NOTE: I originally posted this up here in Feb. But since Joe Biden was named VP, and this story is about his nephew Jamie’s band, I figured I’d repost it to remind you that other Bidens besides Joe are cool…I should’ve titled it “Just Don’t Make This About My Uncle…” Anyway, enjoy and check out Bloody Social.

New York Magazine commissioned this feature in summer 2007, but it never ran. My job was to spend a few months following the band Bloody Social, who feature Calvin Kleun male model Jamie Burke on vocals, Joe Biden’s nephew Jamie Biden on guitar, and Drew Beat from Bold on drums. My editor quit right as the story was finishing up. In summer 07 no downtown crew raged like Bloody Social. Endless thanks to Adam Fisher. Also to Vegas and JZ…

Bloody Social Nights: The Ballad of Burke and Biden

Jamie Burke and Drew “Beat” Thomas

1.
Downtown rock band Bloody Social are about to perform at a party sponsored by Myspace at Irving Plaza. But first the band has to takes some pictures. Every lens angles towards singer Jamie Burke, the London-born Calvin Klein model, a lanky, grunge-y longhair. His two black suction cup eyes mesmerize the paparazzi as they yell “Jamie, Jamie” without pause. Burke leans left and whispers to Bloody Social’s guitarist, who’s also a tall long hair named Jamie—Biden. He’s the nephew of Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden. The two Jamies wear all black, save Burke’s grey suit vest over a sleeveless tee and Biden’s grey bandana. The rest of the band is blurred among Bloody Social’s dozen-strong posse: a crew of club promoters, fashion designers, pro skateboarders, hairstylists, rockers, and models.

At 22, Jamie Burke is already an established playboy. A scan of Google images shows Burke in various states of boldface. Snowboarding in Aspen with Kate Moss. Smooching Lindsay Lohan outside Pastis in the Meatpacking District. Massaging a topless Sienna Miller on a Caribbean beach. Chilling with Boy George outside a club. Walking hand in hand with Courtney Love. Gracing Calvin Klein’s premier Soho billboard space on Houston at Broadway, his nose ringed blue steel stare and sexy man locks embracing model Lara Stone. A New York Times Style article headlined “Another Summer Of Love” using said billboard as a prime example of a neo-hippy fashion trend. Burke and crop-top Armani model Agyness Dean hugging nude in Vanity Fair, dubbed “Models du Jurs 2007.”

It’s 11pm, show time, but the thousand-capacity room is only half-full. Even amongst this sophisticated, guest list-only crowd of publicists, assistants, bloggers, editors, and label reps, Bloody Social are a band most have heard of but never actually heard. Taking the stage bathed in red smoke and feedback, Bloody Social blasts the spacious club with heavy Hollywood influenced blues-punk, a unique sound in New York’s current Brooklyn-centric 80s influenced rock scene. Burke shimmied across the stage doing a swerve dance, singing in a raspy, Weiland-y, voice. Biden breaks into a deep space solo.

A few songs in, the crowd polarizes. Men flee towards the (open) bar at the club’s rear while women swoon to Burke’s sermon. A girl at the bar points out that two of the band’s song choruses, “where do we go now” and “kick start my heart,” are already taken by Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crue respectively. Another girl, who works at Bumble and Bumble salon, says she could “never date a guy with better hair than me,” admitting that the entire band does.

Bloody Social formed just six months ago. Cocooned within a nightlife-fashion-celebrity nexus, the band has fast earned a reputation for unruly club shows and sordid after-parties. But with the record industry’s 20% annual decline hitting year seven, Bloody Social has no label bankroll and are in the unique position of being rock stars without a record. Leaving them stigmatized as male socialites trying to capitalize on connections. Still, the band’s first six months have been a montage of pure rock n’ rock mythology, complete with meddling starlets, battling egos, magazine photo shoots, tabloid gossip, and decadent trips to Miami, LA, and Brazil.

Ten minutes after Bloody Social’s set ends, I’m downstairs in the men’s room. Suddenly Burke bursts in with two sweaty, skinny women. All three huddle into a metal stall. This being a Live Nation venue with a North Korean police state vibe, one had to be impressed by Burke’s public Columbian orgy. A third girl pops in a few seconds later screaming, “Jamie, you fookin’ bastard!” in an Oxbridge accent. Burke opened the stall door and yanked her in too. Cheers, mate!

2.
“Just don’t make this about my uncle,” says Jamie Biden, 28, hiding behind thick plastic aviators and a newly grown beard. It’s a hot August afternoon outside the Belmont Lounge on E 15th St near Union Square. Biden is the Belmont’s newly hired “creative director,” and a previously upscale bar is now effectively a rock band’s clubhouse.
It gets better after jump…
(more…)

TAGS: 2004, attack, Bloggers, Brooklyn, Bush, drama, Drugs, free, Gorilla Biscuits, India, Joe Biden, Julian Schnabel, Kate Moss, kids, leak, Milk Studios, missing, model, Music, myspace, Nas, New York, New York Times, pennsylvania, Pete Doherty, political, Rehab, skateboard, skateboarder, Sports, Staten Island, The Box, The Strokes, Travel, vegan, Vice, Vice Magazine, war, wasted

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When writer/producer of that little HBO show, “The Sopranos,” Matthew Weiner created “Mad Men,” I expected another half-assed look at 1960s New York: shiny, glossy pages of LIFE magazine and the good ol’ boys at the office. Needless to say I was happy to find I was wrong about Mad Men, a completely refreshing take on this pivotal time for masculinity and America, its nudge-nudge message being, “well times certainly haven’t changed all that much, have they?” Yet the shows’ opening theme is enough to put me into a comfortable trance, ready to absorb the best show on TV this summer (if not this year).

Without giving too much away, please watch Mad Men and see for yourself: TV is not a dead medium. This show is a work of art, much like the burgeoning ad industry itself was in the 1960s. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matthew Weiner, whose recent piece in the Times is worth checking out. I feel like any TV series I’ve REALLY liked in the last decade has gained “critical acclaim,” and then is usually canceled immediately thereafter. Luckily, Season 2 of Matthew Weiner’s “Mad Men” premiered last night and did not disappoint. This, combined with the three Emmy nods this year give hope to the little show that could (and should be on HBO).

The greatest part of the second season’s premiere, for those of you who have seen the show, is that it doesn’t just pick up right where it left off in October. Season one started and ended with a boozy bang, leaving us with remnants of ice in our glasses ringing for more. The show centers itself around the life of Don Draper, a leading man whose gravity is reminiscent of Clive Owen, only you get the feeling he may never be checked out for James Bond –he’s just too All-American. His swagger, his creative genius, his way with all women is interestingly left behind this season, and a palpable air of decay settles around his former bravado like cigarette ash. The supporting characters, most importantly his wife, Birdy (played by January Jones) and his geeky-but-staunch assistant, Peggy (played by Elisabeth Moss) also exhibit surprising transformations this season. All this nuance is packed into a startlingly well done background: the 1960s Manhattan ad agency. It’s all tied up in an unusual little bow, but makes for a completely satisfying TV experience. When was the last time you felt that?

TAGS: AMC, drama, HBO, Rachel Elder

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Drugs

I love CNN’s Baghdad psycho Michael Ware. The dude always looks coked up on-air. And, so I’ve heard, Ware was/is a major rager of the hard drug variety. Even better, the guy said Obama and McCain are talking about “another country” than the Iraq he’s living in, where a civil war has killed hundreds of thousands with no end in sight.

Better yet, Mick fought some State Dept cock-tractor (who claimed to have ”killed people” in Iraq) for “several hours” over that 60 Minutes hot chick, Lara Logan.

Per Gawker:

SO the print Enquirer further claims that Logan’s second affair is with CNN reporter Michael Ware, and that Ware fought Burkett over it in Baghdad.

Then the contractor dude who announced in court that he’s having this affair with Logan told his wife that he killed people in Iraq. Which is maybe not true?

Finally, Lara was “entertaining” some people in Baghdad when Ware came in and then him and Burkett fought for HOURS and even ended up in the CNN safehouse! It’s amazing they had time to cover the war, what with all this drama.

Anyone who has “killed” anyone ever would likely be able to take down a druggy like Mick Ware. So this State Dept bro is likely a liar. I can so imagine this fight, too. Richard Engel is such a pussy in comparison…

TAGS: drama, Drugs, Iraq, mccain, obama, paris, war

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• Jiu-Jitsu champ, Ryan Gracie dies at age 33

Oh, yeah! The best American mayor ever, Providence’s Buddy Cianci, corrupt as all hell and fresh out of jail, has inked a deal with Robert De Niro. Despite his blatant corruption and cronyism, Buddy was so loved he even had a successful line of pasta sauces. Another Buddy flick, starring Robin Williams, and based on Mike Stanton’s superb book “The Prince of Providence,” is also in the works.

Buddy: the one and only
One way or another, it looks like the Buddy Cianci story will finally make it to the big screen. The infamous former mayor of Providence told us yesterday he’s inked a deal with Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Productions film company to make “The True Story of Buddy Cianci, America’s Most Notorious Mayor.” “This is going to be the true account of the rise and also the fall,” said Cianci, who brokered the deal with De Niro’s business partner Jane Rosenthal. “It’ll be an interesting story of politics and ethnicity. There is an element of tragedy, but also a lot of funny, compelling stuff.” A flamboyant character, Cianci served two stints as mayor of Providence - 21 years in all - and is widely credited with helping revive the city’s image and economy. But in 2001, while mayor, he was indicted on a host of corruption charges. Though acquitted of the most serious offenses, Cianci was convicted of conspiracy, and sentenced to five years in federal prison. Last year, he was released to a halfway house in Boston, and soon after returned to Providence. Asked who should play him in the movie, Cianci said: “I’ll leave that to the experts. . . . Someone young and handsome, let’s put it that way.”

This isn’t the only Buddy biopic in the works. Just yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that Robin Williams has signed up to play a corrupt pol in a movie based on Mike Stanton’s book “The Prince of Providence.” The movie, which has been in the works for a few years, will star Oliver Platt as Cianci. (David Mamet wrote the script and Michael Corrente is set to direct a cast that also includes Dermot Mulroney, Adam Goldberg, Bradley Cooper, and Ed Burns.) Rosenthal told us the Tribeca-produced project is the only one sanctioned by Cianci, and that’s important. “There are stories only Buddy knows. You can’t make that stuff up,” she said. “I grew up in Providence, and there’s always been Buddy the good and Buddy the questionable, and that’s the source of great drama.

TAGS: Boston, drama, economy, Movie, Politics

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John Harris has been covering the Clintons for 14 years, first at the Washington Post and now at his successful web start-up Politico. Harris’ book The Survivor is maybe the best single volume on Bill’s presidency. Today, Harris looks back on the rise and fall of the Clintons’ presidential fortunes.

For Clintons, an old dream finally fades
By: John F. Harris
June 9, 2008 07:10 AM EST

This is not the end of the Clinton story. If we know anything about Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton it is that there is always another chapter, and it will not fail to be interesting.

But her departure from the presidential race Saturday almost certainly does mark the end of the longest and most important thread of the Clinton story.

For nearly 40 years, the presidency has been the organizing principle of their lives together. Her appearance at the National Building Museum to thank supporters and endorse Barack Obama represents the final, fading light of a shared dream.

(more…)

TAGS: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, drama, election, Hillary, Hillary Clinton, impeachment, John McCain, mccain, NSA, obama, political, Politics, presidential race, Race, Slam, war

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Last night, the Boston Celtics continued their march to a record 17th NBA championship, beating the Lakers 98-88.

All Boston has: Sports (Paul Pierce) and politics (Sen John Kerry and Gov Deval Patrick) collide at the Garden.

Here’s some “Provocative Opinion”: The Lakers are b*tches. Too bad I missed all of last night’s game (due to a certain neighbor’s 30th b-day, where said celebrant’s mother was wasted at a nightclub dancing to “La Bamba” at 3am). Doesn’t matter though, I can read a box score and the Celts are up 1-0 against an overrated LA squad. Overall, I thought the West was weaker this year than people thought. Now we’ll see if the C’s can Sox the Lakers in four straight. I don’t want another drama series—Atl, Clevo, Det were too stressful.

Paul Pierce. What more can be said? The guy hurts his knee and still comes out and nails two threes. Love it!

You can’t be serious. This honky ass Deadhead is guarding The Truth? Ha! Off the court, PP is a Piru Blood gangster. Luke Walton wears tie-dye.

Photo of the game (Reuters):

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This is all over ESPN (PTI, Sportscenter, website, etc). While I agree that Tejada’s true age is somewhat “newsworthy” (barely though), I find ESPN’s set-up/sabotage approach to be totally ridiculous and bush-league. Judging by the Tom Farrey’s dramatics, you’d think he was Woodward & Bernstein breaking Watergate.

Tejada’s response is classic - especially when he calls Farrey “bro”.

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Left, enjoying last night’s game winning blast. Right, Manny became a US citizen in 2004 and celebrated by running around with this mini-Old Glory.

Last night Manny Ramirez hit a game winner against his former team, the Cleveland Indians, echoing a walk-off from last year’s the ALCS. Few in Boston ever questioned Manny’s greatness. But assholes like Tim McCarver and Michael Kay always say racist shit like, “I just don’t see how you can respect a player who doesn’t hustle.” Easy: you watch him hit home runs, drive in decisive RBIs, take pitches that no other hitter would, and occasionally make solid plays in left. You love his purple ties and doo rags and dreads and the Styles P songs he plays when walking up to the plate.

Is there another player in baseball soaked in as much glory as Manny Ramirez? He’s been a thread in almost every great baseball drama of the 21st century. Derek Jeter’s been in a 7 year World Series drought.
Amanda Benjamin of the Boston Globe caught up with Manny after last night’s win:

How to explain this?
Ramírez not quite sure on HR details

…standing in the clubhouse at Progressive Field, Ramírez gave reporters short quips before heading out into the freezing Cleveland night. They were beams into his incredible hitting mind. But not too much. Never too much.

He had just hit a home run. Not just any home run, but a two-run shot that scored the pinch running Jacoby Ellsbury, who came in for David Ortiz after Ramírez’s partner in crime had blooped a single into left field. It was Ramírez’s second career homer off Joe Borowski, in just three at-bats against the Cleveland closer, and it pushed the Red Sox to a 6-4 win.

“We never give up, man,” Ramírez said. “We just play hard all the way.”

Not that Ramírez knew, exactly, what he hit out of the park.

“Like a fastball,” he explained. “It was something like 80. Or a change. It was right there.”

And then it was gone. The ball traveled 417 feet before it settled into the left-field stands. It put the Red Sox up by that 6-4 score, and it simply added to Ramírez’s legacy at the former Jacobs Field. It was his 132d homer in his former home park, his 16th against the Indians. Not to mention that it tied him for 24th all-time with 493 home runs, placing his name next to those of Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff.

For those not fully convinced of Ramírez’s offseason commitment to working out in Arizona, here are the facts: In his first 14 games of 2007, Ramirez, who has not hit more than .300 in March and April since 2004, was hitting .200. He had eight RBIs. Through his first 14 games of 2008, Ramirez is hitting .309 with 14 RBIs.

And he authored the Red Sox’ first come-from-behind win since Brandon Moss was a member of the team (Game 1, Tokyo), though he wasn’t putting too much stock in the ninth-inning rally. To him, it was another win.

“It’s fun every day,” Ramírez said. “Even when you don’t come back. We love this job, we love to compete. That’s why you play the game.”

TAGS: Boston, drama, free, India, Jeter, Manny Ramirez, Red Sox, Sports, Travel

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(Yesterday, Wathiq Kuzzai, displaced child.)
Today marks five years of war in Iraq. Here’s a look at what went wrong.

Four years ago I was in Baghdad. The city was in anarchy but of the free-market variety. Violence was sporadic. Hope still a viable concept. February 2004 was the most peaceful month of the last five years. But the rule of L Paul “Jerry” Bremer III and his Coalition Provisional Authority crashed so quickly—CPA Iraq may end up holding the land speed record for national collapse.

March 2004: foreigners could still walk the streets without fear of kidnapping. After dark there were dinner parties, Chinese karaoke, wood oven pizzerias, discos even. Yes, there were bombings and a small Sunni insurgency. Overall, however, the Iraqis my pal Jeff and I met (and we were on the streets as much as any foreigners in Baghdad) still radiated optimism for the future.

But as March moved forward, historical fissures combined with terrible CPA policies (disbanding the Army, ignoring the rise of Moqtada Al Sadr’s Mahdi Milita) in destroying any hope for a democratic Iraq. It happened so fast. March kicked off with a twin bombing in Karbala that killed 180. March 16th saw the first night attack in central Baghdad—a 1000 pd bomb at a hotel in cosmopolitan and foreigner heavy Karrada. A few days later, the CPA raided Moqtada Sadr’s office after he suggested opening a Hezzbollah branch in Sadr City. Many says the order came from DC via Ariel Sharon in Israel, a “No Hezz in Iraq” type of thing.

So, in the last week of March, Sadr’s followers—the Mahdi Militia—took to Baghdad’s streets. On the same day that 10,000 Shiites protested at the gates of the Green Zone, four Blackwater mercenaries were ambushed in Fallujah, dragged from their SUV Somalia style. That night I was in the Republican Palace, a gaudy neo-Islamic uber-bunker—the former seat of Saddam’s Baath Part, then the CPA’s HQ, and now the US Embassy. I could hear the Sadr’s followers chanting as I watched the Blackwater guys’ charred, broken corpses dangle from a green bridge on TV. A high-level diplomat (FS-1) was among those in the room, a large command center looking office ominoisly dubbed “Baghdad Central.”

“Civil war is closer than ever,” the conversation went. “These Shiites could take this place in a few hours. We couldn’t stop 10,000 men. It would be choppers on the roof,” ala Saigon. Considering three weeks earlier I’d sat in that very room for a meeting on “civil society taking root in Iraq,” a civil war’s sudden arrival was the shock of my young life.

(Blackwater hangs in Fallujah)

If March 2004 was the month the pot started bubbling, April 4th—Black Sunday as it was later known—was the day Iraq boiled over. Suddenly Iraq was engulfed in a two-front nation-wide uprising. To the west, the Sunnis in Fallujah, a city of 300,000, were fighting 10,000 US troops, who invaded to avenge the Blackwater slaughter. In Baghdad’s Sadr City slum and across Iraq’s Shia south, Sadr’s Mahdi Militia revolted against the occupation. What seemed impossible a few weeks earlier—all-out war—exploded in two weeks time!

I still haven’t grasped the utter speed with which Iraq turned to hell. I never will.

(Augist 2004: Mahdi Militia fighter in Battle of Najaf vs US forces, 1000 killed)

Through the summer of 2004, Sadr continued his antics and the Sunnis expanded their war on the US. But the CPA controlled information with Nazi efficiency and Iraq’s decline never properly entered the US Presidential debate. Right after Bush won his second term, 10,000 US troop leveled Fallujah. In response, 2005 saw the Sunnis pick up the pace and hone their tactics. Meanwhile, the US increased sorties in the air war against the Mahdi and Sunni insurgency. Every day bombs crushed a house or two in Fallujah or Sadr City, urban areas so densely populated collateral damage is imminent.

(Fallujah fall 2004, 1000 killed)

Shiites came to power in the fall of 2005, when national elections saw 75% voter turnout. Still, many Sunnis boycotted or were afraid to vote, so they were underrepresented in the new government.

By February 2006 the Sunnis’ primary target was Shiite power. And their primary tactic was terrorizing the civilian population. But the Sunnis overplayed their hand. On Feb 20th, they attacked the Al-Askari shrine in Samarra, a 1000-year-old mosque central to Shia identity. That was a Friday. By Monday Shiite militias had killed over a 1000 Sunni, according to the Washington Post.

Just like that—snap—Iraq was a full blown civil war. Iran increased support for the Shiite militias. And Saudi funds continued flowing to the Sunni. Both sides stole oil profits to fund their wars.

(Samarra shrine bombed, Feb 2006, 1000 killed in aftermath)

Tit for tat sectarian violence cleansed mixed neighborhoods, partitioning Baghdad north-south down the Tigris: the Sunnis got the south-east and Shiites the west and northeast. The US was undermanned to defend Iraq; the 2 million refugees and 2 million internally displaced, nearly a quarter of the population, make Iraq the largest war on earth.

The US was now obviously losing the war. In the 2006 mid-term election, Iraq’s demise cost the GOP Congress. The next month, December, saw the release of Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group Report. Bulleted out were recommendations: engage the neighbors, remove troops, push for reconciliation. Buried deep in the report was a concept conceived by a Democrat, former Defense Secretary William Perry, to provide a short term troop “surge” to establish security. Of all the ideas in the ISG report, Bush chose this one. Much of America and the world were flabbergasted. More troops, I remember thinking, that’s what you come up with asshole?

But I was wrong. Adding 30,000 combat troops to the equation worked. Security—the most important step towards Iraqi stability—dramatically improved. And from the summer until the beginning of 2008 Iraq calmed down to levels not seen since 2005. Most importantly, the Sunni got sick of the Shia hate they’d unleashed, and chose to ally with the Americans. Now 80,000 US-backed Sunni Awakening Council members patrol Iraq, albeit outside the writ of the central government. At the same time, Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Militia has been under a cease fire.

Yet, as the ISG Report stated, there is no “magic bullet” for Iraq. What the Surge has opened is a window, a tenuous peace with a chance to move forward. But that window is now closing. Violence was up 33% in February. March is off to a bloody start. Attacks on US troops are stuck at 2005 levels. Not the bliss of early 2004, but better than the bloodbath of 2006-7. The Iraqi political front is deadlocked. And neither US political party is offering realistic plans for Iraq. McCain wants endless war. By calling for immediate withdrawal, Hillary and Obama ignore the Iraqi people, who, according to the New York Times’ chief Baghdad hand John Burns, have “an overwhelming desire to see American troops remain long enough to restore stability.”

As for Iraq’s future, only one thing is certain: the Iraq war and America’s involvement in it remain far from over. As for Iraq’s place in history, only one thing is certain: hundreds of thousands have died in a preemptive war launched on shoddy intelligence.

TAGS: attack, Congress, debate, drama, election, free, GOP, HBO, Hillary, Iran, Iraq, Islam, mccain, Mosque, NATO, New York, New York Times, obama, political, Shiite, Slam, war

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This is part of a long Pakistan narrative I’ve been working on for a few years. I spent six months in Pakistan in 2006. Karachi was a wild city, a cross between Baghdad and Singapore with South Asian spice.

(Karachi traffic at 2am, Ray LeMoine)

VISIONS OF KARACHI: Karachi Nightz, April 2006

Summer of 69’
“Bryan Adams played to ten thousand people down that road a few weeks ago,” Zaryan Zaidi says, pointing to the right, as we drive through Karachi at night. “To get to the concert, my cousin said the traffic was so bad it took 4 hours to get 16 miles. They’re still playing Bryan Adams day and night on the radio. Imagine if a bigger band came?”

Our driver speeds over the webs of elevated highways spinning around Karachi’s center. Men and boys sleep, sit, and stew along the roadside by the dozens. A few lonely towers sprout in the middle distance. The tallest, the MCB Bank tower, is a 70-story tan spike. The harbor dots orange boat lights amongst endless darkness

Zaryan and I have been friends since 1992, when we met in middle school back in Massachusetts. This is his first time returning to Pakistan in a decade, and I’ve joined him. We’ve been in county for three months, but have only now come to Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its commercial capital.

Few other cities on earth were flourishing like Karachi, with an expanding economy, media boom, and young population. Yet decades of Islamic dictatorship made it arguably the most culturally starved mega-city on earth–as proven by a Bryan Adams concert being cause for national celebration. But it wasn’t always this way.

Do the Hustle
Because of the intense daytime heat, Karachiites are a nocturnal people. People often sleep through the middle of the day and eat dinner past midnight. Past 1am that night, Zaryan and I find ourselves on the top floor of a modernist tower in the upper class Clifton neighborhood, sipping after-dinner cocktails with some of Zaryan’s father’s bohemian buddies—two painters, a playwright, a poet, and an art professor. All aged 50 and older. Miles Davis’ sullen “Kind of Blue” fills the penthouse.

Stepping out on the apartment’s deck for some fresh air, I glance down at the street but am shocked by this colossal, gaudy building that looked like a small Atlantic City casino. The sign reads The Clifton Grill. A gold-framed glass elevator framed the left side. Bright, glimmering chandeliers were visible through huge glass window. There was an abundance of palm trees both inside and out. Inside, business seemed to be booming on all three floors.

I learn from the elder bohemians that the Clifton Grill’s owner was Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of former Pakistani leader Benazair Bhutto, of the Pakistna’s Peoples Party (PPP). Zardari was purely corrupt—his nickname: Mr. 10%–and he was sentenced in 1997 to eight years in prison for looting state coffers. He was called a “playboy” by the BBC; Mr. 10% and Benazir not only met at a UK disco but they later installed a private disco in their Karachi home. (Note: Zardari is now PPP’s chief; his wife was assassinated in fall 2007.)

Read all the Studio 54 books you want, but to truly appreciate the 70s sexual revolution it takes looking at how it affected sexually repressed societies. Cities like Karachi, Baghdad, and pre-Revolution Tehran all loved disco. Lionel Richie, Donna Summer, and Abba are still among the most popular Western acts in the Greater Persian Gulf. But after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, cultures in the Middle East and Pakistan grew more conservative and closed. Now, thanks to Musharraf, Karachi and Pakistan were blooming once again with (pop) culture. After all, Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Jinnah, was a Bombay raised cosmopolitan who wished his new country to be a liberal democracy: “The foundation of our Islamic code is that we stand for liberty, equality and fraternity.”
After break, I go to a beach front mansion party and more…
(more…)

TAGS: BOOKS, drama, Drugs, economy, fixed gear bikes, Fraternity, GOP, HBO, India, Iran, Islam, model, Music, Muslim, NPR, Pizza, Shiite, Singapore, Slam, spin, Sports, t-shirts, Video, war, waves

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1. Gates in India, Forgets About Pakistan, Basically Sucks Hindu Schlong…
For the last month, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been barnstorming across Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. In Euro he complained that NATO did not have the balls to send troops in to battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, stopping in India yesterday, Gates drops the ball:

But Pentagon officials said that during Mr. Gates’s meetings with Indian officials, more time was spent discussing China than Pakistan, India’s longtime rival.

Timeout here pal. You’re telling me the 700,000 Indian troops occupying Kashmir and fighting the same Jihadists as Pakistan and the US/NATO are in Afghanistan isn’t important? Kashmir is central to the Jihad in South Asia—Afghanistan, Pakistan’s north, and Kashmir are geographically connected. Kashmir’s the Israel-Palestine of the region. The road to peace in the Afghanistan is tied to the resolution of the Kashmiri dispute.

While it’s not all the same people, the two Jihads (against US/Mush-led Pakistand and India respectively) share funding and training. When I visited a militant Madrassa outside Peshawar, the headmaster—who claimed he sent 1000 fighters to Afghanistan to fight Russia—did not differentiate between the Jihads in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Both are illegal occupation of Muslim lands, he said.

Here’s a map of the Jihadi Super Highway. See Kabul’s on the left. Peshawar is 100 plus miles east. In between is the lawless Afghan-Pak border, home of Bin Laden and 10,000 ft Hindu Kush (kush means killer, so Hindu Killer) Range. Another 100 miles east is Islamabad. Look how close ISB is to Rawalpindi, the army’s home, and where Bhutto was killed. North of Islamabad is Muzzafrabad, capital of Azad (free) Kashmir and staging ground for attacks on Indian held Kashmir. Meanwhile Indian held Kashmir’s capital, Sringar, is only a hundred odd miles from the border, called the Line of Control. All this terrorism in what 500 square miles?

Talk about contradiction. For the Sec Def to go to India and not discuss Kashmir after bitching out the Euros and Pakistanis over Afghanistan commitment is offensive to me as an American. Why are we ignoring India’s fight against Islamic terror? For economic reasons?Defense contracts?

India has conducted several military exercises with the United States in recent years. India announced last month that it would buy six C-130 cargo planes from the American military contractor Lockheed Martin, a deal worth about $1 billion. Lockheed and Boeng are competing for the $10 billion contract to supply India with 126 fighter jets…

You think Pakistanis don’t know the US basically supports what they consider India’s occupation of Kashmir? More on Kashmir from this blog here...

2. Times Starts Iraq Blog, Looks Awesome!!!
Bookmark this… The lead story is from Jehad Nga—one of the best photographers—about the last days of a US Army unit’s 15 month tour. Some of Nga’s images from the embed:
Night

Day

Here’s Alissa Rubin’s welcome letter:

The Baghdad bureau of The New York Times serves as both home and office for 7 to 10 Western reporters, photographers and videographers, who work with a large Iraqi staff of reporters based in Baghdad and other cities across Iraq.

At night, staff members gather for dinner and discuss the news of the day: How close was that explosion heard this morning? Which military unit is finally going home? What is life really like in certain parts of the city and in the countryside? This blog is an attempt to include readers in our conversations.

The goal is to provide a sense of the lives of ordinary Iraqis as well as of the country’s politicians, police officers and military forces, and to offer a more informal portrait of the American-led troops, the growing numbers of private security contractors and the foreign diplomats. All have a part in the painful drama unfolding here and stories that deserve to be told.

As journalists who see little pieces of many different worlds, we have more questions than answers. But we hope the observations of the people on our Iraqi and Western staffs will offer a rich portrait of a place that those of us who live here care about deeply.

Why now? Why didn’t the Times start this in 2004? Who knows, they’ve had a great books blog for awhile now. Maybe it was the George Polk Award McClatchy won that spurred the Times? McClatchy’s excellent and long running Baghdad Observer blog certainly factored in to the Polk…

Thus far—in year 5 of the war—the Times’ Baghdad bureau hasn’t won a Pulitzer. I consider that a huge shame. Bar none, they’ve done the best work from Iraq (even sans blog) and deserve credit.

TAGS: attack, BOOKS, drama, free, India, Iraq, Islam, Muslim, NATO, New York, New York Times, russia, Slam, Taliban, Video, war

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Weezy Makes History in Newark?

Mug shot, AZ.
According to the NYT’s music brotha, Kelefa Sanneh, Lil Wayne’s weirdness kept 2800 people waiting 3 hours late but he was still amazing:

Forget a good or even great show; what they got, instead, was a peculiar, riveting hourlong performance that felt positively historic…

“I would love for you to put me in your prayers tonight; I got court in the morning,” Wayne said. He was due in New York, for an appearance stemming from his arrest on weapons possession charges in July, after his last New York area concert, at the Beacon Theater. (The Monday morning court date might explain why he booked himself to play Newark on Sunday night.)

I attended the Beacon show last summer (with Dave “Teardrop” Murphy). Wayne was 3 hours late that night, too. Outside the venue, cops, cops, cops, barricades, checkpoints, like a Baghdad Forward Operating Base. Jim Jones was denied entry—because he’s a Blood—even though he was scheduled to perform.

We bought weed before the show in Central Park (from the ever reliable Sheep Meadow beer hustler with the weed-leaf hand tattoo and bandana, you know the guy). Instead of smoking inside the Beacon and having to deal with 8 checkpoints, we ran over to Riverside Drive.

Later that night, after the show, Ja Rule was busted smoking weed on Riverside, and Wayne down the street. Cops sure hate rap in New York. They’ll even chase after rappers’ scents.

These days I’m a bit sick of Weezy F. Too much hype, too many guest spots, etc. But he was great at the Beacon—a raging, fucked-up machine, half-stoned and half-jacked, like on a coke-weed ball. He wore a Run DMC shirt, had Kayne come out for a song, Baby and Khaled on stage, Juelz and Mac Maine as hype-men, and jammed on a guitar for “Leather So Soft.” Best show of 07 for me, for sure.

Wayne’s next album, Da Carter III, drops in April. It could be his “Graduation,” maybe even better, who knows? Wayne shares management with Kayne, and I assume the marketing will be similar, ie. huge.

That is, if he’s not in jail. Aside from weapons and pot charges in NY, Wayne was arrested a month ago in AZ with a gun, 3.7 ounces of weed, an ounce of cocaine (wow), 41 grams of Ecstasy, and $22,000 dollars in cash. He seems to like a good time, but those are heavy charges, so he needs a “Shyne,” a fall guy. Maybe Diddy should be his lawyer.

Related
A few weeks ago the Village Voice ran a feature on Fabolous, a Brooklyn rapper tied to a Bed-Stuy gang called Street Family, who’ve been involved in various high-profile Manhattan club shootings. It’s nice to see the Voice covering rap in depth. Rap’s some of New York’s best music and often gets overlooked. Never mind that Fab’s as underrated as they come…

2. Prepare for the Gawker Wars
The turnover continues at Manhattan’s premium media gossip website. They’ve lost their ENTIRE staff in the last few months, but is it about to turn nasty? (from Radar blog, edited by ex-Gawker Alex Balker):

Nick Denton (Gawker media group founder and current Gawker editor) fired Shnayerson via email last night. She emailed him back with what she called “an updated version of the resignation letter” she had written the previous Friday but never sent. Shnayerson says she has no immediate plans, but knew her time was drawing to an end when she “started thinking about leaving without a safety net.

“The constant churn of employees at New York media website Gawker has claimed another victim: Maggie Shnayerson, hired in September of 2007 to fill the media reporter role vacated by Doree Shafrir, has been let go, making her approximately the 1,450th employee to have joined or left that site since November. Shnayerson has been released due to poor numbers: An e-mail from Gawker Media overlord Nick Denton put it this way: “I’m afraid your stories are not performing well enough on Gawker, and I don’t see how you’re going to turn that around. Last month, you got about 400,000 pageviews; this month you’re at 160,000; even taking into account your break, that’s still far from satisfactory. You should be doing some 670,000 views a month to justify your advance. You’re a good writer, and your stories are fine; you just seem to wrestle with them for longer than we can afford. I don’t think you’re suited to the pace of Gawker.” Shnayerson is, in fact, a fine writer, and would be a welcome addition to any news organization’s staff. Denton was unavailable for comment.

According to ousted Gawker editor, Maggie Shnayerson, the site has “changed dramatically” since her arrival in September 2007. “You have [Nick Denton acting as] publisher and an editor, and I think that’s a conflict of interest,” she told us by phone Monday afternoon, adding that “he’s trying to make Gawker much more mainstream, but I’m not sure if [Gawker] works as a HuffPo.Shnayerson, formerly PR director at the Village Voice, says she understands Gawker’s need to make money (”I’m not going to be one of those people who complains about publisher’s trying to make money.”) and has “a lot of respect for Denton,” but worries that his vision for the site is ruining its place in the media landscape. “He’s pushing Gawker to its broadest conclusion — and this reduces its caché. It’s not smart business. It’s not smart editorially, and it’s very hard on employees.” She also noted that she’s heard anecdotally that “people in power say they don’t read it as much. That’s really sad. Gawker shouldn’t be a depository for the latest viral video.”McInenr MIAMI http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/arts/2008/02/19/Art-Basel-Comes-to-Miami

TAGS: beer, Brooklyn, Cocaine, drama, Jim Jones, Lil Wayne, Manhattan, Music, New York, Video, war, Weezy

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FORGET TIMES STORY, LONG PROFILE FROM 2005 PROVES MCCAIN INSANE, LIKE CLINICALLY…

MCCAIN’S PARTY

Why the senator from Arizona believes he can be the next Republican nominee for President.
by Connie Bruck

MAY 30, 2005

Watched closely by a North Vietnamese guard, a dirty, feeble-looking young man on crutches, carrying a slop bucket, inched forward in slow, painful steps, and then, with a huge effort, hoisted the bucket, emptying it into an open, fetid trough. As cameras whirred, the white-haired John McCain, standing a few feet away, regarded this portrayal of his younger self intently. The Arizona senator had come to New Orleans to visit the set of a movie based on his 1999 book, “Faith of My Fathers”—an account of growing up with a father and grandfather who were both famous four-star admirals, and also of his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. It will be shown on the A&E network on Memorial Day, with Shawn Hatosy starring. McCain remarked that the set, based that day in a dilapidated former brewery, looked a lot like the “Hanoi Hilton,” where he spent most of his captivity: the interrogation room with long ropes hanging from the ceiling; the wretched infirmary cubicle; and the model hospital space, which the North Vietnamese displayed to visitors. “I spent about one and a half hours there,” McCain, who was a prisoner for five and a half years, commented dryly.

(more…)

TAGS: attack, beer, Bill Clinton, Colorado, Congress, Crack, Cuba, debate, dog, drama, drunk, election, Fox News, france, free, George Bush, global warming, HBO, Hillary, Hillary Clinton, immigration, India, Iran, Iraq, John McCain, Jr., Las Vegas, mccain, model, motivation, Movie, NATO, New Hampshire, New York, NPR, NSA, paris, pennsylvania, political, Politics, polls, putin, Race, Racism, Republicans, russia, Schools, Supreme Court, surf, Texas, Trade, Travel, united nations, war

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Today’s Reads

Ohh-lala, the most talked about pictures of the week…Lindsay Lohan nude in New York Magazine.

1. Best Weekly NY Paper

One of the best things Don Webster, my spiritual advisor, taught me was, “Some weeks the Observer sucks—has nothing—then the next week it will come out with like nine good stories…” This is one of those “good” weeks.

Jason Horowitz proves the whole speech plagiarism scandal is in fact part of bigger Clinton plot to link Obama to Deval Patrick, who ran for governor of Mass on a platform of hope but has since been mired in dysfunction, scandal, and unfulfilled promises.

In the days leading up to the Wisconsin primary, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign e-mailed talking points to its top supporters and surrogates under the subject “Just Words,” and separately, Clinton staffers sent out a blog post likening Mr. Obama to his beleaguered ally, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. (“Deval Patrick and his good friend Barack Obama have much more in common than their prosaic words, the depth of the color of their skin, their Harvard backgrounds, and their female political opponents,” the post reads.)

The staffers also distributed—from their private e-mail addresses—a Boston Globe story suggesting that Massachusetts Democrats had voted against Mr. Obama in the primary because of the subpar administration of Mr. Patrick, an Obama ally who also ran on a platform of hope. And the campaign has reinforced the talk-over-substance idea—multiple times—in conference calls with top supporters.

“It comes from the campaign,” explained one prominent Clinton fund-raiser who has received the talking-point e-mails as well as verbal briefings from members of staff saying the same thing. “People are saying, ‘Look. Spread this around. Talk about this with your donors, with members of the press on background. They are really pushing hard on this and [campaign manager] Maggie Williams did it on a conference call three times last week. She said, ‘Remember if Hillary is in the solutions business, Barack is in the promises business.’”

Choire Sicha, ex Gawker editor, peers into the Lohan-Britney train-wrecks as they move beyond tabloids to magazines like RS and New York.
On Brit:

“By writing this piece on everything from her family to her breast implants, haven’t you now joined the mob?” asked host Howard Kurtz to Vanessa Grigoridias.

(For just one thing, Rolling Stone covering Ms. Spears is like Running Times covering Martin Lel, like Yachting covering Paul Allen, like Cat Fancy covering pussycats.)

“I don’t want to be overdramatic about it—but as a media story?” Ms. Grigoriadis said last week, from a donut shop in Long Beach, Calif. “I went on that Howard Kurtz program, and he was like, ‘That’s disgusting, you’re part of the problem.’ And I was like, ‘Uh, you’re a media gossip columnist.’ And everyone can roll their eyes about Britney Spears, but in a few years, when we look back at how the media economy changed? I really feel like she’s going to be the example that people look to.”

And Lilo:

Success! On Monday afternoon, Lohan-nipple-induced traffic brought down New York’s Web site.

Sicha’s thesis: Of course the biggest young music and film stars should be covered by ASME-type publications. In this tabloid/net era, magazines like RS and New York provide the depth that TMZ and US can’t.

But the NYT’s ‘Celebrity’ column hates:

For the 10,000th time we are forced to ask: Lindsay, what were you thinking?

Ms. Lohan surely consented to these pictures in an effort to resurrect her career, in bad shape if not tatters after her difficulties with the production schedule of “Georgia Rule.” But all they do is tell us what we already know: Ms. Lohan is a spaced-out head atop a singularly well-articulated form. The celebrity fashion shoot has become a vital tool in recasting a tainted or too-staid image: the good girl dresses up as if Charlotte Rampling in “The Night Porter,” the bad girl puts on a cocktail suit. Ms. Lohan could have seized this moment to rebrand herself: a few pages in which she would be costumed to look like Margaret Thatcher. But here all she manages to accomplish is to remind us of her tendencies toward self-destruction.

There is a chance this approach could work for her if she is willing to offer the world more than her bust line. And if, in her recreational hours, she is prepared to turn simply to yoga.

Um, last time I checked self-destruction sells. It’s America’s number one pop cultural export—Kurt, James Dean, Jim Morrison.

LiLo’s genius here is in placing the world’s attention back on her with semi-high art images in an ASME sweeping magazine. Mind you, NYMag is regional, too, with only 200k circulation. So the pics were low risk, high (INTER)net reward. She’s trafficking her image in an “edgy” way, in media speak. It seems to be working. I bet she scores a supporting role in major-indie soon.

2. Obama Gets Teamsters, Hillary Gets Cali 527, and more
Obama picked up a Teamster nod yesterday. Meanwhile, the LA Times has a story headlined, “Californians to Save Hillary?”I doubt it:

Supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have launched an independent group to raise money and air television ads to boost her flagging campaign. Backers of the American Leadership Project would not say who would be funding the effort; its ads are expected to begin airing this week in delegate-rich Ohio and Texas, which hold their primaries on March 4.

“At this moment, we’re focused on positive issue-oriented messages,” said Jason Kinney, a Sacramento consultant and Clinton supporter who is the group’s chairman. Kinney added that the spots were focusing on healthcare, jobs, mortgages and other economic issues. “She is a recognized leader on these issues,” he said.

Federal law bars donors from giving more than $2,300 directly to a candidate. But they can give as much as they want to groups such as American Leadership Project. The groups, called 527s for the Internal Revenue Service code that governs them, must operate independently of the candidates.

Roger Salazar, who worked as a spokesman in the Clinton White House and for Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, is president of the group, called American Leadership Project. Jason Kinney, a former aide to Gov. Gray Davis, is chairman.

New look paper, original lede, new editor in chief: NYT looks at LAT here:

Mr. Hiller never had much chance of getting the benefit of the doubt at The Times, one of a handful of newspapers with a claim to national standing: its daily circulation of almost 800,000 is the fourth-largest circulation of any American newspaper and the largest in the West, and it dominates the second-biggest market in the country, after New York.

LA will be cool as long as Axl lives there:

“Fuck Mick Wall at Kerrang, Bob Guicionne Jr and Spin—what you pissed off because your Dad gets more pussy than you?—fuck you, sucking my fucking dick…” Axl Rose, “Get in the Ring,” Use Your Illusion II

PS: St Martens and Mick Wall do a nice job here with the New York pages at the end. Sounds like a fun town!

TAGS: Barack Obama, BOOKS, Boston, drama, economy, georgia, Hillary, Music, New York, obama, Ohio, political, Politics, spin, Texas, war

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Today’s Reads

Pakistan votes today:

Voting Lahore by Arif Ali, AFP.

Why I’m for a Super Convention
I’m trying to listen to all sides and figure out why, exactly, horse-trading right up through the Democratic Convention in Denver in August is a bad thing. The reasons don’t hold up, and I think the Dems could use a nasty brawl in Denver. And here’s why.

The Dems’ Congressional hold is a sham. They haven’t accomplished anything. Denver could be a chance for the Dems to be jostled up, ripped apart even, in a way that could reconfigure a broken party. With every major party official forced to choose sides before the nation, transparency would be the biggest winner. Sorry, but Al Gore isn’t going to save the Party. And Nancy Pelosi especially isn’t going to save the Party. The Super Delegating should be done in August, in the open, at the Convention.

I understand the argument that a nasty protracted fight for Super Delegates would benefit the GOP. But really, is that a reason for a back door deal? The GOP will likely be weaker albeit more unified and oraganized in August than now—the economy ain’t getting better, nor is Iraq. Still, why not hold a genuine Convention?

I also understand Obama’s team’s argument thaht Super D’s sh