Photo by DDC95 BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT I spent the last couple of days in the realm of geeks, aka the annual Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con, snapping pix of cosplayers (geeks in costumes), listening to celebrity Q&As and surprisingly deep lectures on certain aspects of high nerd-dom, talking shop with other geeks, searching numerous retail stands for comics and statues, and walking around the floors of the Pennsylvania Convention Center in my quests for the correct rooms. In short, it was awesome. Here is a list of the top 10 things at the con. 1. The Shopping. […]
CINEMA: Here’s Your Pope, What’s Your Hurry?
We Have a Pope (Habemus Papum) (Dir. by Nanni Moretti, 2011, Italian, 102 minutes) The latest film by independent Italian Director Nanni Moretti, We Have a Pope, is a lightweight farce that pokes fun at the isolated and archaic ways of the Roman Catholic Church but never manages to really open a crack to let the light of day shine on any of the more serious issues facing the institution in the modern world. The film opens with the venerable College of Cardinals filing quietly past the press to sequester themselves in conclave and elect a new Pontiff. During the […]
DON’T KVETCH WITH TEXAS: A Q&A With Kinky Friedman, The Last Of The Jewish Cowboys
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Kinky Friedman has worn a lot of hats over the years, both literally and figuratively: Satirical cowboy songwriter (“They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Get Your Biscuits In The Kitchen And Your Buns In The Bedroom”) serial detective fiction novelist, friend to animals, purveyor of fine tequila/salsa/cigars, and failed gubernatorial candidate from the great state of Texas. In advance of his appearance at The Sellersville Theater on 6/14 and World Cafe Live on 6/15 we got Kinky on the horn to explain himself. Discussed: the crimes of Michael Vick; the sexual orientation of Rick […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Last week, The New York Times reported that Stuxnet, the computer worm that infected computers around the world in 2010, was developed by the United States in conjunction with Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. “It appears to be the first time the United States has repeatedly used cyberweapons to cripple another country’s infrastructure, achieving, with computer code, what until then could be accomplished only by bombing a country or sending in agents to plant explosives,” wrote David Sanger, the paper’s chief Washington correspondent. Sanger describes how President Obama decided to speed up clandestine cyberattacks against Iran’s nuclear […]
CENSORSHIP: The Internet Dies A Little Every Time Facebook Decides U Can’t Handle The Truth
PHILLY POST: I’ve seen many photographs and pictures depicting the white man’s mistreatment, dehumanization and outright murder of black people, from that iconic photo of a former slave with whipping scars all over his back to the picture of the 1930s Indiana lynching of two suspected rapists to, closer to home, the 1970s image of the Philadelphia Police vs. Delbert Africa, and many more, but none made me quite as uneasy as this photograph shared several days ago by Philadelphia attorney and Philly Post contributor Michael Coardon his Facebook page, a photo that Facebook has since removed.“It stopped me in my tracks,” says Coard of […]
Pope Set To Visit Philly In 2015, Which Is At Least 20 Years Too Late To Save The Children
DAILY NEWS: Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement Sunday in Milan during the 2012 World Meeting of Families there. The meeting, according to a statement sent out by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, began in 1992 as an attempt to “strengthen and defend the sacred bonds of marriage and family across the globe.” This is the first time that the conference will be in the U.S., and the first time that it will be held in a non-Catholic majority country. The conference has been held four times outside Europe, and the Pope has never before traveled to the ones held off […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Dandy Warhols @ The Troc
Photo by PETE TROSHAK The Dandy Warhols, arguably the most under-appreciated band in America, are currently on the road supporting their new effort This Machine – a dark, powerful, lean, guitar-driven album. The Portland band’s impressive guitar firepower was in full effect on Friday night at the Troc, as guitarists Courtney Taylor-Taylor (rocking a vintage 60’s Fender Coronado guitar) and bowler hat wearing Peter Holmström brought their swirling psychedelic drone-pop to life for the energetic crowd. Drummer Brent DeBoer (referred to as “Fathead” by his bandmates) stepped on the gas peddle and Zia McCabe played whatever else was needed to […]
RIP: Richard Dawson, Professional Brit, Dead @ 79
LOS ANGELES TIMES: The career of Richard Dawson, who died Sunday at age 79, breaks down, broadly speaking, into two not unrelated parts, each of which displayed and depended upon a certain roguish, vaguely foreign charm. American audiences first got to know him as Cpl. Peter Newkirk on the prisoners-of-war sitcom“Hogan’s Heroes”; later we grew to love him as the first and still most famous host of “Family Feud”for the entirety of its first run (1976-85) and for the final season of its second (1994-95), after which he retired from show business. The mid-1960s was a good time to be English in […]
EARLY WORD: So Wrong It’s Right
This is on of Phawker in-house illustrator Alex Fine’s bands. Not sure if this is the garage one or the punk or the surf one or the garage-punk-surf one. Either way, the cradle will rock.
SIDEWALKING: Under The Volcano
Vestmann Islands, Iceland, 1973, by unknown, re-photographed by JONATHAN VALANIA
CINEMA: Not Sucking In The 70s
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I couldn’t be more delighted than to speak this Saturday June 2nd at an all-day event at the Princeton Public Library while screening a quartet of politically-themed films from Hollywood in the 1970s. The program was selected by a high school student from the Princeton area and is billed as “70s Cinema Fest For Teens” Much of my affection for these films stems from the fact that I was a cinema-obsessed teen when these film were first released. It was their seriousness of purpose that convinced me that “watching movies” could be more than […]
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With Philly’s Hop Along
BY MEREDITH KLEIBER It’s hard to pigeonhole the style of Philly trio Hop Along. Their latest release, Get Disowned, brandishes singer-guitarist Frances Quinlan’s emotionally charged lyrics with an acid-laced concoction of gritty punk and folk. Mark Quinlan’s drumbeats, simultaneously frenetic and controlled, drive each song, while Tyler Long’s adroit bass licks tie everything together. Hop Along plays their record-release show at the First Unitarian Church with Band Name, Mary Lattimore, and Little Big League tomorrow night at the First Unitarian Church. Phawker recently sat down with the band in their Olde Kensington studio, where we talked about death, detachment, and […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Tao Of Mitt
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Mitt Romney’s appearance at Liberty University was altogether astounding given the fact that applicants to the school must specifically reject the Mormon concept of God and acknowledge that the Book of Mormon is not divine revelation. Be that as it may, he took the present-company-accepted opportunity to genuflect his steadfast concurrence with the Christian “tradition” of marriage being between one man and one woman (he opposes civil unions and supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage as well) and it got me to thinking about his own rather dubious religious heritage and the inescapable bit of hypocrisy that could easily attach thereto. Just in case you’re one of those who remain […]