Introducing: Gaybo, Our New Queer Affairs Column

Editor’s Note: Are you gay and read Phawker? Or just thinking about it? Becoming gay that is. Because, you know, you ‘heard good things.’ Are you straight but curious how the other team plays? Congressman, we have heard your call and answered your prayers. Our Gaydar Editor Tommy Zane is gay all day and queer for a year, and like all gays he is wickedly funny, stylish, tidy and knows from window treatments. He may be going to hell, but most of our straight friends are, too. So, without further ado, we give you the first installment of GAYBO. We’ll […]

Cover Wars: Who’s Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?

OK, first a mea culpa. Since our first installment of this feature, Phawker has learned a valuable lesson: commenting on the pectoral pulchritude of alt-weekly art directors while praising their creative acumen is neither clever nor edgy, it’s hurtful and immature. Sure some people think it’s sexy, but others find it sexist. And that’s just a few letters away from ‘racist.’ And let’s just stop that kind of talk, RIGHT NOW. Anyway, onward and upward. This week is a tough call. Both alt-weeklies have handsome enough covers, for a change. Pictures of handfuls of dangerous drugs always gets our attention. […]

Hell Hath No Fury: Metro Fires Back

We knew damn well we were opening a whole new can of whup-ass with our Metro ass-clowning. And that’s fine, after all, if you’re gonna dish it out you better be willing to take it like a man, too. That’s how it works: you take your best shot, and then we take ours. So here it is — DUCK! — the Metro’s stinging rebuke:   Dear Phawker, Glad you dug the Week that Was. I almost cut the healthcare answer to get the Sweeney answer in, but it was too good. We at Metro have long since surpassed the monkey […]

PBR: Bolt-Throwing Gods of Hockey Angry, Smite Hitchcock; Whistling Past Smoking Hole In The Ice, Bobby Clarke Quits To Spend More Time With Fam

So the Flyers tried the old stealth firing, under cover of darkness and the Sabbath: Lower the boom on a Sunday morning just hours before a Birds game for minimum fallout. New Flyers Head Coach (former Phantoms coach John Stevens) and general manager (assistant G.M. Paul Holmgren) just magically appear in Voorhees on Monday. Not so fast Ed Snider and Peter Luukko. You’re living in the New Media age. You should know Comcast SportsNet is going to halt the five-hour loop of SportsRise, get Michael Barkann, Neil Hartman and Al Morganti (guess the Erotic Caf? was closed) out of bed […]

Party People Alert: Emergency Kegger At Vox Populi

From: sean@r5productions.com Subject: [R5] VOX POPULI BENEFIT THIS SUNDAY w/ BANDS AND BEER ! Date: October 20, 2006 3:10:22 PM EDT To: r5productions@lists1.safesecureweb.com Hello – Just a quick note about a benefit worth attending this weekend…For those who are not in the know – Vox Populi is an local galley/collective who are being forced out of their building due to Philadelphia Convention Center expansion. This displacement and move is going to cost Vox several tens of thousands dollars. Here’s the PW story with all the gory details.

Outrage: Phawker Phucked By Metro

File this under Mountain Range Made Out Of Mole Hill. As previously reported, the Metro named us Celeb of the Week. There was a ticker tape parade. Lotsa confetti. Oversized key to the city. Everybody dancing to “Louie Louie.” The whole nine yards. (Lil’ known fact, the Metro Celeb of the Week gets to smoke WHEREVER he/she fuckin’ feels like it. Like it’s America again, or something. But this only applies for the duration of the week of your celebdom, after that it’s back to the curb with the rest of the shivering punters. As per usual, we abused this […]

PBR: Does Dr. J Got The Benjamins To Buy The Sixers? And Why Stephen A. Smith Makes Us Want To Saw Our Cocks Off

The Daily News‘ Phil Jasner has some Deep Throat dish on Dr. J putting together a consortium to buy the Sixers from Comcast-Spectacor. I haven’t been this stoked about a celebrity assembling a group to purchase a local team since former Gong Show host and C.I.A. operative Chuck Barris (with silent partners Jamie Farr, Jaye P. Morgan and the Unknown Comic) tried to purchase the Phillies from the Carpenter family in the ’80s. Hey, we’re basically riding out the A.I. era at this point and stockpiling midlevel draft picks. This definitely qualifies as big news for the Sixers…Stephen A. Smith. […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

Monkey Heaven: Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, a.k.a. Black Francis, a.k.a. Frank Black, a.k.a. Frank Black Francis, World Cafe Live, October 19, 2006 Flickr: More Please Related: Death To The Pixies! Related: Airport Comfort Inn, The Bermuda Triangle of Band Gear Previously: Frank Black Ripped Off In Philly, at the motherfucking COMFORT INN?  

PBR: The Lonesome Horny Death Of PRISM

Big ups to the 700 Level (Even if they didn’t know Joe Morgan played for the Phillies. Hello? The Wheeze Kids?) for posting video of PRISM’s fond farewell. This poignant goodbye from baseball/college basketball analyst Larry Rosen (who I’m certain is still calling hoops somewhere) followed the rarest of occasions — a Phillies victory in 1997. Sadly, I think the channel faded to black about halfway through Larry’s spiel. Anyway, for you youngins and transplants out there, PRISM (Philadelphia Regional In-Home Sports and Movies) was a local cable channel catering to males from the late ’70s through 1997. They broadcasted […]

PBR: Reggie Brown Is NOT Rick James, Bitch!

The biggest source of suck for regional sports networks like the ever-metastasizing Comcast SportsNet franchise is that after the games end, there’s a lot of airtime to fill. There’s only so much pre- and post-game analysis the audience can metabolize before they get the runs. Ditto the newspaper-sponsored round tables where goateed talking heads play devil’s advocate and rehash yesterday’s analysis. What you’re left with is LOTS of paid programming, the occasional CFL grudge match between Hamilton and Calgary and “original” programming like the trainwreck I forced myself to watch last night: CSN’s Monday Night Live. The premise: the likeable, […]