NEW YORK TIMES: In a world of flickering images, Elizabeth Taylor was a constant star. First appearing onscreen at age 9, she grew up there, never passing through an awkward age. It was one quick leap from “National Velvet” to “A Place in the Sun” and from there to “Cleopatra” as she was indelibly transformed from a vulnerable child actress into a voluptuous film queen. In a career of more than 70 years and more than 50 films, she won two Academy Awards as best actress, for her performances as a call girl in “Butterfield 8” (in 1960) and as […]
EARLY WORD: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
On Saturday, March 26, 2011, the Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design will present the first screening in several years centered on rock music: A WALK ON THE SOFT SIDE: FILMS OF THE BEACH BOYS AND FRIENDS. The program, sure to be welcomed by those rediscovering the charms of the “sunshine pop” and “soft rock”* genres, features difficult to find footage from lost television specials and educational films. Much of the program features the Beach Boys, but there are also rare appearances by the Fifth Dimension, Jimmy Webb, Johnny Rivers, Merrilee Rush and others. Noted musician, pop […]
CINEMA: Live From The Mars Hotel
The critically acclaimed cinematic concert rockumentary, The Grateful Dead Movie Event will take audiences back to the ‘70s for a one-night in-theater event on Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Riverview and University City 6. Under the direction of the band’s lead guitarist Jerry Garcia and co-directed by Leon Gast, these legendary 1974 concerts capture the Grateful Dead at the pinnacle of their psychedelic worldwide fame while documenting the Dead Head experience. During this NCM Fathom event, theater audiences will be the first to see exclusive, never-before-seen interviews with both Garcia and Bob Weir that were captured during […]
DVD: Brother From Another Planet
ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: ENO, BRIAN: Egghead electronica wizard, inventor of “ambient,” synthesizer-tweaker on the first two Roxy Music albums, in-demand record collaborator/producer (David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2). In 1973, Eno quit Roxy Music at the direct request of foppish frontman Bryan Ferry and thus began a profoundly influential career as a solo artist and producer. His collaboration with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp later that year resulted in No Pussyfooting, an album that sounds like what inhaling nitrous oxide feels like. By 1975, Eno had released the three landmark solo albums that lodged him in the rock-snob pantheon–Here Come the […]
MONEY: It’s The Wealth Inequality, Stupid!
[Illustration by ROGELIO NARANJO] MICHAEL NORTON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: In a recent survey of Americans, my colleague Dan Ariely and I found that Americans drastically underestimated the level of wealth inequality in the United States. While recent data indicates that the richest 20 percent of Americans own 84 percent of all wealth, people estimated that this group owned just 59 percent – believing that total wealth in this country is far more evenly divided among poorer Americans. Easy consumer credit and a belief in social mobility have reduced the clamor for wealth redistribution. What’s more, when we asked […]
Eye Care Has Come A Long Way Since The 1800’s, Baby
[Photo by Dr. Stanley B. Burns] No, that’s not a Butthole Surfers album cover, it’s a man from the year 1908 with an abscess so large it has shifted his eye downward. Back before antibiotics, a simple head cold could easily escalate to this gruesome pathology. From CBS News’ Mutter-esque slideshow Eye Care In The 1800s: 14 Shocking Photos. Let the viewer be weird.
ALBUM REVIEW: Raekwon Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD YO! MTV Raps first interviewed the Wu-Tang Clan in 1993 fresh off the set of “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” music video. Each member had a chance to speak to Fab 5 Freddy, but Raekwon initially declined — lurking in the background chewing on a toothpick. Minutes later, Rae violently yanks the mic from Freddy and explains the duality of swordplay and wordplay in his hip-hop. He’s a silent-eccentric like Miles and Mingus. There’s a second or third layer to everything he says. Ghostface Killah may be the enigma of the Wu-Tang Clan, but Rae is undoubtedly its […]
SIDEWALKING: Come And Get It
22nd and Sedgley, 9:15 AM yesterday by JEFF FUSCO
DRUG WAR: Man Who Prosecuted Paris Hilton For Cocaine Posession Busted For Posession Of Cocaine
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: A Clark County prosecutor assigned to some of Las Vegas’ most high-profile drug cases was arrested Saturday after police say he bought crack cocaine from a street dealer. David Charles Schubert, 47, was arrested Saturday and booked on a possession of cocaine charge, according to jail records. Schubert was arrested by a Las Vegas police patrol officer at 4:51 p.m. near Desert Inn Road and Maryland Parkway. The patrol officer saw what he thought was a drug transaction and stopped Schubert’s vehicle near Sierra Vista Drive and Cambridge Street, police said. The alleged drug dealer told police […]
Juan Williams Still Fox’s Faux-Liberal House Negro
JUAN WILLIAMS: Even after they fired me, called me a bigot and publicly advised me to only share my thoughts with a psychiatrist, I did not call for defunding NPR. I am a journalist, and NPR is an important platform for journalism. But last week my line of defense for NPR ran into harsh political realities. Rep. Steve Israel (D- N.Y.) chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising letter with the following argument for maintaining public funding of NPR: “They [Republicans] know NPR plays a vital role in providing quality news programming — from rural radio […]
HIGHER ED: J.D. Salinger Slept Here And You Can Too
NEW YORK TIMES: For years, officials at Ursinus College had been trying to figure out how to capitalize on the fact that J. D. Salinger had spent one semester there in the fall of 1938. They were hoping to attract publicity for Ursinus and tried everything they could think of to lure Salinger from the secluded world he’d lived in for his final 50 years. They offered to make him a guest lecturer; to build a literary festival around him; to award him an honorary degree. “No response,” said Richard DiFeliciantonio, the vice president for enrollment at the small liberal […]
CHILLING: Coast Guard Releases Footage Of Tsunami
RELATED: Police officials say that the death toll from Japan’s massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami is likely to exceed 18,000. Hitoshi Sugawara, a police spokesman, said on Monday that Miyagi, one of the of the hardest-hit prefectures, might account for 15,000 deaths alone. “It is very distressing as we recover more bodies day by days,” Sugawara said. The National Police Agency said the overall number of bodies collected so far stood at 8,649 and some 13,262 people have been listed as missing. The financial cost of the disaster was estimated to be some $235 billion, the World Bank said […]
Nine Months Late, Christie About To Announce Who Can Grow And Sell Medical Marijuana In Jersey
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Today’s announcement is a major milestone in bringing medical marijuana to the most populous East Coast state to allow it. Six organizations can receive licenses to grow and distribute cannabis. The state’s rules call for the alternative treatment centers to be set up in northern, central and southern New Jersey. Several groups that wanted to be considered decided not to apply, saying the proposed state regulations are too onerous. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Chris Christie says he’s trying to ensure that medical marijuana will be used for approved patients and won’t become as easily accessible for recreational use in the […]