[Associated Press: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick offered himself as a cautionary tale of what can happen when someone is a follower instead of a leader.] INQUIRER: The appearance before freshman at the Nueva Esperanza Academy in the city’s Feltonville section came as the Eagles are circulating a draft plan to animal rights groups that calls for an immediate, widespread campaign to combat animal abuse in Philadelphia. MORE
I, GAMER: Will Sony Have The Last Laugh?
BY ADAM BONANNI VIDEO GAMES EDITOR Sony can tell you firsthand that there’s only one direction to go after being number one: down. After starting out with an enviable track record with the unprecedented, astronomical success of the Playstation and Playstation 2, Sony now finds itself in last place in number of units sold, behind Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. That includes Sony’s main entry into this generation’s console race, Playstation 3, as well as its much-hyped foray into the handheld gaming market, Playstation Portable, which is lagging noticeably behind Nintendo’s DS. After Sony’s infamous E3 ’06 press conference, […]
EARLY WORD: The Sound Of Young America Live!
The always excellent Sound Of Young America, heard locally on WHYY Fridays at 9PM, will be taping a show here in Philadelphia (featuring The Spinto Band, graphic novelist extraordinaire Charles Burns, comedian Kent Haines, and Robert Hicks, the director of the Mutter Museum) as part of the Fringe Festival. Look for our Q&A with TSOYA host Jessie Thorn, aka America’s Radio Sweetheart, coming soon to a Phawker near you! Wed. 9/16 10:00 PM Mainstage at the Adrienne 2030 Sansom Street Wheelchair Accessible $15.00 *This handsome poster is available for sale HERE, proceeds will help defray TSOYA Live travel costs.
FRINGE REVIEW: Meet The Burps
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Describing Armageddon at the Mushroom Village as the performance of a mask and physical theatre ensemble, using mythic themes to show a story about how foolish pride can bring about the end of the world would be pretentious and distancing. Instead, let’s just say that what we have here is a funny, satirical look at a famous cartoon. Meet The Burps. The Burps are a simple, happy tribe of green, humanoid creatures with white hats and clothes and bulging eyes. Their life is perfect, full of singing and dancing, until the undercurrents of their […]
WORTH REPEATING: Being Spike Jonze
NEW YORK TIMES: Although there were plenty of factors that contributed to the movie’s endless delays, what caused Jonze the most grief with the studio seems to have been his insistence on shunning a more traditional narrative in favor of directly conveying, through moments and images, those raw, untamed feelings. The blogs that reported on Jonze’s disagreement with Robinov and other Warner executives tended to frame the dispute in familiar terms, as a conflict between Hollywood’s love of all things light and an auteur’s “dark” vision. Really, though, the quarrel was about something more unusual in Hollywood than darkness versus […]
ALCOHOLISTAN: Booze Banned After Major SNAFU
[Photo by VIOLINSOLDIER] THE TELEGRAPH: General Stanley McChrystal tried to contact his subordinates after a Nato strike killed 125 civilians, but too many had been “partying it up” and could not be raised. General McChrystal, head of International Forces in Afghanistan (Isaf), has since put a stop to drinking, admonishing staff for not having “their heads in the right place” on Friday morning a few hours after the attack, the Times reports. The diktat means that the coffee shops and bars where commanders used to be able to enjoy a beer or three will now be dry. The Isaf headquarters […]
FRINGE REVIEW: The Hear Again Radio Project
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Aspire Arts keeps it simple and sets the bar high with The Hear Again Radio Project. In this show, they take drama from before video killed the radio star and present it live, with a Foley artist onstage setting the scene with live sound effects. Seems pretty easy, right? Then, director Darin Dunston picks up this concept and takes it to the next level. The visual elements of The Hear Again Radio Project are as smooth and elegant as a silk robe slipping from the shoulders of Rita Hayworth. Michael Leon’s set comprised of Asian […]
NAKED CITY: 400 Bikers Go Lady Godiva
[Photo by WOJOPHOTO] INQUIRER: More than double the hoped-for 200 turned out to bike the four-mile course. One guy wore a hockey mask, another a birthday-party hat. It seemed like everybody had a tattoo or a piercing. As hundreds of cyclists gathered along the Schuylkill, the excitement built, people yelling impromptu cheers or ringing their bicycle bells. But as time dragged on, with people waiting for the scheduled 6:30 p.m. start, the energy seemed to sag. A booming cheer went up when the riders at the front of the queue began moving forward, onto a route that would take them […]
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With Chairlift’s Aaron Pfenning
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Time was when licensing your songs for commercials was the kiss of death credibility-wise. All that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, also known as the early ’90s. Then along came a series of stylish Volkswagen ads featuring choice cuts from the likes of Spiritualized and Nick Drake and suddenly the script was flipped. These days some of the best music can be heard in television commercials, artists get paid handsomely and their music spreads far and wide beyond the craggy walls of the indie ghetto, opening up further opportunities and vastly […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Zombie! The Musical
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Some Fringe shows are just plain fun, and others make you think. Zombie the musical combines the best of both worlds. Gather up your friends, get yourself all hyped up on sugar, and head out to Plays and Players, the nearly hundred-year-old grand dame of Philadelphia’s theatres. Have a drink at Quig’s Pub on the third floor, and then settle in to the weathered and well-loved auditorium. It’s all part of the experience. Don’t mind the plastic sheets you might see in the first few rows; these are for your comfort and convenience, should you […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Felon Fiercely’s Open Mic Night
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT If comedy and rock and roll are your drugs, this show is the hard stuff. As you enter the cozy venue upstairs at O’Neals, earplugs are available for your use, but you won’t need them. Though Felon Fiercely is backed with a full PA, using a Fender strat, a bass, a drum set, and the power of three vocalists, their musicianship and sound design are careful enough that you’ll be blown away by the content, not the volume. John Felon and Joe Fiercely are a couple of miscreant musicians who have been sentenced to the […]
TONITE: Get Naked
INQUIRER: Most bicyclists prefer skintight attire, but a group tomorrow is going to take it one step further. It’s planning a mass ride in the nude. Organizers said they expected at least 200 people in various states of undress to bike a four-mile course through Center City. The route is being kept under wraps. It won’t be divulged until Saturday night. And then, only cyclists who sign up at phillynakedbikeride.org will get the location of the gathering point by e-mail. “It’s kind of an experiment,” said Clifford Greer, 30, the lead organizer. “It’s really a totally amazing thing, and unlike […]
TUNES: Remastered Beatlemania Hits 9/09/09
[Painting by JON LANGFORD] CNN: On Wednesday — 9/9/09 — remastered versions of the Beatles catalogue will be released, giving listeners what the remaining members of “The Fab Four” say is the closest reproduction ever of how their music sounded in the studio. Research shows that more than 40 years after their last public performance, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s music remains as interesting to young people now as it ever was. A Pew Research survey released last month showed that 81 percent of respondents between ages 16-29 said they liked The Beatles. Eleven percent said […]