Photo by NATALIE BRASINGTON BY JONATHAN VALANIA There are three things that make Anthony Jeselnik awesome and the fact that he’s from Pittsburgh isn’t one of them. Nor that he’s really funny — lots of people are funny. Or that he finds the funny in the darkness of humanity. Ditto. Or that he’s really smart and intense. Lots of people are really smart and intense. No, the three things that make Anthony Jeselnik awesome are: He always tells the truth, even when he’s lying. He never flinches. He ends every episode of Comedy Central’s  The Jeselnik Offensive — part tar-black  stand […]

  BY ADAM BISIGNARO As his nickname would suggest, Questlove has many questions –personal, rhetorical, and universal – to ask in his musically-driven memoir, Mo’ Meta Blues. These questions range from the crucial (“what’s the single most influential moment in the history of hip-hop?”) to the existential (“what is a death if not the confirmation of life?”). With a swing that wide, dude is clearly aiming for the fences. Assisting Questlove with these inquiries are some of the artists and celebrities – Prince, Dave Chappelle, Jill Scott – that he’s met on his way to the top as The Roots’ […]

  ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Yes, we swear, that’s really Steve Carell. The star dons a prosthetic nose — and an uncharacteristically gloomy demeanor — in this exclusive image from his new movie Foxcatcher (out Dec. 20). In director Bennett Miller’s follow-up to Moneyball, Carell stars as John DuPont, the real-life chemical heir who befriended Olympic wrestler brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) before murdering David in 1996. If you didn’t recognize Carell at first sight, you’re not alone. “We just had our first test [screening], and not everybody recognized Steve. He is aged [for the film], and his […]

  LOCATION: 119 South 21st St. (between Walnut and Sansom) or 1609 South St. CUISINE: Impossibly healthy breakfast, lunch and snack foods. MENU: At first glance, I really didn’t think Pure Fare was going to be my style. I am not exactly the most nutrition-focused herbivore out there and Pure Fare is definitely one of the healthiest restaurants around. To my surprise, they actually make some pretty good grub. Despite my complete lack of interest in the tedious listings of nutritional information that accompanied each menu option, I acknowledge the benefit for super health conscious diners. Overall, I was very […]

‘Probably the greatest Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra cover of all time,’ was my first reaction. And my second. And my seventh, etc. More a love letter than a cover song, actually. Outclasses the original in every category but originality, but then again originality is vastly overrated. Dig the retro 60’s home movie filtering and the chill Pacific at twilight vibe, too. Haters gonna hate. F*ck ’em, more for us.

  LOS ANGELES TIMES: The Obama administration announced Thursday a limited pullback on federal enforcement of marijuana, saying it will not interfere with new state laws that permit recreational use of marijuana. The Justice Department said it will not seek to veto new state laws in Colorado and Washington that legalize the recreational use of marijuana, and it will not bring federal prosecutions against dispensaries or businesses that sell small amounts of marijuana to adults. A department official stressed, however, that marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and that U.S. prosecutors will continue to aggressively enforce the law against those […]

FRESH AIR Every single day of Jimmy Fallon’s life is like Thanksgiving. The comedian and host of Late Night tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that he is appreciative of the word moist — for being the “worst word ever.” He’s thankful, too, for taco shells that have survived their long journey from factory to supermarket to his plate — and then break the moment he fills them. And he’s grateful that the name Lloyd starts with two L’s. Otherwise, he says, it would just sound like “Loyd.” Fallon has spent most of his career coming up with jokes and doing […]

  For the next couple days, I’ll be out in L.A. profiling this guy — whose new album, Innocents, is f*cking amazing — for the October cover story of MAGNET MAGAZINE so updating will be light. But standby for funny and/or fascinating Q&As with comedian Anthony Jeselnik and Upper Darby born-and-bred singer/songwriter/producer Todd Rundgren.

Artwork by MR. FISH NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Keller said the relationship with sources and competitors on coverage was always fraught with peril, but technology has created significant disruption to both the business model and the practice of journalism. “Stuff that used to happen in a sedate place with a kind of Robert’s Rules of Order have now turned into the World Wrestling Federation, with everybody piling into the ring and throwing punches,” he said. “There has been a tendency for people used to a more decorous world to bristle at the characters who have acquired prominence in this new […]

  CNN: Arianna Huffington is fed up with the trolls. The founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post says that starting next month, she will require readers to identify themselves by name in the comments sections of her eponymous news site. Huffington made the off-the-cuff comment in a Q&A session after a speech Wednesday to a crowd of 4,000 at a conference in Boston, according to spokeswoman Katie Burke of HubSpot, a marketing software company that hosts the conference. “Freedom of expression is given to people who stand up for what they’re saying and who are not hiding behind anonymity,” […]

Law & Order, the solo debut from Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado comes out September 3rd on Woodist. RELATED: Jonathan Rado is a songwriter, a staid performer, an evangelical producer – the 23-year-old California native’s solo project, fashioned on brief sabbatical from his main project, Foxygen, is a deliciously self-conscious piece of esoteric apocrypha. Like character games, or symphonies of nonsense imitation-language, his records are cathartic, designed only to liberate the body and break the awkwardness of obsessive, existential silence. Alone in a bedroom, the holy land where he’s been experimenting with recording since junior high, Rado laughs nervously and eats his […]