FRESH AIR Once known mostly for his sweetly tentative portrayal of awkward, sexually anxious teenager George-Michael Bluth on the cult TV hit Arrested Development, Michael Cera became a bona fide movie star in 2007 with his winningly geeky performances in the hit comedies Juno and Superbad. As an actor, Time magazine’s Richard Corliss notes this week, Cera “has the gift of appearing both wise beyond his years and not at all happy about it … as if he’d received a vision of what life has in store for him, and it worries him sick.” Next up for Cera: Nick and […]
THIS JUST IN: The Boss Will Rock Superbowl
THIS JUST IN: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will play the half-time slot at the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, snagging the most-watched musical showcase of the year, according to the organizers. This year, more than 148 million viewers in the U.S. watched Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play at the championship game of American football, the National Football League said on Sunday. The Super Bowl, scheduled for February 1, will be televised by NBC. MORE ALSO: Federal regulators on Sunday night were pressing for the sale of yet another troubled bank — this time, the Wachovia Corporation […]
TRAGIC: ScarJo Married Somebody Other Than ME!
HORROR YEARBOOK: Ryan Reynolds, best known to horror fans for killing the Blade franchise, and running around shirtless in the Amityville remake officially married Scarlett Johansson Saturday confirms US magazine. “The wedding took place Saturday evening at a remote wilderness resort outside Vancouver. Guests included Scarlett’s mother, Melanie Sloan, and her brother, Adrian Johansson.” HoHansson, 23, and Reynolds, 31, have been dating since 2007 and announced their engagement on May 5th. Reynolds also received our Hot Stud of Horror award on Feb 2nd 2007. MORE THE GOOD NEWS IS NATALIE PORTMAN IS SINGLE AGAIN: In Touch can exclusively reveal that […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
[Illustration by JAY BEVENOUR] FRESH AIR Australian singer Nick Cave and and his band, the Bad Seeds, are best known for angry, twisted, ballad-like lyrics. Their 2008 album, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, was inspired, in part, by the Biblical story of Lazarus. It is Cave’s 14th studio album. In an article about Cave in Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty writes, “Over the years Cave’s songwriting has become more intricate and challenging, almost literary in its ambitions. He’s one of the few artists in rock & roll, or any medium, really, who’s managed to get better with age.” RADIO TIMES Hour 1 We […]
EARLY WORD: Hang On To Your Lego
American Swedish History Museum Battle of the Bands Building Challenge Featuring: The Spinto Band, The Sw!ms, National Eye, The Brakes Thursday, October 16 from 4-8 pm 1900 Pattison Avenue in South Philadelphia (near the Sports Complex) See your favorite bands design and build sculptures made from LEGO ® bricks at the ASHM. Bands scheduled to get in on the building action include The Spinto Band, The Sw!ms, National Eye, and The Brakes. Museum visitors can watch band members build from 4-7 pm, then vote for a “People’s Choice Award” for their favorite creation and see prizes given out around 7:30 […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
MIDAS TOUCH: Santogold, TLA, Tuesday Night [Photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY JONATHAN VALANIA There is an old, cruel joke that goes: Those that can’t do, teach. The local version, factoring in Philadelphia’s Don’t-Call-Us-The-Sixth-Borough inferiority complex, goes something like: Those who can’t make it in New York settle for Philly. Well-worn from overuse, this canard tends to rub locals the wrong way, especially the city’s creative class, so it was an awkward moment when Philly native Santogold, AKA Santi White, daughter of John Street bundler Ron White, made a point of announcing to the near-capacity crowd at the TLA Tuesday night […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BLISSED OUT: My Bloody Valentine, Roseland Ballroom, NYC, Monday Night BY JOHN “Phawker Tech Guy” REFANO They had arena sized amp rigs – I counted at least 12 speaker cabinets and 8 amplifiers for the 4 piece band. Brutal. The light show was intense. My eyes were literally tearing up. They had some great background visuals, but the strobes were what was killer. It added to the performance though. Kevin and Belinda don’t have much for stage presence, as could be expected. The rhythm section, Debbie Googe and Colm O Ciosoig, put a little more physicality into it. I don’t […]
EARLY WORD: The Buena Obama Social Club
Michael T. Regan is, as you may well know, the City Paper’s staff photographer. He is also a friend of Phawker. Astute readers will recall his excellent Tom Waits photo essay (with wry commentary from local filmmaker Jon Michals) which ran here earlier this summer. On Sunday, he will be unveiling photos from a recent trip to the sultry, forbidden (for Americanos, anyway) land of Cuba. Michael tells us there will be food, music and it’s all for a good cause — kinda like Cuba, without the failed Marxism and odious totalitarianism: A portion of the proceeds will benefit Urban […]
INSTA-REVIEW: Dear Science
Now playing on Phawker Radio! BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT It’s good to hear a band make something worthwhile out of the scrapheap of Yamaha DX-7 synths and Linn drum machines that was the ’80s. Whether sounding like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on human growth hormone on “Halfway Home” or INXS with the shades pulled back and a window opened on “Crying,” human hands firmly guide the mouse. Unlike Gnarls Barkley, another practitioner of Silicon Soul, there’s a muscular sexuality at the core of TV’s productions. Like mid-period Roxy Music, you can take this band to a fancy restaurant […]
EARLY WORD: Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santogold
Santogold plays the TLA tomorrow, details after the jump…
EVERYTHING MUST GO: How To Sell Your Personal Shitpile Of ‘Toxic Debt’ To The Taxpayers Of America
[Click form to activate Internets] NEW YORK TIMES: Stocks fell sharply and oil prices suddenly spiked on Monday as investors anxiously waited for Washington lawmakers to hash out the details of the biggest government bailout in history — a politically fraught process that will create a new slate of winners and losers on Wall Street. That uncertainty, about a shaken financial system still in flux, appeared to spook investors away from assets tied directly to the health of the American government. The dollar dropped sharply against the euro, and oil prices jumped, closing up more than $16 a barrel. The […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR On Sept. 21, the AMC series Mad Men became the first basic cable program to win an Emmy Award for outstanding drama. Executive producer Matthew Weiner and actors Jon Hamm and John Slattery discuss the madness of Madison Avenue circa 1960. Weiner is a former writer and producer for HBO’s The Sopranos. RADIO TIMES Last week’s events on Wall Street forced the candidates to focus on the the issues, their proposals for tacking complex problems and and how their approaches might differ. Today on Radio Times we talk about presidential election politics with MATTHEW CONTINETTI who writes for […]