NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! BY JONATHAN VALANIA HE WAS DEAD ONCE. FOR TWO BREATHLESS MINUTES in 1996, Mark Linkous, the auteur behind Sparklehorse, lay dead on the floor of a London hotel room while paramedics rushed to revive him. Fourteen hours earlier he’d stepped off a plane at Heathrow Airport to begin a European tour supporting Radiohead. After swallowing an ill-advised cocktail of Valium, liquor and prescription antidepressants, Linkous collapsed on his hotel-room floor, where he would lie on his back for the next 14 hours in a kneeling position that cut off the circulation to his legs. When […]
RIP: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Dead At 89
NEW YORK TIMES: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose stubborn, lonely and combative literary struggles gained the force of prophecy as he revealed the heavy afflictions of Soviet Communism in some of the most powerful works of the 20th century, died late on Sunday at the age of 89 in Moscow. His son Yermolai said the cause was a heart ailment. Mr. Solzhenitsyn outlived by nearly 17 years the Soviet state and system he had battled through years of imprisonment, ostracism and exile. Mr. Solzhenitsyn had been an obscure, middle-aged, unpublished high school science teacher in a provincial Russian town when he burst […]
All This Happened While You Were Sleeping
SHINY HINEY: Peekaboo Revue, Transit, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] NSFW: Ron Jeremy + Peek-A-Boo pix after the jump…
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
HEAD BANGER’S BALL: Man Man, Download Fest, Susquehanna Center, Yesterday BY DAVE ALLEN The Download Festival came to the Susquehanna Bank Center on Saturday and boy are my ears tired. Louis XIV, a punkish quartet with the elemental stab of AC/DC, played to a sparse, disinterested crowd in the mid-afternoon. Lead singer Jason Hill brought some swagger and reverse windmills on guitar, and the set took on an arena-friendly sheen when guitarist Brian Karscig moved over to keyboard on “Finding Out True Love is Blind.” The setup for Philly homeboys Man Man promised something different: keyboard and drum kit facing […]
GAYDAR: There’s A Sex Dwarf Party In My Pants
BY AARON STELLA Sex Dwarf, DJ Robert Drake’s monthly gay bash, just turned five, and to honor such a joyous occasion, the Dumpsta Players — Phawker’s favorite wild wig-headed trash-glitz drag troup — put on a lip-sync dance tribute to New Wave Saturday night at Fluid. In the words of Miss Lisa Lisa, host of the longest-running drag show in the city at Bob and Barbara’s, “they bring the glamour with the clamor.” Drake channels his passion of New Wave 80’s dance music through the festivities of Sex Dwarf, as fans of New Wave — and of Drake — flocked […]
Disgruntled Worker Kills 2 At Bristol Book Warehouse
MSNBC: Diamond told authorities he drove around for an hour before arriving at the warehouse and shooting Angel Guadalupe, whom he did not know, as the temporary worker was leaving the site, Henry said. Guadalupe, 46, fell out of his vehicle and collapsed on the ground, at which point Diamond stood over him and kept firing, he told police. He then spotted forklift operator Reginald Woodson, 52, running toward the building and started firing, Henry said. Woodson, a 20-year employee and father of four, was shot in the back, she said. Diamond told authorities he had been harassed by co-workers […]
RAWK TALK: Q&A With The Whigs
BY MICHAEL DONOVAN The Whigs — currently the pride of Athens, GA — play the Download Festival tomorrow in Camden in support of their rocktastic second album, Mission Control, released earlier in the year. We managed to catch up with Parker Gisper, just back from the Whigs whirlwind tour of Japan, and currently stuck in traffic somewhere on 95… PHAWKER: First and foremost: Download’s tomorrow — how’s it feel to be going on stage with Iggy Pop and The Killers? PARKER: It’s pretty exciting! We’re huge Iggy Pop fans, and I’ve never seen him live, so hopefully we’ll get done […]
HOT DOC: Indie Mall Bomb Scare Affidavit
AFFIDAVIT This affidavit is in support of a criminal complaint charging LOUIS C. BOUMPANI and KATHY BOUMPANI as follows: In Count One, LOUIS BOUMPANI is charged with transporting a firearm in interstate commerce, while under indictment for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year. LOUIS BOUMPANI and KATHY are each charged in Counts Two and Three with possession of a dangerous weapon in a federal court facility, and a federal facility, respectively, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 930(a), (e)(1). This affidavit is based upon this affiant’s investigation as well as information supplied […]
JUST IN: Magnetic Fields To Play Merriam Theater
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS SATURDAY OCTOBER 25 @ THE MERRIAM THEATER – 250 S. Broad St, Philadelphia Tix: $36 and $32 / Drs: 7pm / All Ages On Sale: Fri. 8/8 MAGNETIC FIELDS: California Girls [Dir. by JAMES DOOLITTLE]
CONTEST: Win A Dream Date With The Hedgehog!
WIKIPEDIA: Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953 in Bayside, Queens[1]), best known as Ron Jeremy, is an American pornographic actor. Nicknamed “The Hedgehog“,[2] he was ranked by AVN Magazine at #1 in their “100 Top Porn Stars of All Time” list.[6] Jeremy has also appeared in non-pornographic films with studios such as Troma Entertainment.[3] He is well known for his 9.75 inch long penis[7] and gained some notoriety for being capable of autofellatio (which he first demonstrated on-screen in Inside Seka[8]) but he has since stated in a 2003 interview that all he can do these days is kiss […]
WORTH REPEATING: Lust For Life
LUST FOR LIFE: Iggy & The Stooges, Electric Factory, Last Night [FLICKR] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Thanks to the many miracles of our modern affluent society, today’s super-rockers are kicking out the jams longer and harder than ever before. (Think about it: For the better part of the ’70s, the smart money would have been on Keith Richards’ dad snorting his son’s ashes, not vice versa.) As Iggy Pop (aka, James Osterberg), who turns 60 next week, proved Wednesday night at the Electric Factory, men well-acquainted with the business end of a sigmoidoscope are still capable of rocking […]
WEAPONIZED: Top Government Scientist Commits Suicide To Beat FBI Rap For 2001 Anthrax Attacks
LOS ANGELES TIMES: A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government’s elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation. Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect […]