SOURCE CODE (2011, directed by Duncan Jones, 93 minutes, U.S.) CERTIFIED COPY (2010, directed by Abbas Kiarostami, 106 minutes, France/Italy) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I thought I knew who Duncan Jones was. His biography fit the story so well, of course the son of David Bowie, once known as “Zowie Bowie,” would reveal himself to be a science fiction director distracted by ideas of identity, much like his father who so famously shifted between personas. His 2009 debut Moon, was the quintessential “promising debut;” a low-budget throwback to a science fiction of ideas and not mere spectacle, telling the […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
CINEMA: Let It Rainn
SALON: Gunn has described “Super” as an adaptation of William James’ “The Varieties of Religious Experience,” complete with superhero costumes and comic violence, and he’s not kidding about that nearly as much as you’d think. Another way of translating it might be to say that Gunn has taken the loser-hipster characters from “Ghost World” and transported them into the splatterific, grade-C genre universe of Troma Films. “Super” stars Rainn Wilson (best known as Dwight from TV’s “The Office”) as Frank, a hapless fry cook in some nameless, R. Crumb-style Middle American city. […] [A] divine intervention leads Frank to buy […]
ANNIVERSARY: YouTube Turns 100!
Man, time flies. Seems like it was just yesterday that YouTube started but here we are 100 years later.
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
ALL SONGS CONSIDERED This week, All Songs Considered hands the reins to acclaimed experimental musician Noah Lennox, a.k.a. Panda Bear. Lennox made the trip down to NPR’s Washington, D.C. headquarters while on a visit to his hometown of Baltimore. He sat down with host Bob Boilen to talk about his upcoming album Tomboy (out April 12). Lennox began by naming some of the albums that grabbed his attention in his youth, Nirvana‘s Nevermind being a particular touchstone. But he quickly moved on to contemporary picks by musicians from his extended artistic circle, including Mississippi songwriter Dent May, reclusive electronic maestro […]
TWIT STORM: DN And Philadelphia School District Going Mano-A-Mano On Twitter Over Today’s Cover
@Phillyeducation is worried the cover will inspire copycat chainsaw massacres in the schools. @PhillyDailyNews is all like ‘wha?’ And it just goes downhill from there. Read all about HERE RELATED: OP-ED: Time For Queen Arlene To Vacate The Throne
ARTSY: Our First Friday Picks
BY CAROLINE SCHMIDT Friday April first we can celebrate the birthday of Milan Kundera, Otto von Bismarck, Method Man and Edgar Wallace. We can shed a tear for Marvin Gaye, who died, a day before his birthday. Here are our top five places to do this, in no particular order. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be romantically involved with Charles M. Shulz (okay, I hadn’t, until I heard about this show) look no farther. Space 1026‘s April event This is a Love Letter is a collection of nearly one hundred letters written by Shulz over […]
Study Finds Pennsylvania Has The Highest Percentage Of Structurally Deficient Bridges In The Nation
A just-released study by Transportation for America says 26.5% percent of Pennsylvania’s bridges – or roughly 6,000 – have critical structural problems, earning the Keystone State the distinction of being The Most Dangerous State In The Union To Drive Across A Bridge. Don’t expect that to change any time soon. “Are we trying to … find the funds for it? Yes. But I will go back, and you’ve heard me say it repeatedly: we inherited a $4.3 billion deficit that we have to resolve,” Governor Tom Corbett told Newswork’s Scott Detrow. In the meantime, we might want to start equipping […]
TONITE: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Impersonating The Band hasn’t been a decently-paying gig since Scorsese filmed The Last Waltz in 1976, but judging by the full-up crowd at the Trocadero last time they came through town back in 2009 The Felice Brothers seem to be on their way. Actually, ‘impersonating’ sounds a little too dismissive and I like these guys, so let’s go with ‘evoking’ or ‘carrying on the old, weird Americana tradition’ of the Band instead. Besides, they have the pedigree (hail from upstate New York, sons of a carpenter) they’ve paid their dues (busked in the subways of New York; went acoustic at […]
MEGADITTOES: Enough With The Panthers Already!
DAVE DAVIES: I wish I knew how many hundreds of thousands of federal tax dollars have been spent investigating the New Black Panther Philadelphia voter intimidation case. We can add a few more, now that the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has completed its review of the department’s handling of the matter. On election day in 2008, a pair of African-American guys wearing berets stationed themselves in front of a North Philadelphia polling place, calling themselves “security.” One of them had a nightstick. Though the beret boys didn’t interfere with ingress or egress from the polling place and not […]
ABOMINATION: Two More Priests Put On Shit List
INQUIRER: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that two retired priests have been placed on administrative leave while it reviews allegations that they have engaged in inappropriate behavior with minors. The two men join 24 other priests suspended by Cardinal Justin Rigali since the Februrary 10 release of a grand jury report on predatory priests in the archdiocese. MORE RELATED: A Philadelphia grand jury report released in February alleges that the man, identified as “Ben,” had approached church investigators in 2007 with claims of repeated fondling and abuse by a priest at St. Mark during the 1970s. “Ben” had been […]
SIDEWALKING: Popo NYC
Times Square, 3:15 PM Tuesday by JEFF FUSCO
FLEET FOXES: Grown Ocean
From Helplessness Blues, out May 3rd. ROBIN PECKNOID, SINGER-SONGWRITER, FLEET FOXES: Hey, my name’s Robin and I’m a singer in and songwriter for Fleet Foxes, here to write the promotional biography meant to accompany and explain Helplessness Blues. I’m just going to write down some thoughts I have about the album and give you some context. Let’s do this. So, for a bit of background: we’re from Seattle, and the members of the band are me, Skye Skjelset, Josh Tillman, Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo, and now our buddy Morgan Henderson, who helped out on the album and will join the […]