Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Wow. I'm girl crushin' big on Tiny Vipers. She's got a beautiful, Southern blues-y alto that reminds me of Cat Power's best days. She also just got signed to Sub Pop Records, and has a badass haircut to boot. Get to this seated show — at the Church's chapel, where only 50 people will be seated — immediately.
Tue., June 23, 8 p.m., $10, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.
As the Inky points out in a lengthy obit this morning, Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon got his TV broadcasting career started in Philly, on shows like First Person and Big Top where he played a clown. So far, YouTube has yet to be graced with footage from this era. In this long interview clip, McMahon talks about getting his start in Philly, toward the end, around the 25 minute mark. (The clip is labeled "Part 2" but it's really Part 1.) Anyway, that's not embeddable. So.
Here's a great clip from the early days of Conan, where McMahon gives Andy Richter the business.
YouTube user neurothustra checks in with this thoroughly strange clip of Kaiju Big Battle at the Troc this past Saturday. Holly Otterbein told you about it in the Agenda, remember?
Dan U-A at YPP has a chart up of the amount of business taxes paid by various Philadelphia businesses. What he highlights:
for taxpaying businesses, the average amount paid in the gross receipts tax by businesses taking in less than 100k for 2006 is a whopping $54. The average amount for businesses taking in between 100k and 500k is $435. That doesn’t seem like a ton of money, right? Yet from every news story, editorial, and blast from the Chamber of Commerce, Philly Forward and others came the idea that this tax was the invention of Satan himself.
Dan contrasts that with this news from the city:
Philadelphia's free trash-collection service for small businesses will come to an abrupt end July 1, when merchants will be forced to pay $500 a year for the privilege or else hire private garbage-haulers.
His implication is that raising business taxes (or undoing business tax cuts) might pull in enough revenue from big businesses to offset the need for this kind of service charge, and actually be better for small businesses.
To some extent, clearly, this is about the interests of big businesses. But on the political level, in terms of selling this to the public, I wonder if this really boils down to people having negative associations with the word "tax" and not-yet-as-negative with the word "fee." The city might think it can still sell a new fee — in which someone is paying directly for a service — easier than it can a bigger tax hike. But does that have anything to do with the actual nature of the proposal?
Fired up the old YouTube last night, thinking I'd watch me some Obama fly-catching, but got distracted instead by a temporary banner featuring videos shot that same day in Tehran. I realize this makes me the last journalist on the planet to comment on how fascinating it is to see these social networking sites become a medium of revolution, but ... wow, is it fascinating.
Just search "Tehran 21 June," for example, and you'll get dozens of videos posted in the last 24 hours. A lot of them were taken with cell phones, a lot of them are pretty crappy quality, and good luck trying to understand what's actually going on in some of them — but it's amazing to be able to follow events in Iran while the journalists supposed to be covering this are restricted.
Meanwhile, the latest: Even as officials admit "errors" in last week's election count, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards — the country's powerful military group – are warning protesters not to continue taking to the streets, saying they would face a "revolutionary confrontation" if they do.
Last we heard, the beautiful, tiny, oddly shaped Triangle Park in Bella Vista (it's that flat little trapezoid at Sixth and Christian) was battling for its existence. The Friends of Triangle Park — who've led clean-up/flower-planting days (I've helped out a couple times) — were trying to work out a deal with the owner of the land on which it sits. No word on all that.
Regardless, have you see the park lately? Wow. It is Jurassic, a lush green little slice of Eden. For a while there it looked like all the wildflowers and sunflowers would never sprout up in that dusty moonscape. Now if you wanna cut through — which you should not do, lazy jerk — you gotta brave bee stings and man-eating sun flowers.
Local photographer (and painter) Ana Vizcarra Rankin recently shot up the place and you'd never know the park was once a gas station. Or that it's smaller than your apartment. Click on the photo above to see her pretty pretty slideshow.
Watching CNN read out tweets from Iran led me to look up some for myself and I found the following video.
It is an enormous number of people peaceably marching through the streets, angry, but peaceful.
I'm kind of amazed at my TV to Twitter to YouTube view of history, but the transfer of information through such a route speaks to the power of all these technologies. Most of the time YouTube and Twitter can seem trite, but not this week.
If this is not revolution yet, what is it? I can't see this simply going away anytime, soon.
This quick-witted 18-year-old rapper has quite a track record already. She is a frequent collaborator with Diplo, Afrikan Boy and fellow Bmore native Blaqstarr. Now a protégé of M.I.A., Rye Rye is dropping her debut album on the Sri Lankan mama's label, N.E.E.T., this month. (I think the soundtrack to some movie about an Indian kid winning a lot of money came out on that label, as well.)
Tomorrow night at the Barbary, Rye Rye'll perform with Thunderheist along with the Mad Decent DJs. This is your chance to see her at a small club before she blows up M.I.A./Santigold style.
Sat., June 20, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., $8, The Barbary, 951 N. Frankford Ave., tickets here
This just in from Photostream All Star Moocatmoocat
Per Mousavi's calls for worlwide support of the Iranian protestors this weekend, one is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday June 20 2 pm, N. side of Rittenhouse Square (Walnut between 18th & 19th)
You might already know, and if you don’t you soon will: two of Philadelphia’s largest municipal unions, DC 33 and DC 47, have not successfully renegotiated their contracts with the city. The contracts for these unions, which represent both blue and white-collar workers, will expire on June 30. Mayor Nutter, in an effort to balance its budget, has tried to elicit concessions from the unions – most recently through proposed cuts in pension funds – but, so far, the unions have steadfastly refused attempts at compromise. Threats of a strike are in the air.
Yesterday evening, members and supporters of DC 33 and DC 47 rallied at LOVE Park in a show of force to the Nutter administration. Despite the rain, a crowd of several hundred listened to speeches by union leaders, starkly criticized the Mayor, and intermittently chanted “No contracts, no peace!”
Following the speeches, demonstrators walked through City Hall and into the street, bringing rush-hour traffic to a halt.
Demonstrators had disparate reactions about the possibility of a strike. Some, like Reggie Strange, who works for the Department of Public Property Department, greeted the idea, while dismissing the possibility of a work "slowdown." “If we’re gonna do this,” he said, “let’s do this.”
Others doubted the chances of a strike actually taking place. “With all my 33 years of experience,” said Buckey Henry, a sanitation worker, “I’d say there’s about a 5% chance.” Henry cited Philadelphia’s July 4 festivities, which he believes will deter the city from allowing a strike.
If the unions do go on strike, it may severely affect not only the city, but also the workers themselves. “I remember the strike in 1998,” said Calvin Bernard, a SEPTA mechanic. “I don’t know if I can afford it.”
Is canvassing exploitative? (16)
— Tom Dreisbach: After a quick scanning of people’s comments, I noticed that this hasn’t been...
— Paula: Hey everyone, Thanks for all the enlightening comments! I’m with a small enviro organization...
Staff Blog
