[Photos by KEVIN LUDWIG] BY BERNARD DOWNEY Admiring the autumnal foliage heading south on I-95, the white noise rush of traffic whooshing in my ears, along with the occasional Guns N Roses song on the radio, I press the pedal to the metal of my ’84 Corolla and race towards the annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin in Sussex County, Delaware. I didn’t really know what to expect. For the last 22 years, on the first weekend after Halloween, beery revelers have gathered in this picturesque community to catapult pumpkins with homemade cannons. Do not let the term ‘homemade’ dissuade you […]
PAY TO PLAY: Volunteers Say ‘Show Me The Money’
PHILLY CLOUT: PhillyClout correspondent Dave Davies reports in on a growing wave of concern in the city’s Democratic party about “street money,” the funds distributed to pay for Election Day workers. When Democratic ward leaders fire up their election day operations tomorrow, they’ll do it without “street money” from the Obama campaign, and many are ticked about it. City Democratic chairman U.S. Rep. Bob Brady hasn’t returned out calls on it, but we heard from several ward leaders that Obama stiffed Bob and the local party, choosing to rely on his own massive volunteer army. Ward leaders told us they […]
WORTH REPEATING: Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You, But What You Can Do For Your Country
“Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?” — John F. Kennedy, Inaurgural […]
EQUAL TIME: Letter From A Red State Mom
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a letter sent to Phawker Gaydar Editor Aaron Stella by his mother, explaining her decision to vote for McCain despite her son’s attempts to convince her otherwise. Both agreed to Phawker publishing it along with a rebuttal. Astute readers will recall Sylvia Stella’s proud mom remarks and constructive criticisms in the COMMENTS section of Aaron’s Gaydar columns. She currently resides in Cullman, Alabama. Dear Aaron, I have read quite a bit on both Obama and McCain. I am voting for McCain. People fought and died for our right to vote. A vote is not a […]
NP: Lou Reed Berlin: Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse
Now playing on Phawker Radio! BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT Each new release by Lou Reed promises a mix of beauty, truth, horror, and mostly unintended humor. That’s a big part of why I’ve hung in with the guy through so many stilted, hectoring albums, such as the spiritually rock-bottom Rock ‘n Roll Heart, the squirm-inducing Mistrial, and the prematurely acclaimed New York, an album that within a few years of its release played like a grainy rebroadcast of an outdated CNN current events show. Reed never ceases growing up in public, and when we catch him at a relatively fruitful stage […]
KILLADELPHIA: 2 Dead Since U Went To Bed
INQUIRER: Two men were stabbed, one fatally, at a shopping center in the 600 block of Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia this morning. Police were called to the scene at 1:04 a.m. today. A 36-year-old male, who was stabbed in the stomach, was pronounced dead at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital at 1:28 a.m. The other victim, a 31-year-old male was stabbed in the back and is in stable condition at Jefferson. In a second Sunday homicide, a male in his 20s was fatally shot in the back early this morning in the 2100 block of North Reese Street in Kensington. […]
LINDA PERHACS: Parallelograms
BEN RATLIFF: In the late ’60s, the singer-songwriter Linda Perhacs had a clear, Karen Carpenter-ish voice, an interest not just in composition but also in sound, and a deep mystical streak. She made one album, “Parallelograms,” released in 1970, and has made none since. I first heard of her by reading an interview a few years ago with Mikael Akerfeldt, the leader of the Swedish metal band Opeth; he described “Parallelograms” as “absolutely amazing,” “psychedelic,” “almost evil-sounding,” “beautiful” and “kind of ghostlike.” Other musicians were talking about her, too, including Devendra Banhart and Kim Gordon, and in 2006 the band […]
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Darth Cheney, Dark Lord Of The Sith, Endorses The McCain/Palin Ticket
POLITICAL WIRE: “He’s earned our support and confidence, and the time is now to make him commander-in-chief. I’m delighted to support John McCain and I’m pleased that he’s chosen a running mate with executive talent, toughness and common sense, our next vice president in Sarah Palin.” MORE FOX NEWS: “John McCain had to vote 90% of the time with Bush and Cheney to get that endorsement. He had to serve as Washington’s biggest cheerleader for going to war in Iraq. He had to support economic policies that have gotten us into this mess, so Senator McCain worked hard to get […]
Folks, I Think We’re Gonna Win This Thing
REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Pew Research is out with its final pre-election poll. After allocating undecideds nearly evenly between the two candidates, Pew is projecting Obama will finish with 52% of the vote on Tuesday to 46% for John McCain. MORE GALLUP POLL: Gallup’s interviewing conducted Wednesday through Friday shows that 27% of registered voters who plan to vote have already voted. The trend in early voting has trended consistently upward on a day to day basis, moving from 7% of registered voters, who had already voted during the period of Oct. 17-19, to the current estimate of 27%. Another 8% […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
THE HEADMASTER RITUAL: Of Montreal, Electric Factory, Last Night [Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA]
JOHN MCCAIN: With Friends Like This
Who needs enemas? My Friends: The Musical [Humanitainment: Mr. Straight Talk himself stars in this musical inspired by his most favorite of phrases.]
RIP: Studs Terkel, Voice Of The Face In The Crowd
TEXAS OBSERVER: He is beloved “Uncle Studs” to many who grew up listening to WFMT, the Chicago radio station that broadcast his eclectic daily mix of music and interviews from 1952 to 1997. To anyone who has ever heard his raspy, empathetic voice, there is only one Studs: Studs Terkel, singer of the unsung American. Louis Terkel acquired his nickname in the 1930s while performing in Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. He was carrying around books by fellow Chicagoan James T. Farrell, and to differentiate Terkel from two others in the cast also named Louis, members of the Chicago Repertory […]
POLL: Majority Of Americans Afraid Of Sarah Palin
HALLOWEEN MASK: Print Out, Cut Out, Put On, Scare White People NEW YORK TIMES: A growing number of voters have concluded that Senator John McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, is not qualified to be vice president, weighing down the Republican ticket in the last days of the campaign, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major […]