THIS AMERICAN LIFE Act One. Eat My Shorts. A hedge fund named Magnetar comes up with an elaborate plan to make money. It sponsors the creation of complicated and ultimately toxic financial securities… while at the same time betting against the very securities it helped create. Planet Money‘s Alex Blumberg teams up with two investigative reporters from ProPublica, Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger, to tell the story. Jake and Jesse pored through thousands of pages of documents and interviewed dozens of Wall Street Insiders. We bring you the result: a tale of intrigue and questionable behavior, which parallels quite closely […]
RECONSIDER THIS: Yes We Did
TIME: Barack Obama’s right-wing opponents cast him as a socialist failure. His left-wing hecklers see him as an overcautious hedger. But, critics notwithstanding, the President is on a path to be a huge success by the time of November’s midterm elections. Before the jabberers on the right (What about the huge debt, the broken tax pledge, the paucity of overseas accomplishments?), the yammerers on the left (Guantánamo hasn’t been closed, gays aren’t serving openly in the military, and too many policies cater to business interests) and the chides in the media (POTUS and party poll numbers are down, and Washington […]
SPORTO: Usain Bolts At Penn Relays
PHILLY.COM: At 1:40 p.m. Saturday, the single-day record crowd of 54,310 at the 116th Penn Relays at Franklin Field – many clad in yellow, green and black – began to roar. It was the type of moment that will live on as another chapter in the storied history of the Carnival. And to think Jamaican superstar sprinter Usain Bolt was merely just beginning to warm up. His “USA vs. the World” 4 x 100-meter relay race wasn’t going to start for another hour. As Miki Barber, a member of the victorious USA Blue 4 x 100 women’s team put it: […]
EARLY WORD: Dream A Little Dream
The Philadelphia Ukulele Orchestra will perform at the Balcony Bar, upstairs at the Trocadero, Wednesday at 10 PM.
SIDEWALKING: The Man From Hope
Shep Fairey at Frankford & Berks by chrissembrot RELATED: Please Don’t Eat The Banksy
THE PEACE CORPS DIARIES: Letter From Paraguay
BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH The tarantulas here are generally pretty hard to find — I haven’t seen a single one since I’ve been here, but in the last week, they’ve been emerging from their burrows because of the torrential rainstorms we’ve been having. It’s amazing how hairy these critters are. But spiders aren’t the only thing keeping me on my toes. Paraguay is a fairly peaceful country — in fact, super tranquilo — but has been having some problems lately with a group called the EPP, the Ejercito Pueblo de Paraguay, or the People´s Army of Paraguay. It´s a group […]
THE BIG SHORT: There’s A Sucker Born Every Minute
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Sarah Palin is a singular national industry. She didn’t invent her new role out of whole cloth. Other politicians have cashed out, used the revolving door, doing well in business after doing good in public service. Entertainment figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and even Ronald Reagan have worked the opposite angle, leveraging their celebrity to make their way in politics. And family dramas have been a staple of politics from the Kennedys—or the Tudors—on down. But no one else has rolled politics and entertainment into the same scintillating, infuriating, spectacularly lucrative package the way Palin has […]
THE BIG SHORT: There’s A Sucker Born Every Minute
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Sarah Palin is a singular national industry. She didn’t invent her new role out of whole cloth. Other politicians have cashed out, used the revolving door, doing well in business after doing good in public service. Entertainment figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and even Ronald Reagan have worked the opposite angle, leveraging their celebrity to make their way in politics. And family dramas have been a staple of politics from the Kennedys—or the Tudors—on down. But no one else has rolled politics and entertainment into the same scintillating, infuriating, spectacularly lucrative package the way Palin has […]
WORTH REPEATING: A Confederacy Of Dunces
KAREN HELLER: In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-1, and two-thirds of all GOP committee seats are currently vacant, the city and state Republican organizations are hell-bent on total annihilation. And they’re rocking it Philly old-style, using the dead and – perhaps a first in recent memory for the Republicans – the homeless. City GOPers challenged state-backed committee candidates using the names of one dead woman and a guy who doesn’t live in the district (picky, picky). Two homeless men were put up as candidates, though so far no one can find them, which works against success in politics. […]
Bret Michaels Suffers Massive Brain Hemorrhage
US MAGAZINE: A rep for the star, 47, confirms to UsMagazine.com that he is in critical condition at an undisclosed facility following a massive brain hemorrhage. The Celebrity Apprentice star was rushed to an undisclosed hospital Thursday after complaining of a severe headache. After a battery of tests, Michaels is now staying in the intensive care unit for several days of observation and additional tests; doctors have yet to determine what led to the bleeding in the brain. “We will have no additional information until further testing is done,” Michaels’ rep tells UsMagazine.com. MORE UPDATE: Yesterday, doctors had yet to […]
MEDIA: Fortune Magazine Can’t Handle The Truth
[Click image to enlarge] THE CHICAGOIST: Chicago-based comic-book artist Chris Ware (who we are big fans of) was commissioned by Fortune magazine to create a cover for their May issue. The end result, though, was rejected. It seems a few of the images on the cover – including Guantanamo Bay prisoners, Mexican factory workers, and a few potshots at business execs and money-grubbing politicians – were too much for the kids at Fortune. MORE FISHBOWLNY: Chris Ware, the brilliant comic-book artist behind the Acme Novelty Library, designed a May cover for capitalist-cheerleader magazine Fortune, only to see it killed. We […]
CINEMA: Metaphysical Graffiti
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (2010, directed by Banksy, 87 minutes, U.S.) THE SQUARE (2008, directed by Nash Edgerton, 105 minutes, Australia) THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (2009, directed by André Téchiné, 96 minutes, France) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The new documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. starts off as a seemingly slight, self-promotional look at the guerrilla Street Art movement, then takes a surprisingly complex turn to look at the nature of art itself. The movement, in which stickers, stencils, spray paint and markers interact with public spaces, mixes Warhol, graffiti and anarchist ideas in ways that can […]
THE EARLY WORD: It’s A Psychobilly Freakout!
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Super Devil’s features Brendan Skwire, of Brendan Calling fame, on the upright bass. Brendan has, um, strong opinions about a lot of things, and earlier this week he took Mann Music Center president Catherine Cahill to task for the pianist they booked for a July 27th performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto In D Minor. BRENDAN CALLING: Dear Mann Music Center President Catherine Cahill: Congratulations on this year’s upcoming concert series! Like many Philadelphians, I relish the summer season, when my family and I can enjoy a few evenings of classical music under the stars at Fairmount Park. […]