SUNDANCE FESTIVAL: One of the most infamous lawyers of the twentieth century, William Kunstler liked to shake things up. Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore their father’s life and legacy: from middle-class family man to celebrated radical activist to “the most hated lawyer in America.”Kunstler’s resume is one for the storybooks. He fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr. and catapulted to the world stage by defending the Chicago Seven. Soon Kunstler became the go-to guy for the radical left. When inmates rioted at Attica prison or Native Americans took on the federal government at Wounded Knee, they […]
GOOD CAUSE: Grow A Mustache, Save The Kids
The Philadelphia chapter of Mustaches for Kids is looking for growers for the 2009 Growing Season! (November 12th through December 12th) Intrigued?? Keep reading…
SEPTA STRIKE: The Backlash Has Begun
Philadelphians are sick and tired of listening to TWU 234 whining over a perfectly good contract and keeping us from getting to work, school, and other commitments. We’re planning to gather this Sunday at 1pm at SEPTA headquarters at 1234 Market Street to tell SEPTA not to back down! We support collective bargaining but will not stand for collective bullying! We would rather go without transit for however long it takes for SEPTA to either negotiate a fair contract with the union that won’t raise fares or replace and retrain all of them. UPDATE: Gov. Rendell and U.S. Rep. Bob […]
GORACLE: Only You Can Prevent Climate Catastrophe
INQUIRER: During a daylong seminar today at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, former Vice president Al Gore finished an hour-long talk by issuing a challenge to the 500 attendees and students in the room “for each of you to become a part of the solution.” […] “We can build a consensus,” he said. “And we must. Because not too many years from now, the next generation will look back. And depending on what the world looks like at that point, they will ask either why this generation stood back and did nothing, or how they mustered the moral courage […]
BOOKS: Writing For Your Life
BY DAVE ALLEN When does a quirk turn into something more? Writer A.J. Jacobs has turned what seems like a quirk — overhauling his life in sometimes-simple, sometimes-radical ways and cataloging the impact at length in books and for Esquire — into a genre. Quirk is the baseline for Jacobs’ life — he works at a fashionable men’s magazine, but largely forsakes fashion for comfort and claims to own only one suit; he’s an obsessive-compulsive germaphobe living in New York City, where personal space and public hygiene are scarce — but with each experiment, he seems to take his fish-out-of-water […]
PHAWKER TAWK: Q&A With The Kronos Quartet
[Photograph by Jeppe Gudmundsen-Holmgreen] BY DAVE ALLEN Any discussion of modern American music, especially in the last 30 years, has to start with the Kronos Quartet. But thanks to their efforts as commissioners and promoters of vital new work, both by composers from the US and all over the world, the discussion doesn’t end there. With their dedication to touring, recording and continuing to take on exciting and ground-breaking work, the Kronos Quartet have earned a spot in the pantheon — not just in classical music, not just in world music, but purely as musicians. I spoke with David Harrington, […]
Q&A: Ask The Yes Men
The Yes Men is a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call “identity correction” by pretending to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations. From their offices in Milwaukee, they create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on their websites to appear at conferences, symposia, and TV shows. Their newfound, self-proclaimed authority to express the idea that corporations and governmental organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public has met both positively and negatively with political overtones. Elaborate props are sometimes part of the […]
RUMBLE IN THE BRONX: Phils Fans Vs. Yanks Fans
Phillies and Yankees Fans Brawl in Parking Lot – Watch more Funny Videos
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 […]
SEPTA STRIKE: The Kids Are Alright — NOT!
BY JENN W. Planes, Trains and Automobiles! Scratch the planes (would be awesome though) and you’ve got your two options of getting to and from school for the students of the School District of Philadelphia. The wonderful world of SEPTA has ground to a halt, effectively stranding me and my school-age commuter peers. I’m Jenn W. and I’m a freshman at Science Leadership Academy smack dab between 30th Street and Suburban Stations. SLA, the a little known gem of a school that has a partnership with The Franklin Institute with project based learning and Mac laptops. Yeah, you wish there […]
NO SURRENDER: Phanatic Runs Amok In NYC
Yankees 7, Phillies 3. History does not repeat itself. BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Here’s all I’ve got to say about Game 6 of the World Series: it pissed me off when third base umpire Brian Gorman rang up Chase Utley to end the 7th inning. And I’m not even a Phillies fan, I’m just a baseball fan. Why do they even appeal to the base umpires on a checked swing? It’s not as if the “line of demarcation” is the third base (or for that matter the first base) line, you don’t have a definitive view from that angle. […]
FORBES: Philly 4th Most Toxic City In U.S.
FORBES: To determine which cities are most toxic, Forbes looked at the country’s 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas — geographic entities that the U.S. Office of Management and Budget defines and uses in collecting statistics — based on data provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We counted the number of facilities that reported releasing toxins into the environment, the total pounds of certain toxic chemicals released into the air, water and earth, the days per year that air pollution was above healthy levels, and the total number of Superfund sites — contaminated areas that the federal government has designated […]