From all of us to you and yours.
CINEMA: Gaslandia
PROMISED LAND (2012, directed by Gus Van Sant, 106 minutes, U.S.) NOT FADE AWAY (2012, directed by David Chase, 112 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Matt Damon and John Kasinski co-wrote/co-produced and co-star in Promised Land, an “issue drama” that seems Hell-bent on allowing its flat-footed attempt at drama get by on its good-intentions alone. Based on a story idea by fellow do-gooder Dave Eggers, Promised Land aches of being a film whose anti-fracking message came long before they decided on a story to hang it on. Damon is Steve Butler, a servant of an energy company […]
REWIND 2012: The Year In Phawker Interviews
Talk is cheap, especially on the Internet, but at Phawker it’s totally free, baby — at least for you, dear reader. Trolling through the vast and dusty Phawker archives, we have dug up fat sack of conversations from the past year that are worth re-visiting: Dick Dale, King Of The Surf Guitar; graphic novelist Charles Burns, the Edgar Allan Poe of right now; photographer Joe Kazcmarek, who tirelessly chronicles the murder-scarred backstreets of North and West Philly; Jim Reid, lead singer of The Jesus And Mary Chain; Anton Newcombe, cult leader of The Brian Jonestown Massacre; Hardball host Chris Matthews; […]
THE SOPRANO: Q&A With Writer/Director David Chase
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Last week we sat down with Sopranos creator David Chase to talk about his new movie, Not Fade Away, a weedy coming-of-age dramedy about being young, horny and trying to be the Rolling Stones in the teenage wasteland of suburban New Jersey in the mid-’60s. There’s sex. There’s drugs. There’s rock n’ roll, in the form of an impeccably-curated soundtrack and convincing scenes of the band trying to kick out the jams in garages and basements. There’s James Gandolfini as the hey-you-kids-get-off-of-my-lawn father, shaking his fist at the longhairs from the wrong side of the generation […]
MEMORIAM: Jack Klugman, ‘Rubber-Mugged’ Everyman
NEW YORK TIMES: His features were large and mobile; his voice was a deep, earnest, rough-hewed bleat. He was a no-baloney actor who conveyed straightforward, simply defined emotion, whether it was anger, heartbreak, lust or sympathy. That forthrightness, in both comedy and drama, was the source of his power and his popularity. Never remote, never haughty, he was a regular guy, an audience-pleaser who proved well-suited for series television. Mr. Klugman was already a decorated actor in 1970 when he began co-starring in “The Odd Couple,” a sitcom adaptation of Neil Simon’s hit play about two divorced men — friends […]
CINEMA: The Shootist
DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012, directed by Quentin Tarantino, 165 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Discussing the trailer to Django Unchained before its release, I evoked a few chuckles from friends with the comment, “It looks like a Wayans brothers’ spoof of Tarantino films.” After seeing Django Unchained in its entirety, the film barely outruns that perception; in many ways Django Unchained is a Tarantino film almost to the point of parody. The only thing missing is the element of surprise, once the cornerstone of the Tarantino brand. Without surprise, what is left to define Tarantino? Explosive violence, profane exclamations, […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Saddest Story Ever Told
Photograph by DIANE ARBUS BY JIM KNIPFEL Lord knows what happened to me — or what happened to most of us, for that matter — along the way. When you’re a kid growing up in the snowy Midwestern suburbs, you simply have no choice–Christmas is a magical time whether you want it to be or not. I mean, I was a reasonably normal kid. No, that’s not true. I had a reasonably normal family. No, that’s not exactly true either. We did reasonably normal, holiday-type things around Christmas. That’s true. My folks would take me to see Santa at the […]
THE AP TICKER TRIO: Winter Wonderland
Season’s greetings from The Least Trusted Name In News. And a Happy New Year!
SIDEWALKING: Old Glory
Under the El, 3:01 PM, by JEFF FUSCO
WHO’S SORRY NOW: A Very Wayne Newton Christmas
BY MIKE WALSH It was in October that we got the notice in the mail. A nearby township was running a bus to the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City on a Sunday afternoon in December to see the Wayne Newton Christmas Extravaganza. The cost was only $15, which included the bus fare, ticket, and $10 in gambling chips. Since the final cost was only $5 and since we hadn’t been to AC in quite a while, and since we’re always interested in bizarre spectacles, we sent in our money. We suspected that a Sunday afternoon Wayne Newton concert would […]
NRA Totally Wastes Nation’s Time With Same Old John Wayne Fantasies, Gets Punked By Code Pink Patriot
ABC NEWS: The National Rifle Association stood its ground today in arguing that the answer to gun violence in schools is an armed security force that can protect students, while blaming the media and violent entertainment and video games for recent deadly shootings. “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said in presenting the NRA’s first comments about the Connecticut school shooting since it occurred a week ago today. LaPierre offered no olive branch to gun-control advocates who have called for tougher […]
WORTH REPEATING: California Dreaming
NEW YORK TIMES: “It’s shocking, from my perspective, the number of people that we all know who are recreational marijuana users,” said Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor. “These are incredibly upstanding citizens: Leaders in our community, and exceptional people. Increasingly, people are willing to share how they use it and not be ashamed of it.” Marijuana can be smelled in suburban backyards in neighborhoods from Hollywood to Topanga Canyon as dusk falls — what in other places is known as the cocktail hour — often wafting in from three sides. In some homes in Beverly Hills and San Francisco, it […]
What If They Threw An Apocalypse And Nobody Came?
QUESTION: Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012. NASA: The world will not end in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012. QUESTION: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012? NASA: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened […]