[Illustration by CHRIS MOOLAY] YAHOO: Paul, the oracle octopus who shot to fame in the World Cup this summer for his uncanny ability to predict the results of Germany‘s soccer matches, has died at his home in Oberhausen at the age of two. English-born Paul made headlines across the globe after he correctly forecast how Germany would fare in seven matches, before his psychic powers were tested again for the final. After Germany’s semi-final defeat, Paul tipped Spain to beat the Netherlands in the final, which prompted one news agency to report he had spurred a jump in demand for […]
REALITY CHECK: 8 Commonly Held Voter Fallacies
[via TRUTHOUT] 1) President Obama tripled the deficit. Reality: Bush’s last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama’s first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion. 2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy. Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the “stimulus” was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been. 3) President Obama bailed out the banks. Reality: While many people conflate the “stimulus” with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry […]
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS: Shari’a And The Law
STANLEY FISH: Law professors Rex Ahdar and Nicholas Aroney have now put together a volume, to be published in 2011, under the title “Shari’a in the West,” a collection of learned and thoughtful essays by some of the world’s leading scholars of religion and the law. The volume’s central question is stated concisely by Erich Kolig, an anthropologist from New Zealand: “How far can liberal democracy go, both in accommodating minority groups in public policy, and, more profoundly, in granting official legal recognition to their beliefs, customs, practices and worldviews, especially when minority religious conduct and values are not congenial […]
PLUTOCRACY: The Useful Idiocy Of The Tea Party
MOTHER JONES: It’s unfathomable why a conservative, but still mainstream, business magazine would publish something so reckless, false, and bigoted? For a clue to the answer, consider a data point from the Congressional Budget Office (PDF). If you are in the bottom 80 percent of American households, you’ve gained essentially no economic ground in the past three decades. Those of you lucky enough to be in the top 20 percent ($100,000+) might be heartened by the trajectory of the red line on the chart at right—but sorry: The vast majority of those gains have actually gone to the top 1 […]
SPORTO: It’s Not Easy Being Green
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Sometimes you’ve got to envy the bandwagon fans, the ones that come along in the playoffs and manage to feel (or at least display) almost as much joy from success as the diehards. Their great advantage is that they really don’t care as much about the losses, since they aren’t that emotionally invested in the first place. These kinds of fans were able to look at the TV schedule this weekend, take a look at the weather outside and decide to enjoy one of the last quality weekends of the year. The diehards holed […]
BOOKS: Keef’s Life Sentences
NEW YORK TIMES: “Life” has already attracted undue attention for a schoolyard-sounding anatomical swipe at Mr. Jagger. But this is a book that pulls no punches, and most of its disses are more serious than that. “Cold-blooded” and “vicious” are only two of the more printable words he uses to describe Brian Jones. Allen Ginsberg was an “old gasbag.” Mick Taylor, the former Rolling Stone, “didn’t do anything” after he left the band, and Donald Cammell, the film director (“Performance,” starring Mr. Jagger and Anita Pallenberg, Mr. Richards’s longtime lover and partner in crime), couldn’t commit suicide quickly enough to […]
C’MON GET HAPPY: Today Is ‘Eddie Lang Day’
DAN DELUCA: From Django Reinhardt to Jimi Hendrix, the names that commonly appear on argument-starting lists of the greatest and most influential guitarists of the 20th century are familiar. But there’s one flat-picking virtuoso from South Philadelphia typically left out of the conversation, whose music has receded into obscurity despite a trailblazing career cut short by his tragic death in 1933: Eddie Lang. That’s an injustice an aggregation of local musicians and Lang enthusiasts are doing their best to redress, starting with a multi-act show that will bring Lang’s music to life at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Center City on […]
KANYE WEST: Runaway
24-BIT: The best way, perhaps, to preview Kanye West’s forthcoming album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, would be to check out tonight’s premiere of Runaway, a short film shot in Prague and written by Hype Williams, starring Yeezy himself with model Selita Ebanks as the phoenix and Nicki Minaj narrating. While the film does feature the latest single of the same name, there are a slew of other new (and generally excellent) cuts on the soundtrack. MORE
STILL: It Was A Very Good Year
“‘TIS BETTER TO HAVE LOVED AND LOST, THAN NEVER TO HAVE LOVED AT ALL.” –Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850 RELATED: Not to kick Phillies fans while they are down or anything, but shortly after last night’s season-ending loss to the Giants, Jon Heyman of SI.com tweeted that teammates don’t expect Jayson Werth to return next season. Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Werth is poised to make big money in free agency, especially after hiring Scott Boras as his agent earlier this year. By the way, Boras has already likened his new client to Matt Holliday, another one […]
SAY IT AIN’T MO: Velvet Underground Drummer Explains Why She Joined The Tea Party
RIVERFRONT TIMES: In April 2009, WALB-TV aired a story about a Tea Party rally in nearby Tifton, Georgia. About two-and-a-half minutes into the feature, one “Maureen Tucker, Tea Party Supporter” was quoted as saying, “I’m furious about the way we’re being led toward socialism. I’m furious about the incredible waste of money, when things that we really need and are important get dropped, because there’s no money left.” Eighteen months later, the news story somehow ended up posted on YouTube, and the blogosphere started buzzing. Could this actually be Moe Tucker [pictured, bottom left], former drummer for the Velvet Underground, […]
CINEMA: Heart Of Stone
STONE (2010, directed by John Curran, 105 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC What would it take to rouse Robert DeNiro out of his deep slumber? When did we see last him conscious, maybe the sullen ex-con in 1997’s Jackie Brown, maybe the heist mastermind in 1998’s Ronin? In this past decade it seems that the man who was once America’s most respected actor is most engaged when chasing Ben Stiller around the suburbs in the Meet The Parents franchise. A melancholy autumn of a career indeed. Stone might have perked him up. It’s a chamber piece, […]
REVIEW: Cut Chemist The Sound Of The Police
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD Making music with turntables quite honestly scares the shit out of me. I understand MPC drum programming, vinyl scratching, chopping loops and synth programming. However, mixing a live performance in front of an audience, regardless how rehearsed it may be, is an impossibly difficult task. One small slip-up can ruin an entire set; it’s not like missing a snare drum or hitting the wrong note on the tuba. Musicians with turntable expertise are like circus performers— stellar freaks of nature that leave us staring agape at their wacky hijinks. One such freak of nature is Cut Chemist, […]
IMMIGRANT SONG: From Russia With Love
BY ARTHUR SHKOLNIK My father works harder than anyone else I know. He immigrated to America from Moldova while he was still in his early thirties. He came to this country with nothing more than the clothes on his back, the brain in his head, and the lint in his pockets. His propensity for math and science took him down the career path of an engineer; however the company paying his way through school went belly-up. He never finished his degree, but continued with his craft and became a private contractor and electrician. He never had the option to finish […]