BY SARA CORBETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES On a humid Wednesday in late June, as she waited to be summoned by a grand jury, 16-year-old Teresa Jeffs hitched up her navy blue prairie dress and hoisted herself into the crooked arms of a live oak tree that sits in front of the Schleicher County Courthouse in Eldorado, Tex. For a few minutes, she was not — as has been speculated about many of the young women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or F.L.D.S. — a possible child bride, or a sexual-abuse victim, or a […]
ALPHA OBAMA: Vive La France!
PARIS (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expected to spend just enough time in Paris on Friday for talks with the French president and a joint news conference, not a rousing speech like the one he delivered in Berlin. Most newspapers headlined Obama’s pending arrival, with the leftist daily Liberation giving a full front-page spread to “Obamania.” After Berlin, where Obama drew some 200,000 spectators for a speech Thursday, the conservative newspaper Le Figaro wrote that Obama is not looking to draw crowds in Paris “because he knows his huge popularity in our country could ill serve him with […]
LET ME COUNT THE WAYS: Why Pitchfork’s Review Of The New Dr. Dog Album Has Its Head Up Its Ass
[KEY: IAN COHEN’s Pitchfork review in black, JONATHAN VALANIA’s parsing in red] Dr. Dog have never released an album called Do You Like Rock Music? and I suppose that recent actions taken by British Sea Power ensure they never will. Among the dumbest opening lines in the history of rock criticism. If I was your editor, I would give you a ‘Do Over.’ But that question always feels implied in the Dr. Dog experience– just ask anyone who’s not picking up what this Philly fivesome is throwing down and is subsequently accused of not digging “real music, mannnnn.” And maybe […]
THE EARLY WORD: F*ck And Run
SHE & HIM: Why Do You Let Me Stay Here Tonite at the Troc with Freakwater!
HOT DOC: Network Lawsuits Shut Down Redlasso
To Our Loyal Friends and Users: We would like to thank you for your continued support of Redlasso. You have been essential to making Redlasso a household name online. Unfortunately, due to the legal actions taken against Redlasso by two networks, we are left with no alternative but to suspend access to our video search and clipping Beta site FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE. The networks have provided a big blow to the blogger community’s right to exercise the first amendment and comment on newsworthy events. It is anti-Web. During this service suspension, we will continue our conversations with content providers, […]
GAYDAR: My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult
BY AARON STELLA This week, Imma gonna tell ya a little somethin’ about me, a.k.a I’m going to start prattling on like a drunk blonde at a frat party, with a whole bunch of “No one understands me!” and “Oh my God, I love this song!” OK, not really, but what I’m about to tell you about my life usually redirects whatever the present conversation is to a relentless onslaught of who, what, where, when, why, and “what the fuck?” If you missed last week’s edition, check it out and get yourself up to speed. Alright, let’s get this […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Brick Upside The Head Of Truth
KILLADELPHIA: Tipsters Help Cops Nab Brick Slayer INQUIRER: Police yesterday arrested the man they said beat to death a 38-year-old landscaper with seven children last week in West Philadelphia and then made off with the victim’s wallet. The suspect is the man seen — with two small boys in tow — on a widely circulated surveillance video buying three fitted baseball caps during a shopping spree about an hour after Corey Moody was bashed on the head with a brick, police said. Billy Langley, 19, who police said has a record of violent crime, was arrested without incident about 5 […]
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: Apollo 14 Moonwalker Says Alien Visitations Been Covered Up For 60 Years
NEWS.COM: Former NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell – a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission — has stunningly claimed aliens exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions — but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades. Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’ He said supposedly real-life ET’s were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head. Chillingly, he […]
ROLL THE CREDITS: Ebert Closes The Balcony
BY JAMES DOOLITTLE Mom’s Italian. 100%. And while she could have poured the over-exuberant passion that is the genetic cross my people bear into anything obvious — food, language, Catholicism, music, Sophia Loren — she opted at an early age to funnel my genetic disposition into her love for the cinema. We’d go every week, right after church, our reward for the penance that was 10AM mass. And without cable television, without a VCR, my cinematic cravings were only sated on the homefront via the weekly sit-down with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Thankfully, then as now, they were accessible […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
ABSOLUTELY FAB: The Ting Tings, JBs, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER There was a time when radio, MTV, Rolling Stone and Beavis and Butthead were the kingmakers of tomorrow’s hitmakers. These days, of course, it is the blogs, MySpace buzz and the ubiquitous iPod TV ad that are the new deciders. Case in point: The Ting Tings, a stylish duo from the UK, and their sassy, big-bottomed punk-funk hit “Shut Up And Let Me Go,” currently wiggling in throbbing primary color perpetuity on a cable station near you. Even before the iPod ad put […]
SUN: Batman’s Mum & Sis Tried To Shake Him Down
THE SUN: Legal sources told The Sun the women said sister Sharon needed £100,000 to help her bring up her three children. They said Bale, 34, snubbed the plea and a row flared in his suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London’s West End. Welsh-born Bale was alleged to have “pushed and shoved” mum Jenny, 61, and Sharon, 41. But sources close to 6ft 2in Bale, who has another sister called Louise, said Jenny inflamed the situation by hurling insults about his wife Sibi, 38. A source close to the case said: Christian is a very wealthy young man and […]