Back country road, upstate New York by JEFF FUSCO

Urge Overkill* plays the North Star Bar tonight with Creem Circus** and The Cocks*** *UO released its first full-length, the Steve Albini-produced Jesus Urge Superstar, in 1989 through Touch and Go Records and steadily began ascending in popularity. By the early 90’s, they were opening for Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and eventually signed to Geffen Records, who released their beloved classic LP, Saturation. The group’s biggest moment in the spotlight came when Quentin Tarantino prominently used their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” in his film Pulp Fiction. The soundtrack soon became one of the most […]

MOTHER JONES: Of course, Nugent’s backdrop is a giant American flag, and it’s a secret to no one that he’s a bit of an oddity in this liberal haven. Soon enough, he’s ragging on California in general—”The Independent? I didn’t know that was legal here”—and telling off-color jokes about San Francisco’s Chinatown District. He introduces “Dog Eat Dog” by suggesting that people eat sweet-and-sour dog, and boasts that he dined on tiger-dick soup earlier in the day—a claim that becomes one of the evening’s running themes. Example: It being the fifth of July, Nugent deems it “Defiance Day”—an extension of […]

[Illustration by SHEPARD FAIREY] CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA 2010 ANNUAL REPORT: The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some […]

[Artwork by KEITH TUCKER] ALAN GRAYSON: I’m in.  I’m running for Congress. I’m running because I promised Charlaina and Rick that I would.  Charlaina called me a few weeks ago, from the hospital.  She told me that her husband, Rick, was suffering from multiple organ failure – lungs, kidneys and liver. Rick was 56 years old.  That’s three years older than me. Rick was a veteran.  But the Veterans Administration wasn’t covering his hospital bills. Rick had had a bad liver since he was 30, when he contracted hepatitis.  No insurance company would go near him. Every day Rick survived, […]

NPR: Officials say a bodyguard has killed the powerful half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Ahmed Wali Karzai had been a lightning rod for criticism of all that is wrong with the Afghan government. Officials say he was assassinated today at his home in the southern province of Kandahar. He was head of the Kandahar provincial council and had become a political liability for the Hamid Karzai government after a series of allegations. They included involvement in drug trafficking and that he was on the CIA payroll. MORE GLOBE AND MAIL: Be’s the coalition’s best asset or its worst liability. […]

[Illustration by TSTOUT] BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I’ll admit to being surprised when the Coen Brothers’ seventh film, The Big Lebowski, was deemed a certified “cult classic,” with costumed fans and tribute conventions and the whole obsessive nine yards. At the time of its release, I found the comic detective spoof to be a breezy lark; amusing, but somewhat of a disappointment after the their morbidly enthralling breakthrough crime film Fargo. Lebowski‘s success should not have come as a complete surprise. Chief among its assets is the hugely likable Jeff Bridges, who has rarely had as rich a comedic […]

BY ALEXANDER POTTER Philadelphia Media Network (PMN) President and CEO Gregory Osberg today announced the launching of Project Liberty, a series of initiatives to boost digital readership, including a new subscription drive that will provide free Android tablets to subscribers of digital editions of the Inquirer and the Daily News, as well as philly.com. It is the first initiative of its kind undertaken by a major newspaper in the United States, said Osberg during a press conference this afternoon at the Academy of Natural Sciences. When Phawker asked how many online subscriptions PMN would need to compensate for the plunging […]

NEW YORK TIMES: However much they might deplore tabloid methods and articles — the photographers lurking in the bushes; the reporters in disguise entrapping subjects into sexual indiscretion or financial malfeasance; the editors paying tens of thousands of dollars for exclusive access to the mistresses of politicians and sports stars; the hidden taping devices; the constant stream of stories about illicit sex romps — politicians have often been afraid to say so publicly, for fear of losing the papers’ support or finding themselves the target of their wrath. If showering politicians with political rewards for cultivating his support has been […]

JAY ROSEN: I saw the movie Page One tonight. I think I’m too familiar with the subject to be a good judge. But I do have one observation to share. Page One shows off David Carr’s incredible feel for the American idiom. No character David Simon has come up with is better than Carr.  MORE TELLY DAVIDSON: Page One tells the story of the 2009-10 production year at the Times, focusing on several reporters (young bucks like Andrew Ross Sorkin and Tim Arango make appearances), but the main characters are embattled editor Bill Keller, and gruff, lovably no-nonsense media writer David Carr.  It also gives us a look inside […]

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation’s capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin. The decision comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. Advocates for the medical use of the drug criticized the […]