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 […]
EARLY WORD: Hang On To Your Lego
American Swedish History Museum Battle of the Bands Building Challenge Featuring: The Spinto Band, The Sw!ms, National Eye, The Brakes Thursday, October 16 from 4-8 pm 1900 Pattison Avenue in South Philadelphia (near the Sports Complex) See your favorite bands design and build sculptures made from LEGO ® bricks at the ASHM. Bands scheduled to get in on the building action include The Spinto Band, The Sw!ms, National Eye, and The Brakes. Museum visitors can watch band members build from 4-7 pm, then vote for a “People’s Choice Award” for their favorite creation and see prizes given out around 7:30 […]
WORD: The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One
JOHN K. GALBRAITH: Today, the signature of modern American capitalism is neither benign competition, nor class struggle, nor an inclusive middle-class utopia. Instead, predation has become the dominant feature—a system wherein the rich have come to feast on decaying systems built for the middle class. The predatory class is not the whole of the wealthy; it may be opposed by many others of similar wealth. But it is the defining feature, the leading force. And its agents are in full control of the government under which we live. Our rulers deliver favors to their clients. These range from Native American […]
PALIN Vs. COURIC: Deer Meets Headlights
Lord help us all. RELATED: Why Won’t John McCain Release His Medical Records?
WAR ON ERROR: Phanatic Mistaken For Evil Doer
ASSOCIATED PRESS: PHILADELPHIA — After a bomb scare at the Philadelphia Phillies’ ballpark, authorities pointed the finger at a fuzzy green suspect: The Phillie Phanatic. Hours before the Phillies-Atlanta Braves’ game on Wednesday night, a film crew shot a commercial of the mascot shooting heavily wrapped hot dogs from a launcher. But someone inadvertently left three of the duct taped hot dogs outside the ballpark, sparking security fears. Stadium employees were evacuated and the bomb squad was called in. Only after the packages were blown up did authorities realize they’d just exploded some sausages. MORE
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
MIDAS TOUCH: Santogold, TLA, Tuesday Night [Photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY JONATHAN VALANIA There is an old, cruel joke that goes: Those that can’t do, teach. The local version, factoring in Philadelphia’s Don’t-Call-Us-The-Sixth-Borough inferiority complex, goes something like: Those who can’t make it in New York settle for Philly. Well-worn from overuse, this canard tends to rub locals the wrong way, especially the city’s creative class, so it was an awkward moment when Philly native Santogold, AKA Santi White, daughter of John Street bundler Ron White, made a point of announcing to the near-capacity crowd at the TLA Tuesday night […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME: Michelle Obama, Mayor Nutter & Jill Biden, Francis Meyers Recreation Center, West Philadelphia, 6:32 PM [photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY JEFF DEENEY You might have noticed that the Obama campaign doesn’t spend much face time in the ‘hood, at least not for cameras. The conspicuous absence of the black community on Obama’s campaign trail comes as no surprise as the candidate has been forced to walk a tightrope with respect to the race issue, trying to not seem “too black” for undecided white voters. But Mayor Nutter made it clear while introducing Michelle Obama by […]
PANIC: McCain ‘Suspends’ Campaign, Desperate To Stem Free Fall In The Polls, Getting Crushed By Econ.
POLITICO: McCain suspends his campaign, and asks to postpone Friday’s debate, to address the financial crisis. Both candidates have been marginal players; McCain, though, seems to have the potential to make himself a major one, and his move is a mark, most of all, that he doesn’t like the way this campaign is going. But in terms of the timing of this move: The only thing that’s changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling. MORE WASHINGTON POST: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll gives Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama a nine-point lead over Republican nominee John McCain. […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BLISSED OUT: My Bloody Valentine, Roseland Ballroom, NYC, Monday Night BY JOHN “Phawker Tech Guy” REFANO They had arena sized amp rigs – I counted at least 12 speaker cabinets and 8 amplifiers for the 4 piece band. Brutal. The light show was intense. My eyes were literally tearing up. They had some great background visuals, but the strobes were what was killer. It added to the performance though. Kevin and Belinda don’t have much for stage presence, as could be expected. The rhythm section, Debbie Googe and Colm O Ciosoig, put a little more physicality into it. I don’t […]
MEDIA: Alycia Lane Sues Larry Mendte, KYW
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A fired Philadelphia newscaster has filed a lawsuit accusing her former co-anchor of invading her privacy and leaking personal information to the media. Alycia Lane’s lawsuit was filed Tuesday. Her former co-anchor, Larry Mendte, has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing Lane’s e-mail and is awaiting sentencing. He admitted reading thousands of Lane’s e-mails from 2006 to 2008. Lane’s lawsuit also names KYW-TV, the station that employed the two. She accuses the station of defaming her before and after she was fired after being arrested in December following a scuffle with New York police. Tuesday’s lawsuit expands on one […]
EARLY WORD: The Buena Obama Social Club
Michael T. Regan is, as you may well know, the City Paper’s staff photographer. He is also a friend of Phawker. Astute readers will recall his excellent Tom Waits photo essay (with wry commentary from local filmmaker Jon Michals) which ran here earlier this summer. On Sunday, he will be unveiling photos from a recent trip to the sultry, forbidden (for Americanos, anyway) land of Cuba. Michael tells us there will be food, music and it’s all for a good cause — kinda like Cuba, without the failed Marxism and odious totalitarianism: A portion of the proceeds will benefit Urban […]
G-MEN: FBI Probes Wall Street Collapse
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Federal investigators have opened preliminary probes into the financial troubles of four high-profile companies that are at the center of the current financial turmoil that the Bush administration says requires an unprecedented proposed taxpayer-funded bailout to clean up.The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s preliminary inquiries are focusing on whether fraud helped cause some of the troubles at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and American International Group Inc., according to senior law-enforcement officials. Lehman and AIG declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie and has both companies […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Federal Bailout Of The Truth
NOBAMA: New Jersey Just Got Dumber TRENTON, N.J. – Residents in one New Jersey town are disturbed after receiving fliers over the weekend that question Barack Obama’s candidacy on racial grounds. Roxbury resident Elizabeth Corsetto says a flier was left in her driveway asking, “Do You Want A Black President?” and showing a doctored photo of Obama with a long beard and turban. Roxbury Police Chief Mark Noll says the fliers were left on various streets in the northwestern New Jersey township by a white supremacist group called the League of American Patriots. Noll says the incident is being investigated […]