ASSOCIATED PRESS: Miley Cyrus is taking issue with a photo of herself that’s going around, and it’s not another amateur, truth-or-dare Internet snapshot — it’s the handiwork of Annie Leibovitz. “I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed,” Cyrus said Sunday in a statement through her publicist. “I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about.” The photos, appearing in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, were taken by Leibovitz, […]
HEAR YE: Portishead Third
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Why? Because we love you! (cover art after the jump)
RAW FOOTAGE: Our Man In Afghanistan
KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan was Monday investigating how militants could get within 500 metres of President Hamid Karzai and other top leaders to carry out a brazen attack that left three Afghans dead. The insurgent Taliban movement said it launched Sunday’s attack to show it had the power to strike even the nation’s biggest annual military parade.The event, which was supposed to showcase the Afghan army’s growing strength after getting new training and equipment, mainly from the United States, had been weeks in the making with stepped-up patrols and roadblocks around Kabul. MORE
SICKO: Father Imprisons, Rapes Daughter For 24 Years
[Click HERE to learn the story behind this picture] VIENNA, Austria – Police have found a woman missing since 1984, who told authorities that her father had kept her in a cellar for almost 24 years and that she had given birth to at least six children after being repeatedly raped by him. The 73-year-old father (pictured, left) was taken into custody, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, on Sunday. Authorities found the woman [NOT pictured, above] Saturday evening in the town of Amstetten following a tip, Lower Austria police said in a statement. […]
HEAR YE: Madonna Hard Candy
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Why? Because we still wanna ‘do’ her, ya big dummy! NEW YORK TIMES: Alongside whatever she has offered her audience through the years — sex, glamour, dancing, defiance, blasphemy, spirituality — Madonna has never pretended to be anything but diligent. She’s disciplined, hard-working and determined to sell. For Madonna as a pop archetype, the truest pleasure isn’t momentary physical ecstasy or divine rapture but success. She labeled that impulse too in an early tour: “Blonde Ambition.” Presenting herself not only as an object of desire but as a material girl with her eye on the […]
KILLADELPHIA: 5 More Dead Since U Went To Bed
DAILY NEWS: Amid a busy weekend bustling with criminal activity, including four killings in about 12 hours, two stabbings and two shootings, police arrested two people accused of two of the crimes. Nicole Wilson, 26, was arrested yesterday after police said she beat a 66-year-old man to death at a Sunoco gas station in Logan. Police said Wilson beat the man after an argument over a cigarette about 4 a.m. on Broad Street near Windrim Avenue. The unidentified man was pronounced dead at Albert Einstein Medical Center at 5:23 a.m. Derrick Whitfield, 23, was arrested yesterday. Police said he shot […]
CINEMA: The Second Coming Of Harmony Korine
NEW YORK TIMES: HARMONY KORINE catapulted to fame as an enfant terrible, and for a few years he played the part to perfection. He was the young skateboarder turned wunderkind screenwriter behind Larry Clark’s 1995 sensation, “Kids.” At 24 he directed “Gummo” (1997), about glue-sniffing, cat-killing teenagers in a Rust Belt backwater. Most critics hated its junkyard, freak-show aesthetic, but it spawned an instant cult, with devotees including Werner Herzog, who became a mentor and collaborator, and Gus Van Sant. Mr. Korine’s next film, “Julien Donkey-Boy” (1999), inspired by his schizophrenic uncle, continued the gutter-punk provocations. But after that he […]
DOUBLE STANDARD: The Wrath Of Farrakhan
HUFFINGTON POST: At last Tuesday’s Democratic debate, Sen. Hillary Clinton drew out her objections to Sen. Barack Obama‘s relationship with his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, saying that what troubled her was not just Wright’s incendiary language, but his past praise for Louis Farrakhan, the controversial head of the Nation of Islam. “It is clear that, as leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to,” said Clinton. “And I think that it wasn’t only the specific remarks but some of the relationships with Reverend Farrakhan, with giving […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
I AM SUPERMAN: Live Forever, The Barbary, Last Night [Photos by TIFFANY YOON/CLICK TO ENLARGE]
The Wrongful Life & Death Of Kenneth Keith Kallenbach
INQUIRER: Kallenbach’s mother said the staff at the privately run Delaware County prison — which in 2005 was the subject of at least two inquiries into the deaths of five inmates in as many months — failed to properly treat Kallenbach’s cystic fibrosis, a congenital disease that affects the lungs and other vital organs and can lead to chronic infections and premature death. “If he had been home and gotten all of his medications, all these things he needed, he would be alive today,” the retired telephone operator for Verizon said in a phone interview. She said her son had […]
LISTEN LIKE THIEVES: Your Daily Dose Of ScarJo
DOWNLOAD: Scarlett Johansson (2008) Song For Jo (MP3)
FEAR & LOATHING: Black Dems Super-Pissed; 73 Rich White Hillary Donors Jump Ship To Obama
WASHINGTON POST: There are signs that the anger voiced by some African Americans is beginning to extend to the Democratic donor base. Campaign finance records released this week show that a growing number of Clinton’s early supporters migrated to Obama in March, after he achieved 11 straight victories. Of those who had previously made maximum contributions to Clinton, 73 wrote their first checks to Obama in March. The reverse was not true: Of those who had made large contributions to Obama last year, none wrote checks to Clinton in March. “I think she is destroying the Democratic Party,” said New […]
HEAR YE: The Roots Rising Down
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Why, because we love you! Ya big dummy! URBAN MUSIC: On April 29, the Roots will unveil Rising Down — the latest step in the six-member Philadelphia hip-hop band’s 15-year evolution on record. The darkly funky, politically charged project is now almost done after more than a year of recording, though it is currently missing contributions from planned guest artists Common, Lupe Fiasco, and Q-Tip.Earlier this week, EW stopped by the Manhattan studio where rapper Tariq ”Black Thought” Trotter, 35, and drummer/producer Ahmir ”?uestlove” Thompson, 37, are working on some final touches, and scored an […]