on the cover of his book, standing with John Wayne-like swagger atop his desk in his richly-appointed, oak-lined office suite. He has reason to be. Beasley and former Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano [pictured, below left] have gathered their favorite cases of Beasley’s long, impressive career as a crusading plaintiff’s attorney between the covers of Courtroom Cowboy. Beasley comes across as a hard-nosed, steadfast litigator who exudes charisma and never did believe in the phrase “backing down.” If you don’t back down in court from Don King, Ira Einhorn, Osama Bin Laden, or […]
Top Five Things You Should Know About Thievery Corporation At The Electric Factory Last Night
1. As much as Thievery Corporation come across as a DJ duo on CD, they don’t really live it out live. In addition to incorporating organic instruments and lead singers that take the stage as performers, they tend to just play songs straight. They didn’t leave any room for improvisation or even a short showcase resembling a DJ set. Kind of earns them the label “studio DJs.” 2. When a live band gets mixed with DJs and they’re playing groove-centric songs to the T, things are rarely unexpected, or exciting. Save a couple percussion solos, someone with sitar skills, hearing […]
RETURNING FIRE: An Open Letter To Joey Sweeney
BETTER DAYS: The editor with an old, dear friend, circa 2006. [EDITOR’S NOTE: The following open letter is in response to this.] Jojo, I find it ironic in the extreme that despite all your frantic efforts to paint me as a stick-in-the-mud rockist and yourself as the ever-evolving purveyor of What Comes Next, I see Phawker as a DJ — mixing, mashing and adjusting the visual BPM of all the media drifting in the ether, constantly re-writing the recombinant DNA of the news — and you see Philebrity as a band, where all the songs start with “I” and end […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #11 The week that was in just five minutes, told by a stoned daisy with the obligatory voice of God. [cough, cough] Would’ve had this up sooner, but these suckers take five people 20 hours to make. Oy, is my Google tired!
MODERN DRUMMER: Q&A w/ Wilco’s Glenn Kotche
[Photo by MICHAEL WILSON] BY DAVE ALLEN Like many of rock’s greatest drummers, Glenn Kotche does more than keep a beat. His playing with Wilco is earthy and grounded, but still with an experimental aura about it (see “I am Trying to Break Your Heart” from YHF for a prime example). In his other ventures as a soloist and member of the wild-and-woolly groups On Fillmore and Loose Fur, he shows a different side, frequently making listeners question what four limbs are capable of doing. One of his newest partnerships, with the New York-based composers collective Bang on a Can, […]
UNPLUGGED: Philadelphia Will Do(ne)
PHILADELPHIA WILL DO: And that’ll do it for the PW version of this blog. Thanks to the people who gave me this (relatively ridiculous) chance and to everyone who checked in over the past three-plus years…I hope I succeeded in my original goal: Lowering the productivity of the American office worker, at least a little. Yeah, I think that’s what my original goal was. MORE WHYY: The other blog that closed this week was Ed Goppelt’s Hallwatch.org. It was a local government watchdog website that went offline last night at 11:59 p.m. He gave us some warning when he posted this […]
CHANGE: The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
“Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end” — President Barack Obama, in remarks to troops at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, this morning. NPR: President Obama outlined on Friday his plan to withdraw American combat forces from Iraq by August 2010, promising to dramatically scale back one of the nation’s longest and costliest military efforts. However, as many as 50,000 troops will remain until the end of 2011 to support “the Iraqi government and its security forces as they take the absolute lead in securing their country,” he […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Dying Industry Of The Truth
NEWSPAPER DEATH WATCH: Rocky Mountain News Ceases To Exist DENVER — The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s oldest newspaper and a Denver fixture since 1859, will publish its last edition Friday. Owner E.W. Scripps Co. said Thursday the newspaper lost $16 million last year and the company was unable to find a buyer. “Today the Rocky Mountain News, long the leading voice in Denver, becomes a victim of changing times in our industry and huge economic challenges,” Scripps CEO Rich Boehne said. The News is the latest _ and largest _ newspaper to fail amid a recession that has been especially […]
THE COEN BROTHERS: The Myth Of Clean Coal
This dose of reality brought to you by the Coen brothers.
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR The Associated Press has threatened to sue the artist who created the iconic “Hope” poster of Barack Obama for copyright infringement, but Shepard Fairey says his work is protected under the principle of “Fair Use,” which exempts artists and others from some copyright restrictions, under certain circumstances. Fairey based his poster on an April 2006 photo of Obama taken by AP photographer Mannie Garcia. Last month, the AP contacted Fairey threatening him with a lawsuit for using the image without permission, seeking payment for using it, and asking to share in the profits from it. Pre-empting the suit, […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Dawn Of The Darkness Twins’ Edition
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
FOREVER YOUNG: Can You Hear Me Now?
[Click image to activate Internet]