THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE
“I didn’t know what was causing them,” says Greco, a San Antonio native. “Friends have the same problem, but their children’s doctor told them there was no need to question the use of vaccines. We didn’t know about Thimerosal.” The coziness between the pharmaceutical companies and the Bush administration has harmed families but helped drug…
WHEN PAVEMENT ROCKED
Turns out Pavement was. It was 10 years ago that songwriters/guitarists SM (Stephen Malkmus) and Spiral Stairs (Scott Kannenberg) cobbled together a bunch of sonic scene sketches, smug, flattened vocal affectations, high-pop aspirations, and distorted and jangly unfettered noise to unintentionally create Slanted & Enchanted. The LP is nothing short of a very demographically specific…
UP, UP, AND OY VEY
“How do you circumcise an orange brick?” Manhattan’s Cosmic Comics stuck that sign in their store window last summer, while internet fan sites were fielding other less-than-kosher questions about the Sabbath obligations of superheroes. A beloved comic book character had finally come out of the spiritual closet. The Thing, of all things, was Jewish. The…
ROCKIN’ THE GRAVE
Effectively, Buckley made only one proper album: the extremely gratifying, fuck-all anomaly called Grace. That album, despite the swoonsome presence of the most photo-friendly savior since Kurt Cobain, never cracked the Billboard Top 10. Despite a radio hit with “Last Goodbye,” Buckley remained a cult hero, connecting individually with every lost soul who met his…
OF BOOKS AND BEASTZ (SIC)
Mr. “Cat Scratch Fever” entered the annals of great literature with God, Guns, and Rock ‘n’ Roll, and has followed that tome with Kill It & Grill It. He writes that after having a “little point-counterpoint gitdown” with a vegetarian, he “went on that evening to perform one hell of a firebreathing rockout, fueled by…
RIDE ‘EM, COWBOY!
What lurks beneath those smoldering eyes and that stylishly cut suit with beaver pelt accessories is no real mystery. Marvel Comics has publicly stated that the new, improved Rawhide Kid character is gay. Not openly gay mind you, but gay nonetheless. The merry gunslinger will set out on the prairie, repeatedly saving the day and…
ARMIES OF ORCS
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS “Thrilling as fantasy and as a film” Dir. Peter Jackson; writ. J.R.R. Tolkien (novel), Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, Jackson; feat. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Liv Tyler, John Rhys-Davies, Dominic Monaghan, Christopher Lee, Orlando Bloom (PG-13) But worried fans will be…
IRISH GANGS
GANGS OF NEW YORK “Bloody and bruised, but not broken” Dir. Martin Scorsese; writ. Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, Kenneth Lonergan; feat. Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Brendan Gleeson (R) The version of Gangs that hits theaters (and keeps on hitting) this week provides some basis for Miramax’s…
NEW REVIEWS
TWO WEEKS NOTICE “Charming in spite of itself” Dir. & writ. Marc Lawrence; feat. Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Mark Feuerstein, Dorian Missick, Robert Klein, Dana Ivey, Alicia Witt (PG-13) It’s a good thing that he and Sandra Bullock are such well-established screen personalities; we have been programmed to want to see them hook up in…
Armchair Cinephile
Sure, his ideas about racial harmony may have a bit in common with Trent Lott’s, but at least D.W. Griffith has the excuse of being born a quarter century before Strom Thurmond. Oh yeah, and he was the first genius of long-form moviemaking. Kino Video’s magnificent new Griffith Masterworks set collects his landmark features Birth…
STILL PLAYING
ADAM SANDLER’S 8 CRAZY NIGHTS “Crass, crude, and witless” Dir. Seth Kearsley; writ. Brooks Arthur, Allen Covert, Brad Isaacs, Adam Sandler; feat. Sandler, Jackie Titone, Austin Stout, Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider, Norm Crosby (PG-13) The animated 8 Crazy Nights casts Sandler as (among other characters) a Jewish Scrooge whose idea of fun is to ensure…
CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR MISANTHROPIC SOCIALISTS
Fortunately, the wielders of the powers-that-be buy into the idea, and it is this small squeak of Christmas time generosity in a year otherwise governed by viciousness and greed that could provide a foot in the door for the greatest monkey warfare tactic ever to chisel its way into the conniving skull of this reporter.…
DOES TRENT LOTT SPEAK FOR THE SOUTH?
“We voted for him,” he said. In a state where, according to the 2000 census, 36 percent of the population is black, Lott feels he has the right to speak for the whole state. Considering the egregious civil-rights violations of Southern elections from emancipation to the late ’60s, it’s doubtful whether or not blacks had…
HOLIDAY HANGING: OVER AND OUT
Better to celebrate in a secure establishment, where the alcohol comes at a price (there is a cap-off incentive for you overindulgent drinkers), and the music pumps loud and hard — plus, you won’t have to invite the neighbors to keep them from complaining, you don’t run the risk of eviction, and the coppers can’t…
ALL EARS
That’s great, and I was feeling really proud and evangelical, until halfway through I learned that this little indie that could probably doesn’t need my help. Turns out that one of their songs, “Moment in the Sun,” has been the theme song for an NBC show called “Ed” for some time. It’s called television, John,…
