BY MIKE WOLVERTON The Flyers sucked last year. Credit them for consistency, though, as they sucked early on, sucked in the middle and sucked straight on through to the end. Hey, it saved all of us the pain of watching them take a dirtnap in the playoffs. The fact is, the Flyers have been a flawed team ever since The Strike Season, and ever since then they’ve been too big and slow to deal with the escalating metabolism of the “New Faster, More Agile NHL.” Mercifully, the makeover has already begun. Ever since Messier brought the Stanley Cup to NYC, the […]
GAMBLOR: The Donald Trumped?
BY SUZETTE PARMLEY INQUIRER STAFF WRITER ATLANTIC CITY — As his image flashed on video screens in his casino’s nightclub recently, Donald J. Trump surveyed the mostly young crowd. Many were too young to remember his history of financial difficulties here, or to care. They came to celebrate with The Donald on his 61st birthday at his flagship casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, and he relished the attention.With his gambling halls still struggling and his casino company reviewing bids from possible buyers, this could be the end of the show for Trump in Atlantic City. People familiar with negotiations to […]
KILLADELPHIA: 2 More Dead Since U Went To Bed
Two homicides overnight brought the city’s total to 197.The first deadly shooting happened Sunday night … in Overbrook near 63rd Street and Columbia Avenue in West Philadelphia. Numerous gunshots rang out around 8pm. Two young men, ages 18 and 19, suffered multiple gunshot wounds. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene of a head wound. The second victim was in extremely critical condition on life support at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, battling for his life. Police had no suspects in connection with the double shooting as of 8am Monday. … The second fatal shooting occurred around […]
MIA: Boyz
From the new album Kala set to be released August 21. Mysteriously no longer available, replaced by this ‘making of’ video. Not sure why or what this means…
VEEP: Absolute Power Or Absolute Incompetence?
“One thing I’ve been puzzling over is the lack of commentary or reporting on the fact that even with these unprecedented secret extra-legal powers he has seized for himself and the White House, Cheney has been so singularly unsuccessful on any of the national security fronts he in effect commands. His failures in Iraq, his failures to finish bin Laden and al Qaeda in a serious way in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the exponential growth of terrorism and al Qaeda in Iraq. These are facts. There are urgent, deeply compelling legal/philosophical/Constitutional issues raised by Cheney’s actions and those of his enablers […]
RANTS: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetarians
BY S. FITZGERALD LODWICK On Friday evening, Jello Biafra strafed the Trocadero with a five-hour (!) rant-cum-lecture on societal ills, political shams, global cons, and what we citizens can do to right these wrongs. The session was a blend of spoken-word poems, such as the classic “Die For Oil, Sucker,” general rants, and charming anecdotes from the days in the life of former lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. In the first half of the spoken word session, wherein Biafra recited the laundry list government scandal and corporate shame — from “The War Against Terror,” (reduced to the shorthand acronym […]
FUNNY PAPERS: The Graduate
[courtesy of MARRIED TO THE SEA]
GITMO: Prosecutor Says Tribunals Were Show Trials
ASSOCIATED PRESS — An Army officer who played a key role in the “enemy combatant” hearings at Guantanamo Bay says tribunal members relied on vague and incomplete intelligence while being pressured to rule against detainees, often without any specific evidence. His affidavit, submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and released Friday, is the first criticism by a member of the military panels that determine whether detainees will continue to be held. Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran of military intelligence who is an Army reserve officer and a California lawyer, said military prosecutors were provided with only “generic” material […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
PLEASE DON’T FEED: Panda Bear, First Unitarian Church, Last Night BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER The great advantage of our shiny white iPod-abetted Information Age, where the far-flung chaos of recorded music has been organized and arranged into the orderly feng sui of alphabetized and easily-accessed mp3s, is that innovative music-makers like Panda Bear can connect the dots and create unexpected and stunning constellations of sound that cross the once un-breach-able barriers or time, space and genre. I can think of no better explanation, barring something being in the water, for the way that Panda Bear’s Person Pitch combines […]
MEDIA: Great Moments In Advertising
We see no need to explain why.
NPR FOR THE DEF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
RADIO TIMES Why understanding a little economics can go a long way in understanding the business world. Ever wonder why Apple charges $150 more for a black version of their laptop? Turns out, when they came out with the black iPod, demand went through the roof, so later they released a black laptop at a premium cost. This story is included in the new book The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas. We’ll talk with the author ROBERT H. FRANK, a professor of economics and management at Cornell University. Frank is also the co-author with Ben Bernanke, […]
THE WHITE STRIPES: Love Is The Truth
A commercial for Coca-Cola that only aired in Australia and just once in the UK.
‘Internet Radio Day Of Silence’ Will Not Be Televised
WXPN will join the Internet Radio Day of Silence this coming Tuesday, June 26, to protest the raising of royalty rates for online radio streams scheduled to take effect in mid-July. The new rates will also be retroactive for 17 months and payment will become due to the SoundExchange collection organization under the terms of a recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision. The new rates could cost WXPN more than $100,000 annually; several times the annual funds raised by business support on the Internet streams. For its part, WXPN will silence the station’s four streams — XPN, Y Rock On […]