Phawker

In what is being billed as the world’s first interactive music video — at long last, you prayers are answered, right? — The Breeders let you choose from four different viewing perspectives. Pretty cool.

ACCUWEATHER: The window for evacuations is closing as Gustav inches closer to the central Gulf Coast. Tropical storm conditions will reach the Louisiana coast this evening and New Orleans after midnight. Gustav is expected to make landfall late Monday morning as at least a strong Category 3 storm, the same strength of Hurricane Katrina when it devastated the region three years ago.

CNN: About 1.9 million of Louisiana’s 2 million coastal residents had fled ahead of Hurricane Gustav by Sunday evening in the largest evacuation in state history, Louisiana’s governor said. More than 200,000 people have left New Orleans, leaving an estimated 10,000 people in the city Sunday night, Gov. Bobby Jindal said, citing New Orleans’ police chief.

EMPIRE OF DIRT: Nine Inch Nails, Wachovia Center, Friday Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA]

BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Industrial music is all about the intersection of man and machine, drawing sonic tropes from the pneumatic wheeze of moving parts, and taking lyrical cues from the existential exigencies of life in a mechanized world. Trent Reznor made it speak to the punkish angst of youth trapped in dead-eyed factory towns in the dawn of the Information Age — and became the new Man In Black.

Twenty years on, Reznor may have lost some of his cultural cachet — Friday night the Wachovia Center was only three quarters full — but the potency of his art remains undiminished. Judging from the recently released The Slip, Reznor has lost none of the rage in his machine and, as the Wachovia Center performance confirmed,  he has lost none of his intensity or ambition as a live performer with a taste for outsized post-modern spectacle.

The show was divided into three distinct segments: The first was a stripped-down rock band configuration wherein Reznor and co. — guitarist Robin Finck,  keyboardist Alessandro Cortini, drummer Josh Freese and newly added bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, on loan from Beck –  pounded out NIN showpieces like “Closer” and  “March Of the Pigs” and new stunners like “1,000,000″ and “Discipline” with a precision ferocity only exacerbated by banks of strobes and a Vegas-like wall of lights.

The second segment found the band hunched over keyboard consoles perched on the lip of the stage,  backed by a semi-transparent scrim illuminated to look like a giant LED screen, while conjuring up the spectral synth murk of Ghosts. This scrim, it must be pointed out, was a thing of wonder  — able to do things I could not begin to explain to you, eye-dazzling things that defy the laws of science and logic.

For the third segment, the band disappeared behind the magical scrim, again taking up guitars and drums, appearing as fuzzy silhouettes behind a two story high wall of TV static which slowly morphed into rain storm during the storm-tossed “19 Ghosts III”, making it look like the band was performing in the middle of a monsoon, and then morphed into an Asian temple tableaux, complimenting the oriental percussion of “The Big Come Down.” Fittingly, NIN closed out the set with a ripping spin through “Head Like A Hole,” the song that started it all, only to return for a low-key encore that peaked with a mass singalong during “Hurt,” the Reznor-penned song that became a deathbed hit and the de facto epitaph for Johnny Cash — a dark gift from one Man In Black to another.

WASHINGTON POST: NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 30 — New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D), along with a half-dozen police, fire and community leaders, encouraged residents Saturday to leave the city as soon as possible, ahead of the anticipated landfall early next week of Hurricane Gustav. City officials said they would turn all lanes of traffic on major highways into one-way routes headed away from the city starting early Sunday morning. More specific plans are expected later Saturday evening, Nagin said. With winds of up to 145 mph, Gustav became a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale on Saturday, as it menaced western Cuba. Forecasters are predicting that the storm will reach Category 5 — the strongest level — and winds at better than 155 mph before hitting the Gulf Coast states. The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas’s east Gulf Coast. MORE

POLITICO: President Bush is unlikely to make it to the Republican National Convention, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)may deliver his acceptance speech via satellite because of the historically huge hurricane threatening New Orleans, an official said. Officials insisted that the convention, scheduled to open here on Monday, will go on — albeit in a more limited and sedate form — even if Hurricane Gustav stays on its projected path. MORE

NEW YORK TIMES: Senator John McCain said Sunday afternoon that Republicans would suspend most activities on the first day of their convention on Monday because of Hurricane Gustav. On Monday, the Republican Party will conduct only its essential business of convening the convention, adopting its rules, electing its officers and adopting the party platform. Rick Davis, a top McCain aide, said the convention would only be convened from 3 p.m. Central time to about 5 or 5:30 p.m. The Republicans need a quorum on the floor to conduct their business. Mr. Davis left open the possibility that Mr. McCain might not attend. He said the nominee is not required to attend, but since this convention is “the culmination of his political career,” he wants to be here but he “won’t do anything deemed inappropriate.” MORE

GALLUP: The current results are based on Aug. 27-29 interviewing, which includes two nights of polling during the convention and one post-convention night on Friday. The Friday interviewing was conducted in an unusual political environment — the first conducted fully after Obama’s well-regarded acceptance speech and McCain’s surprise announcement of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Each event in isolation has usually been associated with increased candidate support for the relevant party. On this day — with strong partisan forces pushing the public in both directions — Obama still polled better than he had been prior to the convention, but not as well as he was polling on the individual nights of the convention. MORE

[Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou]

Sea Of Birds

Structured like Homer’s Odyssey and reminiscent of The Little Prince, Sea of Birds takes place inside a luminous dome made of paper and bamboo, where history and imagination interweave to create a breathtaking experience for audiences of all ages. Drawing on stories from her mother’s childhood in Latvia during the Second World War, performance artist and writer Sebastienne Mundheim (Currently Franklin, 2006) brings audiences into a three-dimensional storybook of delicate paper sculpture, dance-based puppetry, and live musicians. Video preview by Woodshop films. Sun. 8/31 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM, Theater, 40 minutes, ICE BOX Projects Space,1400 North American Street

Everyone

Brooklyn-based choreographer and two-time Bessie Award-winner Miguel Gutierrez brings Everyone to the Live Arts Festival. Showcasing his youthful, uninhibited style, Gutierrez’ dancers laugh, flirt, and wrestle with each other in this playful, warm-blooded work of dance. Everyone inspires an intimate connection between the performers and the audience—it’s sexy, spontaneous, and offers surprises at every turn. Sat. 8/30 10:00 PM Dance, 75 minutes, Mandell Theater, Drexel University  3300 Chestnut Street

Why did John McCain choose Alaska’s Sarah Palin, the Hottest Governor In America (a title she’ll only hold until Gavin Newsom wins California, but whatever) as his pick for vice-president? And come to think of it, given the two had only reportedly met once before she was tapped, is the former beauty queen even really his pick or just a Hillary Lite spokesmodel for social conservatives?…DEVELOPING…People don’t know anything about her, so the first words thrown out about her by right-wing pundits, “a maverick in Alaska,” threaten to stick. Look for a lot of talk in Minneapolis about where Palin differs from McCain — ANWAR most specifically — but doesn’t that beg the question of whether her opinions and positions will matter much in a McCain administration? They won’t, of course, all except one: In his introductory speech, McCain said had “found the right partner to fight those who put their privilege ahead of their responsibility.”…DEVELOPING…No really, the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics? Like, she hears voices? Could explain some things, actually…Joe Biden ought to be thanking his lucky stars there’s only one vice-presidential debate. I know, it sounds crazy — if it’s Scranton Scrappy vs. The High-Stickin’ Hockey Mom, he’d easily eat her for lunch, right? That’s just a problem. If he tries to make her look unqualified and unprepared, he’d be accused of being belittling. If he goes on the attack, he sounds like he’s beating up on somebody’s mom. The expectations for her will be so low — I’m talking George W. Bush v. Al Gore low — that simply keeping her pageant hair above water will be seen as a triumph…DEVELOPING…The Trig Factor: It certainly sounds un-feminist to ask how she’ll balance five kids and her vice-presidential duties, since we wouldn’t ask it of a male politician. But Palin’s not a male politician, and she has made the fact of her hockey mom cred her strongest resume point, so I’m asking the question anyway. Maybe Palin has a platoon of nannies, maybe she has quality Blackberry time with her kids, or maybe her husband is the children’s’ primary caregiver while she works. Any one of the above is valid, and it’s OK to want to know. She does have a compelling personal story, though a good backstory kind of comes with the territory in Alaska, and I can appreicate the profound courage it takes to bring a disabled child into the world. But that’s not why I’d vote for her…DEVELOPING…Hell, it might not even be a coincidence that she dresses like Liz Lemon. A lot of women I know admire Tina Fey, and making that mental association wouldn’t be the worst thing…DEVELOPING…The question isn’t whether Palin is a feminist, but it is appropriate to ask how she defines that feminism. She’s a member of something called “Feminists for Life” and opposes abortion and reproductive rights. So while the far right will hail her “brave choice” not to abort her Down Syndrome baby, it helps to remember that she’d deny other women the ability to make that choice.

HUFFINGTON POST: John McCain’s Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was, once upon a time, a sports reporter for KTUU, Anchorage’s NBC affiliate. Below, watch a clip of Sarah Heath, the future Alaska Governor and Vice presidential nominee, anchoring a sports report in 1988 — note her discussion of the Iditarod, the now-antiquated reference to the Hartford Whalers, and her declaration that Tommy Lasorda needs to learn how to relax:

BY TIFFANY YOON FRINGE CORRESPONDENT The “unofficial” Cabaret, also officially nick-named FUC (Fringe Unofficial Cabaret), kicked off last night at Johnny Brendas with dirty child molestation jokes, raunchy dancing and a stuffed monkey. Needless to say, it was a fucking hit, and hat tip to Scott Johnston and friends that made the efforts to keep the Fringe festival’s post-show booze n’ fun tradition alive. The stage was backdropped with footage from the old Saturday morning classic “Land of the Lost” (See video below) in between acts and all throughout Animus’s set, the band headlining last night’s events. Other than some minor technical difficulties the night went smoothly, with a game of musical chairs using volunteers as chairs and people dancing freely on or off stage. It wasn’t until the middle of the evening a loud “THUD” was heard a top of the balcony, and as it goes a young woman who was either too drunk or overwhelmed with the awesomeness of the cabaret climbed into the back of an ambulance to end her night. B+

THE WAYBACK MACHINE: Land Of The Lost

INQUIRER: The Labor Day weekend got off to a violent start in Philadelphia with three men, including a 78-year-old, shot to death before the sun rose this morning.Police had made no arrests today in any of the shootings.

Police identified the elderly victim as Enor Williams of the 6300 block of N. 11th St. He was shot in the face shortly after 6 p.m. Friday outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars post at 2033 N 33rd St. in Strawberry Mansion.

Homicide detective Lt. Mark Deegan said he was told Williams was a veteran, but didn’t know whether he was a member of the VFW.

Earlier, police said Williams had been talking to a friend when three men approached in what police believe was a robbery attempt.

Around midnight, Troy DeLoatch, 22, of the 4100 block of Fairhill Street, was shot multiple times with a handgun outside in the 500 block of W. Lycoming Street. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital, Deegan said.

Police were called to the 600 block of S. 62nd St. shortly after 5 a.m. today because of reports of gunshots. They found a 41-year-old man who had been shot once in the back. He was pronounced dead within the hour at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. MORE

BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Who’d a thunk that Orpheus and Eurydice’s ancient tale of woe could be catapulted out of its musty tomes and into silk shirts, bell-bottoms, and sleek-white platform shoes. But it can, apparently. Under the artful direction of Karen Getz, director, choreographer and veteran thespian, comic-dance troupe 1812 narrates the tale through an actor-y ballet of boogie and hustle. Despite, however, Disco Descending’s fantastic soundtrack and a Saturday Night Fever vibe, the 1812 troupe are not professional dancers in any respects. They can move pretty much as well as you or I can, and in some cases, not so much. But all jazzed up in their funky threads, carrying the life of the stage in liquid smooth transitions amid all the antics and scene changes—aside from a few sloppy executions choreographically, Disco Descending stays entertaining, and effortlessly engages with laugh-out-loud funny burlesque, leaning a bit more toward the obscure and the fringy than the intellectual and the erudite. Low-impact theater is what it is: madcap mid-lifers dancing their way along the backbone to a classic allegory. What’s Good: The music; hysterical pantomiming; the costumes; and the platforms. What’s Bad: Sometimes sloppy dance moves; sometimes low-quality theatrical engagement. GRADE: B+

BY TIFFANY YOON Sonic Dance, wherein a troupe of dancers basically dance their way down Broad Street from City Hall to the Avenue of the Arts, articulating their bodies with rhythm and grace across any surface — sidewalk, street, mailbox, passerby — that would have them.  Too bad the weather was kinda crappy and the music coulda been louder, but they certainly captured the public’s curiosity. By the end of the performance, there was a small mob, practically jogging to keep up, hoping to figure out just what this was all about. And that of course, was the point — integrating the unexpected with the everyday, using the element of surprise to strategic advantage. Dancers jumped onto a DHL delivery truck, used trash cans and fire hydrants as props, and danced in the middle of Broad Street long enough to make a cab driver’s jaw drop.  Meanwhile, a father twirled his young daughter in the air, imitating the dancers.  It was a beautiful way to kick off the festival, bringing the arts to life in Philadelphia’s everyday streets.  A-

GIGAOM:  Karl Bode over on DSL Reports reports that Comcast will institute a 250 GB cap on its broadband connections starting Oct. 1. Expect other carriers to follow suit and make tiered broadband a reality. Much as I would like to think otherwise, this is the end of the Internet as we know it. The caps are a move to ensure that the gouging scheme put in place by Comcast and other cable providers stays intact and they can continue to sell their video-on-demand services. It was a point I made when I wrote, Why Tiered Broadband Is The Enemy of Innovation. I will say this again: this is to stymie services like Hulu, NetFlix and Amazon On-Demand. MORE

GIGAOM: Comcast is out defending its bandwidth caps and how they are not bad. And how 250 GB transfer is plenty and enough to do whatever we want to do. Of course, in today’s terms that is more than enough, but what happens in the future? Nevertheless, if they are going to put caps, then they need to give us what I think is an acceptable expectation: a meter. Metered billing needs a meter we can see, use and monitor any time we desire to do so. Water and electric utilities provide that meter (regardless of whether we use it or not), so why not Comcast? MORE

WASHINGTON POST: The McCain campaign had make little secret of the fact that they wanted to pick a woman as the Arizona senator’s running mate, believing that the rift caused by the protracted primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton gave them an opportunity to pick up scads of disgruntled women.

PHAWKER: Three thoughts up front. 1.) You can measure the fear of a man by the extremity of his choices. 2.) His choice is a response to the Democratic party circa last week. Not the Democratic party circa now. 3.) This is like saying to black people, ‘Here’s Clarence Thomas, he’s black just like YOU!’

ANDREW SULLIVAN: The first criterion for a veep - and I’m simply repeating a truism here - is that they are ready to take over at a moment’s notice. That’s especially true when you have a candidate as old as McCain. That’s more than especially true when we are at war, in an era of astonishingly difficult challenges, when the next president could be grappling with war in the Middle East or a catastrophic terror attack at home. Under those circumstances, we could have a former Miss Alaska with two terms years under her belt as governor. Now compare McCain’s pick with Obama’s: a man with solid foreign policy experience, six terms in Washington and real relationships with leaders across the globe. MORE

RELATED: John McCain turns 72 today.  Happy birthday. Old. Man.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: Stephanie Says

Stephanie says that she wants to know
Why shes given half her life, to people she hates now
Stephanie says when answering the phone
What country shall I say is calling from across the world

But shes not afraid to die, the people all call her alaska
Between worlds so the people ask her cause its all in her mind
Its all in her mind

Stephanie says that she wants to know
Why it is though shes the door she cant be the room

Stephanie says but doesnt hang up the phone
What sea shell she is calling from across the world

But shes not afraid to die, the people all cal her alaska
Between worlds so the people ask her cause its all in her mind
Its all in her mind

She asks you is it good or bad
Its such an icy feeling its so cold in alaska,
Its so cold in alaska, its so cold in alaska