To celebrate Brian Wilson coming to town like Santa Claus bringing tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, to the Tower on Sunday (along with tourmate Jeff Beck, formerly of the Yardbirds), we’re going to be posting all things Brian the next coupla days. Tomorrow we’ll be posting the Q&A we did with him last week. We’ll also be re-running our interview with Mike Love that first ran last summer on the occasion of the Beach Boys 50th Anniversary. We’ll have a long-form, essay-style review of The Smile Sessions box set, plus some other surprises. But right now, […]
STRIP STRIP HOORAY: Q&A With Dita Von Teese
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Of all the reasons that Dita Von Teese is cool — and make no mistake, she is very effing cool — the fact that she takes her clothes off for a living isn’t even in the Top 10. First she’s smarter than the average bear — and not just ‘smart for a stripper.’ She was invited to speak at Oxford. Do you know who else was invited to speak at Oxford? Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Tony Blair, and Anna Wintour. Second, her craft. The period clothes, the period hair, the pre-porn striptease routines, the ornate stage pieces, […]
JOHN LENNON: Strawberry Fields (Demo)
John Lennon would be 73 years old today if Mark David Chapman never read Catcher In the Rye America had a responsive mental health system and sane gun laws. Fact.
HOW SOON IS NOW: The Browning Of America
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: What is it about the faces on these pages that we find so intriguing? Is it simply that their features disrupt our expectations, that we’re not used to seeing those eyes with that hair, that nose above those lips? Our responses can range from the armchair anthropologist’s benign desire to unravel ancestries and find common ground to active revulsion at group boundaries being violated or, in the language of racist days past, “watered down.” Out in the world, the more curious (or less polite) among us might approach, asking, “Where are you from?” or “What are you?” […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The National Debt Lie And The Lamestream Media That Makes It All Possible
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY “We must slash entitlement programs in order to reduce the national debt and restore fiscal sanity to the budget process.” Where have we heard that before? Well, no matter how often or how loudly the right wing regurgitates it, it will still be the same excremental lie it has always been. And, yes, you can indeed thank America’s mainstream media, those constitutionally vested stewards of liberty, those incorruptible, inextinguishable lodestars of enlightenment whose number one reason for being is to expose lies and disseminate truth to the American people, for perpetuating the deceit. Alas, with […]
CINEMA: It Crawled From The ’70s
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC PhilaMOCA continues to shine a light on some of the more obscure and fascinating corners of film with The Tele-Terror Fest, a five-day film festival of the TV movies of the 1970s. Presented by Exhumed Films and Cinedelphia, these 13 rare features represent some of the best-remembered thrillers of the telefilm genre, all shown from 16mm film prints. As TV gained strength as a medium, the networks began to produce their own exclusive feature length films. Among the first was a Technicolor musical version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin that was created by […]
LETTER FROM HOLLYWOOD: Phawker Intern Goes West, Tries To Break Into The Biz, Hilarity Ensues
DEAR PHAWKER, It’s me, Tony. You remember me, right? The scrawny what’s-his-nationality-again kid who hasn’t written for you in over a year? Well, there’s a reason for that. See, I left my dearly beloved home near 2nd and Girard to pursue a career in Hollywood. I know, I know – super cliche. Here, let me give you a run-down on what I’ve been up to since I left the city who made me who I am today. I drove out West this past May with extremely low expectations. I’ve come to realize that if I set the bar really […]
FIDLAR: Cocaine
FIDLAR – Cocaine (ft. Nick Offerman) from FIDLAR Fidlar play First Unitarian on October 25th. WARNING: This is probably NSFW unless you work somewhere where watching videos of Nick Offerman from PARKS & RECREATION literally pissing all over Los Angeles over shout-y punk rock anthems about illicit substances is cool with the boss. In which case, we’d like to know if they are hiring.
Win Tix To See The Muscle Shoals Documentary
MUSCLE SHOALS is a documentary about a place filled with magic and music, legend and folklore, where the river is inhabited by a Native American spirit who has lured some of the greatest Rock and Roll and Soul legends of all time, and drawn from them some of the most uplifting, defiant, and important music ever created. In Muscle Shoals, Alabama, music runs through the hills, the river, and the spirit of the people. It is a place where, even before the Civil Rights Movement really took shape, the color of your skin didn’t matter inside the studio. At […]
WORTH REPEATING: Man Who Knew Too Much
NEW YORKER: On August 8th, Lavabit, newly famous for being the secure e-mail service used by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, went dark. Its owner and operator, Ladar Levison, replaced its home page with a message: “I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.” Levison could write only that he chose to shut down the company rather than “become complicit in crimes against the American people,” and he promised to “fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.” Court-watchers repeatedly checked the Fourth […]
BANKSY: Syrian Rebels Shoot Down Dumbo
NEW YORK TIMES: The British street artist Banksy is apparently among the millions watching Syria’s war from afar, through glimpses of the fighting recorded on video and posted on YouTube. His latest video work is a brief parody of one of those clips released on Sunday as part of a series of works produced during a monthlong residency in New York that started last week. An excerpt from the video, showing actors dressed like Syrian rebels aiming a shoulder-fired missile at the sky, was uploaded to that Instagram account on Sunday, with a note reading: “I’m not posting any pictures […]
Win Tix To See Unknown Mortal Orchestra
We have a a pair of tix to see mesmerizing indie sensations Unknown Mortal Orchestra at First Unitarian Church on Wednesday for the 14th lucky Phawker reader to email us. To qualify, all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (see right, below the masthead). Trust us, this is something you want to do. In addition to breaking news alerts and Phawker updates, you also get advanced warning about groovy concert ticket giveaways and other free swag opportunities like this one! After signing up, send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM telling us a much, with […]
SINEAD v. MILEY: Nothing Compares 2U
Illustration by COREY ADAMS BY AMY Z. QUINN Well, poopies, it seems like only yesterday that your Citizen Mom was here begging Britney and Lindsay to please put away their vaginas, thanks. But that was way back in 2006, LaLohan is sober for the upteenth time and Britney is a single mom working the 9-to-5 shift at the dream factory. They grow up so fast. Well, they age, anyway, usually far beyond their years. And so will Miley, which is why I tend to believe her wide-eyed protestations to the Today Show that her naked-licking antics are just her being […]