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 […]
SPITZER AGONISTES: Vanity Fair Investigating Whether Or Not Client #9 Was Set Up By Wall Street
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] GAWKER: The idea that Eliot Spitzer’s downfall was engineered by the financial industry whose profits he threatened with regulation has made the rounds on the internet for a while. Now Vanity Fair is siccing two investigative reporters on the story. Gawker has learned that Vanity Fair‘s Craig Unger and John Connolly are currently looking into the prospect that the banking and financial interests that Spitzer took on during his tenures as attorney general and governor of New York tipped off the feds to Spitzer’s proclivities and launched the investigation. MORE PREVIOUSLY: INJUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Was The Spitzer […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
ON THE COVER CP: Rapper Amanda Blank: coquette or queen-bee? A.D. Amorosi would have us believe she’s on the verge of stardom, and people with massive cred — Naeem Juwan of Spank Rock, Santigold, Diplo — are getting behind her upcoming album. The rap game a producer’s art form that needs MCs to keep it in the spotlight, and Blank rhymes over Spank Rock’s beats with impressive fervor. Nerves have gotten the best of her in the past, though; does she have what it takes it to break through? If only she were a little more confident, all this may […]
BREAKING: Beastie Boy Adam Yauch Has Cancer
NEW YORK TIMES: Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys announced Monday, by way of a homemade video placed without fanfare on the band’s Web site, that he would be receiving treatment for cancer and that as a result the group would cancel some future shows and push back the release of a new album. He did not give specifics of the veteran hip-hop group’s plans in the 3 minute 23 second video. Its next scheduled appearance is at the All Points West Festival in Jersey City on July 31. MORE EDITOR’S NOTE: The following ran last summer on Phawker… ILL […]
Walter Cronkite, Godfather Of Anchormen, Dead At 92
NEW YORK TIMES: Walter Cronkite, who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America, died Friday at his home in New York. He was 92. From 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives. He became something of a national institution, with an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice and a […]
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: DN Pays Tribute To Swells
BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH FOR THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS: … But what I’ll remember most is the sarcastic encouragement Swells gave an intern for no other reason than that he believed in me. And oh the trouble he gave me. When I let slip that I wasn’t into Britney Spears or the Monkees, I was doomed. The next week, I was the target of a piece in the Guardian about his attempts to educate me about music: Undaunted by the massive task before me, I then proceeded to lecture Tad . . . on just how . . . extraordinarily […]
PHOTOSHOP SLANDER: Obama Ain’t A Dawg
Meredith Walusek: G.M.A. President Obama Butt Glance???
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 […]
ON THE INTERNETS: The Astronomical Cost Of Free
The first ever YouTube, starring YouTube co-creator Jawed Karim, is incredibly lame. Nonetheless, it has been viewed 805,990 times. THE TELEGRAPH: Innumerable jaded web entrepreneurs will tell you how easy it is to get thousands of people to glance at a site, but how tortuous it is to get people to stick around or even come back again the following day. Not only do you have to fulfill a desire that people didn’t even realise that they had, but it has to be done with such style and panache that your service becomes indispensable. While the internet may have dismantled […]
HAGIOGRAPHY: Fast, Cheap & Out Of Control
[Image via THE SMOKING GUN] NEW YORK TIMES: So that’s how Michael Jackson’s family wants him to be remembered: as a healer, a good Samaritan, a breaker of racial and cultural barriers, a hard-working entertainer, a childlike spirit, a product of Motown and a sensitive, beleaguered soul. “Being judged, being ridiculed–how much pain can you take?” said a tearful Marlon Jackson. Mr. Jackson’s uptempo, adult side (the dance steps, the rhythms, the self-defining images, the megahits about paternity suits, monsters and gang wars) was only glimpsed on video. For this moment, he was portrayed as saint, showman and near-martyr, and […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Sarah Palin’s abrupt resignation from her position as Governor of Alaska has sparked widespread speculation. Michael Carey, former editorial page editor and current columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, discusses popular reaction in the state to Palin’s announcement. RELATED: [ABC’s] Snow also asked Palin whether, if she runs for president, she could avoid the “political blood sport” she cited as among the reasons she wanted to leave office. “I don’t think it will be the day after day after day of ethics violation charges that are frivolous, that are ridiculous. I think on a national level your department […]
DEAD MAN TALKING: Q&A With Tom Moon, Author Of 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Full disclosure: Tom Moon got me into the business, hiring me on as a freelance music writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he served as pop music critic par excellence from 1988 to 2004. During that time he was also a regular contributor to GQ, Rolling Stone, Spin, Vibe, Esquire and he is currently a music critic for NPR’s All Things Considered. Three and a half years ago he began work on a frighteningly ambitious record buyer’s guide called 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, published by Workman Publishing in late 2008. […]