FRESH AIR New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins reports that the Taliban are waging an increasingly aggressive campaign in Afghanistan — a fact evidenced by a 40 percent increase in Afghan civilian deaths in 2008. Filkins joined The New York Times in 2000. He covered the war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2002 and reported on the Iraq war from 2003 to 2006. He recently returned to the Middle East to cover Afghanistan again. Filkins details his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq in his book The Forever War. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Analysis of last night’s address by President […]
TONITE: Undergarment Underworld
Sima’s Undergarments for Women by Ilana Stanger-Ross Book Reading & Signing Party Wednesday February 25, 2009 7:30pm Delicious Boutique & Corseterie 1040 N. American St. #901 Philadelphia, PA 19123
RUMORED: Arlen Specter To Become A Democrat?
FIVETHIRTYEIGHT: Republican chairman Michael Steele took Neal Cavuto’s bait and suggested that he might be amendable to punishing the three Republican senators — Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter — who voted for the stimulus package by supporting primary challenges and/or cutting off funding. There’s just one problem with this. In Pennsylvania and especially in Maine, having a (R) by your name is a liability, not an asset. With leaners included, Democrats have roughly a 19-point partisan ID advantage in Maine and 16 points in the Keystone State. Collins, Snowe and Specter get re-elected in spite of being Republican, […]
Inky Bigwigs Shamed Into Giving Back Big Raises
Via Newspaper Guild memo: Andrew C. Kassner, an attorney representing Citizens Bank, called “unconscionable” the raises to Brian Tierney, CEO of Philadelphia Media Holdings and Inquirer publisher, Richard Thayer, the Company’s chief financial officer, and Mark Frisby, a senior vice president in charge of production and labor issues and publisher of the Daily News. Kassner said lenders found out about the raises – which boosted Tierney’s annual salary to $850,000 and Thayer’s and Frisby’s to $475,000 — a short time before the Company filed for bankruptcy protection. The Company had rejected lenders’ requests to give up the raises, Kassner said. […]
PAY TO PLAY: Councilman Kelly Aide Convicted
PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL: A former aide to a Philadelphia councilman was among three men convicted in a corruption case Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia said. Christopher Wright [pictured left, making O-Face], a former aide to Councilman Jack Kelly, developer Ravinder Chawla of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., and Chawla’s attorney Andrew Teitelman of Newtown, Pa., were convicted of conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, honest services mail fraud, and mail fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Wright, 45, of Philadelphia was accused of trading on his position as Kelly’s aide from June 2005 to January 2008 to […]
EXPLAINER: Why Lawyers Make The Big Bucks
Because they can say shit like this out loud in a court of law with a completely straight face: “The Philadelphia Inquirer has been published in Philadelphia since 1828. It’s over 180 years old and it is an institution and a treasure to its community,” said McMichael. He said no one — including the local investor group that bought the newspapers for $515 million in 2006 — foresaw how the economy and other factors would rout the newspaper industry. “These people put $150 million cash into this thing,” McMichael said of the investor group brought together by Tierney, who is […]
TONITE: Burn The Witch
BY DAVID STAMPONE Witch? Yeah, that’s the heavy (“doom-“/”stoner-“) rock group from Western Mass., the one with a key member arguably more famous for his association with a legendary band from back in the late 80s/early 90s. That would be Witch drummer J. Mascis: he of few words and much shred, forever to be recognized as a hazily crooning indie-rock guitar god from the mid ’80s on, primarily as leader of Dinosaur Jr. (who reformed a few years ago and are due for a second post-reunion album this summer; just signed to Indiana label Jagjaguwar, FYI). In Witch, Mascis stows […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
HAIL, HAIL ROCK N’ ROLL: M. Ward, Trocadero, Friday [Photo: TIFFANY YOON] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER The first time M. Ward performed at the Trocadero, back in 2004, he was low man on the totem pole of an inspired three-headed bill that included Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. Three acclaimed solo albums of languid torch-folk later, an opening slot at the Tower with Norah Jones, not to mention a turn through town with She & Him (Ward’s endearing duet act with Zooey Deschanel), he’s selling out the Troc all by his lonesome. Such […]
THIS JUST IN: Inquirer/Daily News Go Bankrupt
INQUIRER: Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C., which owns The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, filed for bankruptcy protection today in a bid to restructure its $390 million in debt load. The company, bought by a group of Philadelphia-area investors for $562 million in 2006, said the voluntary Chapter 11 filing would not interrupt its daily operations. “This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations,” chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney, who led the group that provided about $150 million of the purchase price three years ago, said in a news release. “Our operations are sound and profitable,” […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #10 The week that was in just five minutes, read by a stoned daisy that sounds uncannily like me.
EARLY WORD: A Man Called Benjy
If there’s a middle ground somewhere between the arty scuzz of the White Stripes and the sunny, off-center pop of ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” D.C.-based artist Benjy Ferree has planted a flag in it and claimed it for himself. Come Back to the Five and Dime Bobby Dee Bobby Dee, Ferree’s second and most recent album, hops adeptly from style to style while keeping Ferree’s agile wail at the center and the guitar fuzz around the edges. Just when I thought the music would slip into some faux-soul a la Gavin DeGraw, it turns toward the dreamy, overstuffed style of […]
REVIEW: Golden Girls Gone Wild
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR The G-Girls were out in full force Thursday at Bob and Barbara’s. The devilishly mischievous drag troupe, The Dumpsta Players, thought that it was about time to pay an homage to the girls who put the gold in the golden years: the Golden Girls, in “Golden Girls Gone Wild!” The Dumpsta Players are Philly’s most notorious drag troupe, infamous for their shameless satire and lampooning of the joys and ills of modern society and pop culture (not to mention that the grist of politics is usually within hacking range of their trash picked hatchet). As […]
LIKE A FOX: Internal External
Like A Fox play Johnny Brendas tonight with Asteroid #4. [Dir. by SCOTT COLAN]