PHILLY CLOUT: City Council’s Committee on the Environment just unanimously approved the legislation banning the type of plastic bags typically used at supermarkets and pharmacies in the city. Those bags will have to be replaced after July 1, 2011 with recyclable paper bags, compostable plastic bags or reusable bags. An amendment also calls for education programs in consultation with retailers and environmental advocacy groups to explain the measure to consumer before it is enforced. DiCicco is aiming for a final vote by the full Council next week, before the start of a three-month recess. MORE RELATED: Magic Flying Bag Scene […]
SHOCK: Turns Out Gay Guy From American Idol Is Gay
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER: “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert has landed the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, where he talks about sex, drugs and his “Idol” experiences. The 27-year-old singer from San Diego acknowledges in an interview that he’s gay, and says it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. “I’m proud of my sexuality,” he says. “I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.” Lambert says he was inspired to audition for the Fox network singing competition after having a “psychedelic experience” at the Burning Man festival in Nevada. There, he says, he experimented with “certain funguses.” “I knew that […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Jenny Lewis At The Troc
BY DIANCA POTTS After selling my extra tickets to Monday night’s show to a stranger from Craigslist, it dawned on me. I’ve been listening to the shit for almost a decade. But I’m a creature of habit and a shameless JLew fan, so despite my bummed out mood from overdosing on Eggers short stories earlier that afternoon, I shuffled over to the Troc, AA skirt and all. Torn between catching Farmer Dave’s set and stuffing my face, I went with my gut instinct and headed to Mixx where an anime-esque waiter denied my BFF tempura and served us lukewarm Miso […]
FOR NOTHING: Thanks Philly Parking Authority!
INQUIRER: The cause of the latest migraine for city tourism officials: Parking Wars, the gritty A&E series that traces the not-so-glamorous workday lives of Philadelphia Parking Authority employees as they boot, tow, and ticket their way through the day. “My family and I were going to visit Philadelphia, but after watching ‘Parking Wars,’ we have decided not to because of fear for losing our car!!!!” “After watching the series, I would NEVER visit your city. Beyond the obscene parking laws, the people in your city come off as rude, hard, cynical and unfriendly.” “I am thrilled to say I have […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Perhaps best known for his role on the NBC comedy series The Office as Andy Bernard, the salesman who loves a cappella, actor Ed Helms takes to the big screen this summer in The Hangover, a buddy movie about three groomsmen who lose their soon-to-be married friend in Las Vegas. A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, Helms got his start in comedy with numerous sketch comedy groups. Prior to joining the cast of The Office, he was a senior correspondent on The Daily Show. ALSO, Journalist Gretchen Morgenson discusses efforts in Congress to regulate default swaps, which […]
RAWK TAWK: Burying The Hatchet With Black Francis
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Set the Wayback Machine to 1988. I’m a college radio DJ stranded in the middle of Pennsyltucky. Entranced by the naked boob on the cover of Surfer Rosa, I slap it on the turntable and…the Pixies had me by the first 10 seconds of “Where Is My Mind?” and never really let go. Shortly thereafter I got a gig working for a Pennsyltucky daily. They asked me one day if I wanted to interview some guy named Black Francis from the Pixies. Would I? Man, this was a dream come true! I could […]
BECAUSE EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN
MIAMI HERALD: Bret Michaels may have to take out his extensions for a bit while his head heals. The eternal bachelor had a run-in with some stage scenery at Sunday night’s Tony Awards. Michaels and his band Poison performed Nothin’ But a Good Time with the cast of Rock of Ages, which celebrates 1980s hair music. As Michaels exited the stage, he glanced back to his fans, and a descending set piece knocked him to the ground. Check it out on YouTube; it looks nasty. MORE
LIVE AND DIRECT: Faux News From The Faux War
NEW YORK TIMES: CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — It was Sunday night in Baghdad, and President Obama was ordering Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of the American troops here, to shave Stephen Colbert’s head. (Not to give everything away, but the general is not as brutal with an electric razor as one would expect a bald man to be; Mr. Colbert’s hairdresser, on the other hand, has a merciless streak.) War, as things go, is a fairly unironic exercise. Sure, there are endless incongruities to be found and parodied in the speeches about war from politicians, generals and heads of state. […]
I Went 2 The Roots Picnic & All I Got Was A Good Time
[Performer photos by TIFFANY YOON/Crowd shots by AMY SALIT] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR ROLLING STONE When it comes to The Roots — currently in-residence as the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and arguably the greatest live act on the planet — you must always expect the unexpected. So it should come as no surprise that Saturday’s second annual Roots Picnic at the Festival Pier in Philadelphia was a 12-hour all-you-can-eat-and-then-some feast of wonderful WTF-ness. What other band would kick off their own multi-genre lollapalooza — featuring the likes of Public Enemy, TV On The Radio, The Black […]
LAW LESS: The Incredible Shrinking Legal Profession
NEW YORK TIMES: [T]he corridors of White & Case are quiet, the happy buzz of business having gradually been replaced by a melancholy pall of diminished billable hours. Many office doors are shut — not because of meetings, but, as one associate put it, so that “the man with the ax” cannot find the occupants. Type-A partners, once glued to their BlackBerrys, suddenly have time for their spouses and their children; ladder-climbing junior lawyers linger over lunch. As the apocalypse on Wall Street ripples out into the larger economy, a thick red tide is lapping at the once-impregnable foundations of […]
AXIS OF EVIL: North Korea Sentences Two Female American Journalists To 12 Years Hard Labor
VOICE OF AMERICA: North Korea’s state news agency says a court has sentenced two female American journalists to 12 years of hard labor. The Korean Central News Agency said Monday that the court found the two women guilty of committing an unspecified “grave crime” and illegally crossing into North Korea. Last Thursday, North Korean state media announced the start of the trial of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for the U.S. media company Current TV. North Korean authorities arrested Lee and Ling in March while they were working on a story near the Chinese-North Korean border. U.S. State Department […]
CINEMA: The Soprano
IL DIVO (2008, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, 110 minutes, Italy) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Set mostly in the late 1980s, before something called “The Bribesville Scandal” brought down his Christian Democratic Party, Il Divo looks at the world through the heavily-lidded eyes of Giulio Andreotti’s, widely regarded as the most influential Italian political figure of the 20th. In his late eighties, Andreotti seems calcified by his own corruption, his shoulders hunched and his face a near-emotionless mask. He spends his time being escorted from one beautiful ancient room to the next, living his life in unacknowledged splendor, while occasionally […]
NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: Decemberists To Play Folk Fest
[Photo by AutumnDeWilde] Now that last night’s Decemberists show at the Tower is safely over, we are allowed to share the following: The Decemberists will be headlining the Saturday afternoon concert at the Philadelphia Folk Festival on Saturday, August 15. Other newly added acts include The Derek Trucks Band (closing Sunday night’s Martin Guitar Stage), Heartless Bastards, Austin Lucas, Kerri Powers, Shannon Lambert-Ryan and RUNA, as well as locals the West Philadelphia Orchestra and Burning Bridget Cleary. MORE PREVIOUSLY ON PHAWKER: Amongst people who like that sort of thing, Colin Meloy — ringleader of the Portland-based folk-pop collective The Decemberists […]