FRESH AIR When comedian Mike Birbiglia opened his one-man show Sleepwalk With Me in 2008 at the Bleecker Street Theatre in New York, he didn’t anticipate that it would become material for a popular piece on This American Life and a New York Times best-seller. He especially didn’t think it would turn into a feature film. Birbigilia had never made a film before. And he was initially hesitant to make one about his dangerous sleepwalking condition, because he wanted to distance himself from the topic he had been immersed in for more than four years. Scenes in the movie Sleepwalk […]
SIDEWALKING: Tobacco Road
Near Fivepointville, PA, 12:34 PM by JEFF FUSCO
GUN CRAZY: The Dirty Harry Fallacy
Illustration by ALEX FINE JOEL MATHIS: The cases of guns being used to successfully defend against assaults in America are few and far between—one study suggested that guns are used by victims to defend themselves in less than 1 percent of all violent crimes. “Firearm self-defense,” the study’s authors noted drily, “is rare compared with gun crimes.” And there’s little evidencethat the crime rate has changed in states that adopt “concealed carry” laws. […] I always pause when writing critiques of Second Amendment fundamentalism; I grew up in Kansas among good, conservative folks—many of whom were good, responsible gun-owners who […]
WORTH REPEATING: Life After Birth
STEVE VOLK: I’m back at work. Really? How did this happen? And how can I process so many conflciting emotions? Leaving that morning, I felt guilty, like I was abandoning Lisa and the boys. I also felt relief, to be liberated from living life in the 150-minute increments of the newborn. And I felt lost. Why lost? Well, over the last couple of weeks, my life shrank down to a very small, specific set of concerns: Keep the babies warm, fed and comfortable. Ease my wife’s pains. Then I felt the rest of the world tugging at me, eager […]
BAUHAUS: Bela Lugosi’s Dead
Opening credits of The Hunger, starring David Bowie, Katherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon. Directed by Tony Scott. It doesn’t get any more goth this. RELATED: “Top Gun” director Tony Scott [pictured below, left, with his brother Ridley Scott] jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro on Sunday afternoon. He was 68. His body was pulled out of the water by Los Angeles Port Police, who were the first on the scene. Several witnesses told police they saw Scott get out of his Toyota Prius, which was parked on the bridge, about 12:30 p.m. Then he […]
Senate Candidate Says ‘Legitimate Rape’ Victims Don’t Get Pregnant, Just The One’s Who Like It
Artwork by DONKEY HOTEY TALKING POINTS MEMO: Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy. “First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Akin said that even in the worst-case scenario — […]
SCOTT MCKENZIE: San Francisco
BBC: Scott McKenzie, who sang the 1960s hit San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair), has died aged 73. The singer was a close friend of Mamas and Papas star John Phillips, who wrote and produced the San Francisco track. Released in May 1967, it became a global hit and an anthem for the 1960s counterculture movement. As a teenager, he met Phillips and formed a doowop band called The Abstracts. The band moved to New York and became The Smoothies, where they played on the club circuit and recorded two singles. With the rise of folk […]
JULIAN ASSANGE: Stop Shooting The Messenger
THE GUARDIAN: The diplomatic standoff between Britain and Ecuador deepened on Sunday after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange used an extraordinary appearance on the first-floor balcony of Ecuador’s London embassy to berate the United States. With Metropolitan police officers watching from metres away, Assange called on President Obama to abandon what he called a “witch-hunt” against WikiLeaks. He said an alleged “FBI investigation” against his whistleblowing website should be “dissolved” and that the US should go back to its original “revolutionary” values. “As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of our societies,” Assange […]
SIDEWALKING: The Song Remains The Same
My Morning Jacket set list, The Mann, last night by EL NERDO
GEEK SQUAD: An Almost Complete Guide To The Unambiguously Gay Superheroes Of The Universe
BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT History shall remember the last few hot, sticky months as The Summer Of Gay. From President Obama’s qualified endorsement of gay marriage to Chick-fil-A’s dick-ish disapproval, it seems like the news can’t go one week without mentioning gay rights. As such it seems like this is the perfect time to draw attention to the the surprisingly extensive network of unsung LGBT superheroes that save the planet on a daily basis but still can’t get married in 43 states. This is not a complete list. I limited it to unambiguously gay superheroes published by […]
CINEMA: Be Very Afraid
PARANORMAN (2012, directed by Chris Butler & Sam Fell, 96 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Not since the 1967 animated film Mad Monster Party (made by Rankin/Bass of Christmas special fame) has there been an animated film made to appeal to the pre-teen monster fiend in me. With the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas there has been a line of spooky animated films for kids but ParaNorman is the first to have a horror-loving kid in the center of its story. Made in the medium of true figure animation (which in our modern world is merged […]
NO PUSSY, NO PEACE: Pussy Riot Get Two Years
WALL STREET JOURNAL: A Russian judge has just ruled that three members of the punk band Pussy Riot are guilty of hooliganism and sentenced them to two years in prison. They had been on trial on hooliganism charges for an anti-Kremlin protest in February in Moscow’s main cathedral. The case has become an international cause celebre and highlights the stark divide between the secular, Westernized forces who took to the streets to protest against Vladimir Putin’s rule earlier this year and the more conservative Russians he counts on as his main support. The judge also declared that the band […]
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Today’s Supernatural
Animal Collective plays The Mann on Oct. 3rd. RELATED: At turns disturbing, confusing, disgusting, hilarious, mesmerizing and stone cold beatific, Oddsac is perhaps best explained by clarifying what it is not: it is neither a rock documentary nor a concert film, nor is it the kind of film you would see at the cineplex. There are no stars, no car chases, no dreamy romantic interests who meet cute and live happily ever after. In fact, there is no plot, no linear narrative arc. Instead, there is a series of hallucinatory vignettes: a girl attempting in vain to stanch the flow […]