[Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA]]

We’re out in Portland for a few days to interview The Shins and the Mayor Sam Adams. More on this later. We’ll be back in action Monday!

BY MIKE WALSH One complaint about Andy Reid and the Eagles during the Donovan McNabb era was that Reid never provided McNabb with the quality wide receivers needed to win a Super Bowl. That’s a legitimate complaint as Eagles fans and McNabb suffered through season after season with sub par receivers like Charles Johnson, Torrance Small, Todd Pinkston, James Thrash, Greg Lewis, L J Smith, Kevin Curtis, Freddie Mitchell, and Reggie Brown.

Of course, 2004 was the exception when the Eagles signed Terrell Owens. Owens went on to have one of the best years for a wide receiver in Eagles history. Not coincidentally, McNabb had his best year, and the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, during the next year Owens realized the Eagles had given him a poor contract, the Eagles wouldn’t re-negotiate, so the Eagles and Owens self-destructed in 2005.

It was odd that a team who finally had a good WR wouldn’t pay him like one, while the team continued to pay a player like Jevon Kearse, a defensive end they had signed in 2004 to an exorbitant contract, even though Kearse’s performance was pedestrian at best. A team that does not pay good players and overpays average ones is one that does not win Super Bowls, especially in the age of a salary cap, as we’ve seen with the Eagles and Reid. And the Eagles have continued to make mistakes with WRs, most recently with DeSean Jackson.

Consider Donte Stallworth. He came to the Eagles in 2006, had a good year (even though he missed four games with an injury), but the Eagles chose to not re-sign him. Instead, the Eagles signed a WR by the name of Kevin Curtis to a $32 million six-year contract. Curtis actually had fewer receiving yards and fewer touchdowns than Stallworth in 2006, but the Eagles went with a lesser player and paid him a ton of money. Curtis subsequently had one decent season, 2007, got hurt the following year, and has hardly played since.

Later in 2006, the Eagles signed Reggie Brown to a five-year $27 million contract extension. In 2007, Brown had a very good year and his future looked bright. But in 2008 and 2009, Brown’s productivity inexplicably lapsed, and he is now out of the game.

In 2008, the Eagles luck with wide receivers started to change. In the 2nd round they drafted DeSean Jackson. In the four years since, Jackson has amassed over 4,000 receiving yards, 1,200 punt return yards, 25 touchdowns, and been selected for a couple Pro Bowls. You’d think that the Eagles would recognize that they have a gifted player who helps them win games and would want to keep him. Instead, the Eagles have played hard ball with Jackson on his contract. Rather than sign him to a contract extension commiserate with those stats, the Eagles have made Jackson play out the very inexpensive 2nd round rookie contract he signed in 2008 — four years for $3 million.

Now you might point out that the Eagles are simply being prudent for not paying any more to Jackson than his rookie contract stipulates. Other teams have done the same with star players, including Tennessee with Chris Johnson and Chicago with Matt Forte. I would argue that the prudent thing is to pay the most productive WR they’ve had since Reid has been in Philadelphia to a contract that is equitable with his production. Otherwise, they risk pissing him off and losing him to free agency. In fact, it’s obvious that they’ve already pissed him off. It’s just a matter of whether they’ll lose Jackson over it.

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[via ABC NEWS]

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PUBLIC INTELLIGENCE: A flyer designed by the FBI and the Department of Justice to promote suspicious activity reporting in internet cafes lists basic tools used for online privacy as potential signs of terrorist activity.  The document, part of a program called “Communities Against Terrorism”, lists the use of “anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address” as a sign that a person could be engaged in or supporting terrorist activity.  The use of encryption is also listed as a suspicious activity along with steganography, the practice of using “software to hide encrypted data in digital photos” or other media.  In fact, the flyer recommends that anyone “overly concerned about privacy” or attempting to “shield the screen from view of others” should be considered suspicious and potentially engaged in terrorist activities. Logging into an account associated with a residential internet service provider (such as Comcast or AOL), an activity that could simply indicate that you are on a trip, is also considered a suspicious activity.  Viewing any content related to “military tactics” including manuals or “revolutionary literature” is also considered a potential indicator of terrorist activity.  This would mean that viewing a number of websites, including the one you are on right now, could be construed by a hapless employee as an highly suspicious activity potentially linking you to terrorism. MORE

MOTHER JONES: The remarkable thing about Humane Society of the United States’ latest factory farm video exposé is how banal it is. No illegal acts like “downer” animals being forced down the kill line with fork lifts, or getting their brains bashed in with a pickax. What we have here is the everyday reality of pigs’ lives on a factory farm, without regulations flouted or spectacular violence committed. It is abuse routinized and regimented, honed into a profitable business model.

The video looks at two aspects of the dirty business of raising thousands of pigs en masse in close quarters: 1) the way pregnant pigs live as they wait to have their litters; and 2) what happens to baby pigs with they’re weaned after just three days. Neither is for the squeamish. In case you couldn’t watch, the video illustrates the well-known, widespread practice of confining gestating pigs for months on end in 2 foot by 7 foot crates that deny them room to move or even turn around; and the ghastly (though perfectly legal) custom of snipping off baby pigs’ tails without use of painkillers.

A note on videos like this one. Factory animal farms routinely deny journalists and concerned citizens entry to animal factories, citing both proprietary and biohazard concerns. The USDA, which regulates meat production, has shown zero interest in educating the public about the conditions under which they’re meat is raised—much less in improving those conditions. So the few companies that US dominate meat production blithely go about their dirty business behind the cloak of bucolic supermarket labels—that is, they would do so if animal-welfare groups like HSUS didn’t keep sneaking investigators into factory farms posing as job seekers. MORE

You might not know it from the recent media focus, but there are photographers living and working in South Philadelphia not named Zoe Strauss. One of them is Ted Adams, who just unveiled an overview of his work stretching back to the 80s at the Robin Rice Gallery in the West Village. The small exhibit is an overview of Adam’s photography, some pieces dating back to the 90s. These’s nothing digital in this exhibit. Adams shoots with a vintage Leica and Kodak Tri-X film. He also processes his own film and prints in the darkroom at his house. In fact, Adam’s style can’t be achieved with digital cameras or Photoshop algorithms. He prefers what he calls “primitive analog functionality.” The photos are small, just 4 x 6 inches, and are presented uniformly within thick black frames that threaten to overwhelm them. His style is simple and focused, almost minimal. Each photo shows just one or two things that draw the eye, and the juxtapositions reveal just how thin the line is between the whimsical and the metaphysical: A bowler hat sits on a miniature model of the Eiffel Tower;  a picture of Gregory Peck from a Hitchcock film is glued to a bent, hand-painted mailbox; a dog sitting restfully amid a field of black boots lined like headstones; an urban wall with two public phones below of mural of a young woman in a bikini surfing a wave; a plain industrial building with no sign of life except for a large bright sign of the word Beyond. Ted Adams’ pictures capture those in-between moments when, for a split second, The Great Beyond can be glimpsed lurking just below the surface of everyday moments and ordinary things.  – MIKE WALSH

TED ADAMS’ WORK IS CURRENTLY ON DISPLAY AT THE ROBIN RICE GALLERY IN NEW YORK THRU FEB. 26

PREVIOUSLY: Q&A With Ted “E.C.” Adams

FRESH AIR

It’s no coincidence that Baratunde Thurston’s new memoir and satirical self-help book How to Be Black was slated for release on the first day of Black History Month. “I feel great about that,” Thurston tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “I think we have a moment every year in our country where everyone buys black stamps and thinks more explicitly about black people and blackness, so it was a perfect month to release a book on this subject.” Thurston, a stand-up comedian and The Onion’s digital director, says that he doesn’t get as many gigs this month as one might think. “There aren’t as many black spokespersons to go around, so I’m happy to play that role from time to time,” he says. “But I think this year will probably be a little bigger than years past.” That’s because How to Be Black is partially a practical guidebook for anyone looking to befriend or work with a black person, become the next black president or challenge anyone who says they speak for all black people. But the book isn’t just filled with comedic advice. Thurston weaves together his comedy with thoughtful missives about his own education at Sidwell Friends and Harvard University, and his childhood in one of the worst crack-addled neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. His father was killed in a drug deal when Thurston was 6. His mother was what he describes as a “pan-African hippie type of woman who marched in the streets” and named him Baratunde as a way to “get back to Africa.”"My version of being black adheres as much to the stereotypes as it dramatically breaks from them,” he writes in How to Be Black. “And that’s probably true for most of you reading this: if not about blackness itself, then about something related to your identity. Through my story, I hope to expose you to another side of the black experience while offering practical, comedic advice based on my own painful lessons learned.” MORE

WASHINGTON POST: In 2009, President Obama appointed Michael Taylor as a senior adviser for the FDA. Consumer groups protested the appointment because Taylor had formerly served as a vice president for Monsanto, the controversial agricultural multinational at the forefront of genetically modified food. In recent days, a petition calling for the former Monsanto VP’s ouster is gaining steam. “President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor,” the petition on Signon.org reads. “Taylor is the same person who was Food Safety Czar at the FDA when genetically modified organisms were allowed into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.” Over the weekend, the petition was signed by thousands of people. At this writing, it has around 60,000 signatures of its 75,000 goal. Signees of the petition argue that Monsanto should not have influence at the FDA because it will hurt farmers and threaten plants and animals. They cite scientific research that has found genetically modified foods could be a cause for chronic illnesses or cancer in the U.S. The petition was launched by Frederick Ravid, a financial analyst in Atlanta who also has a blog devoted to spirituality. The petition calls Taylor’s appointment an example of a “fox watching the hen house.” Taylor’s position, which is currently deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, includes ensuring that food labels contain clear and accurate information, overseeing strategy for food safety and planning new food safety legislation. He is the first individual to hold the position. Before he joined the FDA, Taylor was the vice president for Public Policy at Monsanto from 1998 to 2001. MORE

Monsanto control by firestone1105

NEW YORK TIMES: Don Cornelius, the producer and television host who created the dance show “Soul Train,” was found shot dead in his Los Angeles home early Wednesday morning in what appears to be a suicide, the Los Angeles Police Department and the county coroner’s office said. He was 75 years old. A person called the police from Mr. Cornelius’s house on Mulholland Drive in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood just before 4 a.m. and reported shots had been fired, a police spokesman, Chris No, said. When officers arrived, they were let into the house and found Mr. Cornelius lying lifeless on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head that appeared to be self-inflicted, said the Los Angeles County assistant chief coroner, Ed Winter. “Soul Train” was one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history and played a critical role in spreading the music of black America to the world, offering wide exposure to musicians like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson in the 1970s and 1980s. “Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business. Before MTV, there was ‘Soul Train.’ That will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched.,” said Quincy Jones, according to the Associated Press.  Mr. Cornelius, a former disc jockey, created the show in 1970 in Chicago on WCIU-TV and served as its writer, producer and host. Quickly becoming a success, the show was broadcast nationally in 1971, beginning its 35-year run. MORE

?UESTLOVE: i just wanna use my position to really let people know that next to Berry Gordy, Don Cornelius was hands down the MOST crucial non political figure to emerge from the civil rights era post 68. the craziest most radical thing of all is i don’t even consider Soul Train his most radical statement. yes the idea of the young black teenager NOT mired in legal trouble on the 6 oclock news getting camera time was a new idea to most…so of course the fact the U.S. really got its first vicarious look at our culture was amazing. but the TRUE stroke of genius in my opinion was how Don managed to show US how important we were. which was NOT an easy task. not by premiering the newest jam by james brown, not by focusing on the latest dance craze, not by the crazy outfits….ill tell you how Don really made a radical statement. and he himself acknowledges it: the commercials. MORE

GAMBLE & HUFF: “Don Cornelius and his creation of ‘Soul Train’ and its legacy had a great impact on American culture. Don’s vision allowed for African-American artists to be exposed to people all over the world through the power of television. We were glad to help Don Cornelius fulfill his dream and legacy by creating the theme song for his hit show. The ‘Soul Train’ and TSOP brands will forever be inseparable. We thank Don Cornelius for his tremendous contributions to the entertainment world. Our deepest sympathy goes out to Don’s family and everyone he touched.”

[Artwork by JAY BEVENOUR]

INQUIRER: Cardinal Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua, 88, whose 15 years as shepherd of the 1.5 million-member Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia was marked by both celebration and crisis, died in his sleep Tuesday night in his apartment at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood. After retiring in 2003, he left the cardinal’s residence on City Avenue for the apartment at the seminary and rarely appeared in public. Cardinal Bevilacqua was emblematic of the church to which he had devoted himself since age 14: progressive on some social-justice issues, staunchly orthodox on matters of doctrine and sexuality, and unfailingly deferential to the will of Rome. […] His most agonizing period was surely the clergy sex-abuse crisis that erupted in 2002 and culminated three years later in a searing indictment of his leadership. In September 2005, after a 40-month grand jury investigation into clergy sex abuse in the archdiocese, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office issued a report excoriating Cardinals Bevilacqua and Krol for systematically allowing hundreds of abuser priests to go unpunished and ignoring the victims. The report named 63 priests working in the archdiocese who had abused children during the previous 50 years, and surmised there might have been 100 more whose crimes were concealed by murky record-keeping. “Sexually abusive priests were left quietly in place or ‘recycled’ to unsuspecting new parishes - vastly expanding the number of children who were abused,” the 418-page report concluded. Cardinal Bevilacqua did not respond publicly to the charges. His successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, called the report “very unfair” for not addressing abuse in other religious denominations and public institutions. Acquaintances described Cardinal Bevilacqua, already suffering some depression after his retirement, as devastated by the report. He rarely appeared in public afterward and granted no interviews. MORE

WASHINGTON POST: An indicted Catholic church official is showing signs he won’t take the fall alone for the priest abuse scandal in Philadelphia, with his lawyer saying Wednesday that a successor threw him “under the bus.” Monsignor William Lynn, 61, is the only official from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia facing trial for allegedly failing to remove accused predators from the priesthood. He served as secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004. Defense lawyers argue that Lynn took orders from then-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and other superiors in the church hierarchy. Prosecutors hope to include dozens of old abuse allegations to show a pattern of conduct at the trial, which is scheduled to start in late March and last several months. One such case involves a West Chester University chaplain accused in 1994 of taking pictures of students in their underwear. He next became chaplain of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, worked with a parish youth group and later admitted taking boys on overnight trips, one to Jamaica, before retiring to the New Jersey shore, prosecutors said. When a New Jersey diocese asked the Philadelphia archdiocese about the priest, Monsignor Timothy Senior allegedly wrote in a letter that Lynn, his predecessor, did not fully investigate complaints against the priest. “Maybe that’s an answer to why Monsignor Senior is not here (as a defendant). He obviously doesn’t mind throwing Monsignor Lynn under the bus,” defense lawyer Jeffrey Lindy argued. Prosecutors call the archdiocese “an unindicted co-conspirator” in the case. A 2005 grand jury report blasted Bevilacqua and his successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, for their handling of abuse complaints, but they were never charged. Bevilacqua is now 88 and in failing health. A judge will hear more arguments Monday on whether 27 of the 63 priests described in that grand jury report can be referenced at Lynn’s trial. Prosecutors want to show that Lynn kept them on the job despite knowing of complaints stored in “secret archives” at the archdiocese. They have detailed the cases over a three-day pretrial hearing this week. The cases include a priest who allegedly pinned loincloths on naked boys playing Jesus in a Passion play, and whipped them, in keeping with the drama; a priest who held what prosecutors called “masturbation camps” at the rectory, having boys strip naked and teaching them to masturbate; and a pastor written up for disobedience for complaining to Bevilacqua about an accused priest being transferred to his parish. “I truly would love a jury to see how these were handled,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington said in court. “The more cases they see … the clearer the picture becomes.” MORE

CBS: Will Cardinal Bevilaqua’s death (see related story) affect the ongoing priest-abuse case?  Not much, says one legal expert who is very familiar with the case. There is now a gag order imposed on all parties in the case (related story), so neither the prosecution nor defense can make statements in reaction to Bevilacqua’s death. Bevilaqua underwent a deposition in November, and a judge this week overruled defense claims that he was not a competent witness (another related story). MORE

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:Once upon a time, many months and Lana Del Rey posts ago, we asked Aubrey Plaza what was on her iPod. The Parks and Recreation actress tipped us off to the then-unreleased “Hollywood Forever Cemetery” from J. Tillman, formerly of the Fleet Foxes, and mentioned that she’d be starring in its video. Under the moniker Father John Misty, Tillman has released the song (now titled ”Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”) as the lead single off his forthcoming debut Fear Fun (out May 1), as well as a video to match. Named for one L.A.’s oldest burial grounds, the droney psych-rock dirge is a bit of a departure from Fleet Foxes’ fey forest-folk, but one that will likely please old fans nonetheless. MORE

NMA TV: Lana Del Rey’s new album Born to Die has been panned by Billboard, Spin, Pitchfork and Stereogum. Video Games, voted best song of 2011 by the Guardian, was the first we heard of Lana Del Rey, but subsequent performances, including an appearance on Saturday Night Life, have been terrible. Her performance on SNL was so bad Brian Williams wrote an email to Gawker calling her a “Brooklyn hippster [sic]” and her performance “one of the worst outings in SNL history.” Juliette Lewis also tweeted negatively about her performance. Del Rey fans say her songs are good and she simply needs more time to come into her own. Critics say she is a manufactured phenomenon with no talent. Either way, is this amount of publicity healthy for such an inexperienced artist? MORE

MTV: But the emerging pop star, whose debut album for Interscope, Born to Die, hit stores Tuesday (January 31), thinks she did a perfectly fine job on the legendary sketch show, telling Rolling Stone,“I actually felt good about it. I thought I looked beautiful and sang fine … I know some people didn’t like it, but that’s just the way I perform, and my fans know that.” Del Rey did admit to being nervous, though in a more general sense, saying live performance has never been her strong suit because she is “not a natural performer or exhibitionist” and that when she was younger she “hated the focus; it made me feel strange.” As the backlash intensified, Daniel Radcliffe, who hosted the January 14 show, came to Del Rey’s defense, telling reporters at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations, “It was unfortunate that people seemed to turn on her so quickly. I also think people are making it about things other than the performance … if you read what people are saying about her online, it’s all about her past and her family and stuff that’s nobody else’s business. I don’t think [the performance] warranted anywhere near that reaction.” Del Rey echoed those same sentiments during her brief sit-down with Rolling Stone, chalking the intensity of the criticism up to people’s general disdain for her public persona. “There’s backlash about everything I do. It’s nothing new,” she told the music mag. “When I walk outside, people have something to say about it. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was absolutely excellent. People don’t have anything nice to say about this project.” MORE

SLATE: A few years ago, the singer and songwriter Lizzy Grant reinvented herself online. This seems overwhelmingly unremarkable behavior in the 21st century, particularly for a would-be pop musician, but it proved scandalous. Grant, a 25-year-old singer-songwriter from upstate New York, recorded an EP and an album in the late 2000s. Some time before the summer of 2011, according to a recent Billboard story, she deleted her social-networking profiles and a site bearing her name, and withdrew her album, Lizzy Grant aka Lana Del Rey, from iTunes. Last August, she uploaded a music video to YouTube under the stage name Lana Del Rey—goodbye Grant. The clip was for “Video Games,” a beguilingly morose love song. Helped along by music blogs and BBC Radio 1, which supported the track early, the video became a hit: Today, it’s been viewed more than 22 million times.There seems to have been nothing more duplicitous in Del Rey’s jettisoning of Grant than there was in Dylan’s jettisoning of Zimmerman, but when the fact of her previous incarnation came to light, the response from online detractors was irate and impassioned: This was no diamond in the digital rough, pure and uncompromised. Grant’s debut album had, it emerged, been produced by David Kahne, an industry big with Paul McCartney and Sugar Ray on his résumé. She had, in fact, signed with the powerhouse major label Interscope a month before she’d uploaded the “Video Games” clip. A particular point of scrutiny were her lips, which appear significantly plumper today than they do in photographs from the Grant days, suggesting a surgical procedure—further fakery. In posts and comment sections on many of the same blogs that had helped Del Rey take off in the first place, listeners lashed out as though they’d been betrayed, expunging the abject corporate product they’d accepted so trustingly into their hearts. In this blood sport, the blog Hipster Runoff played the (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) head cheerleader: “She was basically a failed mainstream artist who is being ‘rebranded’ behind major label dollars,” one post sniped. MORE

RELATED: Metracritic