Michael’s Cafe
3640 Street Road
Bensalem
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 6 p.m.-2 a.m., unless otherwise noted: Closed Mondays
215.633.7171

Scene: It’s a lot bigger inside than its exterior might suggest. There is plenty of room to move around with five bars nicely separated from each other. It’s a bit dimly lit, but probably not much more than any other nightclub.
On this night there was a BIG Sunday crowd with more than 150 people inside before 9:30 p.m. Mature, enthusiastic crowd of 30 to 50 year-olds who were more into dancing to 94.5 PST’s retro-dance party than daring each other to do keg stands.

Y100Rocks , the formerly terrestrial/now internet radio station that had its plug pulled earlier this year, is holding its 2005 Year-End Poll on its site. While there are many interesting categories on which Philadelphians may cast their vote, the area we're most shamelessly self-promoting is "Best Newspaper," which offers a very interesting final choice.
Those who complete the poll will be registered to win an iPod loaded with all the songs from Y100Rocks.com's Top 150 Songs of 2005. The winner also will receive placement on the Interscope Records mailing list.

While everyone else was freezing their ass off on Tuesday, December 13, thousands of Dave Matthews Band fans packed in to the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia for a classic DMB show.
Click to see pictures of Tuesday night, courtesy of PE Zen master photog Brian Hineline.

AND....

Read an interview with Dave, which was published in the Dec. 14 issue of Philly EDGE, below.

Banded together
Dave Matthews Band doesn’t take audience for granted

By Ryan Alan
Philly EDGE Correspondent

After a solo CD and tour, Dave Matthews, hailed as no less than the biggest rock star in America by Rolling Stone, is excited to be working with his musical family again -- the Dave Matthews Band.

Girl-on-girl action
Philly Roller Girls wheel into action as roller derby makes a comeback

by Erin Roop
Philly EDGE Correspondent

What do fishnet stockings, helmets and broken legs have in common?
They’re all part of the arsenal of roller derby. This knock-down girl-on-girl display of athleticism on wheels is kicking Philly’s ass – in a good way – and that’s no surprise after talking to the tough ladies of the Philly Roller Girls.
Mishel "Violet Temper" Cobb (more on her name later) thinks “many women love the visceral nature of what roller derby provides: speed roller skating combined with full-contact body hitting. Not only that, it gives women an outlet to express their physicality and more aggressive sides. Most of the women who join roller derby now are very independent, intelligent, ‘take no shit’ women. (Roller derby) fills the niche for us perfectly.”

In Ken Smith's hilarious book Mental Hygiene, he sites Narcotics: Pit of Despair as "the stupidest drug film ever produced". Obviously he's never seen Desperate Lives. As in most films that urge us to just say no this movie is so far removed from reality that a last minute kung-fu battle on the moon seems conspicuous in it's absence.

Taking place in one of those Southern California high schools where most of the student population is either nodding off or, like future Oscar winning actress Helen Hunt, throwing itself through plate glass windows, Desperate Lives tells the story of a self righteous guidance counselor (Diana "Mommy Dearest" Scarwid) who makes it her business to harsh the buzz of anyone unlucky enough to bump into her. In her quest to singlehandedly eliminate all illegal narcotics on the west coast, she encounters Scott (Doug McKeon), a whiny teen who's turned to drugs because his parents (Diane Ladd fulfilling at least one community service requirement and Tom Atkins in a rare non-cop role) are mean. Too bad Scott never realized that even casual drug use can lead to tragedy as he falls victim to the diabolically feathered hair of Kenny (Sam Bottoms), a drug dealer who turns Scott into some kind of junior pusher and is apparently holding David Hasselhoff's Knightrider wardrobe hostage.