MYSPACE: Who Is Scott Rocks? [Dir. by SCOTT COLAN]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
I’M NOT THERE: Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band, Troc, Last Night [Photo by ANDY WARHOL]
COPS: Religious Cult Starved Toddler To Death
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia this spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say “amen” after meals, police said. Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged with first-degree murder in the boy’s death, and Baltimore police said that three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged with first-degree murder. Police and Ramkissoon’s family say the group is a cult. Members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing, […]
BEIJING: Why Michael Phelps Sleeps With The Fishes
BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH, OLYMPIC CORRESPONDENT: Right, Phawkerites. Late to the party, but hopefully still fashionably so, I come bringing a crash course in the US phenom that is Michael Phelps and Olympic swimming. I’ll be updating you every day until the conclusion of his quest to win eight gold medals at this Olympics. As I’m writing this, Phelps has just attempted his 200-meter freestyle race and the won the semifinals in the 200 meter butterfly. For those of you who didn’t spend their formative years in the pool, here’s a basic rundown of Olympic swimming and Phelps’ quest this […]
CONQUERED: Georgia In The Belly Of The Russian Bear
ASSOCIATED PRESS: ZUGDIDI, Georgia — Russian tanks roared deep into Georgia on Monday, launching a new western front in the conflict, and Russian planes staged air raids that sent people screaming and fleeing for cover in some towns. Russian forces for the first time moved well outside the two restive, pro-Russian provinces claimed by Georgia that lie at the heart of the dispute. An Associated Press reporter saw Russian troops in control of government buildings in this town just miles from the frontier and Russian troops were reported in nearby Senaki. Georgia’s president said his country had been sliced in […]
TRUCKSTOP: The Best Meals On Four Wheels
BY AARON STELLA My fellow hungry Americans, welcome to another edition of Truck Stop, where each week we’ll visit street vendors in different parts of Philadelphia to assist the common wayfarer in their travels and grub scavenging. Hey, don’t give me that look — if you ain’t too proud to get your news off the Internet, then you probably ain’t too proud to eat sushi off a truck. This week, we’ll be traversing the feeding grounds of the Community College of Philadelphia. From Jamaican to Chinese to sushi to the bacon-egg-n’-cheeses, an international smorgasbord layeth before you, and is cooked […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Award-winning soul singer Isaac Hayes, who rose to the top of the charts in the 1970’s on the soul-record label Stax, died August 10. He was 65. He released his first solo album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, in 1968. His next album, Hot Buttered Soul, went gold in the 1970s, and is credited with helping pave the way for the rise of disco; his 1972 soundtrack to the movie Shaft went platinum, and the single “Theme From Shaft” won both an Oscar and a Grammy Award. Hayes also worked as an actor, with roles in movies as diverse as […]
Senator’s IT Dude Rolls Over For Feds, Fumo Fucked
INQUIRER: Admitting that he tried to foil a federal investigation by erasing the memories of state Senate computers on orders of Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, technician Leonard P. Luchko this morning pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice and agreed to testify against the powerful Philadelphia Democrat. Luchko, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and 28 of obstruction of justice in a deal in which federal prosecutors promised to recommend that he spend no more than two years in prison. The guilty plea by Luchko, whose job was to manage computer services for Fumo and more than […]
HEAR YE: Conor Oberst Conor Oberst
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Conor Oberst plays the Troc Tonite! BY JONATHAN VALANIA Like Dylan in his prime, Conor Oberst writes long, elliptical narratives — weaving word-clotted threads of angst and regret, anger and shame, ecstasy and joy, through a camel’s eye of symbolism, creating word circuses that fascinate even when they flirt with meaninglessness. As with Dylan’s songs, when you boil them all down, they’re essentially about one thing: the wonder of consciousness. Baby I’m amazed, therefore I am.Both Bob Dylan and Oberst come from the Midwest — Dylan from Duluth, Minn., and Oberst from Omaha, Neb. (his […]
DAILY DOS: Colbert vs. Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld
NEW YORK TIMES: Last week was hardly the first time that we have found ourselves scratching our heads in anguished confusion about what, exactly, President Bush is trying to achieve by trashing the Constitution at Guantánamo Bay. But the sentencing of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, to five and a half years in prison is a good moment to stop and reflect. Mr. Hamdan is hardly a high value target. The comedian Stephen Colbert captured the absurdity of the proceedings perfectly on Thursday night when he called the trial “the most historic session of traffic court ever.” It […]
Local Abortion Protester Deported From China
INQUIRER: Deported from China on the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, Michael McMonagle, 55, of Lansdale, [NOT pictured, left] believes he was able to draw attention last week to China’s problems of religious freedom and forced abortions. McMonagle, a veteran Catholic antiabortion activist, and two other protesters tried to pray and unfurl a “Jesus Christ is King” banner in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday and Thursday. But when the protesters tried to hold a news conference with foreign reporters in the square, Chinese police sent them packing. McMonagle returned to Philadelphia on Friday. “Just unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square […]
KILLADELPHIA: Cops Shoot Suicidal Teen In The Head
INQUIRER: Police wounded an apparently suicidal South Jersey teenager who they said broke into his grandparents’ South Philadelphia rowhouse early this morning. The teen, identified as Patrick McMurtrie, 18, of Turnersville, allegedly stabbed himself several times before lunging at police with a knife. An officer fired twice, striking him in the head. McMurtrie’s condition has been upgraded from critical to stable at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. About 2 a.m., police received reports of a white male breaking into a second-floor window in a narrow alley behind the 200 block of Gerritt Street. When officers arrived, they spotted someone in the […]
EUREKA: How To Make Yourself Disappear Completely
BBC: Scientists in the US say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people invisible. Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them “disappear.” The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre. The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people. The findings, by scientists led by Xiang Zhang, were published in the journals Nature and Science. The new system […]