Was able to stop briefly at the protest yesterday held by Philadelphia Iranians on the north side of Rittenhouse Square. The peaceful gathering featured what appeared to be between 150 and 200 protesters chanting things like "liar liar" and "the people united will never be defeated," and holding signs (some homemade, some distributed by organizers) as police, reporters, onlookers and passing traffic observed. Stay tuned for a full report.
This possible public sector strike is the sort of thing that's gonna sit there in the the headlines relatively quietly until it actually happens, and then BOOM it's gonna be the biggest thing in all of our lives. There will thousands of workers clogging up city streets with protests, the garbage will go uncollected, all sorts of bureaucracies will get backed up.
Will it actually happen? It's hard to say, with union negotiations, what's a real position and what's posturing. But right now, here's the message coming from Pete Matthews, the president of the biggest city union, D.C. 33:
"We are willing to sit down and negotiate for what we don't have, but we are not going to negotiate concessions."
And the response from mayoral spokesman Doug Oliver:
"Anyone who does not recognize a need to make some sacrifice in this economic environment is clearly missing the boat."
After "losing" his battles over the libraries and the budget, you wonder if this will be the thing Nutter really plays hardball about. But he may not see things that way. He certainly says he doesn't.
In any case, after some quiet negotiations last year and promises not to negotiate in the press, things are getting a bit heated. The unions are having a demonstration this afternoon at City Hall. We'll have some on-the-scene coverage for ya.
Some people are addicted to drugs. Because I am a gigantic nerd, I'm addicted to online trivia site Sporcle, whose games are timed and tend toward the "list all of the BLANK in BLANK in BLANK minutes" variety.
They've got a new quiz up that asks you to list, in five minutes or less, the 14 most populous cities in the state of Pennsylvania. I got 11 out of 14 on my first try.
Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Well, first of all, there are the Dirty Projectors at the First Unitarian Church and a protest of the Iranian election process in Rittenhouse Square going on tonight. If neither of those are your bag, and you'd rather think deeply about two topical issues (that, actually, have basically always been topical issues in this country) — torture and justice for black Americans — then head to LAVA. They'll be screening Legacy of Torture, a doc exploring how the San Francisco Eight were convicted based on evidence extracted with the use of torture. Also, they'll be leading a discussion about the case's updates and how to raise awareness about the SF8.
It's the final installment of our Book Quarterly Giveaway Week, and I've saved a great beach read for last.
Mishna Wolff's memoir I'm Down (St. Martin's, 288 pages, $23.95, May 26) chronicles her growing up in a poor neighborhood outside Seattle with a dad who, despite being white as Spencer Pratt, acted, talked, dressed as if he were black.
Our BQ critic Gary Kramer gives us the lowdown in last week's CP:
In the very first sentence of her poignant and often uproarious memoir, Mishna Wolff declares that she is white. "My parents, both white," she writes. Wolff establishes this fact — repeatedly — because her father, a white man, truly believes he is black. "He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esque sweater, gold chains and a Kangol." I'm Down recounts the author's efforts to "integrate" in a mostly black neighborhood by overcoming her lack of rhythm, braiding her hair in cornrows and attending Baptist church.
Mishna's perceptive voice — not to mention her impeccable comic timing — developed when she went to an all-black community summer camp and learned how to cap on other kids. Doing the dozens gave her a defense mechanism for coping with a miserable home life where meals and money were scarce. It also helped her develop a thick skin for dealing with being in the minority. Her observations about her family and herself are achingly funny and painfully true.
If your cred is in question and you'd like a copy, answer this trivia question:
"I'm Down" is also the name of a song by what band?
E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win. Thanks for playing, and keep watching the Clog for book giveaways.
[UPDATE, 5 p.m.]: Congrats to Clog reader Matt, who correctly answered the trivia question. The answer I was looking for? The Beatles. Although Aerosmith, Goldfinger and probably a million others would have worked, too.
A group of Iranian college students will be holding a silent protest this evening from 5 p.m. till 8 p.m. on the north side of Rittenhouse Square to demonstrate against the election process in Iran wherein incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has scored what many feel is a fraudulent victory over Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Marjan Savoktakin, a 26-year-old electrical engineering Ph.D candidate at Penn, is one of the organizers of the Philly protest. She was born in Tehran and lived there until she came to the U.S. to attend college as an 18-year-old. “We are basically students from Penn, Drexel, Temple and other area schools, and some other Iranians who live in the area,” she explains. “We are going to demonstrate against the flawed election process and we are asking the world media not to jump to conclusions and accept the results.”
Savoktakin is expecting between 50 and 75 protesters — most either born in Iran or second generation Americans. “We wanted to support our countrymen, basically,” she explains on the phone. “The are actually demonstrating peacefully in Iran and they are being prosecuted for it.”
She makes it clear that “we are not protesting against the results; we are protesting against the process. There are a lot of indications that show the results are flawed.”
“Basically the Iranian media is not covering the process that much,” she says, adding that Internet access in the country is low, further hampering the dispersal of information.
On the apparent sea change in Americans’ views of Iranians as a result of the election protests, Savoktakin says excitedly, “I would be very pleased if this is the case. It’s a matter of supporting democracy. We have the right to peacefully demonstrate. No one can take that away from us. Our voices are finally being heard. The world finally realizes that. We want to have peaceful democratic process in Iran. That would be a very pivotal process. We are not a danger to the world. We don’t want to be considered an enemy to other countries. We want to live peacefully with the rest of the world.”
For more information on the protest, e-mail m.savoktakin@gmail.com
Dontevenreply.com has a really funny email trolling posted:
Original ad:
26 year old female who loves music looking for friendly male concert buddy.
i have tickets to see STS9 tomorrow night and am looking for someone to go with me to see them. you must be 420 friendly!
From Timmy Tucker to ***********@***********.org
Dear potential concert buddy,
I saw your ad and am very interested. I love music. About myself, I am a 25-year-old music loving male. I see all kinds of concerts and would love to check out STS9, I'm not quite sure what kind of music that is.
I am not sure what you mean by 420 friendly, however. Do you live near route 420? That isn't a problem for me, since it is kind of on the way to Philly anyway. Email me back if you want to go to the show with me.
Thank you,
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
hi tim. i wasn't talking about route 420...you have to be "cool" if you know what I mean.
stacey
And away we go. Read the hilarious conclusion here.
Coming as it does in between the city's two flagship festivals — April's behemoth Philadelphia Film Festival and July's ever-expanding Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival — the Independent Film Fest has to be looked at as David next to a pair of well-established Goliaths. But by focusing on indies, the new kid on the block has a distinct advantage in differentiating itself from the marquee names and crowd-pleasers that increasingly fill PFF's catalog, and the niche programming of PIGLFF.
The PIFF is back at it again and on Monday the posted their schedule, which you can see after the the jump…
The fest takes place from Thu., June 25-Sun., June 28 at various venues around Northern Liberties. Tickets are $6-8 for a single film and $25-130 for full day passes. You can purchase tickets online or go to the box office at North Bowl, 909 N 2nd St., which opens for business this Monday (but is cash only).
Don't forget to pick up tomorrow's paper for a story on the PIFF and it's sister Philadelphia Film Market.
Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Look at those pretty 16 MM reels. Aren't they romantic? Don't you just wanna grab a blanket and a wine bottle and sit down in front of them with your beau, watching old movies? Yes, yes you do — and tonight, so long as Mother Nature doesn't shit all over us again like it did yesterday (our below-normal precipitation rate be damned), you can at The Lawn Chair Drive-In. Lair of The White Worm is up, and judging by the trailer, it's a weirdo '80s horror flick that features vampires a very hot, dapper Hugh Grant. See it for yourself here.
Tue., June 16 (and every Tue. throughout the summer), dusk, free, Liberty Lands Park, Third Street above Poplar, lawnchairdrivein.com.
Today's Book Quarterly Giveaway Week contest isn't directly BQ-related, but we're willing to make an exception for Joseph O'Neill. His Netherland (Pantheon, $24.95), which came out in 2008, has since won the Pen/Faulkner Award and the New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year award. Not too shabby.
Joseph O'Neill's Netherland has collected a lot of well-deserved good fortune. Critics have praised it as a powerful, nuanced examination of 9/11 and its aftermath; … it's the president's choice for recreational reading. Any of these are good enough reasons to pick up a copy of one of last year's best books. But it's O'Neill's acute parsing of dislocation, and his long, precise sentences drinking in New York City's variety and hustle, that justify his luck and make his Free Library reading Philly's good fortune.
Want a copy? Answer me this:
Where was Joseph O'Neill born? Where was he raised?
E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net. In the meantime, head over to 19th and Vine this evening to get yer culture on.
Joseph O'Neill reading and signing, Tue., June 16, 7:30 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org.
[UPDATE, 4 p.m.]: Congrats to Clog reader John, who correctly answered that O'Neill was born in Ireland and raised in the Netherlands. Thanks for playing! (Remember, My Goat Ate Its Own Legs is still up for grabs!)
Maybe the most chilling documents of the Iranian protests over the disputed recent election are the YouTube videos, presented as naked, unfiltered accounts of the uprisings and subsequent attempts to quell them. I was watching a video last night which, of course, I can't find now, in which the protesters were allegedly chanting "Death to Dictator," which appears to be a not uncommon rally cry in Iran. Below are three recent videos from Iran, though YouTube is overflowing with similar footage.
A common trope among travelers is that people everywhere are essentially the same — decent, struggling, striving — and that it's their leaders who muck everything up. Watching Iranians protest what they believe to be an unfair election makes you wonder how a guy like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in the first place, and to whose benefit having a boogeyman like him it was.
The Rosenbach is hosting its 17th annual Bloomsday celebration today from noon to 7 p.m. The event celebrates James Joyce's Ulysses, the story of Leopold Bloom taking his own "odyssey" — mirroring Homer's legend of Odysseus — through Dublin.
Joyce fanatics have dubbed June 16 "Bloomsday" in Leo's honor, and commemorate the day with readings of the novel. The Rosenbach, which is home to Ulysses' original manuscript, has more than 60 Philadelphians participating in the book’s reading. Joyce fans, book lovers and the merely curious are invited to drop by to listen and check out the exhibition of Joyce materials inside.
Tue., June 16, noon-7 p.m., free, 2000 block of Delancey Place, rosenbach.org.
Tomorrow afternoon, the big man, Ryan Howard, will announce that he's launching a non-prof called the Ryan Howard Family Foundation. The new charitable org's first project: Teaming up the Fairmount Park Conservancy to refurbish the 87-acre Hunting Park in North Philly.
Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
It's a choice between two musical acts tonight, which, frankly, on a Monday, you should be grateful for. There's Ida Maria — aka senior editor Pat Rapa's crush, which he wrote about on Critical Mass — a very solid option. She's got a hell of an enthralling voice, but the show is at the North Star, which is kind of a dungeon. (This bar is right around my house, though, so that may be why I always expect more out of it.) There's also The Mural and The Mint, a sort of poor man's The Decemberists, playing at the Piazza at Schmidt's. And that's practically the opposite of a dungeon. Plus, it's free.
Mon., June 15, 7 p.m., free, the Piazza at Schmidt's, Second Street and Germantown avenues, atthepiazza.com.
Don't act like you don't care, GaGa fans and pro-Aguilera Brit Haters. THE CIRCUS STARRING BRITNEY SPEARS is coming to the Wachovia Center Aug. 30, with tickets going on sale this Friday, June 19, at 10 a.m.
Hopefully there’ll be more of this (NSFW) than that.
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