BY JONATHAN VALANIA Glen Matlock was the original bass player in the Sex Pistols, and he was also one the band’s principal songwriters — all the classic Pistols tunes (“Anarchy In The UK,” “God Save The Queen” “Pretty Vacant”) bear his imprimatur. So why haven’t you heard of him? Because he left the band — whether he quit or was fired depends on who you ask — just before the Pistols went supernova and was replaced by human car wreck Sid Vicious whose onstage self-mutilation, epic dope appetite and ignominious demise (dead from a heroin overdose while being jailed […]
CINEMA: The Spanish Prisoners
THE TRIP TO SPAIN (Directed by Michael Winterbottom, 108 minutes, UK 2017) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC There are lots of movies about journeys and adventures, from The Great Race to Eurotrip, but not many of them capture the banalities of a road-trip quite as well as The Trip series. Originally a series on the BBC, the trilogy — The Trip, The Trip to Italy and now The Trip To Spain — have all been made into feature length movies and released abroad. Each presents a similar story of two friendly rivals, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing heightened versions […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: The Godmother Of Rock N’Roll
NPR: Tharpe’s lyrics unabashedly flirted with her openness of love and sexuality, an approach that left her gospel audience speechless. “Rock Me,” which showcased Tharpe’s distinctive guitar style and melodic blues mixed with traditional gospel music, made her a trailblazer — as did the range of her voice, which resounded with conviction as she sang the words “rock me!” With this song, she made it plain that her words could not only transcend lines of faith, but could also represent a shift in popular music in real time. YouTube As a young black woman working within a heavily male-dominated […]
REVIEW: Marvel’s The Defenders
Artwork by JOE QUESADA BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT I had my doubts about Marvel’s The Defenders. Netflix’s superhero franchises have been a mixed bag at best. Iron Fist disappointed both fans and critics with its poor fight scenes, clichéd plot and a clusterfuck of characters from the three previous Marvel Netflix. The Defenders is also the 3rd season of a Netflix show to use The Hand, an ancient group of evil ninjas who fought in both Daredevil and Iron Fist,as the villain. And it felt like Marvel and Netflix were just trying to redo The Avengers formula. And […]
Jerry Lewis, The Dark Prince Of Zany, Dead @ 91
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: He grew up in showbiz, much of it Catskills-based, traveling with his mom and dad through the Borscht Belt. His future could be discerned in some of his first, juvenile routines: pantomiming to grand opera and other emotional recordings, his rubber face exaggerating every vocal quaver, enacting a counter narrative that was completely disruptive — yet indebted to the high art of his predecessors. This is a recognizable mode of being for a Jewish comedian, who’ll find a quick route to an audience’s heart as a clown, but secretly wants to be part of the world […]
CINEMA: The Day The Clown Died
Illustration by DREW FRIEDMAN SPY MAGAZINE: To artists and intellectuals, the twentieth century has posed no questions more vexing than these: First, can art make sense of the Holocaust? And second, why do the French love Jerry Lewis? The first question can’t really be answered, at least not in the space allotted here. As for the second, it’s my own opinion that the French have confused sloppy, uneven filmmaking with Godardian anti-formalism. Regardless, raising these two issues on the same page is not just a pointless exercise in non-sequitur. Because Jerry Lewis, like Elli Wiesel and Primo Levi before him […]
BEING THERE: The Philadelphia Folk Festival
Photo by ALICE KRIEG There aren’t too many folk festivals in this part of the country, and certainly not many that have the benefit of as much built-up knowledge, tradition, and custom as the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Because the festival has been put on every year for the past 56 years at the Old Pool Farm in Schwenksville by the Philadelphia Folksong Society, these traditions give the Philly Folk Fest a gravitas not accessible to younger music festivals. There are mysteries to it, set pieces that seem bewildering to newcomers and outsiders; many familiar faces are perhaps not even sure […]
CINEMA: Trigger Warning
THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (dir. by Patrick Hughes, 118 minutes, USA, 2017) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC Following in the tradition of buddy-cop action comedies like 48 Hours or 16 Blocks, The Hitman’s Bodyguard is the story of a material witness who must be transported to the courthouse overcoming multiple obstacles and people trying to kill him before he gets there. Where this movie differs from those archetypal comedies is in its international scale, because, instead of a drug dealer or corrupt cop, the authority figure on trial is Gary Oldman’s Vladislav Dukhovich (a substitute for real life President of Belarus […]
TEENAGE HEAD: The Definitive Q&A With Cyril Jordan Of The Legendary Flamin’ Groovies Pt. 2
Artwork by STEVEN FICHE BY JONATHAN VALANIA More legend than band, the Flamin’ Groovies are the greatest rock n’ roll group you never heard of. It’s tempting to call them the Velvet Underground of power-pop, in that they are/were great and largely unheralded and do play what could be described as power-pop. They have also, in the course of a career spanning 1966 to, like, now, essayed any number of seminal forms: Pub rock, rockabilly, power pop, protopunk, blues rock. All styles that still give droopy graybeard rock snobs chubbies, which are increasingly harder to come by in this crazy, […]
TEENAGE HEAD: The Definitive Q&A with Cyril Jordan Of The Legendary Flamin’ Groovies Pt. 1
Artwork by STEVEN FICHE BY JONATHAN VALANIA More legend than band, the Flamin’ Groovies are the greatest rock n’ roll group you never heard of. It’s tempting to call them the Velvet Underground of power-pop, in that they are/were great and largely unheralded and do play what could be described as power-pop. They have also, in the course of a career spanning 1966 to, like, now, essayed any number of seminal forms: Pub rock, rockabilly, power pop, protopunk, blues rock. All styles that still give droopy graybeard rock snobs chubbies, which are increasingly harder to come by in this crazy, […]
Unite The Right Organizer Run Out Of Town
Unite the Right rally organizer Jason Kessler was chased away by protesters during a press conference in Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/5HOnoc0yal — NBC News (@NBCNews) August 13, 2017
CINEMA: Smarter Than The Average Bear
BRIGSBY BEAR (Directed by Dave McCary, 100 minutes, 2017, USA) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY If Philip K. Dick was alive today, he may well have ended up writing something a little like Brigsby Bear. The movie bears many of his hallmarks: a seeming post-collapse family unit; an obsession with obscure television; the utter distortion of seeming-reality; and the ultimate question of how society copes with aberrant individuals. However, this is not a Philip K. Dick movie, and the creative team never intended it to be. What we have instead is equal parts fish-out-of-water comedy and bildungsroman drama with a bizarre setup […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
POLITICO: Still, the newly released documents may offer an intriguing glimpse of what comes next. The National Archives is required to unseal a final batch of about 3,100 never-before-seen JFK-assassination files by the October deadline, assuming the move is not blocked by President Donald Trump. Under the 1992 Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, the president is the only person empowered to stop the release. (Congressional and other government officials have told us in confidence that at least two federal agencies—likely the CIA and FBI—are expected to appeal to Trump to block the unsealing of at least some of the […]