HUFFINGTON POST: Jillette, who has never done drugs or drank alcohol in his life, expressed particular concern over the policies’ broad-sweeping, all-inclusive nature. Namely, that people are going to prison because of marijuana use. “Now, he has not left this to states’ rights,” Jillette posited. “As you know, medical marijuana… you can get in California, and the feds are coming in to try to stop this. States’ rights don’t mean jack sh*t to the Obama administration on anything except gay marriage.” Another point of contention for Jillette was the fact that President Obama mentioned that he had smoked “weed” and […]
FREE TIX: Simone Felice @ First Unitarian
If The Felice Brothers are kinda/sorta the Second Coming of The Band, then Simone Felice is kinda/sorta the new Levon Helm (God rest his soul). Given that Helm spent the entirety of his post-Band existence not speaking to Robbie Robertson, it’s probably all for the best that Simone left the Felice Brothers and went solo in 2009. He plays First Unitarian on June 1st in support of his swell, just-released solo debut. A hymn-like collection of achingly beautiful downbeat Americana, Simone’s solo debut should be filed somewhere in between Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago and the last Low […]
THE BAIN MUTINY: Money Changes Everything
[Artwork by MEATHEAD] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Mayor Cory Booker to the long list of political stand-ins for both President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney who’ve veered wildly off message in a presidential contest notable for its attention-grabbing gaffes. An Obama backer, Booker forced the president’s campaign into damage-control mode over the weekend when he called its attack on Romney’s tenure at a private equity firm “nauseating.” It didn’t take long for Republicans to highlight the comment and for the Democratic mayor to try to clean up the mess he caused by releasing a YouTube video in which he said it […]
THERE WILL BE BLOOD: New P.T. Anderson Alert
WIKIPEDIA: The Master is an upcoming drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. It was given the green-light in May 2011, and began filming in June. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Laura Dern. The plot involves a religion called “The Cause” which has been compared to Scientology. A charismatic intellectual (Hoffman) launches a religious organization following World War II. A drifter (Phoenix) becomes his right-hand man but as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the drifter finds himself questioning the belief system and his mentor. Score by Radiohead’s […]
NJ Pot Decriminalization Bill Makes It Out Of Committee And Heads To Dem-Controlled Assembly
RAW STORY: A New Jersey General Assembly panel approved on Monday a bill that would lower the penalty for possessing a small amount of marijuana to a mere $150 fine for first-time offenders, essentially decriminalizing the drug by making possession a non-arrest offense. But Gov. Chris Christie (R), who’s supported drug reforms in the past, has refused to take a position on it, with an aide telling Raw Story on Monday that he won’t be commenting on the proposal any time soon. Current New Jersey law requires a fine of $1,000 and up to six months in jail for […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Maps & Atlases @ UT
[Artwork by ELI BRUMBAUGH] We have a pair of tix to see everyone’s favorite Windy City weird-beard math-pop indie rockers Maps & Atlases at Union Transfer tomorrow night along with The Big Sleep and Sister Crayon. Because we like you we’re gonna make this super easy. First listener to email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the words MAPS & ATLASES in the subject line wins. Please include a mobile number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed!
THE DEADLIEST CATCH: The End Of Fish
THE NEW REPUBLIC: Our oceans have been the victims of a giant Ponzi scheme, waged with Bernie Madoff–like callousness by the world’s fisheries. Beginning in the 1950s, as their operations became increasingly industrialized–with onboard refrigeration, acoustic fish-finders, and, later, GPS–they first depleted stocks of cod, hake, flounder, sole, and halibut in the Northern Hemisphere. As those stocks disappeared, the fleets moved southward, to the coasts of developing nations and, ultimately, all the way to the shores of Antarctica, searching for icefishes and rockcods, and, more recently, for small, shrimplike krill. As the bounty of coastal waters dropped, fisheries moved further […]
RIP: Robin Gibb, The Man Who Started The Joke That Started The Whole World Crying, Dead At 62
BY JONATHAN VALANIA To rock boys coming of age in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the brothers Gibb were known primarily as the fey, toothy, Members Only-jacketed target of the Disco Sucks backlash that greeted the blockbuster sales and grating ubiquity of their Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. But unbeknownst to many, the Bee Gees also had an amazing career in the ’60s, creating deathless psychedelic-pop singles and ambitious album-length statements that explored complex themes and experimented with all manner of instrumentation and orchestral arrangements. Even back then, it was their harmonizing – as rich and distinct as the […]
CINEMA: Empire Burlesque
THE DICTATOR (2012, directed by Larry Charles, 83 minutes, U.S.) GOD BLESS AMERICA (2011. directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, 100 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC In Hollywood, no talent is too immense to be dragged to its knees for some mundane, sure-fire junk. After watching Ricky Gervais follow-up his classic TV work to labor in some distressingly formulaic comedies, we now have the immensely-gifted Sasha Baron Cohen starring in…a rom-com? After the genre-expanding fictional docu-comedies Borat and Bruno, Cohen’s fully-scripted new feature The Dictator finds the comic slipping from culture-jamming satirist to mere goofball comedian. The distance from […]
SIDEWALKING: Me And Mrs. Jones
Norah Jones, World Cafe Live, 1:25 PM by AMY SALIT PREVIOUSLY: It’s another lazy Sunday morning coming down. You are awakened by the sunshine streaming through the open windows and the sound of the Brooklyn streets outside coming alive. Oddly, Danger Mouse is laying next to you, on his back, looking up at the ceiling, languidly strumming an elegiac guitar. He acts like you aren’t there. If you listen closely, you can hear a tinkling, Eno-esque piano arpeggio out of the corner of your ear. It sounds, and more importantly feels, like raindrops falling on your head. You roll over […]
THE EARLY WORD: Watch Me Jump Start
Just announced, Guided By Voices (the classic line-up) @ The Troc July 6th! EDITOR’S NOTE: Stay tuned for some VERY exciting news involving us, GBV and [WHISPERING] the White House. Can’t talk about it yet so…Shhhh! PREVIOUSLY: Employing the same Buckeye ingenuity that keeps the Goodyear blimp afloat, Robert Pollard can polish a turd with Budweiser until it shines with 24-carat radiance, transmuting a tossed-off, six-pack idea into a classic rock artifact or at the very least a beguiling no-fi curio. As captain of the drunken boat that is Guided By Voices, Pollard built a cottage industry by churning out […]
NO PRAYER FOR THE CITY: Whitey Won’t Save Us
INQUIRER: In his new book, The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City, urbanist Alan Ehrenhalt argues that “we are living at a moment in which the massive outward migration of the affluent that characterized the second half of the 20th century is coming to an end.” In other words, rich white people are moving to city centers not just in Philadelphia, but also in Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, and plenty of other cities. But as Ehrenhalt’s chapter on Philadelphia (“Uneasy Coexistence”) convincingly shows, it takes more than a few – or even a bunch of – rich white […]