ESQUIRE: Over the past year, Jared Kushner’s profile has risen alongside the mind-bending trajectory of his father-in-law’s presidential bid. Though Jared has no previous experience in electoral politics, he has become one of Donald Trump’s chief advisors, and much of the attention he’s received has focused on the many ways in which he’s been useful to the campaign. It was Jared who helped prepare Trump for an appearance before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in March, and Jared who helped broker a truce with Fox News when Trump fought with Megyn Kelly, the network’s star anchor. After […]
CINEMA: Being Werner Twertzog
WIRED: One great irony of the German director’s newfound interest in technology is that, while Herzog may have mixed feelings about the Internet, the Internet has long had a special place in its heart for Herzog. William Pannapacker, an English professor at Hope College in Michigan, once spent a year watching Herzog’s entire oeuvre. “I started, almost beyond my control, doing imitations of things Herzog would say, in my daily life, in the voice, out loud,” he says. “I started thinking in Herzogian ways, and I felt like I needed an outlet for that.” Pannapacker set up a Twitter […]
RIP: Goodbye Gawker, Our First And Best Frenemy
BY JONATHAN VALANIA So, the sad, but not entirely unexpected, official news that Gawker will cease to exist came down today. Like most every right-thinking netizen with an abiding belief in the cause of journalism and weaponized wit, we are appalled by Peter Thiel’s grim determination to choke-out the First Amendment with his bazillion dollar money belt while furiously stroking his revenge boner even if A) we think he has good reason to hate Gawker and want it dead (forcibly outing anyone who is not a hypocritical closeted politician who actively demagogues/legislates against the LGBT communities was an unforgivable […]
CINEMA: ‘The Who Fell To Earth’ Turns 40
DAVIDBOWIE.COM: To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Nicolas Roeg’s iconic movie, The Man Who Fell To Earth, we’re delighted to announce that the film will return to UK cinemas in 4K this September. MORE NME: The soundtrack of David Bowie’s classic film The Man Who Fell To Earth is to be available for the first time since its original release 40 years ago. First available in 1976, the soundtrack features specially composed music by Japanese prog-rock musician Stomu Yamash’ta and John Philips, who was the main songwriter for ‘60s pop band The Mamas And The Papas. However, the master tapes […]
BOOKS: May The Road Rise With You
WASHINGTON POST: The first volume of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning landmark “Maus” landed 30 years ago, and ever since, I’ve wondered when I would encounter another epic historical memoir that, in stirring word and stark picture, might achieve some of the same power as that game-changing graphic novel. The closest American peer I’ve found to “Maus” has arrived. The final volume of Rep. John Lewis’s “March” trilogy is a milestone. This work is the last movement in Lewis’s personal symphony of civil-rights memories. Lewis [pictured, below right] might be a nonviolent protester, but in terms of delivering drama, the […]
Win Tix To See Bayside @ The Electric Factory
Since their 2000 inception in the suburban wilds of Long Island, Bayside has cranked out seven albums of moody, melodic, guitar-driven emo. Let’s face it, you need more moody, melodic, guitar-driven emo whether you know it or not. Lucky for you we have a pair of tickets to see Bayside — along with The Menzingers and the wonderfully-named Sorority Noise — at the Electric Factory tomorrow night. To qualify to win them, send an email to Phawker66@gmail.com with the correct answer to the following question: What is the name of the Bayside drummer who was tragically killed 2005 when […]
REALITY CHECK: Henry, Portrait Of A Serial Killer
DANIEL ELLSBERG [PICTURED, BELOW RIGHT]: I have a very strong feeling that Nixon and Kissinger are similar personalities and feel a great affinity and attraction. Each of them may be the other’s best friend, at least during business hours. Kissinger – and surely Nixon, too – has a very strong ideological belief in the efficacy and legitimacy of the threat of violence as a tool of power and as a way of “establishing world order.” One can guess – and I’m neither a psychiatrist nor a producer of official psychological profiles – that Nixon and Kissinger are people who […]
INCOMING: The Complete Big Star Third Sessions
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After a nearly decade-long search for unheard session recordings from Big Star’s Third LP, the results are finally in. Recorded in 1974 but not released for the first time until 1978, Third would be subsequently re-released, renamed and re-sequenced many times over the years. While some demos and alternate versions and mixes of songs have dribbled out on various compilations, all extant recordings made for the famed album are presented for the first time on Complete Third, due out on Omnivore Recordings on October 14, 2016. Set includes every demo, rough mix, alternate take and final master […]
STAR POWER: Doing The Lord’s Work
ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: It has been said that the genre of power pop—frail white man-boys with cherry guitars reinvigorating the harmonic convergence of the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Byrds with the caffeinated rush of youth—is the revenge of the nerds. Big Star pretty much invented the form, which explains the worshipful altars erected to the band in the bedrooms of lonely, disenfranchised melody-makers from Los Angeles to London and points in between. Though they never came close to fame or fortune in their time, the band continues to hold a sacred place in the cosmology of pure […]
BEING THERE: Mad Decent 2016
Photo by DYLAN LONG Welcome to one of the hottest fucking days of my entire life. Let’s get this out of the way before we go any further: This year’s Mad Decent Block Party was excruciatingly hot. Triple digits. Insane humidity. The last time I can remember sweating that much in one sitting was when I participated in a Sweat Lodge Ceremony, a Native American tradition in which various participants gather into a small hut filled with steam and sweat their dicks off for several hours. Aside from sweating non-stop for what seemed like eternity, here’s how the day went […]
SIDEWALKING: An American Horror Story
Man dressed as Michael Myers from Halloween, Kissimmee, Florida by FRANK THORP NEW YORK TIMES: Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s presence remains elsewhere here in the Kiev, where government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort’s main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych. Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr.Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See X @ Underground Arts
To live and die in L.A., indeed. From the late ‘70s to the early ‘80s, X was the poetic conscience of the City of Angels, declaring that beneath all the hot sunshine and white teeth, it was in fact the city of the damned. Up to Ain’t Love Grand, X was everything you could ever want from a rock band (and even though they were punk-identified, they were so much more than the just safety-pinned pogo merchants). Smart, literate, versed in all manner of American roots music, X was arguably the finest band to ever emerge out of Los […]
JACK WHITE: City Lights
ERIC ALPER: Jack White has announced the release of JACK WHITE ACOUSTIC RECORDINGS 1998-2016, the 26-track double-LP and double-CD released physically and digitally worldwide on September 9th. JACK WHITE ACOUSTIC RECORDINGS 1998-2016 collects 26 acoustic songs from throughout White’s wide-ranging musical career, spanning album tracks, B-sides, remixes, alternate versions, and previously unreleased tracks. The album, arranged in chronological order, includes acoustic songs made famous by The White Stripes, beginning with “Sugar Never Tasted So Good” (originally found on The White Stripes’ second-ever 7-inch single) and then lighting upon favorites like “Apple Blossom” and “I’m Bound To Pack It Up” (remixed […]