Now playing on Phawker Radio! Comes out February 17th. BY JONATHAN VALANIA We’ve all heard the mythic tale of Robert Johnson’s Faustian bargain with the Devil, struck at the crossroads under a Delta moon. Let’s imagine for a moment that it’s a different night at that Mississippi crossroads. On this night, the devil is busy with other things, perhaps plotting the eventual rise of Slayer or meeting with the Republicans. And Johnson, well, he’s long since given the Devil his due, probably having second thoughts as to whether unlimited pussy, corn liquor and a little plantation-rock stardom was worth the […]
THE WAR ON ERROR: Obama Suspends Gitmo Tribunals, Will Close Terror Prison Within A Year
[Illustration by DREW FRIEDMAN] WASHINGTON POST: GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 21 — A U.S. military judge Wednesday suspended the trial of five detainees accused of involvement in plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, acceding to a request from military prosecutors in accordance with a directive from the new Obama administration late Tuesday. The suspension halts until late May the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the avowed mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot, and four other accused al-Qaeda members, even though Mohammed and three of the four objected to the delay. In Washington, meanwhile, aides to President Obama were preparing […]
CINEMA: You Say You Want A Revolution
CHE: PARTS 1 & 2 (2008, directed by Steven Soderbergh, 157 minutes, U.S./France/Spain) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Scattered amidst the filmography of director Steven Soderbergh are a handful of films that announce themselves as impossibly ambitious and intellectual. You can imagine the director bragging to his peers in the industry, “Oh yeah, my next film is a fictionalized take on the life of Franz Kafka” or “I’m remaking Tarkovsky’s Solaris and I’m getting it right this time!” Che, Soderbergh’s four-hour biopic on the life of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevera is the latest of these half-cooked dishes, delivering a […]
Godspeed Barack Barama And God Bless America!
[Photo by ANTOINE MCGRATH] “In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by nine campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: “Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed […]
CHANGE: Brasserie Perrier To Become An Apple Store
ZDNET: A momentus event is almost upon us – an Apple Retail Store in Downtown Philly. MacNN reports that Apple has agreed to lease the former Brasserie Perrier restaurant at 1619 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. Despite having a retail presence in eight of the top 10 U.S. cities it has puzzled many as to why Apple hasn’t opened a retail store in the City of Brotherly Love (the 5th largest city in the U.S.). Detroit is the other snubbed city. New York, NY (3 stores) Los Angeles, CA (3) Chicago, IL (1) Houston, TX (3) Philadelphia, PA (0) San Diego, […]
HISTORY TURNS A PAGE: A Change Has Come
FRESH AIR Shepard Fairey‘s illustration of Barack Obama was one of the most iconic images of the campaign — Obama’s face and the word “hope” rendered in red, white, and blue. Fairey says he made the image to spur voters’ belief in Obama as a leader. The image was never officially adopted by the campaign, however, because of legal issues related to the original photograph he used. The iconic poster differed from Fairey’s previous work. The image was unusual, Fairey says, because his political art is usually negative. “I felt that Barack Obama was an unusual candidate, a special candidate, […]
SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS: Whatever Happens In Room 315 Stays in Room 315, Part 8
BY JEFF DEENEY By the time the group returns to room 315 from the computer lab the day is nearly over. It’s well into the afternoon by now and both the staff and students are visibly worn down from the day’s grind. The students move at a slow, shuffling pace and keep their voices at a low mumble as they return to their seats. Miss Patterson slumps into her chair at the desk in the back of the room that she refers to as her “office” with an audible sigh. Hakeem, the hardened young corner hustler who comes to class […]
Future Historians Already Weighing In On Bush
Turns out, unlike wine, his presidency does not get better with age. Who knew? Everybody but him.
BE HERE NOW: Hail To The Chief!
» 8:25 a.m.: Obamas leave Blair House for prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church » 8:35 a.m. Prayer service » 9:45 a.m. Church service ends; Obamas depart for the White House » 10:05 a.m. Obamas arrive at White House for coffee with the Bushes » 11 a.m. Motorcade departs for the Capitol » 11:30 a.m. Bushes and Obamas proceed to platform on the West Front; California Senator Dianne Feinstein will issue the call to order and deliver brief welcoming remarks, followed by an invocation from Dr. Rick Warren and a performance from Aretha Franklin (who also sang at Bill […]
HEAR YE: U2 No Line On The Horizon
CLICK HERE to hear the lead-off single “Get On Your Boots” WORTH REPEATING: Why U2 Still Matters BY JONATHAN VALANIA Because some bands have greatness thrust upon them and other bands thrust greatness upon themselves. Because U2 knew that if they had it both ways, they could be bigger than Jesus. Because in the early ’80s, if you listened closely, you could actually hear Bono’s mullet. Because the Edge figured out early on that with the right ratios of pinging echo to pealing delay, the electric guitar could build cathedrals of sound that are holier than thou. Because Bozo-haired bassist […]
MARTIN LUTHER KING: I Have A Dream
ERIC SUNQUIST: After King finished, reported Lerone Bennett, Jr., grown men and women “wept unashamedly.” No doubt Time magazine could have chosen a more appropriate metaphor in reporting that King “enslaved his audience,” but this was true even of those who feared his message. Because of its power to influence the masses, concluded the head of the FBI’s Domestic Intelligence Division, King’s “demagogic speech” made him the nation’s “most dangerous Negro.” MORE FRESH AIR Historian Howard Zinn wrote: “At the great Washington March of 1963, the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), John Lewis, speaking to the same […]
IN THE NAME OF LOVE: MLK (1929-1968)
NOBELPRIZE.ORG: Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family’s long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Saturday night at the sold out Wachovia Center, Metallica gave no indication they plan to give up the ghost any time soon, despite the four large metal caskets hanging precariously over their heads, a visual riff on the funereal cover art of the new Death Magnetic. Scurrying out onto the darkened stage like black-clad ninjas, illuminated by a two-story high mesh of lasers, Metallica launched into the new “That Was Just Your Life” with the conviction of men who have learned the hard way that no one here gets out alive. Sounding at times […]