SUNSHINE SUPERMAN: Brown Recluse Sings (pictured above), The Neighborhood Choir, Surefire Broadcast, & Hermit Thrushes play Friday at Johnny Brenda’s. 1. Brown Recluse Sings is quite possibly the second or third worst band name EVER. 2. They are also the greatest band we have ever heard. This week. What do they sound like, you ask? Krautrock-ish. Or “pretty, drawn-out, simple” as the band says. 3. Hard to say if they are a band first and a DJ collective second or vice versa. Patrick Todd is the drummer. He is 1/3 of the SuperTodd Brothers, along with Ryan and Jesse Todd. […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Al Green Loves Me This I Know
FRESH AIR MUST HEAR RADIO: A Baptist deacon, R&B drummer and former gospel-music editor for Billboard magazine, Robert Darden is also an English professor at Baylor University, where he runs the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project. He’ll play some rare recordings for us. ALSO, few modern American films have achieved the cult status enjoyed by Ridley Scott‘s Blade Runner. But the picture’s path to film legend was anything but straight, with bitter disagreement between director Scott and Warner Brothers about the film’s original cut. A flop when it premiered in 1982, Blade Runner stars Harrison Ford as Deckard, a cop […]
TAO OF EVA: Jingle Bells
BATMAN SMELLS: Street hawker outside adult bookstore, somewhere in Tokyo, yesterday [photo by EVA LIAO] PREVIOUSLY: Shitting Pretty In Tokyo Phawker assistant editor Eva Liao is currently in Japan on an exciting journalistic-type assignment that we’d have to kill you if we told you about, etc. However, she promises to send us a little culture-shock postcard each and every day.
ADBUST: Getting Old Is Hard To Do
[Hat tip to Dantzerdaze.com] NEWSWEEK: If you’re a man of a certain age, then you spent a lot of Sunday afternoons building ramps and wearing capes and trying to be the first on the block to jump over your labrador retriever. Or maybe you spent some time in an emergency room because your banana seat bike — the one with the sparkly flag seat — almost made it from the roof of the garage to the cow pond. When it was all over and the stitches were in place and the arms set, your mom had one man to blame: Robert […]
THIS WILL BE ON THE TEST: Dave Eggers Is Comin’
The One Book, One Philadelphia Selection Committee has chosen Dave Eggers’ What Is the What to be the featured selection for this upcoming year. What Is the What tells the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, who as a child witnessed atrocities of civil warfare in Sudan and became one of the so-called Lost Boys. In order to enlighten readers and stimulate discussion dealing with both East African culture and history, as well as issues of violence in the world and within our own city, two thematically related companion books for families are also suggested: Brothers In Hope: The Story […]
KILLADELPHIA: “I Am Taking You To Moo’s House…”
DAILY NEWS: Anthony Elps allegedly was holding a handgun as he locked eyes with Sonia Perez. Perez, his ex-girlfriend, was holding her 4-month-old son in a car seat outside her West Philly home.“Get in the car!” Elps said, according to police. He wouldn’t ask again. Elps snatched the car seat, baby and all, and tossed it in the back of his 1994 Pontiac Bonneville. Then he grabbed Perez by the neck and threw her in the car, too, said Highway Patrol Capt. Michael Cochrane. When the Pontiac sped off, about 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Cochrane said, Elps turned to Perez […]
GRATEFUL DEAD: Ripple
DOWNLOAD: Grateful Dead – November 5, 1979 – The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
DEAR AL-QAIDA: Osama Bin-Laden’s Right Hand Man Throws It Open For Questions
CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Qaida has invited journalists to send questions to its No. 2 figure, Ayman al-Zawahri, in the first such offer by the increasingly media-savvy terror network to “interview” one of its leaders since the 9-11 attacks. The invitation is a new twist in al-Qaida’s campaign to reach a broader audience, and represents an attempt by al-Zawahri to present himself as a sophisticated leader rather than a mass murderer. The advertisement, issued by the group’s media arm Al-Sahab on an Islamic militant Web site, invites “individuals, agencies and all media” to submit written questions for al-Zawahri by sending them […]
HOORAY FOR CLARITY: Time Shitcans William “The Bloody” Kristol & Charles “The Hammer” Krauthammer
NEW YORK OBSERVER: Two conservative Time magazine columnists are on their way out the door: Neither William Kristol nor longtime contributor Charles Krauthammer will be on contract with the magazine starting next month. Mr. Krauthammer confirmed the news to Off the Record, and a spokeswoman for Time said Mr. Kristol’s contract would not be renewed. The exact reasons for the departures of Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Kristol, both high-profile backers of the Iraq war, are not entirely clear.“ I was very happy to work with them,” said Mr. Krauthammer on the phone from his Washington office. Asked if he would […]
ST. JOHN ALLIANCE: The Perfectly GOOD Explanation
PICTURE NOT RELATED: “Stigmatization of St Catherine of Siena” by Domenico di Giacomo di Pace “Beccafumi” il Mecherino SHE SAID: “The innuendoes and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer concerning John Edwards are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous. My video production company was hired by the Edwards camp on a 6 month contract, which we completed December 31, 2006. When working for the Edwards camp, my conduct as well as the conduct of my entire team was completely professional. This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it.” […]
THIS JUST IN: Giuliani Hospitalized
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Republican Rudy Giuliani was admitted to a hospital Wednesday night for flu-like symptoms, his campaign said. The former New York City mayor felt the symptoms while campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in Missouri, and they soon became worse, campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson said. The mayor decided to go to a St. Louis hospital and spend the night there, she said. “The symptoms worsened as the day wore on and shortly after taking off from Chesterfield, Missouri, for New York the mayor became uncomfortable enough that our plane returned to the airport in Chesterfield,” Levinson […]
THE TAO OF EVA: Live At Budokan
BIG IN JAPAN: Tokyo, Circa Yesterday by EVA LIAO Hey Boss, Tommy Lee Jones has done a series of commercials (ten, to be exact) for a coffee called BOSS. Here’s the site that can link you to all of them. If you’re short on time, check out numbers 3 and 7 particularly. Because they’re all in Japanese, I’ll break down the general plot. Tommy Lee is an alien living amongst humans to get a better understanding of planet earth. Bit by bit he realizes life on earth sucks, but his love for Boss coffee makes up for its shortcomings. Enjoy! […]