MOON (2009, directed by Duncan Jones, 93 minutes, U.K.) THE HURT LOCKER (2008, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, 131 minutes, U.S.) SERAPHINE (2008, directed by Martin Provost, 121 minutes, France) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I was trying to recommend an off-the-beaten-track sci-fi film from the last few years for a friend and I was coming up blank. It struck me that nearly all sci-fi films are built to be blockbusters these days, there is no small budget sci-fi just as there is no low budget super hero films, the genre is completely given over to spectacle. This makes Moon, the […]
Black Officer’s Association Sues The Philadelphia Police Department Over ‘Blatantly Racist’ Web Site
INQUIRER: An association of black police officers has sued the Philadelphia Police Department in federal court for allowing its officers to post “blatantly racist . . . and offensive” content on a popular Web site devoted to law enforcement topics. The suit, filed Wednesday, says Domelights.com, which bills itself as “the voice of the good guys,” was founded by a Philadelphia police sergeant who uses the screen name “McQ” and “encourages the racially offensive conduct.” The Guardian Civic League also sued McQ and the 10-year-old Web site, a forum where officers discuss crime news, police gossip, current events and other […]
EYE-RAGEOUS: McDonalds Clerk Blinds Customer Over McFlurry Dispute, Still Works For Burger Giant
CITY PAPER: The shift manager and Rashee Henderson began arguing. The shift manager called Rashee a bitch, said Henderson. In an effort to defuse the situation, Henderson testified, he escorted his wife to the restaurant door and then went back to complete the order. Then, he said, Lewis, who was working the register, threatened him. “This pussy think he tough,” Henderson remembered Lewis saying.”I’m going to knock him the fuck out.” Then Lewis asked the shift manager to punch him off the clock. “Wait a minute, I’ll go get my keys,” Henderson remembered Lewis saying next. At this point, Henderson […]
ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS: California Pot Tax Would Net The Money-Starved State $1.4 Billion
SACRAMENTO BEE: California could see a nearly $1.4 billion per year increase in state revenues were it to legalize marijuana, the state Board of Equalization says in an analysis of pending legislation to to do that. The bill (Assembly Bill 390) by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, is still awaiting its first committee hearing and is likely not to be considered until next year. It would impose not only sales taxes but a $50 per ounce fee on marijuana sales, which would be licensed by the state much as alcoholic beverages are regulated.Today, although considered illegal by federal authorities, California […]
EXCLUSIVE: Let’s All Go Backstage At The Eagles Cheerleader ‘Biolicious’ Bikini Bash! Oh Behave!
[Photos byTIFFANY YOON] DAILY NEWS: The forecast was was hot, hot, hot yesterday as the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders unveiled their latest “eco-sexy” calendar. The entire cheerleading squad showed off bikinis made of recycled soda bottles and organic cotton by designers Aaron Chang and San Natura Organics. MORE
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The New Republic senior editor Jonathan Cohn discusses power players of health care reform, including the insurance lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, the American Medical Association and Congress. Cohn is the author of Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis — and the People Who Pay the Price, in which he makes a case for universal health care coverage through a government-regulated, single-payer system. He writes about health care for The New Republic’s blog The Treatment. RADIO TIMES Hour One A behind the scenes look at how the case against Former State Senator Vince Fumo was built […]
SOUTH STREET ROSHOMON: Police Brutality Or Brought It On Themselves? Depends On Who You Ask
DAILY NEWS: Olivia Cotton, 18, said that she and her sister were on South Street with friends when cops began clearing the crowd. […] “I got punched, kicked; they stomped my head, and they Maced me two times,” she said. “And they Tasered me on my leg.” Her 14-year-old sister was punched in the head and blacked out, said Jonathan James, the pair’s attorney. Cotton’s sister also sustained two long scratches on her breast after her shirt was pulled down during the arrest, James said. Police also sprayed pepper-spray in her mouth and throat, zapped her with a Taser in […]
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 […]
THE RELUCTANT COMMUNIST: The Amazing Tragic Life Of A G.I. Imprisoned In North Korea For 40 Years
LOS ANGELES TIMES: In 1965, Jenkins was a U.S. Army sergeant assigned to the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula, a skinny 24-year-old who was terrified of being sent to what he considered a sure death in Vietnam. One night, after guzzling 10 beers for courage, he abandoned his sense of duty and freedom as he knew it to stumble across the border into North Korea, a desperate midnight maneuver that led to four lost decades in communist captivity. Jenkins quickly became the Pyongyang government’s most prized Cold War pawn. He starred in propaganda movies and memorized the inflated […]
THE TYRANNY OF MINDLESS PLEASURE: George Orwell’s Police State Vs. Aldous Huxley’s Dunce State
[via RECOMBINANT RECORDS] WIKIPEDIA: The book originated with Postman’s delivering a talk to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. He was participating in a panel on Orwell’s 1984 and the contemporary world. In the introduction to his book Postman said that reality was reflected more by Aldous Huxley‘s Brave New World where the public was oppressed by pleasure than Orwell’s 1984 where they were oppressed by pain. Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from the vision offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into bliss and […]
PHAWKER TAWK: Cucu For Cocoa Puffs Diamantes
BY DAVE ALLEN Cucu Diamantes — the Cuban glamazon singer/composer who performs Thursday night at the Kimmel Center — spoke with me from New York, but she was really reporting live from Cuculand. As one who aggressively stirs the melting pot in her work as a singer-songwriter, Diamantes speaks about “Cuculand” not just as her first solo record, but as her homeland, the place from which she operates. It doesn’t seem to have any borders, which makes sense — she’s of Chinese, French, Spanish and African heritage, though Cuban by birth. Diamantes first struck out for this borderless territory with […]
GAYDAR EXTRA: It’s Dumpsta Diving Time Again
Well, it’s that time of the month again. Oh boy, that didn’t come out right. What I meant to say is that Philadephia’s favorite trash-glitz drag troupe, the Dumpsta Players are putting on their monthly showcase of dirty, nasty, salacious satire. This month, it’s “Dial C for Chardonna!” Philly-gone-bad relationships with a Hitchcock lemony-twist of menace and horror. Chardonna Jenkins has been a little careless with her extra-erotic dalliances, as her bellicose beau, Rocco Rigatoni, caught her making whoopee one night with another guy. On a wave of rage, Rocco strikes a deal with Psycho’s Norman Bates to kill each […]
MILITARY-CANNIBAL COMPLEX: Pentagon Orders Flesh-Eating Robots That Use Human Corpses As Fuel
ALTER NET: Thanks to the Pentagon and a Maryland Robotics Company, the robots who inherit the Earth when humanity is wiped out will be able to survive by feasting on the flesh of human corpses! Robotic Technology Inc. has been contracted by the Pentagon to build robots that use biomass fuel; organic material such as “grass, broken wood, furniture, dead bodies”, according to Popular Science. MORE RELATED: The purpose of the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR)™ project is to develop and demonstrate an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling, […]