City Safari
day, had apprehended a man named Meredith Hunter, 27, who attempted to approach the By Thom Nickels stage. When Hunter attempted Contributing Editor to approach the stage a second time, this time with a revolver On December 6, 1969, Mick in view, he was beaten by the Jagger of The Rolling Stones Angels and then stabbed to looked out over the massive death by a Hell’s Angel named crowd at California’s Altamont Alan Passaro. The melee, Speedway and saw the concert which was captured on film security staff, the Hell’s An(and later incorporated in the gels, beating up an audience film, ‘Gimme Shelter,’ caused member. The Angels, who a nervous Jagger to announce, were paid in beer rather than “People, people, let’s be cool!” cash to act as security that The murder of Hunter
would come to be known as Rock’n Roll’s Darkest Day, officially marking the end of the 1960’s peace and love era which had its peak expression only months before at Woodstock. The 1969 tragedy at Altamont has arguably been superseded in darkness by the troubling developments at Live Nation Entertainment – which bills itself as “the world’s leading live entertainment company.” The company’s recent production of the As-
troworld Festival in Houston on November 2 saw 13 people killed and 300 injured when a crowd surge during the concert caused concertgoers to trample one another. Live Nation has a history of safety violations over the past decade. The massive concert enterprise also seems to thrive best in large Democrat-controlled cities where the urban landscape cultivates its own style of rough and tumble audiences and artists (Christian conservative rappers like Bryson Gray need
Center City Philadelphia's Community Newspaper December 15, 2021
Happy Holidays & Happy Healthy New Year!
Christmas Village In Philadelphia Presented By Bank Of America Announces 2021 Vendors, Menus, New Additions, Attractions quality international and loAnd Events cal gifts along with beautiful
C
hristmas Village in Philadelphia presented by Bank of America will once again return to LOVE Park and City Hall for its 14th consecutive season. Through Christmas Eve, Christmas Village will transform Center City into an authentic open-air German Christmas market. Holiday sights and sounds featuring thousands of twinkling lights, festive Christmas decorations, theme weekends and live music are waiting to bring you all the Christmas-time feels. Shoppers will find high-
decorations at over 110 vendor booths spanning across LOVE Park, City Hall Courtyard and North Broad. Everyone is invited to warm up with a glass of mulled wine or hot chocolate while enjoying the great variety of European food and drinks. Get ready to take in the view of the holiday action from a seat on the 65’ tall Ferris Wheel presented by T-Mobile. Other family fun attractions include the Kids Train presented by SEPTA and a brand-new double decker Christmas Village Carou-
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Photos courtesy of Christmas Village
Discord Indeed: Gospels According to Tom, Dick and the Hairy One By Richard Lord Contributing Writer
A
ny of us who streamed straight from our adolescent angst phase into an Existentialist period will probably be familiar with Jean-Paul’s Sartre’s play No Exit. It was, after all, an easily digested, entry level text into the murky depths of Existentialism. Sartre’s play has three drearily departed souls consigned to spend all eternity locked together in a drawing room as Isaac plays Jefferson, Brian McCann plays Dickens, Charles McMahon plays Tolstoy. their mode of damnation. The Gregory Photo: Courtesy of the Lantern Theatre. three characters form a perfectly mismatched trio as they of the piece, one of the charac- people.” keep rubbing each other the ters spits out the play’s most Author Scott Carter must wrong way. Towards the end famous line: “Hell is other have had Sartre’s No Exit in
mind when he sat down to write The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy: Discord. But whereas Sartre’s forlorn trio was composed of totally made-up characters, Carter has enlisted three towering historical figures for his opus. He’s put our third president, the most celebrated Victorian British author, and the Russian literary dynamo together in a locked room and then let the inevitable frictions start sparking. But Carter’s internees are driven to a slightly different conclusion than Sartre’s: Purgatory is other people. Or even better, Purgatory is other people and an unvarnished look at continued on page 4
Photos courtesy of Live Nation
not apply), especially artists who not so long ago specialized in ‘F—k Trump’ lyrics.) Consider Live Nation’s track record in Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s annual 2-day Labor Day concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, sponsored by Live Nation, has been drawing thousands of people since its inception 8 seasons ago. Called “Made in America” (MIA), when the festival began it was briefly criticized for being “too white” and not diverse enough. Since that first concert, organizers have gone to extreme lengths to balance the equation. Rap and hip hop became an essential part—the majority part-- of the Parkway concerts but it was (and is) the rap and hip hop of the woke variety that is promoted by CNN. Live Nation’s contention that the MIA festival also includes pop and electronic music has always been an exAQUARIUM aggeration. While this latter Pirates areof music is given a category back in Philacursory acknowledgment on delphia after stage, the bulk of MIA concerts aon300 ab- (curated by theyear Parkway sence. Jay-Z) feature such artists as ...Meek Mill, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber, Lil Baby and a host of other rappers. ProceedsPage for5 Philadelphia’s 2021 MIA SPORTS festival went to the ACLU with other proceeds go17-year-old ing to The Reform Alliance -- a Coco Gauff left progressive organization will join intent onforces eliminating “oppreswith sive”40-yearprobation, parole and old bailVenus issues. While some of the Williams... Alliance’s concerns might need Page 8
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FROM THE EDITOR
Bob and I have been publishing the University City Review and Philadelphia Free Press for almost 34 years, since 1988... Page 3
POLITICS.....................................3 SCI-FI..........................................7 CRIME.......................................10 CLASSIFIEDS..............................11
