Thieves of Baghdad Evening Lecture and Annual Loren Eiseley Society Dinner Wednesday March 31, 2010, 6:00 pm In 2003, following the pillaging of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the United States dispatched a highly specialized multi-agency task force to the site to determine what happened and how to recover as many stolen artifacts as possible. U.S. Marine Colonel and New York Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, who holds a master’s degree in Classics from Columbia University, volunteered to lead that investigation. Colonel Bogdanos describes his team’s recovery of thousands of history’s most priceless antiquities, details the ongoing efforts of the […]
CINEMA: The Incredibly Strange World Of Marwencol
LA WEEKLY: I came to the SXSW Film Festival this year at the invitation of the film festival, to serve on its Documentary Feature jury. At tonight’s awards ceremony, I was proud to present our Grand Jury Prize to Marwencol, Jeff Malmberg’s documentary on Mark Hogencamp, an artist/alcoholic left with brain damage after a bar brawl, who deals with his disability by creating and photographing a 1/6th scale WWII-era Belgian town in his backyard, populated by Barbie-doll surrogates for himself and other members of his real world. Marwencol stood out from the competition pack for a number of reasons, but […]
THIS JUST IN: Broken Bells At The E-Factory 6/6
NASTY LITTLE MAN: In the wake of their new band’s self titled Columbia Records debut charting at #7 and selling just shy of 50,000 in its first week (and reaching as high as #1 on iTunes), James Mercer and Brian Burton a/k/a Danger Mouse have confirmed Broken Bells first ever tour. In addition to being the year’s highest charting debut album by an alternative/rock band, Broken Bells’ has met with an insanely and unanimously positive critical receptionThe mere handful of shows the band has played to date have fared likewise, selling out as quickly as tickets could be processed, and […]
Don’t Eat The Brown Acid Or The Crab Cakes At WCL
Last night Dumpstaphunk from New Orleans played at the World Cafe. Rebirth Brass Band opened the show and were finished playing at 8:30. There was an hour and fifteen minute wait before Dumpstaphunk came on. The reason? Drummer Raymond Weber apparently ate a crab cake at the World Cafe for dinner and became violently ill. He played a few songs and left the stage in the middle of one number which became a labored jam. A replacement drummer was brought out for a few uninspired songs. Weber returned for the remainder of the show. — MATTHEW LOWE RELATED: Dumpstaphunk has really grown […]
ORDINARY PEOPLE: Even He-Man Puts His Codpiece On One Leg At A Time, Just Like Everybody Else
YOU FAIL: I’ve been ridiculously excited about this ever since I was invited to participate months ago.. Opening on January 8th, Gallery 1988 LA presents their 4th annual tribute show, this time honoring He-Man and the Masters of the Universe!! Being a super-ultra-mega fan from 1983-85, followed by a brief few months in ‘86, where I thought I might actually be She-Ra, you can imagine the fun I had painting these. This is how I envision He-Man and Skeletor spending their days off; trimming the bowl cut and getting a root canal.. a very evil one. MORE
DRILL, BABY, DRILL: Obama To End Longstanding Ban On Offshore Domestic Oil Drilling
[Artwork by FREAKING NEWS] NEW YORK TIMES: The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday. The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering […]
Everything You Know About Flash Mobs Is WRONG
[Photos by AL IN PHILADELPHIA] BY JEFF DEENEY So late last week the flash mob story broke national, and the middle class is freaking out about poor black teens using new technologies to organize riots that threaten white business districts, even though now it seems there was never a flash mob to begin with. You’ve heard all kinds of commentary from a thousand white journalists who have never spoken to black teenagers in the neighborhoods except maybe when taking statements in court for a story, and seen bloggers who are equally distanced from urban poverty jumping in front of cameras […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Age Of Treason
MOTHER JONES: There are scores of patriot groups, but what makes Oath Keepers unique is that its core membership consists of men and women in uniform, including soldiers, police, and veterans. At regular ceremonies in every state, members reaffirm their official oaths of service, pledging to protect the Constitution—but then they go a step further, vowing to disobey “unconstitutional” orders from what they view as an increasingly tyrannical government. Pray (who asked me to use his middle name rather than his first) and five fellow soldiers based at Fort Drum take this directive very seriously. In the belief that the […]
MUST SEE TV: Chatroulette Piano Improv Challenge
WARNING: This is very fucking funny, so only watch if you like to laugh. If you don’t like to laugh and you watch this, you may be very disappointed.
EARLY WORD: The Invisible History Of North Broad
FLICKR: Broad Street Station (demolished) at Broad & Market Streets was the primary passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1881 to the 1950s. Directly west of City Hall, the office towers of Penn Center now occupy the site. Originally designed by Wilson Brothers & Company in 1881, Broad Street Station was dramatically expanded by renowned Philadelphia architect Frank Furness, 1892-93. In 1894, the PRR relocated its headquarters from Fourth Street to the office building above the station, where they remained until moving to the Suburban Station Building in the 1930s. It was finally demolished in […]
NOW ON DVD: Fantastic Mr. Fox
[Artwork by ZOLTRON] FRESH AIR: Director Wes Anderson has worked on many movies — The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore among them — but Fantastic Mr. Fox is his first animated film. The movie, released on DVD this week, uses miniature animal puppets and miniature sets, animated through stop-motion photography to create a visually amazing world. MORE DAN BUSKIRK: One hates to agree with such braggadocios bluster but yes, that Mr. Fox is quite fantastic. Director Wes Anderson (known for creating painstakingly mounted neurotic whimsy like The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited) takes an unexpected […]
LIFE LESSONS: A.P. Ticker’s Cure For Pains In The Ass
With your life coach, A.P. Ticker.