BY ADAM BONANNI It’s certainly been a busy couple weeks for the music game genre. After Beatles: Rock Band dropped on 9/9/09, gamers are anticipating what could be a renewed interest in the genre, partially due to lack of new titles in the Rock Band or Guitar Hero franchises and, what this journalist can only imagine as the issue of plastic guitars and drum sets outnumbering bad ties in peoples’ closets. Almost overshadowed by the hype that can only be described as modern Beatle-mania, was the launch of Guitar Hero 5. Overshadowed, but not totally forgotten, it would seem Last […]
GLENN BECKISTAN: Lawyers Threaten Defamation Suit Against Web Site, But Still No Denial
ARS TECHNICA: The Communications Decency Act basically protects registrars and web hosts from liability for the content that people put up using such services, so the letters to the registrar aren’t so much a legal threat as an attempt to get the website owner’s contact info without a subpoena. And the trademark claims made at WIPO? Levy thinks they sound “preposterous.” But the possibility of a US defamation/libel suit against the anonymous site operator is a real one. Certainly, domain names alone “can be defamatory,” Levy says, pointing out that the first iteration of the site posed the “rape and […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
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 […]
THIS JUST IN: David Sedaris At The Keswick
New York Times best-selling author/speaker DAVID SEDARIS returns for an evening of readings from his own works as well as selections from authors he’s currently championing at the Keswick Theatre, Sun., Oct. 4 @ 7 PM. Known for his sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, DAVID SEDARIS has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. He is the author of Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice as well as collections of personal essays including Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, each of which became best-sellers. His […]
EARLY WORD: The Sound Of Young America Live!
The always excellent Sound Of Young America, heard locally on WHYY Fridays at 9PM, will be taping a show here in Philadelphia (featuring The Spinto Band, graphic novelist extraordinaire Charles Burns, comedian Kent Haines, and Robert Hicks, the director of the Mutter Museum) as part of the Fringe Festival. Look for our Q&A with TSOYA host Jessie Thorn, aka America’s Radio Sweetheart, coming soon to a Phawker near you! Wed. 9/16 10:00 PM Mainstage at the Adrienne 2030 Sansom Street Wheelchair Accessible $15.00 *This handsome poster is available for sale HERE, proceeds will help defray TSOYA Live travel costs.
THE DANGERS OF MAGICAL THINKING: Just Because There Is No Evidence That Glenn Beck Raped And Murdered A Girl In 1990 Doesn’t Prove He Didn’t
GLENNBECKRAPEDANDMURDEREDAYOUNGGIRLIN1990.COM: This site exists to try and help examine the vicious rumour that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990. We don’t claim to know the truth — only that the rumour floating around saying that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990 should be discussed. So we’re going to do our part to try and help get to the bottom of this. Why won’t Glenn Beck deny these allegations? Notice: This site is parody/satire. We assume Glenn Beck did not rape and murder a young girl in 1990, although we haven’t yet seen […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
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 […]
UNCANNY: Madonna’s Daughter Looks Just Like Mom
DAILY MAIL: Trussed up in white wedding dress and veil, Madonna’s daughter Lourdes recreates her mother’s famous wedding dress pose in the Eighties hit song Like A Virgin. The 12-year-old wears lashings of red lipstick and has the iconic beauty spot painted above her lip. It is taken from what is believed to be a second version of Madge’s Celebration video, which will include fans dancing to the song, to be released next week. MORE
Incendiary 9/11-On-Steroids Ad Widely Condemned; Philly International Joins ‘Trusted Traveler’ Program
[Click HERE to enlarge] NEW YORK TIMES: The World Wildlife Fund on Tuesday condemned an unauthorized advertisement that depicted dozens of planes heading into Lower Manhattan, with a tag line reading, “The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People Than 9/11.” The ad had been pitched to the Brazilian branch of the World Wildlife Fund by an advertising agency and rejected, said Steve Ertel, a spokesman for the group. “It was a concept to our office in Brazil and it was rejected. From that point, we have not been able to get a hold of the agency to find out how […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
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 […]
ADBUST: WTF Were They Thinking?
Pepsi actually paid somebody good money to do this? Reminds us of that dream date with Madonna back around the time of the Sex book that went horribly awry. Let’s just say it left a bad taste in our mouth.* *Just to be clear, we were being facetious. We have never had a dream date, nor any other kind of date, with Madonna, nor has she ever urinated on or in us. We apologize in advance for any distress this misunderstanding might have created.
BUSTED: What Ever Happened To Annie Leibovitz?
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Despite being a compulsive perfectionist whose shoots cost a fortune to produce, Leibovitz was very much in demand. People spoke of a fabled “contract for life” from Condé Nast, thought to bring her as much as $5 million annually. (The estimate didn’t seem far-fetched; a decade ago, the Times reported that Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse had instructed Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter not to “nickel and dime” Leibovitz over the issue of an extra quarter-million dollars in her contract.) She was said to earn a day rate of $250,000 just to set foot in a studio […]
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: Suing Illegal File-Sharers Back To The Stone Age Is Perfectly Constitutional
[Image via NCSC] ZDNET: Jammie Thomas-Rasset was hit with a $1.9 million verdict for filesharing 24 songs — roughly $80,000 per song. Is that even constitutional? Thomas-Rasset’s lawyers filed an appeal saying it’s not. Friday, the Justice Department weighed in with an opinion that it is. Under the Copyright Act’s statutory damages provision, the jury had a wide berth to assign damages – anywhere from $750 to $30,000 for standard violations and from $30,000 to $150,000 for “willful violations.” The argument is basically that such high numbers are punitive in nature and punitive damages need to bear some resemblance to […]