TO: PHAWKER FROM: Michael Smerconish DATE: 2/6/07 SUBJECT: Me! I want you to be among the first to hear some personal/professional news. I’ve just agreed to write a weekly column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. No, hell has not frozen over. (Thank goodness for global warming or it might have.) While I’ve had plenty to say about the Inquirer over the years, I have never denied that it IS the newspaper of record for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The invitation for me to come aboard suggests that the Inquirer truly wishes to broaden the blend of opinion offered in its […]
Laying The Giant Money Laundering Pipes That Used To Grease The Wheels Of City Hall With Filthy Lucre
[Photo Courtesy of PhillyHistory.org] The City of Philadelphia?s photo archive contains over 2 million images that date back as far as the late 1800s, i.e. the last time a Republican won in this town. In all seriousness, this is an INCREDIBLE visual record of the city?s evolution and a relatively new web site, PhillyHistory.org, is making it available for online consumption and purchase. To date, some 22,000 images have been digitally scanned, at a rate of roughly 2,000 images a month. So, if you?ve been wondering why the line at Kinko?s is so godamnned SLOW, well, now you know. Phawker […]
BREAKING: Fumo Steps Down, Fed Indictment Pending
HARRISBURG — State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, under FBI scrutiny for four years, took to the senate floor today and announced he expects to be indicted this week, proclaimed his innocence and said he plans to vigorously defend the allegations against him. In a cadence at times defiant, at times mournful, Fumo (D., Phila.) said he would step down as the ranking Democrat on the powerful senate Appropriations Committee, but would continue serving in the chamber as he fights the expected charges against him. “I know in my heart that I have not done anything illegal,” said Fumo in a […]
Swiss Bank Opens Local Branch, A Little Too Late To Cash In On The Golden Age Of City Hall Corruption
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Credit Suisse is pleased to announce that it will open a Private Banking USA office in Philadelphia to serve the wealth management needs of the growing number of high-net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals in the region. The office will be headed by Richard Jaff?, who joins Credit Suisse as a Managing Director. The office opening is another example of Credit Suisse?s strategy to expand its presence in major US wealth markets. […] Credit Suisse is one of the world’s leading private banks, with a 150 year history of serving the unique needs of wealthy individuals. Private […]
NO KIDDING: Councilman Wants Rubber Sidewalks And An Octopus’ Garden In The Sky
Philadelphia, PA (AHN) – A member of the Philadelphia City Council says he will be holding hearings on a number of environmentally friendly city projects, one of them being making sidewalks out of rubber. City Councilman at large Jim Kenney said the rubber sidewalks, which are made from recycled tires, do not crack and will last longer than sidewalks made out of concrete. However, the new sidewalks won’t enable people to bounce — rather than walk — down the street. He said they rubber will be very solid. “It’s a very solid material,” he said, according to AP. “Probably harder […]
THE FIVE SPOT BURNED DOWN
A four-alarm fire destroyed a well-known city nightclub yesterday morning, filling several blocks of Old City with thick black smoke and shutting down traffic in parts of the busy neighborhood for much of the day. At least one wall collapsed at the Five Spot – a complex of four buildings on narrow Bank Street just south of Market Street – and emergency workers were preparing last night to demolish another that looked unstable. Firefighters needed two hours to control the blaze after it was reported at 9:31 a.m., but they were still dousing the smoky ruins well into the afternoon. […]
FILM: ERASERHEAD NOW 1977-2007
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC By now, after 10 feature films, assorted shorts and TV’s weirdest nighttime soap, we have mapped many of the dark recesses of the psyche of writer/director David Lynch. We know just what provocations push his buttons. We can relax into a comfort zone now while Lynch unleashes his expected tropes — the bugs twitching underground, the violent sex, the ironic old pop songs, the flashes of gore and morphing identities. Yet somehow, despite his mannerisms becoming ever more familiar, the years have done little to dull the effect of Lynch’s debut masterpiece, 1977’s sleepwalking vision […]
OBAMA TO MEDIA: STOP HURTING AMERICA
Illinois Senator Barack Obama made a plea for a positive campaign, insisting that the “reality tv show” mentality fed by the 24-hour news cycle is “not why we are here.” Describing America as being in a “sobering place” Obama said this is “not a contest; it is a serious moment for America. The American people understand that. Every candidate will have something serious and valuable to offer. Campaigns should not be about making each other look bad but about how we can offer something good for this precious country of ours. Our rivals won’t be each other or the other […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
DAYDREAM HIBERNATION: Grizzly Bear, Johnny Brendas, February 1, 2007 [FLICKR] EVA SAYS: When Grizzly Bear took stage at Johnny Brenda?s, they had all odds working against them- their stupid band name, the pretentiously hip crowd (spotting a member of Man Man in the mass, my friend swooned over the time the two of them used to spend together at the Last Drop. GAG!), and most distractingly, the suffocating veil of hype generated from Pitchfork. But last night they faced an even greater challenge, otherwise known as The Dirty Projectors, who had just finished playing one of the best live sets […]
GAMBLOR: Trump Super Pissed To Learn He Has No Real World Authority To Tell Rendell ‘You’re Fired!’
Donald Trump lost his bid to run a slots casino in Philadelphia because he flunked the first lesson of real estate – location. Trump picked the wrong one. He had wanted to build his $350 million TrumpStreet Casino complex in a struggling industrial neighborhood on the edge of North Philadelphia. But the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board concluded that was the wrong place for a casino, and said yesterday that was largely why it rejected Trump’s proposal in favor of two riverfront parcels. […] Trump was unhappy. “That was the governor’s decision, and he has to live with it,” Trump said […]
GUNCRAZY: Sometimes Strangers Know You Better Than You Do
In Philadelphia, homicides rose 7 percent to a nine-year high of 406 last year, giving it the highest murder rate per 100,000 people among America’s 10 biggest cities, according to a survey of police departments by the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, which keeps a running tally. Philadelphia, with a population of about 1.5 million, also has the highest poverty rate — 25 percent — among those cities. The deadly cocktail of poverty and violence mirrors that of some other major U.S. cities such as Houston and San Antonio, where poverty rates are similar and homicides registered double-digit increases last year. New […]