Felix DeJesus with living room shrine to his daughter Gina, Cleveland, March 3, 2004. NEW YORKER: Ramsey’s 911 call is transfixing. “Yeah hey bro,” it begins, “you check this out.” His intensity, the McDonald’s shout-out, his undoubtedly loose paraphrase of Berry’s account (“This motherfucker done kidnapped me and my daughter”), and also his competence (he does a better job with the essentials like the address than the 911 operator) make him one of those instantly compelling figures who, in the middle of an American tragedy, just start talking—and then we can’t stop listening. MORE CBS NEWS: Chains were hanging from […]
BEING THERE: The New Drunk Drivers
Desmond’s Tavern, NYC, 4:13 pm Friday. By JONATHAN VALANIA
BEING THERE: Daughter @ Union Transfer
Photo by PETE TROSHAK British trio Daughter packed the house at the Union Transfer Friday night, impressing an overflowing crowd with their moody swirling tales of lost love. The show was originally slated for the tiny First Unitarian Church but overwhelming demand for tickets resulted in it being relocated to a larger venue. Not bad for a band that reminisced on stage about their first U.S. show being in Philly and playing to just a handful of people a few years ago. Playing in black and red shadows and darkness, they kicked off their set with the long fragile album […]
OUT ON ASSIGNMENT: In Bob We Trust
Gonna be out of the office today so posting will be light. Gotta go up to NYC and drink beer and talk about records with this guy. I know, I know. It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it. Check our Twitter stream in the coming hours if you are curious. In the meantime, enjoy this snazzy essay on GBV’s SUITCASE: Failed Experiments & Trashed Aircraft from 2000. If that’s a little too inside baseball for you, try this heart-tugging Bob Pollard/Kim Deal duet on “Love Hurts,” which is, depending on the day, either my favorite thing either […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See The Presets @ UT Sun.
Though we’ve already filed these guys under THOSE WHO DID NOT LIVE THRU THE ’80S ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT THEM AND HAVING LIVED THRU THEM WE WOULD NOT WISH THEM ON ANYBODY but be that as it may, the kids have spoken. Two million views on YouTube can’t be wrong, right?And besides, we do like this dude’s taste in headwear. Anybody who wears a hat like that can’t be all bad. As such, we have a pair of tix to give away Presets & Dragonette, who have similarly dubious taste in decades, at Union Transfer on Sunday. To qualify […]
ARTSY: Knights Arts Challenge Winners Circle
The Knight Arts Challenge asked one simple question: What’s your best idea for the arts? There were only three rules for applying: 1) The idea must be about the arts; 2) The project must take place in or benefit Philadelphia; and 3) The grant recipients must find funds to match Knight’s commitment, within a year. Emerging from a field of 1,200 applicants, 43 projects received more than $2 million last night when the winners of the 2013 Knight Arts Challenge were announced. The announcement marks the final year of the three-year initiative, which has funded 114 projects. Knight Foundation, which has invested […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Johnny Marr @ The Troc
` Johnny Marr is the Zelig of alternative rock, consider the list of bands he’s played in, contributed to, guest-starred in or recorded/performed with in the last 30 years: the Talking Heads, the Pretenders, Modest Mouse, R.E.M., Beck, Oasis, Bryan Ferry, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Black Grape, Electronic, Jane Birkin, Happy Mondays, The The, Chic, Dinosaur Jr, Pearl Jam, Crowded House, Tom Jones. And that’s not even counting The Smiths, the band he started with Morrissey back in early ’80s Manchester, the band that a recent NME readers poll deem the greatest British band of all time, beating out […]
EARLY WORD: Like Lollapalooza For Dads
This just in: Bob Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket and Ryan Bingham @ Susquehanna Center on July 28th! Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 AM. RELATED: Zimmerman, Robert: Aka Bob Dylan, aka the Mystery Tramp, aka Napoleon in Rags. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Bob Dylan was the all-seeing eye atop the pyramid of rock–a razor-thin, tousle-haired visionary speaking in stoned parables and meth-riddles about the nature of transcendental consciousness from behind impenetrable black shades. His status as generational oracle was earned by a triumvirate of hallucinatory folk-rock albums–1965’s Bringing It All Back Home […]
BEING THERE: The Deadliest Catch
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding in David Henneberry’s boat, Watertown, MA, 8:01 pm. Thermal imaging photo by Massachussetts State Police.
THE HORROR, THE HORROR: How Holes In The Social Safety Net Let Monsters Like Gosnell In
EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece first published in January of 2011. BY JEFF DEENEY Let me begin by assuring anyone reading this from outside the region that the disbelieving moan of “What the fuuuuuck, Philadelphia?!” that reverberated around the world yesterday is being heard loud and clear here in the evermore ironically nicknamed City of Brotherly Love. Surely, the grand jury report detailing Kermit Gosnell’s filthy West Philly baby abattoir is utterly soul-shattering in and of itself, regardless of your proximity to the events. But many Philadelphians felt an additional, all-too familiar communal nausea watching the story go viral through the […]
BEING THERE: I Walked With A Zombie
The author. Photo by JESSICA DURKIN BY DANIELLE HAGERTY Pretty much everyone is a zombie at 5 a.m., which is when I awoke from the dead to join the undead in chasing down the non-zombie runners at yesterday’s Zombie Run 5K in deep south Philly. Arriving at FDR Park at around 7:00, I headed over to the media tent to sign in, where I scarfed down a bagel to give me the energy to chase the food that I was really after: BRAINS! The temperature was barely skimming 40 degrees, but I was mistaken in deeming those dressed in shorts […]
BEING THERE: Hairway To Steven
Steven & Jeff McDonald, aka Redd Kross, moments before they ripped the roof off Kung Fu Necktie last night. PREVIOUSLY: Q&A With Jeff McDonald Of Redd Kross REDD KROSS: Jimmy’s Fantasy
Win Tix To See The Black Angels @ UT
Dag, this is da bomb-diggity! (Not even sure what that means, but I’ve been assured it’s a compliment and all the kids talk that way these days.) These Texas psychonauts play Union Transfer Sunday in support of the just-released brain-melting-ly wonderful Indigo Meadow. Now just have to figure out how to clone myself so I can violate the laws of space and time see them without missing Redd Kross (at Kung Fu Necktie Sunday night). But the good news for you, dear reader, is that we have a pair of tickets to give away. To qualify all you have […]