YAHOO: The company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News hosted a $233,000 trip to Rome for about 70 people a year before filing for bankruptcy protection. The six-day Philadelphia Newspapers trip was an incentive for advertising managers and major advertisers, Executive Vice President Richard Thayer told a U.S. bankruptcy trustee Thursday. The three top executives — Chief Executive Brian Tierney, Thayer and Executive Vice President Mark Frisby — and their wives also attended, he said. Philadelphia Newspapers LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2009, citing $395 million in debt. Recent court filings also show that Tierney […]
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 […]
THIS JUST IN: PJ Harvey Is Coming To Town
PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH Sunday June 7th 7:00PM DOORS / 8:00PM SHOW Trocadero Theatre 1003 Arch Street, Philadelphia PA www.thetroc.com All Ages Welcome On Sale this Friday April 24th at Noon! Tickets available at ticketmaster.com, Charge by phone 800.745.3000 and at the box office. Performing songs from their current album ‘A Woman A Man Walked By’ and their previous collaboration ‘Dance Hall At Louse Point’ the pair will be backed by Eric Drew Feldman, Giovanni Ferrario and Jean Marc Butty. Polly and John are currently on tour in the UK, where their opening night show in Brighton has been […]
VANILLA VICE: Asher Roth Is All That
INQUIRER: Asher Roth isn’t like other rappers. The rising star whose debut album Asleep in the Bread Aisle went straight to No. 1 when it was released on iTunes on Monday hails from nowhere near the hood. The 23-year-old rhymer grew up in the middle-class community of Morrisville, in Bucks County. His hip-hop calling card is “I Love College,” an ode to higher-education hedonism born of his experiences while sort-of studying to be an elementary-school teacher on the leafy campus of West Chester University. That song, which Roth calls “satire at its finest,” has sold nearly a million copies since its release in January, and been […]
THIS JUST IN: Folk Festival Line-Up Announced
Among the top attractions at the 48th annual PHILADELPHIA FOLK FESTIVAL are Sonny Landreth, Del McCoury Band, Iron and Wine, Tom Rush, Rebirth Brass Band, Justin Townes Earle, Tony Trischka, Langhorne Slim, Alela Diane, Joe Pug, Works Progress Administration, Ellis Paul, Sara Hickman, The Low Anthem, Women in Docs, The Folk Brothers, Erik Mongrain, Frog Holler, Caravan of Thieves, Enter The Haggis, and Marissa Nadler. Local musicians that have been garnering tremendous praise will also be featured throughout the weekend including Adrien Reju, Boris Garcia, Chris Kasper, Zach Djanikian, Wissahickon Chicken Shack, and Slo-Mo featuring Mic Wrecka. As if this […]
STYLE COUNCIL: TopStitch Is Top Notch
BY LAURA YACOE TopStitch is making all the right moves. From their old second story spot on Market Street, they’ve officially made the big move to the ground floor of 54 North Third Street. I loved the hidden-away-vintage-haven appeal of their former location, but this one is unbelievable. Same awesome vintage and jewelry selection and interior designing by Bahdeebahdu, but now they’ve devoted the entire second floor of their new home to the sewing studio. The upstairs sewing studio classes are taught by Emily Geddes, who also produces the clothing line emmaluv. Emmaluv is a collection of handmade reconstructive vintage […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #17 Better late than never. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might even learn something.
Q&A: Meet Richard Lloyd, The Man On The Marquee Moon
Richard Lloyd & The Sufi-Monkey Trio play Johnny Brenda’s TONIGHT! BY ED KING I owe the Philadelphia Free Library (Cottman Avenue branch, to be exact) an apology. And some money. I used to transfer SEPTA buses to and from school at that spot. There was a pretty cool record store next to the library with punk and new wave records. A couple days a week I’d stop in the store and marvel at the records, posters, and buttons. It was at this store I’d buy the latest copy of Trouser Press, which was tapping me into a way out of […]
CONCERT REVIEW: The Felice Brothers @ The Troc
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Impersonating The Band hasn’t been a decently-paying gig since Scorsese filmed The Last Waltz in 1976, but judging by the full-up crowd at the Trocadero Thursday night The Felice Brothers seem to be on their way. Actually, ‘impersonating’ sounds a little too dismissive and I like these guys, so let’s go with ‘evoking’ or ‘carrying on the old, weird Americana tradition’ of the Band instead. Besides, they have the pedigree (hail from upstate New York, sons of a carpenter) they’ve paid their dues (busked in the subways of New York; went acoustic at the […]
BOOKS: Joe Queenan, Maximum Q&A
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Oscar Wilde famously postulated that all of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Writer Joe Queenan wasn’t born in the gutter — actually it was somewhere near the false bottom of the Irish Catholic working class of Philadelphia circa 1950 — but you could see it from there. His father was a study in boozy failure and casual brutality whose self-inflicted setbacks would drag the family Queenan — Joe, three suffering sisters and an emotionally-remote, enabling mother — down to the ranks of the lower class for a four-year […]
CINEMA: Triple Play!
STATE OF PLAY (2009, directed by Kevin McDonald, 127 minutes, U.S.) IN A DREAM (2008, directed by Jeremiah Zagar, 80 minutes, U.S.) AMARCORD (1973, directed by Federico Fellini, 127 minutes, Italy) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Russell Crowe is the gladiator of the fictional Washington Globe in State of Play, a new thriller based on the BBC miniseries of the same name. From the bustling newsroom we glide through in the film’s opening to the montage of headlines going to press at the close, this unimaginative yet sturdy whodunit seems almost quaint in the face of the collapse of print […]
GAYDAR: Dumpsta Players’ Under The Sea
BY AARON STELLA It was bizarro prom night last night at Bob and Barbara’s, when the Dumpsta Players, those madcap mavericks of bar-based drag theater, put on Prom-Trash: Under the Sea. Instead of their unusual brand of kitschy melodrama, which traditionally consists of skits and lip-syncing that parody the current zeitgeist, contestants battled for the title of trashiest prom-queen of 2009—with a little song and dance, courtesy of the DPs, on the side. This year, prospective contestants were encouraged to fashion their starlet alter ego with the sea in mind. Hence, the lineup of decadent divas included such personae like […]
City Council Outlaws Driving-While-Cellphoning
INQUIRER: City Council voted 17-0 this morning to ban using handheld cell phones while driving. Handheld use is also outlawed for skateboarders, bicyclists, in-line skaters and scooter riders. City Councilman Bill Green, Councilmen William K. Greenlee and Frank Rizzo were behind the measure, and Mayor Nutter is expected to sign it. Enforcement would begin immediately. MORE