BY JAMES DOOLITTLE SATURDAY 10:00 AM / There is obviously a great deal of non-early risers around these parts – at least in regards to the hoards of the unshaven. If not for the giant billboard exclaiming a humongous welcome to Matador 21, the scene looks as I’d guess it does every Saturday morning; sad faced gamblers, the escalating din of spinning wheels and button mashing, and cigarette smoke. Lots of cigarette smoke. For someone who lives in a city were smoking ordinances were enacted years ago, the omnipresent scent – indoors of all things – is nearly as nostalgic as […]
SPORTO: Redskinned
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY What a messed-up Eagles season it has been so far, and we’re only a quarter of the way home. In Game 1, it was the beginning of a brand new era for the franchise (remember the optimism of the Kevin Kolb Era, version 1.0?). In the first quarter of that first game, Kolb was out with a concussion, Era 1.0 over. In the intervening weeks, Mike Vick established himself as the Eagles’ top dog and a possible MVP candidate, and the Birds entered their second home contest Sunday as the leader in the NFC East. […]
LIVE & DIRECT: Matador At Twenty-One In Vegas
BY JAMES DOOLITTLE FRIDAY 5:20 AM / Next to my toilet sits Rolling Stone‘s “State of Rock” issue. Dated from April, it has stared back at me for nearly half-a-year, it’s exclamatory font side-saddled with the Black Eyed Peas. Fergie looks frighteningly intense, perhaps from the weight of being factored into the equation. The state of rock? Daily, the juxtaposition brings snarky joy. I’ve perused the issue perhaps once, with MGMT and Animal Collective the only other inclusions that leap immediately to mind. Perhaps there are additional worthies inside, a roadmap to rock’s salvation in the year of our lord, 2010. […]
THIS JUST IN: Moe Tucker Is A Teabagger; Rick Sanchez Sez Jon Stewart’s A Bigot, CNN Run By Jews
PITCHFORK: Moe Tucker: pioneering self-taught drummer for the Velvet Underground, Tea Party supporter. Tis true. The 66-year-old Georgia resident was apparently interviewed at a rally for the controversial conservative offshoot party last April, and you can watch the news report below (fast forward to the 2:40 mark if you dare). MORE RELATED: In the mid-sixties, Long Island native Maureen “Moe” Tucker replaced Angus MacLise as the drummer in the fledgling Velvet Underground. With a beat-up four-piece drum kit and minimalist aesthetic, Moe brought an important like-mindedness to the VU. She shared, among other things, a disdain for hippiedom and a […]
CINEMA: The Un-Friendster
THE SOCIAL: NETWORK (2010, directed by David Fincher, 121 minutes, U.S) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I’ve heard a lot of people discuss this movie in the weeks running up to its release but nobody is using the film’s name. Instead, they’re calling it “The Facebook Movie.” But on its face The Social Network is hardly about Facebook at all; there ‘s precious little “friending” going on, no videos of cute kitties are posted and no one is seen begging for nails to build their barn on Farmville. But interest seems high because with 500 million Facebook users, boy billionaire […]
SIDEWALKING: The Big Muddy
West River Drive 9:31 AM by JEFF FUSCO
THE PEACE CORPS DIARIES: Letter From Paraguay
EDITOR’S NOTE: The author just started a two year hitch in rural Paraguay. BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH Tesho* and I were sharing maté**, passing the guampa** back and forth in the shadows of the kitchen, an attached hut with a smoke-blackened thatch ceiling, an open fireplace and its ash-encrusted pots, and a wooden table that held a motley array of bowls, pans and enamel cups. “Santo***, you should make some mandio chiryry****,” he said. “Ok,” I said. “Are you going to eat it if I make it?” “Yea, I’m hungry,” he said. Mildly perplexed, I skipped out of the kitchen […]
TONITE: Imagine Philly’s Phuture
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WORTH REPEATING: Being Tony Danza
[Illustration by OUTLINES INC] SALON: At a time when public schools are on the ropes, teachers unions are less popular than LeBron James, and everyone is waiting for a Superman to save our floundering education system, one man has accepted the challenge. Unfortunately, that man is Tony Danza. The 59-year-old actor brought his trademark mug — and a few TV cameras — to a year-long job teaching 10th-grade English at Northeast High School for an A&E reality show called “Teach” (Oct. 1, 10 p.m. EDT). The school is situated in a sprawling section of Philadelphia known locally as the Great […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Margot & The Nuclear So And Sos
BY PELLE GUNTHER After about an hour of driving around a rainy Philadelphia in a desperate effort to find affordable parking, I finally found a spot and ran several blocks through the pouring rain to the First Unitarian Church. Walking into the basement of the chapel I fully expected to be greeted by Margot’s traditional chamber pop line-up. Instead, a whole new Margot awaited inside. After starting their career as an orchestral chamber pop group with The Dust of Retreat, then wandering through some folksy melodies on Animal and Not Animal, the band who showed up last night were completely […]
RIP: Tony Curtis Dead At 85
NEW YORK TIMES: As a performer, Mr. Curtis drew first and foremost on his startlingly good looks. With his dark, curly hair, worn in a sculptural style later imitated by Elvis Presley, and plucked eyebrows framing pale blue eyes and wide, full lips, Mr. Curtis embodied a new kind of feminized male beauty that came into vogue in the early 1950s. A vigorous heterosexual in his widely publicized (not least by himself) private life, he was often cast in roles that drew on a perceived ambiguity: his full-drag impersonation of a female jazz musician in “Some Like It Hot”; a […]