All of my thoughts Eh, who has the energy. Instead, I’ll leave it to you: Philadelphia Weekly’s Better than Best issue Best Self-Promoters on the New Media Scene To be honest, we’re not always sure exactly what it is the young journalists at Technically Philly are trying to accomplish at the site. Are they attempting [...]

Last month, the Devon Theater, a professional production house in a working-class neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, canceled the final half of its inaugural season due to state budget constraints. In going through some documents of mine, I found, perhaps prophetically, a story that never was from back in March when the Devon first reopened. Originally [...]

I helped profile upcoming rapper Asher Roth in the cover story of today’s Philadelphia Weekly. If there’s any truth in Revolutionary Road, American Beauty, Mad Men and the writing of John Cheever—that everyone in suburbia is secretly miserable, living life with crushing boredom or a crippling secret that’s killing them softly—you wouldn’t believe it on [...]

He’s an internationally-recognized DJ and techno producer with the same last name as me, but I never heard of Josh Wink. Until, that is, a source from a completely unrelated story mentioned him. That led to a profile of Wink, who lives in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood, for Philadelphia Weekly. For Philadelphians not of a [...]

The University of Pennsylvania’s place in the open-source learning movement of higher education is the focus of my story in yesterday’s Philadelphia Weekly. I can’t find it online (seriously), but it sure did run. So go pick it up if you’re in Philly. If not, well, check below for what didn’t make it in! You [...]

In yesterday’s Philadelphia Weekly I shared the story of Vlad Glikman, who blames a failure in Philadelphia’s ambulatory system for the death of his mother. Jan. 20, 2008: Glikman receives a frantic call from his 81-year-old father telling him that his mother, Adalina, is unconscious in their Somerton apartment in the Northeast. His father says [...]

The heated debate on private addiction recovery homes in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia takes the front stage in a story I wrote for today’s Philadelphia Weekly. It’s 1997, and Jeffrey Jackson is getting wet. He’s balled up, trying to sleep inside New Way Out, an addiction-recovery house in Kensington. The 28-year-old addict is in [...]

The following feedback came in regarding my recent article about the halted expansion of the central branch of the Free Library, as collected here: I was at the library last week. I’m not sure the expansion is a necessary ingredient of the Philadelphia ego. Chasing technology as an improvement when the city is not flush [...]

I covered the again-stalled addition to Philadelphia’s Free Library central branch for Philadelphia Weekly, and it ran online during the weekend as part of their growing Web presence. Think of it as the library of the future. At more than 300 computers, graphic designers work on new projects, musicians record and bloggers and authors write [...]

In yesterday’s Philadelphia Weekly: Pennsylvania’s Jack Wagner wants registered sex offenders to wear GPS monitors. In recent weeks, a handful of lawmakers have announced plans to introduce legislation at Wagner’s behest. “For all the right reasons, the Pennsylvania state government should be utilizing this technology to protect our most vulnerable citizens,” Wagner says. His late [...]