An observational study on the differences between western and Asian students studying in Japan by Eva Liao TOKYO, JAPAN — I’m in class for four hours a day, which means I am bored to the brink of insanity 20 hours a week. I’m amazed I’m not bald from pulling my hair out from the roots. There’s nothing else to do but to analyze the people in my classes. Forgoing political correctness for a stint, I must say, it’s truly amazing how clear-cut some stereotypes really are. The subjects: Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian, French, British, Italian, German, Canadian, and American […]
BENSALEM 911: It Took FIVE Cops To Bust Woman Allegedly Offering Sex-For-World-Series-Tickets
NEW YORK POST: Within an hour of posting the ad, Finkelstein recounted, she heard from a man who said he was a construction worker and claimed to have an extra ticket. Finkelstein wanted to meet “somewhere I’d feel safe,” so she agreed to go to Bucks County to meet at Manny Brown’s, a popular bar and restaurant. “He had a couple of beers, and he bought me one,” Finkelstein said. They then started talking. “We were jovial, friendly, joking —the normal kind of conversation you would have sitting with someone you just met.” Citing the pending charges, Finkelstein declined to […]
WORLD SERIES: Who You Callin’ ‘Frillies’ Now?
GAME ONE: Phillies 6, Yankees 1
THE EARLY WORD: The Bloodsucker Proxy
Traverse Arts Project announces its second annual Nosferatu Screening, featuring African American Woman Organist T. Desiree Hines on Friday October 30th at the First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street. Tickets for each regular performance are $10 per person, and $5.00 for students and seniors. More information about the event may be found at www.traversetheater.org/nosferatu.htm. T. Desiree Hines is most familiar to Philadelphia from several articles and stories written about her life as an African-American Transsexual woman who is an accomplished Classical Organist. Among her achievements is being the soloist at the 2008 Summer Solstice Celebration on the Fred J. Cooper […]
BRAVE NEW FILMS: How Fox News Slimed ACORN
PREVIOUSLY: Why The Right Hates ACORN, How They Took Them Down, And Why Philly Didn’t Take The Bait PREVIOUSLY: The Nutcracker Strikes Back! PREVIOUSLY: Cracking The Nutcracker PREVIOUSLY: The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Flow Chart
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN: On Sunday Cops Start Cracking Down On Cell-Phoning Drivers
DAILY NEWS: Texters and hand-held cell phoners may experience an unpleasant surprise next week if they continue using their gizmos while driving, cycling, or even skateboarding. That’s because on Sunday, Philadelphia police will begin enforcing an ordinance that bans the use of hand-held phones while driving, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore. “We’re going to do a heavy month of education where you’re going to see . . . warnings going out,” Vanore, said. Those warnings will be issued through November, he said. Then, on Dec. 1, police will begin issuing code violations that will carry a $75 fine. Bluetooth […]
CINEMA: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Michael Jackson’s This Is It (2009, directed by Kenny Ortega, 112 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC For Michael Jackson, dropping dead last June was just the capper to the worst decade of his long career. His last album dropped in 2001 and was the first of his solo records to be perceived as a failure since Off The Wall sent his career into the stratosphere in 1979. His interview with Martin Bashir in 2003 (broadcast on ABC as Living With Michael Jackson) seemed like a perverse attempt to grab the public’s attention, if not with his music then […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Pearl Jam At The Spectrum
[Photos by FELICIA PERRETTI] BY ADAM BONANNI Pearl Jam know they had their work cut out for them: to send the Spectrum beyond the clouds and somewhere over the rainbow to reunite with Veterans Stadium in that great arena final resting place in the sky. “We’re not the cleanup crew” Eddie Vedder exclaimed between songs Tuesday night at said Spectrum, alluding to the fact that Springsteen closed out his series with a four-hour banger the other week. Not to be outdone,Vedder made a bold claim: “By Saturday night, we’re gonna try to play every song we know…and that may include […]
ADDICTED TO AFGHANISTAN: Karzai’s Brother, Suspected Drug Lord, Is On The CIA’s Payroll
[Artwork by SHEPARD FAIREY] NEW YORK TIMES: KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home. The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency […]
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS WHO NEEDS ENEMAS: Lieberman To Filibuster Any Bill With Public Option
CBS NEWS: During the 2008 elections, Joe Lieberman attended the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. and pulled a Zell Miller, delivering a rousing speech – for Lieberman, that is – supporting supporting John McCain over Barack Obama for president. Back in the old days, such an act of party disloyalty would have been automatic justification for banishment to political Siberia. But after their election victory in November, the Democratic leadership held its collective nose and cut a pragmatic deal: Lieberman, now a self-styled “independent minded Democrat” got to keep his chairmanship in the caucus, his chairmanship of the […]
THE EARLY WORD: Walk The Line
PREVIOUSLY: The crowd, all demonstrably fans of thick frames and cardigans, swayed and lost themselves in what felt like a new New Wave manifesto for the ears. Politely thanking their fans for showing up and being “awesome,” Berman took the time to gush about his affections for Philly’s one and only R-5, recalling all the shows he attended as a teen prior to his days of indie stardom. “Young Adult Friction,” recently released as the band’s second video via music blogs and myspace, got showgoers rocking out like Ian Curtis rose from the dead. Lyrically alluring and audibly contagious, the […]
WORLD SERIES: Bensalem Woman Arrested For Offering To Trade Sex For Series Tickets
INQUIRER: Bensalem police said they arrested a Philadelphia woman Tuesday after she offered to perform various sex acts to an undercover officer in exchange for tickets. According to police, Susan Finkelstein, 43, posted an ad on Craigslist that read: “DESPERATE BLONDE NEEDS WS TIX (Philadelphia) “Diehard Phillies fan—gorgeous tall buxom blonde— in desperate need of two World Series Tickets. Price negotiable— I’m the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!” An undercover officer responded to the ad, police said, and arrested Finkelstein after she made her offer. MORE PHAWKER: This is the best use of severely limited police resources? […]
BOOKS: Atlas Mugged
BY SAINT JOHN BARNED-SMITH FOR OBIT.COM During her life, Ayn Rand created a shrouded, larger-than-life myth about herself. She credited only Aristotle as an inspiration for her beliefs and insisted that her philosophy, Objectivism – which conceived of man “as a heroic being with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity and reason as his only absolute” – was a wholly original system. (Never mind that she read Nietzsche along with other philosophers and political theorists.) Ayn Rand changed her name (Alisa Rosenbaum) and home. The novelist and philosopher had […]