Jonathan — I’m coming to Philadelphia tomorrow, Saturday, October 11th. I’ll be visiting four different neighborhoods and talking to folks about what we can do together to change this country. See the details below and RSVP for the event in your neighborhood. Hope to see you there, Barack P.S. — Here’s the invitation for the event: This Saturday, October 11th, please join Barack Obama for rallies in Philadelphia, where he will talk about his vision for creating the kind of change we need. Change We Need Rallies with Barack Obama Saturday, October 11th Progress Plaza 1501 N. Broad Street Mayfair […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR The third season of The Sarah Silverman Program began this week on Comedy Central; because Silverman intentionally goes for the long bomb on sensitive topics — religion, abortion and sexual predators are — the show has become a kind of comedy litmus test. MORE PREVIOUSLY: This is something else we’re gonna do: buck the Calendar Journalism school of arts coverage. And buck it hard. We don’t work for the publicists, so why should we work on their clock? Who fuckin’ died and made them Elvis? Sure, Jesus Is Magic came out on DVD eons ago, but all copies […]
TONIGHT: TV On The Radio
Now playing on Phawker Radio! (right after the new Girl Talk) TVOTR plays the Electric Factory tonight!
GAYDAR: Sarah, You CANNOT ‘Pray Away The Gay’
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, an organization fighting right wing lies and the “ex-gay” fraud, recently urged Sarah Palin to “come out” about her church’s beliefs about ex-gay ministries. Palin’s church supported an ex-gay conference that was held in Anchorage on September 10th, 2008. According to TWO, Palin agrees that homosexuality can be cured through prayer—so every god-fearing Christian needs to join the crusade. What Palin’s church and other religious sects affiliated with ex-gay ministries withhold from the public is how few homosexuals have been “cured” and how many have run […]
CINEMA: Lies And The Lying Liars That Tell Them
BODY OF LIES (2008, directed by Ridley Scott, 128 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Starting with a minor quibble, what is up with the title of this latest action thriller from director Ridley Scott, Body of Lies? While Leonardo DiCaprio plays a wily C.I.A. agent gallivanting around the Middle East on the hunt for terrorists, the plot never pivots around bodies, lies nor a body of lies. It is as if Warner Brothers used a title generating computer program to spit out vaguely legalistic titles and viola, “Body of Lies” was spit out. All who agreed said “Aye”. […]
FREE SPEECH AIN’T FREE: When U Talk About Big Oil
Dear Jonathan, Did you notice the ads after [Tuesday] night’s presidential debate? ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby. But you know what happened last week? ABC refused to run our Repower America ad — the ad that takes on this same oil and coal lobby. I sent a letter asking ABC to reconsider their decision and put our ad on the air, but still we haven’t heard back more than a week later. I think they need to hear from all of us. Can you help? Please send a message to ABC and tell them […]
MCCAINGRY: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
? HUFFINGTON POST: Also this week, Brave New Films released a new video focused on McCain’s temper, featuring “original interviews with former U.S. Senator from Arizona Dennis DeConcini, former Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Jon Hinz, former Arizona Republic Editor Pat Murphy, and Eleanor Apodaca, sister of a Vietnam POW/MIA soldier. All four attest to McCain’s explosive anger, three of them with personal anecdotes.” MORE MICHAEL KINSLEY: “McCain immediately turned to the woman and said between clenched teeth: ‘DON’T TOUCH ME.’ The woman started to explain…McCain interrupted her: ‘DON’T TOUCH ME,’ he repeated viciously. The woman again tried to explain. […]
THE EARLY WORD: Rufus Is A Tit Man
Valentine’s Day Performance with Rufus Wainwright and Special Guest Martha Wainwright Added to Kimmel Center 2008-09 Season Tickets on Sale Monday, October 13, 2008 at 10am! Genre-bending vocalist Rufus Wainwright will make his Kimmel Center debut with special guest singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright for a Valentine’s Day performance in Verizon Hall on Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 8pm. The son of folk music icons Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, Rufus has been performing since the age of 13, and has toured extensively both as a solo artist as well as alongside Tori Amos, Sting and Guster. Rufus Wainwright will showcase […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Schlep-Rock The Vote’ Edition
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 […]
TONITE: Walk Like A Man, Talk Like A Girl
[Photo by ANDREW STRASSER] BY DAVE ALLEN Talk about getting your peanut butter in my chocolate: Lil Mama rhyming about her lipgloss mashed-up with the hammering of Metallica‘s “One.” Youngbloodz declaring that he don’t give a fuck to the smooth organ strains of Procol Harum. The dance music of Girl Talk, AKA Gregg Gillis, is so loaded with these types of bizarre combinations that you could almost measure it in terms of WTFs instead of BPMs, but Gillis’ skills in keeping the grooves seamless behind the constantly-changing samples makes his latest, Feed the Animals, an ear-worming winner (now playing on […]
THE SMEAR COMES HERE: Philly Booking Agency Takes Heat For ‘Palling Around With Terrorists’
DAN GROSS: Evil Twin Booking, a West Philly-based talent agency, has been inundated with e-mails and phone calls related to its representation of former Weather Underground radical Bill Ayers. Gov. Sarah Palin has recently ramped up criticism of Sen. Barack Obama‘s ties to Ayers, who, along with his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, and other members of the radical group bombed various government buildings in the ’70s. Obama and Ayers, now a University of Illinois professor, served on a nonprofit foundation’s board together and Ayers once hosted a party for Obama. We’re told that Evil Twin Booking/Lost Film Fest partners Scott Beibin and […]
PALINTOLOGY: Species, Boobus Americana
[Tim Russo: The McCain-Palin Mob] Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. Many have, however, lost elections that way.
GO BAMA: The Man Comes Around
PHILADELPHIA – Sen. Barack Obama will barnstorm the city of Philadelphia on Saturday, making four stops within the city. At each stop, Sen. Obama will discuss his plans to strengthen our economy, lower taxes on Pennsylvania’s middle class families and give tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States. The trip comes just days after Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline, completing a three-month effort by Obama-Biden organizers that saw the gap between registered Democrats and Republicans grow to nearly 1.2 million. The campaign now turns its attention to generating volunteers for what will be an unprecedented Get-Out-The-Vote effort. […]