[Image by GEO8498] WALL STREET JOURNAL: Among the hundreds of hours of conversations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich secretly recorded by the FBI since Oct. 22, one phone call is drawing particular scrutiny among politicos, journalists and others in Washington. It was a marathon conference call on Monday, Nov. 10. The call lasted about two hours. On the phone were Mr. Blagojevich, his wife, his general counsel, an unnamed adviser, and John Harris, the governor’s chief of staff and his co-defendant in this week’s case. But what’s drawing the most interest is who was on the line from Washington, and […]
HEAR YE: Pronto All Is Golden
SELECTED TRACKS NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! BY JONATHAN VALANIA Mikael Jorgensen is the keyboard player for Wilco, who open for Neil Young Friday at the Spectrum (tix still available, yo). He’s the one in the Clark Kent glasses and untucked Oxford and Charlie Brown sweater combo, hunched over his MacBook and triggering disembodied sonic filigree and sine wave surrealism, like a mischievous child coloring outside the lines of Wilco’s horse-drawn Americana. Jorgensen — a Leonardo, New Jersey native who recently moved from Wilco’s HQ in Chicago to Brooklyn — first made Phawker’s acquaintance back in the mid-90s when he […]
EARLY WORD: Here Comes The Silver Age
Dear friends, family, and fans of men’s close harmony vocal ensembles, Hello and happy holiday season to you! We hope this suddenly very chilly autumn is finding you well. The Silver Ages have been hard at work of late, sequestered in an authentic reproduction of Mory’s Temple Bar set up in a row home just south of Fitler Square. We’ve been singing round-the-clock, honing our craft in preparation for this busiest time of year (for those unfamiliar, close harmony vocal ensemble season runs from Beaujolais Day in November to the moment of the Vernal Equinox in March). Things are sounding better […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Philip Seymour Hoffman stars opposite Meryl Streep in Doubt, a new film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play. His character, a young and charismatic priest, provokes a nun’s suspicion for his special attention to their Bronx-based school’s only black student. Hoffman, a popular and versatile character actor, most recently starred in Synecdoche, New York. His other films include Capote, for which he received an Oscar for Best Actor, and the Coen brothers cult-classic The Big Lebowski. ALSO, In 1977, historian James Reston Jr. helped prepare journalist David Frost for a series of interviews with Richard Nixon that resulted […]
OH TANNENBAUM: Recession Hits North Pole
ABC NEWS: In the movies, the life of Santa Claus is all about the North Pole and sleigh bells. But in real life, this year, Santa’s riding the New Jersey Transit trains and New York City subways. Even Santa doesn’t have job security this season, as many businesses cut back. John Hauck, 71, dons the traditional red suit and commutes two-and-half-hours from Pennsylvania to New York, because, like most businesses these days, even the Santa business is struggling. For the past five years, Hauck has worked at the local Granite Run Mall in Delaware County, Pa., but he was laid […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Student Massacre Of The Truth
Pottstown Teen Charged In Columbine-Style School Shooting Plot A 15-year-old freshman was charged yesterday with criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder for planning to “shoot everyone he did not like” at Pottstown High School, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said. Richard Yanis planned to use three firearms and ammunition that he had stolen from his father’s gun collection and given to a friend to hold, Ferman said at a news conference in Norristown. But the plan unraveled when the suspect’s father, Michael Yanis, 52, reported the guns stolen Nov. 11, touching off an intense, month-long investigation by police […]
GAYDAR EXTRA: Where Did Our Love Go?
Shout it from the rooftops: its Day Without a Gay! What would happen if one day, all the homosexuals in America—nay, the world—suddenly abandoned the work place? Today is the day we just might find out. DWD started with a few concerned homosexuals distraught over the Prop 8 ruling (boo). Even after the numerous demonstrations that erupted from the ruling, the people at DWD saw the need to up the ante in fight for the rights of gays everywhere. With their combined efforts, DWD has become a nationally-heeded herald: instead of calling into work sick today, call in “gay” and […]
PHOTO OP: You Oughta Be In Pictures
INQUIRER: This weekend, fans can not only gawk at the first Phillies World Series trophy in 28 years — and only the team’s second ever — but they can get their pictures taken next to it. For free. “Phanta Claus” — who looks suspiciously like the Phanatic in a Santa suit — will also pose with fans. The photo ops are part of the annual Holiday Sale at the Majestic Clubhouse Store at Citizens Bank Park. Fans can even park for free. Head for Lot S, off Pattison Avenue, and be sure to mention the holiday sale. Saturday’s hoopla will […]
TONITE: What Would Tyler Durden Do?
Tonite at The Barbary.
SHAMELESS: Illinois Governor Jailed For Selling Obama’s Empty Senate Seat To The Highest Bidder
ASSOCIATED PRESS: CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder in what a federal prosecutor called a “corruption crime spree.” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told a news conference prosecutors make “no allegations” Obama was aware of any alleged scheming. Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state […]
SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS: Whatever Happens In Room 315 Stays In Room 315, Part 5
BY JEFF DEENEY If Room 315’s teacher, Mr. McMonigle, can keep his students attention on school work for even 45 cumulative minutes of the day it’s a miracle. On many days no schoolwork gets done whatsoever; the entire six hours spent in this one room comprises a battle to simply control and contain the children so that they don’t hurt each other, hurt a staff member or spill out into the hallway and disrupt the neighboring classrooms. Today is turning out to be a banner day for education in Room 315: For 30 consecutive minutes the group’s attention has been […]
GAYDAR GALLERY REVIEW: The ‘View’ Flourishes
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR Budding and virtuoso artists exhibit the lush pastoral and the iridescent abstract in “Views” at Flourish Gallery, which opened First Friday this month. Ric Best, consummate photographer and co-proprietor of Flourish, produced austere stills of bucolic France, while Austin Algeo, bartender at Woody’s of five years, showed the finest of his experimental shots of Philadelphia’s 2008 Independence Day fireworks fanfare. Best’s associates and admirers had always been curious about his rumored talent for landscape stills. As the requests accumulated, Best endeavored on the laborious enterprise of sifting through the some 4,000 photographs he shot while […]
WE DID IT: K-Lid Sheik-Mo Pleads Guilty To 9/11
ASSOCIATED PRESS: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks say they want to enter guilty pleas, apparently challenging the U.S. government to sentence them to death before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. The Guantanamo detainees said they decided on Nov. 4 — the day Obama was elected — to abandon their defenses in their death-penalty trials. Obama opposes the military war-crimes trials and has pledged to close Guantanamo’s detention center, which holds some 250 men. Mohammed said Monday he will confess to masterminding the attacks that […]