STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984, directed by Jim Jarmusch, 89 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Jim Jarmusch’s first widely-distributed film, 1984’s Stranger Than Paradise, is a Criterion-endorsed modern classic, often pegged as being a crucial cog in the birth of the American independent film movement. But how does it play today? You’ll get a chance to see how this seminal slacker comedy plays with an modern audience this Saturday when The International House on the UPenn campus runs the dryly-comic yarn as part of its celebration of films from art house institution Janus Films. It would seem dishonest […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Time 16-Year-Old* John Lurie Rocked The Spectrum With Canned Heat
TODD MCGOVERN: Obviously you can’t always trust what you read – but your Wikipedia entry states that you played harmonica in high school, jamming with Mississippi Fred McDowell and Canned Heat in 1968. Is that true? If so, what were the circumstances of those gigs? JOHN LURIE: Yes, that is true. I think Wikipedia is better than it used to be. About eight years ago, I wrote in my profile that my head was made out of ancient cheese and it stayed there for months. But now I think they are pretty good about making things accurate. I saw […]
TRAILER: The Force Awakens
Um, I’m in.
JOHN OLIVER WATCH: Oh Canaduh!
This week, John Oliver took on the impending Canadian national election. We should care about this, he said, because Canada is not only our largest trading partner, we share the largest common border in the world. Oliver explained that Canadians do not directly elect their Prime Minister, the Parliament does. However, Canadians do elect individuals for Parliament, which gives them some say in the matter. The current frontrunner is liberal/progressive Justin Trudeau, son of revered ex-PM Pierre Trudeau. His main opponent is the conservative incumbent, Stephen Harper who has been in office for 10 years already thanks to Canada’s no […]
Win Tix To See Streetlight Manifesto On Sunday
We have a pair of tickets for some lucky Phawker reader to see Streetlight Manifesto, ball-capped avatars of Jersey third wave ska, play the Electric Factory on Sunday. Self-described as “one part rock, one part ska, with influences from Latin, klezmer, folk, world, funk, jazz and classical thrown in,” Streetlight Manifesto will help you get your ska ya-yas out.To qualify to win you need to do two things: First, follow us on Twitter. Second, send a note to Phawke66@gmail.com letting us know that you are following us on Twitter with the words TWIN TONE in the subject line. Please […]
WHITE STRIPES: Live @ The North Star Bar
Sad news in Philly live music circles, North Star Bar is closing Saturday and will re-open in December under a new “hip cool name” TBD as a bar/restaurant/beer garden that no longer presents live music. Not entirely surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. Three best shows I ever saw at North Star Bar: The Breeders on 2/8/02, Spectrum 4/15/11 and White Stripes on 6/20/01 (right as White Blood Cells was blowing the fuck up; my band The Pearly Gates opened; the above video has crappy lighting, but crystal clear sound) and just about any time Dick Dale or Nashville Pussy played. Thanks […]
BEING THERE: Mac DeMarco @ The Trocadero
Photo by DYLAN LONG Mac DeMarco’s spacy yet genuine personality, well-crafted slacker rock and full-on bozo performance style has led him a long way. The line to get into Mac DeMarco’s way sold out show at Trocadero Theater last night stretched down an entire block of Arch street from 10th to 11th streets and continued around the corner, studded with eager teens rocking tucked in t-shirts, five panel hats and multi-colored denim jackets. Opening act Walter TV (a project consisting of several of Mac’s own band members plus Simon Ankenman) delivered 45 minutes of strange yet enjoyable melodies punctuated by […]
FEEL THE BERN: Speaking Truth To Power
The magnanimity, selflessness and sheer balls — not to mention the scorching indictment of the media’s herd mentality and the resulting inanity of the political discourse in this country in the year 2015 — of Bernie Sanders in this moment showed leadership — not cunning, not calculation, not talking points, not poll-tested, focus-grouped gotcha zingers but real leadership — above and beyond anything else offered on that debate stage last night.
DUNGEN: Panda
Dungen plays a sold out show at Boot & Saddle on Friday. They were Tame Impala before the Impala got tamed.
DEATH IN THE CLASSROOM: Phawker Interns Weigh In On Campus Shootings, Ben Carson, Self-Defense, Gun Control & Gun Madness
EDITOR’S NOTE: At one point in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, aging playboy oceanographer Steve Zissou, aka Bill Murray, asks aloud, “Do the interns get Glocks?” Not at Phawker, Steve. But they do get the microphone and a chance to voice their opinion from time to time — this being one of them. In the wake of the unspeakable slaughter of nine college students in Roseburg 12 days ago, and presidential candidate Ben Carson’s remark afterwards that the students should have rushed the gunman (“I wouldn’t have just stood there,” he said.), I asked the interns — Temple students one […]
EUREKA: A Q&A With Bill Nye, The Science Guy
Artwork via THE DAILY OMNIVORE BY JONATHAN VALANIA On November 9th, the Franklin Institute will host a conversation between Maiken Scott, host of WHYY’s The Pulse and Bill Nye, bow-tied science communicator, advocate for reason and critical thinking skills, wouldbe astronaut, bane of creationists and climate science denialists, not to mention superstitious kooks and cranks of every ideological stripe. Recently, we got Dr. Nye on the horn. DISCUSSED: Why he believes in evolution and you should too, Carl Sagan, marijuana, why he wouldn’t sign up for the one-way trip to colonize Mars, why better batteries and sea water de-salinization technology […]
REALITY CHECK: Columbus Was Not A Role Model
Artwork via DRAGOART CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: The biggest controversy clouding Columbus’s reputation is the destruction – many would say genocide – of American Indians to which his expeditions led. Gold had always been the goal of his conquests, and when he failed to deliver his promise of “great mines of gold and other metals,” slaves became the consolation prize. MORE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: “With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. Here there are so many of these slaves. […] They have no arms, and are without warlike instincts; they all go naked, and […]
ALL GOOD ZOMBIES GO TO HEAVEN: Q&A With Bassist Chris White, Songwriter, Odessey & Oracle
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away called the Summer Of Love, The Zombies created one the three or four baroque-pop masterpieces of the psychedelic era of the 1960s. And nobody cared. Though they had a couple hits, The Zombies were never cool like the Beatles and the Stones were cool. Their innate dorkiness probably didn’t help, though it would, years later, thanks to Wes Anderson, render them alpha males in the Land Of Twee. But still, they served with valor, bravely walking point during the British Invasion and proudly wearing the uniform: skinny […]