Eric Draper/White House In the Blue Room of the White House, before the Kennedy Center Honors, from left, the pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher; the movie director Martin Scorsese; the singer Diana Ross; President Bush; the songwriter Brian Wilson; Laura Bush; and the actor and writer Steve Martin. [via NEW YORK TIMES]
10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT M.I.A. AT THE ELECTRIC FACTORY SATURDAY NIGHT
TIGER BOMB: M.I.A., Electric Factory, Last Night CLICK TO ENLARGE Yes, the rumors are true — M.I.A. is absolutely beautiful, both in sparkly skintight spandex and a t-shirt three sizes too large, either standing tall like Shiva the Destroyer or seemingly trying to make a baby with the stack of speakers. Few things fire up a crowd more than opening with “Bamboo Banger.” And seeing as how it’s HER song, it only makes sense that she should open with it, if you think about it. Also, few things are as hard as waiting for the song to kick in after […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
STOPPING THE INSANITY: Teddy Bear Teacher Pardoned By President Of Sudan KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudan’s president on Monday agreed to pardon a British teacher jailed here after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, British politician Lord Nazir Ahmed said. Ahmed and another Muslim representative from Britain’s House of Lords, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Monday at his presidential palace to plead for Gillian Gibbons’ pardon. “The president has told us he has already signed the papers for her pardon,” Ahmed told reporters. Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahzoub Faidul told The Associated Press that […]
HALL MONITOR: Our Unofficial City Council Minutes
TIME CAPSULE: Lucien Blackwell presents proclamation to Maurice Barboza in Council chambers on February 25th, 1988. Also pictured, Anna Verna and young Ben Franklin. Unofficial Minutes of City Council Meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday November 29, 2007 BY ABIGAIL SHEPHERD, CITY HALL CORRESPONDENT-IN-TRAINING 10:00 Is when the City Council meeting is scheduled to commence, but the Committee on Appropriations meeting being held in Council chambers is running late and seeing as how these guys dole out the dough, nobody has the balls to ask them kindly wrap it up. So we wait…and wait. 10:05 A group of […]
RIP: Evel Knievel 1938-2007
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose exploits made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69. Knievel’s death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills. [via SPORTS ILLUSTRATED]
KILLADELPHIA: One More Dead Since U Went To Bed
DAILY NEWS: A 20-year-old man was fatally shot in broad daylight yesterday in Point Breeze. Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl said Jamar Williams was sitting inside a white van on Dickinson Street near Capitol at 2:47 p.m. when he was shot in the back and abdomen. Williams, of Stanley Street near Dickinson, got out the van and collapsed. He died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at 3:30 p.m. Witnesses said they had not gotten a look at the driver of the vehicle, and it’s unknown what motivated the shooting, Riehl said. According to court records, Williams was arrested […]