BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
BREAKING: Cindy McCain Does A Good Deed
HUFFINGTON POST: On Wednesday, the NOH8 campaign protesting California’s Proposition 8 announced a new high-profile Republican supporter: John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain. NOH8 is a photo project in which subjects are photographed wearing white, against a white background, with their mouths taped shut and “NOH8” painted on their faces. MORE FRESH AIR: In California, lawyers are two weeks into a landmark federal court case challenging California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in that state. Margaret Talbot has been blogging about the trial for The New Yorker‘s Web site, and she has written about it in this week’s issue of […]
TONITE: No Sleep ‘Til Persepolis
FREE LIBRARY: Join us for an exciting performance by Udi Bar David, Philadelphia Orchestra cellist and Director of Intercultural Journeys, and Kazem Davoudian, Iranian composer and santur virtuoso. Also appearing will be daf and tonbak musician Kave Mazhari. The evening will feature a special greeting from author Marjane Satrapi and will conclude with a screening of her acclaimed film adaptation of The Complete Persepolis. This event will take place in The Montgomery Auditorium. MORE RELATED: The One Book, One Philadelphia Selection Committee has chosen Marjane Satrapi’s The Complete Persepolis as the featured selection for 2010. Originally published in France in […]
Vampire Weekend Contra Is #1 Album In The Nation
Now playing on Phawker Radio! EW: It’s a grand day for indie rock, as Vampire Weekend have just debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Go ahead and hoist a refreshing glass of horchata in their honor. The preppy foursome sold 124,000 copies of their sophomore album Contra, according to Nielsen SoundScan — a nice number that, combined with weak retail competition, was enough to make them the biggest band in the nation for at least one week. Considering that the No. 1 spot generally belongs to major-label acts like Ke$ha and Susan Boyle, it’s impressive to see a […]
There’s Tea Party In His Pants & Everyone’s Invited!
THE INDEPENDENT: As voters in Massachusetts flooded polling centres yesterday to choose a successor to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, there was one image of the Republican runner, Scott Brown, that may or may not have been in their minds: half prone and naked with only a carefully placed hand hiding his most precious assets. A campaign poster this was not. Rather it was the picture of him that graced a spread inside Cosmopolitan magazine when it named him “America’s Sexiest Man” in 1982. Had it emerged sooner, the portrait could have put the brakes on the Brown insurgency. As […]
I, GAMER: Five For Fighting
BY ADAM BONANNI And we’re back! Got my legs all stretched out during my little vacation, but now it’s time for me to pick up my controller and get back to you guys and gals with the dirt. The good shit. Lots of good stuff launching in 2010; Final Fantasy XIII, Alan Wake, Super Mario Galaxy 2, GranTurismo 5, a nice little Medal of Honor reboot, and Starcraft 2 (well, could happen) and I’d like to sum up a bit of what deserves your attention in the coming months. Mass Effect 2: This will be quite the divisive title, but […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: The Week That Was
With your host, A.P. Ticker.
SHOWBIZ: Coco Goes Out With His Pimp Hand Strong
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] ABC NEWS: In the strongest indication yet that Friday indeed will mark Conan O’Brien’s final “Tonight Show,” a list of the booked guests for the rest of this week released Tuesday featured Will Ferrell set to appear Friday. Ferrell, of course, was the first guest on “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” when the show launched June 1. Other big names scheduled for O’Brien’s final week on “Tonight”: Tuesday, January 19: Quentin Tarantino, Paul Bettany and musical guest Spoon; Wednesday, January 20: Adam Sandler, Joel McHale and musical guest Joss Stone; Thursday, January 21: Robin Williams […]
HUBBA: Suddenly We are Passionate About Spaying
PETA: One unspayed dog and her offspring can produce up to 67,000 dogs in six years! Each year in the U.S., 6 to 8 million dogs and cats are dumped at animal shelters—and nearly half of them must be euthanized for lack of a good home. Spaying or neutering your dog or cat is a crucial step toward saving lives. The only way to become a “no-kill nation” is to become a “no-birth nation.” MORE LAS VEGAS WEEKLY: The adult film star is nominated for 12 Adult Video News awards in categories such as Best Actress, the Jenna Jameson Crossover […]
MESSACHUSSETTS: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
YOINK: Ted and Robert Kennedy at the zoo. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: There is no understating the symbolism or the substance of what happened Tuesday. Malcontent voters in this most Democratic of Democratic states plopped a Republican into the iconic Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat. This is huge. MORE WASHINGTON POST: Massachusetts is among the nation’s most liberal states, and the candidates made it clear that a Brown victory could kill the Democrats’ health care push in the Senate. Democrats now must ask: Did Massachusetts voters register their discontent based on a decent understanding of the complex health care legislation? Or did conservatives […]
TONITE: Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby
The Erotic Literary Salon meets the 3rd Tuesday of every month at TIME (The Bohemian Absinthe Lounge), 1315 Sansom Street, Center City, Philadelphia. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. (limited seating), for cocktails, food and conversation. The event begins promptly at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $10, discounted for F/T students and seniors (65+) to $8. Salon attendees must be 21. Tonight’s Erotic Literary Salon will be dedicated to those lives who have been cut short by the devastation in Haiti. A portion of the proceeds from this tonght’s event will be given to the Red Cross for the Haitian relief fund.
BREAKING: Supreme Court Slaps Down Mumia Appeal
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose death sentence for killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981 has become an international cause célèbre for opponents of capital punishment, has suffered a significant setback at the US Supreme Court. In a summary order issued on Tuesday, the high court reversed a 2008 federal appeals court ruling that had required a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Abu-Jamal. The Supreme Court action sends the case back to the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to reconsider the issue in light of a similar decision handed down last week by the high court. […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR It was in 1967, on her first day in New York, that 20-year-old aspiring poet Patti Smith met fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Their friendship, romance and creative collaboration began on that day and lasted until Mapplethorpe’s death in 1989. Both children of religious upbringings and influenced by ideas of outsider culture, the pair would stay up painting and listening to records in their Brooklyn apartment before Mapplethorpe eventually moved to San Francisco. In the course of their friendship, Smith would become a punk icon and Mapplethorpe a famed photographer. Smith’s new memoir, Just Kids, tells the story of […]