FRESH AIR For the past 37 years, Robert Caro has devoted his life to writing the definitive biography of Lyndon Johnson. So far, The Years of Lyndon Johnson has four acclaimed volumes and has shown readers just how complex the 36th president was, as both a politician and a man There was the Johnson who grew up poor in the Texas hill country; the Johnson who blackmailed a fellow student to win a college election; and the Johnson who, as a Congressman, humiliated loyal aides for fun, and brazenly stole votes to get into the Senate. And yet there […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Uncle Bill’s Annual PTD (Punishment They Deserve) Pronouncements
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Come gather round children wherever you roam, it’s that time again, when the high and the mighty get what they have comin’: poetic justice for all. Vladimir Putin – 20 years house arrest at 1800 Market St., San Francisco, CA, USA Chris Christie – Placed in stocks between lanes at New Jersey entrance to George Washington Bridge until his BMI drops below 25. John Boehner – Until inauguration day, 2017, must exclaim loudly “Hell yes you can!” whenever questioned about any Democrat proposal. Mitch McConnell – From now on the ONLY utterance he’s allowed when […]
INCOMING: My Bloody Valentine’s Day
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously declared that ‘You go to war with the Woody Allen you have, not the Woody Allen you might want.’ At the time — middle of the Iraq War fiasco — it made absolutely no sense, but now? Different story. Closing weekend of International House’s Free To Love film series kicks off Valentine’s Day with an unfortunately-timed screening of Woody Allen’s Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask 8 pm Friday night at the Ibrahim Theater. Inspired by the controversial book of the same name, by Dr. David […]
When Is Comcast Buying Time-Warner NOT A Monopoly? Apparently, When David L. Cohen Hosts A Couple Obama Fundraisers At His Mt. Airy Manse
NEW YORK TIMES: Comcast is expected to announce on Thursday an agreement to acquire Time Warner Cable for more than $45 billion in stock, a deal that would combine the biggest and second-biggest cable television operators in the country.For Comcast, which completed its acquisition of NBC Universal, the television and movie powerhouse, from General Electric less than a year ago, the latest deal would be its second big act to radically reshape the media landscape in the United States. MORE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: President Obama headlined a big-bucks fund-raiser Thursday night at the Northwest Philadelphia home of Comcast Corp. executive […]
THIS JUST IN: Swans @ Union Transfer May 15
The Swans play Union Transfer May 15th in support of their new album, To Be Kind, due out May 13th on Young God Records.
ALL APOLOGIES: Shia LaBeouf’s Crying Game
DAILY BEAST: In case you haven’t been on the Internet for the past few hours, let me fill you in on the latest in Shia-sanity. Starting [Tuesday] morning at 11:00 AM PT, LaBeouf ensconced himself in a tiny, empty art gallery at the corner of Beverly and Fuller in Los Angeles—directly across the street from the offices of BuzzFeed. The windows were glazed, with black letters affixed to them: #IAMSORRY Shia LaBeouf. The location suggested a work of art; the hashtag and seemingly strategic proximity to one of the world’s most successful viral content factories suggested an Internet stunt. […]
HAIL MARY PASS: ‘Michael Sam Is A Distraction’
That’s what they said about this little girl. DAILY BEAST: The NFL was thrust into the 20th century Sunday. Its old guard pushed back Monday, and I felt a powerful jolt of deja vu: Didn’t the Pentagon just run this experiment? And abandon it after 17 counter-productive years? Michael Sam, the bravest football player in America, handed the NFL a gift when he came out Sunday night, four months before the draft. Most of America cheered and the NFL outwardly heaped on the praise with a glowing public statement. But back in the executive suites, the old guard running the […]
RIP: Shirley Temple, The Curly-Haired Child-Queen Of The Hollywood Happy Ending, Dead @ 85
I am no doubt dating myself here, but when I was a wee lad there were two things on television on the rainy day Saturday afternoons of the early 1970s: Wonderfully cheesy horror movies starring either Dracula, Frankenstein or the Wolfman (and sometimes all three), and wonderfully sentimental Shirley Temple films, often co-starring Arthur Treacher (yes, that Arthur Treacher). Temple was a remarkably precocious child actress who always played adorable but plucky little girls who alternately disarmed the adults with her charm and chutzpah or outsmarted them when they tried to do her wrong. Temple died last night at […]
SIDEWALKING: The Wizard Of Odd
Wayne Coyne, AKA Music, 6:12 pm last night, by JEFF FUSCO
When Is Killing An American Citizen Without Due Process NOT Murder? ‘When The President Does It’
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The case of an American citizen and suspected member of al-Qaida who is allegedly planning attacks on U.S. targets overseas underscores the complexities of President Barack Obama’s new stricter targeting guidelines for the use of deadly drones. The CIA drones watching him cannot strike because he’s a U.S. citizen. The Pentagon drones that could are barred from the country where he’s hiding, and the Justice Department has not yet finished building a case against him. Four U.S. officials said the American suspected terrorist is in a country that refuses U.S. military action on its soil and that […]
NJ Lawmakers Issue 18 More Bridgegate Subpoenas; Christie Presidential Hopes 18 Times Less Likely
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: New Jersey legislators probing the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal issued 18 new subpoenas Monday, including to the State Police aviation unit that handles Gov. Chris Christie’s helicopter travel. The latest batch of Bridgegate subpoenas — 20 were issued last month — will be sent to a host of officials in the governor’s office, as well as to executives at the Port Authority. Information gleaned from the subpoena to the aviation unit could shed light on Christie’s helicopter travel during the time the lanes were closed four days in September. Christie’s office said Monday the […]
FROM THE VAULT: Wayne’s World
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally appeared in MAGNET MAGAZINE BY JONATHAN VALANIA We’d been traversing the spine of Tornado Alley for the last two hours when the stewardess announced that we would be landing in Oklahoma City in a few minutes, and that we should fasten our seatbelts and return our minds to the upright position, when the drugs took hold. We are, as the saying goes, off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Odd—or, if you prefer, the Wizard of OK, a.k.a. Wayne Coyne, frizzy-brained mainman of the Flaming Lips, the P.T. Barnum Of The Stoned, a.k.a. […]
THIS JUST IN: Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss And Kacey Musgrave Play The Mann On June 13th
A man who needs no last name, Willie is to Country what Neil is to rock: the Buddha, bestowing laid-back grace on all those who bask in his benevolent THC-tinged glow. Born April 30, 1933, in Abbott, Texas, Nelson begins writing songs at age seven. After serving briefly in the Air Force during the Korean War and studying agriculture at Baylor University, Nelson moves through a series of luckless, low-paying career changes–disc jockey; door-to-door vacuum and encyclopedia salesman. By 1958, in dire financial straits and married with children, Nelson is forced to sell his songs for cheap (“Night Life,” […]