Photo by AUTUMN DEWILDE EDITOR’S NOTE: A considerably shorter version of this interview appeared in the November 10th edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER The Smart Studios Story documents the rise and fall of the legendary recording studio founded by acclaimed producer Butch Vig and his partner Steve Marker, where they recorded Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, Death Cab For Cutie and, most importantly, Nirvana’s Nevermind. The film tracks the evolution of Smart Studios from its humble DIY beginnings as a glorified punk rock treehouse with free beer to the center of the alt-rock universe in […]
A LIFE IN PARTS: Q&A With Actor Bryan Cranston
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Bryan Cranston is arguably one of the greatest actors of the modern era. He will forever be known for his electrifying performance as Walter White, the mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher turned murderous, Machiavellian meth lord, on Breaking Bad, a show that many argue represents the pinnacle of television as an art form. He drew equally swooning critic’s notices for his indelible performance as Dalton Trumbo, a gifted screenwriter whose life and career was destroyed by the House Unamerican Activities Committee. In All The Way, Cranston uncannily channeled President Lyndon Johnson, who dragged […]
BOOKS: The Last American Ghandi Still Standing
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post originally published on October 4th, 2016. ESQUIRE: Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) is a Civil Rights icon and a Mt. Rushmore-worthy American hero. Time and again at the dawn of the 1960s, Lewis marched fearlessly into the maws of the Jim Crow South, through angry racist mobs and truncheon-wielding state troopers, armed with nothing more than the courage of the righteous and the unconditional love in his heart, and shed his own blood to shame this country into living up to its founding promise that “all men were created equal.” This remains a work in progress. At […]
BOOKS: We Have Nothing To Fear But Books Itself
Banned Books week starts Sunday. The barbarians are at the gate. RELATED: Top 10 Challenged Books Of 2015 RELATED: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Banned Books Week Survival Guide RELATED: If Your Book Hasn’t Been Banned, You’re Doing It Wrong
BOOKS: May The Road Rise With You
WASHINGTON POST: The first volume of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning landmark “Maus” landed 30 years ago, and ever since, I’ve wondered when I would encounter another epic historical memoir that, in stirring word and stark picture, might achieve some of the same power as that game-changing graphic novel. The closest American peer I’ve found to “Maus” has arrived. The final volume of Rep. John Lewis’s “March” trilogy is a milestone. This work is the last movement in Lewis’s personal symphony of civil-rights memories. Lewis [pictured, below right] might be a nonviolent protester, but in terms of delivering drama, the […]
DOWN WITH THE CLOWN: Author Steve Miller Spills The Faygo On Insane Clown Posse & Juggalos
BY MEGAN MATUZAK In 2011, the FBI and the DOJ issued a National Gang Threat assessment which designated the widely detested Insane Clown Posse’s fanbase of self-described Juggalos as a gang that was as dangerous as the Crips and the Bloods. The report cited violent lyrics, iconic symbols like the Hatchet Man and the fact that it seemed increasingly common for criminals to wear ICP shirts when they committed crimes. “Police departments across the country were already figuring that the Juggalos were easy targets, marks for their well-funded gang units to justify their existence,” writes Steve Miller [pictured, below right] […]
THE BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ BEFORE YOU DIE
Have you ever said, “I hate this dam job!” Unless you are a liar I am going to assume your answer to that question is “No shit.” Now you may be saying what the hell does any of this have to do with a book I should read. The answer is: everything. The book in question is called Post Office, Charles Bukowski’s screed against the drudgery of stupid meaningless work — work that does nothing but make other people more money than they need, or should want. Through his alter ego Henry Chanaski, Bukowski gives the middle finger to […]
THE BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ BEFORE YOU DIE
EDITOR’S NOTE: On the occasion of The Great Cormac McCarthy Twitter Death Hoax Of 2016, we are re-posting this 2015 appreciation. BY LUKE ROBERT HOPELY Cormac McCarthy writes spectral Western epics that both examine and embody (and, some would say, revel in) the savage beauty of man’s inhumanity to man. There are many Cormac McCarthy books you should read before you die, but if you only read one, make it Blood Meridian. This book does two things, and it does them with the same pitiless efficacy that makes his prose crackle. First, it gets its point across, and that […]
LET IT BE: A Q&A With ‘Mats Biographer Bob Mehr
BY JONATHAN VALANIA In the Amerindie rock underground of the mid-80s, The Replacements, along with Husker Du and REM, formed a troika of indie-rock royalty that produced some of the greatest music of that decade or any other. Nineteen eighty-four was their annus mirabilis. REM released Reckoning, and Husker Du released Zen Arcade and New Day Rising. The Replacements released Let It Be, which despite the co-opting of the Beatles song for its title was in fact their Beggars Banquet. All three soon signed major label deals with varying results. Husker Du lasted just two albums, the uneven Candy Apple […]
BOOKS: The Greatest Story Ever Told
My grandfather was born in 1900 and his life followed the historic trajectories and sociocultural contours of America in the 20th century — he weathered two world wars and the Great Depression and lived to tell. He was educated and well-read, a cement company executive who traveled widely on company business, clapping the backs of power in foreign lands — the Shah of Iran gave him an incredible wall-sized Persian rug, the ambassador of Mexico gave my grandmother a sterling silver tea set, etc. He taught Sunday School. Always voted Republican and subscribed to the National Review. He was […]
BOOKS: The Terminator
I was sitting in a lecture the other day about the population crisis we will be facing in the next few decades. By 2030, we will have over nine BILLION people, and apparently we are completely unprepared in almost every imaginable, and even unimaginable, way to handle the ramifications of this population explosion. It’s horrifying to think about, so it’s probably best to just ignore it, until we are in the midst of this unprecedented crisis. One man who hasn’t allowed himself the comfort of ignorance is Lawrence Cirelli, the author of the darkly comedic novel The Exit Broker. The […]
ZERO DARK THIRTY: A Q&A With Investigative Journalist & New Yorker Staff Writer Jane Mayer
BY JONATHAN VALANIA William S. Burroughs famously said “A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.” Cold comfort for the likes of Hillary Clinton who was widely derided back in 1998 for claiming there was “a vast right wing conspiracy” leveraging its colossal wealth and powers of persuasion to bring down the Clintons and the liberal progressive agenda they had come to represent (if not quite embody). Dark Money, the latest must-read by acclaimed investigative journalist and New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer, reveals overwhelming and incontrovertible evidence that Clinton was in fact right. And then some. […]
THE BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ BEFORE YOU DIE
BY CHARLIE TAYLOR In 1990, 22-year-old Christopher McCandless packed up his 1982 Datsun and embarked on an expedition through the Western United States that would ultimately cost him his life. McCandless, an unsettled individual with a spirit that needed to challenge any obstacles his mind could dream up, finished college in 1990 and appeared to be ready to join the never-ending assembly line of college students headed into professional oblivion. Seduced by the freedom and endless possibilities of the open road, McCandless shocked his parents by turning down the $25,000 fund given to him for his post-college pursuits and […]