It is with great regret that Einstürzende Neubauten announce the cancellation of their planned thirtieth anniversary appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto and New York. While the US Department of Homeland Security did issue approvals for the band’s visas, it was not done in time to secure the appointments at the overseas embassies and consulates that represent the necessary final step in the process. The band members are tremendously disappointed by this turn of events and wish to thank all those fans who purchased tickets for these performances for their support. The band would have loved to do […]
EARLY WORD: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Film: Crispin Hellion Glover with It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine! dir. Crispin Glover, US, 2007, 35mm, 74 mins, color Co-presented by R5 Productions + Joseph A Gervasi Crispin Hellion Glover is an American film actor, director and screenwriter, recording artist, publisher and author. He is well know from such films as Back to the Future, River’s Edge, Charlie’s Angels, Willard, and this year’s Hot Tub Time Machine and Alice in Wonderland. Mr Glover performs his “Big Slide Show Part 1?, a one hour dramatic narration of eight different profusely illustrated books. Following the performance, Mr Glover screens his 35mm […]
THE BIG TAKEDOWN: Wikileaks Domain Name Spiked After Massive Attack; Assange Arrest Imminent
[Illustration by R_SH] ABC: Wikileaks says its website has been shut down by the company providing it with domain name services, as British media reports Scotland Yard could arrest the site’s founder Julian Assange as early as tomorrow. The website’s alphabetical web address no longer exists and is now only accessible through a numerical IP address. The company involved, EveryDNS.net, says it terminated its services because Wikileaks had been coming under “massive” cyber attacks. MORE RELATED: You can still access the WikiLeaks site by going directly to this IP address: http://88.80.2.32 or http://213.251.145.96/ CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Is Assange already under […]
LIFE LESSIONS: With Your Life Coach, AP Ticker
Temporary layoffs? Good times. Easy credit rip-offs? Good times. Ain’t we lucky we got ’em?
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 […]
HEAR YE: Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks
My current fave Sunday-morning-coming-down album, Van’s transcendental 1968 masterwork still holds its secrets all these years later. The converted need no further preaching about Astral Weeks, so it’s the uninitiated I’m reaching out to here. First you need to dispense with the image of Van as the largely irrelevant pot-bellied sourpuss we know today. Flash back to Belfast in the mid-’60s: Van is winding down his tenure as blues shouter for Them — a roughneck collective of bruising whiteboy R&B and flame-throwing garage-punk snarl — ready to make the leap from drunk-up wailer to cosmic poet-seeker. Legend has it that […]
WORTH REPEATING: With Friends Like This…
WASHINGTON POST: For Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder and guiding spirit, it must have been sweet. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was trying to smooth over the embarrassment, while the White House huffed that a criminal investigation was underway. The French government was decrying “the height of irresponsibility,” and Pakistan was reckoning with a rebuke from its traditional patron, Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the pasty-faced Assange, a self-appointed knight-errant who has been doing battle with official secrecy since 2006, was in the shadows somewhere – few knew where – undoubtedly savoring the ruckus caused by WikiLeaks’ exposure of confidential State […]
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE: Confessions Of A Gambling Addict Or How To Lose $18,000 In 36 Hours
BY JAY CASPIAN KANG On one of those steel-skied Manhattan winter mornings, when it seems like the city is encased by a slow-moving ironclad, I was sitting in the back seat of a Mercedes-Benz, eating a hot dog with two new friends. Exactly 44 $100 bills lay folded up in my wallet. I’d just met these two friends, both of whom had seen me pocket the cash, but I wasn’t much nervous. If they robbed me, I would see them again soon enough. As it happened, both were nice kids from Westchester County. I knew nothing about Westchester County except […]
McFadden’s Saloon Settles Racial Discrimination Suit
INQUIRER: The suit contained text messages and e-mails exchanged between managers, including one that declared: “We don’t want black people we are a white bar!” Walt Wyrsta, the general manager who sent the inflammatory texts, was fired after an internal investigation at the restaurant, attorneys for both sides confirmed. His termination was not part of the settlement. […] A consent order entered in federal court requires that McFadden’s hire a human-resources consulting firm to create and enforce nondiscrimination policies. A confidential hotline will be established for employees to report complaints. McFadden’s also will be required to provide quarterly reports on […]
WORTH REPEATING: 8 Reasons Why Comcast Sucks
TIMOTHY KARR: In the past 24 hours Comcast has been exposed committing blatant abuses of its power over all things media. The New York Times reported last night that the cable giant has threatened to block access to the popular online movie service Netflix unless the company that streams its films pays new and extortionate tolls. Earlier in the day, Comcast was caught red-handed trying to smother the marketplace for competitive Internet modems designed for use on its network — a violation of fundamental Net Neutrality principles that allow you to choose what devices you want to use. These are […]
Why Sarah Palin’s North Korea Flub Matters
MITCHELL BARD: Sarah Palin provided prime material for news outlets and comedy programs when she said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Wednesday: “But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.” […] The real story, though, isn’t that Palin said “North” instead of “South.” Let’s be honest: Vice President Joe Biden could have just as easily blown a line like that. No, the real story is that Palin was discussing a complex, precarious, highly dangerous issue as if she were an expert, even though she clearly isn’t. Does anyone outside of Palin’s relatively small group of smitten followers […]
PJ HARVEY: Written On The Forehead
[Illustration by BLACKHAIR] STEREOGUM: PJ Harvey announced her eighth album about a week ago, Let England Shake. It was recorded inside a church in Dorset, England with assistance from producer Flood and musicians Mick Harvey and John Parish. (Parish collaborated with Harvey on 2009’s A Woman A Man Walked By.) She debuted the title track back in April on the BBC, but “Written On The Forehead” is the first proper taste from the album. MORE Written On The Forehead by pjharvey