Tonight: The Teeth + Dr. Dog

Tonight at 7 p.m. in Rittenhouse Square PW is hosting the third in our “Concerts in the Park” series, this one featuring The Teeth and Dr. Dog.

Clicky clicky on the banner below for all the details.

Also: it’s all free.

Link dump: “Oh, that was a good answer, wasn’t it?”

• Mourning New Orleans: A writer deals with horrific destruction of the only city his family’s ever known. Very good essay. [Slate]

• Shep Smith of the esteemed Fox News Channel asked a guy what he was doing staying in New Orleans (and walking his dogs). The response: “None of your fucking business!” Yeah, quit getting in everyone’s business, Shep. [Political Teen]

• In the original (French) version of the super-cute documentary March of the Penguins, the penguins had voiceover conversations with each other, like it was Homeward Bound. What, Homeward Bound wasn’t a documentary? (Note: March of the Penguins is the first movie Hollywood has ever made better after buying it.) [Kottke.org]

• OK, yes, we’ve all seen that photo of George Bush playing his guitar (with the presidential seal on it, natch) today. Yes, yes, he’s like Nero, we get it. Har de har har. Anyway: Will Bunch has an interesting take on how the energies and money focused on the war could hurt relief efforts for New Orleans. [Attytood]

Bucks County crime wave continues

Today’s public safety log details the current crime wave going on in our neighbor to the north:

Bristol Township

Theft: Runway Rd., overnight, Mon, 2 chainsaws from property.

Lower Bucks County: becoming more like Grand Theft Auto every day.

Public safety log 08.31.05 [BCCT]
Earlier on PWD: Another good place to play, ruined

Herb Denenberg has a posse

When we last saw consumer reporter Herb Denenberg, he was calling the Inquirer anti-Semetic and saying things like “What I see in the Inquirer is anti-Israeli from A to Z!” (The Daily News, by the way, is all-Philadelphia Eagles from T to O.)

So where does a 75-year-old consumer reporter who doesn’t like Knight-Ridder work? Why, the city’s contrarian broadsheet, of course!

Yes, The Evening Bulletin, the resurrected paper with a conservative editorial page and my former employer — see, full disclosure, even if it makes the sentence even longer and more awkward! — has been running Herbie the Love Bug’s columns for a few weeks now under the title of “The Advocate.” Hot. Most of the columns are FAQs on consumer issues, which is what Herb has done for, like, ever. (I’m pretty sure he wrote for the old Bulletin.)

I always dig Q&A columns, especially ones that make me wonder who would write to Herb Freakin’ Denenberg about this:

Question: Was President Franklin D. Roosevelt one of the first to get polio in the U.S.?

Answer: According to the Smithsonian, polio was first reported in the U.S. in 1894, long before Roosevelt became perhaps its most famous victim.

Now all the Bulletin needs to do is hire Don Polec and Herb Clarke and they’ll be set.

From Pesky Squirrels To Air-Bag Gas [Bulletin, print only]
Don Polec’s World [6ABC]
Herb Clarke’s Garden Report [KYW1060]

Craigslist MC: “The boy who had to turn at Red Lion”

• Boulevard stalking! Today the Craigslist missed connections section gives and gives and gives and asks so little in return. Anybody want to share a Boulevard moment? Somehow I think all the accidents on the boulevard are caused by people car stalking and not paying attention when the light turns red.

• More of a question than a missed connection: What’s up with everybody checking each other out at Wawa? Umm, ’cause every 7-Eleven is ridiculously scuzzy, duh!

• Something about a girl running over a dog in her car makes me sad.

• Fortunately, a human didn’t get hit by a car. What is it with people who use the missed connections board to thank people for hitting their dogs/cars or possibly not hitting their dogs/cars? Uhh, hello? There’s a rants and raves board for a reason!

The $10 ride of death

Recently two Chinatown buses headed from New York to Boston caught fire, which doesn’t surprise us, since they’re Chinatown buses and they’re the cheapest form of transportation known to man. Even if you walked from Philadelphia to New York you’d pay more, since you’d have to buy new shoes once you got there. (Note: Walking to New York is probably faster than riding the Chinatown bus.)

Anyway, New York senator Charles Schumer apparently has a girl in college, and, doggonit, she knows of this “Chinatown bus” and if there’s one thing politicians like to do, it’s talk about their families. (Family values are so in!) Money quote: “My daughter goes to college in Boston, and many of her friends ride these buses, and they said they were worried about them.”

Schumer’s daughter doesn’t ride the Chinatown bus, of course, she’s too good for that. But, hey, she knows people who do. And so Chuck is calling for tighter safety controls on the Chinatown buses, which would presumably include the Philly-to-N.Y. one.

With this, plus high gas prices, it can only mean higher fares for the same shitty service. Time to go back to the R7-to-N.J. Transit route, I suppose.

Chuck: Crack down on Chinatown bus [New York Post, via Wonkette]
Benny Philebrity Rides the Chinatown Bus [Philebrity]

Finally, Philly gets its Google Maps hack

Somebody finally got around to doing what had already been done for NYC, editing Google Maps and adding almost all of SEPTA’s rail lines (with PATCO thrown in for good measure).

Not surprisingly, the maps are essentially a series of points on Market, Frankford and Broad with most of the city pretty much empty. I was looking for an option to extend the Broad Street Line up the Boulevard — the rumored plan since I was about two — but I couldn’t find one.

Also, the map does nothing to explain why there’s no R4. Oh, wait, we all know the answer: SEPTA incompetence.

SEPTA Google Maps [Bieniosek.com via Phillyist]
From the Vaults: I Wanna Know: SEPTA R4 [PW]

This ticket agency is bananas

Spotted at 15th and Walnut.

I can’t wait for this concert.

Boy I guess!

Dan Gross checks in from vacation today to tell all the Daily News readers what they needed to know: Gary Barbera is being sued by another rapper.

Indeed, this time it’s Snoop Dogg, who apparently didn’t make enough money selling out and wants a cool $2 mil from Barbera for using his image in an ad. This comes on the heels of 50 Cent, who sued Barbera earlier for $1 million for using his name an image in an ad.

I kind of dig Barbera’s new marketing strategy, using rappers’ likenesses without their permission (allegedly, at least) in order to get people to dealerships in the Northeast and in beeeeautiful Roxborough. It sure beats using B-list athletes (Koy Detmer) to try to sell Chryslers.

I have it on good authority that the next five rappers Barbera will use in ads are, in order: The Game, Funkmaster Flex, Sir Mix-A-Lot*, MC Hammer and Young MC.

*Note: Sir Mix-A-Lot is a registered trademark of the Target Corporation.

Howard Gensler | Snoop Dogg one-ups 50 Cent, sues Barbera for $2M [DN]

Phutility

Wow, what a great piece of so-called “journalism” today by this dude in PW. First, he presents a thesis that Cholly Manuel is a bad manager who anyone could outmanage — and then he fails to do it!

Oh, and man: 1991 called — it wants its haircut back.

Just another example of today’s liberal (or possibly conservative, I forget which way the new is biased today) media, which isn’t like the great media of old, which, you know, did well-researched reports on battleship explosions and eight-year old heroin addicts.

They really did a good job for the country — this asshole certainly is an insult to journalists everywhere.

Frankly, I’m mortified. OK, not as mortified as I was when the Phillies blew that lead last night, but still pretty high on the mortification scale.

(Editor’s Note: Funny? Or a lame attempt to ward off any criticism by doing it myself? You make the call.)

Unmasking Charlie [PW]
Janet Cooke [Wikipedia]
Mets 6, Phillies 4 [AP via Y! Sports]