DAILY NEWS: Good news, Philadelphia! After decades of population loss, the city has stopped shrinking, according to revised Census Bureau estimates delivered to the city earlier this week. On Monday, the city received a letter from the Census Bureau raising the 2008 population estimate by about 93,000. In October, Philly challenged the bureau’s 2008 estimate of the city’s population, which the bureau had set at 1,447,395. It was the first time that the city had challenged the bureau’s estimates since a challenge program began earlier this decade. The new estimate of Philadelphia’s ’08 population is 1,540,351 people, 4,220 higher than […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Jesus Lizard At Starlight Ballroom
BY MATT WYNNE Last night at the Starlight ballroom, I saw four middle aged guys put the current crop to shame. Easily one of the best shows I have ever been to. I have been trying to put my finger on exactly what it is about a band like the Jesus Lizard that stands in such stark contrast to much of the music I have heard and seen in the last few years. They are just authentic, and like all truly good things they require no explanation about why they are so good. Explanations serve their function when something awful […]
INTERNET KILLED THE VIDEO STORE: TLA Video Store On South Street Is Closing Its Doors Forever
TLA Video on Fourth and South streets is closing its doors. Actually, it’s already closed for inventory and will re-open on Friday for sales only. The South Street institution, long a prized destination for the kind of quirky indie fare not easily found in big box retailers like Blockbuster and Hollywood video, will remain open through Thanksgiving or until it sells through its inventory. The TLA Video location at 1520 Locust St. will remain open. “It was an amazing 24-year run for our South Street store,” said TLA president Ray Murray, “but changing viewing habits of our customers (internet, cable, […]
CONCERT REVIEW: The Boss At The Spectrum
BY ADAM BONANNI “How does he do it?” was the question that lingered in my mind up to The Boss’s appearance at the Spectrum Wednesday night. Over 30 years of touring, and I couldn’t imagine him mustering up the same kind of energy rushing through me as I headed down Broad St. to see him with the rip-roarin E Street Band for the very first time! Which only proves the shortcomings of my imagination, because the guy put out like a man half his age. Taking the stage with the ground-shaking opener “Thundercrack,” Springsteen was smiling ear to ear, eyes […]
PW: Why The Right Hates ACORN, How They Took Them Down, And Why Philly Didn’t Take The Bait
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY There’s an old joke that goes like this: A pimp and a prostitute walk into an ACORN office and ask for advice setting up a brothel and smuggling in underage Salvadoran girls to whore out for fun and profit. The punchline is the pimp and the prostitute were in fact a pair of twentysomething right-wing media provocateurs armed with a hidden camera. Over the summer James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles visited an undisclosed number of ACORN offices on the East and West coasts—including Philadelphia. While the Philly office didn’t […]
Authorities Break Up Germantown Dog-Fighting Ring; Michael Vick Not Involved, But Still Will Be Blamed
INQUIRER: Officers from the Pennsylvania SPCA Sunday uncovered a dog-fighting ring at an East Germantown home and rescued several badly injured pit bulls found there. Following a tip to an animal cruelty hotline, the officers discovered two dead dogs and five others at the home, in the 200 block of East Bringhurst Street. Three men, including the property owner and the alleged ringleader, are facing charges. The bust comes in the wake of the Philadelphia Eagles’ signing of quarterback Michael Vick, the country’s best-known former dog-fighter. Vick, who served 18 months in federal prison for running a dog-fighting operation, has […]
CONCERT REVIEW: The Pet Sounds Of Brooklyn
? [Photos by TIFFANY YOON] BY DIANCA POTTS AND KYLEE MESSNER Last night’s sold out performance by Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear — the It Band of the moment — opened with a set full of ethereal indie rock compliments of opening act (and fellow New Yorkers) Here We Go Magic. Spearheaded by front man Luke Temple, Here We Go Magic’s performance flowed over the calm and composed crowd like a balm, sounding like a revamped resurrection of the Shins circa ’01 and a tamer Animal Collective with a side of forlorn folk. Describing their own sound as “a lovely ruckus,” Here […]
OFFICIAL: It’s Here — Now What?
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Health officials confirmed Pennsylvania’s first case of swine flu Sunday in a 31-year-old man in suburban Philadelphia’s Montgomery County. Gov. Ed Rendell told reporters at a late afternoon news conference that the man had recently arrived from Mexico but had recovered. State health officials said they are investigating seven more probable cases of the illness, including the first outside of the Philadelphia area , two cases in Philadelphia, two cases in Montgomery County and one each in Bucks County, Lycoming and Luzerne counties. Pennsylvania Health Secretary Everette James urged residents to remain calm and said officials are taking […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Five Things You Should Know About Rufus Wainright At The Kimmel Last Night
[Photo by TIFFANY YOON] 1. He’s Got Miles And Miles of Style Dressed in clingy cranberry trousers, brown sparkly shoes tied up in bows and a cream blazer with a ruby flower broach on the lapel, his flopsy bangs shorn to Hugh-Grant-in- Four-Weddings-And-A-Funeral-length, Rufus looked hale and healthy and so happy together. Noting the balcony crowd bearing down upon him from all sides, he declared: “I feel like I’m on trial…and I’m winning the case.” The jury of his peers would acquit him handsomely, awarding him two standing ovations by the night’s end. More importantly, his swooning woman of a […]
THE HATE NOISE: Anthrax Hoaxes Shutdown Obama Campaign Offices In Philadelphia And New York
CBS: PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) — A threatening letter containing a suspicious powder forced evacuations at a Barack Obama campaign office in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon. According to police, a letter with a suspicious powder was sent to an Obama-Biden field office in the 1500 block of Christian Street. The letter was apparently opened by a volunteer at the office.”The letter was somewhat threatening in nature and it contained a substance that we believe to be a hazmat,” Captain Mike Gillespie said shortly after the incident. Police, fire and hazmat crews responded to the scene shortly after a 911 call was […]
BREAKING: Obama + Springsteen To Rock Philly
OBAMA/BIDEN CAMPAIGN: Bruce Springsteen is coming to Philadelphia this weekend to perform an acoustic set at a rally on the Ben Franklin Parkway in order to assist the Obama campaign’s voter registration and volunteer recruitment efforts. The concert will take place on Saturday at Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 20th and 22nd Streets. Gates open at 2:00 and the program will begin at 3:30. DEVELOPING… UPDATE: Rolling Stone just asked me to cover this, and TIME is literally on the other line and wants to know what I think about the bailout. I am not making this up. [Ticket info after […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Titanic Love Affair
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Every now and then a voice comes along so strong, so clear, so seemingly inexhaustible that it is heard all the way around world by the Great Middle — the middle-aged, the middle class, and, by and large, those midway between mom jeans and menopause. This voice contains multitudes: the stormy weather of Hallmarkian heartache; the soaring melodrama of airport romance novellas; the soft soothing ‘happy places’ of aromatherapy; and the soap operatic narrative arc of not just one, but two Hollywood blockbusters. That voice belongs to Celine Dion, of course, but just about […]
THE BEATDOWN: Victims’ Lawyer Says Cops Are Lying
DAILY NEWS: AS A NEWS video of police beating and kicking three shooting suspects is seen around the world, attorneys for the battered men are claiming that Philly cops concocted their story to cover up for a case of mistaken identity — an allegation police vehemently deny. The attorneys said their clients — Brian Hall, 23, Dwayne “Lionel” Dyches, 24, and Pete Hopkins, 19 – were not involved in a shooting. But rather, police chased down their car and beat them because they mistook Dyches, a passenger in the car, for accused cop-killer Eric DeShawn Floyd, the attorneys said. At […]