BY JONATHAN VALANIA Where Of Montreal recreated the songs of its extant albums with note-perfect clarity, opening act Janelle Monae’s set was a hot mess and I don’t mean that in a good way. Hard to say if it was the soundman’s ham-fisted jiggering of the mixing board faders or the Electric Factory’s notoriously unforgiving acoustics, or some combination of the two, but Monae’s much-anticipated set was an inchoate blur of sound, rendering standout tracks from her deservedly-acclaimed major label debut The ArchAndroid all but indecipherable. Even when the rest of the band left the stage and Monae duetted with […]
CINEMA: I’m Not There
NEW YORK TIMES: CASEY AFFLECK wants to come clean. His new movie, “I’m Still Here,” was performance. Almost every bit of it. Including Joaquin Phoenix’s disturbing appearance on David Letterman’s late-night show in 2009, Mr. Affleck said in a candid interview at a cafe here on Thursday morning. “It’s a terrific performance, it’s the performance of his career,” Mr. Affleck said. He was speaking of Mr. Phoenix’s two-year portrayal of himself — on screen and off — as a bearded, drug-addled aspiring rap star, who, as Mr. Affleck tells it, put his professional life on the line to star in […]
REEFER MADNESS: 858,408 Arrested In 2009
ALTERNET: Police prosecuted 858,408 persons for marijuana violations in 2009, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The arrest total is the second highest ever reported by the FBI, and marks a 1.3 percent increase in the number of arrests reported in 2008 (847,864). According to the report, marijuana arrests now comprise more than one-half (approximately 52 percent) of all drug arrests reported in the United States. A decade ago, marijuana arrests comprised just 44 percent of all drug arrests. Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 88 percent (758,593 Americans) were charged with […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Thirteen Dumbest Things Delaware Senate Candidate Christine O’Donnell Said
1. On masturbation: 2. On oil seepage: 3. On Creationism: MORE HERE RELATED: If she were alive during The Holocaust and was hiding Jews in her house and the Nazis came and asked if she was hiding any Jews in her house, she could not tell a lie, because she never tells a lie. MORE
HOT DOC: Anarchist Cookbook Author Wants His Bomb-Making Guide Taken Out Of Print
From the Author I have recently been made aware of several websites that focus on The Anarchist Cookbook. As the author of the original publication some 30 plus years ago, it is appropriate for me to comment. The Anarchist Cookbook was written during 1968 and part of 1969 soon after I graduated from high school. At the time, I was 19 years old and the Vietnam War and the so-called “counter culture movement” were at their height. I was involved in the anti-war movement and attended numerous peace rallies and demonstrations. The book, in many respects, was a misguided product […]
SECURED LENDERS: Inquirer/Daily News Only Worth Half Of What They Were Worth Five Months Ago
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The price of newspapers appears to be falling in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News go back on the auction block next week, after creditors walked away from a planned $139 million bankruptcy sale this week. The bank and hedge fund creditors who won the April auction vow to prevail again. But they say the sale price may drop by half, given changing economics of the deal. “My secured lenders are saying to me, ‘The economics have changed. This is not the same situation,’” lawyer Fred Hodara told Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich. In exchange, […]
SEPARATED AT BIRTH: Always Sunny Let’s It Be
Always classier than a can of wine the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia soundtrack is out now! Heinz Kiessling’s “Temptation Sensation” (the show’s theme), kicks off our trip to Cheese World and is followed by a veritable gold mine of martini-drenched, retro-chic cochlear candy straight out of everyone’s favorite show. A word of caution for fans of today’s popular music: these ultra-loungetastic sounds from yesteryear are gonna kick your ass so hard they’ll leave you begging for mercy and praying for health insurance. Temptation Sensation by SusanBlondInc
TONITE: Everybody Must Get Stoned
WIKIPEDIA: Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones is a concert movie featuring the British rock band The Rolling Stones that was first released in 1974. Directed by Rollin Binzer and produced by Binzer and Marshall Chess, it was filmed in 16mm by Bob Freeze and Steve Gebhardt (Butterfly Films owned by John Lennon) during 4 shows in Ft. Worth and Houston, Texas during the band’s 1972 North American Tour in support of their classic 1972 album Exile on Main St.. A digital re-mastered version of the film is being shown in the UK at selected Showcase Cinemas locations on Friday […]
DR. DOG: Shadow People
PREVIOUSLY: Q&A With Toby Leaman of Dr. Dog *
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 […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Pavement At The Mann
UPDATE: We have a winner! Congrats to Vince Pennline who was the first to email us with the correct answer to our question about what happened to ‘the second drummer’ — he drowned, of course, as per the lyrics of “Cut Your Hair.” Thanks to all for playing, and stay tuned for more groovy concert ticket giveaways on a Phawker near you. After years of speculation, the most important American band of the Nineties is returning to the stage with the lineup of Mark Ibold, Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West reuniting for dates around […]
This Is Your State Government’s Brain On Terrorism
INQUIRER: Gov. Rendell said Tuesday that he was “appalled” and “embarrassed” that his administration’s Office of Homeland Security has been tracking and circulating information about legitimate protests by activist groups that do not pose a threat to public safety. Rendell said he did not know that the state Office of Homeland Security had been paying an outside company to track a long list of activists, including groups that oppose drilling in the Marcellus Shale, animal-rights advocates, and peace activists. The office then passed that information on to large groups of people, including law enforcement and members of the private sector. […]