The Good News Flower Hour #13 The week that was in just five minutes! Hosted by a stoned daisy with the obligatory voice of gawd. Funny. Sad. Good for you. Tastes great, less filling.
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
CRAZY RHYTHMS: Making Time, Pure, 2:34 AM, Saturday [Photo: JONATHAN VALANIA]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Marianne Faithfull released her first album, 1964’s As Tears Go By, when she was 17. The album was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the the Rolling Stones. Faithfull dated Jagger throughout the 1960s and became a fixture on the rock and roll party scene. After struggling with an addiction to heroin which left her living on the streets, Faithfull recovered and released several acclaimed albums, including Before the Poison and Kissin’ Time. She has also appeared onstage and in films, and she wrote her autobiography, Faithfull in 1994. Her most recent album — her 22nd […]
OPERA TAWK: Q&A With Bad-Ass Tenor Jason Collins
BY DAVE ALLEN Opera might be stereotyped as stuffy and uninteresting, but sex, violence and mayhem have always been part of the medium. Alban Berg’s 1925 opera Wozzeck takes these traditional elements and frames them, to startling effect, in a score of dissonant but sensual and compelling music. It’s a work that has never fallen easy on the ears of American audiences, but this weekend, Philly’s famed but deeply traditional Curtis Institute of Music, in a co-production with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Kimmel Center Presents, is putting on this revolutionary work of early 20th-century modernism and, as a […]
WORTH REPEATING: He Hit Me & It Felt Like A Kiss
E: Chris Brown‘s manager, Tina Davis [pictured, below right], who was rumored to be the woman whose text message played a role in the Feb. 8 altercation between Brown and Rihanna, has flat-out denied, via her attorney, ever having had a romantic relationship with the R&B star. “The relationship between Ms. Davis and Mr. Brown is that of manager and client,” declared attorney Marshall B. Grossman in a written statement issued Wednesday. “There has never been any other relationship. The rumors in circulation are false. There are no emails between Ms. Davis and Mr. Brown of the type which have […]
THIS JUST IN: Tom Waits Goes Gold, Goes Hollywood
[Photo by MICHAEL T. REGAN] TOM WAITS latest 3 CD set—Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards—has been certified gold by the RIAA® and will be released on vinyl by Anti- Records in the not-too-distant future. He has also collaborated with Kool Keith on N.A.S.A.’s recently released The Spirit of Apollo, which also features such diverse artists as David Byrne, Karen O and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. As for new material, Waits and his long time collaborator and wife, Kathleen Brennan, have begun writing new songs, which they plan to record this summer for an upcoming CD. (No release date at this time.) […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
SOUND OPINIONS Van Morrison recorded and released his masterpiece Astral Weeks 41 years ago, and to celebrate he released a live version of the album. This gave Jim and Greg a perfect opportunity to look back at Astral Weeks with a Sound Opinions Classic Dissection. Astral Weeks didn’t produce huge hits, but as Jim and Greg explain, this record is unique from any other in Van Morrison’s collection, and in fact, in rock history. It melds rock, blues, folk and jazz in such a way that makes it hard to define. The jazz musicians who contributed to this sound were […]
CINEMA: La Dolce Vita Turns 50
LA DOLCE VITA (1960, directed by Federico Fellini, 174 minutes, Italy) On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Dan Buskirk wrote: Subject: Re: Slacking… Sorry for this undesired sabbatical, I got frozen out of Tuesday night THE WATCHMAN screening and missed the midnight screening last night. Will be back on the horse very soon. -db Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 13:14:59 -0500 Subject: Re: Slacking… From: jonathan.valania To: dbuskirk1 Grrrr. You can pay penance by giving me an appreciation of La Dolce Vita on the eve of its 50th Anniversary for this weekend. – – – – – – […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #12 The week that was in just five minutes, told by a stoned daisy with the obligatory voice of God. [cough, cough] And if you haven’t see it already, please check out Jon Stewart’s CNBC smackdown after the jump, it is quite possibly fake journalism’s finest hour eight minutes.
We Know It’s Only Mock N’ Roll But We Like It
WIRED: For a self-described “semi-retired” legend, Christopher Guest sure has a crazy schedule. The writer, director, actor and musician, most famous for his portrayal of knob-twiddling metalhead Nigel Tufnel in the 1984 cinematic spoof This Is Spinal Tap, is preparing for Spinal Tap reunion tours to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movie’s release. He’s also been busy in the studio, emerging with six or seven new Tap tunes beneath his belt as well as an instrumental chill-out effort called Memories of Summers as a Child, released last month, which Guest recorded with childhood pals David Nichtern and CJ Vanston […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Bible scholar Bart Ehrman says that the Gospels are at odds with each other on important points regarding the life, death and divinity of Jesus. In his new book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) Ehrman examines how these contradictions affect our understanding of the historical Jesus — and of the authors of the Gospels. Ehrman is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of more than a dozen books, including Misquoting Jesus and God’s Problem. JOHN POWERS: Near the end […]
HEAR YE: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Now playing on Phawker Radio! At the Barbary May 6th! “…pitch-perfect noise pop, sounding like it’s 1991 all over again. Impenetrable fuzz and fey mannerisms? Check. Superchunk-like melody? You got it. Can’t miss.” – Dusted “…just screams for continuous replay, as the catchy boy/girl harmonies wonderfully gel with the jangly, distorted guitars that echoes early My Bloody Valentine and Black Tambourine.” – Yellow Stereo “If dreamy, ’80s-sounding indie pop is your thing, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart have your number in a big way.” – Time Out NY *** RICHARD NIXON: Does NOT Like Faggy Dope Movies YOUTUBE: […]
REVIEW: The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Anybody else bother watching Jimmy Fallon’s debut last night? I did and I’ll never get that hour back — and it will be sorely missed when the end comes and I am raging against the dying of the light. First problem: Fallon’s ‘This is a pity date’ attitude. Obviously trying to lower the bar of expectation, Fallon did the whole show like he was walking on eggshells. Message: Don’t be too hard on me, I’m scared, it’s dark and there’s wolves after me. Opening monologue/stand-up? Laugh-free and utterly forgettable. The second bit, Slow-Jamming The News, wherein Fallon […]