SARA SHERR REPORTS: We got the news on that fateful Friday, but that was only the half of it. Most of us went home thinking we were going to be working for mall record store behemoth Trans World Entertainment, and inexplicably, one of the last music retailers standing. Would we still have a good selection? Would we have to wear those dreadful polos? About an hour or two later, the Internet would reveal that Trans World would lose the auction by $500,000 to liquidator Great American, and we’d be out of work sometime in December. Ironically, the latest news is […]
Crazy Painterman From Sesame Street Seen Lurking At McCarter
The Mad Painter was the title character in a series of live-action films on Sesame Street. Produced for the program’s third season, the film inserts used comedic slapstick to teach number recognition, emphasizing the symbolic representation of the numeral, and how it is drawn, in contrast to The Baker Films, which stressed counting and quantity. The painter character is an eccentric whose hobby is painting numbers (between 2 and 11) in various public and private places. Armed with a set of number stencils, he would begin each skit by announcing the number he intended to paint, but often missed his targets. […]
GAYBO: Grammys Go Gay; Korporate Karaoke; Threesome Of The Week
TOMMY ZANE REPORTS: The 49th Annual Grammy Awards nominations were announced late last week; time to peruse the list for standout Extra Gay Choices! Let’s start with Miss Mary J. Blige. Ramon calls her the dark-skinned Judy Garland who got off the junk and pulled herself together before the shit killed her. Nominated for eight Grammys, this girl definitely ranks high with queens through every note of pain that comes from her mouth. All the pain she must have inside her shines right through in her singing. Yeah, that’s what I meant. The Dixie Chicks? Start with the name. Sounds […]
ROGUE TRADERS: Voodoo Child
Elvis Costello never sounded quite like THIS. [Hat tip to Tommy Zane]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
THE WORKING GIRLS ARE FINE: The Pernice Brothers, Johnny Brenda’s, December 7th EVA SAYS: Once again I am the youngest person in the crowd, but like with the Bob Pollard or Randy Newman concerts, I take it as a sign of good things come to those who grow old. And Johnny Brenda’s has already won me over as a patron, so all odds are working in favor of the Pernice Brothers. In fact, it seems almost automatic- when Joe Pernice opens the set with his wonderful whine, I sway and shuffle in sync with each song like every one is […]
FASTFOOD NATION: Local Sick Man To Sue The Tits Off Taco Bell, Then Punch The Nuts Off Parent Company
A Pennsylvania man who became ill with an E. coli infection after eating food from a Taco Bell restaurant is suing Taco Bell’s owner and a California scallions-grower. Stephen Minnis lives in Montgomery County in suburban Philadelphia. He says he got sick and had to be hospitalized after eating food his wife bought on November 26th from a Taco Bell in Gilbertsville. Seattle-based attorney William Marler filed a federal lawsuit in Philadelphia today on behalf of Minnis. The suit names Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum Brands Incorporated, and Boskovich Farms of Oxnard, California. Boskovich Farms also was implicated in a […]
GUNCRAZY: Baghdad-Like Body Count Marks New LOW, Could Set Record If We All Try REAL Hard
With three weeks left in the year, the homicide tally could top 400 for the first time since 1997. There were 418 killings that year, the last of eight years in the 1990s when there were 400 or more.The total, however, remains far from the record of 500 set in 1990 during the city’s crack epidemic, according to the police department’s public affairs division. The department previously had reported that year’s total as 525.While the high murder rate in the 1990s was widely attributed to the crack epidemic, police, city officials and victims advocates say this year’s shootings don’t follow […]
CULTURE SHOCK: Chinese Village Goes Peepee In Coke
Villagers tout urine drinking’s health benefit (Shanghai Daily) Du Ximin, 50, was one of the five people who formed a healthcare research center promoting drinking urine to stay healthy in his village in 1993.Now about 400 of the village of 1,600 are in the habit of drinking their own urine, and two-thirds of them are senior people, reported state television. Du, formerly head of the Wuzhuang Village in Baqiao District of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, has been drinking his urine on a daily basis since 1990. He has been very healthy over the years, China Central Television reported. Du said his […]
SPORTZ: When THE ANSWER Is The Question
December 8, 2006 — THE Allen Iverson Period in Philadelphia is rapidly dragging to an undignified conclusion.According to two agents whose clients play for the 76ers, Iverson went to team president Billy King this past Tuesday and demanded to be traded, something he professed repeatedly over the years he’d never do. According to two general managers King contacted yesterday, the 76ers are aggressively attempting to accommodate their forlorn franchise player, whose prohibitive salary (currently $17.1 million with $19M and $20.8M remaining) makes him a difficult sell despite a 31-point average — at least if the Sixers hope to harvest relatively […]
GEE, THIS EVIAN SMELLS TERRIFIC: Philly Man Convicted For Smuggling Buttload Of Calexico Kind, AKA Marijuana, The Weed With Its Roots In HELL
PHOENIX — A Philadelphia man who ran a smuggling ring that shipped marijuana from Phoenix to the East Coast has been convicted of conspiracy and possessing 12-hundred pounds of marijuana. Arizona prosecutors say 36-year-old Stelios Maltepes faces up to 12 and a half years in prison when he’s sentenced in January. Maltepes was arrested last year following an investigation by the Phoenix Police Department.Three others were arrested in Phoenix and have made plea agreements with prosecutors. Police in Philadelphia also made three arrests and prosecutions are ongoing there. The ring smuggled loads of marijuana to Philadelphia in cases of bottled […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
PEACE BE UPON YOU: Lupe Fiasco, Trocadero, December 7th, 2006 [FLICKR] EVA SAYS: The boss saw great talent and predicted that with this great talent will come great success, but I was skeptical of all the hype surrounding Lupe Fiasco. The New Kanye, he said. It only goes to show why he is master and I am young grasshoppa. (Laying it on a little thick, don’t you think?–Ed.) As per the Power 99 DJs hosting the show, Lupe Fiasco was just nominated for three Grammys, including Best Rap album for Food & Liquor. He had the crowd from the get-go […]