[Photo by DUSDEN CONDREN] BY PELLE GUNTHER Sharon Van Etten is the latest sad-eyed folkstress to set the twilight reeling in indie-town. With her shattered-glass songs and that tiny wind chime of a voice, Van Etten has captivated a growing legion of sympathetic sad-sacks and garnered pretty much across the board critical acclaim. Her latest album, epic, turned up on quite a few Best Of 2010 lists, including NPR’s, and for good reason. Although she easily falls in with other singer songwriter sorceress types, like Cat Power or Jenny Owens Young, Van Etten’s emotion-steeped delivery and beautiful, haunted melodies are […]

ARNOVA: I’m probably the ideal customer for this tablet – my train commute giving me ample reading time – and I’m a news junkie to boot. I just don’t see this being a long-term viable winning strategy for them. I think they are concerned that not enough people have access to tablets in order to get the e-edition of the paper. As we’ve seen tablet prices drop, I think if someone wants a tablet, they are going to buy one and this isn’t going to be a barrier to adoption of an e-newspaper. The barrier to adoption is that reading […]

[Illustration by ALEX FINE] Ray Davies will perform live with the Dessoff Choir at Temple Performing Arts Center, Saturday November 19th @ 8PM. Tickets for the show are available 10am Saturday at www.comcasttix.com, 800-298-4200, and The Liacouras Center Box Office located at 1776 N. Broad St Mon – Fri 10AM-5PM and Sat 10AM -4PM.   PREVIEW: WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TIMES GONE: Ray Davies Cancels U.S. Tour Dates Citing Health Reasons

Ordinarily you have to go to China for this kind of repression. THINK PROGRESS: Thinking about e-mailing your friends and neighbors about the protests against Wall Street happening right now? If you have a Yahoo e-mail account, think again. ThinkProgress has reviewed claims that Yahoo is censoring e-mails relating to the protest and found that after several attempts on multiple accounts, we too were prevented from sending messages about the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations. MORE CBS NEWS: Yahoo apologized Monday after people using its email service were prevented from sending messages about anti-Wall Street demonstrations over the weekend. The company […]

In case you bitches don’t know, Workaholics is FUCKING funny — our highest rating, by the way — and the second season premiers tonight at 10:30 on Comedy Central. WARNING: DO NOT WATCH IF YOU DON’T LIKE TO LAUGH SO HARD YOU FART A LITTLE. Hey, some people don’t. And they are to be avoided at all costs. For every college boy stoner who did one keg stand too many and woke up four years later a cubicle slave in the drop ceiling-ed prisons of the American Dream, who will raise a beer bong tonight in misplaced defiance and misguided […]

REUTERS: A Taliban suicide bomber on Tuesday killed former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and head of a council tasked with trying to negotiate a political end to the war, in what analysts called a blow to peace efforts. The killing underscored doubts over the ability of fledgling Afghan security forces to protect even the most prominent politicians as U.S.-led forces ready to pull out by 2014. “A Taliban member who went to Rabbani’s house (in the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave) for peace talks detonated a bomb hidden in his turban,” a statement by the Kabul police chief’s office said. President […]

That’s like blaming the camera for the porno movie. He claims the Inky/DN ginned up dozens of defamatory stories about him to boost circulation. Please. Message to Carl: most people don’t give a fuck, sad to say, and the papers were merely doing the largely thankless job of public interest journalism. Here’s some advice his lawyer should have given him: If you don’t want your rep ruined, don’t be an asshole. Of course, billing for hours and hours of work on a frivolous lawsuit pays better than free advice. Shame on Haines & Associates, and man the fuck up, Carl. […]

THE MORNING CALL: Elmer Goris spent a year working in Amazon.com‘s Lehigh Valley warehouse, where books, CDs and various other products are packed and shipped to customers who order from the world’s largest online retailer. The 34-year-old Allentown resident, who has worked in warehouses for more than 10 years, said he quit in July because he was frustrated with the heat and demands that he work mandatory overtime. Working conditions at the warehouse got worse earlier this year, especially during summer heat waves when heat in the warehouse soared above 100 degrees, he said. He got light-headed, he said, and […]

Steve O the morning after deliberately running into Mike Tyson’s fist for Charlie’s Sheen’s Comedy Central Roast. Best line goes to William Shatner: “Who’s the warlock now, BITCH?!?” But hands down the award for Most Vicious And Hilarious goes to Amy Schumer.

WENDELL POTTER: Because of my nearly 20 years of experience as an executive of two large insurance firms, I was asked to provide my perspective on the legislation at a hearing today of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. One of the bills would eliminate a provision of the reform law that requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of what we pay in premiums on actual medical care. The insurance industry tried without success to keep that provision out of the final bill, so they are solidly behind the effort to do away with it. As […]