It’s March. It is, or it was, or it’s going to be fifty degrees today, depending on when you read this. Point: it’s about time to leave hibernation. Nurse your winter-wounded-heart at Johnny Brenda’s, with pints of lo-fi love. Say Hi (To Your Mom) is headlining the evening (and no longer saying hi to your mom; apparently it’s been four years and you shouldn’t ask about it). His new 2011 release Um, Uh Oh, “has expanded beyond bedroom-pop eccentricities to embrace dark, ominous (but still major-key) synths, toothy bass and roughed-up electric guitars,” restless vocals and deals with the devil. […]
Corbett Balances Budget On The Backs Of School Kids; Marcellus Shale Drilling To Remain Tax-Free Gimme
INQUIRER: In education, Corbett’s budget would wipe out nearly $550 million in basic education funding – a 10 percent cut from this year – and another $650 million for higher education. The four so-called “state-related” universities, including Temple and Lincoln, also would also take a big hit, losing more than 50 percent of their state funding. The state system of higher education, which includes the state universities, also would see its funding cut in half. To offset the pain of cuts to public schools, the governor is asking school districts to reopen their collective bargaining agreements to push for a […]
KITCHEN BITCH: Brewing A Belgian Tripel
BY MAVIS LINNEMANN My boyfriend Doug had been pining for a brew kit for months, so I got him one for Christmas for about $80 from our local Brew ‘n’ Grow. (Yes, that’s really what it’s called. It’s for home brewers and folks into organic gardening and growing hydroponic, um, plants.) The kit came with almost everything Doug needed, except a brew kettle ($40 for a 5-gal. kettle on fermentrationtrap.com) and a glass carboy, i.e., a fermenter, which he got for $35 from the Brew ‘n’ Grow. Once we had the all the supplies for actually making the beer, we […]
REMEMBER: You Are What You Tweet
[Illustration via CHIBBEL] HUFFINGTON POST: Twitter is a powerful communication tool used by the likes of protesters, journalists, astronauts and public officials. But tweeters should take caution: the microblogging service is also frequented by employers, insurance companies, law enforcement agents, even criminals. And as search engines like Google and Bing take steps to further integrate Twitter updates into query results, it’s more important than ever to watch what you tweet. Given the platform’s simplicity and 140-character limit, it can be tempting to dash off Twitter updates without pausing to consider the impact they can have. Experts agree that users should […]
SAME AS IT EVER WAS: Obama Cries Uncle On Gitmo
TIME: As expected, Defense Secretary Robert Gates suspended the two-year ban on new action in military commissions for detainees at Guantanamo Bay today, resuming a practice Obama did away with as one of his first acts in office. For background on the tortured arc of Obama’s rightward move on this issue, see the piece I did with Weisskopf here. More recently, Pro-Publica’s Dafna Linzer looked at last year’s deliberations at the White House here. New charges under the commissions are expected in days or weeks, but are not expected to include big name 9/11 detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. MORE […]
MOVE ALONG: Nothing To See Here Folks
Due to a regularly scheduled maintenance, Phawker will not be updated today. Tomorrow we shall return to business as usual. Thank you for your patience.
CINEMA: The King’s English
BY REBECCA GOODACRE This week The King’s Speech won the Oscar for best picture, and, as is tradition critics set about analyzing the whys and wherefores of its success. Was it just another extension of America’s captivation with British royalty and all that palace and crown jewels malarkey? And how do us Brit’s feel about something so homegrown winning big? Upon seeing The King’s Speech my first reaction was just of ‘Thank fucking god Colin Firth isn’t playing yet another doddering nice-guy in a British rom-com.’ But after that initial relief, some deep-seated British guilt set in; shouldn’t this really […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR During his early-’70s heyday, shock-rock icon Alice Cooper dressed like a ghoul, with a gaunt face and mascara-streaked eyes, performing cartoonishly violent onstage stunts. His brand of rock was about breaking taboos and being decadent. He frequently, for example, took a hatchet to female mannequins and spit into the audience, often ending his performances inside a guillotine. As intentionally crude as his shows were, some of the songs — including “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” — became big hits. And on March 14, Cooper and his band will be inducted into the Rock […]
COLORMUSIC: Tog (Feat. Wayne Coyne)
Colourmusic – Tog from Delo Creative on Vimeo. Welcome to the beautifully strange world of Colourmusic. Rounded out by bassist Colin Fleishacker, drummer Nicholas Ley, and guitarist Nick Turner, Colourmusic’s new material amounts to an ever-evolving mass of melancholic melodies, gauzy vocals, shifty beats, and monophonic musical structures. Not to mention glimpses of agnostic gospel grooves (“You For Leaving Me”), hip-shaking R&B (“Feels Good To Wear”), acid-drenched pop (“Tog”), and Bladerunner-inspired psych (“Pororoca,” which means — quite tellingly —“great destructive noise” in many parts of South America). And then there’s “The Little Death,” a five-part foray into the outer realm of sandblasted […]
SIDEWALKING: After The Fall
The Spectrum,Wednesday 3:45 PM by JEFF FUSCO
ARTSY: Our First Friday Picks
BY CAROLINE SCHMIDT Henry the Navigator was born on March 4th, in 1394. Charlie Chaplin was knighted on the same day, in 1975. Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office, in 1861. It was the last full day-in-the-life of Josef Stalin (d. March 5, 1953), as well as Patsy Cline (d. March 5, 1963). Here is a list of top-five gallery picks for the month of March in Philadelphia, some of them, but not all (!) opening on this momentous day, Friday March 4th. Desert Island, curated by Gabe Fowler–the owner of the Brooklyn based comic/art bookshop of the same name–opens this […]
STYLE COUNCIL: ?uestlove Unveils His Line Of Nikes
PRESS RELEASE: Once again turning to an icon of Nike’s design heritage, Nike Sportswear takes the Nike Dunk and puts it in the hands of one of the music industry’s most innovative creators of sound, ?uestlove. Releasing on March 4th, two Nike Dunks will hit the shelves as a pair of unlikely twins bearing a unique look that is arguably the first of its kind. One pair red and the other yellow, the Nike Dunk x ?uestlove is the product of an imagination that brings uncharacteristic embellishments to a classic. Inspired by mid 80’s era American television, ?uestlove draws from […]