EDITOR’S NOTE: The Philly punk band More Fiends was founded by Allen and Elizabeth Fiend (host of BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living) . BY ELIZABETH FIEND It was November 9th 1989 and More Fiends had been on tour already for a grueling seven weeks. I was lying on an old mattress on the floor of a narrow bedroom watching Happy Days which had turned incredibly funny because in the German dubbed version The Fonz had a whiney, high pitched voice. Plus, come on, Fonzie was speaking German. The program was interrupted by what seemed like some sort of special news […]
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 […]
TRAGIC: Cops Seize 600 Primo Pot Plants In North Philly, Say They Have No Plans To Sell It To You Or Me
INQUIRER: Officers responded to a 911 call reporting “a strong odor of weed” on the 3000 block of North 7th Street and found the front windows of the dwelling “completely masked and the strong scent of marijuana,” said Capt. Debra Frazier, of the narcotics unit. Inside, police discovered a .38 caliber handgun and 600 plants [NOT pictured, above], “from seedlings to plants well over 6-feet-tall,” Frazier said. “There was no furniture, no sources of entertainment, nothing but marijuana plants” growing hydroponically under large lights. Frazier estimated the seized pot had a street value of $5 million. MORE PHAWKER: Seriously, $5 […]
STROKE: Dad Vail Regatta Threatens To Row To NJ
DAILY NEWS: Thousands of rowers descend on the banks of the Schuylkill every year to participate in the Dad Vail Regatta – the country’s largest college regatta, which has been held in Philadelphia since 1953. But in 2010, rowers might find themselves competing in Rumson, N.J., on the Navesink River. Increased operating costs and the weak economy’s impact on the regatta’s corporate sponsors mean that last May’s regatta may have been its last in Philadelphia. “The regatta, due to several unforeseeable contributing factors, is facing discontinuation as a Philadelphia-based event,” warned a Nov. 2 letter from the Dad Vail Regatta […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: Scrapple TV News
All the news that shits. With your host, A.P. Ticker.
EARLY WORD: Still Bill After All These Years
Just the Two of Us. Ain’t No Sunshine. Lean on Me. The man who wrote the songs that defined a decade walked away from showbiz without a look back. For 23 years, Bill Withers shunned the spotlight and refused all interviews — until filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack convinced him to tell his surprising story. Still Bill gives us an inside look at Bill Withers’ life and personality, tells why he stopped performing at the peak of his career and who he is today. An amazing portrait of an icon who never gave up his soul. First Person Arts […]
THE WORM TURNS: Judge Rules Against Credit Bid In Inky/DN Auction, Paving Way For Local Ownership
INQUIRER: Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. can bar its lenders from using $300 million in debt they are owed to try to purchase the company at auction next week, a federal judge ruled today. The decision by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno reverses a ruling by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich. Lawyers for the company’s senior lenders — which include Angelo, Gordon & Co., the CIT Group, Wells Fargo and Eaton Vance (Citizens Bank put the deal together) — had argued that it would be unfair if they had to bid cash, like other potential buyers, for property that served as […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Illegal World Of Mr. Cheng
DAILY NEWS: AT 4:15 A.M., “Mr. Cheng” gets a call on his cell phone, signaling him to head outside to the light-blue van that will take him and other illegal workers to a mail-packaging factory in Montgomery County, to jobs that pay just above the minimum wage. It’s dark and quiet on the streets of South Philly as the van drives around, picking up other workers, who greet each other in Indonesian. Cheng is ethnically Chinese, but was born in Indonesia and lived there until he came to the United States about eight years ago. “I was dreaming of a […]
MASERATI: Live At First Unitarian Church
Video: Maserati Interview [Breakfast at Sulimay’s] on Scrapple TV NEW YORK POST: An indie-band drummer from Brooklyn fell to his death today after trying to leap from a freight elevator at a tony Williamsburg fund-raiser, police said. Jerry Fuchs, 34, who drummed for West Coast dance-punk band !!! (pronounced “chk chk chk”) and the Georgia-based psychedelic instrumental ensemble Maserati, tumbled five stories shortly after 12:30 a.m. inside 338 Berry St., cops said. “It’s a manual freight elevator, and it stopped somewhere above the fifth floor,” said Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani. Sources said Fuchs and his pal opened the elevator […]
SPORTO: The 700 Level Of The Mind
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Last night’s game was there for the taking, but it didn’t get took. Here’s my positive spin: the Eagles don’t start playing their best football until their backs are against the wall (see last year, the Garcia year, more). Well, their backs are much closer to the wall now than they would have been if they had finished off the Cowboys last night. Another positive: tackle Jason Peters got hurt, got x-rayed, got re-taped, sucked it up and got back in there. And Peters played a good second half. This in contrast to the game […]
SEPTA STRIKE: Is Over!
INQUIRER: The strike by SEPTA workers that had paralyzed much of the region since last week ended this morning with a signing of an agreement by SEPTA officials and leaders of Transport Workers Union Local 234. Buses, subways, and trolleys, idled since 3 a.m. Tuesday, should be running in time for this mornning’s rush. The end to the six-day walkout came in dramatic fashion, as union leaders joined SEPTA officials about 12:45 this morning at a news conference outside the Center City office of Gov. Rendell, who brokered the deal a day after he said he was giving up on […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Wolfmother + Mom = FAIL
[Photo via INDYPRESS] BY JAMIE DAVIS For my first concert review for Phawker, I asked if I could cover the Wolfmother show at the Electric Factory on Saturday. Fine, says Phawker. Problem is, I can’t take the car out past 11 PM as I am only 17 and only have my Cinderella license, so I thought I’d let my friend Sasha drive. He said that he could and everything was cool, or so I thought. A few hours before the show, as I was printing the directions, his mom calls and tells me that Sasha has to be home by […]
CAMDEN: That All There Is To A Government Rescue?
INQUIRER: Raw sewage seeped into Jackeline and Eduardo Gonzalez’s basement, through its bathroom, hallway, and bedroom. The fumes forced the family to eat outside and sent 1-year-old Eduardo Jr. to the emergency room three times with respiratory problems. The toxic flow burned holes in walls and ruined clothes and a sofa. The mold ended Grandma’s visits from Puerto Rico. The sewage comes from a collapsed pipe at the end of their block, on Cherry Street in Camden. How does the city respond? For three hours, three days a week, a bored employee uses a noisy machine to transfer waste from […]