We have a pair of tix to give away for Ariel Pink and Os Mutantes at the Troc on Friday. First reader to email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the phrase “Bat Macumba” in the subject line wins. Please include a cellphone number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed! ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: Os Mutantes: The year is high in the mid-’60s. The place: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a country chafing under a brutal dictatorship. The setting: a swingin’ ’60s nightclub au-go-go straight out of Austin Powers. Lights flash and the music throbs as the camera zooms in and out to the […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In 1960, while leaning up against an old toilet, country star Loretta Lynn wrote her first song, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” in just 20 minutes on a $17 guitar her husband had bought her as an anniversary present. At the time, Lynn was 24. She had been married for 11 years and already had four children. (She would later have two more.) The country star, now 76, went on to accumulate 16 No. 1 country singles and numerous honors over the course of her career. She’s the subject of a new tribute album, Coal Miner’s Daughter, which […]
ALTERED STATES: Got Peyote?
[Painting by BRIAN KIELING] ASSOCIATED PRESS: When the state of Texas licensed him as a peyote distributor in 1990, Mauro Morales put a sign in his front yard with his name and phone number: “Peyote Dealer. Buy or Sell Peyote.” His neighbors balked, saying calling so much attention to his trade had to be against the law. “So I called Austin and said, ‘I think everything’s legal. I’ve got the paperwork. Can’t I put up a sign?’” Morales recalled. Twenty years later, the sign still stands, but it’s harder than ever for Morales to make a living. The hallucinogenic cactus […]
STEVE COOGAN: Being Michael Caine
VANITY FAIR: What’s the mark of a good Michael Caine impression? Is it the ability to mimic the “specificity” of Caine’s cadences? An attention to the sluggishness of his speech? Above, Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, stars of the BBC’s The Trip, perform dueling impressions in an attempt to answer this question. MORE
MIXED MESSAGES: FDA Proposes Graphic Anti-Smoking Messages On Cigarette Packs
NPR: Under the law, these warnings will have to appear on both the front and back of cigarette packs, taking up half the real estate on each side of the label. In big ads, they’re supposed to occupy at least 20 percent of the space. For smaller ads, there will be alternative anti-smoking messages with bright logos. Will they work? Some research shows that bold graphic warnings do a better job than text alone in communicating risks and affecting behavior. Other countries, such as Canada, have blazed this trail already. Yet, the scare tactics can sometimes backfire. One study that […]
CONCERT REVIEW: The Blow At First Unitarian
[Photo by CHAZ BOWIE] BY PELLE GUNTHER To kick off what would turn into one of the most entertaining concerts I’ve ever attended, the openers, a pop band called Blair, played a very cute and pretty set of songs. Their talent was showcased by the lead singer’s breathy vocals as well as song structure well above that of average pop songs. Blair parted ways, and Khaela Maricich [pictured, above] the quirky songwriter and unexpected comedic genius known as The Blow began her act without any warning, as the filler music was cut short to be replaced by a flat, metronome-sounding […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Keith Olbermann vs. Stu Bykofsky
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a testy email exchange between The Daily News’ Stu Bykofsky and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann regarding the latter’s suspension. Olbermann breaks his media silence to berate Byko and takes great offense at Byko’s column from last Thursday which itemized the respective ideological affiliations of guests on Olbermann’s The Countdown and Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor and concluded that O’Reilly was the more fair and balanced. Whether Juan Williams, Alan Colmes or Geraldo Rivera actually qualify as legitimate voices of the left — and not Fox News-financed straw men — remains debatable at best, in our opinion. Still, […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Roger Waters’ THE WALL, Wells Fargo Center, Last Night by SCOTT COLAN BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Thirty years after its release, The Wall still looms large on the cultural horizon, a forbidding totem marking the zenith of rock’s commercial and artistic ascendancy: never before (and probably never again) would a double album of such dark and potent ideas — the brutal profiteering of war, the magnetic allure of suicide, emotional fascism of celebrity — become a mega-selling pop music blockbuster. That it happened once still beggars belief, and yet the album has gone on to sell 11.5 million […]
LIVIN’ LARGE: Chris Christie Was The Fattest Biggest Of The Big Spenders When He Was A U.S. Attorney
TALKING POINTS MEMO: The Justice Department Inspector General released a report yesterday showing that a select number of U.S. Attorneys sought reimbursement above government lodging rates. At the top of the worst offenders list: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who was U.S. Attorney from 2002 to 2008. […] The fiscally conservative Republican governor was one of a “relatively small number of U.S. Attorneys” who did not comply with federal travel regulations or provide appropriate justification for his lodging costs which exceeded the government rate. He was just one of five U.S. Attorneys identified “who exhibited a noteworthy pattern of […]
KITCHEN BITCH: Yummy Pumpkin Bread
[Image via BITS AND PIECES] BY MAVIS LINNEMANN Bananas and zucchini always take the spotlight when it comes to quick breads and muffins. Everyone dives for banana-nut muffins and savory-sweet zucchini bread, but what about that amazing underdog in orange? Pumpkin, I believe, is here to save the day. I fell in love with pumpkin baked goods about 10 years ago when I was working for Swiss pastry chef Jean Paul at his namesake bakery, Jean Paul’s Pleasures, in Cincinnati. Every year about this time, Jean Paul would begin making the most incredible cookies I’d ever tasted and, of course, […]
TONIGHT: I Walked With A Zombie
ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: ERICKSON, ROKY: ’60s psych/garage-rock pioneer, demon-crazed ’70s solo artist, acid casualty, drug-war martyr, patron saint of alt-rock’s fringe dwellers. In 1968, Erickson, then singer for Texas’ psychedelic avatars the 13th Floor Elevators, was busted for possession of a small quantity of marijuana and offered a choice: 10 years in prison or a stretch at Rusk State Psychiatric Hospital. He opted for the padded cell. Already half-fried from Herculean doses of psychedelics, Erickson was subjected to a cruel regimen of “experimental” drugs and electro-shock therapy and was released three years later a diagnosed schizophrenic. Telegraphing the horror within, […]
EARLY WORD: Laugh, Clown, Laugh
Tonight marks the beginning of the third-annual Philly SketchFest, a week-long series of comedy events, featuring a collection of rib-tickling skits, stand-up, and improvisation, courtesy of the Philadelphia Comedy Collective. The event features celebrity judges along with guest hosts including Doogie Horner from NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and locally renowned writer and performer Don Montrey, known for, among other things, his Philadelphia comedy show “DIE ACTOR DIE.” The Philadelphia Comedy Collective is made up of the Philadelphia Improv Festival, Philly SketchFest, and the Philadelphia Joke Initiative, which have all pooled together this November to celebrate the first-ever Comedy Month in […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Restrepo At The NCC
The National Constitution Center and National Geographic Channel will host a screening of the feature-length documentary Restrepo on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 6:30 p.m., in conjunction with our Art of the American Soldier exhibition. Following the screening, filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington will participate in a discussion about the film. winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, chronicles a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, considered one of the most dangerous outposts in the U.S. military. The film will make its world television premiere on the National Geographic Channel on November 29. Prior to […]