TECH: Did This Man Just Kill Print?

Books have been very good to Jeff Bezos. When he sought to make his mark in the nascent days of the Web, he chose to open an online store for books, a decision that led to billionaire status for him, dotcom glory for his company and countless hours wasted by authors checking their Amazon sales ratings. But as much as Bezos loves books professionally and personally — he’s a big reader, and his wife is a novelist — he also understands that the surge of technology will engulf all media. “Books are the last bastion of analog,” he says, in […]

Books , Culture , Media , NewsPosted on:

NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs

Supreme Court Rules Against Foxwoods, Casino Construction Delayed Indefinitely Back in May, Philadelphia City Council voted to overturn a Mayor Street veto of its anti-casino bill. The bill would reverse the zoning status of the proposed Foxwoods site, delaying the beginning of construction indefinitely. In June, Foxwoods filed an emergency petition with the PA Supreme Court. In Count I of the petition, Foxwoods asked the state’s highest court to overturn the anti-casino bill on the grounds that it is somehow “unconstitutional.” Today the high court ruled against Foxwoods, calling the matter “not ripe for adjudication” and dismissed the casino’s request […]

215 , Media , Music , News , PoliticsPosted on:

UPDATE: Tierney, Drexel Mum On Sale

We’ve had a request for comment into Drexel’s media relations office since last night, and a follow-up phone call this morning asking for confirmation or denial of the rumors floating around that Drexel has bought or is about to buy the Inquirer Building at 400 North Broad. And as of this writing: Nothing. Given the pace of the modern news cycle, you might be tempted to say that Drexel’s communication’s office is utterly incompetent — I mean, c’mon these rumors are floating on the Internet for going on 24 hours and to date the Drexel communications office has communicated nothing […]

215 , Media , NewsPosted on:

NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs

PHILLY WI-FI NO-GO: Earthlink Cries ‘Uncle,’ Says Internet Just Too Damn Hard With municipal Wi-Fi networks fizzling across the nation, EarthLink will stop making major investments in such systems and is considering “strategic alternatives” for its municipal wireless business. That suggests that the company is open to selling the municipal unit, which is responsible for the pacesetting Wi-Fi deployment in Philadelphia and systems in other cities. At the same time, Philadelphia City Councilman Frank Rizzo is reported to have called for a hearing to discuss difficulties with the Wi-Fi rollout. The Philadelphia Wi-Fi deployment is EarthLink’s largest and, like many […]

215 , Culture , Media , NewsPosted on:

RUMOR & SIGH: Inquirer Building Sold To Drexel?

UPDATE: This just in from Philly.com Drexel University real estate people are among the potential buyers who have made repeat visits to the Inquirer and Daily News building at 400 North Broad Street and the parking garage and lot behind it on 15th Street in recent weeks. Agents for Drexel’s Center City medical campus, which includes the dorms, bookstore and classrooms surrounding Hahnemann University Hospital, have also been talking to property owners in the 300 block of North 15th Street, just south of the papers’ back door, according to real estate sources. No word on whether Drexel would share space […]

215 , Media , NewsPosted on:

DVD: Back When Sesame Street Was Keepin’ It Real

NEW YORK TIMES: Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia. Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of […]

Culture , Media , NewsPosted on:

Hyski O’Rooney McVoutie O’Zoot Has Left The Building

Hy Lit, 73, one of Philadelphia’s pioneer disc jockeys, died yesterday at Paoli Memorial Hospital of what his son termed “bizarre complications” after a knee injury. Mr. Lit was on hand for much rock-and-roll history as it played out in Philadelphia. He played Rolling Stones music early on and accompanied the Beatles to the city in 1964. A dashing figure with a face for television, he also hosted dance shows on WKBS in Philadelphia and a New York station. Another longtime fixture in local radio, disc jockey Jerry Blavat, last night called Mr. Lit’s death “the end of the era […]

215 , Media , Music , NewsPosted on:

SHOCK & AWE: 15 THINGS THOU SHALL NOT KNOW ABOUT DAVID DYE AND THE WORLD CAFE

1. All things considered, he’d rather be a DJ than an author. As part of the relentless media blitz for his recently-published book The Best Of The World Cafe, Mr. Dye has been jet-setting from one affiliate to another, planting the flag in exotic capitals of commerce and culture such as Akron, Louisville and Milwaukee. There, he is invariably greeted by a grateful populace as the man who brought water to the arid, choice-less deserts of the airwaves over middle America; a welcome, earthy alternative to the grating crackle and slick drivel of corporate radio. Having just touched town in […]

215 , Media , Music , NewsPosted on:

PAPERBOY EXTRA: Separated At Birth?

Bad ideas have a way of making friends in low places, but shit like this shoulda never made it up the ladder. The image on the right is easy enough to find, just Google “rats” and “Jews”; the image on the left is the cover of this week’s PW. Frankly, we think it should have been the euthanized before it got beyond “Hey, what if we…” stage. Given the long and well-documented history of vicious anti-Semites — from the Nazis to the Al Aqsa Brigades — comparing Jews to vermin, we can only look at the cover of this week’s […]

215 , Media , NewsPosted on: