DEAR MISTER PHAWKER MAN, i actually started this six years ago and I JUST finished it today. WEIRD, huh? just wondering, Jay Bevenour North Philly, YO! Dear J-Bev, A little. yer pal, The Phawker Dear The Phawker, Somewhere Rush Limbaugh sits in his skivies on his fancy bed, smearing Nancy Pelosi?s photo with feces. I can’t imagine the rabid froth the right is going to unleash on having to answer to a woman congressman representing San Francisco. But if any group of nuts needed a mommy to take them to task, it is this Republican party. Dan Buskirk The […]
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INCOMING: There’s No Place Like Home
Folks, we’re hanging the GONE FISHIN’ sign on the door and heading home for Christmas. Expect it will look a lot like this picture of last year’s homecoming. We’ll be back to daily updates on December 27th. Stay tuned for our annual THE YEAR IN CINEMA, THE YEAR IN MUSIC, THE YEAR IN QUESTIONS & ANSWERS. Until then, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to you and yours!
CINEMA: Begin The Begin
PROMETHEUS (2012, directed by Ridley Scott, 124 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSIRK How Ridley Scott could’ve stayed away from sci-fi all these years is beyond me. The 75-year-old director has had successes over the years, from his Oscar-winning Gladiator and his influential war flick Black Hawk Down, but nothing has stoked the eternal interest 1979’s Alien and 1982’s Blade Runner continue to enjoy. With Prometheus, Scott returns not just to sci-fi but to his Alien franchise, which since its James Cameron-directed sequel in 1986 has floundered in the hands of mostly well-meaning directors who have failed to make something out […]
CINEMA: Philadelphia Film Festival Spring Preview
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Most local film lovers don’t even want to discuss the collapse of this Spring’s Philadelphia Film Festival, it’s down there with bummer thoughts like the loss of a beloved pet or the rise of the Tea Party. I know some of the my favorite films of the decade were features caught during the festival that never again arrived on area screens. Like a friend looking to cushion the blow, the Philadelphia Film Society has staged a Spring Preview mini-festival this weekend, bringing twelve new films to the Prince Theater and the best thing is that […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR For the last three years, comedian John Oliver has been telling some serious jokes as “Senior British Correspondent” on The Daily Show With John Stewart. He won an Emmy for his work on the show in 2009, but his comedic career is not confined to the fake newsroom. Also last year, Oliver wrote and starred in his own stand-up special, John Oliver: Terrifying Times and appeared in the Mike Myer comedy flop The Love Guru. When he’s not on the screen, you can hear Oliver on the airwaves as the host of the TimesOnline weekly satirical news podcast […]
THE AMERICAN GULAG: McClatchy Publishes Hard-Hitting Overview Of Gitmo, Who’s There, How They Got There, And Why Most Shouldn’t Be
BY TOM LASSETER OF MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens and perhaps hundreds of men whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments. McClatchy interviewed 66 released detainees along with a number of local officials, primarily in Afghanistan, and reviewed available U.S. military tribunal documents and other records. Most of the 66 were low-level Taliban grunts, innocent Afghan villagers or ordinary criminals, the McClatchy investigation found. At least seven […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Digital media — including MP3 players, peer-to-peer networks and music websites — are changing how we discover, listen to and share music. Writer Eliot Van Buskirk joins Fresh Air to discuss the new, digital landscape of music, and the resulting changes in the music industry. Van Buskirk covers digital media for Wired.com on the blog, Listening Post. Formerly a senior editor for digital music and devices at CNET.com, he is the author of two books, Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More! and iPod and iTunes QuickSteps. ALSO, in 2002, Dan Kennedy landed what he thought […]
ARTSY: Ra, Ra, Ra Your Boat
BY DAN “ARTSY” BUSKIRK A truly successful artist wisely figures out how to incorporate their art organically into his life. If Irish installation artist Brian Kennedy is going to keep his insane schedule, traveling the five continents to mount his installations, why shouldn’t his subject be travel itself? Most recently his travels have brought him to Philadelphia, where his piece “Passage” had its unveiling tonight at the Icebox Gallery at the Crane Art Building. Kennedy is known for his large-scale installations specifically designed for their presentation spaces, but with The Icebox’s massive size — we’re talking 5,000 square ft. — […]
FROM PROVIDENCE: It’s The ‘Essentializing’, Stupid!
EDITOR’S NOTE: So, it turns out Mr. Terror Dentist /Wilco’s Pet has got himself a woman these days. Saints be praised. And not just any woman, but a cultural anthropologist who, get this, just got back from India after 16 months spent studying the everyday lives of policemen in Uttar Pradesh. Apparently pecking out lengthy observational dispatches on the biomechanics of ethnicity and identity politics is their idea of fun during a romantic getaway to Rhode Island, which is where my letter found Anand. Her name is Beatrice Jauregui and she makes a lot of good points, and many that […]
TROUBLE WITH PHAWKER: Why That ‘Apology’ Sucks
. BY DAN OMBUDSMAN BUSKIRK Hey Jonathan- Let me first say that I’m not accusing you of anything I can’t imagine me getting myself into. I’ve gotten myself into more than my share of charged racial situations and I’m sure there is more to come but I’ve definitely tried to learn something along the way. If I was receving this letter I wouldn’t feel very apologized to, although you do actually say “I apologize”. But for every point you concede you defend yourself twice over. I’ll comment on a couple of things from the letter: Nita, First I would like […]