BY DAVID R. STAMPONE WEST COAST CORRESPONDENT Many folks here in the 215 have closely followed the career of one John Reis, even if said guy is as essentially San Diegan as voted-in-Tuesday Baseball Hall of Famer Tony “Mr. Padre” Gwynn. His groups have always been well-received in the Delaware Valley (as is his weekly free-form radio show “The Swami Sound System,” heard online at www.fm949sd.com starting 1 am every Sunday). And, actually, two of his biggest bands each had a Philadelphia story. NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! Hot Snakes began as an SD/Philly two-dudes-in-two-cities project, with Reis rocking guitar/bass […]
PBR: Playoff Foreplay, How Much Do YOU Need?
BY PATRICK BERKERY Love these Nerf-ish Eagles profiles the local news roll outs during the playoffs. Dunno know about you, but nothing gets me ready for game day more than a reporter who knows nothing about football hanging with player X and his trophy wife at some atrocity of a Toll Brothers home in south Jersey, while the rugrats zip around in toy Hummers in the background. Are you ready for some playoff football? This “On the Sidelines” report from Fox 29’s Michelle Williams is a little different. Watch as she “ooohs” and “aaahs” at long snapper/magician Jon Dorenbos’s card […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Stephen A. Smith Speaks Out ‘Quite Frankly’ On ESPN2 Cancellation, Buzz Dissinger, And Will He Or Won’t He Take One For The Team
From: stephenaREDACTED Subject: Re: Request For Comment Date: January 12, 2007 4:55:17 PM EST To: PHAWKER Yes, it’s true, and I support ESPN’s decision. Doing a brand new show on ESPN2 was a tremendous challenge to begin with. I did my best, helped along by a tremendous staff, and I’m proud of what we accomplished. I’ve learned a great deal. I’ve also learned there’s limits to what I can withstand in regards to my schedule. Now I move on to future challenges — while enthusiastically embracing old ones like writing for the Inquirer on a more frequent basis I’m still […]
No Good Journalist Goes Unpunished
TO: The Inquirer In my high school yearbook, I stated two goals: Owning the New York Yankees and winning a Pulitzer Prize. This was the late 80s. And who was winning all the Pulitzers? The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Inquirer was my first journalism job: a correspondent in the two-year program. I left to work in New Orleans, then returned to Philadelphia six years later. I thought The Inquirer would be my last journalism job. For four years, I had the opportunity to work with people I liked and respected. I was given the chance to travel and write stories from […]
Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
Whenever we would see sisters around town rockin’ a black burqa in the August swelter, we would wonder aloud: Why would a modern Western black woman become a Muslim? It just seemed to us like trading one form of slavery for another, especially for women. And then we heard an NPR interview with a Muslim sister that asked this very question and her answer, transcribed from memory, had a sad but compelling logic: In a world where I walk around unveiled and get called ‘bitch’ & ‘ho’ routinely, Islam offers less freedom but more respect. Word, that. However, it depresses […]
GUNCRAZY: Two Damn Fools Shoot Each Other Over How Tall James Brown Was, Not Was
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) – A man shot a friend when the two got into an argument over James Brown’s height, police said. Dan Gulley Jr. was charged with assault in the shooting of David James Brooks Jr., police said. Officers said the men were at a friend’s home on Monday when, according to witnesses, the argument over the height of the late “Godfather of Soul” escalated, with Gulley, 70, shooting Brooks, 62, twice in the abdomen. Brooks went to his car, got a gun and shot at Gulley but missed, then went to the police station, officers said. Gulley also […]
PBR: Burrell Trade To Red Sox In The Offing? Shhhh…
BY PATRICK BERKERY Name-dropping: it isn’t just for sycophant promo-sexuals anymore. (I’m not naming names, but if you’re feeling a little hot in your complimentary My Morning Jacket fleece pullover, as your Shins advance plays in the background and you’re meeting Irv Fucknut from Suck My Dick records for dinner at the Tin Angel tonight before some emerging singer-songwriter’s 7:30 set, then, yeah, I’m looking right at you.) So humor me, and my little brush with baseball genius. I participated in the annual Hot Stove Cool Music benefit concerts in Boston last weekend. Lots of baseball dignitaries like ESPN’s Peter […]
SINS OF THE FATHER: Dad Of Greatest Constitutional Violator In Modern Memory Is Elected Chairman Of The Board Of Constitution Center — Apparently Nixon’s Ghost Was Unavailable
January 11, 2007 Dear Friend: I am delighted to write and share with you some very exciting news about the future leadership of the National Constitution Center. It is with great pride that I announce that former President George H.W. Bush has been elected Chairman of the Center?s Board of Trustees for the year 2007. This is the only Chairmanship he holds currently, so we are especially touched that he has agreed to serve in this capacity. President Bush occupies a special and beloved place in American life that reflects many of this institution?s core values, especially the ethic of […]
LOCAL GIRL MAKES GOOD: Former Fixture Of Area Poetry Slams Voted Into Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame
BY AMY Z. QUINN She’s hardly the most famous performer to ever come out of Jersey — The Boss and The Chairman Of The Board still hold those titles — but without a doubt, Patti Smith, the High Poetess of Punk, remains the greatest communicator of the kind of nameless electric angst that drives Kids In Search Of Something to head north on the Jersey Turnpike and never look back. When Patti beat it out of Gloucester County, fleeing a factory job and a year short of her degree at then-Glassboro State Teacher’s College, she was armed with a book […]
GUNCRAZY: Vowing To End Blizzard Of Hot Lead, Dueling Mayoral Candidates Show Off Battle Scars From Back When They Were KEEPIN’ IT REAL, Yo
Mayoral candidates U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and state Rep. Dwight Evans [NOT pictured, right] yesterday both claimed to have been struck by gunfire during their teen years. Fattah said he was struck in the legs by a shotgun blast in the mid-1970s while breaking up a gunfight and was treated at Mercy Hospital in West Philadelphia. Evans said he was working in food services at Rolling Hill Hospital in Elkins Park in 1969 when a co-worker accidentally dropped a gun. It hit the floor, went off and sent a bullet ricocheting off his ear, Evans said. Both mentioned their battle […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER On her debut, the deftly titled Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Emily Haines sets her husky alto whisper against melancholy piano chords and waltzing rhythm beds, coloring her reveries with mournful strings, funereal brass and swooning Moog atmospherics. Performing Sunday night in the cathedral of the sold-out First Unitarian Church, Haines was backed by Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor and ex-Mercury Rev bassist Paul Dillon – neither man a stranger to the notion of a light touch making the silences in between the notes positively deafening – and Moog operator-projectionist Todor Kobakov. A comely blonde […]
PULP FICTION: Local Noir Lit Geeks Celebrate Legacy Of Philadelphia’s Forgotten BARTON FINK
Though [David] Goodis enjoyed early success, he spent the last decades of his life in relative seclusion, living at his parents’ house in East Oak Lane, helping to care for Herbert, his schizophrenic brother. Since his death in early 1967, the author’s name and work have grown increasingly obscure. After his second novel, 1946’s Dark Passage, was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post, Goodis was given a lucrative contract as a scriptwriter by Warner Bros., and installed in William Faulkner’s former office in Hollywood. The 1947 film version, with Humphrey Bogart as a wanted fugitive hunting for his wife’s killer, […]