ZOO STATION: Animal Collective, Electric Factory, 9:20 PM BY JONATHAN VALANIA Back in college — which was longer ago than I care to admit, so let’s just say some time after the Earth cooled but before the Internet — I lived in an old Victorian house that the college owned and subdivided into separate apartments. It was a gathering house for all the freaks and geeks who didn’t quite blend in with the frat-boy-cheerleader-chug-a-lug-date-rape ethos of the main campus. Across the hall my neighbors had set up a de facto commune of 24/7 hacky-sack drum-circling and druggy bird-dogging. Most of […]
MEOW MIX: Sweeping Up After The Party
The story on Gov. Corzine earlier this month was whether his superdelegate vote was in play. If we’re going by The Vest’s front-if-not-center place on the stage at the Bellevue, where he watched Hillary’s speech along with the Nutters, Bill n’ Chelsea and Mrs. Rodham, his vote and phonebanking skillz seem secure. Is he still “reserving the right” to jump ship? Doesn’t sound like it. . . . Speaking of Going O . . . OK. I’ve never interviewed or met Lisa Nutter so this is very much just me talking here. But one gets the feeling that Mrs. Philadelphia […]
HOLY COW: NJ Cop Charged In Barnyard Sex Romp
TRENTONIAN: MOUNT HOLLY — Robert Melia Jr., the Moorestown cop facing accusations of molesting young girls, found himself back in court yesterday charged with committing additional illicit sexual acts. But this time the victim wasn’t human. It was a cow [NOT pictured, above]. The behind-barnyard-doors action was said to have taken place repeatedly during the latter half of 2006 in Southampton Township. The new charges were revealed yesterday by an anonymous source and confirmed by Jack Smith, spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office. Smith said four new complaints against Melia were signed yesterday and that Superior Court Judge John […]
NEWS CLUES: Making U Safer And Sounder Since 2007
Carter Calls Bullshit On Condi Rice, Says Secretary Of State Is L-Y-I-N-G Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of not telling the truth about warnings she said her department gave Carter not to speak to Hamas before a Middle East trip. The State Department has said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, issued the warning before Carter, a veteran of Middle East diplomacy, went on his trip last week. Rice said in Kuwait on Tuesday: “We counseled President Carter against going to the region […]
WORTH REPEATING: ‘Mean, Vacuous, Desperate’
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL: The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election. […] By staying on the attack and not engaging Mr. Obama on the […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
PRETTY IN PINK: The Foals, Johnny Brendas, Last Night BY TIFFANY YOON It was a long day at the polls for Phawker, and the long day almost seemed in vain when Hillary’s Pennsylvania victory was announced. Dejected and upset, Phawker was in need of a drink and some hope. What better way to lift some spirits about the Pennsylvania loss than to watch a band that endorses Barack Obama. Foals is the UK powerpop band that sounds like the result of Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke and the four handsome guys from Battles copulating. Quite an orgy of sound. Fans didn’t […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: From The Finish Line
MAD, HOT BALLROOM: Hillary Clinton Party, Grand Ballroom of the Bellevue, moments ago. [Photos by AMY Z. QUINN] BITTER PILL: Obama Victory Party, The Waterworks Lounge By The Schuylkill, 9:15 [Photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY NICK POWELL Is that all there is to a fire? I was still in line at the buffet when when Keith Olbermann broke the news that Senator Clinton had taken Pennsylvania. I couldn’t really hear what he was saying but the chorus of boos and wails of despair said it all. The night began with an air of excitement as a hundred or so supporters, […]
LIVE & DIRECT: From The Frontlines Of Democracy
BY NICK POWELL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Today Philadelphians and Pennsyltuckians all across the fruited plain of the Keystone State help decide the future of our battered republic, as voters flock to their polling locations. From the hardscrabble row homes of North, South and West Philadelphia to the glass and chrome towers of Center City, Hillary and Obama signs dominated the city’s landscape, as the excitement level for both candidates reaches fever pitch after five relentless weeks of carpet-bomb campaigning. In North Philadelphia, Obama fever seemed to mobilize the very young and the very old in exponentially larger numbers than in past […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
RADIO TIMES w/ MARTY MOSS-COANE Hour One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) CHRIS HEDGES joins Marty to talk about his new book I Don’t Believe in Atheists. Hedges is a former foreign correspondent for The New York Times and a Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute. Listen to this show via Real Audio WIKIPEDIA: Christopher L. Hedges (born 18 September 1956 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont) is a journalist and author, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and society. Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the […]
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW: Lippincott Street
[Photos by JUSTIN ROMAN] BY JEFF DEENEY On Lippincott Street, just east of Kensington Avenue, the entire west-facing wall of one row home is dedicated to Andrew Strimel, a 19-year-old murdered almost a year ago today during what was an outrageous weekend of violence that left 10 dead citywide. His street name, “Ice,” rises balloon-like, as if the fat, graffiti-style writing is filled with helium, afloat above a tiny grass lot between houses. The same name is written everywhere on the surrounding blocks, as if his friends got carried away by their grief, tagging “RIP Andrew” on house facades and […]
ENDORSEMENT: He Is The One
…To Lead Us Out Of The Matrix Of Our Own Bullshit ENDORSEMENT: Phawker, DN Endorse Anne Dicker THE DAILY NEWS: THE 30-YEAR reign of state Sen. Vincent Fumo has both blessed and cursed the First Senatorial District. His 139-count indictment has badly stained the bags of money that he brought home to his district and to the city. And as the architect of the seriously flawed gaming act, he unleashed an unending and unresolvable battle between casino operators and communities, and between the city and the state. Three contenders for his seat are running in next week’s primary. Who is […]
I, POLLSTER: Phawker’s Hilariously Un-Scientific Pennsyltucky Primary Keystoned Cell Phone Poll
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A long time ago, in a Clinton campaign far, far away, James Carville famously declared that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Alabama in between. Aw, yeah: Pennsyltucky. We know thee well. It’s sort of like watching the Dukes Of Hazzard after smoking too much kielbasa. Like sweat socks with a Sunday suit. Like the Deer Hunter costumed by Wal-Mart. It’s the long dark Chicken Dance of the national soul. Lord help us all. Anyway, with the national press are already converging on the Keystone state to get some local color on their laptops, we feel an […]