ASSOCIATED PRESS: Germany has launched a war-crimes investigation of an 87-year-old Northeast Philadelphia man it accuses of serving as an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp, the Associated Press has learned, following years of failed U.S. Justice Department efforts to have the man stripped of his American citizenship and deported. Johann “Hans” Breyer, a retired toolmaker, admits he was a guard at Auschwitz during World War II, but told the AP he was stationed outside the facility and had nothing to do with the wholesale slaughter of about 1.5 million Jews and others behind the gates. The special […]
CINEMA: The Roxy Theater Has Been Fired
Photo by TGBUSILL PHILLY POST: According to John Ciccone, the Roxy’s landlord (he also owns the neighboring Adrienne Theater), he has given current operator Bernard Neary until November 7th to vacate. “But I’ve asked him to vacate earlier and have given him conditions that would make it attractive for him to do so,” says Ciccone, adding that the Roxy could close as soon as Monday, “or even tonight.” Ciccone says that he wants the Roxy “to be more” and to show art house and repertory films like it used to but to also upgrade to digital projectors to keep up […]
WORD: Sarah Silverman Speaks Truth To Voter ID Laws
Love her. Sigh. If you want to see REAL election fraud it’s right HERE. Also, probably NSFW unless you work as a prison guard.
CINEMA: The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
THE MASTER (2012, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, 137 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC For the first half-hour of Paul Thomas Anderson’s riveting new film The Master we watch the shell-shocked WW II vet Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) as his life sinks lower and lower into the mire of his own pathology. From soldier, to department store photographer, and finally chased off of the cabbage fields where he slaves along anonymously, Freddie keeps pace with the steamroller of a century the best that he can. When he sneaks aboard a yacht piloted by the august Lancaster Dodd […]
ANONYMOUS: Leave Ori Feibush Alone!
PHILLY POST: [Ori] Feibush might be a hero, because he did something that needs to happen more often in Philadelphia: He saw a mess. And he cleaned up the mess. This being Philadelphia, of course he’s in trouble. The mess, you see, wasn’t Feibush’s to clean up. The debris-filled lot at 20th and Annin streets is owned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority: Feibush owns the coffee shop next door. By his own estimation, he spent $20,000 to have 40 tons of debris removed from the site, and created what’s essentially a pocket park in its spot. In a better world, […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Wild Nothing @ UT
Photo by SHAWN BRACKBILL What’s that you say? Never heard of Wild Nothing? Oh, buddy. Via Captured Tracks: Ask Jack Tatum what ‘Wild Nothing’ means and he’ll answer: ‘a contradiction’. In 2010, 21 year old Tatum released one of the finest cult pop records of the summer whilst ensconced in his senior year of college in Blacksburg, VA, a small mid-atlantic town better known for producing football fans and engineers than musicians. Tatum lives in contradictions. You’ll often hear Wild Nothing referred to as a ‘one man pop band’. Jack creates in the studio, alone. On the road, he’s with […]
REPORT: Marijuana Can Halt The Spread Of Cancer
MARKET WATCH: NBC News reports, “The drug “has been shown to reduce pain and nausea” in cancer patients. AIDS patients also use cannabis to eat, sleep and otherwise be more functional. Turns out that cannabidiol has none of the psychotropic effects of marijuana as a whole. The researchers hope to move to clinical trials on humans soon to test the cannabidiol inhibition of metastasis, reported in the San Francisco Chronicle. “What they found is that the cannabinoid turns off the overexpression of ID-1, which makes the cells lose their ability to travel to distant tissues. In other words, it keeps […]
WORTH REPEATING: Old Man Take A Look At My Life
DAVID CARR: In the wake of “Americana,” a collection of folk songs recorded with Crazy Horse that was released last spring, he is already making another album and writing another book, this one about all of the cars he has owned. Roberts handles Young’s business and artistic interests with a great deal of savvy, so Young is good at making money — which helps, because he is also good at making it go away. “I spend it all,” he said. “I like to employ people and make stuff. It will be my undoing.” He has dropped a fortune making […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Wye Oak @ Union Transfer
The good news about the new Cat Power album being such a distinct break from the old Cat Power is that Wye Oak is now free to be the Old Cat Power — witchy, supernatural Appalachian indie-rock narrated by a post-modern Ophelia backstroking across the river of madness — but with more incendiary guitar firepower. I mean that as a compliment. We have a pair of tickets to see them at Union Transfer on Saturday giveaway to the seventh lucky Phawker reader to sign up for our email list (SEE RIGHT, bottom of the mashtead). Good luck and godspeed.
TONITE: Remain In The Light
Photo by JAMES EWING Tonight, the Association for Public Art (aPA) will debut Open Air, a large-scale, interactive public art experience that uses a mobile app, 24 powerful searchlights and the voices of the city to transform the night sky above the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Open Air runs September 20 to October 14. To kick off this major world-premiere installation, aPA will host an Opening Night Celebration on Thursday, Sept. 20, 7:30-11 p.m. on the closed inner drive of the Parkway. The FREE public event will feature a performance by Grammy Award-winning acclaimed musician Rahzel, the “Godfather of Noyze” and […]
Is The Romney Fundraising Juggernaut A Paper Tiger?
>Artwork by MARK WAGNER NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Romney’s campaign finances have been significantly less robust than recent headlines would suggest. Much of the more than $300 million the campaign reported raising this summer is earmarked for the Republican National Committee, state Republican organizations and Congressional races, limiting the money Mr. Romney’s own campaign has to spend. In some states the disparity is striking. Mr. Obama and his allies are handily outspending Mr. Romney and the conservative “super PACs” working on his behalf in Colorado, Ohio and New Hampshire. And in states like Florida, Iowa, Nevada and Virginia, where the […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Florence + The Machine In Camden
Florence + The Machine, Susquehanna Bank Center, last night 9:14 PM by MEREDITH KLEIBER When the lights finally went down at the Susquehanna Bank Center on Tuesday night, a lithe silhouette appeared in the middle of the stage behind an illuminated pink screen, and from it emerged the copper-maned siren known as Florence. She moved effortlessly across the stage, her Grecian-goddess dress flowing, her ruby red tresses cascading behind her. Her porcelain skin and full moon eyes gave her an aura of innocence — that is, until she unleashed the first note. The teeming rain and gale-force winds that lashed […]
MUST SEE TV: The Jolly Green Giant Was A Stoner
Another completely absurd yet entirely accurate take on the issues by the folks at NMA. This time it’s Colorado’s Prop 64, which would legalize recreational use of marijuana. This is what the pro-legalization crowd needs, a Hulk-like superhero — a truly jolly green giant — to take on the forces of repression and corporate beer.