Tomorrow we will run the third installment of hazy-crazy-mary-and-dirty-larry memories of our gloriously misspent ’80s youth, specifically the time we following a band called the Butthole Surfers around like the Grateful Dead. We would have posted it today, but the statute of limitations doesn’t run out on some of that stuff until tomorrow. You know how it is. Anyway, we will also — God willing — have a PHAWKER TV interview with Gibby up by sometime Sunday or first thing Monday. If you have any specific questions you need answered — you know like, ‘Were you really Kurt Cobain’s roommate […]
PAPERBOY EXTRA: Dead Man Whining
BY AMY Z. QUINN Courtesy our friends at the Washington (D.C.) City Paper, a cautionary tale about how to make make your newspaper’s online and print operations hate each other with only the contempt that bitter mid-career journalists can muster (hint: moving them to a different building might dilute the whole ‘we’re on the same team’ thing). Many people in the Post newsroom would prefer that their peers at washingtonpost.com restrict themselves to technical stuff. Post the brilliant news stories that come from 15th and L, put together slide shows, edit the videos, and go home. But it doesn’t work […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Czech-born filmmaker Milos Forman is an Academy Award-winning director, but his life story, as Forman tells Terry Gross, is no less dramatic than his cinematic success. Born in 1932 in a small town near Prague, Forman experienced war at a young age, when Nazi armies marched on his country. Though Forman continued to live in Czechoslovakia under Gestapo rule, his Jewish father and Protestant mother were sent to Auschwitz, where they perished. After the war, Czechoslovakia came under communist rule, and Forman attended the Prague Film Institute. He began his film-making career during the “new wave of Czech […]
EYE SAW AN X-RAY OF A GIRL PASSING GAS Part 2: Remember Son, ‘Better To Regret Something You HAVE Done Than To Regret Something You HAVEN’T Done’
BY JONATHAN VALANIA [CLICK HERE TO READ PART 1] Admittedly it was hard to evangelize about a band called Butthole Surfers — the name itself took a lot of explaining. (“Yeah, I know, I know ‘stupid name’, but…not gay, no, nothing gay about them…well actually I guess the drummer is gay…but there is a naked chick dancing most of the time.” And that was just with my mother! It didn’t go any easier with the family pastor, let me tell ya.) But evangelize we did, because brothers and sisters, friends of the revolution, after 20 epileptic minutes under those strobe […]
Learning Japanese On The Internet Is Easy
Today we learn how to say ‘what food do you like?’. Hint: Don’t order the rhino. Trust me. Next time we will learn how to find out where the bathroom is. So lay off the liquids until then. Again, trust me.
PAPERBOY: ‘Duane’s Last Stand’ Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and […]
5 Things You Should Know About FOOD FOR ANIMALS
1. Founding members Vulture Voltaire (rhymes) and Ricky Rabbit (beats) began life as dutiful D.C.-area hardcore kids, but they could not ignore the gravitational yank of the funk, the skronk-appeal of free jazz, or the verbal clarity of hip-hop. Now they make crazy rap songs. Don’t even try to talk smack about Outkast around them. 2. Vulture V needed some lyrical yin to his yang, so the group made rapper Hy a fully vested member for “Belly,” their second CD, which has a home on Hoss Records. Hy is supremely confident about his microphone abilities: “But fuck bein’ humble/When it […]
CAMPUS MASSACRE: Ill. Gunman Kills 5, Shoots 18
DeKALB, Ill. — With minutes left in a class in ocean sciences at Northern Illinois University on Thursday afternoon, a tall skinny man dressed all in black stepped out from behind a curtain on the stage of the lecture hall, said nothing, and opened fire with a shotgun, the authorities and witnesses said. The man shot again and again, witnesses said, perhaps 20 times or more. Students in the large lecture hall, stunned and screaming, dropped to the floor. They crouched behind anything they could find, even an overhead projector. They scattered, the blood of victims spattering, some said, on […]
SPORTO: If I Were A Congressman…
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY If I were a Congressman, the back and forth between Roger Clemens and me might sound something like this: Congressman Mike: Thank you Chairman. I’ve listened to the questions and the answers from our witnesses today, and I’d like to start with a statement. Mr. Clemens, you are so full of shit I can smell you from here. Lawyer Guy: Objection! Accurate but uncalled for! CM: Withdrawn. I’d like to get to the thing that has always bothered me the most, Mr. Clemens. In 2004 you were the starting pitcher for the Houston Astros in […]
COMING ATTRACTION: An Exclusive Interview With I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Director Sam Jones
In honor of you-know-who coming to town next week we will be running an in-depth Q&A with Sam Jones, the director of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Sam is probably better known for his commercial photography — you have seen his work, believe me. He recently published Here And Now (Harper Collins), a collection of his stunning celebrity portraiture, with forward by George Clooney. [Artwork by SETH WOLFSHORNDL]
CUPIDITY: A NSFW Valentine From Robert DeNiro
[Click his tummy to activate] BONUS: What Obama Has Done For You Lately
EARLY WORD: Hit The Road, Jack
PHILADELPHIA – On February 15th, the Hiway Theatre, located at 212 Old York Road in Jenkintown, will premiere the film series, Road Trips and Amazing Journeys to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the historic theatre’s reopening. The opening night celebration will begin with a screening of director Walter Salles’ acclaimed feature The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), chronicling the adventures of a young Che Guevara, followed by the featured selection for the evening – the critically acclaimed comedy Last Stop for Paul. Hailed as, “A unique accomplishment. Always entertaining. Very funny and at times quite touching” by film critic Richard Roeper, the […]
CINEMA: Brutal Youth
YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH (2007, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 124 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Back in September of last year, The New York Times ran an article called “Francis Ford Coppola, A Kid To Watch.” A.O. Scott’s article spun a tale of how the sixty-eight year old director had re-stoked the fire in his belly while working quickly and efficiently with a young Romanian crew on his brainy and reflective comeback. It was an enticing idea, that after poking around his vineyard for the last decade Coppola had kicked off whatever funk had led him to make misfire […]