BY JEFF DEENEY This morning’s Inquirer story on Camden’s tent city strikes me as a step backwards in the paper’s coverage of the homelessness issue. Last year Inky reporter Jennifer Lin made incredible strides towards covering the region’s homelessness problem the way it should be covered. Chronic street homelessness is a mental health and addictions crisis. There are professionals in the field who are applying new methods of attacking the problem, which has resulted in precipitous drops of people living on the streets in cities around the country. This new method of attacking homelessness is called “housing first” and it […]
SEE NO EVIL: Judge Dismisses Graffiti Beatdown
DAILY NEWS: A Common Pleas judge — like another judge before him — dismissed all charges yesterday against two former Philadelphia police officers accused of punching and kicking a graffiti vandal in Feltonville two years ago. After an 80-minute hearing involving two new witnesses, plenty of objections by high-profile defense attorneys, and impassioned arguments, Judge Frank Palumbo ended the case by announcing: “Discharged.” The two ex-cops, Sheldon Fitzgerald and Howard Hill III, both 30, then left the courtroom and were congratulated by their former colleagues. The two declined comment. Fortunato “Fred” Perri Jr., who represented the men with his partner […]
PHAWKER TAWK: Q&A With Tim and Eric
BY SCOTT COLAN With hack ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his quasi-racist puppets scoring unprecedented ratings on Comedy Central, you could assume that the state of comedy in America is in as bad a shape as the national economy. Fear not, Philadelphia’s own Tim & Eric and their show “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” provides respite from the mouth breathers and the ankle biters. Their dark comedic surrealism puts them among the latest in a lineage that stretches from Monty Python to SCTV to Kids in the Hall to Bob and David. And now the torch has been passed […]
RIP: The Shirt Corner
[Photo by SYNDPROD] INQUIRER: The Shirt Corner, the Market Street clothing emporium that celebrates Philadelphia’s distinctive but rapidly vanishing style of retail hucksterism, will shut its doors today, opening the way for demolition of its ebullient, red-white-and-blue-painted building and six of its Old City neighbors. Although the properties remain in the hands of the Shirt Corner’s 77-year-old owner, Marvin Ginsberg, a potential buyer is scheduled to appear today before a Historical Commission subcommittee to request permission to tear down the row of mid-19th-century structures. The vivid facades, with their overscaled graphic signs, account for about half the frontage on the […]
BREAKING: Quick, Look Busy! The Boss Is Coming!
IN THE MIX: Bruce Springsteen first played the Spectrum back in 1973, and the Boss is coming back to South Philadelphia twice more before the arena’s appointment with the wrecking ball this fall. Springsteen and the E Street Band, whose new album, Working On A Dream, hits stores Tuesday, will play the Spectrum on April 28 and 29. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. on the web at ComcastTIX.com, on the phone at 1-800-298-4200 or in person at the Wachovia Center Complex and at select Acme Markets. MORE BACKSTREETS: The wait is close to over for U.S. dates, too […]
WINGBOWL: The Feel Bad Video Of The Year
[Dir. by SCOTT COLAN]
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL: Romantic Rivalry Escalates To Deadly Stabbing On South Street
DAILY NEWS: A student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia was stabbed to death Saturday morning in Society Hill, just across the street from the Engine 11 Firehouse. Medics returning to the firehouse about 6 a.m. from an unrelated call found the body of Reo Dennis, 22, of McLean, Texas, [pictured, above] on 6th Street near South. They immediately took him to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:43 a.m., Homicide Sgt. Tim Cooney said. By last night, police had charged 22-year-old Alex Naranjo, who lives on Randolph Street near South, just a block away from […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Five Things You Should Know About Devotchka At World Cafe Live Friday Night
1. Devotchka’s cover of The Velvet Underground classic “Venus in Furs” may actually be better than the original. Their rendition had a vocal languor that countered the darkness of the original as the band turned a psych-rock-proto-shoe-gaze classic into gypsy-folk-trance-rock-hoedown and back again. Believe it or not, I could have probably used more hyphens to try to accurately describe this rendition. 2. Devotchka can bring an orchestra’s worth of sound with just four people. There are so many multi-cultural influences, spanning at least 12 different instruments and at least 12 different nations, it’s hard to believe they so honestly replicate […]
THEATER: Five Reasons To See Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire At The Walnut St. Theater
1. Blanche DuBois is the first lady of the American stage. Whereas the motion picture of Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire draws attention to Brando’s gritty portrayal of Stanely Kolwalski, it seems as though Williams intended Blanche Dubois, played with gravitational pull by Susan Riley Stevens, to hold center stage for playhouse productions. The production was all of three hours long, which can be demanding even for the most ardent theater-lovers, but Stevens entertained, intrigued and beguiled effortlessly for the entire production, and could have done so longer. And this was no small feat. Stevens delivered more than […]
TONITE: To Beard Or Not To Beard?
This note is about WOLFDOGBIRDMAN. We do LOTS of different shows at Connie’s Ric Rac and this ONE in particular I have been most excited for to be quite frank. I found this band on myspace and they are coming to Philly this saturday night to play a seriously awesome rock show! They are called WOLFDOGBIRDMAN and I don’t know why I’m so into this band that I have never seen. I think it’s the energy, the mystery and the beards. Go check out their Myspace. WOLFDOGBIRDMAN. One word. Tell me what you think? I know, I don’t have a […]
WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #6 All the news that fits — in a five minute week-in-review read by a cartoon flower that sounds…wait for it…JUST LIKE ME. Enjoy.
CINEMA: Girl, Interrupted
WENDY AND LUCY (2008, directed by Kelly Reichardt, 88 minutes, U.S.) THE LITERARY WORLD OF FRANK & ELEANOR PERRY (This weekend at The International House) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC A film so internalized as to barely exist at all, Heath Ledger’s widow Michelle Williams mourns soulfully for her lost dog in the latest film from Kelly Reichardt, Wendy & Lucy. The plot is so slender it is almost high-concept, in its own modest way. Michelle Williams is Wendy, a twenty-something woman driving solo to work in Alaska’s fisheries when her dog disappears in a sleepy Oregon town. She feels […]