BY MICHAEL FICHMAN I’ve worked on and off in sports journalism (professional, then amateur) for about seven years now. Periodically, the small-mindedness of a niche-interested group becomes apparent. For example, when a talented football player like Barry Sanders retires before his time, sportswriters lose their fucking minds. “How could he do that? He’s just walking away?!” When Michael Jordan came back for the umpteenth time (or decided to play baseball for that matter), people whined that he was tarnishing his legacy, as if MJ himself hadn’t created it. Most sportswriters and hardcore sports fans were once aspiring athletes, moon-shooting idealistic […]
REVIEW: The Shins, Electric Factory, Last Night
EVA SAYS: So, you’d think after all these years of waiting to see The Shins, my first show would have been some meaningful notch on my concert bedpost or something. What a silly expectation that was. At best, maybe I got excited for the first ten seconds of each song. But then the initial thrill of recognition would fade and I would be back to underwhelmed. Mostly I blame myself. After all, my friends did try to warn me off: “The Shins suck, you loser Zach Braff fan!” (For the record: I do not like Zach Braff nor was I […]
ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL
WARNING: F-bombs, stereotypes, hilarity the funniest thing you see on the Internet today — no really, we checked. [Hat tip to P-Riddy]
NPR FOR THE DEF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR ON WHYY Religion scholars Elaine Pagels and Karen King’s new book, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas [pictured, circa 1973 A.D.], interprets and translates the recently discovered gnostic gospel of Judas. Pagels’ previous books include, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas and The Gnostic Gospels. King’s previous book is The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. RADIO TIMES with MARTY MOSS-COANE Hour 1 On March 3, after a series of public meetings and forums organized by Penn Praxis, 500 people attended a conference where a group of leading architects presented their concepts […]
The Military-Industrial Complex Started As A Hobby
The City of Philadelphia’s photo archive contains over 2 million images that date back as far as the late 1800s, i.e. the last time a Republican won in this town. In all seriousness, this is an INCREDIBLE visual record of the city’s evolution and a relatively new web site, PhillyHistory.org, is making it available for online consumption and purchase. To date, some 22,000 images have been digitally scanned, at a rate of roughly 2,000 images a month. So, if you’ve been wondering why the line at Kinko’s is so goddamned SLOW, well, now you know. Phawker will be showcasing images […]
Man Explodes To Death At Friendly’s
A serviceman working on the air compressor system at a restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia was killed yesterday when a pressurized tank exploded, officials said. The man, a South Jersey resident whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene. He was working on the air compressor system at the Friendly’s Restaurant on Roosevelt Boulevard and Red Lion Road about 2:30 p.m. when the explosion [NOT pictured, right] occurred, officials said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported. The cause of the blast was under investigation. INQUIRER: Tick, Tick, BOOM
GUNCRAZY: SEPTA Rider Shot In The Head, Twice
It all started when a 45-year-old man chased desperately after a Route 33 SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia shortly before 5 p.m., hoping to catch his ride. Watching the running man intently from inside the bus, police say, was a man in his late 50s or early 60s. The younger man must have thought he was in luck – the Route 33 bus stopped, allowing him to hop on board. Police say he paid his fare and was immediately confronted by the man who’d been watching him. The older man “began grabbing or shaking him, and asked him, ‘Where’s my […]
Bicycle Thief Steals 18K Painting, Pops Wheelie
Police are looking for an art thief who in a daring – but decidedly low-tech – daylight heist stole an $18,000 Keith Haring work from a Center City gallery, making his getaway on a bicycle in the snow. When last seen after the snatch-and-run robbery last Wednesday at the I. Brewster gallery on the 1600 block of Walnut Street, the silkscreen shoplifter was pedaling south on 16th Street, store employees in pursuit. “We were all running after him,” gallery owner Nicky Brewster said. He said the thief walked into the store about 3 p.m. on the day of the last […]
EARLY WORD: Full Speed Ahead, Mr. Chekhov
[Click image to activate Internet]
DOPEY BALBOA: Stallone Busted For Steroids
AS TATTLE RAN to press last night, TMZ.com and the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Sylvester Stallone (aka Rocky) had been charged in a Sydney courtroom with illegally importing steroids.According to Aussie authorities, Stallone, who did not appear in court, was caught at Sydney Airport on a promotional tour for “Rocky Balboa” last month, with several vials of human growth hormone. When customs officials raided Stallone’s hotel room, the number of HGH vials reached 48. Stallone, 60, will enter a plea in Sydney on April 24. If found guilty, he’s not going to jail, but he could be forced to […]
ROLLING STONES: Honky Tonk Women (1969)
Hyde Park, London. I4-5rqlhePQ /youtube]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Law professor/NY Times contributor Jeffrey Rosen was recently invited to visit Gitmo on a special VIP trip arranged by the Defense Department. As he writes in a recent New Republic cover story, his experience was curiously different than that of his brother-in-law, a pro-bono lawyer representing one of Gitmo’s most famous inmates. From the New Republic: Last spring, my brother-in-law, Neal Katyal, represented Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, in his successful Supreme Court challenge to the constitutionality of the original Bush military tribunals. The case was challenging, logistically as well as legally. In order to see […]