NEW YORK TIMES: President Obama will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the nation’s 112th justice, choosing his own chief advocate before the Supreme Court to join it in ruling on cases critical to his view of the country’s future, Democrats close to the White House said Sunday. After a monthlong search, Mr. Obama informed Ms. Kagan and his advisers on Sunday of his choice to succeed the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. He plans to announce the nomination at 10 a.m. Monday in the East Room of the White House with Ms. Kagan by his side, said the Democrats, […]
GENERATION X: At The Middle Of The Road
A.O. SCOTT: “Maybe not the glory of rushing a Nazi foxhole, or braving municipal billy bats to stop a war in Indochina,” he notes, trying to get a fix on what exactly he and his ilk achieved in their heroic youth, “but the privileged of our generation did what they could, like the rest of us.” We did what we could: the slogan of the underachiever, the excuse maker, the loser. What they did, at least on the evidence of Milo’s testimony, was smoke weed, argue about Theory, sleep with one another’s girlfriends and boyfriends and wonder what was going […]
MUST SEE TV: Bronte Sister Action Figures
You don’t have to be a chick or an English major to enjoy this, but it probably helps.
CINEMA: Heavy Meddle
IRON MAN 2 (2010, directed by Jon Favreau, 124 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Much of the thrill that greeted the arrival of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man two years ago stemmed from the surprise that it wasn’t another Marvel disaster like Ghost Rider or Daredevil, two wannabe blockbusters that seemed to signal a creeping exhaustion in the unstoppable super hero genre. There’s nothing in Iron Man 2 to replace the surprise of Robert Downey’s smarmy charm finding a perfect fit in that gleaming red and gold suit, but if this sequel is distressingly short on imagination it still […]
TEA BAGGERY: When Patriotism Goes Hollyweird
PHAWKER: If Leni Riefenstahl directed a Tea Party candidate ad, it would look and sound a lot like this. FINANCIAL TIMES: Mr Burns, a 42-year-old self-made millionaire and Tea Party organiser, is harnessing the widespread public dissatisfaction with Congress even as he tries to join it. “I’m someone who has never been political but I’ve created a lot of jobs and know what it means to create a payroll,” he told the Financial Times after the gathering. His message is striking a chord with voters, and Democrats are facing the prospect of losing the May 18 special election to replace […]
MAJOR LAZOR: Pon De Flor
Major Lazer “Pon De Floor” from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo. Directed by Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric fame. It’s gettin’ hot in herre…
NEW CLUES: Like 8 Inches Of Truth (Uncut)
ANTI-GAY CHRISTIAN RIGHT CRUSADER CAUGHT WITH ‘RENTBOY’ The pictures on the Rentboy.com profile show a shirtless young man with delicate features, guileless eyes, and sun-kissed, hairless skin. The profile touts his “smooth, sweet, tight ass” and “perfectly built 8 inch cock (uncut)” and explains he is “sensual,” “wild,” and “up for anything” — as long you ask first. And as long as you pay. On April 13, the “rent boy” (whom we’ll call Lucien) arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberian Airlines Flight 6123, after a ten-day, fully subsidized trip to Europe. He was soon followed out of customs by […]
BISSINGER VS. SWEENEY: A Prayer For The Shitty
PHILLY MAG: THE LAST TIME Buzz Bissinger was a newspaper writer, Ronald Reagan was president, Wilson Goode was mayor, nobody in the world had ever blogged, and the Philadelphia Inquirer had a circulation of close to 500 large. Under legendary editor Gene Roberts, the city’s newspaper of record was in the midst of a Pulitzer blitzkrieg that would snag 17 of the coveted prizes in a decade and a half. Buzz, in fact, had just won one, along with two colleagues, for a series of articles on corruption in the city’s courts. The year was 1988. Ed Rendell had recently […]
METAPHYSCIAL GRAFFITI: I Tag, Therefore I Am
[Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JEFF DEENEY It’s been a while since I took a look at what’s going on with the many graffiti walls around town, so here’s a quick update. The most recent addition to the graffiti wall scene in North Philly is on the lower edge of the Badlands at 4th and Susquehanna; the center piece of this small collection of modest mural pieces is a portrait of Mumia Abu-Jamal just psychedelic enough to be confused for George Clinton from a distance. As recent as last summer these walls were bare so it’s nice to see some […]
SAY IT AIN’T SO: Lawrence Taylor Charged With Rape
NEW YORK TIMES: The former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor was arrested early Thursday morning and will be charged with third-degree rape involving a 15-year-old girl at a hotel in Montebello, N.Y., according to police. The Journal News reported that the girl was a runaway from the Bronx who was taken to the Holiday Inn in Montebello by a pimp, according to Ramapo supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence. She was treated at a hospital. “She was a runaway since March and there was a pimp involved,” Mr. St. Lawrence told the Journal News. “She got punched in the face. We’re […]
KITCHEN BITCH: Artichoking On Mother’s Day
BY MAVIS LINNEMANN No mommy hang-ups here. I love my mother, even when she does take on that Joan Crawford-like persona. Most of the time, though, she’s a real peach. Unfortunately, I won’t be making her a mother’s day feast this year. I will, however, be cooking for my friend Emily’s family, and I wanted to make something really special, something that just screams spring, so I stepped into my kitchen to test out possible recipes. There’s one vegetable that’s earthy and bright at the same time, that has the ability to stand on its own and blend in with the […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
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 […]
EXPLAINER: How A Rock Band Is Like A Tech Start-Up
TELEVISION SKY: I started 3 different bands in college. In each one, we dreamed of making it big, landing a record deal, and having hot Japanese chicks scream our song lyrics at us when we toured Asia. Now that I’ve made it through grad school, and my band mates are off having kids and working their lives away 9-5, my dreams have crossed over to a different platform. I’m building tech startups and dreaming of making it big, landing VC funding, and having geeky Rails programmers whisper as I pass them in the hall at NerdCon. Perhaps it’s not as […]