PHAWKER: An extra 25 cents on the cost of a Diabetes-inducing beverage that would fund school buses and all-day kindergarten is unacceptable? How could any reasonable person, who’s name is not Coke or Pepsi, oppose this? TEAMSTERS LOCAL 404: Curbing obesity and improving health may be how some legislators describe the soda tax, but the truth is, it’s all about the money. Soda taxes were proposed last year in Pennsylvania and New York and, thanks to Teamster input, swiftly turned down by legislators. Hundreds of Teamster members work in the soft drink distribution business and the threat of a tax […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Filmmaker Mike Mills’ parents met in junior high school. For 45 years, they lived together, raising Mills and his older sisters, until Mills’ mother died in 1999. Six months later, Mills’ father — a 75-year-old retired museum director — announced that he’s gay. Mills’ second movie, Beginners, is loosely based on his own relationship with his father, Paul. The movie stars Ewan McGregor as a graphic designer whose 75-year-old father, played by Christopher Plummer, has just come out and wants to experience the gay life he denied himself when he was married. Mills says he remembers the day […]
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON DRUG POLICY REPORT: The War Is Over, The Drugs Won
WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The global war on drugs has failed,” said a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy due to be released Thursday. The report calls for a frank dialogue on the issue and encourages governments to experiment with the regulation of drugs, especially marijuana. The 19-member commission includes a broad spectrum: former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia—all countries that have faced brutal drug violence. Former Secretary of State George Shultz and former […]
BLOTTO #15: Now I Wanna Be Your Dawg
BY LANCE DOILY Well, it took me waking up half drunk at 4:30 in the morning to the sound of two dogs ripping apart a pigeon behind the Foodtown in Paterson to realize I needed a lady. I can’t say I’ve let it get to me much in the past, since I’ve always been more of a stroke guy. While all the others were out drinkin’ and whorin’ until dawn, I’d be the guy hanging out with a fifth and a tug magazine, rifling off a few rounds into an old pair of sweats. It got to the point where […]
SIDEWALKING: Thick As A Brick
Trenton Ave. and Huntingdon St., Kensington 7:20 AM by MEREDITH KLEIBER
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The late Bobby Fischer was a chess prodigy who grew up to become one of the greatest chess players of all time. In later years, Fischer was also a reclusive nomad, who made anti-American and anti-Semitic statements and seemed increasingly lost, at times, in the depths of his own mind. Reconciling the two sides of Bobby Fischer is the subject of Liz Garbus’ new documentary biopic, Bobby Fischer Against the World. Garbus contrasts Fischer’s later years — when he became increasingly paranoid and delusional — with archival footage from his childhood and the famous 1972 “Match of the […]
BOOKS: William Faulkner Meets The 21st Century
Vintage Books has released—for the first time as e-books—all twenty-two books in Nobel Laureate William Faulkner’s critically acclaimed backlist. Now available in E-book: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, Go Down, Moses, Collected Stories, The Hamlet, The Reivers, The Wild Palms, Sanctuary, Intruder in the Dust, The Unvanquished, Big Woods, Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner, Pylon, Famous Short Novels, The Town, The Mansion, Flags in the Dust, A Fable, Requiem for a Nun, and Knight’s Gambit. MORE RELATED: Faulkner had begun writing poems when he was a schoolboy, and in 1924 he […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Bell X1
We have two pairs of tickets to see Talking Heads-ian Irish alt-rockers Bell X1 tomorrow night at First Unitarian for the first two readers that email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the answer to this trivia question: What is the name of the Bell X1 song that plays in the background of the infamous lesbian kiss scene on the O.C.? Good luck and godspeed! RELATED: Bloodless Coup is the fifth album from the Irish band Bell X1. And similar to their previous works, listening to these songs only makes one wonder what the larger scale American audience is missing. If you […]
HIPPO-OCRACY: Fiscal Conservative Chris Christie Takes State Police Helicopter To Son’s Baseball Game
STAR-LEDGER: Gov. Chris Christie arrived at his son’s baseball game [yesterday] afternoon aboard a State Police helicopter. Right before the lineup cards were being exchanged on the field, a noise from above distracted the spectators as the 55-foot long helicopter buzzed over trees in left field, circled the outfield and landed in an adjacent football field. Christie disembarked from the helicopter and got into a black car with tinted windows that drove him about a 100 yards to the baseball field. During the 5th inning, Christie and First Lady Mary Pat Christie got into the car, rode back to the […]
Library Of Congress To Make A Massive Archive Of 20th Century Recordings Available For Free Online
LOS ANGELES TIMES: The bunkers are a repository containing nearly 100 miles of shelves stacked with some 6 million items: reels of film; kinescopes; videotape and screenplays; magnetic audiotape; wax cylinders; shellac, metal and vinyl discs; wire recordings; paper piano rolls; photographs; manuscripts; and other materials. In short, a century’s worth of the nation’s musical and cinematic legacy. This is the Library of Congress’ $250-million Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, a 45-acre vault and state-of-the-art preservation and restoration facility on Virginia’s Mt. Pony. It’s here that a recent donation from Universal Music Group, nearly a quarter-million master recordings by musicians […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
ALL SONGS CONSIDERED Wilco never makes the second record twice, which makes it doubly remarkable that so many of them are tremendous. As formidable as frontman Jeff Tweedy’s catalog is, the sonically inventive rock band really stands out on stage — the place where extreme technical skill meets the chemistry and rousing showmanship of passionate rock veterans. Of course, it helps that the group has the luxury of drawing highlights from seven very different records when it performs. To see Wilco on stage is to hear the best of the best. Recorded live at The Gorge on Monday, May 30, […]
WTF: Girl Kills Rapper With One Punch?
DAILY MAIL: A 22-year-old woman allegedly killed an aspiring rap singer with a single punch for a $5 party bet. Tiffany Startz is accused of killing John ‘Fatboy’ Powell with a single blow to the face and has been told she has to stand trial. The 25-year-old had agreed to be hit in the face by Starr in return for $5. After being struck and collecting his money he walked away to talk with friends, only to collapse minutes later from a burst artery in his neck. An autopsy ruled that he had died from a brain haemorrhage caused by […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Pounding Sand
[Illustration by Ajda Gregor?i?] BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I just finished reading a column in the New York Times by Stanley Fish titled “What’s up with the Jews?” The article poses the question of whether it’s ever possible for any of us to completely eliminate anti-semitic characterizations of Jews from whatever opinions we may form, or conclusions we may draw, with reference to any particular Jewish affected action or stance. In conclusion he offers this statement with respect to the Israeli/Palestinian situation: “Those who offer the criticism can never quite be sure that their distaste for Israel’s actions with respect […]