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This must-see video for “Symphony in White, No.2,” the b-side of the  Wild Palms single, is a mini-doc of the Philly-based bliss-popsters’ recent performance at the First Unitarian Church. The audio is from the 7″, and the video features projections made specifically for the music by Klip Collective. Sun Airway plays the Pitchfork Music Festival on Saturday and WXPN’s XPoNential Music Festival on July 23rd. Sun Airway’s “Symphony In White, No. 2” from klipcollective on Vimeo.

COMMONWEALTH CONFIDENTIAL: Avila has grabbed headlines recently for his behavior around town. When he first came to Harrisburg from New York, he got into a dispute with a local diner owner over the freshness of the eggs in his egg sandwich. After exchanging words with the diner owner, Avila is alleged to have yelled: “Do you know who I am? I am the Secretary of Health!” He later sicced city health inspectors on the diner. Avila has also raised more than a few eyebrows for ordering spanking-new jackets, as well as a badge, identifying himself as the Health Secretary. He also ordered jackets […]

Love Four Paws, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping homeless animals, is sponsoring an adoption carnival at ACCT, Philadelphia’s Animal Care & Control shelter, this weekend. “Fall in Love Under The Big Top” is going to be a great event to raise awareness about the shelter and save many lives through fantastic adoption specials. Cats over six months old are just $1! Spin the Wheel of Deals for our dogs, and the adoption fee is $40 or less—or perhaps even free! There will also be popcorn, snow cones, music, food for sale, and great raffle items. The event takes place […]

NEW YORK TIMES: The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Tuesday that a bipartisan budget deal with President Obama was probably out of reach, and he proposed a plan under which the president could increase the federal debt limit without Congressional approval for offsetting spending cuts. Mr. McConnell’s proposal reflected a growing sense of pessimism on Capitol Hill about the prospects that Mr. Obama and Congressional leaders could come to terms on a budget deal before the government’s borrowing authority hits its limit on Aug. 2 Mr. McConnell’s proposal would give Mr. Obama sweeping power to increase the […]

Back country road, upstate New York by JEFF FUSCO

Urge Overkill* plays the North Star Bar tonight with Creem Circus** and The Cocks*** *UO released its first full-length, the Steve Albini-produced Jesus Urge Superstar, in 1989 through Touch and Go Records and steadily began ascending in popularity. By the early 90’s, they were opening for Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and eventually signed to Geffen Records, who released their beloved classic LP, Saturation. The group’s biggest moment in the spotlight came when Quentin Tarantino prominently used their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” in his film Pulp Fiction. The soundtrack soon became one of the most […]

MOTHER JONES: Of course, Nugent’s backdrop is a giant American flag, and it’s a secret to no one that he’s a bit of an oddity in this liberal haven. Soon enough, he’s ragging on California in general—”The Independent? I didn’t know that was legal here”—and telling off-color jokes about San Francisco’s Chinatown District. He introduces “Dog Eat Dog” by suggesting that people eat sweet-and-sour dog, and boasts that he dined on tiger-dick soup earlier in the day—a claim that becomes one of the evening’s running themes. Example: It being the fifth of July, Nugent deems it “Defiance Day”—an extension of […]

[Illustration by SHEPARD FAIREY] CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA 2010 ANNUAL REPORT: The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some […]

[Artwork by KEITH TUCKER] ALAN GRAYSON: I’m in.  I’m running for Congress. I’m running because I promised Charlaina and Rick that I would.  Charlaina called me a few weeks ago, from the hospital.  She told me that her husband, Rick, was suffering from multiple organ failure – lungs, kidneys and liver. Rick was 56 years old.  That’s three years older than me. Rick was a veteran.  But the Veterans Administration wasn’t covering his hospital bills. Rick had had a bad liver since he was 30, when he contracted hepatitis.  No insurance company would go near him. Every day Rick survived, […]

NPR: Officials say a bodyguard has killed the powerful half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Ahmed Wali Karzai had been a lightning rod for criticism of all that is wrong with the Afghan government. Officials say he was assassinated today at his home in the southern province of Kandahar. He was head of the Kandahar provincial council and had become a political liability for the Hamid Karzai government after a series of allegations. They included involvement in drug trafficking and that he was on the CIA payroll. MORE GLOBE AND MAIL: Be’s the coalition’s best asset or its worst liability. […]

[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 […]

BY ALEXANDER POTTER Philadelphia Media Network (PMN) President and CEO Gregory Osberg today announced the launching of Project Liberty, a series of initiatives to boost digital readership, including a new subscription drive that will provide free Android tablets to subscribers of digital editions of the Inquirer and the Daily News, as well as philly.com. It is the first initiative of its kind undertaken by a major newspaper in the United States, said Osberg during a press conference this afternoon at the Academy of Natural Sciences. When Phawker asked how many online subscriptions PMN would need to compensate for the plunging […]