Philadelphia Weekly back issues from December 2007:
Peak Performance
Dec 05, 2007; ... Temple says no, but a city high school grad keeps trying. Peak Johnson admits he's sot good at math. Words are his passion. But at Germantown's Delaware Valley Charter High School, his mathematical performance showed promise. His freshman year, he got an A in the basics. By his ...
Live and Let Out
Dec 05, 2007; ... straight cupcakes City clubs become war zones at 2 a.m. "Nothing good happens after-2 a.m.," PW's editor likes to say. It's advice more young people in Philly should heed, as police are noticing a new trend of afterhours violence across the city. When the bar closes, the ...
THE ANGRY GRAMMARIAN
Dec 05, 2007; ... Growing With the Grain We're a little tardy to the sociable with this one, but only because such a great conceit catches conflagration in a trice. FreeRice.com, sister site of the long-running Poverty.com, is the most altruistic study guide ever. It's one big vocab test, but for ...
Tackling the Issues
Dec 05, 2007; ... A Penn professor moonlights for the NFL. Class starts sharply at 9 a.m. and Penn law professor Stephen Burbank begins pacing in the center of the large, U-shaped seating area. His arms wave in the air as he calmly explains the details of Burnham v. the Superior Court of ...
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Dec 05, 2007; ... A BAR IS ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS REGULARS. It's a few minutes shy of 9 p.m. on a rainy Monday night. The eyes of all 43 presidents and Frank Sinatra watch from the walls as bartender Nichole Fontana shuffles back and forth behind the grandiose natural wood Presidential Room bar at ...
Tipping Point
Dec 05, 2007; ... WHEN REGULARS BECOME NIGHTMARES. Working in a restaurant is kind of like Waiting for Godot. Except in the restaurant version, after hours of polishing, stocking and brewing, Godot does finally arrive. Then he treats you like crap and stiffs you. Shake and repeat until a ...
Get Your Game On
Dec 05, 2007; ... OUT-OF-TOWN SPORTS FANS FIND A SAFE HAVEN. Barristers Bar & Grille owner Mike Williams was born and raised in Belgium, where for two years he played little-league baseball on a team named the Cubs. It was enough to make him a Cubs fan for life. "That was my first ...
Kingdom Come
Dec 05, 2007; ... THE GREATEST TEAM IN QUIZZO HISTORY. I really thought my team had a good shot. Going into the final round of quizzo, we had a perfect score. We breezed through the first three rounds without breaking a sweat. But I should've known we didn't stand a chance. We were up against Sofa ...
For the Love of Mike
Dec 05, 2007; ... KARAOKE REGULARS CAN'T BE STOPPED. To some, they're badass. To others, they're ass-bad. But love 'em or loathe 'em, Philly's karaoke regulars refuse to be denied their tarn on the mike. We talked to the most regular karaoke regulars-the karaoke DJs themselves-to get the inside ...
Lapping It Up
Dec 05, 2007; ... A STAPLE OF PHILLY'S STRIP-CLUB CIRCUIT. You'd have to think long and hard (no pun intended) to come (ditto) up with a group less respected than strip-club regulars. Go ahead. We'll wait. But we're guessing you won't get far, as you're too jostled by the images conjured by the ...
Vieux Carré
Dec 05, 2007; ... OEUVRE BIG EASY Vieux Carré Wed., Dec. 5, 8pm. $25-$28. Through Dec. 22. Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St. 215.552.8773. www.egopo.org It's fitting that EgoPo is launching "A Season of Tennessee Williams" with Vieux Carré-a little-known beauty often ...
The Eight: Reindeer Monologues
Dec 05, 2007; ... DEER GRABBY The Eight: Reindeer Monologues Thurs., Dec. 6 and Sat., Dec. 8, 8pm. $21. Red Room, Society Hill Playhouse, 507 S. Eighth St. 215.923.0210. www.redroomphilly.com. Jeff Goode's play The Eight: Reindeer Monologues tells us what happens when Santa's famous ...
For the Girls
Dec 05, 2007; ... PUNK KNOCKERS For the Girls Mon., Dec. 10, 8pm-2am. $10. Barbary, 951 Frankford Ave. 267.259.3227. www.punkrockmommy.com Sex, punk rock, tattoos and cancer make for a benefit as far from the usual hand-holding and tear-shedding 5K walk as humanly possible. Mother of six ...
World Peace Festival
Dec 05, 2007; ... PEACE OFF World Peace Festival Sun., Dec. 9,7pm. Free. Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. 215.573.3234. www.therotunda.org Come on, man. Bite back the bile; curtail the snark. Resist the oh-so-easy bleeding-heart/ unwashed/rattailed/patchoulireeking/drum-circle references. Fight ...
Acid Vicious
Dec 05, 2007; ... ON THE RADAR Don't mention the war. War. What is it good for? Profits; haircuts; fashion; the arms, flag and coffin industries; employment; technology; and movies. Yes, but apart from that, what? Absolutely nothing. Huh. Say it again. I'm a bumper-sticker junkie. I love ...
UNDER THE GUN
Dec 05, 2007; ... Matty Runks Kadillac Tattoo Manayunk, 4371 Cresson St. 215.487.0360 "I once tattooed 'Pay Me Motherfucker' on the inside of a guy's hand. That was stupid. I regret that. I tattooed my mom and my dad. Dad got a pin-up girl in a fishing outfit. Mom got a jack-o-lantern because her ...
LIT GLOSS
Dec 05, 2007; ... LIT GLOSS As titles go, Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City is hardly up there with eye-grabbing bestsellers like God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything or The Fall of the House of Bush. But in its own quiet local way, it might be (for people bent a ...
OPENING RIFF
Dec 05, 2007; ... Eat Your Rriiccee Last month a press release announced that Rriiccee, Vincent Gallo's new music project with former Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, is not improvisation. "It's more a gesture of composing and performing at the same time," said Gallo. Of course if you're creating ...
DEFEND ITS EXISTENCE
Dec 05, 2007; ... DEFEND ITS EXISTENCE James Taylor One Man Band (Hear Music) Somehow James Taylor's cultivated this persona of innocuous docility. He's forever associated with that fuzzy-headed nostalgia you get when someone you trust plays with your hair. Maybe that's the '80s child in me ...
Putting It to "Bed"
Dec 05, 2007; ... STEREOTYPEWRITER Horrible catchy songs are the new horribly catchy songs. It's Thursday midmorning, and you're on the El, sippin' coffee, mindin' your business when it happens: The passenger next to you gets an incoming phone call. Her ringtone cries out loudly: "I love it (I ...
Jotto
Dec 05, 2007; ... Jotto Fri., Dec. 7, 10pm. $5. With Dark Horse and the Carousels. Tritone, 1508 South St. 215.545.0475. www.tritonebar.com As colorful and complex as a band formed at UArts should be, Jotto separate themselves from other newish locals by looking not to the '60s but to their ...
SNAPSHOT
Dec 05, 2007; ... First, a quick refresher on the two most famous Kinskis. Klaus Kinski: The German actor best known for his collaborations with director Werner Herzog, including Nosferatu the Vampyre; wild-eyed, explosive, creepy, intense, batshit crazy. Nastassja Kinski: The German actress and daughter of ...
Mgmt
Dec 05, 2007; ... Mgmt Sun., Dec. 9, 7:30pm. $12. With Fiery Furnaces. First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. 866.468.7619. www.r5productions.com For a few years now, those zany psychedelic queens in Of Montreal have been toting Mgmt around, opening their campy space-age concerts with the ...
Rasputina
Dec 05, 2007; ... Rasputina Fri., Dec. 7, 8pm. $16. Trocadero, 1003 Arch St. 215.922.LIVE. www.thetroc.com When she formed the all-cello, gothic chamber-rock trio Rasputina 15 years ago, singer/cellist Melora Creager insisted upon "no boys and no guitars" and "Victorian whites" (i.e., vintage ...
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
Dec 05, 2007; ... Margot & the Nuclear So and So's Tues., Dec. 11, 8pm. $10. With Le Loup + Private Sea. First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. 866.468.7619. www.r5productions.com After last year's pristine The Dust of Retreat, the Indianapolis-based nonet (that's nine players, Latin fans) ...
Dirty Projectors
Dec 05, 2007; ... Dirty Projectors Fri., Dec. 7, 9pm. $10. With Soft People. Johnny Brenda's, 1201 Frankford Ave. 215.739.9684. www.johnnybrendas.com Dave Longstreth's concept-heavy Dirty Projectors continue to pursue extremes on Rise Above, an unlikely ode to Black Flag's Damaged that jerks every ...
Alejandro Escovedo
Dec 05, 2007; ... Alejandro Escovedo Fri., Dec. 7, 7:30pm. $22. World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. 215.222.1400. www.worldcafelive.com Mention Alejandro Escovedo in mixed musical company and few might recognize his name, but he's influenced countless artists. His music is haunting, and for good ...
Kelly Joe Phelps
Dec 05, 2007; ... Kelly Joe Phelps Sat, Dec. 8,7:30pm. $16. With Gregory Alan Isakov. Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St. 215.928.0770. www.tinangelxom Delta blues picking legends of Kelly Joe Phelps' caliber are mostly heard on record these days-primarily old 78s or remastered recordings laid down 30, ...
Sword
Dec 05, 2007; ... Sword Fri., Dec. 7, 8pm. $10. With Valient Thorr, Black Cobra + Lapdogs of Satan, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. 866.468.7619. www.r5productions.com For a genre seemingly in a constant state of "coming back," metal has a funny way of being best whenever it hocks its ...
Radio Free Europe
Dec 05, 2007; ... An open letter to Thorn Yorke. Dear Thorn, Just wanted to thank you for giving away your new album In Rainbows for free. Well, "name your own price." We now know about 60 percent of the people who bothered to download it did so for nothing. No one feels guilty ...
Messing With Texas
Dec 05, 2007; ... Messing With Texas The Walnut's redneck parody is a blue-state laugh riot. The Walnut Street Theatre-that bastion of theatrical conservatism-presents what might be the coolest holiday show in town with director Madi Distefano's down and dirty staging of the hick comedy Greater ...
Sex and the Pretty
Dec 05, 2007; ... Sex and the Pretty Joe Wright's adaptation smolders for the first hour, then strays. Atonement B Director: Joe Wright Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy Opens Fri., Dec. 7 A sweeping period epic reeking of good taste, elaborate costume ...
EYE CANDY
Dec 05, 2007; ... EYE CANDY THREE SWEET PICKS TO GET YOU THROUGH THE WEEK. Nimrod Nation Sundance Channel/ sundancechannel.com What: Documentary about a small Michigan town. Why: Watch out, Michael Moore-this eight-part movie gets inside life in the frozen, snowy Upper ...
THE SIX PACK
Dec 05, 2007; ... Six Films Featuring Clothed or Nudity-Free Sex Scenes That Are Still Totally Hot Ecstasy (1933): Two decades before Ingmar Bergman helped popularize European film nudity with Monika, this landmark Czech import featured soon-to-be-star Hedy Lamar not only streaking but engaging in ...
Gray's Anatomy
Dec 05, 2007; ... Gray's Anatomy Two shows explore moral ambiguity. Rob Matthews' 14-drawing murder saga is a morality tale reminiscent of the pious lessons told via stained glass windows in the great cathedrals. His "The Knoxville Girl" suite of works is based loosely on real murders in ...
footlights
Dec 05, 2007; ... footlights Rated Arrr British pantomime-a disturbing mix of satire, smut and children's entertainment-has been around for centuries, but the style feels surprisingly fresh and new in the People's Light & Theatre Company's musical panto Treasure Island. Panto uses stock ...
TV
Dec 05, 2007; ... TV Futurama: Bender's Big Score DVD The year is 1999. The Simpsons has recently begun its slow descent into a frequently unwatchable shadow of its former self. Whatever mojo it's losing suddenly begins appearing in Futurama, another Matt Groening satire-this one set in ...
Blade Runner
Dec 05, 2007; ... New Releases Blade Runner Directed by Ridley Scott A- Reviewed by Matt Prigge Opens Fri., Dec. 7 In 1992 Ridley Scott's dystopian box office bomb Blade Runner became one of the first films to be theatrically rereleased in a "director's cut"-the ...
The Golden Compass
Dec 05, 2007; ... The Golden Compass Directed by Chris Weitz B Reviewed by Steven Wells Opens Fri., Dec. 7 Whomp, shlick, splat. That's the sound of a polar bear smacking another polar bear's jaw off. Crumpa crumpa crumpa. That's the sound a polar bear running full tilt ...
Not Reviewed
Dec 05, 2007; ... How to Cook Your Life Zen master Edward Espe Brown teams up with a cookbook author to unite Buddhism and cooking. (Opens Fri., Dec. 7.) Revolver Guy Ritchie's tale of an audacious gambler (Jason Statham) who beats the wrong ...
Ongoing
Dec 05, 2007; ... American Gangster Denzel Washington stars as real-life Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas, a straight-laced, uptight family man savvy enough to apply corporate business models to the smack trade. From the mid-'60s through the fall of Saigon, Lucas' shady contacts were smuggling uncut dope ...
Repertory
Dec 05, 2007; ... Ambler Theater $4.50-$8.108 E. Butler Ave. 215.345.7855. www.amblertheater.com Daydream Nation (Shown on video): Not a filmic adaptation of the classic Sonic Youth album, but a collection of 18 animated shorts from Sweden. Apparently the country's no longer lorded over ...
Virtù Rewarded
Dec 05, 2007; ... Virtù Rewarded The new Passyunk ristorante avoids the cliches. At East Passyunk tenderfoot Le Virtù, the first thing to arrive at your table is an amuse ofmozzarella-andsage-stuffed zeppole-lightly golden, speckled green with parsley, and resting on a salt-stippled canvas of ...
We Are the Champagne-ions
Dec 05, 2007; ... LUSH LIFE Pennsylvania's world-beating wines are kept down by the PLCB. Buried in the archives of the Pennsylvania Wine Association is an upbeat article on the glories of locally made champagne. Surprised the keystone state produces bubbly? Me too. I rang the Pennsylvania Liquor ...
EAT BEAT
Dec 05, 2007; ... Drink It! While eggnog is a more traditional Giftmas libation, for a less stomach-bombing alternative we suggest the delicious homemade pumpkin brandy currently being served at the Dive. Although the recipe is a closely guarded secret, loquacious owner Jonn Klein swears it's made with ...
A Black-and-White Issue
Dec 12, 2007; ... A new report identifies dramatic racial inequalities in Philadelphia. The Urban League of Philadelphia released a report last week that exposed the horrifying reality of two Philadelphias: one black, one white. On the black side of Philadelphia: * The median household ...
Run-on Sentence
Dec 12, 2007; ... Mumia's case isn't as simple as people like to make it seem. The release of Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice was a somber affair-or as somber as it could be at a Barnes & Noble in a strip mall in Deptford, N.J. Outside, policemen lined the ...
Royal Pain
Dec 12, 2007; ... The 76ers' Billy King was the Dubya of the NBA. If George W. Bush ran an NBA team, Col. Kurtz wouldn't be able to articulate the horror. Bush's heart of darkness would create a team bloated with underqualified also-rans, the hoops equivalent of the rightwing evangelical frat boys charged ...
"Bilal Is No Insurgent"
Dec 12, 2007; ... MEDIA A Daily News photographer rallies behind his jailed Iraqi colleague. You can hear it in his voice-pain that transcends oceans and spans time, evidence of memories of war played on a continuous loop in his mind. And when Jim MacMillan speaks of Bilal Hussein, a ...
THE ANGRY GRAMMARIAN
Dec 12, 2007; ... Sine Qua Nonsense I haven't read Harry Mount's acclaimed new book Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life, nor do I intend to. Latin is to blame for some of our dumbest English grammar rules. Mount's been enjoying a bit of celebrity of late, with his op-ed about why the ...
YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN
Dec 12, 2007; ... A local immigration lawyer and a 65-year-old grandmother risk their freedom and more to save Haitians from the desperation of poverty and violence. When wild pigs and dogs eat a human corpse, they leave the feet. The photo is too gruesome to print here. The torso and head are ...
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant
Dec 12, 2007; ... OLD MUTHA HUBBARD Thurs., Dec. 13, 7pm. $12-$20. Through Dec. 30. St. Stephen's Theater, 10th and Ludlow sts. 215.627.2577. www.bratproductions.org You'd think a play about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard that features nine singing children would be blood in the water for the ...
Human Light Winter Solstice Party
Dec 12, 2007; ... SPARE CRIB Sun., Dec. 16, 1pm. $25-$30. With Mel Lipman, String Theory + Martha Knox. Williamson Restaurant, 500 Blair Mill Rd., Horsham. 215.794.8548. www.hagp.org One of the major downsides of atheism is the lack of seasonal invitations. Many Americans simply don't want to ...
One House, Many Doors
Dec 12, 2007; ... WHIRL CHAMPIONS Fri., Dec. 14-Sat., Dec. 15,8pm. $30-$55. Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St. 215.898.3900. www.pennpresents.org The sema, the spinning religious ceremony most people think of when they hear "whirling dervishes," originated in Turkey 800 ...
Unsilent Night
Dec 12, 2007; ... UNHOLY ROW Mon., Dec. 17, 6:30pm. Free. Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Sq. 215.574.8248. www.relache.org Unsilent Night is a new Christmas tradition for which Philly new-music ensemble Relache leads a boom-boxtoting mob through Rittenhouse Square and up Walnut ...
Big Mouth Strikes Again
Dec 12, 2007; ... ON THE RADAR Who knew Morrissey was an idiot? I've never liked Morrissey. His band the Smiths all but wrecked Brit alt-music in the 1980s. And then there was his penchant for dodgy statements about race and ethnicity. "Reggae is vile," he sniffed. "Obviously, to get on ...
LIT GLOSS
Dec 12, 2007; ... LIT GLOSS Every December I break out The Jewish Book of Why to remind myself why Hanukkah is important. Then I put the candles in my grandmother's menorah, say the blessings in Hebrew and feel connected to my faith, even though I forget why the hell I'm doing it within a month. This year ...
OPENING RIFF
Dec 12, 2007; ... It's Good Being Wood What do Slash, Nikki Sixx and Eric Clapton have in common? They've all recently unleashed their vile memoirs upon the public, and they possess all the wit, style and panache-not to mention literary prowess-of lobotomized chimps. Not so, however, Ron ...
SNAPSHOT
Dec 12, 2007; ... I thought I had it rough growing up playing the violin in Levittown and getting picked on most mornings at the bus stop by this kid named Mark, who clearly had less appreciate for Vivaldi than for Sabbath. And then I spoke with Melora Creager, who grew up playing the cello in Kansas, who told me ...
King of Queens
Dec 12, 2007; ... POWER OF SOUL Two ladies lead the new charge of retro soul. Right now it couldn't be more about Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Whether it's the press tagging Jones and her mixed-race backup band as much-needed, thank-God-you're-here soul saviors or music bloggers incessantly ...
DEFEND ITS EXISTENCE
Dec 12, 2007; ... DEFEND ITS EXISTENCE Celine Dion Taking Chances (Sony BMG) Killers Sawdust (Island) Some things exist solely so we can differentiate between the haves and the have nots. The haves being those folks who have taste; the have nots being those folks who listen ...
Seeing and Herring
Dec 12, 2007; ... Seeing and Herring Two videos show Philly's mean streets at play. Never before has an art video propelled me out of my seat clapping and cheering as did Oliver Herring's exuberant tour-de-force Howard St. (Airborn), opening Saturday at FLUXSpace. The short video captures street ...
Big Easy Overdone
Dec 12, 2007; ... Big Easy Overdone EgoPo's production gilds an already gaudy lily. EgoPo-the New Orleans company that relocated to Philly after Katrina-begins its yearlong Tennessee Williams retrospective with Vieux Carré. Set in the late '30s, the autobiographical work focuses on the young ...
footlights
Dec 12, 2007; ... footlights Turkey Roast There are few things you can rely on in life: George Bush will never be mistaken for a rocket scientist, Hillary Clinton will never say anything spontaneous and 1812 Productions' holiday show will never be dull. Bush, Clinton and a smattering of other ...
Triumph of Will
Dec 12, 2007; ... Triumph of Will Smith shows restraint (and rippling abs) as the last man on Earth. I Am Legend B Director Francis Lawrence Starring: Will Smith Opens Fri., Dec. 14 There's an incredible sense of loneliness and despair in director Francis ...