In this insurgent propaganda film, three men throw Russian-made thermal armor-piercing grenades at passing Coalition vehicles. Astonishing not just for its raw brutality, but for how effectively the attacks are captured on film — looks like a three camera shoot — and turned into Jihadist porn. ASSOCIATED PRESS: BAGHDAD – The U.S. military said yesterday that 14 American soldiers were killed over the last three days, including four in a single roadside bombing and another who was struck by a suicide bomber while on a foot patrol.
KILLADELPHIA: One More Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
A man was killed early Saturday in a shooting a few blocks from Temple University’s campus, police said. The shooting took place just before 12:30 a.m. on the 1700 block of Sydenham Street. Police said the victim was not a Temple student, but were only describing him as being in his 20s. Police did not report any arrests. The fatal shooting was Philadelphia’s 168th homicide of 2007, a pace of more than one a day. NBC10: #168 Is A Done Deal KYW: Protesters Hold Die-In At Independence Mall DAILY NEWS: Death Of A ‘Hood Prince’
THE NEW PANIC: Reading Between The Lines Of JFK Terror Plot Indictment
At a certain point, something will go wrong. You may have trouble recruiting other people to collaborate with your very own terrorist, who is, as you yourself know, just an ordinary guy in a really bad mood. Or, alternatively, the terrorist cell you have carefully cobbled together may malfunction and fail to move forward — probably as a result of sheer incompetence or of simply not having been genuinely serious about the acts of terrorism you were urging it to commit. At this point, you may worry that the FBI is going to realize that there isn’t much of a terrorist […]
CINEMA: SPEED KILLS DEAD
BUG (2006, directed by William Friedkin, 102 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC With monster sequels from blockbuster franchises gobbling up the majority of megaplex screens at the kick-off of the summer season, Lionsgate is doing some crazy counter-programming by attempting to pass off William Friedkin’s adaption of the Tracy Lett’s stage hit Bug as a Saw-like horror film for the blood-drunk masses. While this slow-building, claustrophobic psychological thriller ultimately ascends to a climax as gruesomely horrific as Requiem For A Dream’s, Bug would have likely found a more accepting audience in the art-house circuit rather than being booked […]
IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Macca In Twilight
This week’s New Yorker has a gorgeous piece on Paul McCartney, a Macca-in-twillight kind of thing, in consideration of his upcoming 65th birthday. It stretches across 10 pages but can’t escape the Beatles, of course. Then again, it seems like Sir Paul is at the point in his oldish-man life where he’s enjoying telling the stories again — which girlfriend he was riding in the car with when he wrote this song, the flush of pride he felt upon being complimented by John Lennon, a genuine sense of amazement at his own life’s events. My favorite part is this: McCartney […]
GUEST EDITORIAL: Eating Washington’s Squirrels
BY WILLIAM A. SOMMERFIELD For the past 10 years, the American Historical Theatre in Philadelphia has prided itself on the professional quality of the guides, docents and historical performers (or interpreters) we train and send out into the world to make the history of our nation come alive. Over time we have trained docents, guides and first person interpreters for important historical sites throughout the country. Philadelphia has a cadre of highly trained professionals, many of them are graduates from the American Historical Theatre program. You can tour historic Philadelphia by tour bus, trolley, double-decker bus, walking guide, horse carriage […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Roth‘s twenty-seventh book, Everyman, centers on a successful septuagenarian’s response to his physical decline and approaching death. The man, who’s never named, has no religion or philosophy to cling to; reviewer Gail Caldwell of the Boston Globe writes that the book is a “swift, brutal novel about a heartbreakingly ordinary subject, and it is also testament to Roth that the book leaves you a little breathless and not at all bereft.” RADIO TIMES A rebroadcast of our show on the controversial practice of “Stop and Frisk.” It’s a crime prevention technique championed by Michael Nutter, […]
HOLLA: The Tao Of Poo
BY JAMES DOOLITTLE As the wife can attest, the only thing this here Wook likes more than the 19 weeks of sex tied into the latest R. Kelly release (that’s right, one track per week) is a good, healthy, hearty dump. Alright, alright, maybe I’d place “The Wire” and a slice of “quattro formaggio” from Joe’s Pizza at the two and three positions, but we’re at least placing fourth in regards to the morning expulsion. And don’t kid yourself — you do too. Nothing says goodbye to that crappy day that was yesterday than, well, crap, which is why my […]