PREVIOUSLY: Amongst people who like that sort of thing, Colin Meloy — ringleader of the Portland-based folk-pop collective The Decemberists – is the most satisfyingly literary songwriter to emerge from the most recent crop of indie-rock luminaries. Others find his tune-smithing to be cloying and contrived, like an English class apple-shiner who always makes sure his essay question answers always incorporate alliteration and onomatopoeia, and at least three examples of simile and metaphor, just because he can. A bookish, blocky man with an owlish countenance and the physique of chatroom habitue, Meloy writes songs that could best be described as […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See GBV At Penn’s Landing
Guided By Voices perform Friday June 17th at Penns Landing w/ Wavves. Tickets go sale Saturday (April 16th) at noon. We have a pair of tickets to give away to the first Phawker reader that can answer the following trivia question: In the mid-90s, Guided By Voices played a secret show Khyber Pass under what name? Email your answer to FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the phrase ‘GB Fucking V’ in subject line. Please include a day time phone number for confirmation. Good luck and Godspeed! UPDATE: We have a winner! Thanks all for playing and stay tuned for more groovy concert ticket […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Kelly Reichardt‘s frontier drama Meek’s Cutoff opens in the year 1845, on the wide-open plains of Oregon, where a wagon team of three families has set out on a journey along the Oregon Trail. After their guide, a suspicious man named Stephen Meek, tells them about a shortcut across the Oregon desert, the settlers, led by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano, become lost. Reichardt and Williams join Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross for a discussion about the film, a dusty Western with long, sweeping shots of the landscape and virtually no dialogue. Reichardt, known for her naturalistic films, says […]
EARLY WORD: Get A Grip
BY BARRY GUTMAN Let me be the first to wish you a very merry Record Store Day! For those not in the know, it’s happening this Saturday, so get in front of it before it gets behind you. Now that we’ve sorted that out, the question is where should you go after scoring all of that sweet, sweet limited edition vinyl booty? Take a tip from Little Steven Van Zandt, and head over to World Café Live Upstairs for a 10:30 p.m. set by Highland Park, NJ’s finest, The Grip Weeds. “We like to mix it up in Jersey, and […]
STYLE COUNCIL: Wearing Your Heart On Your Sleeve
Penn’s 4:20 Club has unveiled this year’s T-shirt design for 4/20, which has become something like the one day Mardi Gras of marijuana. You don’t have to be an Ivy League stoner dress like one. You can order one HERE. RELATED: Gov. Brian Schweitzer vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have repealed the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law. Mr. Schweitzer, a Democrat, vetoed the Republican-backed measure along with several others he called “frivolous, unconstitutional or in direct contradiction to the expressed will of the people of Montana.” MORE RELATED: Arizona’s medical-marijuana law takes effect today, but patients already have […]
Obama ’08 Travels Forward Through Time To Eviscerate The Republican’s 2012 Budget Plan
PRESIDENT OBAMA: A serious plan doesn’t require us to balance our budget overnight – in fact, economists think that with the economy just starting to grow again, we will need a phased-in approach – but it does require tough decisions and support from leaders in both parties. And above all, it will require us to choose a vision of the America we want to see five and ten and twenty years down the road. One vision has been championed by Republicans in the House of Representatives and embraced by several of their party’s presidential candidates. It’s a plan that aims to […]
TONITE: Get Your Civil War On
In 1861, 11 states seceded from the Union, wrote a new Constitution, and formed the Confederate States of America. Marking the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, historian Adam Goodheart joins the National Constitution Center on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. to share what’s been called ”an evocative re-interpretation of the Civil War’s beginnings.” Admission to the event at the Center is FREE, but reservations are required and can be made by calling 215.409.6700 or online at the NCC web site. Goodheart’s visit coincides with the release of his new book, 1861: The Civil War […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Great American Shame
EDITOR’S NOTE: OK, admittedly it’s not a very original title, but it IS accurate. William C. Henry is better known to me as ‘Uncle Bill.’ He’s always been a man of strong opinions and a persuasive argument-maker, but I was a little surprised to learn — after re-connecting with him after a prolonged period of radio silence — that his current perspective so closely mirrors that of Phawker. Which is refreshing, to say the least, since most (white) people seem to turn into Fox News zombies when they get to be his age (early 70s, FYI). Not Uncle Bill. It […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Tina Fey grew up in a household with parents she has described as “Goldwater Republicans with pre-Norman Lear racial attitudes.” But, she says, her parents were always supportive of her career, even when she told them she was moving to Chicago to start a career in improv. “To their credit, they never said, ‘You like entertainment. Are you sure you don’t want to be an entertainment lawyer?’ ” she tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “[They understood] me wanting to pursue this before I had commitments, before I had a family. And I think they knew that neither my […]
AP TICKER: ‘This Is Why Rome Fell’
AP weighs in on the budget puppet show, explaining why the Republicans are such dicks and the real reason the Dems let them be such dicks. All part of his unfolding Unified Theory Of Everything That’s Wrong With America. Here’s brief excerpt: The GOP has managed to turn a lie into a truth simply by repeating it over and over again until it becomes received wisdom: We need to cut spending to create jobs. That’s their mantra. And that is exactly the opposite of the truth. The Congressional budget office estimated that if the Republicans get all the cuts they […]
COMEUPPANCE: Stephen Colbert’s Outrageous Tweets About Jon Kyl Are ‘Not Intended To Be Factual’
After lowering the boom on Arizona Senator Jon Kyl (SEE BELOW) for declaring on the floor of the Senate that 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortions — when in fact abortion accounts for only 3% of the medical services it provides — and then, after he was called on it, issuing a statement saying the 90% thing was “not intended to be a factual statement,” Stephen Colbert has been going after Kyl on Twitter. Every hour for the last 24 hours, @StephenAtHome has been tweeting ludicrously scurrilous allegations about Kyl as part of a likeminded thread called #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement. […]
TONITE: Bill Hicks Died For Your Sins
JOSH GOLDBLOOM: Bill Hicks is the greatest comedian you may have never heard of. He did his first professional gig when he was 15. By 19 he was represented by the William Morris Agency. He toured 300 nights a year, every year. And, by 1994, Hicks was dead, aged 32. If you have no idea who Bill Hicks is, I implore you to seek out his work. Go to YouTube and watch every bit of his stand-up you can find. With a razor-sharp mind and a butcher’s knack for finding the soft underbelly of American society, stand-up comic Bill Hicks […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The first shots of the American Civil War were fired 150 years ago in the Charleston, S.C., harbor. Less than two days later, Fort Sumter surrendered. It would take the Union army nearly four years to bring the coastal fortification back under its command. On Fresh Air, historian Adam Goodheart explains how national leaders and ordinary citizens responded to the chaos and uncertainty in the days and months before and after the struggle at Fort Sumter, an almost-bloodless two-day battle that became the start of the Civil War almost by mistake. “[At Fort Sumter] the Southerners thought that […]