TAKING WOODSTOCK (2009, directed by Ang Lee, 110 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The legacy of the Woodstock concert continues to be a point of contention 40 years later. The counter-cultural revolution embodied by the Three Days of Peace & Music has become conservative shorthand for “the excesses of the 60s” (a phrase even Obama has been known to use), a point-of-view perhaps best exemplified cinematically by the film Forrest Gump, where all the characters who seek self-knowledge in the sixties and seventies are struck down by insanity and disease. The new film by director Ang […]
RAW TAPE: When Pensioners Attack!
The father of Bonnie Sweeten, a Pennsylvania woman who faked her own abduction and fled to Disney World flipped out after her sentencing yesterday and sent two cameramen to the hospital.
MONSTER’S BLOG: Man Who Kidnapped Girl For 18 Years, And Fathered Two Children With Her, Blogged
NEWS10 SACRAMENTO: News10 has found the blog of Phillip Garrido [pictured, above], one of the suspects in the 1991 abduction of Jaycee Dugard. He calls it “Voices Revealed” and you can click here to read it. On the blog Garrido has posts covering different facets of religion: from his ability to speak in tongues to explaining why people hear voices in their head. MORE CBS NEWS: According to a Thursday press conference by California law enforcement officials, Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped at the age of 11 in 1991, has been kept in a rudimentary shed in the backyard […]
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 […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Writer and director Quentin Tarantino discusses his new film, Inglourious Basterds, which blends elements of the spaghetti western with those of World War II films. Tarantino’s other films include Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill films. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 We devote the hour to the life and work of Senator Edward Kennedy. Our guests include historians ROBERT DALLEK and JULIAN ZELLIZER. Then, Washington Post political reporter DAN BALZ joins us to talk about the Kennedy’s influence in politics and in the Congress. Hour 2 Vogue has set the standard for fashion and fashion magazines for […]
THIS JUST IN: Judge Approves Vick Bankruptcy Plan
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A judge in Virginia has approved a plan for Michael Vick to repay $20 million to his creditors and emerge from bankruptcy. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro approved the plan Thursday on the condition that Vick retain a personal financial planner to manage his future earning with the Philadelphia Eagles. Santoro says while Vick is “at the pinnacle of his profession,” he has proven unable to manage his finances in the past. The plan was overwhelmingly approved in a ballot of creditors. After the hearing, Vick was scheduled to return to Philadelphia to make his debut with the […]
ONION TV: Does Using A Minotaur To Gore Terror Suspects Constitute Torture?
Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?
THE EARLY WORD: Black Mirror
[Click to activate Internets] ARCADE FIRE: Black Mirror Arcade Fire • Black Mirror (Official Video) from Tracy Maurice on Vimeo. Arcade Fire- Black Mirror from Tracy Maurice on Vimeo.
STOP THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK: State Senate OKs Bankruptcy-Averting Sales-Tax Hike For Philadelphia
[Illustration by JOHN HENDRIX] INQUIRER: With solid support from the Philadelphia delegation, the state Senate moved yesterday to break a summerlong deadlock over letting the city raise its sales tax to avoid what Mayor Nutter terms a financial “doomsday.” On a 38-9 vote, the Republican-controlled Senate approved a bill that would allow the city to increase the sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent, and also to defer $230 million in employee pension costs for two years. Mayor Nutter, speaking to reporters atop a marble staircase in the Capitol, made it clear he didn’t like everything in the bill […]
RIP: Pop Songstress Extraordinaire Ellie Greenwich
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Ellie Greenwich emerged as a songwriter when America itself was on the cusp of everything, a whole set of conventions unspooling under the power of rock ‘n’ roll, the civil rights movement and the incipient counterculture. Her American polyglot upbringing prepared Greenwich, who died today at age 68 of a heart attack, for what she became: one of the great sound alchemists who turned the ambiguities of youth into the essence of American pop. Able to sing, arrange and produce as well as pen indelible hits, Greenwich found her artistic home within New York’s Brill Building, where […]
FUNNY PAGES: Get Ready To Ruuuuuuuuumble!
[By Brian McFadden via BIGFATWHALE.COM] PREVIOUSLY: THE TOWNHALL TEMPER TANTRUMS WILL BE TELEVISED PREVIOUSLY: TEABAGGED: ‘Outrage’ At Constitution Center Staged By Goon Squad Hired By Lobbyists For Big Medical PREVIOUSLY: Wall St. Dancing On The Grave Of The Public Option
PHAWKER TAWK: W/ The Vivian Girls
BY BRITTNEY BARRETT Named after the slippery hermaphroditic heroines of Henry Darger‘s The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, the Vivian Girls have built a burgeoning career out of channeling the same sense of adventure and exploration possessed by their namesakes. That’s about as far as the comparisons — given that Darger is best known for his winding, 15,000 page bizarro epic, the girls are defined by their emotional realism and punk-rock brevity, speeding through their debut in a flurry […]
MUST SEE TV: Breakfast At Sulimay’s
This week the wrecking crew reviews new music from Amanda Blank and Radiohead. NPR: In the back booth of Sulimay’s Restaurant in Philadelphia, you’ll regularly find three saucy old-timers. Between them, they’ve lived almost 100 years in Philadelphia’s Fishtown, but these three aren’t just fixtures of the neighborhood diner scene. Ann Bailey, Bill Able and Joe Walker have become surprisingly popular — as pop music critics. As Walker, 84, explains, “It is the music of the age — it is the music of the young people. And it’s what they’re going to remember years from now, with nostalgia. I don’t […]