DAN DELUCA: Bruce Springsteen may well have miscalculated earlier this year when he released Working On A Dream, one of the most hopeful and downright happy sounding albums of his career just as a cratering economy was rendering the songs of struggle and strife that are his stock in trade more resonant than they have sounded in years. But like a canny coach able to make necessary adjustments at halftime, Springsteen has headed out on the road – where he and the E Street Band arrived in South Philadelphia on Tuesday for the first of back to back shows at […]
OBAMA NATION: 100 Days Of Change
President Barack Obama marks his hundredth day in office on Wednesday, but it’s hardly the only digit that matters to the new administration.Here are some highlights of Obama’s first 100 days, by the numbers: $3.6 trillion — Total spending in Obama’s proposed federal budget for 2010. $1.75 trillion — Total projected deficit in Obama’s proposed federal budget for 2010. $787 billion — Cost of tax cuts and new spending in economic stimulus package approved by Congress. $558.4 billion — Increase in the public debt, from Jan. 20 through April 24. $235 billion — Tax dollars spent to bail out failing […]
GENERATION OF SWINE: Flu Epidemic’s Global Creep
[Photos via SACRAMENTO BEE] UPDATE: Delaware health officials say four students at the University of Delaware have influenza that meets the probable definitions for swine flu. Jay Lynch, communications director for the Delaware Department of Public Health, said Tuesday night that cultures from the four students were sent to the Centers for the Disease Control. The students had flu tests Monday at the campus health center, and preliminary results showed they met the conditions for swine flu. Lynch says none of the students had traveled to Mexico, although one had recently been to New Jersey, where there is an outbreak. […]
Sen. Arlen Specter To Switch Parties; Could Give Democrats Filibuster-Proof Congressional Majority
WASHINGTON POST: Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter [pictured above, with Cookie Monster] will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning. Specter’s decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next senator from Minnesota. (Former senator Norm Coleman is appealing Franken’s victory in the state Supreme Court.) “I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I […]
SWINE FLU PANDEMIC: This Is SO Not Good
[Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] UPDATE: Mexico says the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu by one level, two steps short of declaring a full-blown pandemic. Mexico health department spokesman Carlos Olmos confirms the move. WHO says the phase 4 alert means sustained human to human transmission causing outbreaks in at least one country. It signals a significant increase in the risk of a global epidemic, but doesn’t mean a pandemic is inevitable. Many experts think it may be impossible to contain a flu virus already spreading in several countries. BBC: Governments around the world have […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In his new documentary, called simply Tyson, filmmaker James Toback turns his camera on Mike Tyson — the controversial former heavyweight boxing champion. Tyson, infamous for taking a bite out of Evander Holyfield’s ear in 1997 — and for his 1992 rape conviction — talks directly to Toback’s camera, telling his own story in between excerpts of archival footage from his life and career. Toback, the screenwriter behind Bugsy and director of films including Two Girls and a Guy, has been Tyson’s friend since the boxer was 19 years old; Tyson premiered in 2008 at the Cannes Film […]
THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE: Captain Janks Will NOT Be Getting You High Tonight (Or Tomorrow)
DAN GROSS: North Wales’ Tom Cipriano, better known to fans of Howard Stern as Capt. Janks spent the weekend in jail. He was arrested Thursday by Plymouth Township Police for allegedly taking a deposit of $350 in December from the Old Mansion House in Conshohocken to host an event there in March for which he never appeared, according to Detective-Sergeant Karen Mabry of Plymouth Township. The prank phone caller is also alleged to have taken a $350 deposit from the Edge Hill Tavern in Glenside in December for an appearance Feb. 22, which he did not show up for, according […]
AND THEN THERE WAS MAUDE: Bea Arthur RIP
LOS ANGELES TIMES: “God will get you for that, Walter.” Nobody could do more with these words than Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay on the marital warpath. She could slingshot them in fury or release them in a chilling deadpan, but however she delivered them you could be sure they’d hit their mark with a prizefighter’s pop. All the tributes that will be lavished on Arthur, who died Saturday at 86, will extol her impeccable comic timing. Her ability to detonate a joke, to momentarily harness a punch line before releasing at full force, brought her Emmy-winning success in two […]
TONY CONRAD Q&A: Minimalism Is Less Than Zero
BY JONATHAN VALANIA In 1965 Tony Conrad moved out of his New York City apartment, and like many people moving out he left behind a few items, one of which was a book. This is notable for three reasons: First, his roommate was John Cale, a classically-trained violist with a taste for the avant garde who, like Conrad, was a member of the Theater Of Eternal Music, a downtown collective of music-makers exploring infinite drone, endless improvisation and multi-media freakouts. Second, when Conrad moved out, Lou Reed moved in. Third, the book he left behind was a smutty S&M novel […]
WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #18 Oh noes!
THIS JUST IN: On Sale Today
July 10th, Frawley Stadium, Wilmington, Delaware. With Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band. New Wilco album June 30th. See your dealer for details.
HECKUVA JOB: Tierney & Phila. Newspaper Execs Fiddled In Rome While Inquirer/Daily News Burned
YAHOO: The company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News hosted a $233,000 trip to Rome for about 70 people a year before filing for bankruptcy protection. The six-day Philadelphia Newspapers trip was an incentive for advertising managers and major advertisers, Executive Vice President Richard Thayer told a U.S. bankruptcy trustee Thursday. The three top executives — Chief Executive Brian Tierney, Thayer and Executive Vice President Mark Frisby — and their wives also attended, he said. Philadelphia Newspapers LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2009, citing $395 million in debt. Recent court filings also show that Tierney […]
CINEMA: One Is The Loneliest Number You’ll Ever Do
THE SOLOIST (2009, directed by Joe Wright, 109 minutes, U.S.) EARTH (2007, directed by Alastair Fothergill & Mark Linfield, 96 MIinutes, U.S./U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC This is what Oscar-bait looks like when things go wrong. A true story based on the popular best seller of the same name, The Soloist stars Jaime Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers, a mentally ill former Julliard student who is discovered playing music on the streets by L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.). Over time they strike up a mutually beneficial friendship which supplies the homeless Mr. Ayers with some much-needed stability […]