FRESH AIR Marianne Faithfull released her first album, 1964’s As Tears Go By, when she was 17. The album was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the the Rolling Stones. Faithfull dated Jagger throughout the 1960s and became a fixture on the rock and roll party scene. After struggling with an addiction to heroin which left her living on the streets, Faithfull recovered and released several acclaimed albums, including Before the Poison and Kissin’ Time. She has also appeared onstage and in films, and she wrote her autobiography, Faithfull in 1994. Her most recent album — her 22nd […]
CINEMA: The Comedy Of Murder
MONSIEUR VERDOUX (1947, directed by Charles Chaplin, 124 minutes, U.S.) THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009, directed by Dennis Iliadis, 100 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC This is what happens when a director takes career advice from Orson Welles. Released in 1947 and based on an idea that Orson Welles offered Chaplin (Welles was hoping to direct), Monsieur Verdoux found the fifty-eight year old comedian leaving behind the beloved “Little Tramp” character for the first time. In Monsieur Verdoux the star’s bird-like grace would be put to use to lend charm to a serial killer, a Bluebeard […]
OPERA TAWK: Q&A With Bad-Ass Tenor Jason Collins
BY DAVE ALLEN Opera might be stereotyped as stuffy and uninteresting, but sex, violence and mayhem have always been part of the medium. Alban Berg’s 1925 opera Wozzeck takes these traditional elements and frames them, to startling effect, in a score of dissonant but sensual and compelling music. It’s a work that has never fallen easy on the ears of American audiences, but this weekend, Philly’s famed but deeply traditional Curtis Institute of Music, in a co-production with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Kimmel Center Presents, is putting on this revolutionary work of early 20th-century modernism and, as a […]
Ann Coulter’s Sultry Neo-Con Hate Bait Loses Lock On The Discretionary Spending Of The Dumb And Mean
CONDE NAST: Coulter’s latest book, Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, is something of a misfire by Coulterian standards. Of course, what constitutes a disappointment for Coulter would be a mega-hit for most authors; in its two months on sale, Guilty has sold 100,500 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan (a number that only reflects around 70 percent of actual sales). But with it moving steadily down the best-seller list, it looks certain that Guilty will fall far short of matching her earlier results. Her 2006 polemic, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, sold 279,100 copies in hardcover, according to […]
TOM WAITS: Hang On St. Christopher
Two French photographers – Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre – trained their lenses on the spectacular ruins of the modern day Motor City. The must-see results are astonishing, depressing and altogether post-apocalyptic. Metaphors abound — the state of the auto industry, the economy, and the American Dream itself — none of which augur well for the future of the nation. Rome was not built in a day, but the Roman Empire sure did fall in one — the day that the public good was subsumed by the pursuit of private gain. After that, it was all over but the shouting. […]
PAPERBOY: Slow Jamming The Alt Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
CINEMA: Bluebeard’s Castle
BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE (1963, directed by Michael Powell, 59 minutes, Germany) DER ROSENKAVALIER (1925, directed by Robert Weine, 73 minutes Germany) ANDREW’S VIDEO VAULT @ The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA Thursday March 12th 2009 8PM Free! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC British director Michael Powell crafted a steady stream of masterpieces over the last century, his love of art and music informing popular classics like The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and Scorsese favorite Tales of Hoffman. Powell’s career went famously south after making the 1960 film Peeping Tom, a tale of a killer who films his prey that rivals […]
CAN’T HAPPEN HERE: Germany’s Columbine, Again
CNN: WINNENDEN, Germany (CNN) — The teenaged gunman who killed 15 people in Germany targeted young women on his shooting spree, methodically shooting them in the head, police say. Tim Kretschmer, 17, began his rampage Wednesday at a school where he used to be a student in Winnenden, a small town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Stuttgart. Most of the victims at the school were female — eight female students, three female teachers and one male student, said Heribert Rech, interior minister for Baden Wuerttemberg region. Rech said: “They were completely taken by surprise. Some of the victims […]
WORTH REPEATING: He Hit Me & It Felt Like A Kiss
E: Chris Brown‘s manager, Tina Davis [pictured, below right], who was rumored to be the woman whose text message played a role in the Feb. 8 altercation between Brown and Rihanna, has flat-out denied, via her attorney, ever having had a romantic relationship with the R&B star. “The relationship between Ms. Davis and Mr. Brown is that of manager and client,” declared attorney Marshall B. Grossman in a written statement issued Wednesday. “There has never been any other relationship. The rumors in circulation are false. There are no emails between Ms. Davis and Mr. Brown of the type which have […]
THIS JUST IN: Tom Waits Goes Gold, Goes Hollywood
[Photo by MICHAEL T. REGAN] TOM WAITS latest 3 CD set—Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards—has been certified gold by the RIAA® and will be released on vinyl by Anti- Records in the not-too-distant future. He has also collaborated with Kool Keith on N.A.S.A.’s recently released The Spirit of Apollo, which also features such diverse artists as David Byrne, Karen O and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. As for new material, Waits and his long time collaborator and wife, Kathleen Brennan, have begun writing new songs, which they plan to record this summer for an upcoming CD. (No release date at this time.) […]
ARTSY: The Course Of Empire
Two French photographers — Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre — trained their lenses on the spectacular ruins of the modern day Motor City. The must-see results are astonishing, depressing and altogether post-apocalyptic. Metaphors abound — the state of the auto industry, the economy, and the American Dream itself — none of which augur well for the future of the nation. Rome was not built in a day, but the Roman Empire sure did fall in one — the day that the public good was subsumed by the pursuit of private gain. After that, it was all over but the shouting. […]
HOT DOCUMENT: The Tenacity Of Nope
—–Original Message—– From: Hale, Ellen Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 2:03 PM To: Hale, Ellen Subject: AP and the Obama Hope Poster Wednesday, March 11, 2009 AP Staff: The Associated Press today filed a countersuit claiming misappropriation of the AP photo underlying the ubiquitous Obama Hope poster and other materials by graphic artist Shepard Fairey. The suit claims “blatant violation” of AP’s copyright of the photo and seeks damages, injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment stating that the photo was used without permission. This is an important case for us. Licensing of AP content sustains our newsgathering and other operations. […]