The Real Praise visits with Nikiya Palombi

Join host Nanette Lankford as she sits with performer Nikiya Palombi.

The Actors Lounge interviews Barbara Lessin

Join host Tony Lankford as he interviews actress Barbara Lessin.

The Real Praise talks with Joe 'the barber' Cuthbert

Join host Nanette Lankford as she has a conversation with South Philly native Joe Cuthbert.

The Actors Lounge interviews Mimi Lien, set designer

Join The Actors Lounge as we interview set designer Mimi Lien in Philadelphia.

Odd Thomas and Propaganda Sign with Syntax Records

That's the good word! Check it out.
Press Release

Rapzilla Presents: TheSynCast 59 - Twista Interview

Rapzilla Presents: TheSynCast 59 - Twista Interview
Host: MaxOne
Interview: Twista
Engineer: Shane Newville
Studio: Syntax

Description: In this episode MaxOne dialogues with the legendary Twista. Twista spills the proverbial beans without making a mess, gives us his take o…

TheSynCast 60 Ft. Hip Hop Pioneer Fred Lynch of P.I.D.

In This Episode:
MaxOne chews fat with hip hop pioneer, Fred Lynch, and loves every minute of it. You will too!
Playlist:
Preachas – “Ride The Noise”
Theory Hazit – “Decisions” (ft. Shawnee Boy, Kadija, Sivion & Home Skillit)
P.I.D. - "It’s Every Man For Himself"
Macho – “Freedom” (ft. Propaganda & Triune)
Willie Will - “What U See” (ft. Theory Hazit)
Preachas – “Preacha Man” (ft. Su…

WM Penn High School will stay OPEN> Philadelphia Community victory

Good Morning Good People:

I concur with Allison that yesterday was a momentous occasion in our community. It felt so good to stand with community residents like Dorris Berris who have lived around William Penn for over 40 years and attended Penn in the 50's, and 17 children did so as well. Or to stand side by side with young people from Richard Allen boldly holding signs for the duration of the hearing, even after Chairman Bob Archie continually asked "whether we wanted to sit and whether we we…

This Weekend: Oh Sweet Nuthin’

FRIDAY: >>> Is the weather trying to apologize for June? I think so. It’s cool, we forgive you, weather. If we knew in June what you had in store for us now — beautiful breezes, epic skies, gorgeous sunsets — we wouldn’t have gotten so depressed and gotten so wasted all the time. Now, you’re like [...]

Film Sweat: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

RECOMMENDED: In the most recent issue of lit mag n+1, film critic A. S. Hamrah engages in a fairly daunting task: He spends two months watching every movie about the War on Terror he can find. What he discovers — and what we in turn discover through him — is that War on Terror movies [...]

To Submit Obituaries

The Inquirer welcomes obituary information from funeral directors, relatives and friends. Recent photographs of publishable quality are desired.

N.J. nonprofit finds strength in partnering

The Moorestown nonprofit agency had a track record in the community. The development company had money, a large staff of professionals, and a construction partner.

Briefly... CITY/REGION

Man and his dog shot dead Jacoby Talbert, 26, of Winslow, N.J., was shot on Locust Court, the courtyard of his own apartment complex, about 7 p.m. Friday. He died at Cooper University Hospital, in Camden.

Superintendent recalls segregation of the '60s

Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman is expected to testify at today's hearing on Philadelphia's long-running school desegregation fight. Last week, Ackerman didn't try to conceal her excitement when members of the School Reform Commission voted to approve the consent agreement.

Review the Reviews

BY Michael Alan Goldberg / HYPERLINK "mailto:feedback@philadelphiaweekly.com" feedback@philadelphiaweekly.com

Ben Kweller

Singer-guitarist Ben Kweller, now 27, is a music biz veteran, having released albums both with his old band Radish and as a solo artist since he was 13. He's been a punk rocker, indie rocker, power-popster, and balladeer, and for his fourth solo LP, Changing Horses, he dives headfirst into much rootsier fare. We hit an upbeat Kweller up for a session of Review the Reviews, wherein we read excerpts from recent reviews and get the reaction of the reviewed.

"Changing Horses, his self-produced fourth LP, isn't quite the country & western crossover most would have you believe, more like the dirt road connecting his previous paths. (Austin Chronicle)

"Right! I mean, the album's way more Jackson Browne than Merle Haggard. Country music and roots music has always been one of the side roads that I take once in a while, and for this album I wanted to make it the main road."

"He's nodded to his Texas roots before, but on this collection meant to play up his twangy side, he seems scared of edging too far into the darkness of country music's long, rich tradition." (Paste)

"Hmm. Whatever. They don't know me. I mean, I opened the album with a whore and ended it with a junkie. I don't need to explain too much. I don't need to prove anything to anybody."

" ... the best is 'On Her Own,' a number in praise of female self-determination with a precise, pedal-steel-driven chorus that would fit nicely on a Faith Hill or Brad Paisley album." (Rolling Stone)

"That's really cool that they would even reference that shit because it's so far from ... I'm obviously not a Nashville pop-country guy. But the whole thing about this album is that all of a sudden there are people in the country side of the business that are finding out about me for the very first time. So for Rolling Stone to even say something like that, I'm psyched. I'm over the whole indie-hip--I just feel like I paid my dues for so fuckin' long in the indie-rock world that if my stuff took off in country, that'd be really exciting and refreshing."

ESSAY: The Thinner Blue Line

BY Daniel McQuade / HYPERLINK "mailto:dmcquade@philadelphiaweekly.com" dmcquade@philadelphiaweekly.com

Saying goodbye to Officer John Pawlowski.

Watch Jeff Fusco's slideshow from the funeral.

It was a fearfully cold day, and thousands of police officers marched past the memorial squad car for yet another fallen officer. They shared the same small steps, the same grave looks, the same stiff backs. They marched into the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul past a sea of fellow well-wishers who stood outside, cheeks red and cold in the wind. They marched inside until the Basilica was nearly filled with people; those left outside stood solemnly during the Catholic funeral of Officer John Pawlowski.

After the service, the officers marched out, same as before, then police cars zoomed off in an endless line. The hearse carrying Officer Pawlowski was followed by a phalanx of motorcycles and sparkling white cars from the Police Department. The motorcade went up I-95, toward the neighborhoods where the grid system breaks down, where so many of the police officers live in stout postwar houses near the Delaware. (Pawlowski still lived where he grew up, in Parkwood Manor, a stone's throw from the suburbs.)

The procession swept past officers and firefighters on overpasses, past officers paying their respects in solemn roadside salutes. It went into the suburbs and by the schools and strip malls on Street Road. It went through fire-truck arches and past bikers holding American flags in the brisk February winds. Finally, it went through the gates of Resurrection Cemetery.

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Seven police officers have died in the line of duty since May 2006. This was after nearly 10 years without any shooting deaths of police officers. But things feel commonplace when they cluster this way. The local TV stations didn't interrupt programming for the funeral of Officer Pawlowski, and the crowd in the plaza outside the Basilica was smaller than in the past.

Yet the number of police officers who memorialize their fallen brother or sister seems to grow each time. The services, the procession, the officers at the cemetery--it all seems like more this time. Even actor David Morse, the guy who played a former Philadelphia cop in the TV show Hack, stands against a light pole outside the church. With each loss, the department grows stronger.

Enormous groups of police personnel gathered in John Pawlowski's memory last week. They lined the pews at St. Anselm's in Parkwood on Monday night. They marched down Academy Road on Thursday at dusk to the funeral home for the wake. They processed in and out of the Basilica and stood still at the cemetery as the cold wind swept across the hillsides lined with headstones. The fierce, consistent presence is an impressive show of unity. It shuts down streets; it silences cities.

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Police officers hold an immense amount of power, both individually and as a group, and that power is public. They are imposing when they walk down the street. Their contract talks are daily news. They are frequent topics of household debate.

They are feared and comforting, loathed and respected. They are always late and always on time. They inspire strong emotions.

So it's fitting the police funeral has become such a spectacle. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey came here from Chicago, where police funerals almost stop time. He felt Philly needed more pomp and circumstance. He wanted to march with the mayor to the funeral home for the wake; he wanted police recruits to dot the road to the gravesite; he wanted the horse-drawn carriages and the symbolic reminders that one good man is missing.

At the cemetery, helicopters flew overhead in a missing-man formation. Police officers from the 35th District signed off Officer John Pawlowski for the last time: "From members of the 35th District and your entire police family, we thank you for a job well done."

The words of the service, the procession of cars, the final words at the cemetery are ritual and tradition, done the same way many times over the last few months.

But they are done with a precision that shows great care. The pallbearers practiced in the days leading up to Pawlowski's funeral by carrying a casket stuffed with dumbbells. When the time came, they marched despite the cold weather. The spectacle of it all is maybe the most uplifting thing the police department does. They just do it right.

Soldiering On

Neal Santos

This Fourth of July weekend, 22-year-old Raheem Rowell will be cooking out with family he hasn't seen since his deployment — he spent last year shuttling detainees all over Iraq in Blackhawk helicopters. Tim Stanton, who just turned 20, will enjoy the Fourth at the Jersey shore before he ships out to Baghdad to train Iraqi police. And Northeast Philly's Dave Marris, 50, will be thinking about his wife and kids this weekend while drinking tea with locals in western Afghanistan.

More than 1.5 million Americans have fought in this country's two ongoing wars. While public interest and news coverage in Iraq and Afghanistan have waxed and waned, these volunteers have continued to stream to and from the battlefield. They'll continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Much (although not enough) attention has been given to the fallen soldiers of Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Military suicide, and those suffering traumatic injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, are also, rightfully, topics of interest. But there are others who've served, and sacrificed. They're struggling to re-establish their lives under the threat of being called back; they're working to re-engage with a civilian world that we, their neighbors, take for granted.

Here are 13 such people from the region. Our thanks to these vets for their time, the photographs you see here and, of course, their service.

...

The 10 Best Cheesesteaks You've Never Had

Mark Stehle

Business sizzles on warm summer evenings at traditional-format outdoor cheesesteak stands in greater Philly, where an overstuffed agenda of grilled meat, escaping the heat and seeing and being seen cooks up a festive boardwalk vibe.

I know this because I spent most of last summer visiting cheesesteak stands to write my new Great Philly Cheesesteak Book (Running Press, $15.95), a comprehensive guidebook to our city's favorite food, including history, recipes and the stories behind some of the area's favorite steakeries.

My book does not rank the stands. Still, after eating cheesesteaks at more than 50 local shops, it's hard not to have an opinion on what makes a great steak: a fresh roll that's neither too hard nor too flabby; cheese that is noticeable but not overwhelming; meat that has the chew of steak without being tough or gristly; onions that are neither raw nor so caramelized as to resemble ketchup; and for all four of these elements to alchemize into a taste and texture that is distinctively and uniquely cheesesteak.

The biggest surprise of this book project was how many cheesesteaks lived up to my ideal and how few were truly junk food. In fact, probably no more than half a dozen steaks were so greasy as to require the famous "Philly lean" (that is, holding the steak out in front of you so the grease falls on the ground instead of on your shoes and clothes).

No, I'm not going to name those names, nor am I going to tell you things you probably already know, like that Pat's, Geno's, Dalessandro's, Tony Luke's, John's Roast Pork, Steve's Prince of Steaks and Chink's are worth checking out. Even the casual student of local cheesesteak culture has also probably heard of rising stars like Sonny's Famous, the Grey Lodge Pub, Johnny's Hots and Talk of the Town.

The following list, i...