Readers Write: Dickhead From Overrated “Punk” Band Allegedly Likes To Spit On Girls
I have been following your blog since I transferred to Drexel last year. I noticed that you like to prod at a fellow named John Sharkey [pictured] from clockcleaner. I didn’t how right you were about what an asshole he is until my recent interaction with him at Johnny Brenda’s last weekend. I was mildy interested in his band since you so keenly disliked them. Not because that really, just , I guess morbidly facinated. I noticed him from the PW article and he seemed to be having a good spirited time with his friends so I mozzied on over to him and told [him] I sort of enjoyed the songs on their myspace and he just looked at me and spit in my eye. I was completely and utterly blown away !!!! I tried to get him kicked out but he was friendly with the door person. I just could not beleive that someone could have this much self righteousness and lack of respect for another person. I am completely behind you decision to hate on this tool! I just figured I’d share that with you because I figured you would want some more fuel for the fire.
Fuel? Fire? Sure, crunch all you want, we’ll make more. But while we cannot say for sure whether this story is or is not completely true — we do rely on an honor system with our tipsters — this is strangely not the first time we’ve heard accusations of middle-school-level violence visited upon women by one John Sharkey. Or even the second. The other tales mostly involve strange tantrums and pulling out chairs from behind young ladies, forcing them to fall, hard. (And as you might expect, not in love.) So we’ll tell ya what we’re gonna do. If there’s any other ladies out there — or hell, even just reallllllly wussy indie guys — who’ve felt the physical wrath of Sharkey, please tell us your tale at tips[at]philebrity[dot]com, and we’ll try and see if we can’t get a head shrinker to analyze a pattern. But as for the young lady who wrote above, keep this in mind: Jerks like this can ONLY subsist in communities as self-loathing as the Philly indie rock scene. Don’t play into that. Like they say, if you see something, say something.
UPDATE: We have reason to believe that the above email was actually a hoax perpetrated by — GET THIS — Sharkey himself! If so, we regret the, uh, error? More details forthcoming…
January 31st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
i have nothing to report on clockcleaner and plenty of things to report on a handful of philebrity-approved bands which i will not do because it is childish. to illustrate this point with an aside i can say this much: i know that the von bondies just played the grape street pub and people made fun of them for it. it’s just a place to play and if pearl jam cover bands play there and that makes it a cheesy place, then so what? why does something like this fucking matter? a gig is a fucking gig, regardless of where it is held. (case in point: philly soundclash!) this kind of provincial confusing of opinion and fact is part of larger crab-n-barrel syndrome that holds our city back on a grand scale. ever been to a wilco concert? do you think they give a shit that the largest part of their audience is made up of douchebag frat guys? that’s part of what makes wilco rad – the fact that they don’t care about shit like that.
that said, yeah, the guy is a fucking asshole to spit on someone for giving him a compliment. but he WANTS to be written about for it because that’s a very pretentious thing to do and all pretentious things are done with the anxious ulterior desire for attention of any kind. and in writing about it, you’re giving this douchey what he wants. sayin’.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:39 pm
There’s a distinction to be drawn between shock and awe and good old-fashioned douchebaggery. While I don’t like seeing him get more attention for it, it has definitely steered me away from going to see them. So it’s kind of good to know.
Classic case of dork that blossomed.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:33 pm
fuckermost,
Many in the 215 concur with you.
We are waiting breathlessy at the edge our seats for the day that Philebrity will candidly publish the long-standing child abuse history of Fishtown’s patron saint Kurt Heasley. Instead, we get that heavily-sanitized CP article from a few years back:
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006-02-16/cover.shtml
For as much as Team Philebrity (and other similar blogs) talk shit on the Philly Weekly & City Paper (and in many instances, rightly so), you would think there would have been a counter-story to this.
Likewise, with the self-centered, vulgar behavior of other such “local heroes/hipster blog-approved bands” whose shady behavior is both rewarded and enabled-while-looking the other way, instead of being called on for what it is.
If only the pavement, sidewalks and front stoops of Catherine, Pattison, Montgomery, Bainbridge, Spring Garden, Germantown, Broad & Olney, Chew Avenue, Chelten, Oxford Circle, Frankford and even Rittenhouse Square were as sanitized as that CP article, we wouldn’t have Mayor Nagin of New Orleans informing the world of how we seem to take pride in using our city streets as dumpsters. And it does seem like that’s what we do…doesn’t it?
C’mon Philadelphia…we can do better than this.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:01 pm
here we go again with the sound of one hand clapping.
question of the day:
in order to acquire your sought after attention, is it more pretentious to spit in a girls face or to pretend that you did?
wellhungike: whatever. did you even read what i wrote? for you i offer up a quote from a classic film:
Bender: Don’t you ever talk about my friends! You don’t know any of my friends. You don’t look at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn’t condescend to speak to any of my friends. So you just stick to the things you know: shopping, nail polish, your father’s BMW, and your poor, rich drunk mother in the Caribbean.
Claire: Shut up!
Bender: And as far as being concerned about what’s gonna happen when you and I walk down the hallways of school together, you can forget it cuz it’s never gonna happen. Just bury your head in the sand and wait for your fucking prom.
Have a nice day!
February 1st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
ohhh emmm geeee. if i had a dollar for every time i heard joey state that this blog is not intended as unbiased journalism, i’d have enough to go by myself a delicious, over-priced cafe mocha. but like, made from certified organic, fair trade beans.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
oh, fuck that. i’m going to wait a little bit longer ’til i have enough to indulge in some “self-centered, vulgar behavior”! whoooohooooo!
February 1st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
of course i meant to write BUY myself. i probably won’t go alone, but rather with someone whose band was once hipster-blog approved.