DAILY NEWS: At deposition, Paige insisted he invited Harris into his car only to “mentor” a troubled young man. He denied that any sex, consensual or otherwise, took place. Instead, the married officer offered an unusual defense that another judge, rejecting Paige’s plea for summary judgment in Harris’ civil-rights complaint, called outrageous: Paige claimed that he frequently had consensual sex with women in the secluded spot and that Harris somehow found the spot, fished one of Paige’s used condoms from the snow and dumped its contents, along with Harris’ spit, into the Styrofoam cup detectives later had tested for […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Devil In Miss Jones
BY JONATHAN VALANIA It’s another lazy Sunday morning coming down. You are awakened by the sunshine streaming through the open windows and the sound of the Brooklyn streets outside coming alive. Oddly, Danger Mouse is laying next to you, on his back, looking up at the ceiling, languidly strumming an elegiac guitar. He acts like you aren’t there. If you listen closely, you can hear a tinkling, Eno-esque piano arpeggio out of the corner of your ear. It sounds, and more importantly feels, like raindrops falling on your head. You roll over and there’s Norah Jones — beautiful, kind, […]
RISE: Occupy Everything
WASHINGTON POST: Hundreds of Occupy protesters marched, chanted and scuffled with law enforcement officers in New York, San Francisco and cities around the world as part of a May Day “general strike” for economic equality Tuesday. May Day protests were underway in more than 125 cities in U.S., Europe and Australia on the spring day labor unions have typically celebrated as International Workers Day. This year, the Occupy Wall Street movement called for May 1 to be “A Day Without the 99 Percent” and urged students to skip school and employees not to go to work to show their […]
NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE: Oh Susannah
NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE will release a very special album titled AMERICANA on June 5, 2012. AMERICANA is the first album from Neil Young & Crazy Horsein nearly nine years. Crazy Horse is: Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, Poncho Sampedro, and Neil Young. As you’ll see from the track-listing, AMERICANA is collection of classic, American folk songs. In their day, some of these may have been referred to as “protest songs,” “murder ballads,” or campfire-type songs passed down with universal, relatable tales for everyman. Some of these compositions which, like “Tom Dooley” and “Oh Susannah,” were written in the […]
THE CHINA SYNDROME: Blind Man’s Bluff
NEW YORK TIMES: The escape of a blind human rights lawyer from house arrest, and apparently into the hands of American officials here, came at an excruciatingly awkward time for the Chinese leadership as it struggles to preserve a cohesive front after the spectacular dismissal of Bo Xilai, a member of China’s Politburo. The case of the lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, who is believed to be in the United States Embassy in Beijing, poses a quandary for the leadership. It is a blow to officials in charge of security and legal affairs, who oversaw the controversial treatment of Mr. Chen, […]
TONIGHT: Mr. Quintron & Miss Pussycat
“Mr. QUINTRON is a very eccentric concert and nightclub organist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He plays music on a custom made Hammond / Rhodes combo synthesizer / organ (which he’s got all built up to look like a car with real working headlights) backed by raw simple drum machine beats (think 808 boom chika boom through one BIG speaker with all the treble turned down) and his own patented invention THE DRUM BUDDY – a rotating, light-activated analog synthesizer which is played much in the same way that a DJ spins and scratches records. Of course lets not forget about […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: There Will Be Blood
FRESH AIR When Sissy Spacek started her film career, she was told to lose her heavy Texas accent. But her famous drawl became one of her greatest assets when Terrence Malick cast her in his 1973 crime drama Badlands.Spacek played Holly, a teenage girl from South Dakota who became an accomplice on a cross-country murder spree. The film, which also starred Martin Sheen, was narrated in Spacek’s distinctive Southern voice.How she got the role remains up for debate. Spacek says that Malick remembers auditioning one of Spacek’s friends, only to become charmed by Spacek herself after she interrupted their meeting. […]
HOODWINKED: Thank God We Stood By And Let The Diabetes Delivery Lobby Kill A Painless Soda Tax & Plunge Homeowners Into A World Of Pain
DAILY NEWS: If the city’s property-tax valuation overhaul happens, Candace DiCarlo already has a real-estate agent lined up to sell her South Philadelphia home. “It’s going to drive people out. They’re going to ask me now to pay $5,500 a year [in property tax],” said DiCarlo, 59, a self-employed artist who lives on Broad Street near Washington Avenue. “I feel like I love the city and it doesn’t love me back.” Community groups have warned that many homeowners could wind up with rude sticker shock when the Nutter administration moves to a tax system that relies on the market values […]
THIS JUST IN: My Morning Jacket @ The Mann
with special guest BAND OF HORSES Fri * Aug 17 The Mann Fairmount Park * Philadelphia Tickets On Sale Friday, 5/04 at 10AM! PREVIOUSLY: Opening for a band that draws seven or eight times as many people as you do seems like a no-brainer, after all if you win over just a quarter of the crowd, you’ve more than doubled your draw in this market. The downside is nobody shows up for the opening act at the Big Rock Show — never have, never will. Tuesday nigh at the Mann was no exception when Neko Case opened for My Morning […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Pit Bulls & Cocky Moms
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY The political over-importance and consequent over-propagandizing attached to Hilary Rosen’s recent questioning of Ann Romney’s work record brings to mind a previous column I authored concerning birthright/inheritance and the hyper-critical role it plays in determining one’s economic future — and the fact that this whole child-rearing “choice” kerfuffle only serves to further emphasize the point. How so? you ask. Well, because today’s moms’ “choice” of child rearing methods is determined almost entirely by economic status rather than any altruism or feminism on their part, and is but another example of the overriding influence that something none of us had […]
Q&A w/ Nick Lowe, Elder Statesman Of Pure Pop
Photo by Dan Burn-Forti BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT Nick Lowe’s 45-year career as a singer-songwriter, record producer, and all-around musical instigator is a one-man Village Green Preservation Society, to quote the Kinks’ 1968 mission statement. After brief spell in a Cream-influenced psychedelic rock band, Kippington Lodge, Lowe and his fellow UK mates, including future standouts in the late-’70s new wave scene, got an early start on “preserving the old ways” in the Americana roots-rock band, Brinsley Schwarz. A big push to launch the band in the States flamed spectacularly, and in the US their records would be left for […]
CINEMA: The Unkown Soldiers Of 20th Century Pop
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A little known fact outside of musician circles is that the instrumental tracks of many of the most beloved and iconic pop songs of the 1960s — The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.” The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” The Mamas & Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” The Monkees’ “Mary Mary,” Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas,” The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” to name but a few — were not performed by the artists credited. […]