UPDATE: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia is guilty of serious failings in the Beslan school siege in which about 330 people died in 2004. It says officials failed to take action to prevent the siege. The operation to end it and the investigation that followed were also strongly criticised. In the siege, Chechen rebels took more than 1,000 hostages, mostly children. It ended when Russian forces stormed the building. Survivors say the troops used excessive force. No Russian official has been held responsible for the high number of deaths, which included 186 children. MORE […]
NAOMI KLEIN: Culture Jamming Trump’s Brand
THE INTERCEPT: for the first time in history, the president of the United States is a fully commercialized Superbrand, with family members who are best understood as spin-off brands. From an ethics perspective, this is as swampy as it gets, since the Trump dynasty is already profiting significantly from the presidency, whether from the free publicity it is getting for properties that have been transformed into White House satellites, or simply because the Trump brand name is repeated in the global press about a zillion times a day. More worrying are the many opportunities for backdoor lobbying and influence peddling […]
STAND-UP COMIC Q&A: Charlie Murphy’s Law
EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the sad passing of Charlie Murphy we present this encore edition of our 2014 interview with the comedian. Goodnight Mr. Murphy, wherever you are. BY JONATHAN VALANIA The first rule about interviewing comedian Charlie Murphy is DO NOT ASK WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED WITH DAVE CHAPPELLE. The second rule is much the same, as is the third. Unfortunately, I didn’t figure that out until it was too late. Live and learn. Judging by his reaction to the Chappelle inquiry, I chose not bring up my other hot button question: What the hell ever happened to your […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: On Nov. 18, 1978, an itinerant preacher, faith healer and civil rights activist named the Rev. Jim Jones led more than 900 of his followers to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid at their Jonestown settlement in the jungle of Guyana. Nearly 40 years later, questions still linger regarding the Jonestown massacre and the man who inspired it. Journalist Jeff Guinn details how Jones captivated his followers in his new book, The Road to Jonestown. He calls Jones a “tremendous performer” who exhibited “the classic tendencies of the demagogue.” Guinn says Jones, who founded Peoples Temple […]
BLACK ANGELS: I’d Kill For Her
From the new LP ‘Death Song,’ out April 21st on Partisan Records. Black Angels play Union Transfer on May 4th with A Place To Bury Strangers.
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: An award-winning New York Times reporter Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal reveals the dangerous, expensive, and dysfunctional American healthcare system, and tells us exactly what we can do to solve its myriad of problems. It is well documented that our healthcare system has grave problems, but how, in only a matter of decades, did things get this bad? Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn’t just explain the symptoms; she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. Rosenthal spells out in clear and practical terms exactlyhow to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and […]
BEING THERE: John Mayer @ Wells Fargo Center
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER/KOALA PHOTOGRPHY There is a certain kind of concert review you see from time to time wherein the too-cool-for-school critic goes to some obviously lame concert with the intention of trashing it and comes away humbled by the sheer humanity of, say, fans of the Dave Matthews Band. In the interest of full disclosure I went to see John Mayer at the Wells Fargo Center Friday night fully expecting to write the exact opposite of that kind of review afterwards, i.e. I was planning on really laying into him from on high. And I still may! But […]
Q&A With Boss Hog Frontwoman Cristina Martinez
BY JOSH PELTA-HELLER There’s a die-hard demographic of ‘90s rock fans that will recall the cannonball impact of Boss Hog, the sloppy, ragged swagger of wife-and-husband blues-punk power-couple Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer. After dropping a handful of albums and EPs to the delight of college rock radio listeners everywhere that decade, the band disappeared for 17 years. Spencer and Martinez became parents. They got day jobs. Who knows, maybe they moved to the suburbs. To hear her tell it, sure: they may have grown up some. But they never grew out of their passion for the garage, and […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: Being Alec Baldwin
FRESH AIR: Alec Baldwin has been keeping busy lately. The star of the animated film The Boss Baby has a new memoir out and also keeps popping up on Saturday Night Live to play President Trump. Baldwin tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that his impression of the president is purposefully exaggerated. “We’re doing it live on a TV show at 11:30 at night in front of a live audience, so there’s a kind of volume to it,” he says. “It’s kind of the Macy’s Day Parade [version] of Trump — it’s a very larger-than-life thing.” Baldwin grew up in […]
Q&A: Charlie Siskel, Director Of American Anarchist
BY DILLON ALEXANDER The Anarchist Cookbook is that forbidden book your older brother and his friends ordered off the internet and used to make napalm in your old, crazy neighbor’s driveway that wound through the woods. Or maybe it’s the book that your posh friends prominently displayed on top of their coffee table for shock value. Maybe you heard about it on the news, when it was found at the apartment of some alienated, mentally unstable man who was convinced that he was the Joker from The Dark Knight. Maybe you have no clue what it is, but chances […]
INCOMING: Lady Diana
Just announced: Diana Ross @ The Mann Saturday July 29th! Tickets go on sale April 7th @ 10 AM. ROBERT CHRISTGAU: Diana Ross, on the other hand, achieved mythic stature before she ever became a singer. For as the lead voice of the Supremes, she was really only the soul–or perhaps élan vital–of a machine, ready to plug into whatever arrangement, lyric, or show dress Berry Gordy and the Motown organization provided. She sang of the pain of love without appearing to suffer, but that doesn’t mean that the catch-phrases–“You keep me hanging on,” “Where did our love go?” […]
CINEMA: The Man Who Wasn’t There
MARK HARRIS: What is striking about Being There, the portrait of a man who relates to no one but to whom everyone relates, is that it represents both a synthesis of many of the qualities in Ashby’s earlier movies and a sharp break from them. The film is initially quiet; its mood is hushed, almost austere. We meet Chance, a simpleminded, middle-aged man-child who has spent his entire life in the Washington, D.C., home of a wealthy, unseen benefactor, as he goes about what is clearly an unvarying ritual. He wakes up, gets out of bed, combs his hair, […]
KENDRICK LAMAR: HUMBLE
Crazy.