BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT My plus one described Louder as post-apocalyptic primal therapy. Perhaps “therapy” is the wrong choice of words: I think “punishment” is more like it. Louder is not for the weak of heart, and very much for the hard of hearing. If you go, do yourself a favor and TAKE the complementary pair of earplugs offered at the ticket desk. As you settle yourself into the humid warehouse of the Blackbox Theater, take note of the phalanxes of antiquated Soviet Union megaphone horns staring you in the face. Also, you may notice that there are about […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Letter From Obama
Jonathan — You’d be surprised how many people you know aren’t registered to vote. Registration deadlines are coming up soon, and we need every single vote we can get to win this election. Tell your friends, family, and neighbors to check out our new one-stop voter registration website. Just forward this message. VoteforChange.com makes it easier than ever to register. Instead of tracking down the right forms, all you need to do is answer a few basic questions and you’ll be ready to vote. You can also: Confirm your existing registration Apply to vote absentee Find your polling place […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
AMERICAN ROUTES Get Rhythm: A Tribute to Johnny Cash It’s a two-hour tribute in song and story to the Man in Black. We’ll hear from his family, friends and associates on the contradictions–preacher, outlaw, loving family man, rockabilly rebel–that made the man. Voices include Rosanne Cash; son John Carter Cash; sister Joanne Yates; bassist and original member of the Tennessee Two Marshall Grant; guitarist Johnny Western; producer Rick Rubin; long time manager Lou Robin; writer and critic Michael Streissguth; and of course Johnny Cash. THE WORLD CAFE Formed in 2002 as a trio of singer-songwriters (it eventually grew into a […]
DEENEY: Let Us Now Praise Jill Porter
BY JEFF DEENEY Jill Porter deserves to be spotlighted for her column about Thomas Scatling, which is a refreshingly even handed and well informed take on the man behind the Broad Street subway hammer attack. Porter focuses on the question of whyScantling was on the streets as opposed to under long term care at a mental health facility despite the fact that he was 302ed, or involuntarily committed, just weeks before the incident. Scantling had a history of violent behavior and was no stranger to the mental health system and the criminal courts. So why was he on the Broad Street […]
TRADING SPACES: 30 Year Old Poe House Exhibit To Be Upgraded To State Of The Tell-Tale Art
KYW: Just in time of the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth, his Philadelphia home is getting a new look. The house is just a few blocks from downtown Philadelphia. Edgar Allan Poe lived there for about 18 months in the early 1840s. The current exhibits are 30 years old — and interpretive program specialist Mary Jenkins says it’s time for a change. Jenkins says visitors will see Poe’s influence on world literature and on popular culture. Poe penned classics including “The Telltale Heart” and “The Black Cat” while living in the Philadelphia house. It closes December 1 and reopen […]
MOTHER: John Lennon’s Oedipus Wreck
THE SUN: JOHN LENNON fantasised about having sex with his mother Julia, according to a leaked audio diary which it is claimed he recorded a year before his death. His widow YOKO ONO and BEATLES bandmate PAUL McCARTNEY are furious about forthcoming book John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman, which makes the lurid accusation. However on the tape – which you can listen to by clicking here – a voice alleged to be John’s can be heard noting: “I was just remembering the time I had my hand on my mother’s t*t in 1 Blomfield Road. “It was when […]
SNL: Cure For Dem Bedwetters?
OBAMA SAYS: Be Cool. UPDATE: WASHINGTON — With a deadly hurricane aimed at Texas, Barack Obama cancelled his appearence on Saturday Night Live this evening, spokesman Jen Psaki in a statement. “In the light of the unfolding crisis in Texas, Senator Obama has decided it is no longer appropriate to appear on Saturday Night Live tomorrow evening,” she said. WALL STREET JOURNAL: Barack Obama will make his second appearance on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend for the season premiere, hosted by Olympian Michael Phelps. “The details of the sketch are still being worked out,” an Obama campaign spokesperson told People […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Show Must Go On Is Must See
BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT The stage is dark. Two soundtracks have played their course, and still no sign of the dancers. Finally, in the middle of the third song, the lights flicker on, and the dancers, who look quite pedestrian, saunter on stage and are met with thunderous applause. What!?! They haven’t even done anything—wait, I’m applauding too—and now they’re just staring at us. What’s going on? Why is the audience having such a grand old time? Hmm. Now the fourth song has switched on: it’s “I like to move it. Move it.” After the first “Move it!” the […]
HEAR YE:Brightblack Morning Light Motion To Rejoin
Now playing on Phawker Radio! BY JONATHAN VALANIA Back in the early- to mid-’80s that today’s hepcats so lovingly fetishize and recycle, there were two kinds of bands: those that looked forward and those that looked back. The forward-lookers were going for the shock of the new, of course, while the backward-lookers opted for the comfort of the past. The forward-lookers were usually British, had pouffy hair and billowy pastel clothes that snapped and zippered in weird places, and all of them seemed to get their names from either A Clockwork Orange or Barbarella — Duran Duran, Heaven 17, Ultravox. […]
FRINGE PICK: One Louder
louder Verdensteatret Norwegian collaborative Verdensteatret presents the U.S. Premiere of louder, a highly experimental audiovisual installation that incorporates video art, sculptural scenery, puppetry, and live music at The Festival Bar’s black box theater (626 North 5th Street) located in Northern Liberties. (Word is, it’s visually stunning and damn loud, but you’ll get ear plugs.) Last winter, Verdensteatret sailed Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the same river that plays the veins and arteries around the heart of darkness in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Inspired by their journey, louder is a symphonic collage of music and visual art: massive video projections of the […]
SAY IT OUT LOUD: John McCain Is Lying To America
Routinely. Without blinking. Without apology. Possibly without even knowing it sometimes. Just watch. Time to end the misguided moratorium on calling a liar a L-I-A-R. People only stop lying when you call them a liar. And no, ‘less than truthful’ ain’t cutting it. Video by TheRealMcCain.com: There’s no question John McCain is getting a free ride from the mainstream press. But with the power of YouTube and the blogosphere, we can provide an accurate portrayal of the so-called Maverick. We can put the brakes on his free ride! UPDATE: Thank you ladies of The View. We’ll take the Fourth Estate […]
INDEPENDENCE DAY: Answer Blowing In The Wind?
CNN: In another sign of growth in the ocean wind business, the American Wind Energy Association — the leading trade group for wind in the U.S. — drew more than 400 participants this week at an offshore wind conference in Delaware, about double the expected attendance, Bornholdt noted. In terms of the first possible offshore project in the U.S., Delaware appears to have jumped to the front of the line to tap into nation’s vast ocean wind resource, some 15 years after Europe led the way with the world’s first major offshore projects. Bluewater Wind of Hoboken, N.J., which proposes […]
CINEMA: After Burner
BURN AFTER READING (2008, directed by Joel & Ethan Coen, 96 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC In the opening shot of the Coen Brother’s cynical-hearted new comedy the camera descends from the Heavens, zeroing in on the surface of the Earth until it swoops into the hallways of C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Virginia. There a medium-grade analyst named Osgood Cox (John Malkovich) is getting demoted, which will set into motion a ripple of high crimes and misdemeanors that reverberate violently through a group of loosely-connected malcontents in the D.C. suburbs. The Coen’s have been down this road before, […]