culture

The Illinois Governor was arrested for attempting to bribe aspirants for the vancant senate seat that President-elect Obama has left. With this episode, it is clear that the old ways of politics are not over. But, who would ever expect that Lil Jesse to be involved? I mean, we all knew his father was conniving,…

Dec. 10, 2008—Santa might be a little strapped for cash this year, but if your kids are anything like mine, they won’t be trying to hear that on Christmas morning. It’s true; it’s the thought that counts, and many Americans just might be on the verge of busting out the depression glass this year. But…

A former contestant on American Idol, Paula Godspeed, commtted suicide near the home of Paula Abdul. According to Abdul, Godspeed had been stalking her for the past 18 years, a fact that encouraged the producers to allow her on the show. If she had been stalking Paula Abdul for 18 years, obviously something wasn’t right.…

Fran Drescher may want to make discretion the key word in her bid for Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate seat. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday morning on corruption charges stemming from his selection of Barack Obama’s Senate successor. A federal investigation alleges that Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, sought campaign…

We may want Big Brother to leave God alone, but that doesn’t stop a few hundred million of us from hittin the big guy up for favors on a regular basis. A recent study shows that 90 percent of Americans pray every day. About three quarters pray for themselves and loved ones, and the other…

Up until I was about 10 or so, dance for me was tap and tutus, toe shoes and the Rockettes, and the New York City Ballet twirling through George Balanchine’s version of The Nutcracker. It was the pretty white teacher in my Staten Island, N.Y. dance studio teaching me how to pirouette and the chorus…

A new Sundance channel documentary, In Prison My Whole Life, unrevealingly retreads the case against Philadelphia-based Black Panther-cum-revolutionary radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was arrested (and later convicted and sentenced to death) on Dec. 9, 1981 for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. That date coincides with British-born filmmaker William Francome’s birthday. The…

People are beginning to notice that President-elect Obama and his still-forming circle of advisers are a very different kind of people in power—different from those we have known in recent political history. Whereas, the Bush administration—and Reagan before him—seemed to bask in a beer-drinking, next-door neighbor image, Obama has assembled a team of highly educated…

What do you do when life becomes so distressing and coping mechanisms begin to fail? Teenagers in South Africa are experimenting with anti-retroviral drugs as a way to escape their realities. These drugs are designed to treat HIV/AIDS by boosting patients’ immune systems and suppress the virus. Across the country, teenagers—even those who do not…

For funk fans, there was no greater spectacle than the landing of the Mothership during Parliament-Funkadelic’s legendary 1976 P-Funk Earth Tour. Its outlandish amalgamation of sci-fi fantasy, Blaxploitation grit, glam rock, gospel furor and sweat-inducing funk helped propel Parliament-Funkadelic to the furthest reaches of creativity. The P-Funk Earth Tour became a new artistic bench mark…