According to the online encyclopedia – which has a well-earned checkered reputation as both an everyman’s Britannica and a site where bias, slander and outright untruths reign – Mayor Street once played Bozo the Clown. Wikipedia’s bio on the mayor included: “At the same time that Street practiced law, he also began a media career in Philadelphia. Street worked for television station WPSG-TV and, for a four-year period, he played the character Bozo the Clown on Philadelphia’s Bozo the Clown children’s television show. When Street ran for Philadelphia City Council, he ceased his media career.” “I’m sure that isn’t true,” […]
THE NEW PANIC: Toe Sucker Strikes Again
In just about every case, the attacker ordered his victims to remove their shoes. He then checked for hidden money and groped or sucked their feet. He also fondled the genitals of one victim and penetrated another woman’s rectal area with his finger, another officer said. In the latest incident, the woman was on Aspen Street, near 25th Street, where a taxi had dropped her off, when the man approached her and held a gun to her head, police said. She screamed, and he ordered her to keep quiet and walk three blocks with him to a small park off […]
MILESTONE: Academy of Music Turns 150, Considering Chin Tuck And Getting Eyes ‘Done’
The academy had a grand ball on January 26th, 1857, and after America’s first opera house premiered Verdi’s ?Il Trovatore? that same year, it has been in continuous use ever since.The “open horseshoe” shape design has offered more visibility than most opera houses to the audience seated on both sides of the balconies, surrounding a 5,000 pound crystal chandelier, which was loaded with gas burners, until it was electrified in 1900. Legendary singers have performed there from Maria Callas to Enrico Caruso. The world renowned Philadelphia Orchestra spent more than 100 seasons in the academy, until it moved down the […]
SORE LOSER: CITY PAPER Protests Judge’s Call In This Week’s COVER WARS, Cites PW’s Blatant ‘Visual Plagiarism’ — Is That Even A Thing?
You be the judge. UPDATE: Turns out there is such a thing as ‘visual plagiarism’ — in Richmond, Virginia. And ONLY in Richmond, Virginia, it would seem (read this, this is an assinine firing by piss-poor managment, it’s an INTERN for Chrissakes, you fire them for blowing the President not for hitting a foul ball on the job). Frankly, we’re more interested in talking about why these kids’ legs are blown off instead of who wins the race to get a photogenic Iraq vet double amputee on the cover. Don’t hate the messenger, hate the message.
EARLY WORD: SUGAR, SUGAR
Phawker headquarters itself in a secure undisclosed location on the mean cobblestoned streets of the O.C. and not a day goes by on the nearby stretch of North Third when we don’t find ourselves accosted, albeit pleasantly so, by a pack of suburban Jersey coeds, dressed to the nines in their best approximation of season four Sex In The City. Usually, they are being skippered by a hip mom in a furry bucket hat and she’s the one that usually asks, “excuse me can you tell me where…” and we always finish their sentences for them: “Let me guess, […]
Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
OK, gloves off. CP’s Rennie Harris puppeteer cover is straight out of the Big Book Of Alt-Weekly Arts Cover Cliches, though the bordello-red tones ARE gorgeous. That’s compared only to itself, when you put it next to PW’s double amputee Iraq vet shocker, CP looks like the wop who brought a knife to a gun fight with Sean Connery in The Untouchables. It’s a hard slog for city-based alt-weekly to telescope their mandate into national stories like the abattoir Iraq, but returning local vets are the most obvious entree into the war beat and PW’s Cassidy Hartmann has found a […]
FINAL INDIGNITY: Rocky Theme Stolen By Drunks
Actually, good luck with that. RELATED: Iggles Fans Force New Orleans Man To Sing For His Coors Lite Supper
Company Response To Guild Diversity Complaints: Seniority Rule Is Colorblind & Indestructible
Melanie Burney, an Inquirer reporter who attended the meeting, said the group was upset that the recent layoffs involved a “disproportionate” number of minorities. While the Inquirer newsroom is just 18% minority, some 28% of those laid off were minority employees, she said. During the meeting, Tierney agreed to form a diversity committee for the two papers to study the issue, but stopped short of making any changes to the layoffs list, Burney said. “I wanted to see something concrete happen today,” Burney told E&P. “An immediate solution, but we did not get any. I wanted too hear that there […]
GUNCRAZY: Is That A Gun Under Your Crested Blazer Or Are Just REALLY Pissed To See Me?
(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Police are searching for several young suspects after a shooting outside a school in West Philadelphia. Authorities said a 17-year-old male was shot at least three times in the leg outside Sayre Middle High School near 59th and Spruce. The victim was taken to the Children?s Hospital of Pennsylvania. His condition is unknown. Three young males, possibly wearing school uniforms, were seen running from the scene following the shooting. Police recovered a gun one block away at 59th and Walnut. No arrests have been made. KYW: We’ll Settle This Like Men, After Gym Class
JACKASS FUNHOUSE: Iggy & The Stooges To Play Bam Margera’s Wedding, Said To Be Working Up Really Friggin’ Awesome Smear-Yourself-In-Peanut-Butter And Roll In Broken Glass Version Of ‘Electric Slide’
Rock legends Iggy and the Stooges will perform at the Feb. 2 wedding of Bam Margera and Missy Rothstein. So will The Sounds. “Jackass” troublemaker Margera announced the news on his Sirius Satellite Radio show on Monday. Margera and Rothstein are being followed by MTV for a new series, “Bam’s Unholy Union,” which premieres Jan. 30. The wedding will be held at an as-yet- undisclosed location in the area, and we’re told the couple had a difficult time finding a spot because a few locations turned them down, afraid the hellraiser, or his cronies, would tear their place apart. DAN […]
ALMOST FAMOUS: ‘F*CK Da Eagles’ Chick’s 15 Minute Fame Clock Already Ticking
LOTS OF FANS responded to my request for alternate suggestions as to the story behind the young lady wearing the “(Bleep) Da Eagles” T-shirt on camera during the Fox telecast of Saturday’s game. Many were creative but unprintable. The image and story behind it have taken on a life of their own, to the point where Maxim magazine is looking for the woman for a possible photo spread. (With actual winged, feathered, strategically placed eagles, one would hope… maybe they can borrow the one Stephen Colbert uses in the opening to his show.) — Reader Mitch Gerhart feels there is […]
Why Do We Have To Go To England To Read Joe Queenan’s Definitive Critique Of the Rocky Franchise?
Throughout the saga, Balboa has been lionized by the cowed American press as the champion of working stiffs everywhere, a lovable lummox with a particularly strong psychic connection to blue-collar Philadelphians. Philadelphia, in fact, is a city whose population is roughly 50 per cent African-American, the vast majority of whom are working-class. I cannot recall the last time any film critic went out and asked black residents of the City of Brotherly Love what psychic connection they felt with a fictional thug from a section of a city not widely known for its affection toward minorities. It’s worth noting that […]
GUNCRAZY: Cops Bag Third Trophy Kill Of The Year
By Joseph A. Gambardello INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A robbery suspect was fatally wounded after a running gun battle with police this morning in Port Richmond. Police were investigating the possibility that the man shot himself in the head about the same time as a police officer fired one round into the man’s shoulder area. During the gunbattle, the man fired about 10 shots at police, including three bullets into the side of a patrol car. […] “He was determined not to get caught,” said Capt. Ben Naish, a police department spokesman. Police said they recovered a bag with money next […]