INQUIRER: More than 758,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania do not have photo identification cards from the state Transportation Department, putting their voting rights at risk in the November election, according to data released Tuesday by state election officials. The figures – representing 9.2 percent of the state’s 8.2 million voters – are significantly higher than prior estimates by the Corbett administration. Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele has repeatedly said that 99 percent of Pennsylvania’s voters already had the photo ID they will need at the polls in November. The new numbers, based on a comparison of voter registration […]
THE DIRTY PROJECTORS: Hi Custodian
The trailer for “Hi Custodian”, a Dirty Projectors film by David Longstreth featuring music from the band’s upcoming album Swing Lo Magellan, out today on Domino.
ROMNEYCARE 2012: Sick People Deserve The Best Medical Care Their Money Can Buy, And No More
Click to enlarge BY WILLIAM C. HENRY This just in: Realizing that their Presidential candidate in fact championed government mandated health insurance during a previous incarnation, and recognizing that they have no worthwhile ideas of their own regarding national healthcare policy, the Republican party has decided to declare a moratorium on illness. In fact, so sure are they of the long term benefits and effectiveness of such a moratorium, they are now setting their sites on dismantling all vestiges of ObamaCare and anything else for that matter that smacks of non-preferential access to healthcare. Too cynical? Too sarcastic? I think […]
In 18 Years You Could Be In NYC In 37 Minutes
Artwork by ROBERT LADUKE INQUIRER: Amtrak’s updated plan for high-speed train travel on the East Coast envisions 37-minute trips between Philadelphia and New York, after a $151 billion redevelopment of the entire Northeast Corridor. Faster service would be phased in gradually, as Amtrak improves existing tracks, signals, bridges, and power lines and then builds a separate high-speed corridor between Washington and Boston to accommodate trains traveling at 220 m.p.h. In a report released Monday, Amtrak revised its projections for costs, ridership, and the alignment of its proposed new 438-mile high-speed corridor. The high-speed segment between New York and Washington would […]
RIP: Ernest Borgnine, Oscar-Winning Big-Hearted Everyman With A Face For Radio, Dead At 95
NEW YORK TIMES: Ernest Borgnine, the rough-hewn actor who seemed destined for tough-guy characters but won an Academy Award for embodying the gentlest of souls, a lonely Bronx butcher, in the 1955 film “Marty,“ died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 95. Mr. Borgnine, who later starred on “McHale’s Navy” on television, made his first memorable impression in films at age 37, appearing in “From Here to Eternity” (1953) as Fatso Judson, the sadistic stockade sergeant who beats Frank Sinatra’s character, Private Maggio, to death. But Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote “Marty” as a television play, and Delbert Mann, […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Guided By Voices, Troc, 10:34 PM last night BY AMY SALIT
TONITE: In Bob We Trust
Employing the same Buckeye ingenuity that keeps the Goodyear blimp afloat, Robert Pollard can polish a turd with Budweiser until it shines with 24-carat radiance, transmuting a tossed-off, six-pack idea into a classic rock artifact or at the very least a beguiling no-fi curio. As captain of the drunken boat that is Guided By Voices, Pollard built a cottage industry by churning out cheap, miniature melodic masterpieces with all the fidelity of a ham radio broadcast. He does it with volume — by which I mean quantity not loudness. As such, the discography remains daunting if only for its sheer […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR When LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy attended live concerts, he says he always felt like there was something missing. “I’d start to see bands prioritize things wrong in my mind,” he tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “[They weren’t] prioritizing the momentness of a show or the physical experience of a show. Instead, they [were] prioritizing making sure they didn’t make mistakes or prioritiz[ing] trying to faithfully represent a prerecorded piece of material.” When Murphy hit his early 30s, he says he decided that he would stop complaining and instead make his argument for better live music by […]
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: Ex-Argentinian Dictator Convicted Of Torturing & Killing Pregnant Female Dissidents And Kidnapping Their Newborn Babies
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The baby thefts set Argentina’s military regime apart from all the other juntas that ruled in Latin America at the time. Videla and other military and police officials were determined to remove any trace of the armed leftist guerrilla movement they said threatened the country’s future. Many pregnant women detained as dissidents were “disappeared” shortly after giving birth in clandestine maternity wards, and their babies were handed over to families trusted by military officials. […] Witnesses during the trial included former U.S. diplomat Elliot Abrams. He was called to testify after a long-classified memo describing his secret meeting […]
DHARMA BUMMING: A Letter From India
Photo by ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH Dear Phawker, It’s been a while. After weeks of bus travel, sleeping in dingy guesthouses, avoiding tenacious touts, and gulping down Indian food ranging from the just-mildly spicy to the infernal, I had arrived at Cape Comorin, the southern tip of the country. Today, I wiggled my toes in the sand and looked out across three oceans. The sand was coarser than I’d expected. And the empty fishing village I’d been imagining seemed more like India’s version of the Jersey shore. The waves were blue and clear and the white caps were pure and foaming […]
BREAKING: Ali To Receive Liberty Medal
Ali will receive the medal in a public ceremony on Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall in Historic Philadelphia. Ali has long served as an icon of constitutional ideals and the realization of the American dream – all the while challenging and expanding the very definition of “We the People.” The Olympic gold medalist and boxing legend has been an outspoken fighter for religious and civil rights; a conscientious objector who took his battle to the Supreme Court and won; an ambassador for peace and justice worldwide; and a tireless […]
Skrillex & Harmony Korine — Together At Last!
TINY MIX TAPES: Harmony Korine wrapped production on the follow-up to his perfect 2010 film Trash Humpers eight weeks ago in St. Petersburg, Florida, and while the news that the main cast would be Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Heather Morris, James Franco, and Gucci Mane made a lot of us at TMT excited (especially the ones who’ve been posting graphic Disney fan fiction to our private message board), it wasn’t something we were really going to report on. However, once we heard that Skrillex (Prince’s successor) would be providing an original score to the film — titled Spring […]
CINEMA: You Only Live Twice
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012, directed by Marc Webb, 136 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I’m guessing it has been a decade or so since everybody started using the word “reboot” in place of “remake.” One of those marketing terms that slipped into everyday usage, it meant a new film wasn’t just a stale remake, it was newer, fresher, with old ideas reconsidered and completely re-imagined. Now, just a decade after the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man series began dominating the blockbuster season with its trilogy of high-budgeted extravaganzas, people are saying “Spider-Man, a reboot already?” Nope. The Amazing Spider-Man […]