Author: J T. Ramsay

  • Well the landslide will bring it down.

    Nan­cy Pelosi com­ment­ing on The Col­bert Report: “I watch it all the time,” said House Minor­i­ty Leader Nan­cy Pelosi (D‑San Fran­cis­co), “and I think, ‘Why would any­body go on there?’ ” Am I alone in think­ing that this was the quaint­est elec­tion in mem­o­ry? I can think of few things that sound more like a Pyrrhic vic­to­ry…

  • Everything is red red red.

    On tap this week: Review of Grails at Cir­cle Thrift and Cel­e­bra­tion at The Trocadero. Review of Schlon­dorf­f’s Coup de Grace. Upcom­ing pieces for Philly Week­ly, Paper Thin Walls and City Paper. A few words about the amaz­ing UT reis­sues on Mute. Tomor­row: vot­ing, ear­ly and often.

  • Wir widerstehen noch!

    The Lost Hon­or of Katha­ri­na Blum. Direct­ed by Volk­er Schlöndorff and Mar­garethe von Trotta. In an inter­view fea­tured on the Cri­te­ri­on edi­tion DVD, Schlöndorff him­self rec­og­nizes post‑9/11 USA in his adap­ta­tion of The Lost Hon­or of Katha­ri­na Blum. It’s not hard. At the height of Baad­er-Mein­hof hys­te­ria, young Ger­mans affixed stick­ers read­ing “Ich gehore nicht…

  • Do you recall the last time we watched Breathless?

    While I regain consciousness: Grails, w/ Kayo Dot, tonight at Cir­cle Thrift, 2007 Frank­ford Ave. Psy­chic Ills — Ear­ly Vio­lence & Dins Hud­dled beneath the thick, warm, & fuzzy blan­kets of feed­back and reverb: Aso­bi Sek­su & Evangelicals Plague Songs - Wyatt, Eno, Scott Walk­er & Lau­rie Anderson. Sunn o))) & Boris — “Her Lips Were…

  • He gets to beating his wings while he sleeps it off.

    Tour­ing in sup­port of their recent­ly released album Gala Mill, The Drones got off to an inaus­pi­cious start here in Philadel­phia. Plagued by equip­ment prob­lems and time con­straints, lead singer and gui­tarist Gareth Lid­di­ard’s frus­tra­tion was vis­i­ble, and humor seemed his only recourse. Com­plain­ing about the sound, he remarked wry­ly, laugh­ing, “We usu­al­ly sound like…