>>> What with all the nonsense over our leadership’s very public nervous breakdown over the flash mob/wilding/wolfpack thing, we almost forgot about that other old Philly standby: People being giant assholes to other people who happen to be on bikes. Guess who’s next up at the plate? Chinatown, of all the unlikely places! Businesspeople there [...]

Oh boy. And for that matter, I say, old chap! One question, though: In their quest to simultaneously empower the flash mobbers with more attention than anyone could have ever dreamed and create a Nanny State, did Nutter and Ramsey ever consider that they’d be advancing the very international-black-eye for the city that they feared? [...]

Ahem.

· Air · Love · Missed connections · The blue glow emanating from the living rooms of all those, curfewed and uncurfewed, good and not good, seen and unseen · Charm · Pizza. We repeat: no fucking pizza. It’s just too dangerous. · Pens or other writing instruments · Watch the Throne and all discussions pertaining to it · [...]

This is what our sources tell us: 11th and Chestnut’s long-stalled Milkboy Coffee will be opening after the weekend. We walked by the other day and it looked ready to go, but so far no website for the location can be found (by us) and in looking for a show schedule, only one popped up. [...]

Mayor Michael Nutter appeared on CNN this morning to talk about the “flash mob” attacks with a national audience. Mayor Nutter stressed the role of the family in the lives of the perpetrators of these attacks, and said “we’re not tolerating any nonsense.” Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey talked to CNN’s John King last night, video [...]

Wine Coolin’ (Beach Version) from SWEATHEART on Vimeo. FRIDAY: >>>This Is Hardcore Fest is going on all weekend long at the Starlight Ballroom (460 North 9th Street). Tonight’s headliners are the legendary Youth Of Today. >>>In what is probably the polar opposite of This Is Hardcore, Sweatheart (above) is playing Kungfu Necktie with Instamatic and [...]

RECOMMENDED: Our summer — if not indeed our entire worldview — was in part revolutionized by both Mike Mills’ Beginners (saw it twice, it’s still at the Ritz, GO NOW) and this NYT Mag profile on Mills’ wife and You And Me And Everyone We Know director, Miranda July. That profile was written in anticipation [...]

At the risk of having spent almost the entire morning indulging a wave of 1990s nostalgia, let us just say this: Though, as a rule, we disapprove of indie bands kickstarting their records, we came across this little video and came to the sudden realization that, if the 2010s are the new aimless 1990s, Fishtown [...]

File under humble brags, congrats and craven opportunism/youthgrab on our part: Back in the late 2000s, when it was still OK to dress like this, Kristian Almgren and Aaron Fisher-Cohen (pictured) duly served time at Philebrity High. Today, they’re basking in the warm glow of praise from the New York Times for their debut feature [...]

Maybe there is some kind of poetic justice in the fact that the only victory roving packs of angry/bored black teenagers could win by wreaking havoc on a city is not one of actual social change (do they even want that?), but one over language. At least, that’s if you’re down with what UPenn Professor [...]

It’s like God woke up yesterday and was like, “HERE’S YOUR WEEKEND, EARTH MOTHERFUCKERS!”

… holy shitballs, this is Frances Bean Cobain.

Sign in front of Penn Treaty Metals on Frankford Ave, [yesterday] afternoon. Pep talk for the scrappers of the Fishtown/S Kensington area to work even harder for their metal findings. Or, “Don’t just pick up aluminum cans, go steal the copper pipes, stainless steel sinks, or AC compressors!” Seeing something around town of note? Cameraphone [...]

What is nostalgia good for, then? For one thing, it runs search-and-rescue missions against the disposability of consumer capitalism. And it raises exception to the great leveling effect of the Internet, the perpetual digital now that tears cultural artifacts out of context to make them into objects of curiosity or pastiche. And it’s a reminder [...]

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The Free Library of Philadelphia‘s fall lineup of guest appearances and readings is pretty impressive this year. A star-studded October starts with Lee Child on October 3rd and continues with signings and appearances by Jim Lehrer, John Lithgow, and world-famous author Chuck Palahniuk. The great events continue further into fall with Harry Belafonte on Novermber [...]

According to The Daily News the number of traffic tickets given by Philadelphia Police has been on a steady decline since 2008. “The number of traffic tickets written by the Philadelphia Police Department dipped 17 percent from 2008 to 2009 and then an additional 21 percent from 2009 to 2010. And tickets are down 12 [...]

In State House Majority Leader Mike Turzai‘s mission to privatize liquor sales in Pennsylvania, he came across information that said the LCB’s own panel opposed the ill-fated wine kiosks they opened last summer. According to an internal memo, “The committee [was] concerned that the lack of a coherent business plan will open the [LCB] up [...]

Bands In The Backyard — aka BITBY – is a new local music blog whose premise is what it sounds like: They make videos of bands playing in backyards. The blog was started by Kyle Costill (ex-Trouble Everyday), and after a few run-thoughs (like the one above, featuring Ages), BITBY will premiere its first new [...]