FRESH AIR Sofia Coppola‘s latest film is about a Hollywood actor who seemingly has it all on the surface. But in between the more public moments of his life, Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is bored and depressed. His life is intellectually and emotionally empty, and he compensates with an endless stream of pills, alcohol and random one-night hookups in his suite at the Chateau Marmont, the Hollywood hotel famous for catering to raucous celebrities. Coppola, who wrote, produced and directed the film, says she wanted to show a side of the movie-star lifestyle that people don’t normally get to see. […]
WORTH REPEATING: How Ricky Gervais Went From Jesus-Loving Christian To Godless Heathen In One Afternoon And Lived Happily Ever After, Amen
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Arrogance is another accusation. Which seems particularly unfair. Science seeks the truth. And it does not discriminate. For better or worse it finds things out. Science is humble. It knows what it knows and it knows what it doesn’t know. It bases its conclusions and beliefs on hard evidence -- evidence that is constantly updated and upgraded. It doesn’t get offended when new facts come along. It embraces the body of knowledge. It doesn’t hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition. If it did, you wouldn’t get a shot of penicillin, you’d pop a leach […]
MEDIA: Brian Howard Stepping Down From CP
THE CLOG: It’s with no small amount of trepidation that I declared today my intention to step down from the editor’s chair at City Paper. As of January 23, I will take over as the editor of two magazines published by local Red Flag Media: Cowbell, a relatively new music magazine with a glossy cover and an indie rock feel, and Grid, an excellent magazine dedicated to creating a sustainable Philadelphia. MORE PHAWKER: First Larry King, and now this — oh, the humanity! In all seriousness, Mr. Howard, you have long been an asset in an industry littered with asses. […]
SPORTO: Miracle In The Meadowlands 2
[Photo by jvc_107] BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUYThat was the craziest game you’ve ever seen. The first contest in NFL history that ended on a game-winning punt return as time expired. The Eagles’ biggest comeback and the most points they’ve ever scored in the fourth quarter (28). That’s six straight wins against the Giants. But let’s not forget that had the Eagles lost that game, Andy Reid would have been barbequed for not throwing the challenge flag on DeSean Jackson’s fourth quarter fumble. The Eagles had momentum at that point and had just started moving the ball, down 24-10. With […]
IGGLES: Bird Top NFC East With Incredible Comeback
RELATED: Jackson scored on a 65-yard punt return on the final play of the game and the Eagles scored 28 points in the final 7:28 to stun the New York Giants 38-31 and take over first place in the NFC East. MORE
REPEALED: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Is Done
NEW YORK TIMES: The Senate on Saturday struck down the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, bringing to a close a 17-year struggle over a policy that forced thousands of Americans from the ranks and caused others to keep secret their sexual orientation. By a vote of 65 to 31, with eight Republicans joining Democrats, the Senate approved and sent to President Obama a repeal of the Clinton-era law, known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a policy critics said amounted to government-sanctioned discrimination that treated gay and lesbian troops as second-class citizens. Mr. […]
LIVE REVIEW: Ghostland Observatory At The Troc
BY PELLE GUNTHER Lasers and Texans and tunes. Oh My! After the opener left the Troc stage Thursday night, the crowd hyped itself up so successfully, that the arrival of Ghostland Observatory’s water bottles brought enough foot stomping and shouting to make a football stadium blush. To even greater applause, the band stepped onto the stage, frontman Aaron Behrens clad in black, ball-crusher jeans, a black t-shirt and slick black shades to match; synth god Thomas Turner flaunting a vampire-esque cloak adorned with the Texas state flag. The band stood perfectly still. Blue lasers flooded the scene in a brilliant […]
RIP: Captain Beefheart, Bat Chain Puller, Dead At 69
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Avant-garde rock legend and visual artist Don Van Vliet, who performed under the name Captain Beefheart, passed away today at age 69. A representative of New York City’s Michael Werner Gallery, which hosted several shows of his paintings, confirms the sad news to EW. Van Vliet died of complications from multiple sclerosis at a hospital in Northern California this morning. MORE ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, blues-braying Tasmanian Devil, industrial-strength surrealist, poet, painter, visionary, charlatan. Of all the people waving the freak flag in the ’60s, Captain Beefheart and the revolving-door personnel of his Magic Band waved it […]
THE COLONEL REMEMBERS: Me & Keef
BY COLONEL TOM SHEEHY The year 2010 will go down as a very industrious year for The Rolling Stones. Even though there was no world wide tour, or a new album, the lads were very active in this recent past. For example, they released a newly remastered version of Exile On Main Street which included previously unreleased tracks, all of which were issued in support of the debut of Stones in Exile, a documentary of the making of the album they recorded in Keith’s basement in France, at a time when the band pulled up roots from the United Kingdom […]
MUST SEE TV: Yogi Bear (Alternate Ending)
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Yogi Bear “alternate ending” video that took the Internet by storm yesterday is the handiwork of New York-based animator Edmund Earle, whose 3-D modeling and animation work can be seen on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and elsewhere. But when he saw the trailer for Yogi Bear, his attention turned to pic-a-nics. And … brutality. We caught up with Earle to ask him about Boo Boo, shotguns, and his rise to viral video fame. “This started in September, when they released the trailer, and it seemed ripe for parody,” Earle says. “It’s a sad trend to […]
Q&A: With All Good Things Director Andrew Jarecki
BY CAROLINE SCHMIDT Director Andrew Jarecki is best known for Capturing the Friedmans, the acclaimed 2003 documentary that chronicled the 1989 pedophilia and sexual abuse scandal that resulted in the incarceration of Arnold Friedman and his son. The film examined the convoluted ambiguities of the Friedman case, and exposed the glaring failures of the justice system. The case was reopened this year after the Federal appeals court handling the case watched the documentary. Now Jarecki has trained his camera lens on another lurid criminal case that cries out for closure, if not justice, years after passing through the legal system. […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Robin D.G. Kelley’s newest book is Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. In focusing on the career of the eccentric jazz pianist and composer, Kelley reveals new details about Monk‘s life, music and mental health problems, and provides a glimpse into the New York jazz scene of the mid-twentieth century. Kelley’s book traces Monk’s music journey from childhood piano lessons to late night concerts in the Village and offers a behind-the-scenes view of historic recording sessions for classic albums like Brilliant Corners and Monk’s Music. Robin D.G. Kelley is a Professor of American Studies […]