WASHINGTON POST: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Thursday the full Senate will debate and vote on healthcare overhaul legislation after it returns in September from a monthlong recess. Reid told reporters he expected the Senate Finance Committee would approve its version of the legislation before the Senate starts its recess August 7. MORE RELATED: GOP — Gang Of Obstructionist Pricks RELATED: Why We Can’t Have Nice Things — Meet Dick Scott Health Care Reform’s Public Enemy Number One THE GOOD NEWS FLOWER HOUR: Meet Health Care Reform’s Public Enemy #1
DEEP THOUGHTS: Some People Shouldn’t Twitter
“‘It’s not rape if you get aids. then it’s suicide’ ha. hahaha.” — Porn star and former Philly girl Stoya on Twitter *** Asians Doing Christopher Walken Impressions Sent in by Phawker Tokyo Correspondent Eva Liao. So wrong it’s right.
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
ON THE COVER CP: Rapper Amanda Blank: coquette or queen-bee? A.D. Amorosi would have us believe she’s on the verge of stardom, and people with massive cred — Naeem Juwan of Spank Rock, Santigold, Diplo — are getting behind her upcoming album. The rap game a producer’s art form that needs MCs to keep it in the spotlight, and Blank rhymes over Spank Rock’s beats with impressive fervor. Nerves have gotten the best of her in the past, though; does she have what it takes it to break through? If only she were a little more confident, all this may […]
CONTEST: Win Two Tix To See Jay-Z At All Points West
HOVA: Jay-Z at the TLA, November 12th 2007. [Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] Late last night, All Points West Festival organizers announced that Jay-Z will be replacing the Beastie Boys, who were forced to cancel their Day One headlining slot in the wake of Adam Yauch’s throat cancer diagnosis. As promised, we will be running contests to give away a pair of tix for each day of APW. The first Phawker reader that tell us what song the line “Blame Reagan for making me to into a monster, blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra, I ran contraband that they sponsored, before this […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Writer and director Judd Apatow first became known for the cult TV series Freaks and Geeks, which gained a cult following when it aired on NBC from 1999 to 2000. Since then, the former stand-up comic has turned his attention to the big screen, directing Knocked Up and The 40-Year Old Virgin. Apatow’s latest film, Funny People, stars his former roommate Adam Sandler as a stand-up comedian with an incurable blood disorder. With one foot in the grave, Sandler’s character decides to mentor and befriend an amateur comic and deli employee played by Seth Rogen — a relationship […]
HACK ATTACK: Cabbies Question Parking Authority
[Photo by PYROSARCO] THE SOURCE: Taxi drivers drove through Center City today in a horn-honking, traffic-slowing lunchtime protest. The United Taxi Workers Alliance said the action was called to demand “fair” parking ticket practices, a reduction in new fees and the return of funds allegedly withheld from drivers from credit card transactions. MORE DAILY NEWS: Chanting “The PPA are robbers!” and honking their horns, dozens of cabbies stopped their taxis on Market Street near 30th, blocking three lanes and snarling traffic about 11 a.m. Later, they gathered outside a PPA facility in Center City, shutting down whole blocks of 9th, […]
Entertainment Center To Grow On Spectrum’s Grave
CHANGING SKYLINE: A plan to bring life to the vast asphalt desert at Philadelphia’s sports complex took another step forward today when a Baltimore developer released drawings for a $100 million entertainment center connecting the Wachovia Center to Citizens Bank Park. MORE
HALLELUJAH: Leonard Cohen Returns
Leonard Cohen, Academy of Music, May 12th [Photo by MICHAEL T. REGAN] To the delight of his legions of fans, Leonard Cohen will once again return to the U.S. this fall for the final leg of his critically acclaimed 2009 World Tour. Since taking the stage earlier this year at New York’s Beacon Theatre — his first stateside performance in more than fifteen years — Mr. Cohen has enchanted audiences, earning rave reviews and sold-out concerts across the globe. While the acclaimed singer/songwriter/poet is currently dazzling crowds across Europe, his fall return to the U.S. will mark the final engagements […]
WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: Meet Dick Scott, Health Care Reform’s Public Enemy Number One
BY JONATHAN VALANIA While recent polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans favor health care reform that included a so-called public option that would provide coverage for the estimated 45 millions Americans with no health insurance, one man is doing everything in his power to make sure this does not happen, going so far as to spend $5 million of his own money to bankroll TV ads designed to scare American public off the path of health care reform with visions of a socialized medicine hell where the right to choose is forcibly surrendered to Big Brother, government bureaucrats dictate […]
HAPPY ENDING: A Skate Park Grows In Fishtown
BY AARON STELLA On July 25th, Friends of Pop’s Playground, the NKCDC (New Kensington Community Development Corporation), The Department of Recreation, Exit Skate Shop and the Fishtown and New Kensington community will be holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of a new skate park, Pop’s Skate Park, in Pop’s Playground, located at Hazard and Collins Streets in Fishtown. Until 2007, the playground has remained closed to the public on account of the city revoking its funding and Edward Griffith’s, the playground’s last caretaker, retirement in 1996. But with the combined efforts of the aforementioned groups to restore […]
COMING ATTRACTION: This Could Be You
All this week we will be giving away pairs of tickets for all three days of All Points West. Sadly, the Beastie Boys have canceled their Day One headlining slot in the wake of Adam Yauch’s cancer diagnosis. A suitable replacement is expected to be announced soon. In the meantime, godspeed to Mr. Yauch.
Q&A With Carolyn Wyman, Spam Biographer And Author of The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book
BY SYDNEY SCOTT Junk foodie author Carolyn Wyman specializes in books that tell you everything you wanted to know (and then some) about foods of dubious edibility. Her previous books include Spam: A Biography and Jello: A Biography. Her latest book, The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book, tackles the Rocky Balboa of dead cow sammiches. She will be speaking tomorrow night at the Free Library. PHAWKER: First things first, Pat’s or Geno’s? CAROLYN WYMAN: My book is more of a celebration and comprehensive guidebook to the cheesesteak and cheesesteak stands. I do not rate them. So the question to me really […]