[Photos by TIFFANY YOON] STARS AND STRIPES: Rally For Change, Progress Plaza, Philadelphia, 8 AM REMARKS OF SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: We meet at a moment of great uncertainty for America. In recent weeks, we’ve seen a growing financial crisis that’s threatening not only banks and businesses, but your economic security as well. It’s getting harder to get a loan for that new car or that small business or that college you’ve dreamed of attending. And in recent days, millions of Americans have lost more of their investments and hard-earned retirement savings as the stock market has plunged. I know these […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
READY FOR PRIME TIME: TV On The Radio, Electric Factory, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] SET LIST Young Liars Wrong Way Dancing Choose Golden Age Wolf Halfway Home Province Dreams Blues SMO Satellite Love Dog Crying Method Starring VERDICT: With expectations high in the wake of the just-released and most-excellent Dear Science, TVOTR packed out the Factory Friday night with old-school admirers and newbie acolytes. Ninety minutes later, what was the takeway? Sad to say: Meh. Not sure if it was the muffled, monochromatic mix or the prospect that some bands simply should be heard (preferably in headphones) not […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Anthony Braxton
BY DAVE ALLEN Last night’s concert at Settlement Music School confirmed it: Anthony Braxton is from another planet. I’d known that he had written music intended to be performed at non-Earth locations and that one of his compositional heroes, the late Karlheinz Stockhausen, claimed to have emanated from the star Sirius. But during a compressed set with his Falling River Quartet, it was clear thatBraxton is operating on another plane of existence. Good for us, the curious listeners; not so good for his fellow players, whom he frequently left in the dust. On three types of saxophones and the mammoth, […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
[Photo by LAURA BUCKMAN] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Somewhere in the nether zone where the rip-and-burn ethos of the Digital Age bumps up against the you-break-it-you-bought-it copyright laws of the Analogue Age is where Girl Talk opens his laptop and throws a party. That may sound about as sexy as an algebra equation on paper, but as parties go, it’s a deathless, breathless unstoppable good time: smoke, confetti, toilet paper streamers, and, like, all your favorite songs — together at last! Unlike most, DJs, Girl Talk, aka acclaimed Pittsburgh-based mixologist Gregg Gillis, doesn’t cut and paste from obscure […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Letter From Obama
Jonathan — I’m coming to Philadelphia tomorrow, Saturday, October 11th. I’ll be visiting four different neighborhoods and talking to folks about what we can do together to change this country. See the details below and RSVP for the event in your neighborhood. Hope to see you there, Barack P.S. — Here’s the invitation for the event: This Saturday, October 11th, please join Barack Obama for rallies in Philadelphia, where he will talk about his vision for creating the kind of change we need. Change We Need Rallies with Barack Obama Saturday, October 11th Progress Plaza 1501 N. Broad Street Mayfair […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR The third season of The Sarah Silverman Program began this week on Comedy Central; because Silverman intentionally goes for the long bomb on sensitive topics — religion, abortion and sexual predators are — the show has become a kind of comedy litmus test. MORE PREVIOUSLY: This is something else we’re gonna do: buck the Calendar Journalism school of arts coverage. And buck it hard. We don’t work for the publicists, so why should we work on their clock? Who fuckin’ died and made them Elvis? Sure, Jesus Is Magic came out on DVD eons ago, but all copies […]
TONIGHT: TV On The Radio
Now playing on Phawker Radio! (right after the new Girl Talk) TVOTR plays the Electric Factory tonight!
GAYDAR: Sarah, You CANNOT ‘Pray Away The Gay’
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, an organization fighting right wing lies and the “ex-gay” fraud, recently urged Sarah Palin to “come out” about her church’s beliefs about ex-gay ministries. Palin’s church supported an ex-gay conference that was held in Anchorage on September 10th, 2008. According to TWO, Palin agrees that homosexuality can be cured through prayer—so every god-fearing Christian needs to join the crusade. What Palin’s church and other religious sects affiliated with ex-gay ministries withhold from the public is how few homosexuals have been “cured” and how many have run […]
CINEMA: Lies And The Lying Liars That Tell Them
BODY OF LIES (2008, directed by Ridley Scott, 128 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Starting with a minor quibble, what is up with the title of this latest action thriller from director Ridley Scott, Body of Lies? While Leonardo DiCaprio plays a wily C.I.A. agent gallivanting around the Middle East on the hunt for terrorists, the plot never pivots around bodies, lies nor a body of lies. It is as if Warner Brothers used a title generating computer program to spit out vaguely legalistic titles and viola, “Body of Lies” was spit out. All who agreed said “Aye”. […]
FREE SPEECH AIN’T FREE: When U Talk About Big Oil
Dear Jonathan, Did you notice the ads after [Tuesday] night’s presidential debate? ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby. But you know what happened last week? ABC refused to run our Repower America ad — the ad that takes on this same oil and coal lobby. I sent a letter asking ABC to reconsider their decision and put our ad on the air, but still we haven’t heard back more than a week later. I think they need to hear from all of us. Can you help? Please send a message to ABC and tell them […]
MCCAINGRY: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
? HUFFINGTON POST: Also this week, Brave New Films released a new video focused on McCain’s temper, featuring “original interviews with former U.S. Senator from Arizona Dennis DeConcini, former Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Jon Hinz, former Arizona Republic Editor Pat Murphy, and Eleanor Apodaca, sister of a Vietnam POW/MIA soldier. All four attest to McCain’s explosive anger, three of them with personal anecdotes.” MORE MICHAEL KINSLEY: “McCain immediately turned to the woman and said between clenched teeth: ‘DON’T TOUCH ME.’ The woman started to explain…McCain interrupted her: ‘DON’T TOUCH ME,’ he repeated viciously. The woman again tried to explain. […]
THE EARLY WORD: Rufus Is A Tit Man
Valentine’s Day Performance with Rufus Wainwright and Special Guest Martha Wainwright Added to Kimmel Center 2008-09 Season Tickets on Sale Monday, October 13, 2008 at 10am! Genre-bending vocalist Rufus Wainwright will make his Kimmel Center debut with special guest singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright for a Valentine’s Day performance in Verizon Hall on Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 8pm. The son of folk music icons Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, Rufus has been performing since the age of 13, and has toured extensively both as a solo artist as well as alongside Tori Amos, Sting and Guster. Rufus Wainwright will showcase […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Schlep-Rock The Vote’ Edition
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 […]