VANITY FAIR: The dirty little secret of conservative talk radio is that the average age of listeners is 67 and rising, according to Sinton—the Fox News audience, likewise, is in its mid-60s: “What sort of continuing power do you have as your audience strokes out?” You can begin to make plausibly large statements about the end of—or at least a crisis in—conservative media. “There are fewer advertisers, fewer listeners, shrinking networks, shallower penetration,” says Sinton. “A lowering tide lowers all ships.” What’s more, it’s the Internet that is the fast-growing and arguably more powerful political medium—and it is the province […]
GAS, GRASS OR ASS: Nobody Rides For Free
[CLICK TO ENLARGE] DETROIT FREE PRESS: President Barack Obama took charge of Detroit’s auto industry Monday, vowing to transform it into a world leader in fuel-efficient vehicles — but demanding a plan of action within two months. Obama compared the decline of Detroit to a natural disaster, saying it deserved the same kind of emergency attention. But he warned that, within 60 days, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC would either be on a path to independence or on their way out. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: President Obama struck an acceptable compromise on Monday between two unappealing options: letting General Motors […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
KILLER WALES: Los Campesinos, TLA, Last Night BY MICHAEL DONOVAN You’ve got to hand it to Los Campesinos! — the little Welsh band that could —they sure know how to cater to an American audience. Fast songs with infectious hooks that anyone can dance too? Check. Attractive-yet-prickly bass player who rejects Joe Fraternity’s professions of love from the back of the venue? Check. References to robots? Check. Los Campesinos! have discovered the formula for across-the-pond success, and it doesn’t hurt that they’ve pumped out two stellar albums in the past year, either. After solid opening sets by Sky Larkin and […]
TOO MUCH SEXY TIME: MPAA Slaps NC-17 On Bruno
THE WRAP: Universal’s ”Bruno,” the widely anticipated Sacha Baron Cohen docu-comedy opening in July, has been slapped with an NC-17 rating on its first submission to the Motion Picture Association of America because of numerous sexual scenes that the ratings board considers over the line, according to the studio releasing the film. Among the objectionable scenes is one in which Bruno — a gay Austrian fashionista played by Baron Cohen — appears to have anal sex with a man on camera. In another, the actor goes on a hunting trip and sneaks naked into the tent of one of the […]
CINEMA: Our Daily Film Fest Picks
PLAGUE TOWN (2008, directed by David Gregory, 88 minutes, U.S.) Upstate Connecticut stands in for Ireland as a bickering American family playing tourist in a creepy rural town comes to wish they’d enjoyed their Guinness at home. The game cast starts out well but it soon becomes apparent that they’re stuck screaming and running through a predictable zombie film. The mute bride-to-be with doll eyes is a nicely spooky touch but if you’re rolling out a zombie movie at this late date you best be spinning some novel approach. Instead Plague Town is a meal of repackaged scares even the […]
WORTH REPEATING: Return Of The Robber Barons
ATLANTIC: In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia (1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again). In each of those cases, global investors, afraid that the country or its financial sector wouldn’t be able to pay off mountainous debt, suddenly stopped lending. And in each case, that fear became self-fulfilling, as banks that couldn’t roll over their debt did, in fact, become unable to pay. This is precisely what drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy on September […]
MAURICE JARRE: Somewhere My Love
BBC: French composer Maurice Jarre, best known for his music for Hollywood films, has died in Los Angeles at 84, after suffering from cancer. Jarre, father of the composer Jean-Michel Jarre, rose to prominence relatively late in life. His breakthrough came in 1962 when he wrote the score for Lawrence of Arabia, for which he was awarded an Oscar. He won two further Oscars for Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India, and composed music for more than 150 films. MORE
CONCERT REVIEW: Top Five Things You Should Know About Asobi Seksu At Johnny Brendas Last Night
LOOMER: Asobi Seksu, Johnny Brendas, Last Night 1. Studio magic be damned. Let it be known now that Asobi Seksu know how to create that beautiful wall of noisy fuzz live, and do we ever love them for it. You can tell we love them for it when the crowd will wait around for an encore even when James Hanna puts a guitar face down on an amp before leaving and let the fans cheer at the face-melting feedback solo. 2. I was wondering about this for quite some time, and yes, Asobi Seksu does have a rhythm section. 3. […]
THE WAGES OF TORTURE: Zero Terror Plots Were Foiled By The Waterboard Confessions Of Abu Zubaida
WASHINGTON POST: When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him. The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads. In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida’s tortured confessions, according to […]
NEWS CLUES: Like An Armed Rampage Of Truth
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: Gunman Kills Eight In Nursing Home Rampage An armed man shot and killed seven patients and a nurse at a Carthage, North Carolina, nursing home Sunday before being wounded during a shootout with a police officer, authorities said. Three other people, including the police officer and a visitor to the nursing home, were wounded in the attack, Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said. The police officer was treated and released, McKenzie said. The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said. The man accused of carrying out […]
I, GAMER: Get In, Get Out, Don’t Get Any On Ya
BY ADAM BONANNI Easy to pick-up but tough to master, puzzle games straddle the line between casual and hardcore games, and have a kind of universal appeal — because, hey, who doesn’t love a good brain-teaser? I, GAMER’s target in the cross-hair this week is World of Goo, an independently-developed puzzle game by San Francisco-based studio 2D Boy. World of Goo has an extremely tight focus on what makes this type of game so alluring. It’s full of memorable set pieces, a perfect learning curve, and really well-designed puzzles that strike a balance between skill and logic in order to […]
HECKUVA JOB, TIERNEY: Inky/DN Big Wigs Were Paid $650,000 In Bonuses As Papers Went Bankrupt
THE DAILY EXAMINER: Though the company teetered on the verge of bankruptcy at the time, this past December Philadelphia Media Holdings awarded bonuses to CEO Brian P. Tierney, vice president of finance Richard Thayer and Daily News publisher Mark Frisby. PMH board chair Bruce Toll confirmed bonuses of $350,000 for Tierney and $150,000 each for Thayer and Frisby in a phone conversation on Friday. […] PMH filed for bankruptcy in February. Toll, of the homebuilding Toll Brothers company, confirmed that the PMH board knew the company¹s fiscal situation was dire. “The financial condition of the papers was obviously not good,” […]