1. Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp Have Nothing Better To Do The main attraction of this particular production of RENT is original cast members Adam Pascal as AIDS-infected guitarist Roger Davis and Anthony Rapp as filmmaker Mark Cohen. For avid RENT fans, it’s a trip down memory lane. For everyone else, it’s men at work. Paschal and Rapp perform with grace and ease, no doubt inspiring the same sense of awe they did during RENT’s first production, perhaps even more so. Whatever. Sitting in the audience, I couldn’t help but think… 2. 1996 Just Called And They Want Their Hip […]
PAPERBOY: Special ‘Gimme Shelter’ 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 […]
TRAGIC: Lux Interior Is Dead
WFMU BLOG: Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, passed away this morning due to an existing heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California at 4:30 AM PST today. Lux has been an inspiration and influence to millions of artists and fans around the world. He and wife Poison Ivy’s contributions with The Cramps have had an immeasurable impact on modern music. The Cramps emerged from the original New York punk scene of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, with a singular sound and iconography. Their distinct take on rockabilly and surf along with their midnight movie imagery reminded […]
OUR STIMULUS PLAN: Buy Death Star, Kill Recession
GIZIMODO: If you had $15.6 septillion and 94 cents in your account, would you save the world from the economic crisis or build a Death Star, destroy the world, and move on to invade the galaxy? A guy called Ryszard Gold—who probably is an alien villain from the Outer Rim planets and got a 49-point score in our Geek Social Aptitude Test—made the calculation of the most basic Death Star’s price with current materials and space transport costs here on Earth. Here’s a quick summary…MORE HOT DOCUMENT: So we just got this email from the White House Press Office outlining […]
AMEN: The Reefer Madness Of American Pot Laws
WASHINGTON POST: Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps and Sheriff Leon Lott of South Carolina’s Richland County are being forced to treat seriously a crime that shouldn’t be one. As everyone knows by now, Phelps was photographed smoking from an Olympic-sized bong during a University of South Carolina party last November. [Sheriff] Lott is threatening action against Phelps because … he has to. Widely respected and admired as a “good guy” who came up through the ranks, Lott is in a jam. Not one to sweat the small stuff, he nevertheless has said that he’ll charge Phelps with a crime if he […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Sarah Chayes first went to Afghanistan to report on the Taliban for NPR, but in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban government in Kabul, she left journalism and dedicated herself to rebuilding the country. She drew on her experiences to write her 2006 book, The Punishment of Virtue. Chayes is an advocate for economic development in Afghanistan, and she founded a cooperative in Kandahar that produces skin-care products from local crops. The cooperative aims to help farmers earn a living from licit crops rather than opium. Chayes joins Fresh Air to explain how the Taliban is using […]
BACKSTORY: Christian Bale Overdrive
AINTITCOOL: You want to hear the REALITY behind that clip? I know this because I happen to be somewhere where someone that was there that day and for the shoot is. And this person isn’t a publicist, nor are they invested in Bale’s career. They’re just someone that thinks it is absolute bullshit that this moment in Bale’s life is being aired and that the real story should get out there. The DP on TERMINATOR SALVATION, Shane Hurlbut, is a apparently a light tweaker. He’s a fairly young DP and likes to fiddle with his lights on set during action, […]
THE DUDE ABIDES: ‘I Screwed Up’
[Photo by JEFF FUSCO] HUFFPO: “We can’t send a message to the American people that we have two sets of rules — one for prominent people and one for ordinary people,” he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “Ultimately I have to take responsibility for a process that resulted in us not having an HHS Secretary at a time when people need relief on their healthcare costs.” Certainly, the Daschle drama had taken the White House by a surprise. Democrats on the Hill were convinced that revelations of failed tax payments would not be enough to derail the nomination. A source […]
TONIGHT: Wavvy Gravvy
THE WAVVES: So Bored [Mp3] UPDATE: Cancelled due to inclement weather. Dang! Choice. We turn up the volume on the voices in our heads and try to make sense of the babble. On a journey around the country to understand how emotion and logic interact to guide us through our options, we ponder how we get through the million choices and decisions we make every day. Forget free will, some important decisions could come down to a steaming cup of coffee. MORE [HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]
HEY, CHRISTIAN BALE: Why So Serious?
DAILY MAIL: Batman star Christian Bale has been caught on tape launching into a foul-mouthed rant at one of the crew members on his forthcoming movie Terminator Salvation. The British-born actor, 35, repeatedly swore and threatened to ‘kick your f**king a**’ when director of photography Shane Hurlbut accidentally interrupted Bale mid-scene. An audio tape of the alleged incident, which happened on set in New Mexico, US last July, has been leaked on to the internet, prompting the film’s assistant director to defend Bale’s behaviour. The on-set clash took place just two days before Bale had an argument with his mother […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Antony & The Johnsons
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER If Antony Hegarty didn’t exist, Lou Reed would have surely invented him. It would be in a song called “Antony Says,” an elegantly twinkling ballad wrapped up in fishnet, mascara and doom, about an anguished androgyne with a canary-in-the-coal-mine voice that makes grown men cry in their souls, singing about the crack in the center of everything, where the light gets in. Fortunately, for the devoted at the half-full Keswick Theater Monday night, Antony is all too real. For it was there that he set the twilight reeling, and that voice — like butter, […]
50 YEARS AGO: The Day The Music Died
THE INDEPENDENT: “That’ll Be the Day” topped both the British and American charts, incidentally topping the US chart when Holly only had 500 days left to live. Frank Allen of the 1960s band The Searchers loved the record: “To be a star, you obviously need a desirable amount of talent, but the most important factor is individuality – and Buddy was distinctive and unmistakeable, both visually and aurally. While we were skiffling away, trying to find a fourth chord, Buddy was giving us the opening bars of ‘That’ll Be the Day’ with unbelievable expertise and on an instrument that was […]
SHE’S GONNA BLOW: Mt. Redoubt Version 2.0
[Click image to see live webcam of Mount Redoubt] SCIENCE BUZZ: A volcano is about to erupt about 100 miles from Anchorage, Alaska. The volcano last erupted nearly 20 years ago in 1989 [pictured, above] disrupting air traffic and polluting the Drift River with volcanic debris. The volcano may erupt at any minute and amazingly enough, a webcam [pictured, below] has been set up so you can watch it LIVE. MORE LA TIMES: Alaskans are not running in mad panic for cover, but many are concerned about the imminent eruption of Mount Redoubt southwest of Anchorage. Fox News is reporting: […]