Though it sounds like a Guided By Voices song title, this is no lo-fi Buckeye state indie-rock anthem. This is the dark side of stupid pet tricks: A bear and a monkey ride bikes around a track at some animal park in China for the amusement of homo sapiens on their day off from the next sweat shop factory fire. Monkey falls down, bear falls on top and eats monkey for lunch. This is why this kind of barbaric anthropomorphizing needs to be left in the 1800s. Monkeys don’t ride bikes, they eat bananas. Bears don’t ride bikes, they eat […]

Illustration by NANCY STAHL NEW YORK TIMES: In the eight years since Chief Justice Roberts joined the court, it has allowed corporations to spend freely in elections in the Citizens United case, has shielded them from class actions and human rights suits, and has made arbitration the favored way to resolve many disputes. Business groups say the Roberts court’s decisions have helped combat frivolous lawsuits, while plaintiffs’ lawyers say the rulings have destroyed legitimate claims for harm from faulty products, discriminatory practices and fraud. Whether the Roberts court is unusually friendly to business has been the subject of repeated discussion, […]

  The Thin White Duke goes nuclear on Catholicism — not that it didn’t have it coming — with help from Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard. Call it Station To Stations of the cross. Sort of a Station To Stations of the cross. The song is pretty funk to funky. Warning: some bloody stigmata, dirty priests, self-flagellation, beating up on the poor and Jesus Christ posing included. Best one yet from the new album. Pretty sure Rome will disagree. BOWIE WEEK: Five David Bowie Live Performances You Really Should See Before You Die Friday, March 15th, 2013 BOWIE WEEK: 10 […]

ROLLING STONE: At the end of February, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds took the stage at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the release of their latest album Push the Sky Away. Backed by an ensemble of string players and a children’s choir from the Silverlake Conservatory, the band re-created the entire LP onstage. Now you can take an exclusive first look at their performance of “Mermaids,” the album’s upcoming single. Directed by U.K. artists Lain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and filmed by LoveLive, the black-and-white clip periodically cuts to a washed out filter as Cave ambles […]

  LOCATION: 1919 E. Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19148. Not to be confused with 19th and Passyunk. It gets confusing. Use Google maps or GPS, unless you are a pro at navigating South Philly. Seriously, I get lost every time I go there. CUISINE: A vegetarian-friendly flavor fiesta VIBE: Located along the impressively happening East Passyunk Avenue, Adobe Café offers the perfect environment to enjoy the animal-free Southwestern Cuisine that you didn’t know you were missing out on. The dim lighting, festive decorations and t-shirt and jeans style of the dining room put me right at ease. The staff is […]

  BY BRANDON LAFVING If God exists, then he/she/it wants Nathaniel Rich’s first novel, The Odds Against Tomorrow to sell faster than Pat’s cheesesteaks to drunk-up Jersey assholes come last call. How else could you explain that the book’s most dire prognostications have proven eerily prescient? The book was undergoing final edits when Superstorm Sandy rendered parts of New York City submersible. An uncanny stroke of serendipity considering the book cover: Manhattan skyscrapers bobbing on the ocean like ungainly yachts.  And then come April, the month of the book’s release, we had Kim Jong Un’s apocalyptic slapstick to remind us […]

WARNING: Graphic Content TALKING POINTS MEMO: On March 10th, Middlefield, Ohio police made what appeared to be a routine traffic stop of a man who had run a stop sign. But then James Gilkerson emerged from his stopped car firing 37 rounds from an AK-47 rifle. Amazingly the two officers in the cruiser sustained only relatively minor injuries and fired off 54 rounds of their own, eventually killing Gilkerson. You can see the shocking and somewhat disturbing dash-cam video released by local police just this weekend here. Perhaps not surprisingly, in Gilkerson’s car police found eight 40-round magazines for the […]