ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: Spence, Skip: Like Syd Barrett, Spence was a crazy diamond who reached for the secret too soon. After wandering in and out of grace in the late ’60s, he spent the next 30 years howling at the moon in a trailer park oblivion of welfare and disease, until his death in the spring of 1999 at age 53. The original drummer for Jefferson Airplane, Spence went on to sing, compose and play guitar with Moby Grape, a powerhouse San Francisco psych-pop group that seemed destined for a commercial glory that would never come. In 1968, while in […]
Q&A: Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby
EDITOR’S NOTE: This sexy time Q&A with sexologist Susana Mayer, host of the Erotic Literary Salon, originally ran in May of 2008 on the occasion of the salon’s inception.The next one is Tuesday November 17th, details after the jump. PHAWKER: So, just to bring the reader up to speed: Your name is Susana Mayer, you are 60-years-young, you live here in Philadelphia, you are the creator and host of The Erotic Literary Salon and you are a sexologist. What exactly is a sexologist? SUSANA MAYER: It is the study of how we give and receive pleasure. PHAWKER: And you were […]
EXPERTS AGREE: The Chamber Of Commerce Is Undeniably A Pimple On The Ass Of Progress
HUFFINGTON POST: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is soliciting funds to pay an economist $50,000 to study health care reform legislation and issue (what the lobby presumes) will be a negative review, providing ammunition to shoot down health care reform in the Senate, according to The Washington Post. The Newspaper obtained an e-mail from James P. Gelfand, the senior manager of health policy at the Chamber of Commerce detailing how the plan would work: “The economist will then circulate a sign-on letter to hundreds of other economists saying that the bill will kill jobs and hurt the economy. We will […]
IGGLES: The Brain Is A Terrible Thing To Taste
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Is the Eagles’ season over? Of course not. At San Diego was always going to be a stern test. But I can’t say I’m encouraged. The Charger running game gashed the Eagles defense, and the secondary is besieged with injuries. It’s not that hard to make the playoffs in the NFC (the Eagles at 5-4 are still tied for the 5th playoff spot). The remaining schedule is not that tough (is anyone afraid of Denver anymore?). But if the Eagles lose next week in Chicago to the dismal Bears, then I’ll be ready to turn […]
I, GAMER: Bring The War Home
BY ADAM BONANNI Well the Xbox is finally out from under of the shadow of Halo with the the latest Call of Duty 4 — or Modern Warfare 2, or whatever the hell this franchise is supposed to be called — which may well qualify as with the most hyped new title launch ever. It’s coming in hot with first day sales of $310 million in the U.S.A. and U.K. vs Halo 3 $170 million, dethroning previous record holder Grand Theft Auto 4’s estimated $310 million across more territories, so saying “huge anticipation” only does this launch “huge injustice.” Kotaku […]
STYLE COUNCIL: Orgotton
[Photo by ACUKUKI] BY ASHLEY MYERS Orgotton is a Philadelphia clothing company focused on creating stylish clothing and awareness about sustainability and the organic movement. Established in March of this year, Orgotton takes its name from the combination of ‘cotton’ and ‘organic.’ The t-shirts are printed using only eco-friendly inks and chemicals on organic material from Alternative Apparel, a sweatshop free company. Orgotton is entirely owned and operated by sisters Kristy and Stefanie Emery [pictured, above] who design and screen-print all of the shirts in their basement. One of the main goals of Orgotton is to make people aware of […]
MUST SEE TV: Doc Ellis’ Legendary LSD No-Hitter
NO MAS TV: In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas and artist James Blagden proudly present the animated tale of Dock Ellis’ legendary LSD no-hitter. In the past few years we’ve heard all too much about performance enhancing drugs from greenies to tetrahydrogestrinone, and not enough about performance inhibiting drugs. If our evaluation of the records of athletes like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds needs to be revised downwards with an asterisk, we submit that that Dock Ellis record deserves a giant exclamation point. Of the 263 […]
EARLY WORD: Roll, Baby, Roll!
The Philly Roller Girls are excited to host and skate in the final event of the 2009 WFTDA Tournament season — Declaration of Derby — November 13-15, 2009, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (PaCC). The top trio of teams in each of the four WFTDA divisions has earned a ticket to Philadelphia to decide the National Champion and award the Hydra Trophy! Located in the heart of Center City Philadelphia, the PaCC is adjacent to a major hotel and connected to the hub of the city’s public transportation system. This central location will facilitate public access, reduce travel expenses and […]
GREATEST HITS: Today I Saw Revisited
BY JEFF DEENEY Today I saw a pile of teddy bears arranged like a pyramid around the thin trunk of a young tree planted in the sidewalk near the corner of 13th and Parrish Streets. The tree was on a block of two-story Section 8 homes that looked still new, almost like suburban tract plots complete with small squares of green front lawn, driveways and little back yards big enough to fit a kiddie pool and a wash line. I was walking down this same block about a week earlier on a warm afternoon thinking that it didn’t look like […]
SEPTA GIRL: Purple Hearts Of Darkness
BY PHILLYGRRL This past Wednesday, as I rushed from the subway to class, I had nearly forgotten what day it was. But the security guard at Temple reminded me. “Ahem, young lady! Young lady!” I stop in my tracks. “Young lady, today is a very special day for me. Do you know what day it is?” I try not to look at my watch and frantically think. Birthday? Anniversary? I know almost nothing of this man. All I know is that he makes it a point to get familiar with each student. That by the end of the second […]
CINEMA: Apocalypto
2012 (2009, directed by Roland Emmerich, 158 minutes, U.S.) BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN (2009, directed by John Krasinski, 80 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Roland Emmerich has spent an estimated quarter of a billion dollars to wreck the world one more time in 2012, a film that has drawn audible sneers whenever it and its calamity-rich trailer rear their head. Emmerich has souped-up ideas from his past hits Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow to bring us his biggest and baddest apocalypse yet, only to drive home the fact that the end of the world somehow […]
VICTED: Two Touring Bands In One Week Ripped Off
INQUIRER: Two bands got the same nasty welcome when they passed through Philadelphia over the past week: Members awoke to find the trailers carrying their instruments and equipment had vanished. The thefts happened in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn at 900 Packer Ave., where bands Kill Hannah and Mae stayed during stops on their respective tours. Mat Devine, lead singer of the Chicago-based Kill Hannah, said the group’s van and 14-foot trailer were parked “five feet from the front door” when they were stolen Wednesday. “We’re devastated and speechless,” Devine said. “We’ve been touring so hard around the […]
WAIT: Inky/DN Auction Postponed For A Week
INQUIRER: An auction of the operating assets of Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. scheduled for Wednesday will be postponed at least a week as a result of a ruling yesterday by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno. Robreno had ruled Tuesday that the newspaper company’s senior lenders did not have a right to bid the value of about $318 million in loans in the auction, which is designed to determine the fair-market value of the company’s assets. That ruling overturned a decision by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich, who had authorized a so-called credit bid by the lenders, a group that includes […]