This just in from 215 Festival organizers: This week, The 215 Festival — Philadelphia’s literary arts festival, featuring readings and events with some of the city’s greatest writers (and some pretty good ones from more far-flung locales, too) — will ramp up, and we couldn’t be more excited. That’s for a few reasons. One is that the 215 Fest is one of our favorite times of the year. Another is that we’re proud and honored to welcome this year’s writers and authors — a lineup that is proof positive that Philly’s literary scene is fresh, robust and totally ready […]

  DAILY BEAST: Suicide was not uncommon among the Mad Men of the Cold War, and Janney makes much of the timing of the death of Washington Post publisher Phil Graham, whose suicide in the summer 1963 was preceded by a notorious breakdown in which he grabbed the stage at a gathering of national newspaper editors and, drink in hand, proceeded to call them all assholes, and reel off the names of women sleeping with Kennedy, before bursting into tears. For Janney, the unhinged newsman had to die, because the dark forces plotting to kill Kennedy knew they needed a […]

  The Thurston Moore Band plays Boot N’ Saddle on 10/25 in support of the just-out The Best Day. PITCHFORK: The Best Day is not the first music Thurston Moore has released since becoming the most famous—and, in some circles, most reviled—divorcé in American indie-rock. It is, however, the first time he’s released a song-oriented album under his own name since his highly publicized split from long-time wife/bandmate Kim Gordon. And given that Moore’s traditionally used these solo albums to explore more intimate, emotionally resonant songcraft than Sonic Youth’s gnarled guitar jams normally accommodate, it’s not totally unreasonable to expect […]

HUFFINGTON POST: In a new video excerpt from a 1969 interview with Doors frontman Jim Morrison finds the singer emphasizing that “fat is beautiful.” The video was released by Blank on Blank, a new online PBS series that animates old interviews between journalists and their famous subjects. This one finds Morrison talking about his experiences gaining weight and how “great” he felt when he packed on additional pounds while in college. MORE

From the new Weirdon (Drag City). This sounds like it could’ve come out on Gerard Cosloy-era Homestead Records. That is a HUGE compliment, by the way. They play JBs Oct. 22nd.

  NEW YORK TIMES: It’s hard to imagine now, but there once was a time when you could not play any song ever recorded, instantly, from your phone. I call this period adolescence. It lasted approximately 30 years, and it was galvanized by conflict. At that time, music had to be melted onto plastic discs and shipped across the country in trucks. In order to keep this system running smoothly, a handful of major labels coordinated with broadcasters and retailers to encourage everyone to like the same thing, e.g. Third Eye Blind. This approach divided music into two broad categories: […]

  DELAWARE ONLINE: Want legal weed in Delaware? You’re easily in the majority, according to a new University of Delaware poll that finds 56 percent of Delawareans support legalization of marijuana use. The university polled 902 Delaware adults between Sept. 10 and 22, finding just 39 percent opposed to legalization. Delawareans older than 60 and self-identified conservatives were the only groups to express deep opposition, while young adults and liberals drove the support. Support for legalization crossed racial and geographic boundaries, with poll respondents in all three counties saying they back legal marijuana. “I would say the numbers suggest solid […]