FOX NEWS: The suit against the YUM-brands chain also has a “beef” with the company’s advertising, charging its claims of using “seasoned ground beef” or “seasoned beef” in its food products is false. According to the suit filed by the Alabama law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, the YUM-brands owned chain is using a meat mixture that contains binders and extenders, and does not meet the minimum requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be labeled as “beef.” Attorney Dee Miles said the meat mixture contained just 35 percent beef, with the remaining 65 percent […]
EARLY WORD: The Dismemberment Plan And I
BY DAVE ALLEN Every show begins the same way: “We’re the Dismemberment Plan from Washington, D.C.” The history section of the band’s website provides a helpful elaboration: “The Dismemberment Plan was based in, and very much a natural result of, Washington, D.C.” It makes sonic sense: the Plan brought together the jazzy cut-ups and frenetic energy of Fugazi and other D.C. punk acts, the glittering synths and deep bass of go-go, the driving percussion and MC-like delivery that both styles featured, and made you dance to it. When I discovered the band, I was based in rural Frederick County, Maryland, […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Our universe might be really, really big — but finite. Or it might be infinitely big. Both cases, says physicist Brian Greene, are possibilities, but if the latter is true, so is another posit: There are only so many ways matter can arrange itself within that infinite universe. Eventually, matter has to repeat itself and arrange itself in similar ways. So if the universe is infinitely large, it is also home to infinite parallel universes. Does that sound confusing? Try this: Think of the universe like a deck of cards. “Now, if you shuffle that deck, there’s just […]
LYKKE LI: Get Some
She plays the TLA on May 16th.
TONIGHT: State Of The Union B-I-N-G-O
Tonight, head over to the National Constitution Center to, um, play bingo? Why, yes! The Center will be hosting a FREE State of the Union Address viewing party from 7:30 to 10 PM. The night’s entertainment includes a pregame of Constitutional Quizzo and a “Lurid Lives of the Founding Fathers” tour of Signers’ Hall — which we can only imagine will be full of sexual intrigue, fallen horses, depression, gout, and maybe even syphilis! Attendees receive free access to all Center exhibitions, including the featured “Art of the American Soldier” show — an impressive collection of over 15,000 paintings and […]
PENTAGON SOURCES: U.S. Investigators Unable To Establish A Connection Between Manning And Assange
[Photo by DEVOLVE] THE GUARDIAN: US investigators have been unable to find evidence directly linking WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Bradley Manning, the army private suspected of passing on confidential documents to the whistleblowing website, according to a report last night. Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News’s chief Pentagon correspondent, reported sources inside the US military as saying they could detect no contact between Manning and Assange. If accurate, then US authorities have no realistic chance of successfully prosecuting or extraditing Assange for the leak of thousands of classified documents. MORE RELATED: Manning, a 23-year-old Army private suspected of passing thousands of […]
WILL BUNCH: If You Knew Keith Olbermann Like I Do
WILL BUNCH: I went to high school with Keith Olbermann; in fact he was the first editor, on our school newspaper, that I ever worked for (I’m about 10 days older than Olbermann, but he had skipped two grades ahead of me — even his enemies have never said the guy isn’t smart!). So we knew each other somewhat, way back when, and then about seven or eight years ago we became occasional email buddies; I’ve also been a guest on Countdown twice. So when I watched Olbermann on MSNBC, there’s always been an element of “I knew him when” […]
TEARS OF A CLOWN: Is That A Boehner In The Pocket Of Corporations Or Are They Just Glad To See Him?
MATT TAIBBI: John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. The biographer who somewhere down the line tackles the question of Boehner’s legacy will do well to simply throw out any references to party affiliation, because the thing that has made Boehner who he is — the thing that has finally lifted him to the apex of legislative power in America — has almost nothing to do with his being a Republican. The Democrats […]
WORTH REPEATING: Why Louis CK Doesn’t Talk About Sarah Palin’s Vagina On Twitter Anymore
LOUIS CK: The first time I did it I thought, “I should not have done that. I’m not going to do it again.” And then I did it again because I thought, “Fuck these people.” Who says you can’t say something, you know? How fucking sacred is this person who’s never contributed one thing to anyone’s life but her own? And not even thinking about her politically or whatever she represents, it’s just that she’s just a coarse, selfish person who has ferocious protection and it makes no sense to me. I just open my open my stupid Twitter mouth […]
ALBUM REVIEW: Deerhoof vs. Evil
First, the album cover: a mushroom cloud partially eclipsed by a black heart. The band wasn’t fucking around when they titled the album Deerhoof vs. Evil—they are taking on the heart of darkness with Catalan lyrics, kittenish mischief and bird-like coos in this rampantly eclectic, almost entirely self-recorded album. This is the eleventh full-length release from these seasoned demigods of art-pop-noise, and—though membership has shifted somewhat over the years — it marks the bands sixteenth year of existence. The songs on Deerhoof vs. Evil ecstatically juxtapose disparate — sometimes even disagreeable — sounds and genres with schizophrenic enthusiasm; the result […]
DEAR GLENN BECK: John DeBella’s Moment Of Zen
John DeBella walks around Independence Mall after 6 PM with money sticking out of his pockets trying to get mugged. Alas, there are no takers. Our old pal Joe Paone posted this to FB with the commenting that this is ”the most amusing, relevant thing John DeBella’s done in a quarter century.” Yep. PREVIOUSLY: Glenn Beck Declares ‘Philadelphia Sucks’; Says He Is Afraid To Walk Around Independence Mall After 6 PM RELATED: John DeBella has been a hippie and a punk. A winner and a loser. A hero and a villain. And now he just wants to be a nice […]
DEATH OF A STRONG MAN: Jack LaLanne RIP
NEW YORK TIMES: Jack LaLanne, whose obsession with grueling workouts and good nutrition, complemented by a salesman’s gift, brought him recognition as the founder of the modern physical fitness movement, died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, Calif. He was 96. A self-described emotional and physical wreck while growing up in the San Francisco area, Mr. LaLanne began turning his life around, as he often told it, after hearing a talk on proper diet when he was 15. He started working out with weights when they were an oddity, and in 1936 he opened the prototype for the fitness […]
SIDEWALKING: Rust Never Sleeps
Federal St., Camden NJ, 11:40 AM by JEFF FUSCO