[L-R: Tigre Hill, Chaka Fattah, Larry West, Vern Anastasio, Brian Hickey]
Weird scenes inside the goldmine, indeed. Report and photos after the jump.

Joey Sweeney reports: Unless you are somehow immune to our Internet harping, you know that last night, Philebrity played host to a DVD release party/free screening for Tigre Hill’s The Shame Of A City. This event was a part of our New Rules program with TheNextMayor.com, and it doubled as an open forum for the candidates. What you may not have surmised was that this was the first political event we’ve ever thrown, and as such, we were really nervous: Would people come? Some did. Would we offend anyone, you know, without even realizing it? I don’t think we did. Would the candidates show? Some did, again, but there were surprises. More on that in a moment.

If you’ve not seen Hill’s documentary, which follows fear and loathing along the campaign trail in the 2003 mayoral election, you probably should, especially if you are the type of person, like us, who frets that one day all the good intentions of urban renewal in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if we don’t dismantle the old machine that pounded Philly into a lumpen mess in the first place. Hill takes dead aim on that machine in his film, and even if he does kinda give Sam Katz a pass for not being a more compelling candidate, his points are still valid to the point of being obvious: Philly’s greatest challenge politically is to rise above itself. Same as it ever was. That being said, The Shame Of A City can and will make you furious.


After the film, we were lucky enough to have City Paper’s Brian Hickey moderate a short Q&A with Tigre Hill, which was then opened to the candidates who were present. Going into the event, we’d been assured that Michael Nutter was a definite, Tom Knox was a probable, and Chaka Fattah ‚Äî n?©e Arthur Davenport, we learned last night ‚Äî was confirmed, although privately, none of us believed he would actually do so. (Not for nothing, Mr. Davenport is portrayed as something of a tool in Hill’s film.)

Bradley Maule of Phillyskyline.com talks with Chaka Fattah.


In the end, though, none of us could have been more shocked: Nutter flaked (as did Knox), but Fattah showed up, exhibiting, it must be said, balls this big and good on the guy for that. Meanwhile, to make it interesting, we also invited Larry West, the punk rock independent kid who is, as of this writing, too young to legally run but has proved a very thought-provoking fly in the ointment during this election anyway. Now, a lot of people have given us shit for including Larry in our coverage of “serious” candidates and certainly on our panel in this forum last night. But here is our thinking: To us, the mere existence of Larry West’s candidacy gets to the heart of why we got involved with the New Rules project in the first place. Just having him in the room begs questions about how do we get young people involved in city politics, and just as importantly, how do we stop the brain drain of the young and educated from the city in the first place. Plus, we love the mohawk.

Angel Ortiz chats up with a moviegoer.


So with the Q&A with Hill wrapping up, and but one “real” mayoral candidate in the building, here was how the panel wound up: Hickey, Hill, Fattah, West ‚Äî and because at the last moment we opened the stage to any other folks running for office who were present ‚Äî Vern Anastasio, currently running for City Council in the 1st District.
What can we say: Sometimes, chance works in your favor and life throws you a live one. Candidates fielded questions from both Hickey and the audience, just about all of whom for some reason eschewed speaking into the microphones placed Town Hall-style on the main floor and simply shouted them out into the open air, which gave the whole proceeding a more Roman/Michael Richards vibe than perhaps any of us had anticipated.


Not surprisingly, the forum quickly evolved/devolved into a strange sort of political theater ‚Äî progressive kabuki? ‚Äî between Fattah and West. And while some may have decried West’s involvement in this thing at all, fact was, West had Fattah on the ropes through an unlikely but nonetheless winning combination: West’s own nervous energy that had him steamrolling, sometimes even raising his voice over Fattah, and Fattah’s insistence on drumming up talking points before a crowd that smelled those talking points a mile away. It was uncomfortable, it was weird, and it was, whether you like it or not, politics. Meanwhile, Vern, God bless him, tried to ride it out, while Hill and myself tried to figure out where the hell Nutter was, and slowly but surely, Fattah dominated the discussion with a whole lot of stuff that nobody seemed to be buying. After he left, there were a few more questions, but it was pretty much over.

Vern Anastasio just after the forum.


So what did we learn? Well, we learned a few things: Politicians are even flakier than band dudes. People, even if they do not want to be, are fascinated by Larry West. Chaka Fattah has bigger balls than anybody thought, sticking it out in front of a room that was clearly not his own. And that much as we suspected, The Shame Of A City is a helluva movie. And also, finally, that this election has not even begun to get as weird as it’s going to. We’re staying tuned, and we hope you will, too.


We’d like to thank Victor Fiorillo for his enormous help in putting this event together, as well as the folks at The Trocadero. Additionally, we owe a debt of gratitude to the evening’s sponsors, Pabst Blue Ribbon, The Standard Tap, Bob & Barabara’s, Fergie’s and Beau Monde. And last but not least, we also thank Tigre Hill, the candidates, and everyone who came out to the event. Thank you one and all.

Related: FightForRoom215: That’s Entertainment!
Phillyblog: Grumble Grumble

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 3:25 pm.