NEW YORK TIMES: Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the embattled Connecticut Democrat who was facing an increasingly tough bid for a sixth term in the United States Senate, has decided not to seek re-election this year, Democrats familiar with his plans said Wednesday. Mr. Dodd, 65, a pivotal figure in the major debates now confronting Congress, is to announce his decision at a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Connecticut. The decision came hours after another Democratic senator, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, also announced that he would not seek re-election this November. The developments underscored the fragility of the Democrats’ […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR For the last three years, comedian John Oliver has been telling some serious jokes as “Senior British Correspondent” on The Daily Show With John Stewart. He won an Emmy for his work on the show in 2009, but his comedic career is not confined to the fake newsroom. Also last year, Oliver wrote and starred in his own stand-up special, John Oliver: Terrifying Times and appeared in the Mike Myer comedy flop The Love Guru. When he’s not on the screen, you can hear Oliver on the airwaves as the host of the TimesOnline weekly satirical news podcast […]
UPCOMING: Exit Interview With Dave Davies
Coming soon to a Phawker near you. Check local listings. PREVIOUSLY: Kinks Guitarist* Ditches DN For WHYY * The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset
FROM THE VAULT: Clothes Make The Man
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY There is, perhaps, no more efficient way to remind yourself that you are no longer 22 than to walk the aisles of Urban Outfitters. For the postcollegiate slackerati it is a mecca of precisely modulated urban hipster cool, a time-warp thrift store aesthetic filtered through a retrograde prism of detached irony and kitsch–proof positive of the fashion adage that everything, no matter how uncool, comes back into style eventually. This is readily apparent to anyone old enough to remember when most of these styles were cool for the first time. Rule of thumb: […]
THIS JUST IN: Wilco At The Electric Factory 4/10/10
Wilco will play a run of 16 concerts in Eastern U.S. cities beginning in Miami, FL on March 22 and culminating in Pittsburgh, PA on April 11. One stop along the way will be in Philadelphia at Electric Factory on Saturday, April 10. The concerts are presented as “An Evening with Wilco” and will feature extended, varied sets exploring material from each of the accomplished Chicago sextet’s seven studio albums. Tickets for this show go on sale Saturday, January 9 at 10am and will be available at all Ticketmaster locations, Electric Factory Box Office, Ticketmaster.com and charge-by-phone at 215-336-2000 / […]
SPORTO: Death In Dallas
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY What the fuck was that? The high-powered Eagles scoring machine put up a goose egg in Big D Sunday. I would tell you what was wrong with the Eagles’ offense, except every time I looked up Dallas had the ball. If you went to the bathroom when the Eagles got the ball, by the time you got back, Patrick Crayton would be catching an 8-yard slant (this happened to me three times). I was playing Candyland with my kids, and even though my oldest romped to Candy Castle with relative ease, our game still had […]
BEST OF: Our Favorite Albums Of 2009
LA ROUX — s/t The only reason I came to know of La Roux is because my disgruntled friend, Sam of Manchester, England, wouldn’t stop going on about how much he hated the album. We were going over sets for our next DJ event in Tokyo, discussing what kind of music to scrap and what to keep. “I can’t stand them,” he said of the British duo, “but Tokyoites eat it up. Throw it on, and they go nuts.” His eyebrows were furrowed, as always, forming a permanent scowl. “More proof that Japanese people have the shittiest taste in music,” […]
Philly Clout’s Top 215 Political Stories Of The Decade
PHILLY CLOUT: Yes, we know this is a time of year for lists, but at least we’re pretty sure you won’t see this one anywhere else. This is the one and only PhillyClout Top 10 Local Political Stories of the Decade. Our thanks to Dave Davies, Bob Warner and John Baer for their help. Happy reading. 1) Fumo goes down – This is the biggie. Longtime state Sen. Vince Fumo, viewed as the most powerful politician in the city, is convicted on 137 of 137 corruption counts. He ended the decade in prison. 2) Bug found in Mayor John Street’s […]
Authorities Uncover Bizarre Mass Animal Sacrifice
DAILY NEWS: SPCA officials got more than they bargained for yesterday when they checked out a house on North Front Street following a report of a dog living in unsanitary conditions. Inside, they found a grisly animal graveyard with the remains of dozens of creatures that had been sacrificed in religious rituals [not pictured, above]. The discovery unfolded about 4 p.m. at a house on Front Street near Louden. “The whole house was covered in feathers from chickens that had been sacrificed,” said George Bengal, director of law enforcement of the Pennsylvania SPCA. There were also skeletons of what were […]
HOT DOC: Kinks Guitarist* Ditches DN For WHYY
Sent: Mon 12/28/2009 8:51 AM To: Daily News Subject: FW: Important message from [city editor] Gar Joseph Staff: Dave Davies is leaving the Daily News to return to his second family, WHYY-FM, which means I just got 50 percent stupider. Like a lot of other people around here, I used Dave as a sounding board, a memory aid and a moral compass. He has done nothing but bring credit to this newspaper since he walked in the door in 1990, about 6 city editors ago. Dave had already built a reputation as a solid reporter with WHYY and KYW and […]
PW: The Phantom Plot To Blow Up The Liberty Bell
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY In the spring of 1969, four activists from the Philadelphia chapter of the Students For A Democratic Society (SDS) were arrested for plotting to blow up the Liberty Bell after the police found bomb-making materials in the refrigerator of their West Philly apartment. According to the police, the planned destruction of the Liberty Bell was part of a larger plot hatched by a network of student radicals to destroy national landmarks across the country. The shocking news spread quickly when footage of the police search of the apartment — captured by a KYW […]
WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: Hello Frisco!
[Video: Philadelphia Eagles V San Francisco 49ers Snowball Fight] To quote Bob Dylan: “When someone says ‘You’re in the wrong place, my friend’ you better leave.”
TONITE: Kilroy Waz Herre
MYSPACE: This Is Shawn Kilroy RELATED: Shawn Kilroy Interviews Barack OBobble