BY CITIZEN MOM I used to live on 10th Avenue in Belmar, NJ, a few blocks away from the house on E Street that served as the band’s namesake and first rehearsal space, which of course makes me eminently qualified to render an instant-opinion on the first single from the Boss’s forthcoming album, Magic, which drops Oct. 2. The single, “Radio Nowhere,” is NOW PLAYING on Phawker Radio and for this week only is available as a free iTunes download. Ahem. First listen: Hmmm. Kinda familiar four-note guitar riff, though I can’t quite figure out what it reminds me of. […]
THE TAO OF EVA: Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks
BY EVA LIAO Today I taught my 75-year-old grandfather [that’s him and my grandmother back in the day] to use the computer. Or, at least I tried to. We began at the very beginning: I showed him where the monitor power button was and how to turn on the system unit. We got to Windows, opened up Firefox. And then we hit a roadblock — apparently, double-clicking is problematic when you’re this old and have never touched a mouse before. We spent 10 minutes practicing on the glass table. “Grandpa, you have to do it quickly.” Tap-tap. Tap-tap. I demonstrated […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Novelist Bill Flanagan wrote the comedy A&R about the smooth operators and the scatty artists who make the music business so entertaining; now he’s lampooning the cable-TV industry in his novel New Bedlam. The source for his send-ups? His career as an MTV networks exec. ALSO, On his third album, Up Front & Down Low, singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson covers classic country songs including “She Thinks I Still Care,” “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers,” and “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone.” RADIO TIMES Hour 1 The number of suicide bombings in Iraq have surpassed those conducted worldwide since […]
CYBERPUNK: Flippin’ Sweet Deal For iPhone Hacker
The teenage hacker who found a way to unlock the iPhone so that the device would not be restricted to use solely on AT&T Inc.’s cellular networks will be trading his reworked gadget for a new car. George Hotz, of Glen Rock, N.J., said he had reached the deal with CertiCell, a Louisville, Ky.-based mobile phone repair company. Hotz posted on his blog that he traded his modified iPhone for a “sweet Nissan 350Z and (three) iPhones.” The 17-year-old Hotz said he will be sending the three new iPhones to three of his online collaborators who helped him unlock Apple […]
TROUBLED BRIDGE OVER WATER: 404 PA Bridges Rated ‘Structurally Deficient’ — Same As Minn. Bridge
IN GOD DRPA WE TRUST: Opening of the Walt Whitman Bridge, 1957 BY PAUL NUSSBAUM & DYLAN PURCELL OF THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Throughout the five-county Pennsylvania region, there are 404 bridges that, like the Minnesota bridge, are designated “structurally deficient” and rated at or below 50 percent on a sufficiency scale. The local bridges are among 25,000 state-owned bridges identified Monday, along with their condition ratings, in a list released by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. PennDot had refused for months to release bridge-safety ratings of state-owned bridges, but agreed to make them public after the Minnesota collapse. The low-rated […]
ANCHORWOMAN: Alycia Lane Needs A Boyfriend
INQLINGS: “Is there a new guy in the life of CBS3 anchor Alycia Lane? Newsies at New York’s CBS2 are linking her to Chris Wragge, that station’s alpha anchormale. I hear that the Jersey-bred Wragge, 37, has been separated from Swedish Playboy model Victoria Silvstedt, whom he married in 2000. (References to their marriage have been excised from his CBS2 bio and from Silvstedt’s Web site.) Lane, 35, twice divorced, would not comment.” [via the INQUIRER] PHAWKLINGS: If THIS is Alycia Lane’s new boyfriend, then we don’t even wanna see those ‘risque’ pix she allegedly sent to you know who. […]
VIET NOW: General Petraeus’ Right-Hand Woman Is In The Cross-Hairs Of A Major Fed Corruption Probe
BY JAMES GLAN & ERIC SCHMITT OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 — Several federal agencies are investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other materiel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American officials. The officials said it amounted to the largest ring of fraud and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here. The inquiry has already led to several indictments of Americans, with more expected, the officials said. One of the investigations involves a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen. David H. […]