National Public Radio Inc.

Press Clips: Parker Spitzer Goes For Ratings Glory, Doggy Style

​It is no longer hailing, but it's supposed to be freezing outside. Inside, I have a fan blowing on my face. It's Tuesday. Press Clips, Day 12, Late Edition, right here:

Morning Links: Chinese Dissident Awarded Nobel Peace Prize; More Jobs Lost in September; Stinkbugs in Staten Island

​• The 2010 Nobel Peace prize has been awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident, political essayist, literary critic, and democracy advocate who is currently serving 11 years in jail on subversion charges. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not appreciate this news one bit, a ... More >>

Antony And The Johnsons Streaming Their New Swanlights, Playing Lincoln Center's White Light Festival October 30

​"A rough approximation of feeling good," is how NPR, one of the two outlets currently offering full streams of Antony and the Johnsons' Swanlights, describes the latest record from the heretofore dourly gorgeous NYC folk warbler, who at first blush does indeed appear to have cheered up immens ... More >>

One-Half of Local Article Writing Team Appears on NPR's "On the Media" to Talk NYC Gossip

​I think this is a classic story, like there is probably an episode of Glee or Vampire Diaries or Rubicon or whatever, where two people do some work together and when it really comes down to it, the work could've been better, but it is really long, so instead of actually reading it, everyone i ... More >>

Confirmed: Happy People Are Nicer; Australians Are the Happiest and Nicest

If this was a regular sighting, you'd probably be happy too.​Charities Aid Foundation has taken a look at countries doing charitable things -- giving money, helping a stranger, or volunteering time -- and guess where the U.S.A. ranked? Number five. Which is not horrible, but also maybe not as ... More >>

Morning Links: Stabbed Muslim Cabbie Glad to Be New Yorker; Levi Johnston Says He's Actually Not Sorry to Sarah Palin

​• The Muslim cabbie stabbed by a passenger says he's still glad to be a New Yorker: "I feel like I belong here," he said. "This is the city actually [for] all colors, races, religion, everyone. We live here side by side peacefully." Meanwhile, friends of accused stabber Michael Enright say ... More >>

Is the Fuck-You Finger Over?

​NPR asks an intriguing question today. With so many -- of such varied backgrounds, ages, and degrees of fame -- using their middle fingers to express discontent, are we simply growing numb to the shock value of the bird? Does it need a replacement, stat? In the last few months, the gesture ha ... More >>

Morning Links: Egg Recall Now Massive; Miners Trapped Underground in Chile Are Alive; Gator Sighting in Astoria

​• Half a billion eggs are now being recalled in 17 states (Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin) due to a salmonella outbreak traced back to two Iowa egg producers, Hi ... More >>

What I Eat Shows Us the Rest of the World's Daily Caloric Intake

​Well, this is cool: a new book entitled What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets shows us photos of people from across the globe, pictured alongside all of the food they consume on an average day.

Americans' Spice Consumption Skyrockets

​Every now and then there is good news on All Things Considered. NPR reports that Americans' consumption of spices has grown almost three times as fast as the population--the U.S. Department of Agriculture says that we use 600 percent more chile, 300 percent more cumin, and 1,600 percent more ... More >>

How to Have a Green Cookout; Tomatoes Make a Comeback This Year

​Target, Wal-Mart, and Costco sell items like recycled aluminum foil, additive-free charcoal briquets, and compostable cutlery for the ultimate green cookout. [Wall Street Journal] Since the launch of Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go in Southern California in November 2008, dozens of food vendors across ... More >>

Morning Links: Ordaining Women as Grave as Pedophilia, Says Vatican; Earthquake Strikes D.C.

​• Though the Vatican issued revisions to laws yesterday that would make it easier to discipline priests involved in sexual abuse (a good thing!), they also stated that ordaining women was as grave an offense as pedophilia, heresy, apostasy, or schism. Oh, Catholic Church. [NYT]

Terry Gross: Nasty Girl of NPR Burned by Mississippi, Totally Doable

I'd hit it.​The Brooklyn-bred hotness that is NPR's Fresh Air host -- The Notorious T.E.R.R.Y. G.R.O.S.S. -- is also apparently Right Said Fred-level too sexy for your radio.

E. Coli Tracking: There Is Now a Product Recall App

Follow E. coli here, there, any everywhere!​Can't keep track of whether it's spinach or peanut butter that's tainted with salmonella, or which industrial food product E. Coli's worked its way into week? The FDA wants to help. It's teamed up with the Department of Agriculture, the Consumer Prod ... More >>

We Have Only Ourselves to Blame for the Downfall of American Beer; Would You Pay $1,082 for a Mai Tai?

​American beer sales are falling. The culprits? Wine, cocktail culture, the lack of innovation among big U.S. breweries, and the growing American bourgeoisie. [The Atlantic Food Channel] Pugliese Vineyards on Long Island is permitted to label its sparkling wines "Champagne" because it was alr ... More >>

Stream the Gaslight Anthem's American Slang In Its Entirety

​American Slang, the Jersey band's Springsteen-checking, world-weary third album, is out June 15, but in the meantime, it's streaming in full at NPR's website, where you can hear "Orphans" in all its GOODBYE CIRCUS WHEEL--that's literally how the song starts--glory. Want to know why NPR's host ... More >>

At Long Last, Hear Sleigh Bells' Treats In Its Entirety

Rebecca Smeyne​Well, they did a great job keeping this one under wraps--today is the release date for Sleigh Bells' Treats, and it did not leak. This NPR-sanctioned stream is that rare actual first listen for most of us. Electro post-hardcore, post-M.I.A., post-"Tipsy" stadium punk for people ... More >>

The Hold Steady

Stream Your Future Our Clutter, the Newest Record from the Fall, In Its Entirety

​As always, propulsive, demented, and tight as all hell--not that any of those attributes are surprises coming from Mark E. Smith's the Fall. This is, after all, the band's 132495th record to date (all numbers here approximate, of course.) Your Future Our Clutter is streaming in full at NPR, w ... More >>

Dept. of Archaeology: O.K. Corral Gunfight Papers Discovered

Howdy, pardner.​History buffs, lookout! NPR reports that 36 pages of handwritten, yellowed documents -- held together with rudimentary Scotch tape -- recording the legendary 1881 shootout between the Earp brothers and a band of cattle rustlers in Tombstone, Arizona, have been found.

Oh, America: Military Recruiting Hampered by Obesity

This we'll defend?​It looks like deep-fried butter and McDonald's Extra-Value Meals are doing what anti-war protesters in the '60s could have scarcely dared to dream would one day be possible: They are making people too fat to serve in the military.

Hear the New Hold Steady Record, Heaven Is Whenever, In Its Entirety

​Um, yeah, just do it, you won't regret it. Way more expansive and slightly less furious than the four that preceded it, but quintessentially the same--a carousel of regret, defiance, and romance, turned up to 11. Pair it with these same songs' live debut, or the heartbreak/scene-related disap ... More >>

SOS: Koala Kidnapped by NPR

National Media Museum via Flickr Commons (via NPR)​Please save this koala, recently taken Patty Hearst-style by Claire O'Neill at NPR's The Picture Show. It's currently being lulled to a state of near-coma with back-to-back episodes of Car Talk, but soon, if nothing is done, it will begin to ... More >>

FreshDirect Moves Into the Suburbs; Five Guys Close to Being Billionaires

​A recent report shows that 41 percent of apples in supermarkets are Red Delicious. The cultivation of heirloom apples, however, is slowly making a comeback. [NY Times] Queens-based FreshDirect is making inroads into Westchester County and has added service in Connecticut for the first time. ... More >>

HARD-KNOCK LIFE

K’Naan teaches you the ABC’s

LISTEN UP

Preview the Armory Show with the Walkmen

NPR Remembers Jack Rose

Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography​It was a little bit more than three months ago that Philadelphia guitarist Jack Rose died suddenly at the age of 38. Over the weekend, NPR did a story on the departed musician that drew heavily on an interview reporter Joel Rose--no relation--had done with the g ... More >>

Free Cold Cave/Small Black Show Tomorrow at Music Hall of Williamsburg

​For entry, RSVP here. A band pairing that makes a surprising, in-retrospect-obvious amount of sense. Apropos of very little, we may or may not have heard Cold Cave's "Life Magazine" being used as bumper music on NPR the other day. [@matadorrecords]

Also at New Amsterdam: Meat Hook Swag

​The Meat Hook's not opening until November 11, but its marketing machine is already grinding away. Yesterday at the New Amsterdam Market (a more thorough account of which is here), the butcher shop's table was piled high with meaty swag that would put an NPR pledge drive to shame, including t ... More >>

Tina Dico

Camille Paglia Provides Much-Needed Intellectual Cred for Birthers

And you thought birtherism was just for hillbillies and Republicans! David Weigel heard Camille Paglia on NPR yesterday, where the author of Sexual Personae and UArts professor told a no doubt astonished latte-drinking audience that "there are legitimate questions about the documentation of Obama' ... More >>

Stream Yo La Tengo's Popular Songs

​Yo La Tengo's mellow and organ-drenched Popular Songs comes out on Matador September 8th, but you can stream the entire record for free over at NPR, right now. Jams. Tickets are still available for the band's September 25th stand at Roseland, so you might want to get on that, too.

Is Todd P "Getting His Own Place"?

​Depends on who you ask. NPR says yes, and pegs the opening date to this fall: Lately, Todd P has been spending a fair amount of time on the phone with lawyers. He's negotiating with investors so he can get a fully legit rock club up and running. While some may suggest that he's somehow sell ... More >>

Cherry Bomb: Growers Inundated With Fruit

cleopold73/flickr​ New York state farmers has had to deal with severe blight this season, but in other states, the weather has been so spectacular that some cherry growers ended up with too much fruit. NPR reports that cherry growing states like Oregon and Washington -- where many of the cher ... More >>

Stream 'Dark Was The Night' From Radio City

NPR is currently streaming the majority of May 3rd's Dark Was the Night concert, featuring the Dirty Projectors, David Byrne, Bon Iver, Feist, etc. This was the show that so moved Byrne that he later wrote it was "an exciting time" in music: "Maybe it's the headiness of being surrounded by so many c ... More >>

The NPR Outrage Story Continues: Corrections, Reversals, Etc

Last night, Nathan Lee, the critic at the center of this week's media scandal of the moment, went on the indieWire website--the outlet which originally ran a story detailing a long and fraught negotiation between Lee and NPR over the latter's decision to excise all the names from Lee's review of the ... More >>

NPR Censors Its Own Review of Outrage, Cites "Old-Fashioned" and Quite Possibly Dishonest Policy

Please note: This story has been updated here. In the midst of a burgeoning if mini- media scandal, indieWire reports on NPR's decision to censor their own review of Kirby Dick's politician-outing documentary Outrage. The lede: Kirby Dick's new documentary, "Outrage," continued to skirt controver ... More >>

Flower in the Pocket Requires an NPR Tote for a Brain

President Obama Loves A Good Burger; For the First Lady, Mexican Food Rules

Douglas Emlen, an entomologist at the University of Montana, has sparked some debate over his comments in an NPR broadcast about the dung beetle. During the segment, Emlen said that he avoids ground coffee because it's full of ground up cockroaches. [NPR] Robyn O'Brien, known as the Erin Brockovich ... More >>

GAMBLIN' MAN

Ira Glass makes you a billionaire

Helen Levitt, 1913-2009

Helen Levitt has passed at the age of 95. Born in Bensonhurst, she dropped out of high school and went to work as a photographer's assistant. She sought out great artists like Cartier-Bresson and Luis Bunuel, and made friends with James Agee. Street scenes were her metier and she was especially cel ... More >>

GlobalFest Surges On

A worldly showcase flourishes, recession notwithstanding

New York Times Takes on David Mamet's "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'"

Sharpton vs. NPR

The Ghost Prisoners

Exposing our secret interrogation centers—around and outside our laws

Listings

Love and Braces

High-Risk Fellatio

The Joker

Nation