SALVADOR DALI*: “Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized By Her Own Chastity” FRESH AIR Journalist Frances Harrison has been the BBC’s correspondent in the Iranian capital city of Tehran for the past 3 years. She says conditions have gotten worse, especially for women, under the increasing strictures being put in place by the ultraconservative Islamic government. PLUS, Fresh Air‘s TV critic reviews the new Showtime dramedy Californication. It stars X-Files veteran David Duchovny as a charming, jaded rogue of a writer trapped in a Hollywood fame-and-identity crisis; he’s still hung up on his ex, so much so that he’s sleeping with every woman […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Arcade Fire Fall Tour Dates
Arcade Fire has confirmed and announced all dates for their fall US tour, which will be the last American shows in support of their second album Neon Bible. LCD Soundsystem will support on all dates, including a special evening at Randall’s Island in New York, to which additional support acts are still being added. September 15 – Austin TX – Austin City Limits festival September 17 – Morrison CO – Red Rocks September 20 – Los Angeles CA – Hollywood Bowl September 21 – Mountain View CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre September 24 – Seattle WA – Bank Of America Arena […]
UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES: 4th Amendment Abuse
SAN FRANCISCO – In open court and legal filings, it’s referred to simply as “The Document.” Federal officials claim its contents are so sensitive to national security that it is stored in a bombproof safe in Washington and viewed only by prosecutors with top-secret security clearances and a few select federal judges. The Document — described by those who have seen it as a National Security Administration log of calls intercepted between an Islamic charity and its American lawyers — is at the heart of what legal experts say may be the strongest case against the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping […]
KILLADELPHIA: WWND? What Would Nutter Do?
“Six months ago, in certain parts of the city, the crime issue would come up, but people had a certain sense that it was happening somewhere else,” Nutter said in an interview. “Now, that doesn’t matter. More and more citizens have finally come to the conclusion that it’s happening in my city, it’s tearing this place apart. We’re embarrassed by it, and we’re increasingly fearful. . . . “And there’s even less confidence that anything is being done that makes any kind of sense to the average person, that says to them, ‘This is our game plan, this is how […]
APOCALYPTO: Surging The Surge, Pentagon Sends Rapture Video Game + Stephen Baldwin To Baghdad
DAILY KOS: The “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” video game, is set in a “post apocalyptic” New York that looks almost exactly like New York City after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and lets players simulate commanding a paramilitary Christian army that seeks to convert Jews, mainline Christians, Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, and everyone else in New York City to fundamentalist Christianity. All who resist will be killed. THE NATION: Actor Stephen Baldwin, the youngest member of the famous Baldwin brothers, is no longer playing Pauly Shore’s sidekick in comedy masterpieces like Biodome. He has a much more serious calling these days. […]
WAR OF THE WORDS: Stay Classy Upper Darby
A platoon of American troops in Iraq is sporting the very popular “Not in my town, scumbag” t-shirts that are all the rage these days in one Delaware County community. Army National Guard Specialist Valerie O’Donnell of Upper Darby has been sporting the shirt while serving her country overseas. Now everyone in her unit of 32 is getting a shirt compliments of Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood. He says his department created the shirts when he began his campaign to rid the community of drug dealers and drug users: “I think that when you look at the analogy between Iraq and […]
HOLY SHIT: Karl Rove Resigns
Karl Rove will leave George Bush’s side this month one of the most controversial political figures in living memory. The verdict on his legacy will be similarly conflicted: He can claim credit for political victories of historic proportions, but also stands accused of policy failures and a strategy of divisiveness. He expressed little regret and defended what many Republicans consider his most questionable decisions: pursuing a strategy that divided the country and provided little margin for error; trying to overhaul Social Security when his party did not want to; and pushing Bush to draw sharp lines on foreign policy and […]
FORECAST: More Hot Air
America’s 2nd-bloggiest city? That’s us, according to Monday’s graphic in USA Today. The stats were compiled by Outside.in. One of their representatives wrote by email that the group has been tracking blog activity in 60 or so cities around the country, watching how many posts were published in March and April. Divide by the population, and you get a rate. They call it a “blogginess quotient.” We’re quite bloggy. Using this methodology, Philly came in No. 2 — both in the number of total posts and the rate of posting, when you figure for how many people live here. BLINQ: […]
RIP: Merv Griffin Dead At 82
Comedian Pat Paulsen in blackface. This segment of The Merv Griffin Show, for obvious reasons, never aired. WASHINGTON POST: LOS ANGELES — Merv Griffin, the entertainer turned impresario who parlayed his “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire, has died. He was 82.
HOT DOCUMENT: Meet Confetti Betty
DEAR BOSS, I’m taking this week off. But wait! There’s more! When I come back, the week of Aug. 20th, I’ll be joining a new venture with the extremely cool and terribly hip folks over at The McClatchy Company, who you may remember owned the Inquirer for about 12 seconds. They’ve put together a team to provide non-traditional (well, for a newspaper company, at least) coverage of the 2008 election — a project called alt.campaign — and I’ll be part of it! alt.campaign will appear in the Election 2008 area of McClatchy’s national website and yes it is a paid […]
DOOMSDAY: The Day After
Nagasaki, August 10, 1945
EXPLAINER: Pulling Byko’s Head Out Of His Ass
Don’t get us wrong, we love us some Byko, the same way we love all old people, even when they’ve stopped making sense and start to smell funny. Stu is the last of a dying breed of boozy, chain-smoking ink-stained wretches, a salty old dog still shaking an angry fist out the sandbag bunker of print — and for that we salute him. Sometimes we even agree with him. But this We Need Another 9/11 column… ONE MONTH from The Anniversary, I’m thinking another 9/11 would help America. What kind of a sick bastard would write such a thing? A […]
MAILBAG: Zappa Fan Freaks Out
DEAR PHAWKER I have never understood the whole music critic phenomenon, which basically seems about self promotion. After taking all your lame pot shots at the musicians and the audience, do you really think you have convinced anybody that you are cooler than all of us? OK, so you don’t get Zappa’s music. Guess what? People like you aren’t supposed to. How would you suggest updating the arrangements? Techno beats? Let’s take the music of probably the most unique individual the pop music world ever produced and make it sound like every other piece of garbage spewing out of a […]