[Photo by crwelling] INQUIRER: When the Phillies allowed three runs in the eighth inning last night, Ruben Amaro Jr. began to think about the trip home. With Game 4 appearing lost, the first-year general manager resigned himself to logistics. “I was thinking about the flight home,” he said an hour later, standing in the corner of a wild visitors’ clubhouse at Coors Field, quiet and exhausted. “Thinking about whether Cole [Hamels] would be ready for a Game 5 start, and about how tough it would be to stop their momentum.” Amaro did not know that Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, and […]
SPORTO: A Confederacy Of Dunces
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Has anyone noticed that the Eagles have played four snoozers so far, without an ounce of drama? It’s not likely to change next week when the Birds travel to Oakland to play the dismal Raiders. In other NFL news, Cleveland beat Buffalo 6-3. Browns QB Derek Anderson completed 2 of 17 passes. Two complete passes, and his team won! I have Browns WR Mohamed Massaquoi on my Fantasy team…I’d have been psyched if you told me he accounted for 70% of the Browns’ passing yardage. Well, he did, and it was worth 16 yards.Have you […]
CINEMA: Lost In Adaptation
NEW YORKER: The opening sequences of Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are”—a live-action feature based on Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s classic—are sensationally good. Max (Max Records) is an angry nine-year-old boy: his teen-age sister has abandoned him for her friends, and his divorced mother (Catherine Keener) noodles on the couch with her boyfriend. The way Max Records plays him—with darting eyes, and lips pressed together in rage—the boy has no idea that anyone’s feelings but his own could be real. He builds forts in his bedroom and an igloo in the front yard. He wants to be enclosed in […]
GAME 3: Ryan Howard Sacrifice Fly Puts Phils Over 6-5
NEW YORK TIMES: The score was tied, 5-5, entering the ninth inning, before Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard hit a sacrifice fly to left-center field that scored Jimmy Rollins. Rollins was 2 for 13 in the series before singling to lead off the top of the inning against Colorado closer Huston Street. He advanced to second on Shane Victorino’s sacrifice bunt, and then to third as Chase Utley reached first on a check-swing bunt that Street had to gather and throw from foul territory. Leading by 6-5, the Phillies turned to Brad Lidge, who closed all 48 save opportunities in 2008, including […]
DUH: Masked Lout Steals Phillies World Series Rings, Leaves Behind His Name And Home Address
[Photo by ELIZABETH ROBERTSON] INQUIRER: After three World Series rings where stolen yesterday from a Phillies office, police arrested a mask-wearing fan who was kicked out of the game earlier for being rowdy. Matthew Mervine, 22, of Berlin Borough made detectives’ work easy, because, not only was he videotaped stealing the rings, he had just left his real name, address and phone numbers on a job application, police said. Apparently, Mervine, who wore a rubber skull mask to yesterday’s game against the Rockies, found his way to the Phillies offices after being kicked out of the game with other fans […]
GREATEST HIT: ‘Today I Saw’ Revisited
BY JEFF DEENEY TODAY I SAW two fresh faced white kids in almost military looking black overcoats, starched slacks and gleaming patent leather shoes canvassing a bleak stretch of 19th Street near Wingohocking, an area of North Philly pocked with crack markets and tiny row houses covered in flaking paint. They were standing under an awning on one of the small front porches that lined the block. One of the kids banged repeatedly on the door while the other peered through the blinds, trying to see if someone was home. After waiting a minute they moved on to the next […]
LISTEN LIKE THIEVES: “South Philly (Drug Days)”
ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC: “South Philadelphia (Drug Days)” is featured on Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah frontman Alec Ounsworth’s forthcoming solo-album, Mo Beauty (ANTI- Records) which was recorded in New Orleans and produced by Philadelphia native, Steve Berlin, of the band Los Lobos. The album is scheduled for release on Tuesday, October 20. Download it HERE.
Bill Clinton Awards Spielberg The Liberty Medal
INQUIRER: Steven Spielberg has grown accustomed to praise. One of the world’s most successful filmmakers, ever, anywhere, he has received Oscars and honorary doctorates, won awards for public service and humanitarianism, and been granted nearly every superlative a man of art, thought, and heart could imagine. But he still seemed sincerely moved last night to be joining the ranks of the distinguished recipients of Philadelphia’s Liberty Medal. “I am very, very genuinely humbled by this,” Spielberg said after bowing his head so former President Bill Clinton, chairman of the National Constitution Center, could slip on the red, white, and blue […]
SEX IN THE CITY: Men I Have Dated
BY GLORIA MARIS In the early 1990s I was halfway through my undergrad degree, and my high-school boyfriend invited me to his wedding. He had gone to a small state university out West, while I stayed in the mid-Atlantic to finish high school and start college more locally. We’d kept up the long-distance relationship for a while, going through a fortune in long-distance dimes (this was the olden days, before everyone had e-mail); but eventually he fell in love with a fellow engineering student, and they married in the summer after his college graduation. It wasn’t the first time I’d […]
GUNCRAZY: Glock-Packing Soccer Mom Shot Dead
INQUIRER: Meleanie Hain, the soccer mom who openly sported a holstered Glock 26 at a daughter’s games, and her husband, Scott, were found dead of gunshot wounds last night at their Lebanon, Pa., home, according to police. “Some media outlets have gone to the stretch of calling it a murder-suicide,” said Chief Daniel Wright. “The coroner’s office and the police are calling it a death investigation.” Police believe no one else was involved, however, Wright said. “Daddy shot Mommy!” was yelled by children running from the Hain house early last evening, neighbors told the Lebanon Daily News. The Hains’ three […]
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 […]
MANAN TRIVEDI FOR CONGRESS: Decorated Soldier, Doctor, Democrat, Health Care Reformer, Eagles Fan
BY PHILLYGRRL Last month, 35-year old Manan Trivedi, a physician and Iraqi war veteran, announced that he was running for the position of U.S. Representative in the 6th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. The post has been held by Republican Jim Gerlach for four terms despite a significant increase in Democrat voters in the district. The post became vacant when Gerlach announced in February that he will be running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2010. Since then, Trivedi, a Democrat who grew up in Berks County and currently works and resides in Reading, PA, has been spreading the word about his […]
ARTSY: Anybody Home?
BY AARON STELLA CITYSPACE, a Philadelphia-based real estate company, will open its doors to its first ever series of art shows starting this weekend with rising-star artist Mat Tomezsko with his installation “Those Ghosts.” A real estate company might not be the first business you’d imagine sponsoring an art show. CITYSPACE, however, is different in that it realizes that there is more to real estate than the mere buying and selling of properties; it’s about community development, supporting local businesses, making smart uses of technology, investing in green alternatives, and most importantly, providing someone with the largest possession they’ll ever […]