[Illustration by KING MERINUK/CLICK TO ENLARGE] Upon first listen to The Party Ain’t Over, the Jack White-produced comeback/victory lap by feral-rockabilly-kitten-turned-Born-Again-gospel-pensioner Wanda Jackson, it is tempting to agree with the prevailing CW that White made a fatal strategic error when he opted not to follow the Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash paradigm of less-is-more when it comes to polishing the legacies of Medicare-aged hellraisers. The Third Man Band — which includes White and various Dead Weather/Raconteurs alums — that backs Jackson on Party, is loud and hammy and takes up most of the oxygen on the record. The song choices range from […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In 1854, Sen. Stephen Douglas forced the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. The bill, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, also opened up a good portion of the Midwest to the possible expansion of slavery. Douglas’ political rival, former Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln, was enraged by the bill. He scheduled three public speeches in the fall of 1854, in response. The longest of those speeches — known as the Peoria Speech — took three hours to deliver. In it, Lincoln aired his grievances over Douglas’ bill and outlined his moral, economic, political and legal arguments against slavery. But […]
TONIGHT: Bringing It All Back Home
Despite all the half-arsed, one-hit wonders of the world, there are still those times when you find an album so solidly packed with incredible tunes that it almost re-invigorates your faith the album format. The release of Let Me Come Home by Scotland’s folksy Broken Records is one of those moments. This album is packed with rich influences, most notably Springsteen, and from the sound of things the band has succumbed to the sweet seduction of rock music. Not just any rock music. Given the Boss influence, we are talking big, yearning anthems like “A Leaving Song” and “I Used […]
TIPPING POINT: Gadhafi Regime On The Verge Of Collapse As Deadly Protests Spread To Tripoli
[Illustration by TAMER YOUSSEF] WALL STREET JOURNAL: Violent clashes between protesters and security forces snowballed in cities throughout eastern Libya Sunday, as the country’s leader, Moammar Gadhafi, struggled to crush an uprising aimed at ending his 42-year rule. Human Rights Watch said it had confirmed 173 deaths in protests so far, doubling the group’s toll from Saturday. But Human Rights Watch and doctors in Benghazi said they thought the final death toll would be significantly higher. Protests also sprang up on the outskirts of Libya’s capital of Tripoli for the first time since the unrest began five days ago, according […]
HOT DOC: Teabaggers Plotting To Infiltrate Pro-Union Wisconsin Rallies, Sow Chaos And Hijack Photo Ops
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] Tea Party Express organizer/talk radio host/frequent CNN guest Mark Williams is encouraging Tea Partiers to go to the SEIU home page and sign up for upcoming pro-union rallies at the Wisconsin capitol building, masquerade as a union sympathizer and then behave in a way that would paint protesters as greedy, lazy thugs in the eyes of the media and the general public (SEE BELOW). Last summer Williams was universally reviled (even by the Tea Party) for penning a blatantly racist “open letter” to Abe Lincoln from the “colored people” which chided blacks for “striving for welfare,” […]
CINEMA: Bergman’s Endless Summer
Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 comedy, Smiles of a Summer Night is screening this Saturday at the International House. It was the first of Bergman’s films to receive international acclaim, and was followed by The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. Set in the turn-of-the-century, the film follows four couples exchanging flirtations, promises and partners throughout the course of a chimerical, dimly-lit Scandinavian night. In line with the rest of Bergman’s oeuvre, the film poignantly captures masculine/feminine quips and quarrels with humor and sadness — the banter and witticisms are still spot-on, despite the film’s being over half of a century […]
SIDEWALKING: Kinda Blue
11th and Callowhil 11:30 AM by JEFF FUSCO
How To Look Like A Deficit Hawk By Slapping Around The Hungry & The Needy For Fun & Political Profit
MOTHER JONES: Here’s a chart showing the trajectory of non-defense discretionary spending over the past 50 years. This is basically the spending that’s left over after you take out Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Pentagon, and interest on the national debt. MORE THE ECONOMIST: Here’s a fun fact: non-defense discretionary spending was equal to 3.6% of GDP in 1963. It was also equal to 3.6% of GDP in 2008. It is not behind the increase in government spending as a share of the economy over that time period. It has not made government any less affordable. It is not projected […]
CINEMA: Prairie Home Companionship
CEDAR RAPIDS (2011, directed by Miguel Arteta, 86 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC If you can’t wait for The Hangover 2, Ed Helms has returned to the screen with a solo hangover, playing a child-like insurance agent partying for the first time in Cedar Rapids. Consistently amusing, if too familiar to feel truly inspired, Cedar Rapids pushes the outrageousness, yet never catches you by surprise. Cedar Rapids is directed by the Miquel Arteta, who wrote his acclaimed debut, Star Maps, in 1997. Since then, Arteta has since made character-driven comedies with others scripts, most memorably Mike White, […]
Radiohead Moves Up Release Date Of King Of Limbs
Radiohead have moved up the digital release of their new album “The King Of Limbs” by 24 hours with the album now being sent to those who pre-ordered it earlier this week. It is also available for new orders through www.radiohead.com at a fixed price of $9 for MP3, $14 for WAV. With everything ready on their website, the band decided to bring forward the release rather than wait until the previously announced date of Saturday, Feb 19 to deliver the music. Orders for “The King Of Limbs” “Newspaper Album” special edition are also still being taken at www.radiohead.com . The […]
Ginned Up Wisconsin ‘Budget Crisis’ Is The Gulf Of Tonkin In The GOP’s War On The Middle Class
TALKING POINTS MEMO: Wisconsin’s new Republican governor has framed his assault on public worker’s collective bargaining rights as a needed measure of fiscal austerity during tough times. The reality is radically different. Unlike true austerity measures — service rollbacks, furloughs, and other temporary measures that cause pain but save money — rolling back worker’s bargaining rights by itself saves almost nothing on its own. But Walker’s doing it anyhow, to knock down a barrier and allow him to cut state employee benefits immediately. Furthermore, this broadside comes less than a month after the state’s fiscal bureau — the Wisconsin equivalent […]
COMING ATTRACTION: Next Week, Get Blotto
EDITOR’S NOTE: Next week Phawker will begin publishing installments of Lance Doily’s gonzo memoir BLOTTO: The Outrageous Misfortunes Of A Jersey Beer Truck Driver. We will run a new one every day next week to give readers a sense of what it’s all about and then a new one every Monday after that. Now, here’s Deeney with some of the backstory on Mr. Doily and how his screamingly hilarious memoir came to the attention of Phawker… BY JEFF DEENEY The first question people generally ask me about Phawker’s newest contributor/ Jersey beer truck driver Lance Doily is how the fuck […]
INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO: How To Be A Lobbyist
Hint: When preparing bribes gifts for public officials, always wrap them in cold, hard cash!