[Photo by DANNY CLINCH] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER David Byrne got his first of countless standing ovations Saturday night just five songs into his set at the Tower Theater, where he closed out the North American run of his ambitious tour in support of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, his splendid second collaboration with Brian Eno. Not surprisingly, the ovation was occasioned by the first Talking Heads song of the night — “Houses In Motion” from Remain in Light — but it was more than just a beloved old song that elicited such a response from the […]
GAYDAR: Blue Boy In A Red State
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR Welcome friends to a very special edition of GAYDAR. I’ve just returned from visiting my family headquarters in the dirty, dirty south: Cullman, Alabama, to be exact. At the behest of the bossman, I will tell you all about it. If you have never been below the Mason Dixon, you would be well-advised to disabuse yourself of any romantic notions you might have about the South. Things have changed since Faulkner’s day, when the Land of Dixie was ripe with bucolic charm: rustic little hamlets scattered through field and vale, forests flourishing with pine and […]
5 Reasons Why Hanging With The Hold Steady Is More Fun Than Hanging With Your Old Drinking Buddies
TOMMY, CAN YOU FEEL ME: The Hold Steady, Electric Factory, Saturday Night 1. Knowing that they had the shorter of the two sets tonight, Craig Finn and the gang made sure to fit in all of the staples. For the Hold Steady, that means fitting in horse races, Kerouac references, and dealing with dealers—all in the course of an hour. Cliffs notes for having a good time? 2. Just a few years ago the crowd for the Hold Steady was mostly the younger, blog-savvy set, but last night saw a much older collective. It seems like Gen-X (and even some […]
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: NPR For The Tone Deaf
INQUIRER: WHYY is a relatively low-profile station in the world of public broadcasting. It doesn’t produce flashy, syndicated television shows like Frontline, from Boston’s WGBH, or Nature, from New York’s WNET. Among public stations in the top-10 markets, it is in the middle of the pack for budget and staff. WHYY is tops in one category — how much it rewards its chief executive. President and CEO William J. Marrazzo’s potential pay, benefits and expenses totaled $740,090 in the year ending June 30, 2007, according to its most recent tax filing. The package consists of $415,993 in salary, $317,240 in […]
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME: Sooner Than You Think
MOVEON.ORG: These commemorative stickers mark Barack Obama’s historic victory and were designed by groundbreaking artist Shepard Fairey—the same artist who designed the world-famous, iconic “Hope” poster for Obama. MORE WASHINGTON POST: Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team. A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
NOVEMBER SURPRISE: The Decemberists, Electric Factory, Last Night [photo by MICHAEL DONOVAN] BY MICHAEL DONOVAN We all have novels we constantly return to in times of public boredom or private darkness. I’ve read The Great Gatsby more times than I’d like to admit, and The Sun Also Rises ceases to get old for me. It’s fitting, then, that Portland, Oregon’s premiere storytelling band is just the same—no matter how many times I spend the evening with them (seven) and no matter how little their show changes (very little), I’ll never tire of seeing the Decemberists. Take seven: The D’s are […]
THE NEW NORMAL: That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore
BY JEFF DEENEY I was gassing up early yesterday evening at the mega-Wawa on Edgemont Avenue in Brookhaven, a town in heavily Republican southern Delaware County. Brookhaven and the surrounding towns near the Delaware border have been fairly well covered in McCain lawn signs for the past couple months; I would characterize the area economically as middle-to-working-class depending on which township you’re in. While much of Delaware County strongly supported Obama there are still very substantial clusters of stalwart Republicans here, especially in the towns surrounding Brookhaven like Aston, Concord and Edgmont. These old school Republican Delco towns went for […]
DEBUT: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #1 Humbly submitted for your approval, a new animated feature wherein I am a flower that reads the news.
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
RADIO TIMES Joel Rose fills in for Marty and interviews ART SPIEGELMAN, famous for his comic, Maus. Spiegelman is re-introducing his 1978 book, “Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!,” his transformational memoir. We’re also joined by Comix writer, DAVID HEATLEY, who is continuing in the comic narrative form with his new book, “My Brain is Hanging Upside Down.” Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3 FRESH AIR The legendary Chicago broadcaster Studs Terkel dedicated his life to capturing the stories of ordinary Americans through oral histories. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for his […]
CONVENIENT TRUTH: The Rock That Saved Earth?
REUTERS: A rock found mostly in Oman can be harnessed to soak up the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at a rate that could help slow global warming, scientists say. When carbon dioxide comes in contact with the rock, peridotite, the gas is converted into solid minerals such as calcite. Geologist Peter Kelemen and geochemist Juerg Matter said the naturally occurring process can be supercharged 1 million times to grow underground minerals that can permanently store 2 billion or more of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted by human activity every year. Their study will appear in the […]
NEW JERSEY BURNING: Obama Supporter Wakes Up To Find Charred Cross On His Front Lawn
INQUIRER: An Obama supporter in New Jersey woke up Thursday morning to discover the remnants of a cross burning on his front lawn. Wrapped around the charred 6-foot cross was a scorched homemade banner congratulating president-elect Obama on his victory. State police are calling the incident a bias crime. Gary Grewal, 51, of Hardwick Township, Warren County, was taking his daughter to work at 7:30 a.m. when he spotted the remains of the cross. “I saw this thing in my front yard,” Grewal said. “I didn’t know what it was.” Draped over the fallen cross, made of 2-by-4s and a […]
CINEMA: Eternal Moonshine Of The Besotted Mind
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (2008, directed by Charlie Kaufman, 124 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Even though I’m all for expanding the vocabulary of the American public, Synecdoche, New York has got to be the most alienating title for a film since the Coen Brothers’ Hudsucker Proxy. For the record, “synecdoche” (rhymes with Schenectady, pronounced “si-nek-duh-kee”) is defined as “a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as ‘hand’ for sailor), or the whole for a part (as ‘the law’ for police officer)”. It’s an obscure word for a difficult-to-grasp concept but screenwriter Charlie […]
JOE MENTUM: Smell Ya Later
Dear Jonathan, The Huffington Post is reporting that in their meeting today, Reid told Lieberman that he had to step down from his position as chair of the Homeland Security Committee if he remained in the Democratic Caucus. Lieberman did not accept this offer, which means that his only redress is to go around Reid and petition the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee to keep his seat. We’ve watched for years as Joe called war opponents traitors, lied about wanting to bring the troops home to get elected, stabbed Democrats in the back and did everything he could to […]