DAILY NEWS: Omar Little visited City Hall last night — and didn’t drop a single body. “This is an honor,” said Michael Kenneth Williams, who plays stick-up boy Omar Little on the HBO hit “The Wire.” “We’re in City Hall, the mayor’s office.” Williams was one of more than a half-dozen “Wire” stars who appeared at a special screening of the series finale last night at City Hall. Mayor Nutter — a die-hard fan — dreamed up the event, which was sanctioned by HBO. “I’ve learned a great deal,” Nutter said of the show, which depicts life on the mean […]
MONICA: Johnny Doc Or Johnny Dangerously?
MONICA YANT KINNEY: Just last month, Local 98 — the powerful electricians union run with an iron hand by [State Senate candidate John “Johnny Doc”] Dougherty — sued the city’s Board of Ethics.The union’s political action committee spent $2.4 million last year — including $140,000 on “propaganda” for failed mayoral candidate Tom Knox — but is refusing to open its books as state law requires. The electricians think such snooping violates their constitutional rights. A year earlier, Dougherty — who flirted with a mayoral run — tried to get the city’s pesky new campaign-finance law tossed by the state Supreme Court. […]
BILLARY: Ed Rendell, Clinton Family Consigliere?
NEW YORK TIMES: Two of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s biggest supporters, who are also two of the Democratic Party’s most successful fund-raisers, have offered to help raise millions of dollars to stage new primaries in Florida and Michigan. Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey and Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania said Sunday that they would be willing to raise half the $30 million it would take to run new contests in those two states. Mr. Corzine and Mr. Rendell submitted their proposal to The Washington Post.The two governors argue that the Democratic National Committee, and not taxpayers in […]
TECHNORATI: Mapping The Geek Genome
NEW YORK TIMES: GARY GYGAX died last week and the universe did not collapse. This surprises me a little bit, because he built it. I’m not talking about the cosmological, Big Bang part. Everyone who reads blogs knows that a flying spaghetti monster made all that. But Mr. Gygax co-created the game Dungeons & Dragons, and on that foundation of role-playing and polyhedral dice he constructed the social and intellectual structure of our world. Dungeons & Dragons was a brilliant pastiche, mashing together tabletop war games, the Conan-the-Barbarian tales of Robert E. Howard and a magic trick from the fantasy […]
WYOMING: ‘Yes We Can’
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Senator Barack Obama continued his string of victories in caucus states on Saturday, beating Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Wyoming by a wide margin. The victory, while in a state with only 18 delegates, was welcome news for the Obama campaign as it sought to blunt Mrs. Clinton’s momentum coming off her victories in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday. Mrs. Clinton had campaigned here Friday, a day after her husband and daughter, signaling the stakes every contest holds in the fierce battle for the Democratic nomination. Party officials reported extremely high turnout at caucus sites across the […]
THE BEATLES: And In The End, The Love You Take…
…is equal to the love you make. RELATED: LONDON, March 8 (UPI) — British singer Paul McCartney has reached a $400 million agreement with iTunes for the distribution of the Beatles’ back catalog.
CINEMA: Frances McDormand Will Have Her Revenge
MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (2008, directed by Bharat Nalluri, 92 minutes, U.K.) COVER (2008, directed by Bill Duke, 98 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Trying to resurrect the spirit of Hollywood screwball comedies decades after their era died rarely bears fruit yet a new generation of filmmakers are continually foolhardy enough to try. The screenwriters of Finding Neverland and The Full Monty (David McGee & Simon Beaufoy respectively) have dug up Winifred Watson’s 1938 novel for some authentic source material yet as fizzy entertainment Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day lacks the snap and personality needed […]
PHAWKER EXCLUSIVE: Inside Bill Clinton’s Smokeless Backroom Meeting With Philly Democrat Party Bosses
JOE SUPER DELEGATE: Illustration by ALEX FINE BY AMY Z. QUINN Phawker is receiving reports from some of the city’s Democratic Ward Leaders, who gathered this morning to hear a pitch from former President Bill Clinton on behalf of his wife in anticipation of Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary. According to sources who just left the meeting, attended by Mayor Nutter and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, both of whom have publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton, the former president gave a passionate pitch for his wife’s candidacy for president, but ward leaders voted to defer making an official endorsement until they have a […]
MAGNETIC FIELDS: I Hate California Girls
Welcome to our second homegrown Phawker TV rock music video! This week we bring you this gloriously spiteful fuzz-pop confection from Magnetic Fields’ new barbwire-kissed Distortion — a great song in search of a video, if ever we heard one. And so we worked some of our Hollywood magic. Hat’s off to The Wook for the concept and execution, you can head over to Wookified to see the uncensored version. In closing, we would just like to say ‘some gave their all’ and nobody knows that better than Paris Hilton, bless her little waxed-hairless Chihuahua heart. WORTH REPEATING: As Dorothy […]
STAY TUNED: For Our Hilariously Un-Scientific Pennsyltucky Primary Keystoned Cell Phone Poll
A long time ago, in a Clinton campaign far, far away, James Carville famously declared that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Alabama in between. Aw, yeah: Pennsyltucky. We know thee well. It’s sort of like the Dukes Of Hazzard after smoking kielbasa. Like sweat socks with a Sunday suit. Like the Deer Hunter costumed by Wal-Mart. It’s the long dark Chicken Dance of the national soul. Lord help us all. Anyway, with the national press are already converging on the Keystone state to get some local color on their laptops, we feel an obligation to Sherpa them up to […]
TONITE: PHAWKER’S FIRST FRIDAY USER’S GUIDE
BY TIFFANY YOON LIVING ARTS CORRESPONDENT Every First Friday of the month, galleries around the city graciously open their doors and bottles of wine for both the local hipster Great Unwashed looking to get buzzed cheap and beret-clad tourista Philistines from suburbs in search of a little BMW boho-edge. Local merchants and busking musicians line the sidewalks, creating a de facto slalom of hand-made bric-a-brac and subterranean homesick blues. Yes, cynics may bitch, but First Friday is nothing short of an embarrassment of riches and we are not afraid to say so. Having long-since outgrown the gentrified confines of Old […]
INSTA-REVIEW: The Breeders Mountain Battles
NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! WHY? BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU! BY SARA SHERR The Breeders are my favorite band of the ’90s, back when cheerleading tomboys from Ohio roamed the Earth like alt-rock glamazons in flannel. Kim Deal’s terminal coolness is as undeniable as it is Midwestern friendly and gum-crackingly accessible. Everyone feels like they could pull it off. Together with her equally gum-crackingly cool sister Kelley and a revolving cast of band members that once included Throwing Muses/Belly’s Tanya Donnelly, their harmonies were tighter than your tightest black jeans, and their weird, wonderful guitar sounds made left-field hits that […]