BLOOMBERG NEWS: In 1992, Bain Capital bought American Pad & Paper by financing 87 percent of the purchase price. In the next three years, Ampad borrowed to make acquisitions, repay existing debt and pay Bain Capital and its investors $60 million in dividends. As a result, the company’s debt swelled from $11 million in 1993 to $444 million by 1995. The $14 million in annual interest expense on this debt dwarfed the company’s $4.7 million operating cash flow. The proceeds of an initial public offering in July 1996 were used to pay Bain Capital $48 million for part of […]
GEEK SQUAD: 23 Things We Learned At Comic-Con
BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT The four-day geek high holiday that is San Diego Comic-Con has just come and gone, leaving behind an endless amount of juicy news about upcoming video games, movies, TV shows, and of course comics. To avoid writing my graduate thesis early, I am just going to give bullet points about everything that geeks who couldn’t afford (or didn’t plan the year and a half in advance it takes) to attend North America’s biggest comic con need to know. Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013) will feature Iron Man controlling his armor with just […]
JAZZER: Surface To Air
BY ZIVIT SHLANK When properly employed, the configuration of bass, guitar and tabla can produce a curiously exotic and intoxicating aura. New York-based acoustic trio Surface To Air is one such purveyor of said mystique. The sounds formed by Rohin Khemani (percussion), Jonti Siman (bass) and Jonathan Goldberg (guitar) are rooted in a world jazz improv context, while infusing spare, minimalist textures that evoke the spirit of East Indian music. However, there is no g?yaki or solos to be found; these guys pride themselves on constructing music that’s collaborative and organic. Having played separately in a variety of settings and […]
SNEAK PREVIEW: Oz The Great & Powerful
Directed by Sam Raimi, starring James Franco as a medicine show magician who unwittingly takes a one-way balloon ride to somewhere over the rainbow and becomes The Wizard Of…well, you can see where this is going. Looks pretty awesome from where we’re sitting.
CINEMA: Menage A Trois
TAKE THIS WALTZ (2011, directed by Sarah Polley, 116 minutes, Canada) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It has the generic trappings of a mainstream romantic comedy, but actress Sarah Polley’s second film as a writer/director exists in a plane beyond your typical Jennifer Aniston/Matthew McConaughey RomCom. Continuing the deeply-felt understanding of character she exhibited in her debut, the 2006 Alzheimer drama Away From Her, Polley further establishes herself as a young director to be reckoned with. Polley has been a particularly subtle actress since the ripe old age of nine, and the list of directors she has worked with […]
J.D. MCPHERSON: North Side Gal
His debut, Signs And Signifiers, is TOTAL gas, gas, gas. Dig the BETHLEHEM STEEL tee on the bassist — yo, Lehigh Valley represent! If you are not dead or in jail you know he’s playing the XPoNential Music Fest next Sunday. We’ll have a Q&A with Mr. McPherson up on the site middle of next week. Look for it on a Phawker near you!
DVD: The Day We Stopped Being The Good Guys
Standard Operating Procedure – (2008, directed by Errol Morris, 116 minutes, US) Abu Ghraib. The name itself conjures up obscene images, unspeakable things — things we would rather remain hidden. Abu Ghraib. It pulls on some deep dark place inside the national conscience where morality wrestles with duty and loses every time. It was Saddam Hussein’s prison, his palace of torture where the haunted walls witnessed the brutal evisceration of 30,000 souls. And then it became ground zero of the American Inquisition. The first part is on him, but the second part is on us, and best I can tell […]
The Greatest 419 Email Scam* Letter Ever Written
—————————- Original Message —————————- Subject: Federal Bureau Of Investigation From: “ROBERT MUELLER” <jan@macrocloud.cn> Date: Tue, July 10, 2012 12:55 am To: undisclosed-recipients:; —————————— ——————————————–Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division Fbi Headquarters In Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau Of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover Building 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 Website: www.fbi.govAttention Beneficiary FBI OFFICIAL NOTICE? GET BACK TO US IMMEDIATELY IF YOU DONT WANT US TO ARREST YOU AND JAIL YOU FOR YOUR OWN GOOD This is the final warning you are going to receive from us. I hope you understand how many times this message has […]
SIGUR ROS: Rembihnútur
director’s comments “the elevation of your consciousness helps the overall consciousness of the planet.” -gourasana. the much needed changes in the world will happen through changes within each and every one of us. we all want and need love. this film is a celebration of sigur rós’s music and the benefit it is having in the elevation of consciousness that is happening with humankind. people are finding strength in love, care, and respect for themselves, each other, and the world we live in. for the last twelve years meditation has been a way of life for us. going within, releasing […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See El-P @ The Troc Sat.
As per Wikipedia: “El-P (originally known as El Producto, born Jaime Meline, March 2, 1975) is an American hip hop artist and entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York City. Originally a member of Company Flow, El-P has been a major driving force in alternative hip hop for over a decade. As a rapper, El-P’s style can be characterized by his dense, aggressive, and verbose attacks, which include notable use of metaphor, science fiction and fantasy themes and references, and associative word play. Critic Steve Huey describes him as “one of the most technically gifted MCs of his time, spitting out […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: This Radio Was Made For U & Me
Artwork by DWIGHTYAOKAMFAN FRESH AIR: Lots of people know Woody Guthrie‘s classic 1940 ballad “This Land Is Your Land,” but the story behind the tune may not be as familiar. Guthrie, who would have turned 100 this week, wrote “This Land” as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” a song he felt was overly patriotic and not directed at ordinary Americans like himself. “He listened to the lyrics and thought that it didn’t really address his people — the Okies — and what was happening in their world. So as a response, he wrote a song called […]
JACK WHITE: Freedom At 21
Not sure how we got to the point where three minute rock music videos are now hyped like summer blockbusters with teaser trailers, but nonetheless here we are. Directed by Hype Williams, best known for his work with 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G. and Missy Elliott, and more recently Kanye West and Nicki Minaj, the full-length version of this Tarantino-esque grindhouse pastiche drops Monday.
JoePa Was A Liar, Penn State Football Was His Lie
Just like every Mercedes Benz made by Nazi concentration camp labor, every Penn State football game since at least 1998 bears the touch of evil and every drunken yahoo tailgator screaming bloody murder about the ‘mistreatment’ of their beloved JoePa was and is, unwittingly or not, complicit in an unspeakable and unconscionable crime: the serial rape of children by the man who was being groomed to assume Joe Paterno’s throne and the cover-up that made it all possible. JUDGE LOUIS FREEH, FORMER DIRECTOR, FBI: The most senior officials at Penn State University failed for more than a decade to take […]