. INQUIRER: A minority shareholder of the parent company of The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News is looking to sell its 30 percent stake, according to a story in the New York Post Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund that holds interests in several newspapers, was one of 32 investors that acquired the two daily newspapers and Philly.com for $139 million in October 2010. Now the owners of Philadelphia Media Network Inc. are “in the middle of an auction” to sell the company for roughly $100 million, according to the Post story, which cited a source close to […]
KILLADELPHIA: Same As It Ever Was
DAILY BEAST: Thirty-two murders that have taken place in Philadelphia since the start of 2012. This recent rash of homicides comes quickly on the heels of a year when Mayor Michael Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey were touting a steep reduction in violent crime, with homicides down 22 percent, robberies down 23 percent, and overall violent crime down 16 percent in 2011 from their 2007 highs. The Mayor blames the homicide spike on a steady flow of illegal handguns into the city as groups like the NRA stymie his attempts to pass local gun-control laws. Richard Berk, a statistician […]
EARLY WORD: Dave The Goliath
BY ZIVIT SHLANK Composer/pianist Dave Burrell is an American original. He first made his mark at the inception of the avant-garde and free music movements in the 1960s. Over 30 years, 115 recordings and counting, numerous television and radio appearances, countless performances worldwide, Burrell shows no signs of slowing down. January features Burrell in two very different settings. Artist-in-residence with the Rosenbach Museum and Library since 2007, his latest task was to create music for an elaborate five-part research project on the Civil War. Part 2 entitled Civilians During War Time, made its world premiere on January 18, with two […]
150 Killed In Syria Over The Weekend; Govt. Troops Reclaim Suburbs Of Damascus From Insurgents
THE GUARDIAN: Troops seized back eastern suburbs of Damascus from rebels late on Sunday after an unprecedented operation that saw around 2,000 troops, at least 50 tanks and armoured vehicles flood the area, according to activists. An activist named Kamal, in the eastern al-Ghouta area on the edge of the capital, told Reuters: The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal. Regime forces have re-occupied the suburbs and started making house-to-house arrests. Maher al-Naimi, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army of defectors fighting Assad’s forces, appeared to confirm that account: Tanks have gone in but they do not […]
SIDEWALKING: Do The Collapse
Somewhere along Rt. 322, Wed., 12:15 PM by JEFF FUSCO
Gingrich Vows To Put 13,000 Men On The Moon
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Just this week, Newt told Florida voters that, if elected president, he would establish an American colony on the moon — and begin regular shuttle service to and from Mars — by 2020. At the same time, he says he’s prepared to declare war on Iran and Cuba. He’s offered no evidence of how much these new initiatives would cost, nor where the money would come from. Although, as a member of Congress, he did author the “Northwest Ordinance for Space,” allowing moon residents, once they numbered 13,000, to petition Congress to become our 51st state. MORE SLATE: […]
MARK LANEGAN BAND: The Grave Digger’s Song
CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND: On February 7th, Mark Lanegan Band will release Blues Funeral, the group’s long-awaited follow up to their 2004 album, Bubblegum. We’ve already heard the menacing and bluesy cut “The Gravedigger’s Song”, and now there’s an equally freaky music video. Directed by Alistair Legrand and produced by Jack Richardson, the video pulls bits and pieces from dozens of famous horror movies out there — from scythe-wielding children to taxidermy a la Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. MORE
REEFER MADNESS: NJ Throws Man With MS In Jail For 5 Years For Growing Medical Marijuana
CMMNJ: Multiple sclerosis patient John Ray Wilson will appear at the Somerset County Courthouse today at 8:30AM. He is expected to be taken into custody to serve the reminder of a five-year prison term for growing seventeen cannabis plants. The NJ State Supreme Court refused to hear his latest appeal. He was convicted just before the New Jersey medical marijuana law was passed in 2010. Wilson was arrested on August 18, 2008 and was charged with “manufacturing” 17 marijuana plants that he used to treat his MS. Wilson faced 20 years in state prison for this crime. At trial, Superior […]
RIP: Juan Epstein Is Dead
THE WRAP: Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on ’70s sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter, died Thursday, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. Hegyes, who died of an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his Metuchen, New Jersey home, was 60. Hegyes had not been in good health for the past two years, his brother Mark Hegyes told the paper. The actor had suffered a previous heart attack in recent years. Police responded to an emergency call from Hegyes’ home at approximately 9 a.m. He was transported to JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey, but at that point he […]
SKIP JAMES: Crow Jane
WIKIPEDIA: Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James (June 9,[1] 1902 – October 3, 1969[2]) was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter, born in Bentonia, Mississippi, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His guitar playing is noted for its dark, minor sound, played in an open D-minor tuning with an intricate fingerpicking technique. James first recorded for Paramount Records in 1931, but these recordings sold poorly due to the Great Depression, and he drifted into obscurity. After a long absence from the public eye, James was “rediscovered” in 1964 by three blues enthusiasts, helping further the blues and folk music revival of […]
BREAKING: Romney Is The Problem, Not The Solution
MSNBC: Mitt Romney could face new questions about his overseas investments after a campaign official acknowledged to NBC News that his campaign is revising his financial disclosure forms to report more than a half dozen offshore holdings, including income from a multi-million dollar Swiss bank account that was not disclosed last year. The tax returns released by the Romney campaign this week showed that the Ann Romney Blind Trust had reported $1,783 in interest income from a bank account held at UBS in Switzerland in 2010. But the Swiss bank account — as well as other offshore investments in the […]
REVIEW: Jeff Mangum At Irvine Auditorium
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER In 1998, Neutral Milk Hotel released an album of hallucinatory folk-rock called In The Aeroplane Over The Sea that is, it can be said without fear of exaggeration, nothing short of a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Like My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, it is lightning caught in a bottle, one of those rare perfect albums that come along maybe once a decade. Or once a lifetime. In 1999, Jeff Mangum — Neutral Milk’s singer, songwriter and primary guitarist — disappeared from public life without explanation, declining all entreaties to perform or discuss the album […]
DEAR OCCUPY: The Men Who Put A Gun To The Nation’s Head Over The Debt Ceiling And F*cked Up Our Triple-A Rating Are At The Four Seasons
ROLL CALL: House conservatives head to Philadelphia today for the annual Heritage Foundation Conservative Members Retreat as their movement faces a critical test of its ability to shape the Republican Party agenda. It also comes at a delicate time for House Republicans, who pledged that their Conference members were unified coming out of their own retreat last weekend but still bear the scars of last year’s intraparty battles over the debt ceiling and government spending. “I am much more confident this year that you’re not going to be in a reactive mode the way you were last year,” House Majority […]