The Good News Flower Hour #9 The week that was in five minutes. Read by a flower that sounds an awful lot like me. Just do it, people.
KILLADELPHIA: Cop Killed In The Line Of Duty
INQUIRER: Another Philadelphia police officer has been gunned down in the line of duty, this time in an apparent shoot-out tonight in front of the Olney Transportation Center. Initial reports were that he was wounded after he and his partner responded to a report of a “fight on the highway” on Broad Street near Olney Street. Officer John Pawlowski, 25, who was assigned to the 35th Police District, was the first to be killed in the line of duty this year. The newly married whose wife is expecting their first child is the fourth city officer to be fatally shot […]
PERSPECTIVE: How High Is $789 Billion?
Using $100 bills, $789 billion would create a pile 57 miles high. Note that the atmosphere begins seven miles above the Earth’s surface. RELATED: The House approved a $787 billion economic stimulus package Friday afternoon, with Democrats successfully promoting it as a boost for middle-class Americans and Republicans countering in vain that it will only stimulate wasteful government spending.The vote was 246 to 183, reflecting the Democrats’ considerable majority in the House and the Republicans’ deep dissatisfaction with the measure, whose estimated price tag has fluctuated daily and was finally placed at $787 billion on Friday. Not a single Republican […]
TONITE: Werewolves Of Landon
I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (1957, directed by Gene Fowler Jr., 76 minutes, U.S. PETS (1974, Raphel Nussbaum, 103 minutes, U.S. ANDREW’S VIDEO VAULT @ The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA Thursday February 12th 2008 8PM Free! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC As the pillars of society begin to tremble, the double bill at Andrew’s Video Vault cautions against surrendering to our animal urges with two true drive-in classics, both sadly unavailable on DVD. Far better than it’s “Ripped From The Headlines” title would suggest, I Was A Teenage Werewolf is one of the masterworks of B-movie empire American […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire’ Edition
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 […]
EARLY WORD: Kilroy Waz Herre
BY ED KING This Saturday — AKA Valentine’s Day, for all you lovers out there — Shawn Kilroy & The Dream Queens (Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner, Jamie Mahon, Jenny Prescott, and Mark Landlord) debut Hessian Love Songs, the final installment of a trilogy of albums that started with 2004’s Neon Gate followed by Thai Stick Dragon, at Tritone. As might be expected of Kilroy – whose bio counts him as a “lover” along with the usually lonely combo of musician, singer, artist, film-maker, and thinker – ladies will not be charged admission. Lover that he is, Kilroy’s never shied away from […]
HELLER: It’s A Thin Line Between Love And Hate
INQUIRER: On the stand, Fumo was somber yet personable and expansive, his voice an alto scratch. He would take frequent verbal peregrinations on any number of subjects, going off-question, offering a five-minute answer when five words would do. Many were the times that lawyers, on both sides, asked him to return to the task at hand. “I can go into depth,” Fumo said. “No, don’t do that,” Cogan admonished. Fumo described an approach where “everything in my life was intertwined,” he said. “I don’t know how to run an organization without that familial methodology,” he said. He referred to staff […]
LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD: Jazz Critic (And Hubbo Of Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross) Francis Davis Wins Grammy
CREATIVE LOAFING: The tunes essentially start with short, riffy (and catchy) melodies that give way to a round of extended solos by Miles, Cannonball, Trane and Evans (or Kelly); the band then restates the theme and the song ends. That’s pretty much a pro forma jazz approach. Each of those soloists, though, makes a profound impression in each and every song. Jazz critic Francis Davis, one of the annotators on the new box, makes an intriguing point that I had never considered. Because improvising over scales, or modes, was effectively new to these players, and because they entered the studio […]
WORKING ON A SCHEME: Lawmakers Ask Fed Trade Commission To Probe Alleged Springsteen Ticket Scam
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Two New York-area lawmakers called Sunday for a federal investigation into Ticketmaster for sending fans who wanted Bruce Springsteen tickets to its own ticket reselling Web site where the tickets cost much more. “It was a classic bait-and-switch,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “We don’t have the tickets at $75, but maybe this site has them at $200.” Tickets for Springsteen’s upcoming tour went on sale at 10 a.m. last Monday, and many fans who went online to buy tickets were immediately directed to Ticketmaster’s reselling site, TicketsNow. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said TicketsNow was selling the tickets […]
WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #8 Just do it, people.
ARTSY: Street Fighting Man
BY ELIZABETH FLYNN Dear anti-snob art nerds: Get your streetwise (but intellectual) ass to the coolest First Friday party in town, Cut Copy – a Stencil Show, tonight at South Philly’s favorite gallery T&P Fine Art! Jon Halperin has curated another amazing group show, consisting entirely of stencil graffiti art. He’s included pieces from some of the biggest names in the genre, two of which, Papermonster and Pure Evil, I talked to about their work and the history of the medium. Halperin says that “Stencil art is my art drug of choice. I’ve been following this scene since […]
OH BROTHER, WHERE AM I: Or How An Old School Hardcore Punk Like Me Got Into Old Timey Music
BY BRENDAN SKWIRE How the hell did an old school hardcore punk kid like me get into old timey music?That’s a pretty short story. Even back in the day, I always loved older hardcore better than newer stuff. Youth of Today was fine, but Minor Threat was better (someday i will tell the story of how I made Ian Mackaye lose his temper), and the Sex Pistols was even better than that and so on and so on. The fact is, I’ve always loved old shit, so when I got a little older and my tastes in music began to […]
GAYDAR: Five Reasons Why Rent Must Die
1. Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp Have Nothing Better To Do The main attraction of this particular production of RENT is original cast members Adam Pascal as AIDS-infected guitarist Roger Davis and Anthony Rapp as filmmaker Mark Cohen. For avid RENT fans, it’s a trip down memory lane. For everyone else, it’s men at work. Paschal and Rapp perform with grace and ease, no doubt inspiring the same sense of awe they did during RENT’s first production, perhaps even more so. Whatever. Sitting in the audience, I couldn’t help but think… 2. 1996 Just Called And They Want Their Hip […]