Boss, Here’s a link to a brand new John Train song called “Where Were We? (for John Prine).” The lyrics and credits are in the description as well as a link to my Phawker piece on Prine. I first encountered Prine via my father’s record collection (which is how I discovered the majority of music that still means the most to me!). He had a copy of Common Sense which remains my second favorite Prine LP (Aimless Love from 1984 has always been my number one). I first saw Prine live in 1988, opening up for Johnny Cash at the […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: John Barry, author of the 2004 book, The Great Influenza, draws parallels between today’s pandemic and the flu of 1918. In both cases, he says, “the outbreak was trivialized for a long time.” MORE DISCOVERY MEDICINE: The great influenza pandemic began in 1918 and ended in 1920. Worldwide, the virus itself caused an estimated 20 to 100 million deaths most of which occurred between September 1918 and early 1919. In the U.S., with about 105 million people at the time, the virus killed approximately 675,000. Conventionally influenza causes its mortality among the elderly and infants due to their […]
35 YEARS AGO: ‘The Roof Is On Fire/We Don’t Need No Water Let The Motherf*ckers Burn’
IMMORTAL TRUTHZ: On 13 May 1985, Philadelphia police bombed the MOVE compound, killing 11 people, including five children, and destroying an entire neighbourhood which left more than 250 people homeless. The counter-cultural group lived communally and had a history of violent encounters with police. The raid stands as the only aerial bombing carried out by police on US soil. MOVE ~ a mostly black, radical organisation that believed in shedding technology and “man-made law” in favour of “natural law”. After years of antagonism with police, Move had fortified a rowhome on Osage Avenue as their headquarters. They boarded up walls, […]
THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: Nirvana At JC Dobbs
Sad, sad news. We received word today that Tom Sheehy, aka The Colonel — longtime Philly music publicist/scenester/historian, storied music biz vet, barroom philosopher, perennial guest list fixture, late-blooming recipient of a Ph.D. in 20th-century American History from Penn, colonel in the ‘MMaRmy, and frequent Phawker contributor — passed away this weekend. This week we will honor his memory by re-posting some of his greatest Phawker hits. We conclude our weeklong tribute to The Colonel with his 2011 remembrance of the night Nirvana honored a longstanding booking at J.C. Dobbs on October 1st 1991, one week after the release of […]
THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: The Life Of Brian
Brian Jones performs w/ The Rolling Stones @ Atlantic City 1966 EDITOR’S NOTE: Sad, sad news. We received word on Sunday that Tom Sheehy, aka The Colonel — longtime Philly music publicist/scenester/historian, storied music biz vet, barroom philosopher, perennial guest list fixture, late-blooming recipient of a P.H.D. in 20th Century American History from Penn, colonel in the ‘MMaRmy, and frequent Phawker contributor — passed away this weekend. This week we will honor his memory by re-posting some of his greatest Phawker hits. Today we’re re-posting The Colonel’s 2011 remembrance of seeing The Rolling Stones at the Steel Pier in Atlantic […]
THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: Pictures Of Lily Philly
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sad, sad news. We received word on Sunday that Tom Sheehy, aka The Colonel — longtime Philly music publicist/scenester/historian, storied music biz vet, barroom philosopher, perennial guest list fixture, late-blooming recipient of a P.H.D. in 20th Century American History from Penn, colonel in the ‘MMaRmy, and frequent Phawker contributor — passed away this weekend. This week we will honor his memory by re-posting some of his greatest Phawker hits. Today we’re re-posting The Colonel’s 2011 remembrance of (almost) seeing The Who and The Pink Floyd at JFK Stadium in 1968. MORE BY COLONEL TOM SHEEHY If you think […]
THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: The Beatles At JFK
[Photos of The Beatles backstage at JFK by BOB BONIS courtesy of NFAgallery.com] EDITOR’S NOTE: Sad, sad news. We received word on Sunday that Tom Sheehy, aka The Colonel — longtime Philly music publicist/scenester/historian, storied music biz vet, barroom philosopher, perennial guest list fixture, late-blooming recipient of a Ph.D. in 20th Century American History from Penn, colonel in the ‘MMaRmy, and frequent Phawker contributor — passed away this weekend. This week we will honor his memory by re-posting some of his greatest Phawker hits. Today we’re re-posting The Colonel’s 2011 remembrance of seeing The Beatles at JFK in 1966. MORE […]
THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: Me & Keef
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sad, sad news. We received word today that Tom Sheehy, aka The Colonel — longtime Philly music publicist/scenester/historian, storied music biz vet, barroom philosopher, perennial guest list fixture, late-blooming recipient of a Ph.D. in 20th Century American History from Penn, colonel in the ‘MMaRmy, and frequent Phawker contributor — passed away this weekend. This week we will honor his memory by re-posting some of his greatest Phawker hits. We begin with his beloved Rolling Stones and the time he snuck into Keith Richards hotel room in New York in 1969. We will also be re-posting his remembrances of […]
MT VENGEANCE: May Day
PREVIOUSLY: The ’90s were a helluva drug. You really had to be there, kid, but suffice it to say it was 10 years of unprecedented peace and prosperity, a pot in every chicken, 2.5 SUVs in every garage, a Clinton was president and Donald Trump ran beauty contests instead of the free world. In the ’90s, the Internet went public and we all become tech stock billionaires overnight — all of us — selling dog bones over the World Wide Web, which was what we called the Interwebs back then, as was the style of the day. Good. Times. Music […]
THE POGOS: Fuck Shit Up
Delco skatepunk at its finest. RELATED: The Pogos
DISPATCHES: My Life Under Quarantine
The author sheltering-in-place in an island paradise. Photo by David Collins BY DILLON ALEXANDER When I got a job teaching high school social studies in Hawaii, people tried to scare me with stories of island fever. Having lived here, on the most remote island chain in the world, for almost two years, I had a few pangs, but nothing to write home about. Now take that island fever, and add a pandemic and consequent mandatory-shelter-in-place order, and what do you have? Island Fever + Cabin Fever = Total Insanity? No, not for me. But I’m lucky and I know it. […]
DISPATCHES: My Life Under Quarantine
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve asked Phawker contributors to send in dispatches describing their lives under quarantine. Enjoy. BY DYLAN LONG I got let off of work in the middle of my shift. We turned the lights off and began disinfecting the store for a final time. Card readers, chairs, counters, clothing racks, the works. Rumors floated about that the whole city was shutting down. It was mid-March. Our store’s shutting down felt overdue, but thankfully, the company I work for was giving us two weeks paid leave. I left work and walked straight down to the Wine & Spirits store, which […]
DISPATCHES: My Life Under Quarantine
Photo by JOHN WEINSTEIN BY KYLE WEINSTEIN I was student teaching 10th graders at a charter school in Philly when they closed the schools. Up until then, I was drowning in sub-par essays with thesis statements like “Through the use of symbolism in which represents love illustrates that love could be real but also hurtful,” and supporting topic sentences like “First, Shakespeare is fake.” My temples have been rubbed raw and my brow muscles are Hulked-up from excessive furrowing. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the teaching has its rewards, like when a kid visited me after the final bell rang […]
