TALKING POINTS MEMO: It now looks like the forged “Kenyan” Obama birth certificate that was briefly promoted by the Birthers — actually an altered copy of a decades-old South Australian birth certificate — was deliberately designed as a prank on the Birther movement itself, Dave Weigel reports. An anonymous person has put up an Internet posting showing photos of the document, against a bedsheet background that matches the photo promoted by Orly Taitz. One of the photos shows a crumpled up certificate with the following message written on it: “YOU’VE BEEN PUNK’D!” MORE [via FEARLESS BLOGGING] Fine cotton business paper: […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Asher Roth & Kid Cudi
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Asher Roth is nothing but a good time, although the haters, and they are legion, would deny him even that. Of course, none of them was in attendance Thursday night at the Electric Factory, where the sandy-haired Morrisville native and West Chester alum wrapped up his 20-date Great Hangover Tour with a sweaty throw-down before an adoring, largely under-21 audience. Minus the naysayers, it was a night of guilty pleasure — which is, in a nutshell, what Asher Roth is all about. Rolling onstage behind the wheel of a tot-size Cadillac SUV and armed […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Cursive At FUC
BY DIANCA POTTS After nearly an hour of traveling South on 309, I agonized over the perfect parking spot, finally settling on 22nd and Market. Standing at the crosswalk while facing First Unitarian, the long line of Cursive fans wrapped around the block and down the alley way. Comprised of half suburban and urban dwellers, I sensed a dichotomy of 20-somethings and fresh faced teens, making me feel slightly old at barely 22. En route towards the end of the line, I was stopped by a red-headed emo with a simple, “Hey cutie.” Confused, I paused while she accusingly declared, […]
A PRAYER FOR THE CITY: God Save The Philadelphia Inquirer And Daily News And All Who Sail On Them
[Photo by KEVIN BURKETT] NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE: By the early 20th century, the raucous, elbows-out era of American newspapering, there were 10 daily papers in the city. Now down to a besieged two, Philadelphia is a particularly good place to observe what appears to be big-city journalism’s last stand, when many of America’s metropolitan newspapers must quickly figure out how to become profitable again or face likely extinction. […] Annenberg’s sale of The Inquirer and The Daily News in 1969 to the Knight newspaper chain (which later became Knight Ridder) had the effect of elevating the journalism. The […]
ADSMART: How To Make Helping The Homeless Cool
[Click image to activate Internets] O3WORLD: See O3 Run is O3 World’s way of having fun, while raising money for a good cause. Our client, Back on My Feet is a non – profit organization that promotes self sufficiency for the homeless, through running, to build confidence, strength and self esteem. MORE
PIECE OF THE ROCK: Concert Venue Pie Chart
Pie chart illustrating the approximated market shares of the city’s live music venues based on current bookings. [via PHILLY CONCERT HUB]
Q&A: Being Rainn Wilson
VANITY FAIR: Rainn Wilson is a Hollywood conundrum. How could a regular cast member on one of the best sitcoms currently on television, NBC’s The Office, also have a role, even a small role, in one of the worst indignities to humanity and the written word, this summer’s cinematic trainwreck Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen? It makes no sense, but that’s just how Rainn Wilson rolls. One minute you think you’ve got him pegged—he pops up on hipster TV shows like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Reno 911, and hipster movies like Juno and The Rocker—and then […]
CINEMA: Sweet And Sour
JULIE & JULIA (2009, directed by Nora Ephron, 123 minutes, U.S.) IN THE LOOP (2009, directed by Armando Iannucci, 106 minutes, U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC When one thinks of the Nora Ephron “brand” one tends to think of those cutesy romantic comedies with the button-nosed young Meg Ryan: You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally. They each have chatty, New York flavored scripts, sweetly yearning heroines and a crippling dose of syrupy wish-fulfilling finales. Directing Meg Ryan to act cute is like chocolate syrup on chocolate ice cream, it’s too much of a good […]
SEPTA GIRL: Tales Of Ordinary Madness
[Photo by TOAST QUEEN] BY PHILLYGRRL It was a quiet week on SEPTA — for me anyway. Perhaps the hothouse weather pacified my fellow passengers, because everyone seemed to be on their best behavior. Even the otherwise-active subway kids opted for their headphones instead of mild flirtations with their peers. Hot in the city, indeed. Nobody moved as much as an inch when the homeless man on the C bus tried to start a fight with the driver. And he gave up as quickly as he’d begun. So it was that yesterday found me in a sad state of affairs […]
INFINITE JUSTICE: Leader Of Pakistani Taliban Reportedly Killed By U.S. Hellfire Missile Strike
[Photo by ANDRES] THE GUARDIAN: For a time, Baitullah Mehsud [picutured, below right] appeared to have cloaked himself in the historical garb of the Faqir of Ipi, a militant cleric whom British colonial troops spent much of the 1930s and ’40s chasing through the mountain passes of Waziristan. “They sought him here, they sought him there, those columns sought him everywhere,” went an old British couplet that equally applied to Mehsud as he shrugged off efforts by Pakistani and, more recently, US forces to kill him. In June a CIA-operated drone fired a barrage of missiles at a funeral for […]
RIP: Director John Hughes Dead At 59
BBC: The US film director John Hughes, who created some of the most famous comedies of the 1980s and 1990s, has died at the age of 59. The director died after a heart attack in New York, his spokeswoman said. Mr Hughes was the director of such successful films as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He was also a leading script writer, penning films such as Pretty in Pink and Home Alone. The spokeswoman, Michelle Bega, told Associated Press that Mr Hughes had been in Manhattan on a family visit and died after […]
REEFER MADNESS: Juqua Parker Must’ve Been High
PHIL SHERIDAN: It was shocking to hear the news that Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker was charged with possession of marijuana early yesterday morning. Shocking to hear that a professional athlete might burn a little ganja in his free time? Hardly. What was shocking was the degree of stupidity exhibited by Parker and his wheelman, left guard Todd Herremans. To be rolling around an O Little Town like Bethlehem in the wee hours with the headlights off is to beg for police to notice you. And to be carrying a controlled substance – even one that is used by countless […]
Q&A With The Regulars Photographer Sarah Stolfa
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Pretty much everyone in this town knows about The Regulars, Sarah Stolfa’s stunning Bukowski-meets-Caravaggio portraiture of McGlinchey’s patrons, snapped from behind the bar where she earned the dubious distinction of Unfriendliest Bartender In Town. The series won her first place in the New York Times Sunday Magazine’s Photography Contest For College Students, a long-running exhibition at Gallery 339 and an asspocket full of local acclaim and national recognition, including a residency at the Whitney Museum Of American Art in New York. And now Artisan Books has published the series in richly-appointed book form with a snarky-but-snappy essay […]