AltWeeklies Wire
Talking Horror With the Creators of 'Saw' and 'The Collector'new
Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan are the writers and director of The Collector, a low budget attempt to meld two popular film genres: the tense thriller and the blood-spattered horror flick. They offer up some interesting observations about the two genres and show boundless enthusiasm for the finer points of cinematic pain and suffering.
Metro Times |
Jeff Meyers |
08-11-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Eric 'Mean' Melin is a Real Musician, but it's Air Guitar That Might Make Him a Starnew
"Mean Melin. Mean Melin. Mean Melin," the crowd chants. They're cheering for a guy who just pretended to play guitar -- and rocked their fucking faces off. Mean Melin throws up the devil horns. He's going to the U.S. Air Guitar Championships in Washington, D.C.
Michigan Law Clinic Springs Two Men from Prisonnew
The University of Michigan Innocence Clinic -- considered the first such law school project in the country to tackle cases without DNA evidence -- celebrated its first success recently when Marvin Reed and his nephew Deshawn were released from prison.
Metro Times |
Sandra Svoboda |
08-11-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Nancy Hollander Defends Guantanamo Prisoners ... and Our Justice Systemnew
The Albuquerque lawyer is one of the nation's leading criminal defense attorneys, but she now faces perhaps her greatest legal challenge yet: Representing two prisoners incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Weekly Alibi |
Simon McCormack |
08-11-2009 |
Civil Liberties
'The Time Traveler's Wife' Burns Up in Space
Amy McAdams and Eric Bana are easy enough on the eyes to distract from the script's Grand Canyon-sized plot holes, but not enough to keep your mind off the insipid storytelling. Even from its gooey sentimental standpoint, The Time Traveler's Wife is two pints short of a gallon.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
08-10-2009 |
Reviews
The New Art Book 'The Art of Touring' Moves Past the Mythology of the Roadnew
A multimedia tribute to the road life, the book includes photographs, essays, journal entries, comics, paintings, collages -- and, on the accompanying DVD, plenty of footage by and of touring bands, onstage and off.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
08-10-2009 |
Nonfiction
A Darker Look at Che's Revolutionnew
There's little question that, as former top CIA analyst Brian Latell puts it, Gustavo Villoldo played a "very critical role in the capture of Che Guevara." But while some exiles consider Gustavo a hero, Che fans and scholars such as UCLA's Peter McLaren call him a "narrow-minded ideologue who set out to avenge his father and took his anger out on a great man."
Miami New Times |
Tim Elfrink |
08-10-2009 |
International
Will Medical Marijuana Come to Pennsylvania?new
Here in Pennsylvania, my friend Barry the Pot-Dealing Samaritan is risking his freedom to provide a sick person with the medicine he needs to fight cancer. Prison time. Fines. A criminal record that would follow him for his entire life.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Brendan Skwire |
08-10-2009 |
Drugs
The Blue Scholars are Turning the Artist-Label Relationship On its Headnew
Seattle hip-hop group Blue Scholars have brokered a deal in which New York hip-hop label Duck Down Records signed to them. Whether that's the most accurate way to put it is debatable, but the message is clear: things are changing.
Seattle Weekly |
Jonathan Cunningham |
08-10-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Method Man vs. Redman: Tale of The Tapenew
Known for sharp and hilarious contributions to albums like their 1999 collaboration Blackout!, they've also appeared in deodorant commercials, the stoner cult classic How High and even a short-lived Fox show Meth & Red. But when the two perform together, who's the real headliner?
Dallas Observer |
Ben Westhoff |
08-10-2009 |
Music
Pacific Pride Foundation is One of Many California Orgs Reeling from $52M in AIDS Funding Cutsnew
With a stroke of his pen, Governor Schwarzenegger slashed $52 million from critical AIDS services funding through the state's Office of AIDS. That shoves California back to pre-1985 levels of funding, essentially the dark ages of HIV/AIDS awareness and treatment.
Santa Barbara Independent |
Penny Patterson |
08-10-2009 |
Politics
Mayor Daley: Mr. Big Spendernew
As the city faced a gaping budget deficit, the Daley administration closed out Chicago's oldest and fattest slush fund by spending every last cent in it -- and then some.
Chicago Reader |
Ben Joravsky |
08-10-2009 |
Politics
'Somers Town' Gets at the Heart of Working-Class Londonnew
Without ever trivializing his characters’ meager circumstances or resorting to the rags-to-riches fantasy of Slumdog Millionaire, Shane Meadows has made a lovely film about the ability of the imagination to offset the harshness of reality.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-10-2009 |
Reviews
Boulder County's Debate on GMOs Infiltrated by Biotech Industrynew
When the Boulder County Commissioners are asked to decide later this month whether six farmers leasing county agricultural land can grow genetically modified (GM) sugar beets, chances are they'll hear from the food biotechnology industry itself -- and they might not realize it.
Boulder Weekly |
Pamela White |
08-10-2009 |
Food+Drink
Ivor Davis Rereleases Definitive Tome on the Manson Family & Remembers the 1969 Murdersnew
Many have credited Davis' 1970 book Five to Die, co-authored with the late Jerry LeBlanc, as the tool that helped Vincent Bugliosi prosecute Manson, long before the legendary attorney produced his own memoirs of the trial.
Ventura County Reporter |
Paul Sisolak |
08-10-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
