[Illustration by ALEX FINE] FRESH AIR Author and activist Antonia Juhasz argues that the oil industry’s grip on policy and government has never been stronger. What’s more, Juhasz says, the business and politics of oil’s production pose such grave implications on so many fronts — the environment, human rights, the economy, worker safety, public health — that the current state of petroleum-industry affairs is fundamentally antithetical to democracy. Juhasz, a fellow at the petro-critic organization Oil Change International and at the Institute for Policy Studies, documents her concerns — and lays out proposed remedies — in her new book, The […]
HEAR YE: Bob Dylan Tell Tale Signs
DAN DELUCA: Bob Dylan’s new album isn’t exactly a new Bob Dylan album. Instead, Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased, 1989-2006 (Columbia ***½), is one of those alternative-history compilations, like the Beatles’ Anthology series or Bruce Springsteen’s Tracks, that considers a major artist’s career from an off-center angle, using unreleased cuts and little-heard gems to take a fresh look at a musical titan who, in this case, has been hiding in plain sight for decades. Tell Tale (a.k.a. “The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8”) is the most prominent of a clutch of new releases hitting stores today. It covers the startlingly […]
PALIN LAND: The Gloves And The Hoods Are Off
WASHINGTON POST: CLEARWATER, Fla. — “Okay, so Florida, you know that you’re going to have to hang onto your hats,” Sarah Palin told a rally of a few thousand here this morning, “because from now until Election Day it may get kind of rough.” You betcha. And the person dishing out the roughest stuff at the moment is Sarah Palin. “I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day,” she said. “Booooo!” replied the crowd. “I knew you guys would react that way, okay,” she continued. “So I was reading the New York Times and I […]
SMELLS LIKE JOURNALISM: How The Justice System Killed A Woman For The Crime Of Schizophrenia
[Photo by LINDA DG] INQUIRER: Sandy Morgan didn’t have a receipt when she walked out of the Boothwyn Wal-Mart with more than $500 worth of dolls, toys and girls’ clothes. In her mind, she didn’t need one. She owned Wal-Mart, she told a manager who tried to stop her. Sandy knew things others didn’t. She knew she owned many stores and she knew the television transmitted demons. She took care to protect her family: She threatened the demons with knives and a broken mop handle; she threw away food she was sure was poisoned. It was a strain, fighting things […]
ROAD RAGE: Dad Shot In Head As Daughter Watches
DAILY NEWS: Thomas Timko, 40, remains in critical condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after being shot in the head by an enraged motorist shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday. Timko, of Lebanon, N.J., had just passed over the Walt Whitman Bridge and was traveling westbound on Interstate 76 into Philadelphia with his 8-year-old daughter when he pulled his Toyota Highlander over to the shoulder for an unknown reason, said Lt. Frank Vanore, city police spokesman. Soon after, he merged back into traffic and engaged in an argument with another motorist near the Passyunk Avenue exit, Vanore said. […]
Top 5 Reasons Death Cab Was Better Than Whatever Post-Emo Casino Floorshow You Caught Last Night
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE: Death Cab For Cutie, House Of Blues, Atlantic City, Last Night 1. Death Cab for Cutie invited the ever-charming St Vincent to open the show, and she succeeded in charming the very skinny pants off the entire skinny pants collective that was the crowd. Smart pickin’s by the Seattle quartet! 2. Death Cab for Cutie’s latest record, Narrow Stairs, translates exceptionally to the stage–something 2005’s painfully boring “Plans” cannot say. The upbeat new single “No Sunshine” and “Long Division,” along with the full ten-minute version of “I Will Possess Your Heart,” were standouts of […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Untucked At Tuxedo Junction
BACK IN THE DAY: Philadelphia Orchestra, March 2nd, 1916 BY DAVE ALLEN I though that jeans and an untucked dress shirt might fly at a new-music event: the kickoff concert for Orchestra 2001’s 20th-anniversary season, held at the Perelman Theater on Friday. Nope. Suits and ties ruled the night, even by the few age-group peers in the crowd (I later found out they were students of one of the evening’s performers). But no matter: even if formality held sway in the audience, the evening’s program, including two world premieres, was bound to shake things up. The concert opened with a […]
GRIM: Inky/DN Owners Miss Second Debt Payment
STANDARD & POOR’S: New York, Oct. 2 (LCD) – Philadelphia Media Holdings earlier this week missed a Sept. 30 deadline to make interest and principal payments due on its senior loans, sources said. The company had been operating under a loan forbearance agreement that ran through Sept. 10. That forbearance was not extended.The newspaper concern has not been able to access its revolving credit due to a covenant breach. The RC was reduced to $35 million as part of the waiver agreement. Philadelphia Media in early June did not make an interest payment on a mezzanine loan after senior lenders […]
BYKO: Who Let The Dawgs Out?
BYKO: Curious: Who took the revealing vacation pictures obtained by Cole and lovingly posted on the station’s Web site? All 14 pictures show [City Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. and legislative aide Latrice Bryant], in casual clothes — down to a skimpy sundress and a bikini for her — during an August 2005 trip to Jamaica. Did they work on legislative affairs day and night? Or just affairs? Several City Council observers were stunned by the pictures. “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him smiling,” said one. And, boy, was he smiling. Hell, even I’m smiling. In six shots, Bryant […]
KILLADELPHIA: One More Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
INQUIRER: Police this morning identified a 53-year-old man who was shot to death in Brewerytown last night. Steven Tucker, of the 2300 block of Seybert Street in North Philadelphia, was found shortly before 8:30 p.m. in the driver’s seat of a 1994 gold Mercury Grand Marquis suffering gunshot wounds to his chest. He was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital and was pronounced dead at 8:53 p.m. No arrests were reported. MORE
GAYDAR: Let’s Get Baked!
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR It happened on the fairest of Thursdays that I had the pleasure of lunching with two of Brooklyn’s hottest new specialty bakery owners, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Lately, A-list celebrities have been helping to disseminate news of their revamped line of sugary, and not so sugary treats. Lewis and Poliafito’s Sweet and Salty Cake was recently featured on Martha Stewart; their brownies were featured on the Today show and selected as one of Oprah’s favorite things. And now, for the first time, the duo share some of their treasured secrets in BAKED: […]
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: This Land Is Your Land
Let’s take it back. Click HERE to register to vote. Monday is the deadline to register in Pennsylvania. UPDATE: The Obama campaign registered some 21,000 new voters on Saturday. Democrats now hold a million-plus new voter advantage over Republicans in Pennsylvania. ROLLING STONE: On Saturday, Bruce Springsteen kicked off three days of Vote For Change concerts on behalf of Barack Obama with a powerful acoustic set that drew estimated 50,000 to the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. Cutting a distinctly Woody Guthriesque profile in rolled up flannel, denim and a halo of tousled hair, The Boss stood atop a 30-foot […]
THE AUDACITY OF DOPE: People Who Live In Glass Igloos Should Not Throw Snowballs With Rocks Inside
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] DAILY SHOCKER: The first shots of McCain’s new strategy were fired today by none other than his “top surrogate” Sarah Palin, in accusing Obama of “palling around with a terrorist,” Bill Ayers. Ayers is not new to the scene, and Palin was referencing an article in today’s NY Times discussing Obama’s relationship, or lack thereof, to the man. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: At a tumultuous meeting of anti-Vietnam War militants at the Chicago Coliseum in 1969, Bill Ayers helped found the radical Weathermen, launching a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and United States […]