NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO* BY ED KING ROCK SNOB WHERE: The Teenage Junglelands of New Jersey WHEN: Indian Summer 2007 WHY: I took a spin with a friend in his vintage 1980 Camaro Z28 — chromewheelfuelinjectedandheadingoutovertheline — with an advance of Magic, in the back pocket of my best ripped jeans. The first song and lead-off single is “Radio Nowhere,”which sounds too close to Tommy Tutone mining one of Graham Parker’s 3rd-rate music industry rants for comfort. No great shakes, that. The next song, “You’ll Be Comin’ Down,” was pretty cool. It’s anthemic but very poppy. I could see my […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Wes Anderson has been called an auteur,[1] heavily involved in every aspect of his films’ production: writing, cinematography, production design, music selection, etc. Influences Anderson has acknowledged that French New Wave directors Francois Truffaut and Louis Malle influenced his penchant for sympathetic tragicomedy, unconventional mis-en-scene, and personal approach to filmmaking. He often cites Mike Nichols‘ The Graduate as a recurring inspiration. Anderson is also noted for drawing on famous works of American literature, particularly those of F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger. Fitzgerald’s famous quote, “There are no second acts in American lives,” applies to many of Anderson’s […]
NEVER FORGET: The NAZIS Burned Books
Sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and a variety of other groups, Banned Books Week (Sept. 29-Oct. 6, 2007) celebrates the first amendment right to free speech, which includes the right to read and write books that are considered unorthodox or controversial. A banned book is one that has actually been removed from a library or school system, a “challenged” book is the attempt to ban such material. THE 10 MOST CHALLENGED BOOKS OF 2006 And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell Gossip Girls (Series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar Alice (Series) by […]
NEWSWEEK: Blackwater Massacre Unprovoked
Sept. 30, 2007 — Since the fatal Sept. 16 Blackwater USA shooting in Baghdad’s Nasoor Square, officials from the private security company have insisted that their guards were responding to fire from “armed enemies.” Yet an extensive evidence file put together by the Iraqi National Police and obtained by NEWSWEEK — including documents, maps, sworn witness statements and police video footage — appears to contradict the contractors’ version of events. A confidential incident report, which has been provided by Iraqi National Police investigators to American military and civilian officials, concludes that the Blackwater vehicles “opened fire crazily and randomly, without […]
RUDY: It’s A White Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand
UPDATE: Rudy Guiliani will be reaching out to white English-only voters tonight at The House That Joey Vento Built.
HOT DOCUMENT: Radiohead Goes Post-Music Biz
Radiohead.com is open for business with pre-orders having begun today for their 7th studio album In Rainbows, which will be available from October 10 as a DRM-free MP3 download. Also available to pre-order from now is the Discbox, a special edition box set, details of which are below. Radiohead’s fan service, WASTE, is currently taking advance orders for two formats: the album MP3 and the Discbox, which includes double vinyl and CD versions of the record and a second, enhanced CD with additional new songs, artwork, and photographs of the band, all exclusive to the box. Anyone purchasing this deluxe […]
INSTANT KARMA: We Are With You In Myanmar
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Hunkered down in their war rooms hundreds of miles from mass protests, the aging, hard-line generals in Myanmar are known as a suspicious lot who view the West with disdain and depend on browbeaten advisers and astrologers to guide them. The demonstrations are the stiffest challenge to the ruling junta in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike then expanded dramatically about two weeks ago when Buddhist monks joined the protests.Since Wednesday, soldiers and riot police have clubbed, shot and detained demonstrators in Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, […]
GAYBO EXTRA: And Iran So Far Away
Adam Andy Samberg, with Adam Levine, on SNL.
FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK, WE SALUTE YOU!
PHILADELPHIA – Believe it, Philly. The Fightin’ Phils are going to the playoffs. Considered all-but-out of contention just 2 1/2 weeks ago, the Philadelphia Phillies overcame a huge deficit in the standings, caught the Mets and won their first NL East title since 1993 on the final day. [via ASSOCIATED PRESS]
WHY NET NEUTRALITY MATTERS: Verizon Will Not Now Allow Pro-Choice Texting
BY ADAM LIPTAK OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program. The other leading wireless carriers have accepted the program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code. Text messaging is a growing political tool in the United States and a dominant one abroad, and such sign-up programs are used by […]
My Motorcycle Diary: Tea And Sympathy For The Devil
Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham at the Blue Boar Motorway Cafe, along the M1 between London and Birmingham, 1963. By Philip Townsend; never before published. BY JONATHAN VALANIA SOUTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Today I saw Andrew Loog Oldham standing in his kitchen making me a lovely cup of tea, high above the streets of Bogota’s ritzy financial district in his tastefully upscale bi-level condominium, where he has lived on and off since 1975. If you have to ask who Andrew Loog Oldham is, you’ll never know — unless you click here, go on, we’ll wait. Psych! OK, […]
MY MOTORCYCLE DIARY: Or, Seven Days Through The Amazon On The Back Of An Ass
Our own Boss Phawker, man of the world and leader of the local ruling junta, is vacationing down South America way. This is the first of his dispatches. BY JONATHAN VALANIA SOUTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT TABIO, COLOMBIA — Let’s just dispense with the cocaine jokes right now, shall we? Yes we shall. That is NOT why I am down here. As fate would have it, my Uncle William, a retired neurologist, is married to a wonderful woman from Colombia named Stella — that’s Aunt Stella to you and mostly me. And they have built a fairly spectacular Frank Lloyd Wright-ish home […]