NEW YORK TIMES: CÂNDIDO GODÓI, Brazil — A sign at the entrance to Cândido Godói says, “Garden City and Land of Twins.” More than 80 percent of its 6,700 residents are of German descent. They began arriving around World War I, lured by the prospect of cheap land, an agreeable farming climate and incentives from the Brazilian government to colonize the area.The twins phenomenon is centered in the 300-person settlement of São Pedro, the part of Cândido Godói where the Grimms live. “It can’t all be explained by genetics,” said Mr. Grimm, himself a twin. Geneticists would like to disagree […]
THE INQUISITION: Doctors Examining British Gitmo Detainee Cite Signs Of Multiple Severe Beatings
THE GUARDIAN: Former British resident Binyam Mohamed arrives back in Britain tomorrow after his release from Guantanamo Bay. British and US lawyers claim that sustained beatings — which have only recently stopped — have left him with severe psychological and physical problems. Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain suffering from a huge range of injuries after being beaten by US guards right up to the point of his departure from Guantánamo Bay, according to the first detailed accounts of his treatment inside the camp. During medical examinations last week, doctors discovered injuries and ailments resulting from apparently brutal treatment in […]
TOM CRUISE: Is Not Safe At Any Speed
Hilarious ad for Jimmy Kimmel Live from last night’s Oscars telecast.
POLLS: Legalizing Marijuana More Popular Than GOP
YGLESIAS: Inspired by this Chris Bowers post, here’s a chart I made comparing public support for legalizing marijuana to the approval ratings for Rush Limbaugh and various Republican Party leaders that I found on PollingReport. MORE FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.COM: The first poll, conducted last week by Rasmussen Reports, has 40 percent of Americans in support of legalizing the drug and 46 percent opposed. The second, conducted in January by CBS News, has 41 percent in favor of legalization and 52 percent against. And a third poll, conducted by Zogby on behalf of the marijuana-rights advocacy group NORML, has 44 percent of Americans […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
HAIL, HAIL ROCK N’ ROLL: M. Ward, Trocadero, Friday [Photo: TIFFANY YOON] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER The first time M. Ward performed at the Trocadero, back in 2004, he was low man on the totem pole of an inspired three-headed bill that included Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. Three acclaimed solo albums of languid torch-folk later, an opening slot at the Tower with Norah Jones, not to mention a turn through town with She & Him (Ward’s endearing duet act with Zooey Deschanel), he’s selling out the Troc all by his lonesome. Such […]
Oscar Acceptance Speech We Wish We Had Seen
NSFW in the best possible way. [Hat tip to J. Loviglio]
THIS JUST IN: Inquirer/Daily News Go Bankrupt
INQUIRER: Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C., which owns The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, filed for bankruptcy protection today in a bid to restructure its $390 million in debt load. The company, bought by a group of Philadelphia-area investors for $562 million in 2006, said the voluntary Chapter 11 filing would not interrupt its daily operations. “This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations,” chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney, who led the group that provided about $150 million of the purchase price three years ago, said in a news release. “Our operations are sound and profitable,” […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #10 The week that was in just five minutes, read by a stoned daisy that sounds uncannily like me.
EARLY WORD: A Man Called Benjy
If there’s a middle ground somewhere between the arty scuzz of the White Stripes and the sunny, off-center pop of ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” D.C.-based artist Benjy Ferree has planted a flag in it and claimed it for himself. Come Back to the Five and Dime Bobby Dee Bobby Dee, Ferree’s second and most recent album, hops adeptly from style to style while keeping Ferree’s agile wail at the center and the guitar fuzz around the edges. Just when I thought the music would slip into some faux-soul a la Gavin DeGraw, it turns toward the dreamy, overstuffed style of […]
REVIEW: Golden Girls Gone Wild
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR The G-Girls were out in full force Thursday at Bob and Barbara’s. The devilishly mischievous drag troupe, The Dumpsta Players, thought that it was about time to pay an homage to the girls who put the gold in the golden years: the Golden Girls, in “Golden Girls Gone Wild!” The Dumpsta Players are Philly’s most notorious drag troupe, infamous for their shameless satire and lampooning of the joys and ills of modern society and pop culture (not to mention that the grist of politics is usually within hacking range of their trash picked hatchet). As […]
CINEMA: L’ Enfants Terrible
The Wild Child (1970, directed by Francois Truffaut, 83 minutes, France) The Class (2008, directed by Laurent Cantet, 128 minutes, France) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Francois Truffaut died of a brain tumor in 1983, and at the time of his his death he was the most popularly beloved of the French New Wave directors. Since his death his reputation seems to have receded with the public, the formality of his storytelling upstaged by the more extreme stylistics of Godard. While he may lack Godard’s audacity, Truffaut’s wide-ranging curiosity produced an astonishing catalog of films; revenge dramas, black & white […]
LIKE A FOX: Internal External
Like A Fox play Johnny Brendas tonight with Asteroid #4. [Dir. by SCOTT COLAN]
PYROMANIA: Cops Nab 2nd Coatesville Fire-Starter
INQUIRER: For week upon week, Coatesville-area residents wondered who was doing this to them. Who was lighting the fires that made national news, left scores of people homeless, caused at least $3.5 million in damage, and left Coatesville afraid to sleep? Was it somebody they saw on the street, somebody who stood beside them in the convenience store? Authorities said yesterday that at least nine of the 24 fires set since Jan. 1 had been the work of a 19-year-old tech student from Downingtown — nine miles away. The suspect had no reported connection to the old steel town, 35 […]