My current fave Sunday-morning-coming-down album, Van’s transcendental 1968 masterwork still holds its secrets all these years later. The converted need no further preaching about Astral Weeks, so it’s the uninitiated I’m reaching out to here. First you need to dispense with the image of Van as the largely irrelevant pot-bellied sourpuss we know today. Flash back to Belfast in the mid-’60s: Van is winding down his tenure as blues shouter for Them — a roughneck collective of bruising whiteboy R&B and flame-throwing garage-punk snarl — ready to make the leap from drunk-up wailer to cosmic poet-seeker. Legend has it that […]

WASHINGTON POST: For Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder and guiding spirit, it must have been sweet. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was trying to smooth over the embarrassment, while the White House huffed that a criminal investigation was underway. The French government was decrying “the height of irresponsibility,” and Pakistan was reckoning with a rebuke from its traditional patron, Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the pasty-faced Assange, a self-appointed knight-errant who has been doing battle with official secrecy since 2006, was in the shadows somewhere – few knew where – undoubtedly savoring the ruckus caused by WikiLeaks’ exposure of confidential State […]

BY JAY CASPIAN KANG On one of those steel-skied Manhattan winter mornings, when it seems like the city is encased by a slow-moving ironclad, I was sitting in the back seat of a Mercedes-Benz, eating a hot dog with two new friends. Exactly 44 $100 bills lay folded up in my wallet. I’d just met these two friends, both of whom had seen me pocket the cash, but I wasn’t much nervous. If they robbed me, I would see them again soon enough. As it happened, both were nice kids from Westchester County. I knew nothing about Westchester County except […]

INQUIRER: The suit contained text messages and e-mails exchanged between managers, including one that declared: “We don’t want black people we are a white bar!” Walt Wyrsta, the general manager who sent the inflammatory texts, was fired after an internal investigation at the restaurant, attorneys for both sides confirmed. His termination was not part of the settlement. […] A consent order entered in federal court requires that McFadden’s hire a human-resources consulting firm to create and enforce nondiscrimination policies. A confidential hotline will be established for employees to report complaints. McFadden’s also will be required to provide quarterly reports on […]

TIMOTHY KARR: In the past 24 hours Comcast has been exposed committing blatant abuses of its power over all things media. The New York Times reported last night that the cable giant has threatened to block access to the popular online movie service Netflix unless the company that streams its films pays new and extortionate tolls. Earlier in the day, Comcast was caught red-handed trying to smother the marketplace for competitive Internet modems designed for use on its network — a violation of fundamental Net Neutrality principles that allow you to choose what devices you want to use. These are […]

MITCHELL BARD: Sarah Palin provided prime material for news outlets and comedy programs when she said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Wednesday: “But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.” […] The real story, though, isn’t that Palin said “North” instead of “South.” Let’s be honest: Vice President Joe Biden could have just as easily blown a line like that. No, the real story is that Palin was discussing a complex, precarious, highly dangerous issue as if she were an expert, even though she clearly isn’t. Does anyone outside of Palin’s relatively small group of smitten followers […]

[Illustration by BLACKHAIR] STEREOGUM: PJ Harvey announced her eighth album about a week ago, Let England Shake. It was recorded inside a church in Dorset, England with assistance from producer Flood and musicians Mick Harvey and John Parish. (Parish collaborated with Harvey on 2009’s A Woman A Man Walked By.) She debuted the title track back in April on the BBC, but “Written On The Forehead” is the first proper taste from the album. MORE Written On The Forehead by pjharvey

WASHINGTON POST: Carmela Dela Rosa often cared for her granddaughter during the day and would carry her carefully in her arms. The happy, 21/2-year-old Angelyn Ogdoc would blow kisses to neighbors, her face framed by her striking long, dark hair. Dela Rosa, 50, of Fairfax County, would watch her daughter’s daughter several times a week. On Monday, the three generations of her family got into a car on Ellenwood Drive for the short ride to Tysons Corner Center, Angelyn strapped meticulously into a child car seat by her grandfather. Before returning home, the family would meet with unexplained tragedy. Police […]

Eight years ago, Bill Ricchini released Ordinary Time, which still stands as one of the finest collections of pop music to ever emerge from the 215. After attempting to transition out of music and get some credit in the straight world, Bill wisely realized that he is a lifer and got back in the game with a new band, Summer Fiction, and a swell self-titled debut. You can check it out HERE. Bill will mark the CD’s release with rare appearance at Johnny Brendas tomorrow night. In the mean time, check out this groovy-cool video for the album’s catchy lead-off […]

[Illustration by AARON MITCHELL] FORBES: Early next year, Julian Assange says, a major American bank will suddenly find itself turned inside out. Tens of thousands of its internal documents will be exposed on Wikileaks.org with no polite requests for executives’ response or other forewarnings. The data dump will lay bare the finance firm’s secrets on the Web for every customer, every competitor, every regulator to examine and pass judgment on. When? Which bank? What documents? Cagey as always, Assange won’t say, so his claim is impossible to verify. But he has always followed through on his threats. Sitting for a […]

People like you and me are never, repeat NEVER, going to join the ranks of the rich, because the game is rigged against people like you and me. But the moneyed class like to perpetuate the illusion that we are all just a few lucky breaks away from becoming independently wealthy to create voter sympathy for massive tax cuts for people earning more than a bazillion a year — because, ‘Hey, I could one day be one of those people making more than a bazillion a year and then that tax cut is gonna come in handy.’ And the moon […]