Books

Noam Chomsky discusses conflict in Middle East at lecture in Oakland

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Middle East Children's Allowance, Chomsky gave a talk on U.S.-Israeli relations

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Tsar Fedorsky/Courtesy

Professor is the most prosaic of Noam Chomsky’s titles, but it explains how the octogenarian mustered the stamina to lecture at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland a couple of weeks ago for more than an hour (standing up, pausing once for a sip of water). The occasion celebrated the 25th Read More…

A&E

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Psychedelic Science

Recreational drug users and academics join in conference

This past weekend, the Psychedelic Science 2013 Conference, co-hosted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), took over two floors of the Oakland Marriott City Center, with attendees spilling into bars and waiting areas. Though the illicit thrill of psychedelics (written in rainbow letters on the conference bric-a-brac) was Read More…

Concerts

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He’s My Brother She’s My Sister act up at The Independent

Few things will more reliably bruise your ego and inspire awe than a sick person doing something better than the healthy you ever could. At Friday night’s sold-out show at The Independent, this person was He’s My Brother She’s My Sister frontwoman Rachel Kolar, who, despite her fever, managed to Read More…

Film & Television

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French thriller, ‘The Big Picture,’ titillates

Book-to-film adaptations are often ill-fated. The subtlest variations in dialogue compromise tone and intricate backstories of 100-plus pages are crowbarred into tidy, truncated sequences. But what if you radically change the setting altogether? America is swapped for France, and the late ’90s blossom into the contemporary age of social media. Read More…

Album Reviews

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Rihanna: Unapologetic

Another year, another Rihanna album. The latest, Unapologetic, is more collaborative, less danceable and speaks more to the singer’s consistency than it does to her creativity. Ever since Rihanna shimmied out of Barbados and onto MTV with “Pon de Replay” in 2005, she orchestrated her commercial ascent by doing two Read More…