BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
POTUS: Speech On Health Care Reform
[CBS: During a special full-length primetime broadcast, President Barack Obama addressed the U.S. Congress in order to tackle concerns over the ongoing legislation and debates over health care reform.] * NEW YORK TIMES: There was high drama in the setting and most of all in the timing. After a summer of chaos, criticism and confusion, President Obama stood before Congress on Wednesday night — with three major networks broadcasting live (Fox sat out the speech in favor of the season premiere of “So You Think You Can Dance”) — and tried to seize the last word on health care reform. “And […]
THIS JUST IN: David Sedaris At The Keswick
New York Times best-selling author/speaker DAVID SEDARIS returns for an evening of readings from his own works as well as selections from authors he’s currently championing at the Keswick Theatre, Sun., Oct. 4 @ 7 PM. Known for his sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, DAVID SEDARIS has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. He is the author of Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice as well as collections of personal essays including Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, each of which became best-sellers. His […]
TONITE: This Won’t Hurt A Bit
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] WASHINGTON POST: President Obama signaled that he would extol the value of a “public option” in health insurance reform when he addresses Congress Wednesday night on the issue but that he would stop short of threatening to veto a bill that does not include the provision. Obama’s much-anticipated nationally televised speech to a joint session of Congress at 8 p.m. Eastern time is aimed at providing details and clarification on where he stands as he attempts to push through an overhaul of a system that he says threatens to drag down the U.S. economy over time […]
THE INDOORFINS: Gross Clinic Bounce
Created for the Penn Reading Project 2009. FYI, The Indoorfins hail from Lima, Ohio. RELATED: There Ain’t No Starving Artists In The Afterlife: JEFF SELLS EAKINS PAINTING TO WAL-MART FOR $68 MILLION CLAMS; Natives Grow Restless And Unimpressed, Say Deal Shoulda Been Done With Legal Tender, Not Shellfish RELATED: Twinkle-Toed Footloose Dude Challenges Eakins Buyers To A Dance-Off, ‘For Pink Slips, Bitches!’ RELATED: EAKINS STAYS HOME! HOORAY! OUR RICH PEOPLE ARE RICHER THAN THEIR RICH PEOPLE! HOORAY! RELATED: NOW PLAYING: “Gross Clinic” At The Philadelphia Museum Of Art RELATED: PAFA Sells THE CELLO PLAYER To Buy THE GROSS CLINIC; Buyer […]
THE BEATLES: I’m Only Sleeping (REMASTERED)
RELATED: Remastered Beatlemania Hits 9/09/09 LOS ANGELES TIMES: A team of top engineers, led by longtime Beatles associate Allan Rouse, labored for four years to return the feel that was lost in the flimsy-sounding 1987 compact disc reissues — the way everyone except audiophiles and vinyl hoarders (and, at the spectrum’s other end, YouTube browsers) hear Beatles music. “It’s not smarter or more sophisticated,” Paul McCartney recently said in Billboard of the remastering effort. “It’s just more real — it’s more true to the noise we were actually making.” Grasping the archival essence of this latest Beatles push doesn’t at […]
BETWEEN TWO FERNS: With Charlize Theron
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis from Between Two Ferns And your host, Zack Galifianakis.
MICHAEL VICK: Don’t Be Cruel
[Associated Press: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick offered himself as a cautionary tale of what can happen when someone is a follower instead of a leader.] INQUIRER: The appearance before freshman at the Nueva Esperanza Academy in the city’s Feltonville section came as the Eagles are circulating a draft plan to animal rights groups that calls for an immediate, widespread campaign to combat animal abuse in Philadelphia. MORE
I, GAMER: Will Sony Have The Last Laugh?
BY ADAM BONANNI VIDEO GAMES EDITOR Sony can tell you firsthand that there’s only one direction to go after being number one: down. After starting out with an enviable track record with the unprecedented, astronomical success of the Playstation and Playstation 2, Sony now finds itself in last place in number of units sold, behind Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. That includes Sony’s main entry into this generation’s console race, Playstation 3, as well as its much-hyped foray into the handheld gaming market, Playstation Portable, which is lagging noticeably behind Nintendo’s DS. After Sony’s infamous E3 ’06 press conference, […]
EARLY WORD: The Sound Of Young America Live!
The always excellent Sound Of Young America, heard locally on WHYY Fridays at 9PM, will be taping a show here in Philadelphia (featuring The Spinto Band, graphic novelist extraordinaire Charles Burns, comedian Kent Haines, and Robert Hicks, the director of the Mutter Museum) as part of the Fringe Festival. Look for our Q&A with TSOYA host Jessie Thorn, aka America’s Radio Sweetheart, coming soon to a Phawker near you! Wed. 9/16 10:00 PM Mainstage at the Adrienne 2030 Sansom Street Wheelchair Accessible $15.00 *This handsome poster is available for sale HERE, proceeds will help defray TSOYA Live travel costs.
FRINGE REVIEW: Meet The Burps
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Describing Armageddon at the Mushroom Village as the performance of a mask and physical theatre ensemble, using mythic themes to show a story about how foolish pride can bring about the end of the world would be pretentious and distancing. Instead, let’s just say that what we have here is a funny, satirical look at a famous cartoon. Meet The Burps. The Burps are a simple, happy tribe of green, humanoid creatures with white hats and clothes and bulging eyes. Their life is perfect, full of singing and dancing, until the undercurrents of their […]
WORTH REPEATING: Being Spike Jonze
NEW YORK TIMES: Although there were plenty of factors that contributed to the movie’s endless delays, what caused Jonze the most grief with the studio seems to have been his insistence on shunning a more traditional narrative in favor of directly conveying, through moments and images, those raw, untamed feelings. The blogs that reported on Jonze’s disagreement with Robinov and other Warner executives tended to frame the dispute in familiar terms, as a conflict between Hollywood’s love of all things light and an auteur’s “dark” vision. Really, though, the quarrel was about something more unusual in Hollywood than darkness versus […]
ALCOHOLISTAN: Booze Banned After Major SNAFU
[Photo by VIOLINSOLDIER] THE TELEGRAPH: General Stanley McChrystal tried to contact his subordinates after a Nato strike killed 125 civilians, but too many had been “partying it up” and could not be raised. General McChrystal, head of International Forces in Afghanistan (Isaf), has since put a stop to drinking, admonishing staff for not having “their heads in the right place” on Friday morning a few hours after the attack, the Times reports. The diktat means that the coffee shops and bars where commanders used to be able to enjoy a beer or three will now be dry. The Isaf headquarters […]