UPDATE: Glenn Beck Puff Piece Author John Timpane Is Live Chatting With Readers RIGHT NOW! INQUIRER PUFF PIECE ABOUT GLENN BECK: Glenn Beck is dressed to kill. His show on Fox News hits in about an hour, and he’s ready in black suit, pink shirt, maroon tie — and black Converse Chuck Taylor high-top sneakers, no laces. The Chucks, like Beck himself, are upmarket with a dash of irreverence.Depending on who’s talking, Beck, 45, is a hero, maniac, lightning rod. He calls himself “a guy on the radio bus.” That bumpy ride took him through Philadelphia and WPHT-AM (1210), where […]
I, GAMER: I Walked With A Zombie
BY ADAM BONANNI There’s a special place in hell reserved for Popcap Games. They’ve been addicting droves of casual gamers with Bejeweled and Peggle for years, and now they’re back to pick up the rest with Plants vs. Zombies. Well played, Popcap. I have friends who need to be in Peggle rehab, and now we to deal with this. Plants vs. Zombies belongs to the tower defense genre. The objective behind these games is to build a series of auto-attacking defensive towers along a path that a horde of enemies traverses. If any enemies reach the end of the path, […]
‘The Past Isn’t Dead, It Isn’t Even Past’
NEW YORK TIMES: TO paraphrase Al Pacino in “Godfather III,” just when we thought we were out, the Bush mob keeps pulling us back in. And will keep doing so. No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration’s high ambitions. That’s why the president’s flip-flop on the release of detainee abuse photos — whatever his motivation — is a fool’s errand. The pictures will eventually emerge […]
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: POTUS On First
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Philadelphia Phillies are set to visit the White House to celebrate their World Series victory. The Phillies are scheduled to meet with President Obama on Friday. A planned April visit was called off due to the death of the Phillies’ Hall of Fame announcer Harry Kalas. Spokeswoman Bonnie Clark says the Phillies plan to present a special gift to President Obama, but want the president to be the first to know what that gift will be. The Phillies are opening a three-day, four-game series with the Washington Nationals. MORE BBC: Civil liberties groups have reacted angrily to […]
COMING ATTRACTION: Meet SEPTA GIRL
[Photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY PHILLYGRRL It can be hard for both non-SEPTA and SEPTA riders alike to understand the appeal public transportation holds for a former country girl like me. When I moved here from New Jersey as a child, I was fascinated by the trolleys, trains, subways and buses I saw everywhere. Even now, despite the grime and urine, the inconveniences and hassles, I’m still awed by how accessible everything is to the average Philadelphian. With just $2 in your pocket, you can go anywhere you like in the city, a rarity for your average small-town American without […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #21 …has been CLASSIFIED for your protection.
We Know It’s Only Mock N’ Roll But We Like It
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER It’s been 25 years since Spinal Tap launched its hilariously disastrous, albeit fictional, North American tour in support of its equally ill-fated and fictional album, Smell the Glove. Mercifully, the band’s Unwigged & Unplugged tour — which touched down Thursday night at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside – seems to be going much better: rave reviews and sold-out theaters without a single drummer losing his life, all of which is a big step up from second billing to a puppet show at an amusement park or the Air Force base-dance circuit. Part mock-career retrospective, […]
CINEMA: One, Singular Sensation
EVERY LITTLE STEP (2008. directed by Adam Del Dio & James D. Stern, 96 minutes, U.S.) SONG OF THE SPARROWS (2008, directed by Majid Majidi, 96 minutes, Iran) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Among the least successful adaptations from stage to screen, Richard Attenborough’s 1985 film version of A Chorus Line seems to continually put its wrong foot forward. Casting actors with slight dance skills (Audrey Landers of the Landers Sisters?), shooting dancers from the knees up and needless cutaways busting in mid-song; this deserved flop thoroughly killed the soul of the behind-the-scenes dance musical. Twenty-some years later, this documentary […]
GIVE PEACE A CHANCE: Drug Czar Declares War Over
WALL STREET JOURNAL: The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting “a war on drugs,” a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use. In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation’s drug issues. “Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see […]
MEDIA: The Daily Beast Took My Deeney Away
EDITOR’S NOTE: A little while back we received a note from The Daily Beast peeps wondering if we would be terribly upset if they poached Jeff Deeney for a piece they wanted written about the Coatesville Arson Insanity. We responded something to the effect that introducing writers like Deeney to places like The Daily Beast was half the purpose of Phawker, BUT NO FUCKING WAY! Just kidding about the last part. You can read Deeney’s Coatesville arson piece HERE, co-authored with Philly native/DB staffer Gregory Gilderman. Below you will find an addendum to the piece that Deeney filed for Phawker. […]
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 […]
CINEMA: The French Connection
[Virginia Eliza Poe August 22, 1822 – January 30, 1847] MONSIEUR HIRE (1989, directed by Patrice Leconte, 81 minutes, France) THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLEN POE (1942, directed by Harry Lachman, 67 minutes, U.S.) PANIQUE (1947, directed by Julien Duvivier, 91 minutes, France) ANDREW’S VIDEO VAULT @ The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA Thursday May 14th 2009 8PM Free! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Two French masterpieces, based on the same novel and an odd biopic rarity make for another night of eclectic cinema at Andrew’s Video Vault. The 1989 breakthrough from director Patrice Laconte (director of the 1999 […]
JIMMY PAGE: Mama Don’t Allow No Skiffle Playin’
Via the BBC circa 1957. Yes, that Jimmy Page.