Karen Finley, Return Of The Chocolate Smeared Woman, circa 1994 BY JOANN LOVIGLIO A quarter-century after its release, Karen Finley’s Shock Treatment still packs a punch. It reads like a self-exorcism. Filled with rage, but also humor and a lot of intelligence, it is a skewering of cultural taboos, patriarchy and privilege. She grew up in the Midwest and was soon drawn to the creative hub of 1970s San Francisco, where she hung out at City Lights with Richard Brautigan and Gregory Corso, and had Kathy Acker as a teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. Finley isn’t one to […]
THE BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ BEFORE YOU DIE
BY CHARLIE TAYLOR In 1990, 22-year-old Christopher McCandless packed up his 1982 Datsun and embarked on an expedition through the Western United States that would ultimately cost him his life. McCandless, an unsettled individual with a spirit that needed to challenge any obstacles his mind could dream up, finished college in 1990 and appeared to be ready to join the never-ending assembly line of college students headed into professional oblivion. Seduced by the freedom and endless possibilities of the open road, McCandless shocked his parents by turning down the $25,000 fund given to him for his post-college pursuits and […]
BOOKS: Auntie Rosa Parks, The Woman Who Sat Down So Martin Luther King Could Stand Up
BY SHARNITA MIDGETT Today is the 103rd birthday of Rosa Parks, the woman who taught the world that bus seats are colorblind. The iconic story of her refusal to give up her seat on a bus — back in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama — so white people could sit down has been taught in American history classes for decades. What hasn’t been told, however, is the story of the woman underneath the icon. A new book called Our Auntie Rosa aims to remedy that. Written by Rosa Parks’ niece and nephew, Sheila McCauley Keys and Eddie B. Allen Jr., […]
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: There’s A Riot Goin’ On
TIME: Elaborate set designs and choreography are not a hallmark of Pussy Riot’s music videos, at least not the ones that turned them into Russia’s most famous protest collective. More typically, the band has had no more than a few minutes to dance around on camera before Russian police, security guards or, in one case, a group of whip-wielding Cossack militiamen, shows up to break up their performances. Not so with the punks’ first foray into hip-hop. Released on Wednesday, their latest clip offers a cutting takedown of corruption in President Vladimir Putin’s government, all filmed with relatively high production […]
Q&A With Athens GA Avant-Rockers Mothers
Photos by NOAH SILVESTRY BY NOAH SILVESTRY In just a couple weeks, Mothers drop their debut LP, When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired, and judging by what they’ve put out so far, it’s going to be a hell of a fun listen. The seeds of frontwoman Kristine Leschper’s art-school solo project have grown into a mighty experimental rock quartet. Drummer Matthew Anderegg stampedes triumphantly from one meter to the next without looking left or right while guitarist Drew Kirby leads your ears by leash in and out of harmony and Leschper’s voice, which sounds like that of […]
INCOMING: The Life Velvetic
Photo by CRAIG MCDEAN via INTERVIEW Interviewed VU architect John Cale for Vice. Standby for link. Discussed: His opiated childhood; his abuse at the hands of a church organist; discovering Fluxus at the University of London; being taught the deafening power of silence by John Cage; exploring the infinite cosmic possibilities of drone and the raw power of an amplified viola with The Theater Of Eternal Music; inventing the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed; thriving amidst the mind-bending velocity of life inside Andy Warhol’s Factory; performing “Heroin” for Walter Cronkite; pissng off Cher; the real reason why he left the […]
IOWA CAUCUS: Madame Clinton Feels The Bern
Artwork by BRIAN KRIM ASSOCIATED PRESS: The AP will not declare winner in Iowa Democratic caucuses at this time because of the closeness of the race between Clinton and Sanders.
FEAR & LOATHING: How Not To Build A Stadium
Photo by JD MOUSLEY BY CHARLIE TAYLOR Today’s not-quite-open forum regarding the building of a new football stadium on Temple’s campus didn’t accomplish much outside of bringing simmering tensions between the school brass and neighborhood residents to the surface. At issue was the fact that neighborhood residents were not invited to the forum, with numerous students and residents showing up to protest the exclusion of the neighbors. The forum proved to be a rather contentious affair, and Temple President Theobald and Athletic Director Pat Kraft were only able to answer a few questions before the protests of Temple students ended […]
INCOMING: Win Tix To See A VIP Advance Screening Of The Coen Brothers’ Hail Caesar!
A retro-screwball comedy/sword & sandals burlesque written and directed by the Coen brothers and starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum (because apparently they passed a law that makes it illegal to NOT cast Channing Tatum in a new movie) what more do you need to know? We have a coupla pairs of tix to a special VIP advance screening 7:30 pm tomorrow night (Tue. Feb. 2nd) at the Ritz 5. Note, these are reserved seats, not the usual first come/first served. To qualify to win […]
MILESTONE: Last Great American Novel Turns 20
HARRY RANSOM CENTER: Twenty years ago, in February of 1996, Little, Brown and Company published David Foster Wallace’s (1962–2008) novel Infinite Jest. It was a bold undertaking for the firm to publish a complex, challenging novel that spans over 1,000 pages and contains hundreds of endnotes, many quite lengthy and all printed in very small type. The sheer size of the book required that it be sold for $30, an unorthodox price for any novel, let alone a second novel by a young, up-and-coming author. Wallace began seriously writing Infinite Jest in 1991. The publication of the book took […]
CHARLIE HILTON: 100 Million
Charlie Hilton is the only Hilton that matters. From her wonderful just-out debut, Palana. OFFICIAL BIO: Though she maintains some reservations about the implications of something as abstract as identity, Charlie Hilton, known up until now for her work in the band Blouse, has now forged a new one with her debut solo album, Palana. The album’s title itself is a nod to Hilton’s given Sanskrit name, an identity she shed completely after high school in favor of the androgynous “Charlie,” and Palana‘s overarching theme can be summed up by a quote from Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, a phrase Hilton cites […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To Low’s Sold Out Show @ JB’s
The sadcore avatars of Low are a proverbial riddle wrapped in enigmas: The infinite reverb, the psychotropic tremolos, the barbituated tempos, the endless Sphinx-like silences between the notes, the darkness at the edge of Duluth, the Mormonism, the Rihanna cover, the fact that the lead singer of Led Zeppelin is the president of their fan club, the 2005 breakdown in a remote cabin in the woods where singer-guitarist Alan Sparhawk’s became convinced he was the Antichrist and refused to open his eyes or speak for days, and the fact that after 22 years of soft parading they are more […]
CINEMA: There’s No Place Like Home
BY BEN LEHMAN My last experience with a Michael Moore documentary was in 2004 when Fahrenheit 9/11 was released. I remember watching the film as a 10 year old with my Republican family in the context of the early days of the Iraq War. My parents were quick to dismiss the controversial film; like many Americans in those days, they firmly stood behind President Bush and the invasion of Iraq. The film was provocative and controversial, which are terms one often associates with Moore. But for his latest creative endeavour, Moore chooses a less controversial and more lighthearted approach. The […]