TRAFFIC IN SOULS (1913, directed by George Loane Tucker, 88 minutes, U.S.) WILD ORANGES (1924, directed by King Vidor, 88 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Dr. McElhinney’s year-long survey of silent films continues with a silent double-bill featuring damsels in distress. First up, 1913’s lurid drama Traffic in Souls, in which a desperate woman recruits her policeman boyfriend to investigate her younger sister’s kidnapping by white slavers. Made two years before Birth of the Nation, there is no denying that Traffic is primitive cinema, with its camera staying nailed to the floor in long shots for the […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: Fresh Air’s Word Of The Year
GEROFFREY NUNBERG: “Infobesity,” “lumbersexual,” “phablet.” As usual, the items that stand out as candidates for word of the year are like its biggest pop songs, catchy but ephemeral. But even a fleeting expression can sometimes encapsulate the zeitgeist. That’s why I’m nominating “God view” for the honor. It’s the term that the car service company Uber uses for a map view that shows them the locations of all the Uber cars in an area and silhouettes of the people who ordered them. The media seized on the term this fall when it came out that the company had been […]
JOHN LENNON: God
“God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” — JOHN LENNON NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: That summer in Breezy Point, when he was 18 and out of Madison High in Brooklyn, there was the Beatles on the radio at the beach through the hot days and on the jukebox through the nights in the Sugar Bowl and Kennedys. He was young and he let his hair grow and there were girls and it was the important part of life. Last year, Tony Palma even went to see Beatlemania. And now, last night, a 34-old man, he sat in […]
ORDINARY RENDITION: The CIA Kidnapped The 12 Year Old Daughter Of An Exiled Libyan Dissident & Handed Her Family Over To Gaddafi For Torture
GAWKER: Two very different flights landed at Mitiga military airport in Libya just over a decade ago. The first was organized by the CIA and MI6. On board were a family of six surrounded by guards, the frightened children separated from their parents, the father chained to a seat in a rear compartment with a needle stuck in his arm. The second flight, only a couple of days later, carried Tony Blair in comfort, on his way to shake hands and do business with Colonel Gaddafi. I know about the first flight, because I was one of the children. […]
BOOKS: Why Lena Dunham’s Memoir Is Everything That’s Wrong With Girls Like Lena Dunham
BY STEPHANIE SHAMP In the pursuit of not wasting my time, I generally only read memoirs that are: A. Recommended by a close friend B. Written past the age of 40 C. Dark with funny moments or funny with dark moments D. Profoundly moving I’m sorry to report that Not That Kind of Girl meets none of my basic requirements. Fact is, Lena Dunham’s life is just not that interesting. Born to two artists and raised in what is never directly said but implied to be a middle-class home with her younger sister in New York, Dunham is the […]
INCOMING: Authorized John Coltrane Documentary
COLTRANEFILM: Set against the social, political and cultural landscape of his times, the film will reveal the passions and demons that shaped Coltrane’s life, and explore why his music transcends the barriers of race, religion and age as it continues to inspire listeners around the world decades after his death. Utilizing never-before-seen Coltrane family home movies and audio recordings along with rare film and television appearances, Coltrane’s incredible story will be told by the people who know him best: his family, the musicians that worked with him, and the cultural icons who continue to draw inspiration from his fearless […]
HOT DOCUMENT: What Tolkien Told The Nazis When They Demanded To Know If He Was Jewish
Artwork by DONATO GIANCOLA 25 July 1938 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford Dear Sirs, Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the […]
‘RAPIST’: Bill Cosby’s Walk Of Fame Star Defaced
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Los Angeles police are investigating the vandalism of comedian Bill Cosby’s star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was marked with the word “rapist,” officials said. A photo of the vandalism surfaced on social media Friday morning, showing “rapist” scrawled across the star three times in marker. By midmorning, a cleaning crew was on scene. Ana Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which helps oversee the Walk of Fame, said she became aware of the incident Friday morning. Martinez said the chamber also filed a police report. “The Hollywood Walk of […]
ARTSY: Q&A w/ Photographer Jessica Kourkounis
CLICK TO ENLARGE Jessica Kourkounis [pictured, below right, with chicken) is a Philadelphia-based photographer specializing in documentary, editorial and portraiture work. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Time, The Art Economist and ESPN The Magazine. Her brother plays drums on many of the albums in your collection. Presumably. PHAWKER: How did you get interested in photography? What was the ‘Eureka!’ moment when you decided that this is what you wanted to do with your life? JESSICA KOURKOUNIS: I’ve been interested in photography for so long I honestly can’t even remember […]
THE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO SERIAL: Episode 10
BY MOLLY KASSEL This week on Serial, Sarah Koenig discusses two ideas; possible anti-Muslim discrimination in Adnan’s prosecution and conviction, and Cristina Gutierrez, Adnan’s defense attorney. Shamim, Adnan’s mom is clear; she believes Adnan’s guilty verdict is due to racism and discrimination on behalf of the state, prosecutors, and jury. When Adnan was arrested, the prosecutor argued against his bail while repeatedly referring to him as ‘Pakistani.’ The prosecutor said that his friends and family and surrounding community — which was helping him make bail and pay for a lawyer — would assist in his ‘getaway’ to Pakistan, where […]
BEING THERE: Strand Of Oaks @ Union Transfer
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Arriving at Union Transfer to see Strand of Oaks play a homecoming show felt a lot like walking into a gathering of old friends, without knowing anyone. As a self-proclaimed lone wolf, it’s a territory I have explored many times before. I’m used to tapping through my phone for non-existent text messages and notifications while being surrounded by overly affectionate couples and groups of friends who are, like, “Oh my God, so glad you came.” Still, I knew I was in for a good, interesting time. The most important thing I’d recently learned about frontman […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR The new film Inherent Vice satirizes over-complicated detective story plots by having an especially over-complicated plot of its own. It’s a Paul Thomas Anderson adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 novel. “It’s so dense,” co-star Josh Brolin tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “I mean, Pynchon will be following some linear structure and then suddenly he’ll take a big bong hit and go off on some tangent that still, you realize, eventually comes around and actually is connected in various ways.” The film is set in 1970 in a fictional California beach town where a burned out hippie private […]
BEING THERE: The 1975 @ The Tower Theater
Photo by DYLAN LONG Last night in Upper Darbyland, 69th Street was crawling with fans anticipating one of the U.K.’s edgiest up-an-coming indie rock bands, The 1975. With just one studio album under their belt — anchored by raw, electrifying singles such as “Robbers”, “Chocolate” and “Sex” — the group is in the midst of a lengthy North American tour that brought them to the Tower last night. The electricity of the crowd was evident from the moment the doors of the Tower Theater opened ’til the last of the fans trickled out onto 69th & Ludlow. Young Rising Sons […]