JEFF DEENEY: The drug game is considered one of the few viable money makers here where fewer than half of the local kids graduate from high school, many don’t speak English, and the local manufacturing economy that might once have hired unskilled labor died decades ago. Many settle for less risky ventures like selling barbecue and bottled water in the streets in the summer, but it’s hard to raise a family on that kind of chump change. Local kids, often under pressure for financial support from their own moms, seek out The Owner. Every dope block in the Badlands is […]
DEENEY: OccupyPhilly Has Its Head Up Its Ass About Feeding The Homeless On The Parkway
[Photo by ROBIN ODLAND] BY JEFF DEENEY Back in 2007 part of my job as a social worker was doing street outreach on the Parkway where I encouraged the homeless to come to the day center where I worked to access social services. The agency I worked for was always sure to have an outreach person on scene during the public feedings by local faith groups and other volunteers. The crowds for feedings were thick, and since my instructions were to never interrupt people who were eating or rouse people who were sleeping, working the lines of people waiting for […]
NOW YOU TELL US: David Lynch Was Here…Again
This is what we get for not monitoring Drew Lazor’s Meal Ticket blog on an hourly basis. Just found out David Lynch was here, like, two days ago. And now it’s too late to catch him with that special butterfly net we keep handy for just such an occasion and then put him in a jar on the shelf with all the others. Wait…perhaps we’ve said too much. Move along, nothing to see here. RELATED: A series of short-term jobs followed, leading Lynch (at age 20) to enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in January, 1966. The Philadelphia […]
EARLY WORD: Inmates To Run Asylum
Odd Future Philadelphia Sweatshop March 23rd 11am-6pm @ Exit Skateshop Odd Future will be rocking Philly hard Friday March 23rd with TWO HUGE events. Exit Skateshop will be handing over the keys to Tyler the Creator and the rest of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All crew for their “Philadelphia Sweatshop”. The shop will feature exclusive O.F. gear that won’t be found anywhere else and supplies are extremely limited. The entire Golf Wang collective is expected to be in attendance, signing autographs and hanging out with fans before their SOLD OUT show at The Electric Factory. MORE STEVE ALBINI: I spent […]
TONITE: John K. Samson At Union Transfer
BY MIKE WALSH Here’s a hypothetical: let’s say you’re up late. Very late. It’s quiet, you’re alone, and you’re stuck on the world wide interweb watching Maru videos. You have to get up early for work, but you just can’t stop watching that fat furry little fucker being insufferably cute. And you’re telling yourself that this is ridiculous, you are pathetic, just go to bed, and then you notice a music video titled “Plea from a Cat Named Virtute” from a band you’ve never heard of—the Weakerthans. You click the link, and it’s not an actual video, just the song […]
JAZZER: Matthew Shipp
BY ZIVIT SHLANK JAZZ AMBASSADOR Pianist. Composer. Arranger. It’s always risky to define an artist by a certain device, technique, or way of going about things. Each word is finite; they only begin to scratch the surface. Matthew Shipp is an improviser, pure and simple. By the same token, there are countless hours of thought behind every gesture. Admittedly, he questions his own understanding of what it all means. Like many musicians of this ilk, Shipp and his music are akin to the elements. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, both take on different forms and move in […]
DEENEY: Scenes From My (Non-Celebrity) Rehab
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following are excerpts from a longer piece that Phawker contributor Jeff Deeney wrote for the website The Fix about his own experience in rehab. The kind of rehab you go to when you can’t afford health insurance. * Four beds are crammed into a tiny room, their mattresses encased in bodily fluid–proof rubber and covered in thin, ratty sheets. Dusty dorm furniture in disrepair is shoved in a corner. The common area reeks of sweat and stale smoke. An antique television with a wire-hanger antenna plays grainy tapes from a comically outdated video library. Extra folding […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Diamond David Lee Roth, Wells Fargo Center, last night by ROBIN ODLAND INQUIRER: Dropped lines, variable-pitch delivery, and all, there’s still no better ringleader for an arena rock circus than Roth… arguably the best front man in rock history. MISSION CREEP: To his credit, Mr. Roth seemed aware of his shortcomings. He knows that the only way he can make money performing this utter horseshit and keep the audience from hurling beer bottles at his cranium is to provide a distraction. Which is exactly what he did. Incredibly, the distraction—his dick—became the focus of the entire show. (It’s sad, really, […]
Q&A With The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY MIKE WALSH The Magnetic Fields new CD, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, is similar in many ways to their previous nine records, and that’s a good thing. It’s got singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt’s playful rhymes and eccentric lyrics, his unabashed romanticism and instantly recognizable melodies, and his joy in toying with gender roles. As usual for the Magnetic Fields, the songs are short, averaging less than 2:30 each, have few instrumental breaks, and end abruptly. And there are several great songs of unrequited love and longing sung by Merritt in his deep, lovelorn voice […]
THERE BE MONSTERS: The Dark Side Of Sendak
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Where The Wild Things Are creator Maurice Sendak is, in many ways, the dark side Doppelganger of Dr. Seuss and taken together they represent the twin titans of 20th Century children’s literature. If Dr. Seuss’ work vibes like a drug-free acid trip for children aged 8 to 80, then Sendak’s oeuvre is, to extend the metaphor, like Vicodin for the soul, numbing tender-aged psyches from the pain of growing up in a desultory world of de-saturated colors and unrelieved melancholia where adults do monstrous things to each other, and sometimes to children, too. There were two formative […]
SWING SET: Q&A With The Delco Nightingale
BY MEREDITH KLEIBER If you’ve felt yourself being transported back in time while at a Delco Nightingale show, you are exactly where they want you. The four-piece band — composed of singer Erin Berry, guitarist Greg Phoenix, upright bassist Brendan Skwire, and drummer Eddie Everett — evokes a 1940s-era sound combining elements of swing, rockabilly, and jazz fusion that they top off with a bit of punk-rock grit. If you haven’t yet had the privilege of witnessing the fierce energy delivered by the band during one of their live performances, coif your hair into your best pompadour and get your […]
RAWK TAWK: Five Tough Questions For The Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society
The Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society is: Charlie Hall, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who has played with Jens Lekman, The War on Drugs, Windsor for the Derby, Tommy Guerrero, and others; drummer Patrick Berkery, who has played with Danielson, Pernice Brothers, Bigger Lovers, Photon Band, Mazarin, and others over the years; Birdie Busch, a Philadelphia-based singer and songwriter with several wonderful solo albums to her credit; bassist Dave Wayne Daniels of The Capitol Years; and vocalist/keyboardist Eliza Hardy Jones and vocalist/guitarist Brandon Beaver, both members of the highly regarded band Buried Beds. Reprising their standing room only performance of Fleetwood Mac’s […]
NEW YORK TIMES ASKS: WTF Is Up With The People Running The Inquirer/Daily News?
NEW YORK TIMES: The new owners installed Mr. Osberg, who had been the president and publisher of Newsweek magazine, but the financial picture has continued to decline. According to sales documents obtained by The New York Times — marked as “highly confidential” — the company had a 13.9 percent drop in advertising revenues last year and earnings were less than $5 million. On Wednesday, the company announced a round of buyouts and potential layoffs that will eliminate 37 positions. MORE MEDIAWIRE: Philadelphia Media Network executives announced at a meeting with Guild leaders today that they will reduce the newsrooms of […]