BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Asher Roth is nothing but a good time, although the haters, and they are legion, would deny him even that. Of course, none of them was in attendance Thursday night at the Electric Factory, where the sandy-haired Morrisville native and West Chester alum wrapped up his 20-date Great Hangover Tour with a sweaty throw-down before an adoring, largely under-21 audience. Minus the naysayers, it was a night of guilty pleasure — which is, in a nutshell, what Asher Roth is all about. Rolling onstage behind the wheel of a tot-size Cadillac SUV and armed […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Cursive At FUC
BY DIANCA POTTS After nearly an hour of traveling South on 309, I agonized over the perfect parking spot, finally settling on 22nd and Market. Standing at the crosswalk while facing First Unitarian, the long line of Cursive fans wrapped around the block and down the alley way. Comprised of half suburban and urban dwellers, I sensed a dichotomy of 20-somethings and fresh faced teens, making me feel slightly old at barely 22. En route towards the end of the line, I was stopped by a red-headed emo with a simple, “Hey cutie.” Confused, I paused while she accusingly declared, […]
A PRAYER FOR THE CITY: God Save The Philadelphia Inquirer And Daily News And All Who Sail On Them
[Photo by KEVIN BURKETT] NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE: By the early 20th century, the raucous, elbows-out era of American newspapering, there were 10 daily papers in the city. Now down to a besieged two, Philadelphia is a particularly good place to observe what appears to be big-city journalism’s last stand, when many of America’s metropolitan newspapers must quickly figure out how to become profitable again or face likely extinction. […] Annenberg’s sale of The Inquirer and The Daily News in 1969 to the Knight newspaper chain (which later became Knight Ridder) had the effect of elevating the journalism. The […]
ADSMART: How To Make Helping The Homeless Cool
[Click image to activate Internets] O3WORLD: See O3 Run is O3 World’s way of having fun, while raising money for a good cause. Our client, Back on My Feet is a non – profit organization that promotes self sufficiency for the homeless, through running, to build confidence, strength and self esteem. MORE
PIECE OF THE ROCK: Concert Venue Pie Chart
Pie chart illustrating the approximated market shares of the city’s live music venues based on current bookings. [via PHILLY CONCERT HUB]
SEPTA GIRL: Tales Of Ordinary Madness
[Photo by TOAST QUEEN] BY PHILLYGRRL It was a quiet week on SEPTA — for me anyway. Perhaps the hothouse weather pacified my fellow passengers, because everyone seemed to be on their best behavior. Even the otherwise-active subway kids opted for their headphones instead of mild flirtations with their peers. Hot in the city, indeed. Nobody moved as much as an inch when the homeless man on the C bus tried to start a fight with the driver. And he gave up as quickly as he’d begun. So it was that yesterday found me in a sad state of affairs […]
REEFER MADNESS: Juqua Parker Must’ve Been High
PHIL SHERIDAN: It was shocking to hear the news that Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker was charged with possession of marijuana early yesterday morning. Shocking to hear that a professional athlete might burn a little ganja in his free time? Hardly. What was shocking was the degree of stupidity exhibited by Parker and his wheelman, left guard Todd Herremans. To be rolling around an O Little Town like Bethlehem in the wee hours with the headlights off is to beg for police to notice you. And to be carrying a controlled substance – even one that is used by countless […]
Q&A With The Regulars Photographer Sarah Stolfa
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Pretty much everyone in this town knows about The Regulars, Sarah Stolfa’s stunning Bukowski-meets-Caravaggio portraiture of McGlinchey’s patrons, snapped from behind the bar where she earned the dubious distinction of Unfriendliest Bartender In Town. The series won her first place in the New York Times Sunday Magazine’s Photography Contest For College Students, a long-running exhibition at Gallery 339 and an asspocket full of local acclaim and national recognition, including a residency at the Whitney Museum Of American Art in New York. And now Artisan Books has published the series in richly-appointed book form with a snarky-but-snappy essay […]
TONITE: Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi – New Music – More Music Videos DAILY SWARM: If you boil it down, Kid Cudi’s nascent hit “Make Her Say” is about gettin’ good head, plain and simple. Yeah, it’s got an elegant sample of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface,” and if you get swept up in her vox—or the nifty throwback beat—you’d almost think that the Kid was trying to make another “Hard Knock Life”—a tough pop hit that deftly deploys cuteness. (The classy video, meanwhile, is a total bait-and-switch.) But “Make Her Say” ain’t cute at all; Gaga’s melody gets served up as a convenient double entendre, […]
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 […]
Grand Jury Clears Cops In Televised Beatdown
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A Philadelphia grand jury won’t recommend charges against police officers involved in the videotaped beating of three suspects after a car chase. District Attorney Lynne Abraham made the announcement Thursday, a month after the three suspects were acquitted in a 2008 shooting. Video taken from a television news helicopter on May 5 that year shows police cars pursuing the suspects’ car for more than 2 miles before the driver pulls over. Officers smash a window and pull the men out and onto the ground. Several officers beat and kick them. The city police commissioner later fired four officers, […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Tyrant’s Pardon Of The Truth
FOUR DEAD, TEN WOUNDED IN PITTSBURGH FITNESS CLUB MASSACRE Police say they’ve confirmed four people were killed in a shooting at a suburban Pittsburgh health club — including the gunman — and at least 10 others were wounded. A hospital reports one other person also has died. Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt says the gunman didn’t say anything and just walked into the room where shooting occurred at the L.A. Fitness Center in Bridgeville, a community of about 5,000 residents not far from downtown Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh International Airport. Debi Wozniak, of Dormont, a suburb of Pittsburgh, is […]
GREATEST HITS: Today I Saw… Revisited
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Today I Saw was a series of short imagistic non-fiction narratives I did back in 2007. I didn’t even conceive it as a series for publication, it was really just a bunch of scenes and images I jotted down while doing field work as a social worker. It ran twice a week for a year straight. Each installment begins with the same phrase, “Today I Saw” because I was literally writing down things I was seeing in the neighborhoods, as I was seeing them each day. BY JEFF DEENEY Today I saw a fire fight break out on […]