Illustration by DREW FRIEDMAN SPY MAGAZINE: To artists and intellectuals, the twentieth century has posed no questions more vexing than these: First, can art make sense of the Holocaust? And second, why do the French love Jerry Lewis? The first question can’t really be answered, at least not in the space allotted here. As for the second, it’s my own opinion that the French have confused sloppy, uneven filmmaking with Godardian anti-formalism. Regardless, raising these two issues on the same page is not just a pointless exercise in non-sequitur. Because Jerry Lewis, like Elli Wiesel and Primo Levi before him […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Masha Gessen is a prominent journalist who is also a lesbian and an outspoken LGBT rights advocate in Russia. After Russia passed two anti-gay laws in June, she decided it was time for her, her partner and their children to leave. In late December, they moved to New York. “The only thing more creepy than hearing someone suggest the likes of you should be burned alive is hearing someone suggest the likes of you should be burned alive and thinking, ‘I know that guy.’” That’s what Gessen recently, referring to an experience she had with one of […]
DENNIS RODMAN: Happy Birthday Dear Leader
MEDIATE: Following his screamfest at Chris Cuomo yesterday and everyone he’s ever known backing slowly, sloooooowly away from his antics, Dennis Rodman took his love for Dear Leader Kim Jong-Un one step further, singing “Happy Birthday” to the North Korean dictator before an exhibition basketball game. As 14,000 North Koreans and a team of former NBA players watched (and you can see them visibly cringing), Rodman unexpectedly broke into a low, sensual, and raspy rendition of “Happy Birthday” to Kim, whose birthday may be on Wednesday, according to Reuters. MORE
THE BOTTLE ROCKETS: Thousand Dollar Car
Bumf*ck, Missouri’s Bottle Rockets, bearded-feed-capped progenitors of all things Alt-Country, recently reissued their long out-of-print, first two albums Bottle Rockets and The Brooklyn Side (think Nebraska meets Let It Be) as a twofer on Bloodshot Records to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of the band’s self-titled debut. Never heard of them? You’re not alone. Reuters called them “the most underappreciated band of the mid-90s.” But here’s the thing, it’s never too late to learn about band’s like The Bottle Rockets — maybe for them, but not for you. The reissue package includes a 40-page booklet placing the band […]
Because Sometimes The Only Way To Stop A Crime Hiding Behind The Law Is To Break The Law
NBC NEWS: Forty-three years after the mysterious theft of up to 1,000 documents from an FBI office outside Philadelphia, three former political activists are publicly confessing to the brazen burglary, calling it an act of “resistance” that exposed “massive illegal surveillance and intimidation.” “We did it … because somebody had to do it,” John Raines, 80, a retired professor of religion at Temple University, said in an interview with NBC News. “In this case, by breaking a law — entering, removing files — we exposed a crime that was going on. … When we are denied the information we […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Illustration by ALEX FINE FRESH AIR Novelist Gary Shteyngart was a wheezing, asthmatic and fearful 7-year-old when he and his parents emigrated from the Soviet Union to Queens, New York, in 1979. (This was soon after America negotiated a trade deal with the Soviets that included allowing Jews to immigrate to Israel, Canada or the U. S.) He tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that his health was a deciding factor in his parents’ decision to move. “When I was growing up, the ambulance would come almost every week to take me to the hospital because there were no other treatments […]
DIANE COFFEE: Hymn
Diane Coffee is Foxygen drummer Shaun Fleming’s West Coast 60s psych jawn. They play Kung Fu Necktie Jan. 18th.
CINEMA: You Say You Want A Revolution
More than 60 commercial and underground films dedicated to the sexual revolution will be presented in Free to Love: The Cinema of the Sexual Revolution, running Jan. 10 – Feb. 15, 2014, at International House Philadelphia’s Ibrahim Theater (3701 Chestnut St., Philadelphia; 215-387-5125), a resource for world-class avant-garde and repertory cinema since 1976. This expansive film series, which includes appearances and talks by several of the original filmmakers and influential film historians, explores the political and artistic tumult of the 1960s and ’70s and its effect on contemporary culture. The series is supported by a grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Free to Love: […]
When The Drones Come Home To Roost
By @MattBors.
THE BLACK HOLLIES: Somewhere Between Here…
Serious contenders for Best Band Name Of All Time. Led by Justin Angelo Morey and his long-time collaborators Herbert Wiley and Jon Gonnelli (all members of the recently reunited Rye Coalition) as well as drummer Nick Ferrante (White Hills), The Black Hollies play Kung Fu Necktie January 11th in support of their swell new album Somwhere Between Here And Nowhere (Ernest Jenning Record Co.).
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Pacific Rim Job
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Have you been following this latest push for “freer” markets and longer yachts for the prime beneficiaries? It’s been dubbed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and it’s all the rage among the one- and two-percenters. Word has it that leaked details already have top yacht builders like Lurssen, Feadship, and Oceanco champing at the helm, and big-time PR firms like Edelman, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, and Ogilvy snapping up all available Indulgences (it’s rumored that demand for corporate reputation protection and enhancement services will rise like a Bay of Fundy tide once the truth about the TPP comes […]
RIP: Phil Everly Of The Everly Brothers Dead @ 74
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Phil Everly, who with his brother, Don, made up the most revered vocal duo of the rock-music era, their exquisite harmonies profoundly influencing the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds and countless younger-generation rock, folk and country singers, died Friday in Burbank of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Patti Everly, told The Times. He was 74. During the height of their popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they charted nearly three dozen hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, among them “Cathy’s Clown,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” “When […]
ARTSY: John Cougar’s Paintings Hurt So Good
VANITY FAIR: Champion of the heartland, Farm Aid founder, and accomplished Americana musician, John Mellencamp has been covertly pulling double-duty as a visual artist for more than 20 years. But with his first art museum exhibition at Youngstown, Ohio’s Butler Institute of American Art in progress, the spotlight is now shining brightly on 40 of his original oil paintings. Inspired largely by German artists Max Beckmann and Otto Dix, Mellencamp’s work is emotional and progressive, in keeping with his award-winning music. For Mellencamp, who began his painting career by training with the Art Students League in New York in […]