THE BLACK CAT (YABU NO NAKA NO KURANEKO) (1968, directed by Kaneto Shindô, 99 minutes, Japan) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Yesterday, the Inquirer reported yet another story of a soldier who had committed suicide after returning from the war. The idea of a soldier being haunted by the things he has seen in battle is an ancient one, and the story gets a mesmerizing telling in director Kaneto Shindô’s 1968 film The Black Cat. The classic ghost story has a free screening tonight at The Bellevue, as part of a weekly six-film series presented by Japanese culture impresario Eric […]
ERYKAH BADU: Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long
Erykah Badu – Gone Baby, Don’t be Long from beeple on Vimeo. Directed by Flying Lotus.
RUMBO: Rewriting History For Fun And Profit
MOTHER JONES: In his new book, deftly titled Known and Unknown, former Defense Secreatry Donald Rumsfeld insists that he and the Bush-Cheney crew did not purposefully misrepresent the WMD case for the Iraq war: “The President did not lie. The Vice President did not lie. Tenet did not lie. Rice did not lie. I did not lie. The Congress did not lie. The far less dramatic truth is that we were wrong.” He does acknowledge that he made a “few misstatements.” In the book, Rumsfeld claims that he should have referred to “suspect sites.” But, he says, his “few misstatements” […]
McFadden’s Executive Arrested On Sex Crime Warrant
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Harry Hayman, director of operations for the two McFadden’s Bars in Philadelphia, has been arrested on a warrant from Arizona charging him with sexually abusing employees at bars he owned there, officials said today. Hayman, 42, [NOT pictured, right] was picked on Tuesday up by Philadelphia police and U.S. marshals and, according to Philadelphia court records, released this morning after posting $15,000 bail. After a half-dozen employees of Hayman’s bar and grill in Glendale, Ariz., complained about his behavior in April, he reportedly has refused all attempts by police or prosecutors to talk to him. A Maricopa County […]
ALBUM REVIEW: RJD2 We Are The Doorways
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD March 6, 2007. The date isn’t etched on my brain, but suffice it to say that it signified my loss of faith in one of hip-hop’s most talented producers, RJD2. He’s part of the electronic-hip-hop movement that has been defined as everything from Wonky to Chillout to Trip-hop. Whatever the genre, it’s really hard to find fault with the music. His 2007 album Third Hand should have been an album of head-nodders, not head-scratchers, which was the case when RJ abandoned his hip-hop roots and offered up this anemic electro-pop medley. At the same time, he left […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Lawrence Wright‘s cover story in the current edition of The New Yorker reports on the Church of Scientology and focuses on why screenwriter and director Paul Haggis resigned from the organization in 2009 after spending nearly 35 years with it. Haggis, who directed Crash and wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, spoke with Wright about his reasons for leaving the church and the response from his fellow Scientologists. Wright tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross about the detailed fact-checking process his article went through — The New Yorker assigned five fact checkers to the story and sent the […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Miranda Cosgrove At The Keswick
EDITOR’S NOTE: We sent our two snarkiest concert reviewers to the Miranda Cosgrove concert at the Keswick Theater on Sunday and asked them to give it the Siskel & Ebert treatment. And guess what? They like it! Well, kinda. For the benefit of anyone over 21, Cosgrove is the star of Nickelodeon’s iCarly show. JAMIE DAVIS: I found the night to be blindsidingly fun, watching the Nickelodeon spectacle onstage in all it’s plastic glory. I was expecting to show up and make snide comments until someone cried, but it was just too- awesome. I believe we called it Blink-182 without […]
GEEK ALERT: Glee Live! Is Coming To Town
DAILY NEWS: The cast of “Glee” will perform June 8 at the Wells Fargo Center, the venue just announced. MORE
Urban Outfitters To Hire 1,000 Over Three Years
INQUIRER: As he heads into the May primary, Mayor Nutter is touting his success at bringing jobs to Philadelphia, including an announcement expected Wednesday that Urban Outfitters Inc. will add 1,000 jobs at the Navy Yard over the next three years. The apparel retailer, whose headquarters are in Philadelphia, had for some time occupied five buildings at the Navy Yard. Nutter’s announcement would mark the completion of the company’s efforts to secure rights to six more, bringing the total to 11. The company currently employs about 1,500 people at the Navy Yard, said David Ziel, who oversees store and headquarters […]
EGYPT: How To Take The Wind Out Of A Revolution
WASHINGTON POST: The power struggle between Egypt’s would-be revolutionaries and its defiant ruler wobbled to a standstill Monday as both sides girded for a prolonged test of wills that could shape the political future of the Arab world. President Hosni Mubarak sought to defuse a mass revolt against his 30-year reign by offering further concessions to an opposition movement that continued to jam Cairo’s central Tahrir Square with tens of thousands of protesters. Reports of arrests and clashes with security forces, meanwhile, appeared to ebb, and protesters said Mubarak seemed to be trying to split the opposition by compromising on […]
NEW LOW: Pregnant Woman Beaten To Death
DAILY NEWS: Tovoyia Owens, 21, left the court shortly before 2 p.m. with a man who is believed to have been her boyfriend. They “got into a physical altercation with two other males,” Clark said, and Owens was knocked unconscious. She died at Hahnemann University Hospital shortly after 3 p.m. MORE NBC PHILADELPHIA: Tovoyia Owens, a mother to a three-year-old girl, and her current boyfriend were leaving the courthouse at 800 Spring Garden St. when they had some sort of altercation with an ex-boyfriend and a group of men just before 2 p.m., sources said. Witnesses said that about five men attacked Owens in front […]
SPLITSVILLE: Rendells Announce Separation
PHILLY CLOUT: Gov. Rendell and his wife, U.S. Appellate Judge Marjorie “Midge” Rendell, announced in an e-mail to friends today that they will be “living separately” now that they have left the Governor’s Mansion in Harrisburg. But don’t let that prevent anyone from sending them invitations to the same party, the parting couple advised. The split after four decades of marriage is “amicable” and they won’t find it awkward or uncomfortable to socialize together. “Dear friends, we wanted to let you know that we have decided to embark upon this next phase of our lives by living separately,” the e-mail […]
HEAR YE: Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo
Due out March 8th on Matador. They play March 23rd at World Cafe Live. Here’s a taste… DOWNLOAD: “Jesus Fever” [Mp3]