[Artwork by FASTER PANDA KILL KILL] THE NETFLIX BLOG: It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs. This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster. While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes. We’re constantly improving our streaming selection. We’ve recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks […]
INCOMING: Working For The Man
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] A former Apple employee from Philly remembers. Look for it tomorrow on a Phawker near you!
Liberty, The First Majority Hispanic Town In America
NPR: One place the Hispanic population is growing is in the overwhelmingly white state of Iowa. The latest census figures show the Hispanic population, while only 5 percent of the state, has almost doubled since 2000. And one small town — West Liberty — is the first in Iowa to have a majority Hispanic population. Downtown West Liberty, Iowa, is quintessentially Midwestern American, both quaint and historic, with brick buildings lining brick streets. A typical stroll involves walking past the bank, a renovated theater, a hair salon, restaurants and stores. West Liberty Mayor Chad Thomas says that unlike a lot […]
CINEMA: Et Tu Clooney?
THE IDES OF MARCH (2011, directed by George Clooney, 101 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC George Clooney has been quite public about his interest in politics and with 2006’s network news drama Good Night and Good Luck, he has already directed one of the best political films in the last decade. Sure, he directed the scoreless football comedy Leatherheads since then, but a full-on political drama from the actor/director sounds like a sure thing. Yet while The Ides of March, co-written by Clooney and his longtime collaborator Grant Heslov, is dependably diverting, it is also a sadly […]
THIS IS THE END: The Obama Justice Department Flips The Kill Switch On Medical Marijuana
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law. In an escalation of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. government and the nation’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry, California’s s four U.S. attorneys sent letters Wednesday and Thursday notifying at least 16 pot shops or their landlords that they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The attorneys […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Writer David Rakoff worries a lot: about Sept. 11, about cancer, about epidemics and fame and religious devotion — not to mention sex, money, his childhood and the value of therapy. The regular contributor to This American Life even worries about writing about himself, which he does in his latest collection of essays, Half Empty. “That was the big problem for me in terms of this book,” Rakoff says. “I’ve always bridled at the term ‘memoirist’ because I always wanted to be known for the quality of my writing as opposed to the particulars of my biography — […]
THESE ARE YOUR RIGHTS: Commish Says Documenting Police Activity Is Not A Crime
PHILLY.COM: Philly’s top cop has issued a memorandum to eliminate any confusion about a civilian’s right to record, videotape or photograph officers in a public space. The two-page memo by Commissioner Charles Ramsey circulated throughout the department on Sept. 23, roughly two weeks after the Daily News reported on several incidents involving cops who had wrongly arrested bystanders for using their cellphones to record what they considered violent arrests and who later emerged from police custody with smashed phones and no footage. “It is not illegal to videotape a police officer,” Ramsey said in a phone interview. “Cameras are everywhere. […]
SIDEWALKING: Semper Fi, Brother
Marine manning the picket line at #OccupyWallStreet by TIM SCHREIER SALON: The establishment press’s primary “problem” with the Occupy Wall Street protest is that those silly kids don’t have a concrete demand. Or they have too many demands. Or their demands aren’t realistic. This is silly. The movement’s “demand” is economic justice. Its goal is plainly to remind everyone that the bloated, obscenely profitable financial industry is sitting on vast piles of money while everyone else struggles, and to focus outrage about that situation where it belongs.[…] The solution, if I may take a page from the official Washington Grown-Ups’ […]
JAZZER: Meet Wade Dean
[Photo by HOWARD PITKOW] BY ZIVIT SHLANK Saxophonist, composer and educator Wade Dean is a true gem of the Philadelphia jazz scene. His passionate improvisations and scholarly, yet, youthful exuberance has and continues to be praised by both audiences and his musical peers. Born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he was always around music. His mother was a pianist in the local churches. His uncle is a baritone saxophonist who plays in the Count Basie Orchestra, the last musician hired by Basie himself. He earned his Bachelor’s in Music Education from the University of South Carolina, and then moved onto […]
Win Tix To See Matthew Sweet Perform Girlfriend
Matthew Sweet’s guitar-pop masterpiece Girlfriend turns 20 this year. Good grief, where does the time go? Those who’ve lived through its glorious flowering in the early 90s can attest to the album’s deathless classic status, as for those who haven’t, if you like rock music, trust us, you already love this album, you just don’t know it yet. Sweet’s honeyed, golden-boy vocals and study-at-the-feet-of-the-masters songwriting is kicked into overdrive by the astonishing six-string fire power of Television’s Richard Lloyd and the dearly departed Robert Quine. Hail, hail rock n’ roll! They sure don’t make ’em like this anymore. To mark […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In early 2010, Republican strategists launched a new project called RedMap. The idea was to flip as many state houses across the country to Republican majorities during the 2010 election cycle — particularly in states where congressional redistricting was pending. “The thinking behind it, which was very ingenious, was that state legislative races are cheap and if you can just put a bit of money into them and flip the statehouse, then you can control the redistricting process, which in turn gives the Republican Party a great advantage in putting members of Congress in the House of Representatives,” […]
SIDEWALKING: And So It Begins
#OccupyPhilly, Dilworth Plaza, 12:27 PM by JEFF DEENEY RELATED: “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” said Eleanor Walker, a 70-year-old retiree who worked in human resources for corporate America. “It seems like the American people have been sleeping. When this happened, I said, our time has come.” MORE RELATED: Mike Fox, 27, of Haddon Heights, who recently finished a seven-year hitch in the Army, explained the Guy Fawkes mask on the back of his head, saying it represented “Anonymous” – a name used by activists behind the recent uprising in Egypt. MORE PHAWKER: Dear Peter Mucha […]
FACE PALM: Stupid Is As Hateful Does
This is a screengrab of Westboro ‘God Hates Fags’ Baptist Church’s head-troll-in-charge tweeting that her goon squad will picket Steve Jobs’ funeral…wait for it…on her iPhone! And on the eighth day, God created irony, and it was good. [VIA TWITTER]