BY MEREDITH KLEIBER If you read the news on a regular basis, you’ve no doubt heard that the NASA Space Shuttle program will cease to exist after today’s scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. What you may not know is that Philadelphia is playing a significant role in this auspicious occasion. First of all, the commander of the Atlantis on its final flight is none other than Drexel alum Chris Ferguson (class of 1984). Secondly, Ferguson asked the graphic design department to design the mission patches for the flight. Mission patches are a big deal in astronaut circles and […]
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMON SENSE: Summer Beer On Ice? That’s Nice — Deal With It!
JOE SIXPACK: The ice can’t help but melt, which waters down the flavor of your favorite. But beer gets watered down all the time – and I’m not just talking about light beer. In most brews, the initial beer wort is diluted with additional water to adjust the density and flavor of the finished product. Adding a little more water doesn’t necessarily ruin the beer – it just changes it. Could it actually improve the flavor? You won’t know till you try. Which, in the spirit of journalistic curiosity, I did during a recent hot spell. Appropriately enough, the test […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Power, Corruption And Lies
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Given the fact that rampant, persistent corruption is one of the sparks that has been igniting bonfires throughout the world recently, e.g., Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Ivory Coast, etc. — and given America’s all-too-prevalent propensity for disparaging such turpitude and the very populations subject to it, I decided to take a closer look our own none-to-exemplary track record when it comes to corrupt high-ranking public officials. Turns out that when it comes to corruption of public officials our much ballyhooed ‘American Exceptionalism’ is but a mirage, mostly fostered by people with something to hide With no intention of writing a […]
Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid Cuts On The Table
NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Obama, appearing at the White House after meeting with Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republican and Democratic leaders, said both sides had pledged to come to an agreement before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the government will reach a debt ceiling that will make further borrowing impossible. “Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” Mr. Obama said of the substance of the talks, which are ranging across entitlement programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as tax-related measures like the closing of loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthy […]
MEDIA: Rupert Murdoch Pulls The Plug On News Of The World As Phone-Hacking Scandal Goes Defcon 1
NEW YORK TIMES: The media titan Rupert Murdoch abandoned his defiance of popular and Parliamentary pressure on Thursday, sacrificing the mass-circulation British tabloid News of the World in a bid to protect his News Corporation empire from fallout as the phone hacking scandal turned yet more disturbing on suggestions that targets included not only a 13-year-old murder victim but also relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The announcement came from Mr. Murdoch’s son and likely heir apparent, James, in a broad and apologetic statement delivered so suddenly that The News of the World was still advertising a subscription […]
EARLY WORD: The Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
Acony Records is excited to announce the second leg of tour dates for Gillian Welch. Welch and David Rawlings will tour through the fall, making stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York City, culminating at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. This will be the second leg of her North American tour supporting the long-awaited release of her new album, The Harrow & The Harvest, which debuted at #20 on Billboard. Rolling Stone hailed, “Welch sounds as haunting and beautiful as ever.” The full itinerary is listed below. The response to The Harrow & The Harvest has […]
EARLY WORD: Return Of The Fujiyama Mama
[Illustration by KING MERINUK/CLICK TO ENLARGE] Upon first listen to The Party Ain’t Over, the Jack White-produced comeback/victory lap by feral-rockabilly-kitten-turned-Born-Again-gospel-pensioner Wanda Jackson, it is tempting to agree with the prevailing CW that White made a fatal strategic error when he opted not to follow the Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash paradigm of less-is-more when it comes to polishing the legacies of Medicare-aged hellraisers. The Third Man Band — which includes White and various Dead Weather/Raconteurs alums — that backs Jackson on Party, is loud and hammy and takes up most of the oxygen on the record. The song choices range from […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Desert Of The Real
SAM HARRIS: I should say, however, that there are psychedelic experiences that I have not had, which appear to deliver a different message. Rather than being states in which the boundaries of the self are dissolved, some people have experiences in which the self (in some form) appears to be transported elsewhere. This phenomenon is very common with the drug DMT, and it can lead its initiates to some very startling conclusions about the nature of reality. More than anyone else, Terence McKenna was influential in bringing the phenomenology of DMT into prominence. DMT is unique among psychedelics for a […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood and Invented Modern Horror, New York Times Theater Critic Jason Zinoman recounts how directors like Bogdanovich, Wes Craven, George Romero, Roman Polanski and Brian De Palma started to redefine the horror genre in the aftermath of the Vietnam War — and influenced the genre for the next several decades. That new school of horror, says Zinoman, was based on real life: realistic, mundane events that could leave the audience wondering where evil could lurk (everywhere) and who could be evil (everyone). Serial killers replaced monsters […]
MUST SEE TV: Enter Sand Man
WASHINGTON POST: A dust storm pushed across Phoenix on Tuesday, blanketing the city in darkness and leaving thousands without power. The 50 to 60 mile wide dust wall, known as a haboob, was pushed by 60 mph winds across the Phoenix area, catching some residents off guard. “The sandstorm … was produced by the downdrafts of a collapsing thunderstorm complex generated by the Southwest monsoon,” the Post’s Jason Somenow explained. “When the downdrafts — made up of rapidly descending air — smashed down on the desert ground, they stirred up large amounts of sand and dust subsequently carried forth by […]
MUST SEE TV: Web Redemption For Taser Boy
Tosh.0 Tuesdays 10pm / 9c Web Redemption – Phillies Taser Kid tosh.comedycentral.com Tosh.0 Videos Daniel Tosh Web Redemption DAVE ON DEMAND: Steve Consalvi, the Montco teen who was tasered for running on the field during a Phillies’ game, got his revenge last night. Comedically at least. Consalvi was the subject of a “Web Redemption” segment on Tuesday night’s Tosh.O. Comedian and show host Daniel Tosh will bring on someone who has gained widespread notoriety in an internet clip. Then he goofs on their dubious viral exploits. In Consalvi’s case, Tosh framed it as a sketch in which he is in […]
MY AWESOME GEEZER CONCERT ADVENTURE: How I Learned To Stop Worrying About Styx & Love Yes
BY MIKE WOLVERTON Styx became my first favorite band around the time of 1980’s Paradise Theatre album, when I was all of 11. Well, the Beatles were my first favorite band, but Styx was my first favorite active band. I’ve never caught them live, because by the time I started going to concerts my tastes had, um, evolved. It had crossed my mind to catch them as they’ve toured these last few years, but they always seemed to be playing with REO Speedwagon (I will admit I was tempted when they shared a bill with The Fixx). When I saw […]
WORTH REPEATING: ‘Some Will Call Me A Torturer’
WIRED: Admitting that “some will call me a torturer” is a surefire way to cut yourself off from anyone’s sympathy. But Glenn Carle, a former CIA operative, isn’t sure whether he’s the hero or the villain of his own story. Distilled, that story, told in Carle’s new memoir The Interrogator, is this: In the months after 9/11, the CIA kidnaps a suspected senior member of al-Qaida and takes him to a Mideast country for interrogation. It assigns Carle — like nearly all his colleagues then, an inexperienced interrogator — to pry information out of him. Uneasy with the CIA’s new, […]