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The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall | WIRED

Read part I of this story here . “I imagine that someday I may have a story written about my life and it would be good to have a detailed account of it.” —home/frosty/documents/ journal/2012/q1/january/week1 The descent was stunning. Chris Tarbell, a special agent from the New York FBI office, was…

May 19, 2015

Tested Under Fire: How George H.W. Bush asserted control in the wake of the Reagan assassination attempt

res.dallasnews.com

When Ronald Reagan was shot, Al Haig famously declared that he was “in control,” but it was the vice president from Texas who stepped calmly into the breach. A At the center of a diamond formation of Secret Service agents, Ronald Reagan stepped from the secure VIP exit of the Washington Hilton and…

May 19, 2015

LRB · Seymour M. Hersh · The Killing of Osama bin Laden

lrb.co.uk

It’s been four years since a group of US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden in a night raid on a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The killing was the high point of Obama’s first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an…

May 18, 2015

The Asylum: The Company Behind Sharknado, Snakes on a Train, and (a Movie Kinda Like) Pacific Rim

gq.com

A small army of extras fires at an aquatic monster. Not shown: CGI monster. Nothing is going as planned on the set of Atlantic Rim. Not even the set. Shooting today on the ultra-low-budget film—the eleventh day of a jam-packed fifteen-day shoot—was supposed to be at Naval Air Station Pensacola, a…

May 18, 2015

Feminus Ex Machina - The Los Angeles Review of Books

lareviewofbooks.org

WHAT IS THE EQ of an AI? The question is at the heart of veteran screenwriter Alex Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina. Drawing on a long science fiction tradition, in which androids are seen either as hyper-rational men or sensual, obedient women, the film plays with these dichotomies, only to…

May 18, 2015

Amy Poehler Is Really Making Herself Uncomfortable

fastcompany.com

There’s a large oil painting in Amy Poehler’s West Hollywood office of a centaur cavorting in a forest. It’s got the head of the 43-year-old actress, the body of a horse, and the naked torso of a Las Vegas novelty act. “Make sure you mention that in the article,” Poehler wisecracks, nodding toward…

May 18, 2015

Takeoff: The Oral History of Nirvana’s Crossover Moment — Cuepoint — Medium

medium.com

A defining period of Kurt Cobain’s legacy, as told by the underground bands that witnessed it firsthand Friday, April 8, 1994 . I can still recall the news broadcast near word-perfect: “Kurt Cobain, leader of the grunge supergroup Nirvana, has been found dead in his Seattle, Washington-based home…

May 18, 2015

Do We Stop Caring About Popular Music in Our 30s? — Cuepoint — Medium

medium.com

A new study shows that our interest in pop music thrives until age 25, then quickly matures into an unhip groove A new study indicates people start off listening to chart-topping pop music and branch off into all kinds of territory in their teens and early 20s, before their musical tastes start to…

May 18, 2015

Quest For Cuba: Questlove Brings The Funk To Havana

youtube.com

In addition to two nights of DJing, Questlove made good use of his time in Havana, engaging in extensive cultural research both by digging up some classic Cuban-made vinyl and by visiting the legendary EGREM studios, where most--if not all--of those classic sessions were recorded. Directors:…

May 18, 2015

Through a Glass, Darkly: ‘The Lady From Shanghai’ and the Legend of Orson Welles

grantland.com

Orson Welles needed $50,000 to pay for costumes, so on opening night, in desperation, he called the president of Columbia Pictures and asked for a loan. Welles was frequently in desperation in 1946, and he frequently tried to talk his way out of it. His play, an adaptation of Jules Verne’s adventure…

May 18, 2015

Take Nothing, Leave Nothing

laphamsquarterly.org

S eventeen hundred miles from what is customarily called civilization—in this case, the western shore of the Republic of South Africa—lies a tiny British-run volcanic island populated by fewer than three hundred people who lay claim to living in the most isolated permanent habitation in the world. I…

May 18, 2015

Killing Freemium is the Worst Thing for Artists — Cuepoint — Medium

medium.com

Ending Spotify and YouTube’s free tiers will increase piracy, not sales or signups Last week , reports started to surface that Apple was trying to convince labels to “kill” Spotify’s free tier, presumably by renegotiating when their current contracts expire. From a business perspective, this makes…

May 18, 2015

Uganda’s Tarantino and his $200 action movies - BBC News

bbc.com

A Ugandan film company that makes low-budget action movies in the slums has found a cult following online - one US fan liked their films so much, he abandoned New York to become an action movie star in Kampala. It was December 2011 and things were not going well for Alan Hofmanis. "My girl dumped me…

May 18, 2015

Chilling Scenarios That Keep Privacy and Security Experts Up at Night | WIRED

wired.com

It’s a dark reality of the digital age: Every year, security breaches, privacy hacks, and other forms of cyber warfare get more frequent, more invasive, and leave more destruction in their wake. Last year, the Sony Pictures hackers didn’t just expose executive and employee emails, medical records,…

May 17, 2015

How Hollywood stays white and male

washingtonpost.com

Ava DuVernay, director of the film “Selma,” poses for a portrait at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Black female filmmakers are one of Hollywood’s greatest rarities. Given the statistics, DuVernay defies incredible odds with the film’s Oscar bid for best picture. (Photo by Chris…

May 17, 2015

“I Am Not Backing Off Anything I Said”: An Interview With Seymour Hersh

slate.com

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Seymour Hersh accepts the Lennon-Ono Grant for Peace at the Second Biennial Awards at the United Nations on Oct. 7, 2004, in New York. Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images In a blockbuster 10,000-word story for the London Review of Books…

May 17, 2015

With eXistenZ, Cronenberg created the only videogame movie we’ll ever need

killscreendaily.com

This article is part of Film Week, Kill Screen’s week-long meditation on the intersection between film and videogames. Check out the other articles here . And, if you’re in NYC, grab tickets to our Film Fest at Two5Six on Friday, May 15th. //// A favorite videogame level is like a close lover. Every…

May 17, 2015

Inside Instagram’s Long Guerrilla War on Porn—and the Users Who Keep Coming Back

talkingpointsmemo.com

T here is something zen about scrolling through photos of thousands of penises, all standing at attention, rows and rows of thumbnails of erections of all colors, each captured for the camera in varying states of throb. The downside to that calm, however, is getting caught absentmindedly browsing…

May 17, 2015

Bill Simmons: A Begrudging Appreciation

rollingstone.com

In some small part, I owe my career to Bill Simmons. Not in the sense that many professional sportswriters will tell you – that Simmons pioneered a style of writing for peers and fans that no one had seen before, which seems like an odd assertion if you went to college in the 1980s or 1990s and read…

May 13, 2015

NY Backs Bitcoin Exchange. But It May Not Fly in California | WIRED

wired.com

Ben Lawsky, New York's superintendent of financial services, trumpeted the news with a tweet. "Big day. New York issues first charter to a virtual currency company," the tweet read, just above an image of the charter, complete with Lawsky's signature and an official New York seal. Lawsky and New…

May 13, 2015

I Went to Tapings of Every Late-Night Show. Here’s What I Learned.

slate.com

David Letterman thanks the people of Schoharie, New York, who made up the entire audience during a 2002 Late Show taping. Logo by Slate . Photo by John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images. Attending the taping of a late-night TV show is not a comfortable experience. First, you’ll stand in line on a city…

May 13, 2015

Forum: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

thedissolve.com

Two Dissolve writers keep the Walk Hard conversation going... Genevieve: We’ve covered spoof films a couple times before for Movie Of The Week—both an established classic, Airplane! , and a nascent cult favorite, MacGruber — and both times, it’s been difficult to not turn these discussions into just…

May 13, 2015

Does it Matter if Rappers Don’t Write Their Own Lyrics? — Cuepoint — Medium

medium.com

Collaboration and authenticity aren’t mutually exclusive Imagine two different scenarios: Scenario #1: Kanye West spends a year secluded in a tony Hawaii-based recording studio, alone with nothing but his thoughts and a blank document open on his iPad. He is stuck on one particular line in an…

May 13, 2015

The King of the Pizza Nerds Is Opening His Own Restaurant

bloomberg.com

Your usage has been flagged as a violation of our terms of service . For inquiries related to this message please contact support . For sales inquiries, please visit http://www.bloomberg.com/professional/request-demo If you believe this to be in error, please confirm below that you are not a robot…

May 11, 2015

Why Stealing Things in Video Games Is So Damned Enjoyable

kotaku.com

I remember the first time I went shoplifting. The sun was shining, Marin was singing, and I needed a shovel. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK, on May 11, 2015 and on Kotaku on November 26, 2015. Two hundred Rupees was well outside my price range, but as I slipped into the village store I…

May 11, 2015

The Search for Aloe Blacc’s Secret Children’s Album — Cuepoint — Medium

medium.com

His persistent path to success included hip-hop, retro soul, country house and 1,000 other ideas In 2006 I was running HipHopSite.com , which made its money by acting as a mail order record store for DJs and fans of underground hip-hop. We built our audience by delivering daily free content,…

May 10, 2015

Showgirls, Casino, and the Dark Side of Las Vegas

vanityfair.com

Elisabeth Shue and Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas . By Suzanne Hanover/MPTVImages.com. As with so many impressionable boomers who received their cultural education at drive-ins and double features, it was the movies that first impressed Las Vegas on my bubblegum brain. Not Ocean’s 11, the Rat…

May 10, 2015

Arnold Schwarzenegger Looks Back At The Roles That Redefined His Career

buzzfeed.com

Roadside Attractions Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin in Maggie . Forty-five years into his acting career, Arnold Schwarzenegger is showing us a new side of himself with Maggie , his new indie film opening in limited release on May 8. The action icon and former politician makes a go at…

May 10, 2015

Putin’s Action Hero: How Steven Seagal Became the Kremlin’s Unlikeliest Envoy

buzzfeed.com

The Russian president stunned Obama when he proposed Steven Seagal as an intermediary between Washington and Moscow. BuzzFeed News' Max Seddon and Rosie Gray tell the extraordinary story of the faded action star's dalliances with the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin knew his relationship with the United…

May 8, 2015

Entertainment Geekly: How pro-franchise optimism is changing Hollywood's approach to sequels

ew.com

It has been 22 years since the last good Jurassic Park movie, 24 years since the last good Terminator movie, 34 years since the last good Mad Max movie, and never ever ever ever since the last good Fantastic Four movie. It has been either 32 years or 35 years since the last good Star Wars movie,…

May 8, 2015

Is Wu-Tang Really Forever? — Cuepoint — Medium

medium.com

Nothing is more frustrating than being a Wu-Tang fan. The ones who’ve been around around since the group’s early years know that the nine members have had their fair share of ups and downs over the past two decades. Last week, I sat down with Raekwon the Chef for a candid chat about his new LP Fly…

May 8, 2015

David Simon on Baltimore’s Anguish

themarshallproject.org

By Bill Keller David Simon is Baltimore’s best-known chronicler of life on the hard streets. He worked for The Baltimore Sun city desk for a dozen years, wrote “ Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets ” (1991) and with former homicide detective Ed Burns co-wrote (1997), which Simon adapted into an…

May 8, 2015