Philadelphia restaurateur avoids trial November 20, 2006 13:45 EST PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A celebrity chef has agreed to give free cooking lessons to the poor, as part of a deal to avoid trial on assault charges. Susanna Foo was accused of hitting a Philadelphia Parking Authority officer who ticketed a delivery truck outside her restaurant. As part of a program for non-violent first offenders, she’ll do 50 hours of community service and be on probation for six months. Prosecutors say they’ll withdraw charges of aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person, but will keep open a simple-assault charge during Foo’s […]
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The Philadelphia Prison System Is Violent, Predatory And Deeply Corrupt Because Nobody Is Watching It
[Artwork by FERNANDO BOTERO] EDITOR’S NOTE: The following first posted to Phawker on July 22nd, 2011 BY JEFF DEENEY A couple months ago I was approached by a person in the midst of a major moral dilemma: This person works inside the Philadelphia Prison System, and claimed to have been witness to massive, systematic and ongoing abuses inside the institution. This person described the common practice among Correctional Officers (COs) of ganging up on troublesome prisoners in their cells and dishing brutal beatdowns to put them in line. The person described an incident where a prisoner was tied to a […]
THE COUNTER-MAYOR: Alan Butkovitz Is Still Not A Fan Of AVI Or The Nutter Administration
WEEKLY PRESS: “I said it was going to be a disaster when I ran four years ago,” [City Controller Alan] Butkovitz explained, adding that it’s a disaster today. “Sixty percent of property owners will see tax increases. One reason for this is there will be a shift from taxes on large commercial properties to taxes on residential properties and small businesses on commercial strips. There will also be a shift away from the Business Privilege Tax. We’ve have foreseen these problems for the last eight years. My opponent, Brett Mandell has obsessively pushed for AVI over the last decade. […]
SOFT BULLETIN: Flaming Lips Still Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To So You Don’t Have To
In between one-off shows scattered around the world in the past several months THE FLAMING LIPS have still found time to record a series of unique and experimental sessions for an album featuring a diverse cross-section of heavy friends from every corner of the musical cosmos. THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS includes vocal and musical assistance from such disparate playmates as Yoko Ono, Nick Cave, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Bon Iver, Ke$ha and many more. Some of these tracks have already appeared on previously released, extremely limited edition color vinyl 12″ EPs released in past months, which sold out […]
TONIGHT: The Dude Abides
[Illustration by TSTOUT] BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I’ll admit to being surprised when the Coen Brothers’ seventh film, The Big Lebowski, was deemed a certified “cult classic,” with costumed fans and tribute conventions and the whole obsessive nine yards. At the time of its release, I found the comic detective spoof to be a breezy lark; amusing, but somewhat of a disappointment after the their morbidly enthralling breakthrough crime film Fargo. Lebowski‘s success should not have come as a complete surprise. Chief among its assets is the hugely likable Jeff Bridges, who has rarely had as rich a comedic […]
Snowpocalypse Punishes City For Crying Wolf
[Photo by avocadoh] ACCUWEATHER: Two parts of a snowstorm have come together in the Northeast and are making for several hours of wild weather tonight. The result of the merging parts is bursts of heavy snow in some areas and rain changing to heavy snow in others in the eastern mid-Atlantic. What happens in this situation is road surface temperatures typically cool during the late afternoon and evening hours, while heavy, wet snow (and sleet) takes additional heat out of the roads. The result is a rapid covering of slippery snow. AccuWeather.com meteorologists are expecting a total snowfall of 8 […]
MY LIFE IN THE GHOST OF BUSH: Chapter 14
[“Screaming Pope” by FRANCIS BACON] BY AARON STELLA About a year and a half ago, I began chronicling my stranger-than-fiction life story here on Phawker. Admittedly, much of it is hard to believe, but let me assure you that everything I have shared thus far really did happen. Since almost all of these events occurred during the presidency of G.W. Bush, I am calling this MY LIFE IN THE GHOST OF BUSH, a play on the David Byrne/Brian Eno album MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS. This is the 14th chapter, and for the benefit of newcomers, here’s a […]
MY LIFE IN THE GHOST OF BUSH: Life In A Madrassa
BY AARON STELLA About a year and a half ago, I began chronicling my stranger-than-fiction life story here on Phawker. Admittedly, much of it is hard to believe, but let me assure you that everything I have shared thus far really did happen. Since almost all of these events occurred during the presidency of G.W. Bush, I am calling this MY LIFE IN THE GHOST OF BUSH, a play on the David Byrne/Brian Eno album MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS. This is the 13th chapter, and for the benefit of newcomers, here’s a quick recap of the preceding […]
WORTH REPEATING: A Confederacy Of Dunces
KAREN HELLER: In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-1, and two-thirds of all GOP committee seats are currently vacant, the city and state Republican organizations are hell-bent on total annihilation. And they’re rocking it Philly old-style, using the dead and – perhaps a first in recent memory for the Republicans – the homeless. City GOPers challenged state-backed committee candidates using the names of one dead woman and a guy who doesn’t live in the district (picky, picky). Two homeless men were put up as candidates, though so far no one can find them, which works against success in politics. […]
CHAPTER 12: My Life In The Ghost Of Bush
BY AARON STELLA About a year and a half ago, I began chronicling my stranger-than-fiction life story here on Phawker. Admittedly, much of it is hard to believe, but let me assure you that everything I have shared thus far really did happen. Since almost all of these events occurred during the presidency of G.W. Bush, I am calling this MY LIFE IN THE GHOST OF BUSH, a play on the David Byrne/Brian Eno album MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS. This is the 12th chapter, and for the benefit of newcomers, here’s a quick recap of the preceding […]
GAYDAR: My So-Called Life
BY AARON STELLA Welcome back, folks. This chapter of my life story marks the eleventh of its kind. Upon each recounting, I am required to dredge up buried memories that I rarely visit. Recently, however, the impact of my past has become gruesomely clear. There is much left to be done, from what I can see—but I shall be better for it in the end. For those of you who haven’t been following along, you can read the whole story beginning to end after the jump. But for now, onward and upward. So, picking up where I left off last, […]
GAYDAR: My Life In The Ghost Of Bush 3
BY AARON STELLA Whew! We’ve had some hot and heavy posts lately, haven’t we? For the benefit of those who haven’t been following along, here’s a little recap: I’ve been wrongfully committed to a psych-ward by my parents. Not to mention, this particular ward was meant more to be a lockup for homicidal and suicidal teenagers, neither of which I was at the time. I have just watched the ward bouncers haul off my roommate to solitary confinement for harming himself, which involved him ripping out his pubic hair and rubbing it in his face to near asphyxiation. And for […]
GAYDAR: My Life In The Ghost Of Bush
BY AARON STELLA Welcome back to another long awaited edition of GAYDAR! Let’s do a little recap on the parts of my crazy so-called life I have shared thus far: My family had extricated themselves from a crazy Christian cult in Augusta, GA, and have fled to Alabama to wait out the imminent apocalyptic storm of Y2K. We were, disappointed, to say the least, with the grand finale. Fast forward to 2003, I no longer live with my family. My homosexuality being one of the many reasons. My friend Andrew’s family has taken me in, and I’ve just heard word […]