Category: Philadelphia

Ted Kennedy and Michael Vick

mary_jo_kopechne_31Bob T. just sent me an article by Mark Steyn about how news people are airbrushing the Chappaquiddick incident out of the national consciousness. Overall I think Stein’s point is pretty lame: when Ronald Reagan died, not a lot of people made note of the fact that he started his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, MS (where Civil Rights workers had been murdered in 1964), that he once called Jefferson Davis a hero, or that he was a big supporter of pro-apartheid South Africa. As a public figure, these things were certainly fair game, but to bring them up would have been in poor taste during his funeral. Furthermore, Steyn is just flat wrong. It doesn’t get much more mainstream than ABC News, and here is a pretty comprehensive piece they did on Kopechne shortly after Kennedy died.

Ted Kennedy made a series of horrific decisions 40 years ago, and I certainly think that plenty of people have every right to not forgive him for it. It will always be a part of his legacy, regardless of what Steyn believes, and it almost certainly prevented him from ever making a viable run at the Presidency. But keep in mind, this was his funeral, and it is not customary to rip someone as they are riding down the street in a hearse, even if they were a jerk. It’s kind of tacky. 

But it brings up an interesting question: who is more deserving of our forgiveness, Ted Kennedy or Michael Vick? Vick did something awful, and it was cold and calculated. At the same time, it involved animals and not humans. Kennedy, on the other hand, made a series of awful decisions and it resulted in a dead young woman. He got drunk, he drove a young woman who wasn’t his wife towards her hotel. He drove off a bridge. He emerged alive but decided not to call for help and instead “sleep it off”. While not as calculated as Vick’s situation, it was perhaps even colder. But it was passive and not aggressive. Vick killed dogs with his bare hands. Kennedy certainly did not intend to kill Mary Jo Kopechne, but he left her to die after he made a decision to sleep it off instead of diving down or calling for help. So I am curious as to what you guys think: who is more deserving of our forgiveness?

Interview with Grammy Award Winner Aaron Levinson

aaron2I met Aaron through a CD exchange club I belong to, and really dug his musical selections. Then I got to talking to him, and he’s one of those guys you can listen to for hours because he has a vast wealth of musical knowledge that spans from rock to jazz to hip hop to merengue. He works in the music biz as a producer (He won a Grammy for his work on the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and Ruben Blades “Across 110th Street” Album in 2005) and also spins occasionally, and tonight will be at Chifa starting at 10 p.m. spinning a wild mix of Salsa, bossa nova, cha cha cha and much more in a show he calls La Maquina del Tiempo. I’m gonna try to make it there after quizzo if anybody wants to go. 

JGT: What does La Maquina Del Tiempo mean?  

AARON: La Maquina Del Tiempo means The Time Machine. Tonight you will be hearing the past of Salsa, Mambo and Cha Cha Cha from Puerto Rico, New York and Cuba from the 60’s & 70’s with a couple of licks of Latin Jazz, Boogaloo and Cumbia thrown in for good measure. Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon, Sonora Poncena, Bobby Valentin, Ruben Blades, Pacheco and Celia Cruz. This is Golden Age Salsa for dancers and listeners alike. Expect dance floor fillers, classics and rarities that will have you dancing on the lawn.

JGT: When did you decide you wanted to get into the music business?

I always wanted to be in the music business but my first real gig was as a dj/engineer on WRTI when I was in high school. I’ve never looked back. My first record label job was with Inner City records in NYC as a Freshman in college at The New School For Social Research

JGT:  When you’re not Deejaying, what kind of music related enterprises are you involved with?

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JGT Hopes Dirty Hippies Get Lost in Camden

Sunday night provides the opportunity for madcap hilarity. My dream scenario goes like this: a huge multi-colored bus full of dirty hippies, high on a variety of drugs they stole from their mom (after sneaking upstairs from the basement where they live) make a wrong turn on their way to see the most mind-numbingly boring band in the history of the earth (yes, even more boring than the Grateful Dead) and end up in North Camden. Hilarity ensues.

There is a concert at the TLA Sunday also, called the Summer Slaughter Tour, that will feature bands called Necrophagist, Dying Fetus, Decrepit Birth, and After the Burial. I would rather watch them all, followed by an extended encore in which they all played Hey Jude together, than go to this Phish concert.

Kade Style

In case you haven’t heard the buzz, the man Philadelphians love to hate was featured in this month’s Philadelphia Magazine. It could have been better, but it certainly answered some questions about our hero and painted him in a pretty real light. At that moment, it was possible to see Arthur Kade for everything he is — an unmitigated douchebag, to be sure, the poster boy for all that reeks about contemporary society and culture (the former businessman turned aspiring celebutard, forging a burr-hole through the cacophony that is the Internet), but a character at the same time entirely familiar, one wholly American, a modern-day Tom Joad setting out, sanguine to a fault, westward. 

Personally, I think that Arthur Kade can only be one of two things: a brilliant marketing ploy by someone (Philebrity perhaps?) to write a book about this ridiculous character’s misadventures, sort of a Lazlo Toth style invention, only crazy in a different sort of way. Otherwise, he is severely mentally ill. There is no other way to be that un-self aware. What do you think? Is this guy real or is this some sort of brilliant Andy Kaufmann type stunt?

Malcolm X’s Birthday


Today would be Malcolm X’s 84th birthday. I can certainly say that the Autobiography of Malcolm X was one of the most fascinating and important books I have ever read. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor. He is certainly one of the most intriguing thinkers in American history.

Larry Flynt, Real American Hero

hustlerSiegelmanarticle.jpgLarry Flynt is in the news quite a bit these days. First of all, he’s requesting a bailout from Congress for the porn industry: The economy has hurt their businesses, too, Flynt and (Girls Gone Wild Owner Joe) Francis said — sales of XXX DVDs are down 22 percent — and they want $5 billion from the government. Congress must “rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America,” Flynt said. Perhaps the bailout money could go toward Larry’s lawyer fees. He is currently suing two of his nephews for putting out inferior porn under the Flynt family name. And people say Americans don’t take pride in their work anymore!

Ann Coulter Continues to be a Goon


Ann Coulter was bumped off of the TODAY Show yesterday because they decided to interview Tony Blair. Coulter then played the victim card that she is constantly haranguing liberals for making and said that NBC had banned her for life (not true, of course), so then TODAY had her on today and she had a contentious matchup with Matt Lauer. This came a day after a battle she had with Harry Smith in which she said that “Every assassin in the history of the nation has either been a liberal, a communist, an anarchist, someone on the left…they are basically Obama’s base.” Coulter has apparently never heard of John Wilkes Booth, a staunch southern conservative. Of course this whole thing is a ruse to sell books. It is interesting only because it is early January and there ain’t s*** happening in the news. But even then, this whole act is getting pretty tired.

Hey, Remember Those Race Riots We Almost Had in Philly a Couple of Months Ago? Me either.


Michelle Malkin does. You knew this stupid troll was going to say something unbelievably idiotic before the end of the day, and sure enough she did. For those of you who haven’t heard, two geniuses claiming to be from the Black Panthers (great job helping the cause, guys) apparently tried to stop a couple of white people from voting. Well, Michelle Malkin jumped all over it, then went on to describe how Philadelphia almost had a race riot a few months ago. You guys remember that, right? I think it was right after all those white people voted for that black mayor. Well, Michelle Malkin remembers it. She also remembers how we had riots and violence “after the Phillies won, after they won!” Yep, something tells me the Black Panthers were behind the looting of that luggage store. I hear that Black Panthers just looooove to travel. I think Michelle Malkin is a worse human being than Kim Jong Il. I really, really do.