INQUIRER: At about 11 p.m. [Saturday night], as a group of about 50 teens approached 10th and South, trying to head back east, Ball called for assistance. “You need to get me five or six more officers,” he said, “so we don’t lose the ground we just gained.” One youth who declined to give his name explained why he was on South Street. “Some people call,” he said. “They tell you to come down, so you come down.” Sgt. Ray Evers said early Sunday morning police had made three arrests – two for disorderly conduct and one for aggravated assault. […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Actor Ben Stiller has starred in a wide range of movies, from big comedy hits like Meet the Parents and its sequel, Meet the Fockers, to indie films like The Royal Tenenbaums and Your Friends and Neighbors. In Noah Baumbach’s new film, Greenberg, Stiller takes a darker turn, playing Roger Greenberg, a 40-year-old ex-musician who’s just had a mental breakdown. After recovering in a hospital for several weeks, Greenberg agrees to house-sit at his brother’s place in Los Angeles. Alone in L.A. while his brother’s family is on a long vacation in Vietnam, he tries to reconnect with […]
THIS JUST IN: Passion Pit At The Mann
Sunday June 27th, with Tokyo Police Club. Tickets on sale Friday at 10 AM.
HOLY GOOF: How Cary Grant Passed The Acid Test
[Artwork by KURT KAUPER] WFMU: It was 1943. Cary Grant was starring in the motion picture Destination Tokyo; an action-filled wartime drama co-starring John Garfield and a deluge of racial slurs. While America was embroiled in the intense fighting of World War Two, Axis powers had surrounded the neutral country of Switzerland. Deep within Nazi surrounded boundaries, Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman was busy toiling away in a dimly lit laboratory, about to study the properties of a synthesis he had abandoned five years earlier. Hoffman was trying to devise a chemical agent that could act as a circulatory and respiratory […]
TRIBUTE: The Man Who Wasn’t There
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: For many who attended South by Southwest 2010, the final day of the conference was all about power-pop great Alex Chilton, who died at age 59 on Wednesday. It only made sense: As has often been said of the Velvet Underground, Chilton’s beloved band Big Star never sold a lot of records, but it often seems as if everyone who bought one started a band–or became a rock critic. And the largest gathering anywhere in the world of people who loved his music took place over the last five days in Austin. MORE ROLLING STONE: Just as everyone […]
ENDGAME: Got Waterloo?
NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation’s health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama. By a vote of 219 to 212, the House passed the bill after a day of tumultuous debate that echoed the epic struggle of the last year. The action sent the bill to President Obama, whose crusade for such legislation has been a hallmark of his presidency. Democrats hailed the vote as historic, comparable to the establishment of Medicare and Social […]
CINEMA: Cherry Bomb
THE RUNAWAYS (2010, directed by Floria Sigsmondi, 109 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Thirty-five years after their formation, The Runaways moment has finally arrived. Widely mocked, derided as puppets and mostly ignored during their musical run between 1975 and 1979, the band’s story is now mythologized for the big screen, starring two of the most popular actresses in Hollywood. There seems to be an authentic buzz at the possibilities of a Runaways bio and I’ll admit a critical desire to see them knock this hard rockin’ story out of the park. It gives me no pleasure to instead […]
Herb Denenberg, Consumer Watchdog, Dead At 81
INQUIRER: Herb Denenberg – the maverick television consumer advocate, newspaper columnist, and former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner – died last night at his home in Wayne of an apparant heart attack. Mr. Denenberg, 81, was probably best known for his 24-year run on WCAU-TV (Channel 10) where he served as an investigative consumer reporter from 1975 to 1998. As host of “Denenberg’s Dump,” he skewered the makers of hundreds of products. “The consumer has been screwed long enough,” was his battle cry and Denenberg speared his foes with an in-your-face approach and nasal whine. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Herb Denenberg is — as […]
Everything You Never Wanted To Know About STDs
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Ex-Khyber-Boss-Turned-International-Man-Of-Danger Pleads Guilty To Scoping Out Mumbai Attack Sites
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: David Coleman Headley [pictured, right], a US citizen, could have been sentenced to death by lethal injection for his alleged involvement in the India attacks that left more than 164 dead, including six Americans. But with his guilty plea, prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty or to extradite him to India, Pakistan, or Denmark. The agreement, announced in federal court in Chicago, is contingent on Mr. Headley’s full cooperation with US intelligence officials and prosecutors. Under sentencing guidelines he could receive a prison term of up to life in prison. But his prison time […]
Jihad Jane Pleads Not Guilty; Jihad Jamie Released
NEW YORK TIMES: Wearing a green jumpsuit and her hair in cornrows, Ms. LaRose [pictured, above], of Pennsburg, Pa., appeared in court to face a four-count indictment, including charges of conspiring with jihadist fighters and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war. If convicted, she would face a possible life sentence in prison and a $1 million fine. Federal officials said Ms. LaRose, who is white and has blond hair and green eyes, boasted to other jihadists that she could go anywhere undetected. In August, she traveled to Sweden carrying the American passport of her […]
RIP: Alex Chilton, Pop Auteur, Dead At 59
MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL: Alex Chilton, the pop hitmaker, cult icon and Memphis rock iconoclast best known as a member of 1960s pop-soul act the Box Tops and the 1970s power-pop act Big Star, died Wednesday at a hospital in New Orleans. The singer, songwriter and guitarist was 59. “I’m crushed. We’re all just crushed,” said John Fry, owner of Memphis’ Ardent Studios and a longtime friend of Chilton’s. “This sudden death experience is never something that you’re prepared for. And yet it occurs.” Chilton and Big Star had been scheduled to play Saturday as part of the South by Southwest […]
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 […]