Photo by REED YOUNG via THE GUARDIAN FRESH AIR After serving as a correspondent on The Daily Show for 7 1/2 years — and hosting it last summer while Jon Stewart took a break to direct his movie — British comedian John Oliver now has his own show. Last Week Tonight, a political satire, airs on HBO on Sunday nights. Much like Stewart, Oliver takes complicated issues, explains them and makes fun of them. Recently, Oliver tackled Net Neutrality, or the idea that the Internet should be a level playing field with all data treated equally, whether it’s coming from […]

  UPDATE: City Council Votes To Decriminalize Marijuana! CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA! NBC10: Philadelphia City Council is expected to vote on Thursday on a bill that would decriminalize carrying small amounts of marijuana. Ordinance 140377, sponsored by Councilman Jim Kenney, would make possession of 30 grams or 1 ounce of the drug a civil penalty. Currently, possession of that amount or less requires an arrest by police. Should the law be enacted, officers would confiscate the marijuana and issue a $25 fine, which could be paid right there online or by mail. If paid, the incident would be […]

  GRANTLAND: Are you guys the Dirty Projectors?” The question comes from one of the few stragglers still hanging at a nearly cleared-out Union Transfer. Animal Collective has just finished a show in Philadelphia, and although the venue is just about empty, the man asking the question is in no hurry to leave. He’s standing here, but he’s clearly somewhere far, far away. But even in his scrambled state, it isn’t hard to trace this stranger’s line of thought. At 6-foot-4, 264 pounds with three-day stubble, the man seated on the bleacher behind him does look like someone. Connor Barwin […]

The Tontons play Union Transfer on Friday with Kurt Vile & The Violators and The Districts to help raise funds for Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin‘s Make The World Better foundation‘s plan to rebuild Ralph Brooks Park. RELATED: Up front is Asli Omar, that vocal vixen who can make men and rock nerds alike quake in their boots. Bassist Tom Nguyen, whose rumble forms the dermis of the band and then them boys Adam and Justin Martinez come in with titanic guitars and drums to make sure you are still moving your feet. This is a band that has been […]

  EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a complete transcript of the interrogation conducted by Philip Vannatter and Thomas Lange, the Los Angeles Police Department’s chief investigators of the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, on June 13th, 1994. Vannatter: …my partner, Detective Lange, and we’re in an interview room in Parker Center. The date is June 13th, 1994, and the time is 13:35 hours. And we’re here with O.J. Simpson. Is that Orenthal James Simpson? Simpson: Orenthal James Simpson Vannatter: And what is your birthdate, Mr. Simpson? Simpson: July 9th, 1947. Vannatter: OK. Prior to us talking to you, as […]

Rodrigo Amarante plays World Cafe Live on July 1st in support of his wonderful solo debut Cavalo. Could listen to him sing the proverbial phone book. (Google it, kids)

  Against Me! The Gaslight Anthem Jimmy Eat World FRI * SEPT 12 Skyline Stage @ the Mann Fairmount Park * Philadelphia Tickets On Sale Friday 6/20 at 10AM! Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com, 800.745.3000, MannCenter.org, or the Mann box office. RELATED: The Complete MAGNET Magazine Q&A With Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace

  DAILY KOS: Writing in Politico journalists Ben White and Maggie Haberman reported on political conversations with two dozen unaligned GOP donors, Wall Street executives, and corporate lobbyists.  When asked about the 2016 presidential election, these Post Modern voters viewed potential Republican Candidate Jeb Bush and Secretary Clinton as interchangeable and observed: The darkest secret in the big money world of the Republican coastal elite is that the most palatable alternative to a nominee such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky would be Clinton, a familiar face on Wall Street following her tenure as […]

From World Peace Is None Of Your Business, due out July 15th on Harvest Records. Below, the spoken word version of “The Bullfighter Dies.”

  THE GUARDIAN: Prof Price has previously exposed how the Pentagon’s Human Terrain Systems (HTS) programme – designed to embed social scientists in military field operations – routinely conducted training scenarios set in regions “within the United States.” Citing a summary critique of the programme sent to HTS directors by a former employee, Price reported that the HTS training scenarios “adapted COIN [counterinsurgency] for Afghanistan/Iraq” to domestic situations “in the USA where the local population was seen from the military perspective as threatening the established balance of power and influence, and challenging law and order.” One war-game, said Price, involved […]