RELATED: Chris Pronger isn’t upset, but some women are. A poster in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune shows the Flyers stalwart defenseman in a skirt, along with a headline that reads, “Chrissy Pronger. Looks like Tarzan, skates like Jane.” Clever like sixth grade. Not only is the Tarzan joke as old as Tarzan, the skirt thing rips off the New York Post. “The Frillies Are Coming to Town!” its front page declared in October, next to a picture of outfielder Shane Victorino in a skirt. Pronger barely bothered to react.”I don’t read what you guys write, good or bad,” Pronger said Tuesday. […]
THE DARREN CHRONICLES: Local Man Bombs Hard
Following that old show biz maxim that says if you are gonna go down in flames take as many people with you as you can, Ben Salem’s Darren Finizio went Kamikaze last night on America’s Got Talent — he shows up at the 1:23 mark. Extremism in the pursuit of a an ‘E For Effort’ is no vice. * RELATED: The first of many, many questions you want to ask is: What’s with the hair? It’s an impossibly thick brown shag that’s utterly fashionable — for 1974. A quick tug confirms its owner’s assertion that, no, it’s not a wig. […]
HOW THE WEST WAS WON: ‘Information Wants To Be Free’ Replaced By ‘Information Is A Slave To Value’
THE ATLANTIC: After 15 years of fruitless experimentation, media companies are realizing that an advertising-supported model is not the way to succeed on the Web and they are, at last, seeking to get consumers to pay for their content. They are operating on the largely correct assumption that people will be more likely to pay for consumer-friendly apps via the iPad, and a multitude of competing devices due out this year, than they are to subscribe to the same old kludgy Web site they have been using freely for years. As a result, media companies will soon be pushing their […]
LADY GAGA: Alejandro
BOSTON HERALD: It opens with the ominous (and ridiculous) goose-stepping and closes with Gaga on a bed outfitted in a latex nun’s habit. In between, there’s a frozen heart on a black satin pillow, a coffin being carried through the snow, and “Cabaret” gloom shadowing the whole thing. Oh, and there’s a bra with machine gun barrels protruding from each breast that’s clearly an homage to, or besting of, Madge’s infamous conical cups. Is Gaga reaching her serious phase? What can that even mean coming from Miss Disco Stick? The song itself is the worst part of the video; “Alejandro” […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With Your Host AP Ticker
This week A.P. dishes on Ed Rendell threatening to lay off 20,000 state employees, wishes the War In Afghanistan a happy 8th birthday, discusses Ryan Howard’s love life, and reveals that he is rooting for North Korea to win the World Cup — all before having an on-camera meltdown, tearing off his clothes and storming off the set.
MEDIA: When It’s Later Than You Think
HUFFINGTON POST: Last week, Israeli commandos boarded a relief ship attempting to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip and, during a clash with pro-Palestinian activists, shot nine people to death. It was an old-fashioned, bona fide “international incident,” a fiasco that raised alarming questions about the current trajectory of Israel’s security, the wisdom of its government, as well as the fate of Obama’s Middle East policies and U.S. security in general. Within a few days, though, the Washington media’s “Israel narrative” abandoned those questions and focused instead on the ugly words and sudden retirement of cranky 89-year-old White House […]
WORTH REPEATING: You Call This Living?
NEW YORK TIMES: The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer [pictured, above] held that even the best life possible for humans is one in which we strive for ends that, once achieved, bring only fleeting satisfaction. New desires then lead us on to further futile struggle and the cycle repeats itself. Schopenhauer’s pessimism has had few defenders over the past two centuries, but one has recently emerged, in the South African philosopher David Benatar, author of a fine book with an arresting title: “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence.” One of Benatar’s arguments trades on something […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Broken Bells At The E-Factory
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER When it comes to popular music, Danger Mouse (also known as Brian Burton) has been the Zelig at the dawn of the 21st century, an everywhere man with an uncanny knack for being at ground zero of the decade’s important pop moments. The Grey Album, where the Beatles’ White Album peanut butter got mixed up with Jay-Z’s Black Album chocolate? Check. The Gorillaz’s sophomore slump-defying second album, Demon Days? Check. Gnarls Barkley’s breakout global hit “Crazy”? Check. Danger Mouse’s latest zeitgeist moment is Broken Bells, a collection of shimmering analog-era pop produced in collaboration […]
NPR FOR THE DEFICIT: WHYY $3.9M In The Hole
INQUIRER: Public broadcaster WHYY ended its last fiscal year with a deficit of $3.9 million, an unexpectedly big swing from the previous year’s $1.6 million surplus, according to its latest tax filing. The deficit follows four years of surpluses and was accompanied by a rise in WHYY’s payroll costs, according to the station’s latest 990 tax form, covering the year ended June 30, 2009. The compensation of chief executive officer and president William J. Marrazzo, which two years earlier generated controversy as the top pay nationwide for a local public broadcasting CEO, dropped for the second straight year, to $506,157 […]
LOL: BP Oil Spill Re-Enacted By Cats In One Minute
OC WEEKLY: The website If It Was My Home allows anyone to personalize the magnitude of the British Petroleum (BO) Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and spill–also known as “the greatest environmental disaster in United States history.” The site opens with a map superimposing the shape of the spill as of the day the page is visited over the general region the user’s computer is located in. For instance, mine right now shows the spill epicenter as Los Angeles. However, type any town into a field and get a gander at how mucked up that region would be with a […]
WHORING: Elton John Sings At Limbaugh’s Wedding
PEOPLE: According to a News Corporation (which owns Fox News) wire report, the Rocket Man, 63, serenaded the 400 guests into the wee hours Saturday night to celebrate the marriage of Limbaugh, 59, to Kathryn Rogers, 33, in the Ponce de Leon ballroom of Florida’s fabled Breakers hotel in Palm Beach. Sir Elton’s fee: $1 million, the report notes. Amid dozens of giant bouquets of white roses (and very tight security), reports the Palm Beach Post, guests at the wedding included former Bush adviser Karl Rove; actor-politician Fred Thompson; former Kansas City Royals slugger George Brett; Fox News commentator Sean […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
[Photos by JEFF FUSCO COPYRIGHT 2010] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR ROLLING STONE Like France, the picnic remains proof positive that, despite wild-eyed Tea Party protests to the contrary, socialism actually can work. Everyone brings something, we all share, and everyone live relatively happily ever after — sometimes anyway. Such was the case at Saturday’s third annual Roots Picnic at the Festival Pier in Philadelphia. Senegal’s horn-y, percussion-heavy Baja and the Dry Eye Crew brought the world beats. Face-painted, ukulele-strumming one-gal-band TuneYards brought the weirdness. New Orleans rapper Jay Electronica brought the conspiracy theories (specifically the damning federal indictment of “Candyman”). […]
MUST SEE TV: Adidas Star Wars Cantina Scene Ad
ROLLING STONE: In the new Adidas ad below, Daft Punk, Liam Gallagher, the Stone Roses’ Ian Brown and Snoop Dogg all frequent the cantina from the original Star Wars to hilarious effect. The mysterious and silent Daft Punk adopt the role of Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi bartering with Han Solo for use of the Millennium Falcon while Snoop Dogg, light saber in hand, deals with some aliens who get up in his face. Somehow David Beckham shows up for the final punch line and to return this intergalactic ad and spot-on homage back to its World Cup theme. MORE