Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The Bell Curve

City Paper's Quality-o-Life-o-Meter

+1 - A South Jersey English teacher starts the site dailyphiladelphian.com, which he hopes will show that Philly fans aren't the worst in the country. Step one: Disable comments.

0 - Joe Sestak calls for pragmatism in government. "I dunno," says Specter. "Switching parties was a pretty pragmatic move, and it didn't enable me to get re-elected."

-7 - Nearly 70,000 Philly children may go hungry because of a lack of enough summer meal programs. "Or, if you adopt my new plan," says Bob Brady, "35,000 children will eat really, really well."

0 - "The problem with Philadelphia is we're never out in front. I would like to be at the forefront of something," says City Councilman Jim Kenney. Well, you did suggest we sue the Internet, guy. That was pretty singular.

+1 - The city's Mural Arts Program updates a painting of nurses at Broad and Vine streets, taking into consideration the future of the field. The new mural shows non-union nurses at Temple University Hospital.

0 - The FBI raids the home of state Sen. Robert J. Mellow. And he's like cool, whatever bro, mi casa su casa.

+6 - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia shoots a scene with Phillies players Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. And Greg Dobbs. Wild card, bitches!

0 - Mayor Nutter visits Louisiana to brainstorm with other mayors about what to do regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Have you thought about closing all of the libraries?" he suggests.

0 - Jackass star Bam Margera denies calling his alleged attacker a racial slur, but admits he called her a "crazy bitch" and an "idiot." And concedes that under other circumstances they could have been really good friends.

0 - Thirty-four high-schoolers graduate from an alternative school program at the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills. Will celebrate by killing people their own age for money.


This week's total: 1 | Last week's total: -1


More:

Bell Curve Rebutted: We are fucking scumbags.

posted by Patrick Rapa
categories Readers Write, Web Junk
In Bell Curve, City Paper printed this item:

"0 - Thirty-four high-schoolers graduate from an alternative school program at the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills. Will celebrate by killing people their own age for money."

Which pissed off one reader, who left us this NSFW voicemail.

Presented without comment.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Street Review

WHITE PEOPLE DON'T CRY! I KNOW YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN A HARD TIME OVER THE PAST FEW HUN-DRED YEARS ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM SLAVERY RIGHT ON DOWN TO THE INACCURACY OF YOUR DOPPLER RADAR, BUT MOTHERFUCKERS DON'T SEEM TO KNOW HOW HARD IT IS RUNNING A PLANET. IT'S NOT LIKE PLANTING A SEED AND WATERING THAT BITCH AND BOOM, YOU HAVE NICE FERNS. NO. BEING THE C.E.O. OF EARTH TAKES A LOT OF HARD ASS, THANKLESS WORK, AND HOLDING THE TORCH OF CIVILIZA-TION MAKES A MAN'S HAND HOT. WHITE PEOPLE, YOU GAVE DENIM TO THE WORLD, AND NO ONE THANKED YOU! YOU GAVE CONCRETE ROADS TO THE WORLD AND NO ONE THANKED YOU! YOU GAVE THE COMIC GENIUS OF RAYMOND ROMANO TO THE WORLD AND NO ONE THANKED YOU! YOU TURNED MANHATTAN ISLAND INTO THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF THE PLANET WHERE AS IF THE INJUNS STILL HAD IT, THEY'D PROBABLY STILL BE SHITTING IN BUSHES, TALKING TO THEIR DEAD ANCESTORS AROUND A BONFIRE, AND HAVING SEX WITH HORSES. SO ON BEHALF OF ALL PEOPLE OF A DARKER HUE, I WISH TO THANK YOU, WHITE PEOPLE, FOR DOWNLOADABLE PORNOGRAPHY [WHO NEEDS A GIRLFRIEND], NANOTECHNOLOGY [WHEN CAN A NIGGA GET A ROBOT HAND?], THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE [AIM IT TOWARDS EARTH AND IT'S ALSO GOOD FOR ESPIONAGE] AND AIDS [C'MON WHITE POEPLE, IT'S NO SECRET THAT AIDS WAS INVENTED IN JOINT EFFORT BY BILL GATES, YACUB THE EVIL SCIENTIST, AND HITLER'S DISEMBODIED BRAIN THAT ISSUES ITS COMMANDS VIA A FIREWIRE CABLE HOOKED UP TO A MAC-BOOK PRO, USING THAT PROGRAM THAT READS WORD DOCUMENTS IN THAT ANDROGYNOUS ROBOT VOICE THAT NOBODY CAN TAKE SERI-OUSLY, SO BILL GATES IS ALWAYS LIKE, "HEY HITLER, WHAT WAS THAT THING YOU WERE SAYING ABOUT THE JEWS, ABOUT HOW THEY'RE RUIN-ING EVERYTHING, COULD YOU EXPLAIN THAT STUFF AGAIN?" SO HITLER STARTS TO EXPLICATE HIS IDEAS ABOUT THE JEWISH CONSPIRACY IN THAT FUNNY ROBOT VOICE AND BILL GATES AND YACUB START CRACK-ING UP, BUT HITLER DOESN'T GET WHAT'S SO FUNNY.] BUT I DIGRESS...

GOT ANY COCAINE?



published in machete
Vol. 1, no 7, April 2010

Friday, June 25, 2010

Record Reviews

Before The Drugs Wore Off (D-G)

Donovan

Sunshine Superman

Heavy mellow from the original wizard of English hippie whimsy.


The Doobie Brothers


The Captain and Me


The name of the band says it all.


The Doors

The Doors
Strange Days
Waiting for the Sun


All the Doors' records could stand as artifacts of the rock-and-drugs epoch, but their first three, with "Light My Fire," "People Are Strange," and "Not to Touch the Earth," are quintessential psychedelia as well as the living legacy of the late great Mr. Mojo Risin'.


Bob Dylan

Bring It All Back Home
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde


The former Robert Zimmerman wired on speed, chilling on weed, and making history. Everybody must get stoned.


The Eagles

The Eagles
Hotel California


Blue-jeaned longhairs hit the big time, trading mushrooms and a lid of homegrown for premium flake - the rise and fall of the West Coast counterculture is told herein.


Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Brain Salad Surgery


Impenetrable progressive rock for university dorms well past curfew. The cover by H.R. Giger complements the classical-surreal dimensions.


Fleetwood Mac


Rumours

The Big One. A landmark, multiplatinum document of relationships, self-awareness, and coke-boosted sophistication. Smooth as a mirror and gleaming like a silver spoon.


Funkadelic

Funkadelic


Deadly stoner R&B, like Jimi Hendrix in slow motion. What is soul? Soul is a joint rolled in toilet paper. Mommy, what's a Funkadelic? Eddie Hazel's guitar.


The Grateful Dead

Workingman's Dead
American Beauty
Live Dead


The ex-Warlocks were synonymous with drugged-out rock music and musicians throughout their history, and their long strange trip is perhaps best depicted by these discs, although many will contend the band's real impact was made not in the studio but on stage. Marin County bluegrass that's vibrant like a new batch of Owsley, and sweeter than Cherry Garcia. Live Dead was mixed with the players taking hits of nitrous oxide at the studio console.


To Be Continued...


Reviews by George Case
From his book Out of Our Heads
published by Backbeat Books, 2010

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

$4.99

Philadelphia Phillies Topps MLB Factory Baseball Cards Team Set (17 Cards)





Purchased this sweet package early last week at Wawa while buying a pack of cigarettes, cup of coffee, & newspapers.







2010 Breakdown Stat:

When scoring 4 runs or more, Phillies Win/Loss record is 28-5

When scoring 3 runs or less, Phillies Win/Loss record is 8-27

Monday, June 21, 2010

Correspondence

Before he was a noted author, Kurt Vonnegut was a POW in Nazi Germany.

The following is a letter from those years, dated May 29, 1945, published in the book "Armageddon in Retrospect," a collection of writings on war and peace by the late author (edited by his son - Mark Vonnegut).


PFC. K. VONNEGUT, JR. 12102964 U.S. ARMY
TO: Kurt Vonnegut, Williams Creek Indianapolis, Indiana


Dear People:
I'm told that you were probably never informed that I was anything other than "missing in action." Chances are that you also failed to receive any of the letters I wrote from Germany. That leaves me a lot of explaining to do—in prĂ©cis:

I've been a prisoner of war since December 19th, 1944, when our division was cut to ribbons by Hitler's last desperate thrust though Luxembourg and Belgium. Seven Fanatical Panzer Divisions hit us and cut us off from the rest of Hodges' First Army. The other American Divisions on our flanks managed to pull out: We were obliged to stay and fight. Bayonets aren't much good against tanks: Our ammunition, food and medical supplies gave out and our casualties out-numbered those who could still fight—so we gave up. The 106th got a Presidential Citation and some British Decoration from Montgomery for it, I'm told, but I'll be damned if it was worth it. I was one of the few who weren't wounded. For that much thank God.

Well, the supermen marched us, without food, water or sleep to Limberg, a distance of about sixty miles, I think, where we were loaded and locked up, sixty men to each small, unventilated, unheated box car. There were no sanitary accommodations—the floors were covered with cow dung. There wasn't room for all of us to lie down. Half slept while the other half stood. We spent several days, including Christmas, on that Limberg siding. On Christmas eve the Royal Air Force bombed and strafed our unmarked train. They killed about one-hundred-and-fifty of us. We got a little water Christmas Day and moved slowly across Germany to a large P.O.W. Camp in Muhlburg, South of Berlin. We were released from the box cars on New Year's Day. The Germans herded us through scalding delousing showers. Many men died from shock in the showers after ten days of starvation, thirst and exposure. But I didn't.

Under the Geneva Convention, Officers and Non-commissioned Officers are not obliged to work when taken prisoner. I am, as you know, a Private. One-hundred-and-fifty such minor beings were shipped to a Dresden work camp on January 10th. I was their leader by virtue of the little German I spoke. It was our misfortune to have sadistic and fanatical guards. We were refused medical attention and clothing: We were given long hours at extremely hard labor. Our food ration was two-hundred-and-fifty grams of black bread and one pint of unseasoned potato soup each day. After desperately trying to improve our situation for two months and having been met with bland smiles I told the guards just what I was going to do to them when the Russians came. They beat me up a little. I was fired as group leader. Beatings were very small time—one boy starved to death and the SS Troops shot two for stealing food.

On about February 14th the Americans came over, followed by the R.A.F. Their combined labors killed 250,000 people in twenty-four hours and destroyed all of Dresden—possibly the world's most beautiful city. But not me.

After that we were put to work carrying corpses from Air-Raid shelters; women, children, old men; dead from concussion, fire or suffocation. Civilians cursed us and threw rocks as we carried bodies to huge funeral pyres in the city.

When General Patton took Leipzig we were evacuated on foot to Hellexisdorf on the Saxony-Czechoslovakian border. There we remained until the war ended. Our guards deserted us. On that happy day the Russians were intent on mopping up isolated outlaw resistance in our sector. Their planes (P39's) strafed and bombed us, killing fourteen. But not me.

Eight of us stole a team and wagon. We traveled and looted our way through Sudetendland and Saxony for eight days, living like kings. The Russians are crazy about Americans. The Russians picked us up in Dresden. We rode from there to the American lines at Halle in Land-Lease Ford trucks. We've since flown to the Le Havre.

I'm writing from a Red Cross Club in Le Havre P.O.W. Repatriation Camp. I'm being wonderfully well fed and entertained. The state-bound ships [are] jammed, naturally, so I'll have to be patient. I hope I'm home in a month. Once home I'll be given twenty-one days recuperation at Atterbury, about $600 back pay and—get this—sixty days (60) furlough!

I've too damned much to say, the rest will have to wait. I can't receive mail here so don't write. May 29, 1945

Love, Kurt – Jr.



Reprinted by arrangement with G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a member of Penguin Group (U.S.A.), Inc., from “Armageddon in Retrospect,” by Kurt Vonnegut, copyright 2008 by the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Trust.

© 2008


via Newsweek.com

Friday, June 18, 2010

Art Museum free on Saturday

In honor of Anne d'Harnoncourt.

Admission to the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be free on Saturday in honor of director Anne d'Harnoncourt, who died June 1, 2008.

The museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (The new timed-ticket "Late Renoir" exhibition is not included with free admission.)

"Anne d'Harnoncourt, my predecessor, passed away two years ago this month," said Timothy Rub, the museum's director and chief executive. "To honor her memory and all that she did for this institution and the community it serves, we encourage our visitors to come and discover the collections."

D'Harnoncourt began her career at the museum as a curatorial assistant in the department of painting and sculpture in 1967. She served as director beginning in 1982, and as both director and chief executive officer of the museum from 1997 until her death.


-- By Stephan Salisbury (Inquirer Culture Writer)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Reel Hero (Cont.)

Zoe Strauss - Installation Artist/Photographer

Short Documentary by Ted Passon

Running Time is 5:38

Note: Watching This Video is time very well spent.

Hat-Tip: Philebrity.com

Monday, June 14, 2010

Reel Hero

Jonas Mekas scrambling to convert 70,000 rare indie flicks into digital at Anthology Film Archives

An Independent East Village cinema in New York City shows rare flicks that are blissfully stuck in the past - and in dire need of preservation for the future.

Mr. Mekas, the 85-year-old godfather of independent film who worked alongside Salvador Dali directing films, has assembled one of the largest collections of indie movies on the planet at his Anthology Film Archives.

But now his stock of 70,000 titles, including one-of-a-kind films and rare copies of the first moving pictures, needs to go digital, and fans of the archives are scrambling to ensure a chunk of history won't be lost.

"For me, it's a perfect example of why I've lived in the East Village for most of the last 30 years," said techno-artist Moby. "The first time I went to the Anthology Archives was to see a surrealist film fest in the mid-'80s, and I sort of fell in love with the uncomfortable seats and the people yelling at each other in between films."

Mr. Mekas, a Lithuanian Jew who survived the Holocaust, needs $200,000 to buy a digital transfer machine and pay an archivist to run it inside the archives at Second Ave. and E. Second St.

His goal is to put his entire film collection on the Internet, so the world is just a click away from watching 19th-century moving pictures created by Thomas Edison or Andy Warhol's experimental flick "Chelsea Girls."

"Films fade, crumble and stick very fast," Mr. Mekas said. "Film has limited life. Finally, we have technology that can produce copies like the original."

Supporters and fans of Mr. Mekas include Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and Lola Schnabel, the 28-year-old daughter of wealthy New York painter Julian Schnabel.

Of note, musicians like Sonic Youth borrow films from the archives and play them during performances.

"Jonas Mekas is a grand master of American cinema, and we are all luckier for it," said Ranaldo explaining why Sonic Youth had recently played a free show to help support Mekas' dream of taking his archives into the digital age.

"All these films need to be saved. They can rot or collect mildew," added Ms. Schnabel.

Mr. Mekas, who has no plans to retire said he will fight for film until his final days. The passion, he said, stems from his struggle to stay alive as a slave laborer in Elmshorn, Germany, during the 1940's. A United Nations worker told him afterward to go to New York - and he never left.

"After the war, I was disappointed with humanity," Mr. Mekas said. "New York helped me put myself together. New York is my home. I am here. Rooted in the present."


-- Simone Weichselbaum

note: this article originally appeared in the The New York Daily News print edition (Sunday, May 16, 2010)

2010 - 2011

The Lord Stanley's Cup
Resides in Philadelphia
Again, Forever.


Flyers Season Ends Against Blackhawks Two Wins Short.

Excellent Run Though.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Free Books (*)

In No Particular Order:

In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs
by Tobias Wolff
published 1981
The Ecco Press


The Abortion Controversy
Edited by Charles P. Cozic & Jonathan Petrikin
(with Bruno Leone, Katie de Koster, Scott Barbour)
published 1995
Greenhaven Press, Inc.


The Central Asian States
by Cherese Cartlidge & Charles Clark
published 2001
Lucent Books, Inc.


The Creation of Israel

by Linda Jacobs Altman
published 1998
Lucent Books, Inc.


The Middle East For Dummies

by Craig S. Davis, PhD
(Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor)
published 2003
Wiley Publishing Inc.

(*) Sat. May 29th - given away by the Port Richmond Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia


More:

Book purchased for $1.00 @ thrift/clothing store on Girard Ave. (Thurs., May 27th)


The Ultimate Baseball Quiz Book

by Dom Forker
published 1988 (newly revised & updated edition)
Signet Books

Monday, June 7, 2010

FYI

The Fishtown Community Library Branch re-opened today after month or so closure to fix/replace AC units plus some interior work on the third floor.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Fridge/Freezer










Note: Frozen Lasagna pkg in fridge for photographic purposes only

Friday, June 4, 2010

Elsewhere At A Glance

'Topless' stir at Rehoboth

Rehoboth Beach in Delaware isn't a topless beach, but a few transgender individuals caused a stir by treating it like one.

Police say passers-by complained after the individuals, who have male genitalia but who have surgicaly enhanced breasts, removed their tops over Memorial Day weekend.

A lifeguard asked them to put their tops back on. They initially refused, but covered up before police arrived.

Even if they hadn't, though, Police Chief Keith Banks notes they were doing nothing illegal.

Since they have male genitalia, they can't be charged with indecent exposure for showing their breasts.


Philadelphia Daily News
Pg. 7 - Friday, June 4th

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Record Reviews

Before The Drugs Wore Off (A-C)

Aerosmith

Toys In the Attic
Rocks

Whiplash hard rock courtesy of the Toxic Twins, Steve Tyler and Joe Perry. You can almost hear the lines being chopped on "Nobody's Fault" and "Round and Round."


The Beach Boys


Smiley Smile

Lots of great singles came from the California harmonists, but this album, Brian Wilson's last, self-destructive bid to top Lennon and McCartney, reflects his and the group's evolution from surf and sun to pot and pills. Contains the luminous "Good Vibrations."


The Beatles

Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band


The Fabs rising to their drug-abetted peak. Certified masterpieces in any condition, but virtual revelations for tokers and trippers in '65, '66, and '67 and still packing a head-twist today.


Big Brother and the Holding Company

Cheap Thrills

Southern Comfort psychedelia from the tortured mistress of white girls' blues. Highlights: "Piece of My Heart," the cover of Gershwin's "Summertime," and the Monterey showstopper "Ball and Chain."


Black Sabbath

Master of Reality
Vol. 4


Most Sabbath discs are distinctly "drug records," but these two, from 1971 and 1972, respectively, are among their most explicit. "Sweet Leaf" and "Snowblind" remain anthems of cannabis and cocaine.


David Bowie

Diamond Dogs
Young Americans


Ziggy with Zig-Zags and the Thin White Duke getting thinner and whiter.


The Byrds

Mr. Tambourine Man

Electrified Dylan covers from Crosby, McGuinn, and Co. defined folk-rock, and the fish-eyed cover shot was an early glimpse of acid imagery.


Cheech & Chong

Cheech & Chong's Greatest Hits

Collection of the duo's best-known routines, like "Dave" and "Let's Make a New Dope Deal." Amusing enough when straight, comic genius when stoned. Go figure.


Eric Clapton

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
(as Derek and the Dominos)
461 Ocean Boulevard
Slowhand


Not so much drug albums as albums by a man descending into and then emerging from devastating drug addiction, though "Bell Bottom Blues," "I Shot the Sheriff," and "Cocaine" are unmistakable songs of indulgence and dependence.


Cream


Disraeli Gears

"Strange Brew" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses" are wah-wah-what psychedelic guitar and lyrics were all about.


Crosby, Stills, and Nash


Crosby, Stills, and Nash

From the group originally called the Frozen Noses, these three superstars set the standard for record industry wealth and hedonism; this debut is also a fine record of idyllic vocals, delicate acoustic guitar, and sensitive lyrics.


To Be Continued...


Reviews by George Case
From his book Out of Our Heads
published by Backbeat Books, 2010



Unrelated:

Blackhawks vs. Flyers

Advantage Chicago re: "Official Wager"