Dates and venues have been confirmed for the second leg of Radiohead’s upcoming North American tour. They are: August 1 – Lollapalooza – Chicago, IL August 3 – Verizon Wireless Music Center – Indianapolis, IN August 4 – Blossom Music Center – Cleveland, OH August 6 – Parc Jean Drapeau – Montreal, QC August 8 – All Points West Music & Arts Festival/Liberty State Park – Jersey City, NJ August 9 – All Points West Music & Arts Festival/Liberty State Park – Jersey City, NJ August 12 – Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ August 13 – Tweeter Center For […]
PAYA THE ELEPHANT: Self-Portrait
I know we said that Olympic torch vid was INSANE, but this is blowing our frickin’ mind: An elephant painting his self-portrait! We shit you not. You can see the real-time version here, minus the pumping house music. We had our doubts up until we saw this. Is this the end of art as we now know it? What about First Friday? It seems so pointless now.
WORTH REPEATING: The Inanity Of Evil
SALON: Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days: “Yoo and torture” – 102 “Mukasey and 9/11” — 73 “Yoo and Fourth Amendment” — 16 “Obama and bowling” — 1,043 “Obama and Wright” — More than 3,000 (too many to be counted) “Obama and patriotism” — 1,607 “Clinton and Lewinsky” — 1,079 [MORE]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
WELL-RESPECTED MAN: Ray Davies, Tower Theater, Saturday [by TIFFANY YOON] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER For anyone under 30, the best way to hear the music of the Kinks is by watching the films of Wes Anderson — pretty much any one will do, as they are all generously larded with choice Kinks cuts indelibly wedded to strikingly precious visual tableaux. Anyone over 30 should have gone to the Tower Theatre Saturday night to see Ray Davies, the man who wrote, strummed and sang all those classic, quintessentially English pop songs. Anderson’s films lend the Kinks’ music the kind […]
RAW FOOTAGE: Snuffing The Torch Of Tyranny
Or trying to, anyway. This is INSANE. Can’t believe the Chinese government thought this torch thing was gonna work out for them. Touring across the globe, the torch is like the world’s greatest car chase, and it shines a light on Tibet from now to the lighting ceremony. Burn, baby, burn. VIDEO: Olympic torch relay flame attack, Ladbroke Grove, london (2008)
BERSERKER: Man Loses His Shit Near Reading
READING EAGLE: A Reading man climbed atop [his] moving minivan Friday on the West Shore Bypass, stood on the roof and rode the vehicle until it crashed and catapulted him into the woods, West Reading police reported. Witnesses told police that the man then climbed up an embankment, stripped naked and ran several hundred yards down the busy highway bleeding from a foot-long gash in his side. Police responding to calls from frantic motorists used three separate jolts from a Taser and pepper spray to subdue the nude man. The Taser had no effect, and police eventually tackled the 38-year-old […]
FEST PICKS: Afghan Strongmen & The Matrix Redux
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC AFGHAN MUSCLES (2007, directed by Andreas Dalsgaard, 58 minutes, Denmark) Usually when I’m talking to Festival goers right after the schedule is announced, they proclaim to be unimpressed. Sure they recognize a few titles to get excited about but who’s ever heard about the rest of these films anyway? But what was that song Bo Diddley sang about books and their covers? I certainly had no clue by looking at the blurb for Afghan Muscles that it would be one of the most memorable Festival films I’ve seen so far. I’m not sure what even […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
I AM OMEGA MAN: Les Savy Fav, The Fillmore, Last Night First-a-fuckin-all, The Dodos, French Kiss labelmates of Les Savy Fav, put on a killer opening set — in no way were they intimidated by the indie-rock juggernaut they were setting the stage for. Though they only played to a fraction of the crowd LSF would draw, The Dodos banged out every song of their short set as though they were the headliners. Smoke a pack less this week and buy their latest, Visiter, instead. Both your ears and your lungs will thank you. After opening with the filthy garage-esque […]
I, POLLSTER: Phawker’s Hilariously Un-Scientific Pennsyltucky Primary Keystoned Cell Phone Poll
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A long time ago, in a Clinton campaign far, far away, James Carville famously declared that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Alabama in between. Aw, yeah: Pennsyltucky. We know thee well. It’s sort of like watching the Dukes Of Hazzard after smoking too much kielbasa. Like sweat socks with a Sunday suit. Like the Deer Hunter costumed by Wal-Mart. It’s the long dark Chicken Dance of the national soul. Lord help us all. Anyway, with the national press are already converging on the Keystone state to get some local color on their laptops, we feel an […]
RIP: Moses Charlton Heston Dead At 84
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing “Ben-Hur” and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the ’50s and ’60s, has died. He was 84. Heston spokesman Bill Powers says the actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia was at his side. Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s disease, saying, “I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure.” With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal […]
WORD: Of Chickenhawks & Hi-Tech Lynchings
[“The Negro Soldier” by THOMAS HART BENTON] By Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss April 3, 2008 [via THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE] In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines. In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.) The […]
TONITE: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
TO MY GREAT CHAGRIN: THE UNBELIEVABLE STORY OF BROTHER THEODORE (2007, directed by Jeff Sumerel, 90 minutes, U.S.) Artlessly cobbled together, TO MY GREAT CHAGRIN tells us the story behind Brother Theodore, a one-of-a-kind act who delivered intelligently insane monologues in a ranting thickly-accented voice, most memorably on the NBC version of Letterman’s late night show. Brother Theodore never broke character on stage, so it does satiate the curiosity fans might have had about just who this madman really was. His story is stranger then you might imagine; once a German playboy, the son of fashion magazine magnates, WW2 took […]