NEW YORK TIMES: CHICAGO — It took more than six years for prosecutors to get the R&B star R. Kelly into court on charges of child pornography. It only took a few hours for a jury to declare him not guilty on all 14 counts. Mr. Kelly had been accused of making a 27-minute sex tape with an under-age female. But a high-powered defense team convinced the jury of nine men and three women that the identity of the girl was not conclusive. As the verdicts were being read on Friday, the singer started crying and whispering “Thank you Jesus, […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
RADIO TIMES Presidential candidates have been touting green collar jobs as part of their plans to reduce energy dependence and buoy the economy through the creation of new jobs. We talk about the challenges and realities of creating a “green collar”workforce with KEVIN DOYLE, founder of Green Economy, a Boston-based workforce development consulting firm, and BRACKEN HENDRICKS, of the Center for American Progress. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3 THIS AMERICAN LIFE Prom While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town, destroying about a third of […]
GIMME SHELTER: Sheriffs Begin Dig At Manson Ranch
HELTER SKELTER: Police raid Spahn Ranch, Death Valley, California, 1969 LOS ANGELES TIMES: PANAMINT SPRINGS, Calif. — A posse of Inyo County sheriff’s investigators and forensic experts this morning began digging for human remains at a remote ranch in Death Valley National Park once used as a hangout for the notorious Charles Manson family. Armed with ground-penetrating radar, spades and a cadaver dog named Buster, the 20-member group’s mission was to wring every fact they could out of the sandy soil at the ranch where Manson and his followers holed up in 1969 after the massacre of pregnant actress Sharon […]
Q&A: Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby
As promised, sexy time Q&A with sexologist Susana Mayer, host of the Erotic Literary Salon. PHAWKER: So, just to bring the reader up to speed: Your name is Susana Mayer, you are 60-years-young, you live here in Philadelphia, you are the creator and host of The Erotic Literary Salon and you are a sexologist. What exactly is a sexologist? SUSANA MAYER: It is the study of how we give and receive pleasure. PHAWKER: And you were telling me that you are working on your doctoral dissertation… SUSANA MAYER: Yes. The working title is, In Pursuit Of Sexual Pleasure Reframing Obsolagnium: […]
MANSCAPE: Papa Cries, Sinatra Licks, O’Reilly Cusses
Philly sports fans know plenty about anguished tears, but on last night’s 6 p.m. Action News broadcast, Gary Papa shed tough guy tears while reading a report about Eagles coach Andy Reid visiting sick kids at CHoP. So verklempt was ol’ Gary — a cancer survivor and father of two — that he actually couldn’t go on and had to throw it back to Jim Gardner, who made it all better with a joke about how Papa’s breakdown would surely be on YouTube within minutes. Sure enough, DMac comes through with the clip…. The Francis Albert Sinatra commemorative 42-cent stamp […]
EDITORIAL: Lifting The Veil On Black Islam In The 215
BY JEFF DEENEY Back at the beginning of April I spent an afternoon hanging out with Saddiq Abdul Jabbar and Tunji Turner from the Germantown Masjid which, according to the Daily News, has become embroiled in an international controversy over its decision to not provide a burial service for a Muslim man killed during the botched bank robbery that left police officer Stephen Liczbinski dead. The City Paper was doing a three part series called “Politics Lost” focusing on what impact the impending Pennsylvania primary election might be having on some of the more isolated neighborhoods in the city. They […]
SPIKOL: You Say I’m Crazy, Like It’s A BAD Thing
HUFFINGTON POST: Yesterday the New York Times explored the burgeoning “mad pride” movement, which aims to fight the stigma of serious mental illness like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and even, in some cases, celebrate it. [C]heck out the mad pride movement’s most hilarious, if unofficial, spokesperson Liz Spikol’s blog The Trouble With Spikol, which chronicles her struggle with bipolar disorder. Or watch two of Liz Spikol’s many YouTube videos: First, she tells an abbreviated version of her life story. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: In the YouTube video, Liz Spikol is smiling and animated, the light glinting off her large hoop […]
ARTSY: The Filth & The Fury
THE INDEPENDENT: John Currin is a shooting star of American figurative painting whose trajectory to fame and riches peaked gloriously five years ago with a retrospective at three major world museums. But he has some explaining to do. The 46-year-old has since controversially switched galleries, performed a curious vanishing trick and now… well, his latest flesh-on-canvas efforts would make Hugh Hefner blush. Indeed, he now acknowledges that several factors contributed to what was indeed a long dry period after the retrospective – a time when, he says, he was also depressed and experiencing a disconcerting “impotence with the brush.” Currin […]
EARLY WORD: Cinco De Miro
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WORTH REPEATING: As It Was Written…
The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson The following essay was originally published in Scanlan’s Monthly, vol. 1, no. 4, June 1970. The text of this essay was taken from the book The Great Shark Hunt, Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1, Strange Tales from a Strange Time by Hunter S. Thompson (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979). I got off the plane around midnight and no one spoke as I crossed the dark runway to the terminal. The air was thick and hot, like wandering into a steam bath. Inside, people hugged each other and shook hands…big grins […]
MANSCAPE: Digital Bro Hang & Geator’s Heater
Gadabout, the Details mag blog for the modern man-about-town, says Facebook is for pansies in general, but if you’re “pokin’” you’re dead to them: In a few short years, Facebook has leaked out of the college dormitory like some rare tropical disease and has begun infecting grown men in disturbingly vast numbers. The fastest-growing demographic among Facebook’s 64 million users is those over 25. More than half of MySpace’s 110 million users are older than 35. The hosts, once infected, exhibit a tendency to “superpoke” each other, hyperventilate over friend counts, and share their thoughts about the latest episode of […]
RIP: Albert Hofmann, Father Of LSD, Dead At 102
EROWID: Albert Hofmann passed away at his home at 9am on Tuesday Apr 29, 2008 of a heart attack at the age of 102. He will be missed. Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland in 1906. He graduated from the University of Zürich with a degree in chemistry in 1929 and went to work for Sandoz Pharmaceutical in Basel, Switzerland. With the laboratory goal of working towards isolation of the active principles of known medicinal plants, Hofmann worked with Mediterranean squill (Scilla maritima) for several years, before moving on to the study of Claviceps purpurea (ergot) and ergot alkaloids.Over […]
CONFESSIONAL: Pope Regrets Misspent Hitler Youth
BBC: Speaking at a youth rally in New York, he said his teenage years had been “marred by a sinister regime”. The Pope was a Hitler Youth member as a teen, usual for young Germans at the time, and was conscripted by the German army near the end of World War II. As a teenager, the pope was forced to join the Hitler Youth and he was conscripted into the German army towards the end of World War II, serving briefly in an anti-aircraft corps. He deserted the German army towards the end of the war and was briefly held […]