RELATED: It’s a little unusual to see the Obama administration singing the praises of Doctors Without Borders, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning nonprofit that is shipping doctors, drugs and supplies to West Africa to combat the Ebola outbreak. When President Barack Obama lauded the “incredible heroism” of American doctors who travel to countries such as Sierra Leone to do “God’s work” and “keep us safe,” on Tuesday, he was celebrating a community packed with Doctors Without Borders volunteers. […] But the recent executive branch acclaim for Doctors Without Borders obscures a long-running struggle between the humanitarian group and the White House […]
GEEK SQUAD: Riot Girl
BY STEPHANIE SHAMP GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT Two weeks ago, the invisible troll army of the so-called “#GamerGate” keepers — kind of like the ISIS of video game culture — reached peak infamy when feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian was forced to cancel a speaking engagement at Utah State University because of death threats. To be more specific, it wasn’t just the death threats, Sarkeesian is used to that by now, rather it was the fact that Utah state open carry laws meant that security could not restrict audience members from bringing guns into the auditorium. (Thanks, NRA!) If #GamerGate vibes […]
CARIBOU: Our Love
He plays Union Transfer on 11/14 in support of the curiously-clubby Our Love, his first since 2010’s career-making Swim. Hard to put your finger on just why this video is so mesmerizing/unsettling. Is it the fact that we almost never see elderly faces in popular culture? Or existential dread of the fact that the wages of aging is death? Or the jarring incongruity of EDM wedded to surveillance footage of the eerie loneliness of an octogenarian dowager? Our guess: All the above.
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The man behind the most popular female comic book hero of all time, Wonder Woman, had a secret past: Creator William Moulton Marston had a wife — and a mistress. He fathered children with both of them, and they all secretly lived together in Rye, N.Y. And the best part? Marston was also the creator of the lie detector. Harvard professor and New Yorker contributor Jill Lepore reveals this and other surprising details about Marston in the new book The Secret History of Wonder Woman. “I got fascinated by this story because I’m a political historian and […]
EARLY WORD: Super Furry Animal House
Gruff Rhys plays the Boot N’ Saddle on November 6th.
BEING THERE: Weezer @ The Trocadero
By DYLAN LONG We can all agree that Weezer needs no introduction, nor did they get one this past Saturday night at the Trocadero. Instead, after almost an hour and a half of fans trickling in to fill the joint to capacity, Weezer mainman Rivers Cuomo meekly appeared on the lip of the dimly-lit stage in front of the curtain and kicked off an acoustic set that mixed deep cuts (“You Gave Your Love To Me Gently,” “Why Bother”) with the classics (“El Scorcho,” “The Good Life” and of course “Buddy Holly”). Each song seemed to lure another Weezer member […]
SMUTGATE: Seamus McCaffery, At Last Showing Good Judgement, Resigns From PA Supreme Court
DAILY NEWS: Seamus McCaffery, a former Philadelphia police officer elected in 2007 to the state’s highest court, is retiring today, one week after four of his fellow justices voted to suspend him from the bench. The Supreme Court, in an order lifting McCaffery’s suspension, confirmed his resignation. McCaffery, 64, has been in a long and rancorous feud with fellow Philadelphian, Chief Justice Ron Castille, who must step down on Dec. 31 because he has reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Castille was one of the four votes to suspend McCaffery last Monday after another justice, J. Michael Eakin […]
BEING THERE: Thurston Moore @ Boot & Saddle
Photo by DAN LONG The Boot & Saddle is a 125-person capacity South Philly venue with a long Country and Western history that was shuttered years ago and recently revived with punk rock charm. I knew right away this was going to be the smallest and most intimate venue I’d get to see Thurston and company play. Last night, the Thurston Moore Band — My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe, experimental guitarist James Sedwards and ex-Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley — kicked off their set with “Forever Love” and then segued into “Speak to the Wild” for a trifecta of […]
DEEP THROAT: Q&A With Harry Shearer
Illustration by EVERYBODY’S GOT TO BE IN A GANG Harry Shearer — aka the voice of Mr. Burns, Mr. Smithers, Ned Flanders, Otto The Bus Driver and Moe the Bar Tender, aka Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls, aka the voice of reason on NPR’s Le Show, director of the muckraking Katrina documentary The Big Uneasy that dared to speak the truth about the actual cause of the flood of New Orleans — is a man of many hats, and the voices that go with those hats. His latest project, ‘Nixon’s The One,’ finds him donning the face and voice of […]
CINEMA: The Jazz Nazi
WHIPLASH (2014, Damien Chazelle, 109 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK Whiplash is a skilled filmization of a preposterous argument. Set in the cutthroat world of a music school jazz band writer/director Damien Chazelle’s breakout feature follows a drummer as he locks horns with an unhinged drill instructor of a music professor. Whiplash occasionally thrills with some expertly-edited big band performances but I never got so whipped up that I shook the horror I felt at the film’s attitudes toward jazz music, education and humanity in general. As a jazz fan I knew we were in trouble when it revealed […]
BETWEEN TWO FERNS: Brad Pitt & Louis CK
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Brad Pitt from Zach Galifianakis Do you really need to know anymore?
Weed Doesn’t Cause Low IQ, Shoddy Science Does
Artwork via DOPE MAGAZINE & THE WEED BLOG WASHINGTON POST: Now, a new study out from the University College of London provides even stronger evidence that the Duke [study’s] findings [that marijuana causes low IQs] were flawed. The study draws on a considerably larger sample of adolescents than the Duke research – 2,612 children born in the Bristol area of the U.K. in 1991 and 1992. Researchers examined children’s IQ scores at age 8 and again at age 15, and found “no relationship between cannabis use and lower IQ at age 15,” when confounding factors – alcohol use, cigarette use, maternal education, […]
GIRL TALK & FREEWAY: Suicide (feat. A$AP Ferg)
Girl Talk and Freeway’s collaborative EP, “Broken Ankles” featuring Waka Flocka Flame, Jadakiss and Young Chris, was released this past spring via Datpiff. Following Allen Cordell’s outstanding and over-the-top video for the EP’s debut single, “Tolerated,” artist Lisa Ramsey has now created an equally awesome and extreme “Simpsons”-based animated video for the remix of “Broken Ankles’” “Suicide” feat. A$AP Ferg. It presents an alternative reality where Freeway and A$AP Ferg both star as Bart Simpson-esque characters, while Girl Talk is represented by Milhouse. There’s an army of Barts wielding guns, a badass version of Lisa Simpson, a stoned Maggie and […]