BEST OF ENEMIES (2015, dir. by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, 87 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC With protesters in the streets and culture wars on the front burner in the U.S., the moment captured in Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s new documentary Best of Enemies crackles with modern parallels. It’s the tumultuous summer of 1968 and the country is polarized between two Presidential candidates, the non-charismatic replacement for the slain Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and the reactionary conservatism of former Red-baiter, Richard Nixon. Desperate for ratings, the last place network, ABC decides to pair Left-leaning historian and […]
ARTSY: Jean-Michael Basquiat, The Radiant Child
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) “Basquiat’s canon revolves around single heroic figures: athletes, prophets, warriors, cops, musicians, kings and the artist himself. In these images the head is often a central focus, topped by crowns, hats, and halos. In this way the intellect is emphasized, lifted up to notice, privileged over the body and the physicality of these figures (i.e. black men) commonly represent in the world.” —Kellie Jones, Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix[27] WIKIPEDIA: Fred Hoffman hypothesizes that underlying Basquiat’s sense of himself as an artist was his “innate capacity to function […]
2016 BETTER PHILADELPHIA CHALLENGE: Kevin And Michael Bacon Want To Give You $5,000
ABOUT THE BETTER PHILADELPHIA CHALLENGE Founded in 2006 in memory of Philadelphia’s iconic 20th century city planner, Ed Bacon [1910-2005], this annual international competition challenges university-level students from around the world to address real-world urban design issues in Philadelphia that have application not only to our city, but to urban centers around the globe. ABOUT THE 2016 CHALLENGE The Mantua/Belmont section of Philadelphia was chosen as one of President Obama’s first “Promise Zones” for economic development – one of only five in the country. This neighborhood is bordered by some of Philadelphia’s largest institutions (the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Artwork by GEORGE VENABLE FRESH AIR Some 30,000 African elephants die each year as a result of poaching, and many of their ivory tusks wind up hundreds or thousands of miles away. Investigative journalist Bryan Christy wanted to track the route of the poached tusks, so he commissioned a taxidermist to create fake ivory tusks, which he embedded with specially designed tracking devices. “These tusks … operate really like additional investigators, like members of our team, and almost like a robocop,” Christy tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. Christy and his team tracked the smugglers as they transported the tusks north […]
TRAILER: Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight
Due out Christmas.
FUNNY BUSINESS: Q&A w/ Comedian TJ Miller
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview first posted on Feb. 6th 2014 BY BRIEN EDWARDS T.J. Miller is a funny motherscratcher, which works out well since he is also a stand-up comedian/comedic actor. Perhaps you recognize him from 2008’s Cloverfield or Get Him to the Greek or She’s Out Of My League, or How To Train Your Pet Dragon. Or perhaps you recognize the 32-year-old Denver native from Curb Your Enthusiasm, The League, and The Gorburger Show. Or No Real reason, his 2011 Comedy Central stand-up special. Or as part of the voice-acting cast of the hit Academy Award-nominated How To […]
LANA DEL REY: High By The Beach
NME: “We both know that it’s not fashionable to love me,” sings Lana Del Rey on ‘Honeymoon’, her new single – the title track from her forthcoming third album. There’s lots of people who’d disagree, though: since she unveiled the song earlier this week, excited chatter among fans for her next step has reached a feverish high. But what can we expect from the album, which Lana is expected to release this September? We’ve put on our sleuthing hats, puzzled over the clues, pored over Lana’s comments and social media posts, listened to the handful of new tracks she’s debuted […]
WORTH REPEATING: Crime & Punishment
Artwork by GIANLUCA CONSTANTINI THE NEW YORKER: In our many discussions, Wilson rarely spoke of Michael Brown. Twice, I asked him if he had reflected on what kind of person Brown was. The first time I asked, it was early May, and Brown’s parents had just filed their civil lawsuit against him. “You do realize that his parents are suing me?” he said. “So I have to think about him.” He went on, “Do I think about who he was as a person? Not really, because it doesn’t matter at this point. Do I think he had the best upbringing? […]
ROBIN WILLIAMS: The Introvert Dictator
The grand wizard of improv. He died a year ago today.
RETURN OF THE MILK-EYED MENDER: Joanna Newsom Announces New Double Album, Her First In Five Years, With A PT Anderson-Directed Video
Photo by ANNABEL MEHRAN DRAG CITY RECORDS: …further along and down the road apiece from where she took her leave of us, Joanna Newsom plays on. Breathe deep and equalize your today-ears to the new world of Divers…Good heavens—five years go by—what can one do? Dive, listener, knowing that diversions aplenty await: a wheeling circuit of sci-fi sea-shanties and cavalier ballads; a family of polysemic song-sets; a paranomasaic Liederkreis of harmonic sympathies and knotted hierarchies; a fanfare of brazen puns and martial lullabies, blazing in sorrow and horseplay and love, in turns symphonic and spare, joined by Mellotrons and Marxophones […]
LAST WEEK LAST NIGHT: Sex Miseducation
I could have listened to John Oliver dig into Donald Trump for the “blood coming of her wherever” crack over and over, like a six year old’s insatiable desire to ride “It’s Small World” in Disneyland over and over and over again. But we all have to grow up sometime. So, too, the Republican party. (But I’m not holding my breath. Let’s face it, in 2015 the only people who still hurl on-the-rag insults at women are arrested adolescents/perma-virgins and Donald Trump, current frontrunner for the Republican party nomination for the presidency of the United States. The only discernible difference […]