International House Philadelphia proudly presents the Philadelphia premiere of this local production! A surprise hit at the Sundance Film Festival, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles garnered West Philadelphian Jon Foy an award for Best Documentary Director at Sundance 2011. Resurrect Dead is an artfully crafted documentary that follows Foy, local musician and artist Justin Duerr, and Steve Weinik and Colin Smith as they try to solve the mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. Appearing on city streets over the past three decades, the Toynbee Tiles consist of hundreds of cryptic messages about resurrecting the dead. The search takes […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Thousands of government organizations and private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence. Last December, The Washington Post reported that this “top-secret world … has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.” On today’s Fresh Air, Washington Post national security reporter Dana Priest, the co-author of both the Post’s investigative series and the book Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security […]
LAUGH BREAK: The Theologians Are Wrong
“I like to think of Jesus with, like, big eagle’s wings, singin’ lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with, like, an angel band, and I’m in the front row, and I’m hammered drunk…” — John C. Reilly as Cal Naughton Jr. in Talladega Nights
WHISTLEBLOWER: The Lunatics Are In The Hall
MIKE LOFGREN*: Thus far, I have concentrated on Republican tactics, rather than Republican beliefs, but the tactics themselves are important indicators of an absolutist, authoritarian mindset that is increasingly hostile to the democratic values of reason, compromise and conciliation. Rather, this mindset seeks polarizing division (Karl Rove has been very explicit that this is his principal campaign strategy), conflict and the crushing of opposition. As for what they really believe, the Republican Party of 2011 believes in three principal tenets I have laid out below. The rest of their platform one may safely dismiss as window dressing: 1. The […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Lady M
[Photo by Mark Valenzuela] BY BRANDON LAFVING FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Fringe shows are, by design, experimental and/or playful, they occupy a space where anything can, and usually does, happen — well, the good ones do, anyway. With this in mind, I walked into the Arts Bank Theater Friday night with the same caution I would exert if I was attending Shamu’s matinee performance at Sea World. Which is to say that under no circumstances would I willingly sit in the ‘splash’ section. Then I saw the stage: A majestic bed and a throne entangled in a dark and twisted web of […]
Q&A With Scott McCaughey Of The Baseball Project
BY JONATHAN VALANIA The knock on rock music since, well, time immemorial is that there’s nothing new under The Big Rock Sun, that it’s all been done before and everything after is just a distant echo of the big bang that ended on or about 1969. The Baseball Project puts the lie to all that. I submit to you that they are doing something that’s never before: An indie rock supergroup that writes catchy songs about the lore and the legends of America’s pastime. If there is an ur-text for the Baseball Project, it’s “Take Me Out To The Ball […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: Georgia On My Mind
[Painting by JEFF DOTTAVIO] NPR SONG OF THE DAY: It’s a little baffling that when Ray Charles originally released Live in Concert in early 1965, its brisk 38-minute duration meant shutting out “Georgia on My Mind.” It was his first concert record since turning Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell’s classic into a No. 1 hit, but what was already well on its way to becoming Charles’ signature song was nowhere to be found until recently, when a expanded reissue restored it to the album’s running order. Counterintuitive though it may be, the song’s absence might be explained by the breathtaking […]
Q&A: Talking Boombox Logic With Kuf Knotz
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD What hip-hop needs are newcomers like Philly’s Kuf Knotz. The man knows his shit, plus he’s got a debut album that absolutely knocks. Boombox Logic is soulful, uplifting and easily the most pleasingly Philly-centric album I’ve heard since the Roots’ 2006 masterpiece Game Theory. Kuf’s not afraid to talk about being a sneaker pimp or have a good time on tracks. His manifesto might as well be “chill, I got this” because he displays a proficiency on the mic that some veterans have yet to achieve. In advance of his appearance tomorrow at the WHYY Connections Festival, […]
WIKLEAKS: U.S. Soldiers Executed Iraqi Children
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS: This cell phone photo was shot by a resident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, of bodies Iraqi police said were of children executed by U.S. troops after a night raid there. Here, the bodies of the five children are wrapped in blankets and laid in a pickup bed to be taken for burial. A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes the U.N. investigator of extrajudicial killings as saying an autopsy showed the residents of the house had been handcuffed and shot in the head, including children under the age of 5. McClatchy obtained the photo from […]
EARLY WORD: The Wichita Lineman’s Long Goodbye
Surfdog Records has announced the upcoming release of Ghost On The Canvas, the remarkable new album from the legendary Glen Campbell. The album – which marks the iconic singer/guitarist/songwriter’s final studio recording – arrives everywhere on August 30th. Sadly, Campbell was recently diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. Ghost On The Canvas sees Campbell capping his brilliant career with one of his most moving and energized works to date, a powerfully emotional song cycle that sees him accompanied by a truly dazzling line-up of songwriters and musicians. Among the tunesmiths contributing original songs to the collection are such modern […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: No Accountability, No Peace
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I just finished reading an excellent New York Times article by the Democrat governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer. In it he pretty much tells it like it is regarding how and why his state has managed to weather the biggest, most heinous financial fraud ever perpetrated on the American people better than most. I confess I haven’t researched all his assertions, but I damn well salute his attitude and incisiveness. It got me thinking about our federal junkyard dog, the GAO (Government Accountability Office), and to what extent it was performing its mandate. At first glance it would appear that […]
EXCERPT: Jagger: Rebel, Rock Star, Rambler, Rogue
[Photo by IAN WRIGHT] BY MARC SPITZ The T.A.M.I. Show was all about showcasing the new. James Brown arrived at the Civic Center and was promptly informed of what the Stones already knew. “I remember James coming up and saying ‘Of course I’m the last act on the bill, right?’ ” says Steve Binder, director of the T. A. M. I. Show. “I told him, ‘No, actually you’re going to be followed by the Rolling Stones.’ James looked at me and smiled and said, ‘Nobody follows James Brown.’ ” […] “After James there was just enough time for the technical […]
Q&A With Philly Homeboy Schoolly D, The Original OG
[Photo by Jonene Taddei] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Deep inside Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik’s 1,400 page ‘manifesto’, “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” in between all the raging Islamophobia, pathological nativism, and bomb-making instructions, the man who killed 77 innocent, unarmed people in cold blood, warns readers of the negative effect that gangsta rap lyrics have on society. In section 2.67 of the PDF version, Breivik includes a slightly bastardized version of John P McWhorter’s 2003 anti-rap diatribe How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back, which singles out a few of the most sensational lines from West Philly native Schooly D’s proto-gangsta […]