BY TIFFANY YOON LIVING ARTS CORRESPONDENT Every First Friday of the month, galleries around the city graciously open their doors and bottles of wine for both the local hipster Great Unwashed looking to get buzzed cheap and beret-clad tourista Philistines from suburbs in search of a little BMW boho-edge. Local merchants and busking musicians line the sidewalks, creating a de facto slalom of hand-made bric-a-brac and subterranean homesick blues. Yes, cynics may bitch, but First Friday is nothing short of an embarrassment of riches and we are not afraid to say so. Having long-since outgrown the gentrified confines of Old […]
TONITE: Ten Years Loaded
[Click to activate Internets]
Bubba In Town To Kiss The Ring Of Dem Party Bosses
INQUIRER: Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to address the city’s Democratic ward leaders tomorrow to pitch his wife’s candidacy while on a campaign swing through Philadelphia, party sources said.The 69 ward leaders were scheduled for a regular meeting and may consider endorsements in the April 22 primary, when in addition to the presidential race, state lawmakers, row offices and members of Congress will be on the ballot. Insiders do not expect the leaders to come to an agreement between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in the presidential race; already several African American ward leaders have declared they are […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Everything I Needed To Know About Hip-Hop I Learned From Lady B’ Early Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN 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 […]
The Road Of Excess Leads To The Palace Of Wisdom*
*William Blake, 1757-1827
A VERY SPECIAL CONTEST: How To Win Two Tix To Watch The Wire Finale With Mayor Nutter At City Hall!
Just answer this question: Who wrote (wrote, not performs) the song that plays during The Wire‘s opening credits? Send your answers ASAP to feed@phawker.com and you could be our very lucky winner! Why? Because we love you! UPDATE: We have a winner! The response was overwhelming, thanks to everyone for playing! PREVIOUSLY: Mayor Nutter To Host City Hall Screening Of The Wire Finale FRESH AIR ON WHYY: Novelist and screenwriter Richard Price discusses his latest novel, Lush Life, which follows the repercussions of a shooting on the Lower East side. Price has written extensively about the realities of inner city […]
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES: Dumb & Dumber
BY JEFF DEENEY Last night Susan Jacoby spoke to a full house at the Free Library about her book, “The Age of American Unreason.” Jacoby is a Pulitzer Prize finalist who over 25 years has contributed regularly to the Post, the Times, Harper’s, etc. Jacoby’s book picks up where late Columbia professor Richard Hofstadter‘s Pulitzer winning Anti-intellectualism in American Life left off in 1963. Fresh off the McCarthy-era, Hofstadter’s book argued that America’s intellectual life was in decline. Since Hofstadter’s day, Jacoby claims, America’s intellectual life hasn’t been in decline so much as it has fallen off a cliff. She […]
SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE: The Rockist Part 1
School of Language plays the M Room on Saturday.
BLOCKED: No Redeeming Social Or Educational Value
This just came in over the transom from a loyal Phawker reader and Philadelphia School District employee. It appears that Phawker has been deemed ‘Innappropriate For Our Educational Environment’ by the Philadelphia School District. Well, there goes our evil plan to turn the youth of Philadelphia into informed and engaged citizens. If Phawker is blocked at your place of employment, let us know at feed@phawker.com. Include a screen grab JPEG of block notice we will post it up like a red badge of courage. After all, nothing draws ’em in like the lure of the forbidden.
PBS FOR THE HUNGRY: ‘Philly Food’ Debuts Tonight
BY AMY Z. QUINN Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews, you say? Well, I’ve been suspicious of the little bites o’ peanutty goodness since back in ’05 when the company was sold to Just Born Inc. and they started tinkering with the recipes. But I can forgive, since no list of so-called Philly foods would be complete without my all-time favorite candy. For them alone, I’m planning to check out tonight’s premiere of a new WHYY original, The Philly Food Show, an Ed Cunningham production exploring all the usual local munchies and then some. Yes, cheesesteaks and hoagies and pretzels and scrapple (crisp, […]
WHY WE LIKE MIKE: He ‘Gets’ The Wire
PHILLY CLOUT: Mayor Nutter is such a huge fan of the gritty HBO drama, The Wire, that he has organized a special City Hall screening of the series finale Sunday night. Wendell Pierce, the actor who portrays affable Detective Bunk Moreland, is scheduled to attend. Nutter hopes other actors from the show will sign on also. City Representative Melanie Johnson said that after the 8 p.m. screening in the Mayor’s Reception Room, Nutter will host a question and answer session with the actors. Johnson said the roughly 100 tickets for the screening would be evenly divided between invited guests and […]