BY LANCE DOILY To be honest, after Tommy drove his Town Car into the Passaic River to get the rolling shitshow he called a life over with, it was hard to find something nice to say about the guy. His greatest achievement in life was working himself up the drug dealer ladder to the point where he was next in line to be the main coke supplier to the ‘81 Phillies, but a falling out with Greg Luzinski over a batch heavily cut with talcum powder queered the deal. It was pretty much all down hill after that. By the […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Seventy-five miles north of Las Vegas sits a land parcel in the middle of the desert. Called Area 51, the parcel is just outside of the abandoned Nevada Test and Training Range, where more than 100 atmospheric bomb tests were conducted in the 1950s. Officially, the U.S. government has never acknowledged the existence of Area 51. Unofficially, it has become a place associated with conspiracy theories, alien landings and tiny spaceships. Journalist Annie Jacobsen tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross that the site has remained classified for many years — not because of aliens or spaceships, but because the […]
THANK GOD FOR ATHEISTS: Otherwise Your Dog Or Cat Would Starve To Death After The Rapture
DAILY NEWS: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ – if and when it happens – raises all types of questions for believers who expect to “meet the Lord in the air” during the Rapture, as the Bible states. Such as: Who’s going to feed the dog? Bart Centre has you covered. For only $135. Centre, a retired retail executive for a major national chain, has found a way to profit from what he sees as the misguided beliefs of God-fearing Bible thumpers. “I’m not looking to make a statement here,” said Centre, 62, an atheist author and founder of Eternal […]
SIDEWALKING: The Hooters
Father, Mother and Baby Owls, Jeff Fusco’s Back Yard, 2:15 PM Sunday by JEFF FUSCO
GIVE UNTIL IT HELPS: Gardening At Night
[Detail from “Garden Of Earthly Delights” by HIERONYMOUS BOSCH] The Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger recently teamed up with Groupon to raise funds for a community garden in the Francisville area of Philadelphia. The goal of the garden is to provide a bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables to local food pantries and soup kitchens, supporting their efforts to feed local children and protect families at risk for hunger. With funding for raised garden beds, seeds, equipment, and planting and distribution expenses, the Coalition Against Hunger can establish this community garden and help hunger-relief programs improve the nutritional quality of […]
INCOMING: David Comes Alive
Exceptionally well-made mini-doc about David Comes To Life, the new album by this clean-cut Canadian guitar army with the gentle giant lead singer and a naughty name. Comes out June 7th on Matador. They play First Unitarian on June 26th.
GASLAND: Chesapeake Energy Fined $1 Million For Contaminating The Drinking Water Of 16 Families
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Pennsylvania state regulators have fined natural gas drilling company Chesapeake Energy Corp. more than $1 million, which officials said Tuesday is the single largest fine for an oil or gas operator in the state. The state Department of Environmental Protection said the fine stems from Chesapeake’s contamination of private water supplies in northern Pennsylvania’s Bradford County and a February tank fire at a drilling site in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Washington County. In Bradford County, the department said that improper well casing and cementing allowed natural gas to seep into groundwater and contaminate 16 families’ drinking water wells. The department began investigating […]
THE SPERMINATOR: Schwarzeneggers Split After Arnold Admits To Fathering Love Child With The Maid
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have separated, with Shriver moving out of their Brentwood mansion while the two determine the next step in their 25-year marriage. Shriver has been residing apart from the actor-turned-politician for the last few weeks. The former first couple confirmed the separation in a joint statement released Monday after questions from The Times. “This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us,” the statement read. “After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer, we came to this decision together. At this […]
TONITE: Me Likey Likke
SPIN: Li’s new album, Wounded Rhymes, is equal parts seething ice princess and lonely snowwoman, vacillating almost track by track between fury and despondence over a scotched relationship. “Unrequited Love,” a sort of Spector-ish torch song, with its lightly strummed guitar and girl-group shoowop-shoowas, is one of the year’s saddest, prettiest moments. And then on follow-up “Get Some,” for which Yttling imports heaving tribal drums, Li is back on the prowl, tenaciously conflating herself with a prostitute as she writhes all over the track. The dual objectives — weep for me, fear me — collide throughout, creating a dicey, but […]
SILLY SEASON FINALE: The Donald Is Done
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] WASHINGTON POST: Wealthy businessman Donald Trump announced Monday that he won’t seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, bringing an end to the circus-like speculation that had surrounded the reality star’s political future in recent months. “I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election,” Trump said in a statement. “Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector.” Trump’s decision brings to an end a political roller coaster ride on which the […]
Ex-Khyber/Terror Dude’s Testimony Could Prove Far More Damning To Pakistan Than Osama’s Hideout
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] THE GUARDIAN: [David Coleman] Headley, a Pakistani-American, is soon to appear in a federal court in Chicago as a prosecution witness against Rana Tawahhur Hussein, a Chicago area businessman of Pakistani descent. Hussein is accused of providing financial and logistical support to terrorists who carried out the deadly Mumbai terror attack in 2008.A first generation immigrant, Headley was born Daood Sayed Gilani. The son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, Headley changed his name to a more non-Pakistani-sounding one to avoid suspicion and to make it easier for him to travel to south Asia, […]
CINEMA: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
DAVID EDELSTEIN: A middle-aged husband is cast out, forced to move his belongings and furniture (including his comfy easy chair) to his lawn, where he sits getting blotto—until a young couple invades his new world, mistaking it for a yard sale. […] That lawn with its scraps of a ruined life is a setting both satirical and poignant, and Will Ferrell gives a performance of Chekhovian depth. I’d say Ferrell’s work is a revelation, except it isn’t. Even in slapstick comedies like Step Brothers, he shows a delicate touch, his child-men holding onto a defensive arrogance that barely conceals their […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Adele At The Electric Factory
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER It is a fitting coincidence that Brit ‘It Girl’ Adele launched her much-anticipated stateside tour the same weekend that “Bridesmaids,” Team Apatow’s rowdy girl-centric answer to “The Hangover,” opens in theaters across the country. The former is a budding superstar, the latter is a burgeoning box office hit, and the common ground is that Adele is the celebrated maker of mass-appeal music that could aptly be described as chick-flick soul. Her calling card, of course, is that voice: Big, bracing and acrobatic enough to wow the nattering class that tunes in weekly for “American […]