It was roughly 44 years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the other bands to play like they were Picassos with guitars, and after that songs became statements — grandiose, interconnected, deeply ruminative — and albums were no longer mere collections, but high concepts. Arguably, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon is the highwater mark of rock’s evolution from low pop to high art. Some 44 years after its immaculate conception, the album remains a definitive statement on life, death and all the beautiful madness in between — and at any given minute on any given day, somebody somewhere […]

BBC: Fragments from a satellite falling to Earth are expected to land on Friday. So is it possible to take evasive action? A six-tonne satellite is expected to crash land in the next 24 hours, scattering debris over an area of the planet’s surface up to 500km (310 miles) wide. NASA, which owns the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), estimates it will break into about 26 parts, the heaviest weighing about 158kg, which is equivalent to a very large person. The debris will include three batteries, four wheel rims and four fuel tanks, and their speed when they hit the […]

[Photo by Swollen Fox via Flickr] BY COLONEL TOM SHEEHY In the year 2011, there are more talent buyers putting more musical acts on live stages in Philadelphia than any time in recent memory. Last night, yet another venue opened. It’s called Union Transfer and located at 1026 Spring Garden Street, the high-ceiling-ed space formerly occupied by the dubiously-named Spaghetti Warehouse. The band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were the headlining act, but the real star of the show was the venue itself. Everything about this new locale is exquisite. From the beautiful wooden bar with its carvings and etchings […]

[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. […]