PREVIOUSLY ON PHAWKER: Officially OUR FAVORITE SONG OF 2007. Written by Rowland Salley, this version from Raising Sand just fucking slays us every time. And speaking as former teenage Zepheads, it does our heart good to hear Robert Plant doing something we can both be proud of at our advanced age. Seriously, this is as timelessly classic as anything Led Zeppelin ever did. And Alison Krauss is a force of nature. Mark Ribot’s guitar sounds like underwater moonlight piercing the spectral murk of T-Bone Burnett’s elegantly antiqued production. Like butter, it is. Because there was no official video for this […]
200 YEARS AFTER THE BIRTH OF DARWIN: You Still Gotta Fight To Live On The Planet Of The Apes
DAILY MAIL: On the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, professors at Southern Oregon University will devote the week to emphasizing that evolution is more than a theory — it’s hard science.”It’s theory and it’s fact. You can say it’s ‘just a theory’ like the theory that the earth goes around the sun,” says biology professor Charles Weldon, lead speaker of Darwin Week. “In science, a theory is not speculation. It’s supported by mountains of evidence. It’s one of the best supported theories in science.” A century and a half after publication of Darwin’s “On the Origin of […]
WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #8 Just do it, people.
ARTSY: Street Fighting Man
BY ELIZABETH FLYNN Dear anti-snob art nerds: Get your streetwise (but intellectual) ass to the coolest First Friday party in town, Cut Copy – a Stencil Show, tonight at South Philly’s favorite gallery T&P Fine Art! Jon Halperin has curated another amazing group show, consisting entirely of stencil graffiti art. He’s included pieces from some of the biggest names in the genre, two of which, Papermonster and Pure Evil, I talked to about their work and the history of the medium. Halperin says that “Stencil art is my art drug of choice. I’ve been following this scene since […]
OBAMALICIOUS: Reason # 647 Why Obama Is The Best Thing To Happen To The White House Since Lincoln Dreamed Up The Emancipation Proclamation
BOSTON PHOENIX: In his bestselling autobiography, Dreams From My Father, President Obama introduces us to his high school friend, “Ray,” who, like him, is bi-racial. Who, also like him, is casting about to find his place in the world. But, who, unlike him, has a potty mouth that would make a sailor blush. Best of all? When reading the audiobook version of his bio, Obama does impressions of Ray’s manner of speech. Swear words and all. It’s fucking awesome. And it’s a way of talking we probably won’t be hearing from him now that he’s POTUS. Or will we? MORE […]
OH BROTHER, WHERE AM I: Or How An Old School Hardcore Punk Like Me Got Into Old Timey Music
BY BRENDAN SKWIRE How the hell did an old school hardcore punk kid like me get into old timey music?That’s a pretty short story. Even back in the day, I always loved older hardcore better than newer stuff. Youth of Today was fine, but Minor Threat was better (someday i will tell the story of how I made Ian Mackaye lose his temper), and the Sex Pistols was even better than that and so on and so on. The fact is, I’ve always loved old shit, so when I got a little older and my tastes in music began to […]
GAYDAR: Five Reasons Why Rent Must Die
1. Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp Have Nothing Better To Do The main attraction of this particular production of RENT is original cast members Adam Pascal as AIDS-infected guitarist Roger Davis and Anthony Rapp as filmmaker Mark Cohen. For avid RENT fans, it’s a trip down memory lane. For everyone else, it’s men at work. Paschal and Rapp perform with grace and ease, no doubt inspiring the same sense of awe they did during RENT’s first production, perhaps even more so. Whatever. Sitting in the audience, I couldn’t help but think… 2. 1996 Just Called And They Want Their Hip […]
PAPERBOY: Special ‘Gimme Shelter’ Edition
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 […]
TRAGIC: Lux Interior Is Dead
WFMU BLOG: Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, passed away this morning due to an existing heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California at 4:30 AM PST today. Lux has been an inspiration and influence to millions of artists and fans around the world. He and wife Poison Ivy’s contributions with The Cramps have had an immeasurable impact on modern music. The Cramps emerged from the original New York punk scene of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, with a singular sound and iconography. Their distinct take on rockabilly and surf along with their midnight movie imagery reminded […]
OUR STIMULUS PLAN: Buy Death Star, Kill Recession
GIZIMODO: If you had $15.6 septillion and 94 cents in your account, would you save the world from the economic crisis or build a Death Star, destroy the world, and move on to invade the galaxy? A guy called Ryszard Gold—who probably is an alien villain from the Outer Rim planets and got a 49-point score in our Geek Social Aptitude Test—made the calculation of the most basic Death Star’s price with current materials and space transport costs here on Earth. Here’s a quick summary…MORE HOT DOCUMENT: So we just got this email from the White House Press Office outlining […]
AMEN: The Reefer Madness Of American Pot Laws
WASHINGTON POST: Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps and Sheriff Leon Lott of South Carolina’s Richland County are being forced to treat seriously a crime that shouldn’t be one. As everyone knows by now, Phelps was photographed smoking from an Olympic-sized bong during a University of South Carolina party last November. [Sheriff] Lott is threatening action against Phelps because … he has to. Widely respected and admired as a “good guy” who came up through the ranks, Lott is in a jam. Not one to sweat the small stuff, he nevertheless has said that he’ll charge Phelps with a crime if he […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Sarah Chayes first went to Afghanistan to report on the Taliban for NPR, but in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban government in Kabul, she left journalism and dedicated herself to rebuilding the country. She drew on her experiences to write her 2006 book, The Punishment of Virtue. Chayes is an advocate for economic development in Afghanistan, and she founded a cooperative in Kandahar that produces skin-care products from local crops. The cooperative aims to help farmers earn a living from licit crops rather than opium. Chayes joins Fresh Air to explain how the Taliban is using […]
BACKSTORY: Christian Bale Overdrive
AINTITCOOL: You want to hear the REALITY behind that clip? I know this because I happen to be somewhere where someone that was there that day and for the shoot is. And this person isn’t a publicist, nor are they invested in Bale’s career. They’re just someone that thinks it is absolute bullshit that this moment in Bale’s life is being aired and that the real story should get out there. The DP on TERMINATOR SALVATION, Shane Hurlbut, is a apparently a light tweaker. He’s a fairly young DP and likes to fiddle with his lights on set during action, […]