The Good News Flower Hour #1 Humbly submitted for your approval, a new animated feature wherein I am a flower that reads the news.
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
RADIO TIMES Joel Rose fills in for Marty and interviews ART SPIEGELMAN, famous for his comic, Maus. Spiegelman is re-introducing his 1978 book, “Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!,” his transformational memoir. We’re also joined by Comix writer, DAVID HEATLEY, who is continuing in the comic narrative form with his new book, “My Brain is Hanging Upside Down.” Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3 FRESH AIR The legendary Chicago broadcaster Studs Terkel dedicated his life to capturing the stories of ordinary Americans through oral histories. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for his […]
CONVENIENT TRUTH: The Rock That Saved Earth?
REUTERS: A rock found mostly in Oman can be harnessed to soak up the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at a rate that could help slow global warming, scientists say. When carbon dioxide comes in contact with the rock, peridotite, the gas is converted into solid minerals such as calcite. Geologist Peter Kelemen and geochemist Juerg Matter said the naturally occurring process can be supercharged 1 million times to grow underground minerals that can permanently store 2 billion or more of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted by human activity every year. Their study will appear in the […]
NEW JERSEY BURNING: Obama Supporter Wakes Up To Find Charred Cross On His Front Lawn
INQUIRER: An Obama supporter in New Jersey woke up Thursday morning to discover the remnants of a cross burning on his front lawn. Wrapped around the charred 6-foot cross was a scorched homemade banner congratulating president-elect Obama on his victory. State police are calling the incident a bias crime. Gary Grewal, 51, of Hardwick Township, Warren County, was taking his daughter to work at 7:30 a.m. when he spotted the remains of the cross. “I saw this thing in my front yard,” Grewal said. “I didn’t know what it was.” Draped over the fallen cross, made of 2-by-4s and a […]
CINEMA: Eternal Moonshine Of The Besotted Mind
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (2008, directed by Charlie Kaufman, 124 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Even though I’m all for expanding the vocabulary of the American public, Synecdoche, New York has got to be the most alienating title for a film since the Coen Brothers’ Hudsucker Proxy. For the record, “synecdoche” (rhymes with Schenectady, pronounced “si-nek-duh-kee”) is defined as “a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as ‘hand’ for sailor), or the whole for a part (as ‘the law’ for police officer)”. It’s an obscure word for a difficult-to-grasp concept but screenwriter Charlie […]
JOE MENTUM: Smell Ya Later
Dear Jonathan, The Huffington Post is reporting that in their meeting today, Reid told Lieberman that he had to step down from his position as chair of the Homeland Security Committee if he remained in the Democratic Caucus. Lieberman did not accept this offer, which means that his only redress is to go around Reid and petition the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee to keep his seat. We’ve watched for years as Joe called war opponents traitors, lied about wanting to bring the troops home to get elected, stabbed Democrats in the back and did everything he could to […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Journalist and economist Robert Kuttner has reported on elections for over three decades. His latest book, Obama’s Challenge, looks at the many Herculean obstacles the president-elect faces — and what it will take to tackle them. “If he is able to rise to the moment,” Kuttner writes, “he could join the ranks of a small handful of previous presidents who have been truly transformative, succeeding in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better.” Kuttner’s previous works include The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity, Making Work Pay: America after […]
THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OL’ DIXIE DOWN: Obama Wins NC, Third Confederate State In WIN Column
BOSTON GLOBE: Barack Obama’s big victory on Tuesday just keeps getting bigger. The Associated Press is now giving the president-elect North Carolina, too, concluding that there are not enough uncounted ballots left for John McCain to overcome Obama’s lead. The win in North Carolina gives Obama a whopping 364 Electoral College votes, with Missouri the only state that’s too close to call. The victory in North Carolina adds yet another solidly red state to Obama’s column. His success in the Tar Heel State, as well as his wins in Indiana and Virginia, are a remarkable achievement. No Democratic candidate has […]
LIKE A FOX: Internal External
Like A Fox celebrates the release of Where Is My Golden Arm? (Transit Of Venus) Saturday at Johnny Brenda’s.
PAPERBOY: Election Afterglow Edition
BY DAVE ALLEN 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 steer […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BOW WOW WOW: Deerhunter, First Unitarian, Last Night [photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY TIFFANY YOON Bradford Cox and his gang put on a killer show, with the setlist drawn largely from their new album Microcastle, easily in my Top Five of the year. Cox seems to love Philadelphia, which he will forever associate with scrapple and pneumonia. I think he tells these stories every time he plays a show in Philly, but let’s start with the scrapple. Apparently, Cox didn’t know what scrapple was until he went to the Melrose Diner the last time through town. Curious, he orders some […]
NUTTER: City Finances Win World Series Of Hurt
INQUIRER: Mayor Nutter will announce drastic new steps today to close a $1 billion gap in the city’s five-year budget, including the closure of 11 of 54 branch libraries and dozens of city pools, a freeze on tax reductions, reduced hours or programs at more than a dozen recreation centers, and fewer engines at some firehouses, according to sources familiar with his plans. Until now, Nutter had estimated the budget gap at up to $850 million. “At $850 million, it continues to grow,” he said last night. To address the even bigger figure, scheduled city-funded cuts in the business and […]
HISTORY TURNS A PAGE: And So It Begins…
NEWSWEEK: Secrets Of The 2008 Campaign [HIGHLY RECOMMENDED] POLITICO: Critics said they were too nice, too vague on the issues, too obsessed with the youth vote and too dependent on all those penny-ante Internet donors. But Obama’s core group of Chicago advisers, led by former reporter David Axelrod, has created a new paradigm for post-Rove campaigning. Instead of exploiting wedge issues (as Rove did) or micro-targeting demographic niche groups (as the Clintons and their pollster, Mark Penn, did), they focused on exciting a new base of young people, educated whites and minority voters. Get-out-the-vote wizard Steve Hildebrand built a hyperdisciplined […]