Or at least the BobDylan.com webmaster does. Either way, we don’t need a weatherman to know that’s pretty friggin’ awesome. Terrorist fist bumps to Mike Walsh, our new pop culture writer, for hitting on out of the park on his first at bat. RELATED: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bob Dylan
RIP: Vaya Con Dios Jose Vento
From our partners in media crime over at Scrapple TV.
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: 8 Candles On The Yellow Cake
BY WILLIAM C. Henry Remember that nondescript swath of Syrian desert that Dubya decided to remake into Arlington National East? Well, S U R P R I S E, we’re forty-six-thousand-American-troops-strong still there! And assuming you haven’t been paying much attention lately, I’m sorry to have to report that that cesspool-in-the-sand is still swallowing up American dead and dismembered at a rate of more than a score a month–and never mind that Iraqis themselves are being blown up by the scores EVERY DAY! It’s the dirty little debacle that just won’t go away. And, by all that’s right and just, its memory never will. THIRTY-SEVEN THOUSAND […]
HOLY SHIT: We Just Had An Earthquake
5.8 on the Richter Scale, epicenter in Virginia…MORE…statement from the City after the jump…
CONTEST: Win Tix To See MMJ & Neko Case Tonight!
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] We have a pair of tickets to give away for My Morning Jacket and Neko Case at the Mann tonight! Why? Because we love you, you idiot. Time is short, so we’re gonna make this super easy: Name the large, furry creature on the cover of 2003’s It Still Moves. And, no, Jim James is NOT the answer. First reader to send us the correct answer at FEED@PHAWKER.COM wins the tix. Include a cell phone number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed!
HEAR YE: New Tom Waits Album Listening Party
Bad As Me, Tom Waits’ first studio album of all new music in seven years, comes out out October 25th. This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. From the opening horn-fueled chug of “Chicago,” to the closing barroom chorale of “New Year’s Eve,” Bad As Me displays the full career range of Waits’ songwriting, from beautiful ballads like “Last Leaf,” to the avant cinematic soundscape of “Hell Broke Luce,” a […]
WORTH REPEATING: Being Stephen Malkmus, Again
Stephen Malkmus, Portland 6/8/11 by JONATHAN VALANIA COWBELL: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, satire is a close second. After all, everyone knows you’re nowhere until your locale is brilliantly lampooned in Twitter-iffic, Hulu-able form. Case in point is Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s hipster burlesque Portlandia, a loving mockery of the bluest city on the angry red planet that is the USA circa now: All lattes and tattoos, skunk weed and microbrews, unlimited wireless for all, a free-range chicken in every pot, and everyone gets around on solar-powered tofu bicycles. This is the place that Stephen Malkmus—the […]
BEWARE: The Miseducation Of Michelle Rhee
NEW YORK TIMES: At the end of March, three of the paper’s reporters — Marisol Bello, Jack Gillum and Greg Toppo — broke a story about the high rate of erasures and suspiciously high test-score gains at 41 Washington schools while Ms. Rhee was chancellor. At some schools, they found the odds that so many answers had been changed from wrong to right randomly were 1 in 100 billion. In a fourth-grade class at Stanton Elementary, 97 percent of the erasures were from wrong to right. Districtwide, the average number of erasures for seventh graders was fewer than one per […]
RIP: Composer Jerry Lieber Dead At 78
NEW YORK TIMES: Jerry Leiber, the lyricist who, with his partner, Mike Stoller, wrote some of the most enduring classics in the history of rock ’n’ roll, including “Hound Dog,” “Yakety Yak,” “Stand By Me” and “On Broadway,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 78. The team of Leiber and Stoller was formed in 1950, when Mr. Leiber was still a student at Fairfax High in Los Angeles and Mr. Stoller, a fellow rhythm-and-blues fanatic, was a freshman at Los Angeles City College. With Mr. Leiber contributing catchy, street-savvy lyrics and Mr. Stoller, a pianist, composing infectious, bluesy […]
CONCERT REVIEW: The Philadelphia Folk Festival
BY MEREDITH KLEIBER We rolled in on early Friday afternoon to camping fields overflowing with tents and people, so it was lucky for us that our friends had set up a sweet campsite on Thursday and saved us a spot for our tent and canopy. After setting up, we headed down to check out the music. Upon entering the concert field, we were greeted by the upbeat bluegrass of Hogmaw, which provided us with a much-needed boost of energy. I made my way up to the photo pit to get some shots of the following act, Miss Birdie Busch, whose […]
TEN YEARS AFTER: The Day The Earth Stood Still
BY ALEXANDER POTTER To mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is hosting a special exhibit of ground zero artifacts — a broken pair of eyeglasses, smoke-damaged visitor badges, a partially melted keyboard — entitled EXCAVATING GROUND ZERO: FRAGMENTS FROM 9/11. The 15 items are on loan from the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center and will be on display at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology through November 6th. Contextualized by the proximity of ancient artifacts in the adjacent, permanent exhibits at the […]
QUEEN IS DEAD: Ackerman Paid $1 Million To GTFO
INQUIRER: Arlene Ackerman is out as superintendent of the Philadelphia School District. An announcement will be made later today, multiple sources say. Her departure has been rumored for months but as my colleagues and I wrote in Sunday’s paper, it became clear last week that the end of Ackerman’s superintendency was imminent. The money to buy out Ackerman’s contract, which runs through 2014, will come from both the district and private sources, as The Inquirer previously reported. Sources say the district will pay about $500,000 and some amount – exactly how much isn’t yet clear – will come from the private […]
TONITE: The Hornblower
BY ZIVIT SHLANK Oh Philadelphia, you beautiful, eclectic metropolis of diverse artistic wonder. Hey, let’s not forget about the rich jazz history of this iconic music town. Philly Joe Jones, Stanley Clarke, McCoy Tyner, as well as Billie Holiday and John Coltrane among others, have all cut their teeth here. One of Philly’s brightest young talents, trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator Josh Lawrence has been doing his part to spread the gospel that is jazz both stateside and abroad. He and his new quartet will be hitting the stage of Chris’ Jazz Café tonight. PHAWKER recently sat down with Josh […]