[Video: Goldspot – Time Bomb] BY PHILLYGRRL “Today is Friday, it is my day to do what I want” is the opening line in the song “Friday,” sung by Goldspot, a Los Angeles-based band founded by singer/songwriter (and UPenn alum) Siddhartha Khosla. I’ve played that song every Friday since I first heard it back in August and today is no exception (He also does a Hindi version, if you’re so inclined.) And what do you know? Today is a Friday and all I want to do is go down to World Café Live tonight and watch Goldspot perform songs from […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Jesus Lizard At Starlight Ballroom
BY MATT WYNNE Last night at the Starlight ballroom, I saw four middle aged guys put the current crop to shame. Easily one of the best shows I have ever been to. I have been trying to put my finger on exactly what it is about a band like the Jesus Lizard that stands in such stark contrast to much of the music I have heard and seen in the last few years. They are just authentic, and like all truly good things they require no explanation about why they are so good. Explanations serve their function when something awful […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Private equity firms buy undervalued or under-appreciated companies, impose short-term improvements and sell them for a fast profit. Some of the companies they’ve bought include Hertz, La Quinta, Dunkin Donuts, and Toys R Us. Josh Kosman, a private equity expert, says that the way the firms have been able to buy these businesses — through leveraged buyouts — means the majority of the money for the buyout has come from loans that the firms dump on the company they’re supposedly fixing. Now burdened with debt, many of those companies owned by private equity firms are in danger of […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Bishop Allen At JBs
BY JAMIE DAVIS Bishop Allen [pictured, above] are basically a fun little Brooklyn indie pop band: Fairly nonsensical lyrics, a xylophone player, skinny jeans and guitars worn 1964 George Harrison style. On disc, the songs sound pretty much as you’d expect, catchy, low-key, nothing really fantastic but pleasant enough to hold the moment, if not much after that. However, the songs do seem to improve in a live setting, as was the case last night at Johnny Brendas. The performers were energetic, and the choruses tended to take off a little more with the extra volume. The band obviously enjoyed […]
EARLY WORD: Nacho Libre!
PHOODIE: Lee Frank may be a New York food blogger — he runs the all-nachos site NachosNY — but having grown up here in Philly, he still reps hard. So when Frank comes home next week for Thanksgiving, he’ll be mixing his wonderful past with his dizzying present for what is, as best we know, the first-ever Nacho Crawl Philadelphia. MORE
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
RUH-ROH: Did Ramsey Perjure Himself In Sworn Testimony About The Pershing Park Mass Arrest?
WASHINGTON CITY PAPER: An affidavit filed today in U.S. District Court raises questions as to whether former D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey may have committed perjury in his sworn testimony about the Pershing Park fiasco. Ramsey had repeatedly stated in depositions that he had not ordered the mass arrest of approximately 400 people during the Sept. 27, 2002, World Bank/IMF protests. Yet the affidavit, by Det. Paul Hustler, a 22-year D.C. Police veteran, maintains that Ramsey indeed ordered the arrests. Hustler’s affidavit, taken Nov. 16, [PDF] is just the latest shock in a pair of Pershing Park class-action civil […]
Councilmen Vow To Thwart The Deadly Bicycle Menace
INQUIRER: Two Philadelphia city councilmen want bicycle riders to start getting the same treatment as motorists, and tomorrow they plan to introduce bills that would require cyclists to get license plates for their bikes and increase fines against bikers who violate traffic laws. The legislation from Councilmen Jim Kenney and Frank DiCicco will be proposed during a scheduled session, after which hearings on the bills are expected to be set. “Overall, it’s a good thing that so many people are riding bikes,” Kenney said today. “And I think it’s possible for all of us to share the roads and sidewalks […]
Q&A: With Fleet Foxes Drummer J. Tillman
BY JAMIE DAVIS J. Tillman, or Josh as he prefers to be called, is most widely known as the drummer for popular indie-folk rockers the Fleet Foxes. However, since 2005, Tillman has been steadily releasing a steady stream of solo albums that traffic in the same kind of woodsy, peaceful easy feeling that has made the Foxes so beloved by the skinny jeans crowd. He has released six albums in four years, and is currently touring his most recent release, Year in the Kingdom — yet another gorgeously somber acoustic affair, with heartbreaking lyrics and immensely sad instrumentation and arrangements. […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: Scrapple TV News
All the news that shits. With your host, A.P. Ticker.
LETTER FROM TOKYO: 65 Reasons Why I Love Living Here, Why Japan is Better Than America, And Why Tokyo Is One Of The Greatest Cities In The World
BY EVA LIAO TOKYO CORRESPONDENT A few weeks ago I wrote a post disclosing all the things I dislike about Tokyo and peeps be acting like I was ready to jump off the deep end. My incredibly considerate, but mislead roommate actually gave me a hug after reading the post because he thought I was depressed. Three other people had the same reaction. People! Beefs with Tokyo does not equate to unhappiness. Not in my book, anyway. Rather, I saw my “beef” as a coming to terms with reality, an acceptance of sorts that allowed me to simply appreciate things […]
WHY WE LOVE ABE: The $60,000 Letter Lincoln Sent To Kid’s School Teacher Who Accused Kid Of Lying About Having Met The Commander & Chief
BBC: A letter written by former US President Abraham Lincoln to a schoolboy nearly 150 years ago is to go on sale for $60,000 (£36,000) in Philadelphia. George Patten was with his journalist father when both met the commander-in-chief. The American Civil War leader wrote after the eight-year-old was mocked by his disbelieving classmates. The handwritten signed note confirms the pair met and was sent two weeks after the president’s inauguration. The letter reads: “Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln.” Lincoln put pen to […]
BIG BROTHERLY LOVE: Philly Admin. Of Indymedia Bucks Spooky Fed Fishing Expedition, Lives To Tell
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY On January 30th, 2009 Kristina Clair — a Linux administrator living in Philadelphia, who just happens to share server space with Indymedia.us, a left-leaning online news aggregator — received a subpoena from a federal prosecutor in Indiana demanding the web site’s visitor logs in conjunction with an undisclosed grand jury investigation. Specifically, the visitor log for June 25th, 2008. The subpoena did not just ask for specific names or IP addresses; instead it demanded the names and IP addresses of all 10,000-plus people who visited the site on that day, where they came […]