For the uninitiated, imagine if Pee Wee’s Playhouse was located on the Dark End Of The Streets of N’awlins where it’s sweaty and black and a little bit dangerous and the good times roll fast AND weird. Just the way you like it! Seriously, we saw these cats at Silk City 10 years ago at least. And we are still smiling about it. NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO: The Oblivians Play 9 Songs With Mr. Quintron DIG IT!
GUNCRAZY: Murder, Mayhem And The True Blue American Values Of Transgressive Marketing
Five shootings in city just since Tuesday Police so far have no suspects in any of them By CHRISTINE OLLEY The wave of gun violence in the city continued this week with the shootings of five more people – all wounded since Tuesday. The first crime scene unfolded shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday on Larchwood Avenue near 59th Street in West Philadelphia. That’s where cops said they found a 19-year-old man who had been shot once in the right ankle. […] Less than an hour later, detectives were trying to determine why a 25-year-old man was shot twice in the […]
Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
This week it’s kind of a no-brainer and besides after last week’s Moby Dick-sized Cover Warz tell-all we’re gonna keep this one short but sweet — for the winner that is. The loser, of course, will spend a week munching the cold and bitter turkey sandwich of shame, doubt and self-recrimination. But please, don’t take it too hard. Remember, this is only a game. And so, onto the commentary: CP laid this bizarre egg of a cover image that looks, best we can tell, like a bird-on-man gang rape to illustrate their WHY PHILLY ACTUALLY SUX self-haterade. Remember City Paper, […]
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING: Big Pharma Bummed By Dem Congressional Control; Let Us Get Our Violin And Play A Few Bars Of ‘WELCOME TO CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY’ AKA God’s Intended Soundtrack For The Reaping Of Obscene Profits
Drug companies are particularly hungry for Democratic help, including the industry’s trade association. “We woke up the day after the election to a new world,” said Ken Johnson, spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. “We’re going to have tough days ahead of us.” A post-election e-mail to executives at the drug company GlaxoSmithKline details just how tough. “We now have fewer allies in the Senate,” says the internal memo, obtained by The Washington Post. “Thus, there is greater risk over the next two years that bad amendments will be offered to pending legislation.” The company’s primary concerns […]
STOP THE PRESSES: Uncle Sgt. Byko Says Grace
“As we prepare for Thanksgiving Day, we imagine the new owners of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com sitting down in their more-than-comfortable homes for an elaborate meal with their families. They have a lot for which to be thankful. They have great wealth. They are smart, they have worked hard, and they have earned it. They enjoy secure jobs, they enjoy secure income, they enjoy secure retirement plans, they enjoy the peace of mind of knowing their families will never do without. Why would they deny some of the same peace of mind to their employees, who also […]
THE BLOGS ARE COMING, THE BLOGS ARE COMING, RUN! Media Criticism Doesn’t HAVE To Be This Clueless
Or compromised. Unless your name is Ted Beitchman, and you are still — STILL, after four years — trying to punch a hole in the Philly mediascape with that glossy money-pit/inept score-settler/high-priced coupon flyer known as REALPHILLY — and getting about as far as a renegade spermatazoan trying to break on thru a Trojan Extra Thick. Hat tip to reader Philly Guy for the heads up. He reads it so we don’t have to. But check this sad swing at wannabe 215 Murdoch-ism. We just happen to speak Beitchman, so let us translate: Pay no mind to that moonbat slander […]
TRIBUTE: Nobody Will Love You Like Robert Altman Loved You
BY DAN BUSKIRK Last year I was teaching a summer film appreciation class to a bunch of middle-schoolers. You know what it\’s like if you?’re trying to pick out a film for any group, it’s impossible to come up with anything that somebody in the crowd isn’t going to roll their eyes at, but I’ve been doing this for a few years and I’ve come up with a batch of movies that really seem to work with kids. Still, I always want to try out something I haven’t shown before so last summer I decided to try out Robert Altman’s […]
SGT. BYKO, INKY/DN Labor Mouthpiece, Responds To New Papers-Of-Record Owner’s Alleged Plans To Import Scab Labor Over The Internet; No Word Yet On Rumored Plans To Replace Newsroom With Cheap Migrant Labor Or Just The Standard 50 Monkeys With 50 Typewriters
VIA BYKO: If They Did It: Here’s How Philadelphia Media Holdings Would Hire Scabs Nov. 21, 2006 Contact: Stu Bykofsky Philadelphia Media Holdings, the company that cries poverty while demanding devastating cuts from Guild members, seems to be gearing up to spend a fortune on scabs to produce our papers and drive our trucks. The Philadelphia Weekly reported today that an ad seeking “replacement workers” (aka scabs) was recently posted on careerbuilder.com. The mystery company seeks scabs to come to an East Coast city to work as reporters, photographers, graphic artists, news assistants and truck drivers in the event of […]
LAST CALL: Crowd Pleaser Nate Wiley Dead At 82, End Of ‘Longest Job Goin’
Nate Wiley and the Crowd Pleasers Bob and Barbara’s, 1509 South St. Last call. This is the house that Pabst Blue Ribbon built. The walls are covered floor to ceiling with Pabst memorabilia spanning several decades–from the corny caucasoid ’50s when Danny Kaye shilled for the brew, to the blaxsploitation ’70s when he was replaced with a Foxy Brown lookalike. The one constant in all those ads over the years is this catchphrase: “Now at Popular Prices.” That’s the asking price for Nate Wiley and the Crowd Pleasers, which has been cranking out no-cover-charge soul-powered organ jazz at Bob and […]
Early Word: LUPE FIASCO At The Troc, Thur. Dec. 7th FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE!
THURSDAY DECEMBER 7 @ The Trocadero LUPE FIASCO FREE CONCERT You must RSVP for free tickets. Space is limited. To get free tickets text PHI to 35274 (FLASH) or visit www.flashconcerts06.com or myspace.com/flashconcerts06 Drs: 8pm / All Ages www.flashconcerts06.com
BREAKING: Robert Altman, AMERICAN MASTER, Dead At 81
“THE DEATH OF AN OLD MAN IS NOT A TRAGEDY.” –ROBERT ALTMAN, 1925-2006 FROM THE SF CHRONICLE: Garrison Keillor, who starred in Altman’s last movie — this year’s “A Prairie Home Companion” — said Tuesday that love of film clearly came through on the set. “Mr. Altman loved making movies. He loved the chaos of shooting and the sociability of the crew and actors — he adored actors — and he loved the editing room and he especially loved sitting in a screening room and watching the thing over and over with other people,” Keillor said in a statement e-mailed […]
IN MEMORIAM: Andre Waters 1962-2006
Waters, 44, died early yesterday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He took with him the answer to the only question — Why, Andre, why? — worth asking. He may have given at least part of an answer in that nearly three-hour phone conversation in April. He wasn’t just frustrated and bitter about his inability to find a job with an NFL team. He was personally hurt by a system he believed used players up and spit them back out. But then, everything was personal with Waters. That seems surprising, since he was the most violent and reckless […]
THE DARK SIDE OF BLACK HORSE PIKE: Four Women Found Dead In Ditch Behind Welfare Motel
By Jacqueline L. Urgo and Kera Ritter Inquirer Staff Writers MAYS LANDING, N.J. – The bodies of four women were found in a drainage ditch yesterday behind a string of motels on the Black Horse Pike, according to Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz. The victims were found face down in several inches of water behind the Golden Key Motel, Fortune Inn, and Star Motel. Two women walking along a dirt access road off the westbound lane of the Black Horse Pike discovered one body about 3 p.m. Egg Harbor Township police investigating that death found the other bodies. The […]