BY AMY Z. QUINN If we’re talking football — and isn’t everyone in Philadelphia talking football right now — this is the time of year for two-a-days, the brutal cram session practices designed to whip a team into shape as the season’s kickoff looms ever larger on the calendar. And while the members of Passion Pit, the Boston five-piece electro dance-pop outfit, weren’t discussing the NFL’s dramz yesterday while traveling from Canada to Philly for their first shows in town, they were in for a two-a-day here Saturday. Passion Pit, as the already legendary story goes, began as a four-song […]
HOW MANY ROADS MUST ONE MAN WALK BEFORE YOU CALL HIM A MAN: Dylan Hassled By Shore Cops
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood. A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday. “I don’t think she was familiar with his entire body of work,” Woolley said. The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several […]
LET THE DOGS OUT: Eagles Sign Michael Vick
USA TODAY: Philadelphia Eagles spokesman Derek Boyko confirmed to USA TODAY via email that the team has signed the former Atlanta Falcons Pro Bowl Quarterback. ESPN is reporting that the Eagles have signed Vick to a two-year deal. Vick’s agent, Joel Segal, confirmed the signing to ESPN. Fox is reporting that the first year of the deal is worth $1.6 million. The Eagles have a team option for a second year at $5.2 million. MORE RELATED: How Michael Vick Went Bankrupt Amount jailed star quarterback Michael Vick spent from July ‘06 to July ‘08, according to recent bankruptcy papers: $17.7 […]
ARTHUR KADE: The Journey (Part One)
First installment of the Arthur Kade mockumentary by Kevin Brueck. PREVIOUSLY: AMERICAN ASSHOLE: Q&A With Arthur Kade PREVIOUSLY: MAILBAG: Throw Another Kade On The Barbie, Mate
THE EARLY WORD: Quoth The Raven
In preparation of the world premiere of their Edgar Allan Poe-based production Haunted Poe (October 1 – November 1, 2009), Brat Productions will host a walking tour through Laurel Hill Cemetery (3822 Ridge Avenue) on August 20 at dusk. The “candle lit” tour (bring your own flashlight) of the grounds will explore Poe literature, anecdotes and his life in Philadelphia. The event is free but space is limited. To attend, RSVPs must be sent to rsvp@bratproductions.org, or call (215) 627-2577. A rain date is set for August 27. [DETAILS AFTER THE JUMP]
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 […]
Boo Birds A No-Show At Sestak Health Care Forum
[Photos by RAY SKWIRE] BY GREG ADOMAITIS The chants of “People! Not profits!” and signs calling for the death of the Obama health care plan stayed out on the sidewalk when Congressman Joe Sestak [D-PA] packed the Broad Street Ministry last night for a largely shout-free town hall forum on health care reform. The event drew an overflow crowd, not only was the main floor packed but so was the basement where workers were running up questions from those downstairs to put before Sestak. It was so full that by 8:30 p.m. there were police in the lobby claiming it […]
CINEMA: Don’t Eat The Brown Acid, Again
WOODSTOCK (Directed by Michael Wadleigh, 184 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC For the fortieth anniversary Warner Brothers has whipped up quite a promotional frenzy around the most legendary festival of the twentieth century, Woodstock. Half a million people are estimated to have attended it, the triple record set went to number one on the Billboard charts in 1970, yet what most people are really discussing when they mention Woodstock is their memories of the Oscar–winning documentary of the event, directed by Michael Wadleigh. The film was a phenomenon of its time, bringing a piece of the counter-culture to […]
INKY/DN BANKRUPTCY: Judge Bitchslaps All Parties
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Philadelphia Newspapers hopes to use $35 million in new capital to settle nearly $400 million in debt and emerge from bankruptcy. An opposing creditors’ plan would leave the newspapers saddled with up to $85 million in debt, making it difficult for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News to survive, a company lawyer said Tuesday. Lawyer Larry McMichael offered broad outlines of the competing reorganization plans after a hearing Tuesday, but neither has been filed in court. A new judge handling the case chided various parties involved Tuesday for offering “untenable” options to resolve the company’s finances, which […]
GREATEST HITS: Today I Saw…Revisited
BY JEFF DEENEY Today I saw a hot sun shining down on North Philly for the first time this year. The forecasted high was 82 degrees with nothing but bright blue overhead; compared to the cold spring the city was emerging from, it felt like mid-July. The flavor on the streets was beer, even at 11 a.m. on a Monday. On 25th Street near Dauphin, a young girl in skintight capris, a halter top and a waist-length weave drained a Miller High Life bottle on her front step, her head tilted back 45 degrees and her throat open in full […]
THE TOWNHALL TEMPER TANTRUMS WILL BE TELEVISED: Raging Against The Dying Of The White
?Embedded video from CNN Video HUFFINGTON POST: The entire episode, carried live by all three major cable news stations, offered a window into the type of conservative histrionics currently being exhibited at these town hall forums. It also, at least in one instance, exposed how unconstructive some of these opponents of reform truly are. After one participant detailed his concerns with the legislation, Specter asked the gentleman what he would like to see done. “Some of the things I would like to be done, okay, are…” the man paused, searching for an answer. “Tort reform!” the crowd screamed. “Tort reform, […]
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES: Brand New Nick Cave Novel Set For Publication This Fall
The Death of Bunny Munro is Nick Cave‘s first novel since his critically acclaimed debut, “And the Ass Saw the Angel,” which was first published in 1989. Penguin is releasing a new edition this September to tie in with his new novel. The Death of Bunny Munro will be published in hardcover by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, on September 8, 2009 (ISBN: 978-0-86547-910-4; $25.00). Bunny Munro sells beauty products and the dream of hope to the lonely housewives of the south coast of England. Set adrift by his wife’s suicide and struggling to […]
SEN. NERO: Pileggi Tells Philly To Hurry Up & Wait
INQUIRER: Under mounting public pressure, State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi predicted yesterday that a pair of measures sought by Mayor Nutter to rescue Philadelphia’s budget would be approved, but he warned that there would not be a vote for at least several weeks. If Pileggi (R., Delaware) is right, and Harrisburg approves the penny-per-dollar city sales-tax hike and pension restructuring that Philadelphia has asked for, the city would avoid the mass layoffs and most of the crippling service reductions — such as closures of most libraries and all recreation centers — that Nutter has warned will be necessary if […]