FRESH AIR Four years after Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tim Weiner published Legacy of Ashes, his detailed history of the CIA, he received a call from a lawyer in Washington, D.C. “He said, ‘I’ve just gotten my hands on a Freedom of Information Act request that’s 26 years old for [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover’s intelligence files. Would you like them?’ ” Weiner tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “And after a stunned silence, I said, ‘Yes, yes.’ ” Weiner went to the lawyer’s office and collected four boxes containing Hoover’s personal files on intelligence operations between 1945 and 1972. […] […]
DAMON ALBARN: Every Day Robots
Title track of the new Damon Albarn solo album due out April 29th on Warner Bros.
Let Us Never Forget Which Side The FBI Was On
CHURCH COMMMITTEE REPORT: From December 1963 until his death in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the target of an intensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to “neutralize” him as an effective civil rights leader. In the words of the man in charge of the FBI’s “war” against Dr. King: No holds were barred. We have used [similar] techniques against Soviet agents. [The same methods were] brought home against any organization against which we were targeted. We did not differentiate. This is a rough, tough business. The FBI collected information about Dr. King’s plans and activities through […]
BEING THERE: Diane Coffee @ Kung Fu Necktie
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ After the release of Foxygen’s blissed-out We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic and the chain of awful events that led to them canceling an entire tour, I was pleasantly surprised by my first listen to Foxygen drummer Shaun Fleming’s solo project, Diane Coffee. But it seemed a little too good to be true, and I decided that seeing the 60’s-70’s-gospel&Mowtown-inspired indie-pop creation live at Kung Fu Necktie Saturday night would enable me to render a final verdict. Upon entering KFN, the first thing I noticed was how outnumbered I was by […]
ON ASSIGNMENT: No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn
Gotta go up to the BK and hang out with these guys — hey, somebody’s gotta do it. So posting will be light today. In the mean time, to get psyched up for The Pixies’ sold out Electric Factory show next Friday, enjoy this encore posting of our 2010 chat with Black Francis…
Q&A: Dissecting Doolittle With Black Francis
“Saint Francis” by WALT LINDEVELD BY JONATHAN VALANIA A word of warning: This is gonna be one of those pieces where I go on and on about my little monkey shines with famous alt-rock personalities. Millions of people love it when I do that, but others seem to get very, very angry about it, stomp their feet and write mean letters that hurt my feelings. If that sounds like you, stop reading right now. I’m serious. I don’t want to even see you in the second paragraph. Set the Wayback Machine to 1988. I’m a college DJ stranded in the […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Artwork by GARY BEDARD FRESH AIR Fox News CEO and President Roger Ailes has succeeded in turning a television news network into an unprecedented force. Fox News is the most dominant media organization in America, generating more than a billion dollars in profit and earning the highest ratings of any cable news network. Gabriel Sherman writes about Ailes’ success with Fox News in his new book, The Loudest Voice In The Room: How The Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News — And Divided A Country.He tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross, “Fox News is a complete expression of [Ailes’] world […]
THE PIXIES: Where Is My Mind
The Pixies play the Electric Factory on Friday January 24th. The show is sold out, but to mark this auspicious occasion we will be re-posting our Black Francis interviews from over the years, plus some other Pixies odds and sods for the superfans like us. Look for it tomorrow on a Phawker near you!
LIT BITS: It’s A Raymond Chandler Evening
“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen.” – Raymond Chandler, ‘The Red Wind’ RELATED: Robyn Hitchcock “Raymond Chandler Evening” PREVIOUSLY: Q&A With Robyn Hitchcock RELATED: Rita Abouchedid awoke to neighbors knocking on her door shortly after 6 a.m. urging her […]
SIDEWALKING: Where The Internet Goes To Die
Comcast Center, 5:31 AM Wednesday by ERIC ASHLEIGH WASHINGTON POST: You’ve heard that a major federal court just murdered the Internet. Or something. It’s not really clear. People are shouting about “net neutrality,” but that sounds more like a newfangled tennis term than anything else. What does it mean? Why should you care? If you’re confused about net neutrality, we’re here to help. MORE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Court Backs Comcast Over FCC on ‘Net Neutrality’ VARIETY: Cable Operators Should Create Netflix Killer CNN: How would you like to have to pay a fee to be able to stream YouTube videos […]
MILESTONE: 85 Years Ago Today, A King Was Born
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ? Martin Luther King Jr.
JIMMY FALLON & BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: “Gov. Chris Christie’s Fort Lee New Jersey Traffic Jam”
NEW YORK POST: The Boss has weighed in on Bridgegate. Bruce Springsteen stopped by “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on Tuesday to sing a spoof song about Governor Chris Christie’s scandal involving the George Washington Bridge lane closures. “The highways jammed with pissed off drivers with no place left to go, and the press conference, it was longer than one of my own damn shows,” Fallon and Springsteen sing in the tune of the classic song “Born to Run.” MORE
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Artwork by HUNTER S. THOMPSON RADIO TIMES On March 8, 1971, Philadelphians BONNIE AND JOHN RAINES were two of eight people who broke into the FBI’s Media, PA, office and stole files about the bureau’s surveillance programs. The documents, which offered proof that the agency was engaged in an extensive counterintelligence program to target and harass anti-war and civil rights activists, were sent anonymously to several reporters and government officials including BETTY MEDSGER, a writer for the Washington Post. Incredibly, the crime went unsolved and it was only recently, with the publication of Medsger’s new book, The Burglary, that the […]