EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an excerpt of a profile of Philly’s own Malcolm Nance, a Naval Intelligence vet turned national security analyst for MSNBC, that I wrote for the current issue of Philadelphia Magazine. PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: Back when Malcolm Nance was in high school and it all got to be too much — the intense academic workload he brought upon himself, the gnawing anxiety about the uncertainty of the future, the big-ass shoes he had to fill as a Nance — he had a favorite place to go to chill, focus and get his head on straight: Independence […]
WORTH REPEATING: Mikey Likes It
via TWITTER GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE CIA & THE NSA: These are truly uncharted waters for the country. We have in the past argued over the values to be applied to objective reality, or occasionally over what constituted objective reality, but never the existence or relevance of objective reality itself. In this post-truth world, intelligence agencies are in the bunker with some unlikely mates: journalism, academia, the courts, law enforcement and science — all of which, like intelligence gathering, are evidence-based. Intelligence shares a broader duty with these other truth-tellers to preserve the commitment and ability of […]
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH: Q&A w/ Gen. Michael Hayden, Ex-Director of The NSA & The CIA
Artwork by DONKEY HOTEY EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally posted on March 14th, 2016 BY JONATHAN VALANIA The irony of people like me having to, by law, inform General Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and NSA, that I was recording our phone conversation may have been long ago lost its amusing resonance for the general, but not for me. Given his faintly Bond villain mein — the fleshy Blofeld-ian dome, the piercing blue-eyed X-ray stare, the indomitable ramrod straight, four-star posture during appearances on cable news and at congressional hearings — and status as the architect of the […]
CINEMA: The End Of The World As We Know It
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (Dir. by Anthony & Joe Russo, 149 min., USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC More than a decade in the making, Avengers: Infinity War is Marvel Studios most ambitious story to date, bringing together the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to take on its greatest threat, the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin), in an apocalyptic fight to the finish. First glimpsed in the post-credit stinger at the end of the first Avengers film and remaining just outside the periphery of our heroes over the course of Phase 2 and Phase 3, the coming of Thanos promises […]
GEEK SQUAD: Where Do We Go From Here?
BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT Avengers: Infinity War is biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. The film throws the heroes of all the previous movies (except Ant-Man) into a slugfest with Thanos. Not only do we see Thanos goes one on one with The Hulk, the Avengers line up alongside the entire army of Wakanda and Spider-Man, Iron-Man and Doctor Strange hang out with the Guardians of the Galaxy but we actually feel for their fight. To recap: We’ve seen The Avengers come together in Phase 1 of the MCU. Then the universe expanded with Guardians of the […]
Win Tickets To See King Krule @ The Fillmore!
THE NEW YORKER: Archy Marshall, the enigmatic South London singer best known as King Krule, is a creature of the night. Known since the age of 15 as a preternaturally wise and unpredictable songwriter, Mr. Marshall, now 23, has assumed the mantle of a bard for the shrouded underclass, churning his anxiety, depression and insomnia into swampy, after-dark tales for the mischievous and disaffected. On songs that mix jazz, punk, dub, hip-hop and the affectations of a zonked-out lounge crooner, he has cut what he calls “gritty stories about the streets” with a “sensitive and romantic side,” aiming to […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: In Aug. 2017, many Americans were shocked to see neo-Nazis and members of the so called alt-right demonstrating in Charlottesville, Va. But author Kathleen Belew says the roots of the rally were actually decades in the making. Belew, who has spent more than 10 years studying America’s White Power movement, traces the movement’s rise to the end of the Vietnam War, and the feeling among some “white power” veterans that the country had betrayed them. “To be clear, I’m not arguing that this is at all representative of Vietnam veterans — this is a tiny, tiny percentage […]
INCOMING: My Bloody Valentine’s Day
My Bloody Valentine return to the stage this summer for the first time since late 2013. The band will tour the United States and play overseas festivals including Robert Smith’s Meltdown in London, Roskilde in Denmark, and Sonicmania in Japan. This is the first stateside run since My Bloody Valentine toured in support of m b v. Tickets will be on sale at www.mybloodyvalentine.org this Friday, April 27th at 10am local time, except for New York, which will be on sale at 11am Eastern. A presale code will be available via Brooklyn Vegan on Thursday, April 26 at 10am Eastern. Listen to Kevin […]
ROLLING BLACKOUTS C.F.: “Talking Straight”
From Hope Downs, out June 15th on Sub Pop.
MESSAGE FROM EARTH: You Are Killing Me
[Via Printwand]
Win Tix To See The Mountain Goats On Monday!
Illustration by JUSTIN LAWRENCE DEVINE NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Stephen Wesley has three unconditional loves: John, Joy, and God, perhaps in that order of importance. God is God, Joy is his girlfriend, and John is John Darnielle, the founder and star of a fairly obscure, critically acclaimed, and obsessively beloved indie-rock band called the Mountain Goats. Wesley believes in a mighty and just God, but sometimes he thinks the man upstairs doesn’t approve of the Mountain Goats. How else to explain Wesley’s Job-like disappointments at previous attempts to see the band live? There was the I.D. problem, for instance, the canceled […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: It’s been almost a year since since James Comey first learned that President Trump had fired him. The former FBI director was in Los Angeles visiting the field office for a diversity event when a ticker announcing his ouster scrolled across the bottom of a TV screen. “I thought it was a scam,” Comey says. “I went back to talking to the people who were gathered in front of me.” But it was true. Comey later told the Senate intelligence committee that he believed he had been fired for leading the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in […]
LINK WRAY: Son Of Rumble
“He’s the king. If it hadn’t been for Link Wray and Rumble, I’d have never picked up a guitar.” – Pete Townshend “Rumble had the power to help me say ‘fuck it,’ I’m going to be a musician.” – Iggy Pop “Link Wray was a huge influence on all modern rock guitar players. If they say he didn’t influence (them), they’re lying!” – Wayne Kramer, MC5 Sixty years ago, legendary guitarist Link Wray released his influential instrumental song “Rumble,” and changed the face and sound of rock and roll forever. The song has now been inducted into the very […]