Win Tix To See The City And Colour @ The Tower

  Of all the unapologetically stubble-faced folkies/flannel-clad lite rockists wearing thrift store fedoras at a jaunty angle to drop out of the Canadian indie firmament like October leaves, Dallas Green, who records under the moniker City And Colour, gets the essential ratios of prettiness to mopery and preciousness to true grit the rightest. “The Girl,” from 2008’s Bring Me Your Love is/was his Shins/”New Slang,” absent a poignant Zach Braff/Natalie Portman cinematic moment. Ever since the midnight bedroom folk ruminations of Bring Me Your Love, City And Colour records have ventured more and more into traditional electric rock arrangements. Compared […]

10 Things I Learned @ Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz

Photos courtesy of WAYNE COYNE via Instagram 1. When dressing for the Miley Cyrus concert circus at the Electric Factory, the only two sensible choices are a full-body fleece onesie, or the skimpiest rave harlot/stripper outfit that you can wear without getting arrested. Or so it would seem judging by the crowd. But what do I know? I was wearing trouser socks. Don’t ask. 2. If you want to get to the front of the pit quickly, tell everyone you have a photo pass while climbing over their heads. Even if you don’t. People love that. 3. The “Miley Army” […]

RIP: Holly Woodlawn, Transgendered Actress & Star Of Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side,” Dead @ 69

BBC: Holly Woodlawn, the transgender actress who inspired Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side and appeared in Andy Warhol’s 70s films Trash and Women in Revolt, has died of cancer aged 69. Reed’s opening lyrics read: “Holly came from Miami, F-L-A / Hitchhiked her way across the USA / Plucked her eyebrows on the way / Shaved her legs, and then he was a she” in his hit.Puerto-Rico born Woodlawn, born Haroldo Santiago Franceschi Rodriguez Danhakl, took on her new name after leaving home aged 15 and hitchhiking to New York City. She told the Guardian in 2007 of […]

Q&A: Teyonah Parris, Star Of Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq

  BY SHARNITA MIDGETT Like Killadelphia, Chiraq is a nickname no city would ever want. It was first coined in 2010 by then-Chicago Police superintendent Jody Weis. “We are not Chiraq,” he said. “We are Chicago.” He was bemoaning the fact that on a good day Chicago’s body count matches — and often exceeds — Iraq on it’s worse day. Little has changed in five years. As of November 23rd, there were 2703 shootings — an average of eight a day — and 440 gun deaths in Chicago in 2015. Spike Lee tackles the issue head-on with his latest film, […]

EMILY WELLS: Philadelphia

OUT: “Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ has been a stone in my pocket since the moment I heard it and somehow overshadowed ‘Philadelphia,’ the simple melodic song by Neil Young. I discovered it separate from the film, late to the party, a while ago, and knew I had always needed it. For a queer kid raised by a long line of preachers, the idea of seeing the light and knowing you’ll be all right was enough to make it more of an anthem than a lullaby. I won’t be ashamed of love.” MORE New album, Promise, out January 29th.

EXCERPT: Fear & Loathing On The Main Line

  PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: I could tell you about Muneera Walker, a 53-year-old African-American general contractor who was driving along winding, dangerous Mill Creek Road in Gladwyne when a car behind her raced up to her bumper. The car drew perilously close in her rearview mirror, dropped back, then surged forward again, as if urging Walker to hit the gas. She could see the driver, a young white woman around 20 years old, in her rearview mirror. This was a balmy day last August. Both drivers had their windows rolled down, and as Walker maintained her speed, around 30 mph, she […]

GUNSENSE: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

  Since 2012, more Americans have been killed by guns than have died in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq combined. Since 1968, 1,516,863 Americans have been killed by guns — a higher body count than all the wars in American history combined. Between 2004 and 2014, more than 2,000 terror suspects on the watch list have legally purchased guns in America. This madness will not stop until elections are publicly financed and corporate interests like the NRA no longer literally own Congress and write the laws of the land, when public policy is no longer dictated by the highest bidder […]

CINEMA: Suffragette City

Suffragette (2015, Directed by Sarah Gavron, 105 minutes, USA) BY ELIZABETH WIEST Director Sarah Gavron’s (Brick Lane, This Little Life) latest period piece Suffragette follows four proto-feminist foot soldiers through the smog and grime of nineteenth century London as they stir up a grass roots rebellion demanding women’s right to vote. The centerpiece of the film is a gracefully understated performance by Carey Mulligan as the daring Maud Watts, a factory worker, wife, and mother who becomes increasingly fed up with the indignities of life among Britain’s female proletariat. As her involvement with the burgeoning women’s movement intensifies, she becomes […]

Win Tix To See Panama Wedding @ The Foundry

  A few last minute comps for tonight’s Panama Wedding show at The Foundry @ The Fillmore just landed on our doorstep. As per the laws of concert industry physics, we are making them available to our readers. To qualify to win them, just send a note to Phawker66@gmail.com with your name, mobile number and reason why you are so awesome that we simply must give you the tix. Put the magic words PANAMA WEDDING PARTY in the subject line. Good luck and godspeed! PANAMA WEDDING PERFORM TONIGHT AT THE FOUNDRY @ THE FILLMORE

INCOMING: The Gift Of The Murr-aye

  SOPHIA COPPOLA: For me, the idea for the special all started from talking to Bill Murray about how I wanted him to do a week at the Carlyle singing old standards. I love seeing him in a tuxedo. He and Mitch [Glazer, the writer-producer] were talking about doing something for TV and wanted to talk to me about that. We were having drinks one night, and somehow the idea came together. What I like to have Bill indulge for my own pleasure and amusement — that’s what other people like to see from Bill, too. I always enjoy seeing […]

CINEMA: Je Suis Psycho

  THE GUARDIAN: Kent Jones’s enjoyable documentary – presented in the festival’s Cannes Classics section – is a tribute to a pioneering act of cinephilia, cinema criticism and living ancestor worship. François Truffaut’s remarkable interview series with Alfred Hitchcock, conducted over a week at his offices at Universal Studios in 1962, was a journalistic enterprise which changed the way cinema was thought of as an art form. Nowadays, a young film-maker might envisage a similar exercise in terms of a film or cable TV series – but what Truffaut finally produced was text: a fascinatingly illustrated book, like the record […]