RIP: Actor Roy Scheider Dead At 75, Shark Not Involved Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said. Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
FUTURE SCHLOCK: White Williams, Johnny Brendas, Last Night 1. Had I not been too busy gossiping with Mike D, I would have whipped out the notebook and chatted up srsly cute boy Joe Williams, who passed the time until his set snuggled up in a fur-hooded parka behind the merch table or hanging with some power gays at the bar. 2. When the time came, Williams climbed onstage and, accompanied by guitar and bass, whipped the largely young, male and hirsute crowd into a state of wiggling, bouncing bliss. But seriously, the kid in the audience who spent half the […]
BREAKING: Obama Takes Kennebunkport
WASHINGTON POST: AUGUSTA, Maine — Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in Maine presidential caucuses Sunday, grabbing a majority of delegates as the state’s Democrats overlooked the snowy weather and turned out in heavy numbers for municipal gatherings. Democrats in 420 Maine towns and cities were deciding how the state’s 24 delegates will be allotted at the party’s national convention in August. Despite the weather, turnout was “incredible,” party executive director Arden Manning said. With 70 percent of the participating precincts reporting, Obama led in state delegates elected over Clinton, 1,564 to 1,122, with 17 uncommitted. Organizers had expected heavy […]
KILLADELPHIA: Other People’s Meals
Apparently, if you vote for Vince Fumo, he will come to your house and make your family dinner. Every night! But in all seriousness, NONE of the people pictured in this commercial are truly threatened by the city’s spiraling homicide rate. The senator knows this. As such, this commercial grossly misrepresents the nature of the problem and the people most likely become just another chalk outline on the sidewalks of North and West Philadelphia. It reminds us the way they used to get Pat Boone to cover Little Richard songs so that, you know, white people could relate. Shame on […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
SUNSHINE SUPERMEN: The Photon Band, Johnny Brendas, Friday Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA]
OBAMELOT: Yes We Can
[Photo by VIC SUEDE] ASSOCIATED PRESS: WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama swept the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state Saturday night, slicing into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s slender delegate lead in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Illinois senator also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands, completing his best night of the campaign. Obama’s winning margins ranged from substantial to crushing. He won roughly two-thirds of the vote in Washington state and Nebraska, and almost 90 percent in the Virgin Islands. Late Louisiana returns showed Obama with 55 percent of the vote, to 39 […]
LIVE: Top Five Reasons Why Cat Power Was Just ‘Meh’
MEOW MIX: Cat Power, Starlight Ballroom, Last Night CLICK TO ENLARGE 1. She was late. Like, almost an hour late. Yeah, yeah, she’s not the first rock star nor the last to make her adoring public earn their audience with her. But it did let a lot of the goodwill out of the room before she even sang a note. After a while, somebody shouted out “Stop playing fucking Motown singles and get your ass on stage!” 2. Their stage manager is a Napoleonic douche bag that just plain oozes bad rock karma. Trust me on this. 3. The band […]
MAILBAG: Vampire Weak And…
DEAR PHAWKER, 1. A band this allegedly likable must know that it can be despised. Help me bring bring balance to the universe. 2. A decent wedding band could play these songs note-for-note. 3. There’s no fucking way you’re going to bait me into saying something bad about Unitarians. 4. This new album is made possible by our collective unremitting gullibility. Break those fake kwassa-kwassa chains. Send these dudes back to grad school. 5. Wearing Docksiders in 2008 is gay, even if you lace ’em up with irony. JOE WARMINSKY Washington, DC PREVIOUSLY: 5 Reasons Why Vampire Weekend Was Better […]
INSTA-REVIEW: Cat Power Jukebox
NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! WHY? BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU! BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT Please stay with me tonight until I fall asleep. I’m afraid I may be entering the belly of the beast. Unlike you, I’ve never gotten into Cat Power. I’ve got enough of my own troubles; I don’t need to live vicariously through hers. The sultry voice only goes so far with me. The coffee-table soul she’s been getting into over the last couple of releases is better than what she used to do, but I don’t entertain too often. Those few I do entertain want […]
Thieves Open New Drive-Thru Window At Diesel Jeans
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) — Philadelphia Police said a pair of brazen thieves used a car to break into a high end clothing store in Rittenhouse Square early Friday morning. Two suspects wearing ski masks reportedly backed their vehicle through the front window of Diesel Jeans near 15th and Walnut Streets just before 6 a.m. “Glass exploded, went everywhere. They hopped out of the car,” said witness Daniel Hancotte. “Both of the guys went inside the store and cleaned off a bunch of shelves.” Hancotte said the thieves pulled up to a nearby mailbox and backed up like they were making […]
POST TV: Life After Cable
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Me and the wife haven’t looked back after getting rid of the digital cable a year or so ago, what with the ubiquity of DVDs and our entertainment energies drifting towards the internet, television programming has begun to seem superfluous. While killing time with Google’s video search engine recently I was surprised to see that there is a poor man’s “On Demand” function on-line as well. On the Google.com homepage you’ll need to go to the upper left-hand corner and click on “more,” then “advanced search” and from there I chose to search for videos […]
PAPERBOY: ‘10,000 Men Missing In Action’ Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN 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 […]
LIVE REVIEW: 5 Reasons Why Vampire Weekend Was Better Than Whatever Overhyped, Pitchfork-Approved, Ivy-League Indie Rocker Show You Saw Last Night
1. Vampire Weekend have not let the hype get to them. Even after hoards of Internet accolades, including the incredibly rare handjob from Pitchfork, the band humbly took the stage, played their songs, smiled a lot, and called it a night before 10:30. Classy fellows, they are. 2. Vampire Weekend, despite their tender age, have already achieved live perfection — each song off of their debut record was recreated with note-for-note flawlessness. Standouts included the opener “Mansard Roof,” the crazy-danceable “A-Punk,” and the sing-a-long “One (Blake’s Got a New Face).” 3. Vampire Weekend’s drummer, Chris Tomson, is a Unitarian! You […]