The Hold Steady and Music’s Booziest Bands and ArtistsThere are only a select few bands that have booze, whether in the form of lyrical content, real-life behavior, or (usually) a lot of both, truly ingrained in their artistic DNA.
The Hold Steady Test Their Hometown Fans at ShowFor a bit, it was business as usual: Finn herking and jerking as the band churned behind him, shuffling his feet like he was building up static energy, doing those dainty little one-eighth claps.
Salman Rushdie ‘Horrified’ by PhiladelphiaWidener University, just outside Philadelphia, really rolled out the welcome wagon for guest speaker Salman Rushdie yesterday. Of course, said wagon was full of police carrying assault rifles, SWAT-team members, and drug-sniffing canines, because apparently someone was unaware that the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini on Rushdie was lifted, like, ten years ago. Upon his arrival at the train station, Rushdie was, obviously, terrified — “It’s insane!” he said told the Inquirer after his lecture. “I was absolutely horrified. Assault rifles, tracker dogs — they scare me!” He was not to mention probably secondhand embarrassed for his hosts, like, Um, you guys know that I travel freely about Manhattan going to parties like a regular Fabian Basabe these days, right? Didn’t anyone see me in Bridget Jones? Oddly, the school said that they “knew from the beginning” that Rushdie didn’t want security, but it was provided anyway, ostensibly because, goshdarnit, no Muslim terrorists were going to do anyone any harm on their watch.
Salman Rushdie ‘horrified’ by security for Widener U. visit [Philly.com]
Russell Crowe to Rock Tights?While promoting his new movie 3:10 To Yuma, Christian Bale “let slip” that his co-star Russell Crowe would also be appearing with him in the forthcoming Batman sequel, The Dark Knight. We suspect he may have been joking.