DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD: The towering actor who played the mercenary assassin Jaws in a pair of Roger Moore-era 007 movies and the enigmatic alien in one of the most famous episodes of The Twilight Zone died today. Richard Kiel would have turned 75 on Saturday. His agent of 35 years, Steven Stevens Sr, told Deadline that Kiel died this ToServeManafternoon at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, CA. The 7-foot-2 actor with the crooked smile got his start in early-1060s TV, appearing in such series as Laramie, Thriller and The Rifleman. He appeared in the 1962 sci-fi feature The Phantom […]
BEING THERE: David Lynch @ PAFA
David Lynch, PAFA press conference, 11:02 am, by JONATHAN VALANIA PAFA: In 1967 as an advanced painting student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA), David Lynch made a hybrid work of art that brought together painting, sculpture, sound, film, and installation. Six Men Getting Sick (1967) expanded Lynch’s practice and opened him up to the possibilities of filmmaking. He went on to become internationally renowned as a film director but never stopped working as a visual artist. Lynch has maintained a devoted studio practice, developing a parallel body of painting, prints, photography, and drawing that […]
INCOMING: Tim & Eric & Dr. Steve Brule Tour
Coming to the Keswick Theater on October 10th. Stay tuned we’ll have a Q&A with Temple alum Eric Wareheim coming soon to a Phawker near you!
Q&A: What’s Eating Gilbert Gottfried?
Illustration by DREW FRIEDMAN via LOWBROW READER DISCUSSED: Groucho Marx, Dick Cavett, Milton Berle’s cock, Ben Kingsley, Katharine Hepburn, F-Troop’s Larry Storch, Forrest Tucker’s cock, Boris Karloff, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, the Screen Actors Guild, Communists, the Godfather, fucking Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, Danny Aiello, getting fired from SNL, Eddie Murphy, The Beatles, Herman’s Hermits, Do The Right Thing, getting fired by Aflac, suing the pants off Aflac. EDITOR’S NOTE: Preparing for our Q&A with Gilbert Gottfried I came across this elegantly-rendered and wizardly-reasoned assessment of Brand Gottfried by Jay Ruttenberg in the Lowbrow Reader. He says it better than […]
PHILLY BLUNT: Illadelphia Will Become The Largest American City To Decriminalize Marijuana
Painting by ZENON MATIAS JIMENEZ HUFFINGTON POST: Philly Mayor Michael Nutter confirmed Monday that he will sign a bill into law that will make his city the largest in America to decriminalize marijuana possession, Philly Mag reports. Essentially it softens the penalty for such an offense from possible jail time to a $25 fine.Nutter wasn’t a fan of the bill in the past, but he told KYW Newsradio that he agreed to sign the bill — with a caveat — because he’s seen too many of his citizens slapped with charges for small amounts of pot.“So I think the agreement […]
CARL BERNSTEIN: The CIA And The Press
ROLLING STONE: In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA. Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past twenty?five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. Some of these journalists’ relationships […]
N.A. POE: Live & Direct From The Naked Biked Ride
NOTE: No turtle-dicks were hurt in the making of this.
BEING THERE: Die Antwoord @ Electric Factory
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Being assigned to cover the Die Antwoord show at the Electric Factory last night meant boning up on Zef culture (pun intended), which is all about looking extravagant while being poor. Zef is the South Africa version of ‘ghetto fabulous’ meets white trash. All of which dovetails nicely with Die Antwoord’s mission— embracing the oddities of humankind, casting aside all negative associations with obscenity and horror, and telling censorship to go fuck itself. Hard. Waiting in the photo pit at the lip of the stage for the band to arrive, I began to worry that […]
WES ANDERSON POV: Vehicles
SLATE: We’ve seen supercuts highlighting Wes Anderson’s love for symmetry and overhead shots, but Vimeo user Jaume R. Lloret has made a video focused on another of the director’s signature tics: point-of-view shots from various vehicles. MORE
TONIGHT: Zen Arcade Fire
Photo by SHELLY MOSSMAN These are glory days for Bob Mould, valedictorian of the indie rock class of 1984; glowering godfather of alt-rock circa 1992; dark lord of the molten dirge circa 1998; shirtless dancing bear spinning the wheels of steel for the Blow-Off, his hugely successful gay-friendly DJ parties, circa 2002; celebrated warts-n-all memoirist circa 2011; and acknowledged American Master of punk-as-fuck-three-chords-and-the-truth tunesmithery circa now. If it looks like things are finally breaking his way, that was never guaranteed. It could have just as easily gone the other way. In October he turns 54. In rock n’ roll years, […]
THE SHAME GAME: LA Times Disowns Ex-Inquirer Reporter After He Was Outed As A CIA Collaborator
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Recently released emails indicate that prominent national security reporter Ken Dilanian — formerly with the Los Angeles Times (2010-2014), currently with the Associated Press (and from 1997-2007 the Philadelphia Inquirer*) — shared stories prior to publication with CIA press office seeking their approval, according to a story up on The Intercept. Now, it is not uncommon for national security reporters to vet facts with government functionaries prior to publication, but the emails indicate Dilanian went much further than that, not only sharing stories prior to publication (a big no-no in almost every newsroom) but he also […]
RIP: Comedian Joan Rivers Has Left The Building
Joan Rivers circa 1967 NEW YORK TIMES: Joan Rivers, the raspy loudmouth who pounced on America’s obsessions with flab, face-lifts, body hair and other blemishes of neurotic life, including her own, in five decades of caustic comedy that propelled her from nightclubs to television to international stardom, died on Thursday in Manhattan. She was 81. […] Vivacious even as a nipped-and-tucked octogenarian, flitting from coast to coast and stage to studio in a whirl of live and taped shows, publicity stunts and cosmetic surgery appointments, Ms. Rivers evolved from a sassy, self-deprecating performer early in her career into a coarser […]
Win Tix To See Die Antwoord @ The E-Factory
Fearlessly and furiously dry-humping the dark, moist seam between art and identity like it’s the vajayjay of God, these faux-Zef art/rap/provocateurs from the land of Nelson Mandela are not only punk-as-f*ck and funny-as-sh*t, they are — or at least were — the greatest threat to the status quo since Marcel DuChamp ripped a dirty urinal off the wall and made it high art with nothing more than the power of Because I Said So. Having said that, the new-ish video for “Pitbull Terrier” from Donker Mag is a bit of a letdown visually and sonically, so instead of posting […]