Artwork by BUBBLE GUN FRESH AIR: As the child of two Hollywood actors, Jeff Bridges can’t remember the first time he was on a film set. He wasn’t yet 2 years old when he appeared in the 1951 film The Company She Keeps with his mother, Dorothy Dean Bridges. Later, he and his brother, Beau Bridges, sometimes appeared in the TV series Sea Hunt, which starred their father, Lloyd Bridges. But despite his early exposure to show business, Bridges tells Fresh Air‘s Dave Davies he wasn’t always sure he wanted to be an actor. “I had a lot of different […]
A BREEDER GOES TO WASHINGTON: Kelley Deal Heads To DC Today To Fight The Repeal Of ACA
Photo by CHRIS GLASS, ACA beneficiary BY JOSH PELTA-HELLER After an epic legislative struggle, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — aka Obamacare — was made the law of the land on March 23rd, 2010. It would, as of this writing, provide health care for 20 million uninsured Americans. “This is a big fuckin’ deal!” as Joe Biden publicly congratulated the president upon officially signing his landmark healthcare bill into federal law. The triumphs of our healthcare system’s largest regulatory overhaul in 50 years are a signature part of Obama’s legacy, championed by the progressive left, by millions of beneficiaries, and […]
CINEMA: Dan Buskirk’s Favorite Films Of 2016
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Another year ticks by and 2016 reinforces the idea that the creation of serious, non-blockbuster films is less and less of interest in the American movie industry. No less a voice of authority than Martin Scorsese professed this opinion in a recent Associated Press article proclaiming “Cinema is Gone,” and while film culture is still consistently flourishing in pockets around the world, only four of the dozen films listed here as 2016 favorites are by U.S. directors, surely an all-time personal low. People carry with them a lot of myths about creativity being a […]
THIS IS OUR MUSIC: Our Favorite Albums Of 2016
LEONARD COHEN You Want It Darker (Columbia) Everybody knows that 2016 was a cruel and unusual year. Intolerably cruel. Everybody knows that war is over and everybody knows the good guys lost. So I am only half-kidding when I ask: How can we possibly be expected to endure the abominable presidency of Donald Trump without David Bowie, Prince or Princess Leia? But I’m dead serious when I say we can’t do this without Leonard Cohen, who died at the ripe old age of 82 on the day before the election. As ever, his timing was impeccable. It goes without […]
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: David Bowie’s Blackstar
BY STEVE VOLK In the spring of 2014, an old man walked into 55 Bar, a small West Village club where a particularly hot jazz band was holding forth, less bop than modern experimentation, an outfit that churned and surged in exotic, ecstatic bursts. The old man stayed awhile, at a table near the stage, letting the music wash over him along with everyone else, anonymous except that he wasn’t. Only after he left did the whispers start. “Was that David Bowie?” We now know the answer was yes—the old codger spaceman was out, on a Sunday night no […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Swamp Monster-In-Chief
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Good God, the stench is overwhelming! It’s the damn swamp again, folks. Lordy, the stink is absolutely stomach-churning! I know, I know, — yes, he definitely said he would drain it, — but it looks like he’s changed his mind; says he’s weary of the expression and wants all talk of it halted. In fact, he just recently felt compelled to bitch-slap his close buddy and confidant, Newt “Lissotriton Vulgaris” Gingrich for having tweeted some questions regarding the lingering odor. But WAIT! Apparently the swamp draining project is still on (methinks the noxious fumes gurgling […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Grizzly Steppe — FBI/DHS Joint Report On Russian Hacking Of US Election
DOWNLOAD: Grizzly Steppe — FBI/DHS Joint Report On Russian Hacking Of US Election [PDF]
THE END OF DEMOCRACY: Neoliberal Tears, End Stage Capitalism And The Meteoric Rise Of Fascism
Artwork by TIAGO HOISEL THE GUARDIAN: Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning. Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty. Tax and regulation should be minimised, public services should be privatised. The organisation of labour and collective bargaining by trade unions are portrayed as market distortions that impede the formation of a natural hierarchy of winners and […]
CINEMA: May The Force Be With Her, Always
NEW YORK TIMES: Ms. Fisher established Princess Leia as a damsel who could very much deal with her own distress, whether facing down the villainy of the dreaded Darth Vader or the romantic interests of the roguish smuggler Han Solo. Wielding blaster pistols, piloting futuristic vehicles and, to her occasional chagrin, wearing strange hairdos and a revealing metal bikini, she reprised the role in three more films — “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, “Return of the Jedi” in 1983 and, 32 years later, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” by which time Leia had become a hard-bitten general. Lucasfilm […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
Artwork by DAVID DARING FRESH AIR: Carrie Fisher was an insecure 19-year-old when she appeared as Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie, a role that would come to define her career. She tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that despite becoming romantically involved with her older, married co-star, Harrison Ford, she often felt isolated on set. “I didn’t have anyone to confide in,” she says. “I had no friends, and I couldn’t talk about [the affair with Ford] because he was married.” Instead, Fisher began recording her thoughts and experiences in a journal. After the film wrapped, she put […]
INCOMING: There’s No Place Like Home
Folks, we’re hanging the GONE FISHIN’ sign on the door and heading home for Christmas. Expect it will look a lot like this picture of last year’s homecoming. We’ll be back to daily updates on December 27th. Stay tuned for our annual THE YEAR IN CINEMA, THE YEAR IN MUSIC, THE YEAR IN QUESTIONS & ANSWERS. Until then, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to you and yours!
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Swamp Creatures 2
EDITOR’S NOTE: Part 1 is HERE. BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Even with seventy-some years of suspicion, skepticism and mistrust, I never imagined that at some point I would feel compelled to opine a President-elect of this great nation of ours as being an innately ignorant, silver-spooned, immature, thin-skinned, spiteful, deceitful, xenophobic, misogynistic, money-grubbing, two-faced, lying piece of shit. But sadly that time has come. How and why do I unapologetically loathe this President-elect and soon-to-be Presidential disaster so? Allow me to present seven unassailable examples of the kind of excremental rigid-middle-finger-to-character-principle-ethics-morality-intelligence-and-the-best-interests-of-all-but-the-top-two-percent behavior that really should come as no surprise […]
BREAKING: This Is A Day That Will Live In Infamy
NEW YORK TIMES: The Electoral College has affirmed Donald J. Trump as the nation’s 45th president, pushing him past the 270-vote threshold for election, with scant evidence of the anti-Trump revolt among electors that some of his critics had hoped would occur. Normally a political footnote, the electoral vote took on unexpected import this winter after Mr. Trump’s upset of Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote, spawned a determined effort to block his path to the presidency by grass-roots advocates who saw him as unfit for the White House and, to some, a threat to the political system. […]