EDITOR’S NOTE: Phawker concert reviewer dynamic duo Kylee Messner and Dianca Potts will be sending in live first person dispatches from APW all weekend. DAY TWO KYLEE: It was our second day at All Points West, and it seemed like the festival, much like the weather, had a much sunnier disposition. Festival goers still seemed to be enjoying the previous night’s mud, sinking into the ground like quicksand. Kool Keith’s “Girl Let Me Touch You” could be heard from the main stage, much to the delight of fans sporting as little clothing as possible. “We can’t stop, can’t stop yet,” […]
DICK SHITHOUSE: Workers Sue Philadelphia Waste Transfer Plant Over ‘Whites Only’ Bathroom
CNN: Black employees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city. Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station’s superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom — which he called the “supervisors’ bathroom” — was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city’s Streets Department, Trubman said. As far back as 1996, it became apparent to black employees […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: All Points West
EDITOR’S NOTE: Phawker concert reviewer dynamic duo Kylee Messner and Dianca Potts will be sending in live first person dispatches from APW all weekend. DAY ONE Kylee: The alarm went off, it was 4am Friday morning. “Damn,” I said to myself, groaning all the way to the bathroom. After weeks of planning, stressing, and arranging, the day had finally come for All Points West. Dianca had me in a panic as usual, driving from the burbs to Philadelphia to take my ass to Jersey City. We had two hours ahead of us on the open road, three days of music […]
SEPTA GIRL: Brassiere & Loathing On The 55
BY PHILLYGRRL Day three. The lady on the 55 bus couldn’t find the 75 cents she needed for a transfer. So she started looking. The front half of the bus stared in fascination as she dipped down low into her expansive bosom and fished in her white bra. From under her teal shirt up came a cell phone. Out came several tokens and some slips of paper. The lady moved her hand slowly, leisurely through the cups, oblivious to the stares and the murmurs from the elderly ladies to the right and left of me. “Now that’s a damn shame,” […]
KAREN HELLER: Question The Parking Authority
INQUIRER: In November 2007, the governor asked for a comprehensive “fiscal and performance audit” of the agency, which directs $25 million in annual profits to the city and any surplus funds to the schools. “Accounts of skyrocketing expenses, bloated payrolls, excessive salaries, and parking-garage mismanagement suggest that the internal fiscal and management controls” were not in place, he wrote. This week, 20 months and $122,000 later, a near-final draft of the report appears that is neither comprehensive nor prescriptive. “Our procedures did not constitute an audit, review, or compilation of the information provided and, accordingly, we do not express an […]
CINEMA: That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick
FUNNY PEOPLE (2009, directed by Judd Apatow, 146 minutes, U.S.) SOUL POWER (2009, directed by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, 93 minutes, U.S.) $9.99 (2006., directed by Tatia Rosenthal, 78 minutes, Israel/Australia) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Right from the start Funny People, the third film from director Judd Apatow, seems to have a few big things working against it, number one being the aging moron comic Adam Sandler. Not just Sandler but Sandler in a cancer dramedy that clocks in at a laugh-exhausting two hours and twenty minutes. Stunt casting, ballooning lengths and again with the endless guy-hang talk; it seems as […]
ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Top 5 Things You Should Know About Fleet Foxes At The Electric Factory Last Night
WEIRD BEARD: Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes, Electric Factory, Last Night [Photo by TIFFANY YOON] 1. On a late July night in Philly, the Great Unwashed takes on a whole new meaning in the sticky, crowded Electric Factory. As the metal ceiling fans squeak futilely overhead, I’m hemmed in by Cousin-It-with-a-perm and a fresh-faced young fellow, no more than 17, who seems blissfully unaware that his T-shirt logo is imagery from the Third Reich. 2. Blue Öyster Cult had more than one album; more than one song, for that matter. When opening act Espers—Philly’s sleepy freak-folk celebs of choice—announce that they’re […]
MAKING NICE: The Beer Heard Round The World
[Courtesy of THE OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTOSTREAM] BOSTON GLOBE: They did not link arms, and there were no public apologies. But a subdued meeting over beers on the White House patio last evening appeared to achieve President Obama’s goal of encouraging a deeper dialogue on race between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley. The White House, which carefully choreographed the event, kept reporters out and would not disclose what was said after the unlikely trio, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, sipped their cold ones. But after the images of a peaceful dialogue were […]
HEAR YE: Jack Penate Everything Is New
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Out August 18th on XL. THE GUARDIAN: In fact, the really startling musical reinvention of 2009 is that of Jack Peñate. He hit the charts in 2007 as a kind of male equivalent of Kate Nash, a concept it’s hard to countenance, even now, without emitting a reflexive yell of panic. He peddled anaemic, bandy-legged gorblimey guitar pop with a side-order of anaemic, bandy-legged gorblimey cod-reggae. At least he did until March of this year, when he released Tonight’s Today, which seems destined to remain 2009’s premier WTF? moment, unless Bruce Springsteen is planning on […]
TONITE: Better Late Than Never
Apologies to Jersey Dan, we promised to post this snazzy flier and didn’t remember that we hadn’t until we were already at the show. But our word is all we have, so here ya go. And while we are coming clean, you should know that for at least two days we had up the headline WARNING: Do NOT Spill Bear On This Man re: the hoofties that beat a man to death at a Phillies game for spilling beer on them. And, it was our frenemies at Philebrity that pointed it out! Oh, the humanity! PW we feel your shame.
THE FLEET FOXES: Winter Hymnal
[Dir. by SCOTT COLAN] The Fleet Foxes play the Electric Factory tonight with the mighty Espers. PREVIOUSLY: QUEER AS FOLK or How Philadelphia Got Its Freak On [Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA It all started, for me anyway, at Brooke Sietinsons‘ walk-up loft/hobbit hole on Second Street, somewhere in that OK Corral-esque strip between the Standard Tap and the 700 Club. Even though she no longer lives there, the exact location will have to remain a secret because, technically speaking, L&I could still fine her for dispensing the Morning Glory seeds of Philly freak-folkdom without a permit. But […]
TONITE: Secret Cinema
The Secret Cinema presents ISLAND OF LOST SOULS * Thursday, July 30th, 6 PM American Philosophical Society Museum Philosophical Hall 104 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia 215-440-3440 * BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Recently I was chatting with my three year old about his great passion, animals. Sometimes you forget that a fresh mind needs all angles explained to them. “We’re animals too,” I said. His eyes grew wide. “No way!” he shook his head in disbelief. I’m do not think I convinced him although he stopped challenging me after I repeated the fact a few times; he saw the gap between […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
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 […]