Artwork by BARRY BLITT This is quite brilliant. Light and folksy in a Bill Cosby/Norman Rockwell kind of way on the surface, beneath it blows a dog whistle that will drive the entire spectrum of Republicans/Teabaggers/stone-cold racists batshit crazy. Or, batshit crazier, to be exact. By rights, he should be holding a big syringe instead of teaspoon, but that would ruin the aforementioned Blue Velevet effect. Well played, sir. RELATED: Whatever else you do this week, carve out half an hour to read my colleague Ryan Lizza’s piece about Chris Christie and New Jersey politics. It’s Robert Penn Warren meets […]
WORTH REPEATING: Why I Have A Dream
SOLOMON JONES: In 1972, when Stone became a political columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News, I was 5-years-old. There was no Internet, and neither cable television nor social media existed. There was only the newspaper, and the images on its pages could determine how an entire community was framed. That’s why Stone’s image mattered. For 20 years, Stone’s face, staring out at me from the pages of the newspaper, communicated what was possible. That face—with skin a little darker than that of the other columnists—told me that journalism was an option for me. Adorned with glasses, and an intellect […]
BADVERTISING: Andrew Brietbart Continues To Be Just As Obnoxious In Death As He Was In Life
Not since Spinal Tap’s SMELL THE GLOVE, a landmark of modern misogyny, has such tone deaf sexism masqueraded as edginess so cluelessly. RELATED: Beware of Los Angeles bus stops this week: Breitbart California launched on Monday with a series of awful ads including Nancy Pelosi on all fours and Mark Zuckerberg with exposed female breasts. The posters seem like they’re going for fresh and DIY and edgy, but instead they’re tired sexist jokes that reek of desperation for controversy. MORE
CONTEST: Win Tix To RISK! @ Underground Arts
Shocking! Shameful! Outrageous! Scandalous! Possibly even against the law in some countries! On Friday, host Kevin Allison of MTV’s The State, Reno 911, and Flight of the Concords, brings together a cast of leading storytellers — Thomas Dixon, Kitty Hailey, Alex Kacala, and Teresa Marquard — to tell jaw-dropping stories in the nude they never thought they’d dare share in public on the theme of “Revelation” at Underground Arts. Phindie called it “The undisputed G-spot of the First Person Arts Festival.” We’d argue that it’s the undisputed wet spot of the First Person Arts Festival and somebody’s gotta sleep […]
GOD SAVE THE QUEENS: QOTS @ Skyline Stage
July 20th.Tickets on sale Friday 4/11 @10 AM. Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com, 800.745.3000, AEGLive.com, MannCenter.org, or the Mann box office.
SIDEWALKING: Jasper’s John
West 28th street & 11th Avenue, NYC, 8:34 pm last night by JONATHAN VALANIA
Johnny Rotten Joins Cast Of Jesus Christ Superstar
Self-proclaimed Anti-Christ Johnny Rotten (aka John Lydon) will play King Herod in the traveling production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, which transfigures the Wells Fargo Center on August 16th.
CINEMA: Captain Sensible
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014, directed by Anthony & Joe Russo, 136 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger is the ninth in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” franchise and to paraphrase classic rock titans Foreigner, it feels like the ninth time. Directed by TV directors/feature film failures The Russo Brothers (of the Owen Wilson vehicle You, Me and Dupree) Cap’s latest adventure, subtitled The Winter Soldier, hits all the expected marks of an $170 million profit-reaper but its shameless calculations do little to break this entry out of the increasingly […]
Q&A: With Documentary Filmmaker Sam Green, Inventor Of The Love Song Of Buckminster Fuller
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Since 1997, filmmaker Sam Green has been making thought-provoking, rigorously reported and eminently entertaining documentaries about, in his words, “the outer contours of human experience.” Be it the rainbow-wigged, Bible-thumping kidnapper (currently serving three life sentences) of 1997’s The Rainbow Man/John 3:16 or the utopian dreamers turned bomb-throwing revolutionaries by the murderous insanity of the Vietnam War in The Weather Underground, or the miraculous Guinness Book human oddities living lives of quiet desperation in 2014’s The Measure Of All Things. The Love Song Of R. Buckminster Fuller, which gets its Philly premiere tonight during two sold […]
SIDEWALKING: Right Said Fred
Fred Armisen, 30 Rock, NYC, 3:17 pm by JONATHAN VALANIA
EXCERPT: The Boys Are Back In Town
After a decade of cheap beer, positive jams and killer parties, there’s ‘blood on the carpet, mud on the mattress.’ MAGNET (well, just me, actually) goes to Brooklandia to watch The Hold Steady sleep it off and wake up with that American Sadness. I’m still hungover. As promised, here’s that meaty, beaty, big and bouncy excerpt. Enjoy: BY JONATHAN VALANIA When Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn was growing up in suburban Minneapolis in the shag-carpeted ’70s, there was nothing musical about the family Finn, nothing at all. Nobody played an instrument. Nobody played records on the stereo. They did not […]
INCOMING: The Love Song Of Buckminster Fuller
Bringing indie rock to its waterfront stage for the very first time, FringeArts announces an exciting addition to its spring 2014 calendar: the documentary film The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, directed and live-narrated by Academy Award-nominated director Sam Green; and accompanied by a score performed live on stage by legendary Hoboken band Yo La Tengo. FringeArts will host two showings of the The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller on First Friday, April 4, at 7 and 9 p.m. Tickets are on sale at fringearts.com. The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller traces the career of the titular 20th-century futurist, […]
EARLY WORD: Calling All Hollaback Girls (& Boys)
Get Lucid! is a Philadelphia-based organization shining the light of awareness on an array of environmental and communal causes in the City Of Brotherly Love. In their fight to direct greater awareness and fundraising dollars towards socially-conscious organizations, Get Lucid! has been hosting semi-regular dance parties at the Underground Arts, featuring local DJ’s, bands, and artists. On Saturday, Get Lucid! will be joined by co-hosts Psy.Fi at Underground Arts to support the efforts of HollabackPhilly — a group attempting to empower women and members of the LGBTQ community against objectification, violence and street harrassment. There will be live music […]