FRESH AIR Philip Seymour Hoffman stars opposite Meryl Streep in Doubt, a new film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play. His character, a young and charismatic priest, provokes a nun’s suspicion for his special attention to their Bronx-based school’s only black student. Hoffman, a popular and versatile character actor, most recently starred in Synecdoche, New York. His other films include Capote, for which he received an Oscar for Best Actor, and the Coen brothers cult-classic The Big Lebowski. ALSO, In 1977, historian James Reston Jr. helped prepare journalist David Frost for a series of interviews with Richard Nixon that resulted […]
OH TANNENBAUM: Recession Hits North Pole
ABC NEWS: In the movies, the life of Santa Claus is all about the North Pole and sleigh bells. But in real life, this year, Santa’s riding the New Jersey Transit trains and New York City subways. Even Santa doesn’t have job security this season, as many businesses cut back. John Hauck, 71, dons the traditional red suit and commutes two-and-half-hours from Pennsylvania to New York, because, like most businesses these days, even the Santa business is struggling. For the past five years, Hauck has worked at the local Granite Run Mall in Delaware County, Pa., but he was laid […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Student Massacre Of The Truth
Pottstown Teen Charged In Columbine-Style School Shooting Plot A 15-year-old freshman was charged yesterday with criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder for planning to “shoot everyone he did not like” at Pottstown High School, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said. Richard Yanis planned to use three firearms and ammunition that he had stolen from his father’s gun collection and given to a friend to hold, Ferman said at a news conference in Norristown. But the plan unraveled when the suspect’s father, Michael Yanis, 52, reported the guns stolen Nov. 11, touching off an intense, month-long investigation by police […]
PHOTO OP: You Oughta Be In Pictures
INQUIRER: This weekend, fans can not only gawk at the first Phillies World Series trophy in 28 years — and only the team’s second ever — but they can get their pictures taken next to it. For free. “Phanta Claus” — who looks suspiciously like the Phanatic in a Santa suit — will also pose with fans. The photo ops are part of the annual Holiday Sale at the Majestic Clubhouse Store at Citizens Bank Park. Fans can even park for free. Head for Lot S, off Pattison Avenue, and be sure to mention the holiday sale. Saturday’s hoopla will […]
TONITE: What Would Tyler Durden Do?
Tonite at The Barbary.
SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS: Whatever Happens In Room 315 Stays In Room 315, Part 5
BY JEFF DEENEY If Room 315’s teacher, Mr. McMonigle, can keep his students attention on school work for even 45 cumulative minutes of the day it’s a miracle. On many days no schoolwork gets done whatsoever; the entire six hours spent in this one room comprises a battle to simply control and contain the children so that they don’t hurt each other, hurt a staff member or spill out into the hallway and disrupt the neighboring classrooms. Today is turning out to be a banner day for education in Room 315: For 30 consecutive minutes the group’s attention has been […]
GAYDAR GALLERY REVIEW: The ‘View’ Flourishes
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR Budding and virtuoso artists exhibit the lush pastoral and the iridescent abstract in “Views” at Flourish Gallery, which opened First Friday this month. Ric Best, consummate photographer and co-proprietor of Flourish, produced austere stills of bucolic France, while Austin Algeo, bartender at Woody’s of five years, showed the finest of his experimental shots of Philadelphia’s 2008 Independence Day fireworks fanfare. Best’s associates and admirers had always been curious about his rumored talent for landscape stills. As the requests accumulated, Best endeavored on the laborious enterprise of sifting through the some 4,000 photographs he shot while […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING: Spike Lee, Temple University, Last Night BY TIFFANY YOON At 7pm last night, Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee) spoke to students in Mitten Hall at Temple University. A coy Lee — wearing a black turtleneck, denim jeans, tweed beret and his signature glasses, as ever, reminiscent of Malcolm X — spoke to an over-packed hall of students. The heavy turnout wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the Emmy-award winning filmmaker except that this event took place amidst a stressful last week of classes for Temple students and most sacrificed valuable studying time, sleep and […]
THE EARLY WORD: These Are People Who Died
THE WAR ON DRUGS: Needle In Your Eye
TURNING JAPANESE: In The Land Of The Rising Sun
BY ELIZABETH FIEND LIVING EDITOR To celebrate my 50th birthday I’m taking a trip to Japan. I’m also taking my brand new Nikon D40 digital SLR camera and telephoto lens. Expect great photos when I return as well as the occasional blog post directly from Japan. Check back here at least once a week and leave comments or messages for me in Comments at the end of the post. We fly out of Philly on December 12 and return just in time for New Years and the Mummer’s parade. How do working class people such as The Fiends afford an […]
EXPLAINER: Eagles vs. The Libraries
[Dir. by SCOTT COLAN]
PRINT DEATH WATCH: Chicago Tribune On the Verge
NEW YORK TIMES: Tribune has hired bankruptcy advisers as the ailing newspaper company faces a potential bankruptcy filing, people briefed on the matter said. The newspaper, which was taken private last year by billionaire investor Samuel Zell, has hired advisers including Lazard and Sidley Austin, one of its longtime law firms, these people said. Tribune has been hobbled by debt related to that sale last year, which has been compounded by the growing drought of advertising for newspapers. While Tribune must contend with hefty interest payments over the next year, its most pressing problem is a maintenance covenant on some […]
TROUBLED BRIDGE OVER WATER: South Street Bridge Closed For Two Years Of Fabled Reconstruction
INQUIRER: Harried commuters are braced for protracted delays as the long-awaited reconstruction of the South Street Bridge begins tomorrow, closing the historic span over the Schuylkill and necessitating detours expected to last two years. The 23,000 motorists and countless pedestrians and bicyclists who rely on the bridge daily to go between University City and Southwest Center City will have to use alternate routes because the 85-year-old bridge is “structurally deficient,” inspectors say, and must be demolished and rebuilt. “Significant traffic congestion and travel delays are expected,” Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson said of the $67 million project. “We ask Philadelphians for […]