TONITE: When I Say ‘Obama!’ U Say ‘Ayers!’

Come to Moonstone Arts Center tonight. Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn will be in Philly TONIGHT for a discussion and signing of their new book RACE COURSE: AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY, along with activist and poet Haki R. Madhubuti, who will read from and sign copies of his latest release LIBERATION NARRATIVES: NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS 1966-2009. And, I’ll be there! How could you miss out? Bill and Bernardine will discuss how systemic racial inequality in the criminal justice system, education, and housing illustrate the powerful pull of bigotry in our times. Open Q & A with the audience will follow. […]

SPECIAL REPORT: The Good News Flower Hour

SPECIAL REPORT: GNFH #23 Today is SAY NO TO U.S. TORTURE POLICY Day. We made this reminder so you don’t forget. You’re welcome. RELATED: Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged. At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube. Another apparently shows a female prisoner having […]

BOARD GAME: Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas

MORE [h/t P. RYDDY] * THE WORLD CAFE As a child, Benjy Ferree dreamed of becoming an actor. After discovering his love of music, he moved to Washington, D.C., and began playing gigs at local clubs. Before long, Ferree’s vintage Americana music had caught the eye of a label, which put out Leaving the Nest, a folksy, acoustic and blues-filled album that won the singer many new fans. Ferree’s new follow-up, Come Back to the Five and Dime Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee, tells the tragic story of Disney actor Bobby Driscoll in song. Though he sticks to Americana, Ferree adds […]

SPECIAL EDITION: The Good News Flower Hour

Collateral News: The Good News Flower Hour #22 This week we examine the strange art of Donald Rumsfeld’s holy war. Enjoy. RELATED: This Sunday, GQ magazine is posted on its Web site an article adding new details to the ample dossier on how Donald Rumsfeld’s corrupt and incompetent Defense Department cost American lives and compromised national security. The piece is not the work of a partisan but the Texan journalist Robert Draper, author of “Dead Certain,” the 2007 Bush biography that had the blessing (and cooperation) of the former president and his top brass. It draws on interviews with more […]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR Brent Jeffs [NOT PICTURED] grew up in the inner circles of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; his grandfather was a prophet of the FLDS, which teaches that polygamy is a religious practice that guarantees salvation. Jeffs’ uncle Warren Jeffs became president of the sect in 2002. FLDS followers believe that they are the only true practitioners of the Mormon faith, which officially abandoned polygamy in 1890. Although Brent Jeffs’ lineage gives him what he says FLDS followers think of as “royal blood,” he was eventually expelled from the FLDS church during a series […]

BOOKS: Q&A With FOUND Magazine’s Davy Rothbart

BY ADAM BONANNI Davy Rothbart’s first window into the lives of others came in a note mistakenly stuck to his car from a pissed off girl to her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Mario. The excitement of his find sparked Davy to create FOUND magazine, which he dubs a public art project where people submit objects they found that tell a story of their owners. Notes, photographs, drawings, and other forms of personal memorabilia are collected between the covers of FOUND, forming a kind of bread crumb trail to the quiet desperation of hidden lives. Some are funny, some are inspirational, and others are […]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR In his new documentary, called simply Tyson, filmmaker James Toback turns his camera on Mike Tyson — the controversial former heavyweight boxing champion. Tyson, infamous for taking a bite out of Evander Holyfield’s ear in 1997 — and for his 1992 rape conviction — talks directly to Toback’s camera, telling his own story in between excerpts of archival footage from his life and career. Toback, the screenwriter behind Bugsy and director of films including Two Girls and a Guy, has been Tyson’s friend since the boxer was 19 years old; Tyson premiered in 2008 at the Cannes Film […]