HALLOWEEN MASK: Print Out, Cut Out, Put On, Scare White People NEW YORK TIMES: A growing number of voters have concluded that Senator John McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, is not qualified to be vice president, weighing down the Republican ticket in the last days of the campaign, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major […]
HOW SWEET IT IS: Sittin’ On Top Of The World
[Photos by ANDY YOOS and TIFFANY YOON]
THE CHANGELING: Q&A With Christopher Buckley
Christopher Taylor Buckley is an American political satirist and accomplished novelist. His books include God Is My Broker, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, The White House Mess, No Way to Treat a First Lady, Wet Work, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday, and, most recently, Supreme Courtship. Tom Wolfe calls him “one of the funniest writers in the English language.” Recently, he made headlines when he publicly endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President. In advance of his appearance at the Philadelphia Free Library on November 5th, we spoke with the son of conservative movement standard-bearer William F. Buckley about his […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
Dead pigeon, 20th & Spring Garden, October 1st [photo by RAY SKWIRE]
CINEMA: Boogie Knights
ZACK & MIRI MAKE A PORNO (2008, directed by Kevin Smith, 102 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The disappointment of director Kevin Smith’s latest film isn’t so much that it isn’t very sexy, or is only sporadically amusing or even that his ability to stage a scene remains stubbornly amateurish. What lets you down is that the title characters, played by the ingratiating slob Seth Rogen and the bubbly Elizabeth Banks, don’t have the shameless guts to actually let it all hang out in a porn film. Smith wants to titillate us with that great title yet his […]
GOOD CAUSE: Send A CP Kid To College
BY HEWHOCANNOTBENAMED My girlfriend works as a pediatric physical therapist, largely with kids who suffer from cerebral palsy, and whatever victories she achieves may appear small. She comes home, in fact, and says things like “Tommy* stood on his own for 30 seconds today. First time ever!” I probe her with questions (questions, I said, get your head out of the gutter), find out Tommy is 16 years old and this was no small victory. In fact, for Tommy and his mother and the rest of his family (not to mention his physical therapist) it is a moment for high-fives […]
BRIDGE FROM NOWHERE: Goodbye Garden State
BY DAVE ALLEN Having been a frequent visitor to Philly for years, I finally broke down and moved here at the end of July. Well, not quite “here.” I moved to the suburbs, south and east of the city in Gloucester County, New Jersey. For three months, I’ve been a commuter, coming to “the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night,” as E.B. White said of NYC’s suburb-dwelling workforce. For three months, I’ve been a locust. But no more. This Saturday, I move into an apartment in the city. It’s a decent-sized one-bedroom place […]
SEASON’S GREETINGS: It’s Halloween!
HISTORY.COM: Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they […]
WE ASK YOU: Does This Man Look Like He’s Coasting?
NO RAIN NO GAIN: Senator Barack Obama, Widener University, Chester, Tuesday Morning [Photos by AP & GETTY IMAGES] NEW YORK TIMES: Despite a cold, steady rain and driving winds, Senator Barack Obama addressed a crowd of about 9,000 at Widener University in Chester, just outside Philadelphia, praising their dedication and promising tax cuts and solutions for the country’s economic woes. The punishing weather forced Senator John McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, to cancel a rally in Quakertown, about 80 miles to the north. MORE PLUMBING THE DEPTHS: No Show Joe (The Plumber) [Joe […]
HEAR YE: The Pixies Doolittle Remastered
Now playing on Phawker Radio! ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Pixies — Formed in Boston in 1986 under the credo “Husker Dü meets Peter, Paul and Mary,” the Pixies would, in a very real sense, end music as we then knew it. Principal songwriter Black Francis’ lulling verses/volcanic choruses formula would become the overworked template for ’90s alternative rock songwriting (see Nirvana). But dynamics was only part of the Pixies’ charm. Pet themes about God, death, sex, violence and flying saucers were bathed in eerie guitar sonics, shrieking vocals and inexplicable forays into the Spanish language, then driven home with a […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Print Is Undead?
PHILADELPHIA, October 30, 2008 – In response to the Phillies World Series win last night, Philadelphia Media Holdings Chief Executive Officer Brian Tierney announced this morning that last night’s over-run of almost 350,000 copies of The Inquirer and Daily News are completely sold out. And, in an unprecedented move, the printing presses are running again this morning so that an additional 350,000 copies can be printed and available by early afternoon today. “People are buying these souvenir editions of The Inquirer and Daily News in massive quantities and we are responding by firing up our printing presses for another run […]
TONITE: Why Whitey Can’t Vote Live
Tonight I’ll be on The Big Talker (1210 AM) with Dom Giordano at 8:30 PM, to discuss my White People Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Vote editorial in Sunday’s Inquirer. I am told Dom is a teacher, so here’s hoping his reading comprehension skills are superior to the folks at the The David Boze Show in Seattle, who were DEEPLY disappointed to learn that I was not LITERALLY advocating that white people not be allowed to vote and thus rescinded their offer to have me come on their show. Sometimes I think we are just too damn stupid to be the […]
THE PHOTON BAND: Ka-Blammo
[Dir. by SCOTT COLAN]