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Today's
Stories
April 5 / 6,
2008
Ramzy Baroud
There
are No Checkpoints in Heaven
April 4, 2008
Dave Lindorff
The
Night I Heard King Had Been Shot
Greg Moses
Missing
King
Ron Jacobs
Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Alan Farago
Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine
Alison Weir
Funding
Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel
David Rosen
Rape as an Instrument of Total War
Robert Weissman
The Unrealized Dream
Jacob Hornberger
Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Jackie Corr
Hillary and Obama Head for Butte
Carl Finamore
Taking On United Airlines
Laray Polk
We Are All Dith Pran
Susie Day
Advice for the War-Torn
Website of
the Day
Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait
April 3, 2008
Peter Morici
The Deepening Recession
Joe Bageant
The Audacity of Depression
Andy Worthington
Cleared But Still Detained:
The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia
Nikolas Kozloff
Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America
Rannie Amiri
The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy
David Macaray
More Labor Strife in Hollywood
Stephen Lendman
Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice
Website of
the Day
The
True Face of Da Vinci?
April 2, 2008
Diane Farsetta
Indian
Point on the Potomac
Harry Browne
Bertie
Ahern Laid Low by Secretary
Wajahat Ali
The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer
George Wuerthner
Open Season on Wolves
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Philippe Marlière
The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
Bernard Chazelle
Saving the American Left
Reza Fiyouzat
Bowling in Hell
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
|
Weekend
Edition
Apri1 5 / 6, 2008
"When You
Can't Afford the Electricity, Baby, You Go Acoustic."
The
Stones Meet the Press
By PHYLLIS POLLACK
New York, New York
The press conference with the Rolling
Stones and Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, held
to promote the upcoming theatrical release of the documentary
feature film, Shine A Light, took place on March
30 in New York City, on the fourth floor of the Palace Hotel.
The room was filled to capacity, accommodating approximately
two hundred members of the press that included myself.
The event followed a press
lunch that was also held at the hotel. Members of the media were
anxiously queued up, awaiting to hear what the Scorsese, who
had directed films including Italianamerican, Taxi
Driver, The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, The
Color Of Money, The Last Temptation Of Christ,
Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Kundun,
Age Of Innocence and The Departed, and who
had worked as an assistant director in the seminal film Woodstock,
would have to say about working with the Stones. Needless to
say, the members of the media, who were present, were looking
forward to hearing the imminent statements that would soon be
made by both the band and by the revered filmmaker.
The five icons, filmmaker Scorsese,
Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards
and Ronnie Wood, and drummer Charlie Watts entered the room.
The conference began with the introduction, "Ladies and
gentlemen, Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones," to which
they were greeted with extended, enthusiastic applause.
The highly anticipated media
event lasted approximately twenty-four minutes, as the press
conference was cut shorter than expected. Therefore, a limited
amount of questions were allowed, due to the time constraint.
What transpired at the press
conference moved quickly, as the red carpet premiere would be
held soon after, just a few blocks away, at Clearview's Ziegfeld
Theater on West 54th St.
Here are some of the highlights
from the press conference.
Jagger: Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, New York.
Moderator: First question,
right here.
Question: To all five of you
here, would you explain why was it important for you to make
this film in a small venue in your native Manhattan? Was this
audience special, and if so, why?
Scorsese: The importance of
making the film in a smaller venue for me, I contemplated it.
We discussed doing it in a bigger arena, and I looked into that,
and actually while I was doing it, I was trying to prepare for
that. I began to realize I think I'm better suited to try to
capture the group on stage on a smaller stage, more for the intimacy
of the group and the way they play together, the way you see
the band work together, and work each song. I found that to be
interesting, more than interesting. It is a compulsion of mine.
I love to be able to see that, and to be able to cut from one
image to another, movement and that sort of thing. And really,
about the intimacy of the group, and how they work together.
Jagger: Why, I can't remember
what you said now.
(Audience laughter.)
Jagger: But the audience was
a good audience, because I think they really got into the spirit
of making the movie, as well as enjoying being an audience for
the band. They were a great audience for the band, but I think
also, a great audience for the movie.
Wood: They were all cameramen.
(Audience breaks into laughter.)
Jagger: Really.
Scorsese: They enjoyed it.
The cameramen liked it. Yeah.
Question: Keith, anything
special about that night?
Richards: The Beacon Theater
is special for some reason. It wraps its arms around you, especially
if you can play there for more than one night. And you start
to get, the room sort of wraps its arms around you. And every
night gets warmer. It's a great feeling room. And also, hey,
this band, you know, didn't start off in stadiums, you know.
(Richards laugh.s)
Question: Charlie, Do you
want to try that? A special night?
Watts: No.
(Audience breaks into laughter.)
Richards: I knew he'd say
that.
Question: I understand it
will be available on regular screens and also on Imax. How will
that experience be different for the fans?
Jagger: It will be very larger.
(Audience breaks into laughter.)
Jagger: But slight imperfections
might be revealed.
(Audience breaks into laughter.)
Jagger: The funny thing is
though, really is that Marty, after looking at all the options,
decided he wanted to make this small intimate movie, and I said,
"Well the laugh is though, Marty, in the end, it's going
to be blown up to this huge Imax thing, so the intimate moment
is shot on Imax." But it looks good on Imax. So we got both
formats. So we're happy with that.
Question: I'd like to know
ask all the band members, perhaps starting with you, Mick, this
movie reminds us of the boundless energy you have in what it
takes to be on tour. Starting with Mr. Jagger, I'd all like to
know what vitamins are you on, and what your workout regimen
is, because all of us would like to be able to do this.
Jagger: I'll tell you what
to do, forget about that!
Richards: If we do, you'll
all be on it!
Jagger: Chuck it out. So uh,
No gym, no vitamins, I think that day. Just do it, just get out
there, and yeah. You get very pressurized in these situations.
So the thing I always find is with these movie shoots is that
you really have to come up to the plate, and fortunately, we
had two nights of this. Where Keith was saying, it's good to
play there more than one night, and I agree with him, because
the first night we played was more like a rehearsal for us in
a way, and by the time the second night came round, we got more
adjusted to playing in a small theater. Because though we played
lots of small theaters in the past, we hadn't done it on this
tour, so this was like quite different suddenly to go into this
small theater. So by the second night, we knew we had to sort
of do it, that this was going to be the night with all these
people there and everything, so I felt really good about that
particular night, so you just have to somehow just come and do
it.
Richards: It was a turn on.
Question: Gentlemen, I'd like
to know why you chose Marty as the director.
Jagger: He's the best one
around.
Question: What does he bring
to this film that other directors wouldn't?
Jagger: Oh, I can't answer
that. I mean, you know, but you know, I think that it's embarrassing
now. He's not part of the furniture. I mean he's actually sitting
here.
Jagger: So he's a fantastic
director and he assembled a wonderful crew, I think he would
agree with that. He got fantastic DPs, camera, lighting, all
everyone working on it, and then very painstaking on the editing
to produce the movie that you see. It's not all in the shooting.
It's obviously in the editing, too.
Richards: And it's also in
the equation. We didn't' choose Marty. Marty choose us.
Question: To Marty, with the
underworld and the mafia being featured in so many of your films,
what kind of comparisons can you now make between a tight mob
crew and the Stones?
Scorsese: Well, no, that's
an interesting question. I don't think I'd make any direct associations
to it. I mean, but the music is something that deals with, at
times, it reminds me, I will tell you, it reminds me of when
I went to see Threepenny Opera back in 1959, 1960,
at the Theatre de Lys, and how the music affected me, and what
that was saying, what that play said, and the lyrics. The lyrics
were so important to me in that particular play. I grew up in
an area that was kind of in a sense like the Threepenny Opera,
and I think at times the Rolling Stones' music had a similar
effect on me. It dealt with aspects of the life that I was growing
up around, that I was associated with, or saw, or was experiencing,
and trying to make sense of. So it was tougher, it had an edge.
Beautiful and honest and brutal at times, and powerful. And it's
always stayed with me and has become a well of inspiration to
this day. As Mick said in Berlin, he said (turns to Mick), can
I take the line from you?
Jagger: Yeah.
Scorsese: He said, "I
want you to know that this is the only film, Shine a Light
is the only film that "Gimme Shelter" is not
played in," that I've made.
Scorsese: And when I use "Gimme
Shelter" in a film, which I think is more appropriate, and
just as apropos of the world we're living in today, "Gimme
Shelter," when I use it in a film, I don't remember that
I used it before. I say, "Let's use that," and they
say, "Marty you did it before," and I say, "That's
alright. Let's put it in." I keep forgetting, you know.
But it's something that the music has been very important to
me over these years. Thank you.
Question: In your latest film
The Departed, "Gimme Shelter" has of
course been in other films, but you picked "Let It Loose"
from Exile On Main Street. What made you pick that song?
And in the future, in your movies, will you pick more obscure
Stones songs?
Scorsese: That is from Exile
On Main Street. It's an album I like a lot, and again, it's
sort of like in my DNA, so to speak, the music, so it's just
came the way Jacks Nicholson sat down next to Leonardo Dicaprio,
and said, "Do you know who I am?" The tone and that
mood, I heard that sound from that song. And I played it again.
So I tried a couple of other things afterwards, because invariably,
you say, "Well that's the first one, it works, but it can't
be, working on the first try. It can't be that way." So
we tried some other songs, but we went back to "Let It Loose,"
and placed it just at the right moments, in between the dialogue,
for the highlights of the song. But it has the tone and the mood,
and again the edge that I thought that the characters were like,
really.
Question: In terms of what
you wanted to capture?
Scorsese: For me, it was literally
the moments you can see the band actually working together. Each
song is like its own narrative, a dramatic story, and the whole
the sound of the band is like a character, one character in each
song. With the grace of these wonderful cinematographers, headed
by (Director Of Photography) Bob Richardson, people like (Camera
Operator) Bob Elswit and (Camera Operator) Ellen Kuras and (Music
Editor) Tass Filipos and (Camera Operator) John Toll, and Leslie,
who directed "Lord of the Rings," (Camera Operator)
Andrew Rowlands, they were able to, like poets at times, be able
to know exactly when to move their camera, and pick up another
member of the band. And see when a camera went down. And remember
that we shot this in thirty-five millimeter and not video, so
that we had ten minute loads. We were going down all the time
with cameras. Cameras were running out of film, so another camera
would pick up where someone left off, and that's why there were
so many, to be able to pick up the slack. But the key was to
find the moments between the members of the band, as they played
together, and they worked together, and how they worked it like
a machine, like it's own entity, in the way it's done.
Richards: Almost Swiss motion.
Scorsese: Yeah. Yeah.
Question: Hello, I'm from
Finland. I didn't see it yet. Still, I have to stand up and dance.
Who chose those (archival) clips from the documentaries that
you showed, and Mick, you said in one of those, when the journalist
asked if do (will) still perform when you were sixty, and you
say, "Yes," well, do you still perform when you're
seventy?
Jagger: I don't know, I ...
Richards: That's only five
years away!
Scorsese: That's not that
far. That's pretty close, not that far. Whew! Who chose the clips?
David Tedeschi was the editor of the film, and we worked together
almost nine or ten months together, right, for editing this thing?
The music came together rather quickly, I think, in the cutting,
and that was very enjoyable. The hardest part was putting together
the clips. I think there was over 400 hours of footage that David
culled of the documentary sections of archival footage, and then
he chose about forty hours for me to see. And then we worked
from that forty hours, and it was a matter of balancing, saying
something, but not saying too much, and then saying nothing with
it. That was the key. And balancing it, so it wouldn't unbalance
the music in the piece, because to do a film with all archival
footage, I think, would be a four or five hour documentary. It
would be another movie.
Jagger: Well, you know, there
were some moments when the archival footage, I felt, was going
too long, and I felt it would lose it. It would have gone off
into another movie, and that we're forgetting that we're in concert,
because it was very kind of riveting, sometimes, the old movie
(archival footage). But if goes on too long, you want to come
back to the concert stage. So sometimes David left them a little
bit on the long side. So in the end, we ended up with what we
have, which is good.
Question: I'm one of the Vh1
winners. I have a question. Do you have any plans to do an acoustic
album like Beggars Banquet in the future?
Jagger: It wasn't really an
acoustic album. It did have acoustic guitars on it, I'm sure.
But we don't have actually any plans for an acoustic album.
Wood: How about Unplugged?
Scorsese: We have some acoustic
in the featurette.
Jagger: We do have some acoustic
songs in the featurette on the DVD.
Richards: When you can't afford
the electricity, baby, you go acoustic.
Question: I loved (your cover of) the Motown (Temptations song)
"Just My Imagination." Great high point for the movie.
I wondered if you guys were ever planning to do a tribute album
to anyone?
Jagger: I often do tributes
to Martha and the Vandellas in front of my mirror.
Richards: Much of that we've
done over twenty years, and at some time we've covered them all.
Question: I was wondering,
how did you pick the numbers with special guests, and especially
Buddy Guy, your relationship goes back a long way.
Jagger: We've done quite a
few shows with Buddy Guy in the past. I think we've known him
on and off for quite a long time. He's like one of those continuingly
wonderful blues performers that you've admired.
Richards: I met him through
Muddy Waters, you know, and it goes back a long way.
Jagger: I think that the thing
that Marty captured, the duet thing that we did with him, was
really one of the high points of the movie for me.
Richards: I didn't give him
that guitar for nothing, man.
Jagger: That wasn't just for
show.
Richards---Hat's off, a bloody
high point to me on that one.
Jagger: Yeah, and I think
the other guests, all really, all in their slightly different
ways, all add to the movie, you know, and not all duets I think
really will work. Because they don't always do work, those duets.
I'm trying to think.
Wood: Christina (Aguilera)
is very soulful.
Jagger: But I think everyone
likes all the direction, and they all really come off. So thanks.
Question: I noticed Al Maysles
in one of the shots. How influenced were you by earlier Stones
films like Gimme Shelter and others?
Scorsese: Al's sort of the
reference to mind for continuity of the number of wonderful films
made with the Rolling Stones, going back of course to Gimme
Shelter, but also Hal Ashby's Let's Spend The Night Together,
and Godard.
Wood: Cocksucker Blues.
Scorsese: Cocksucker Blues.
And also the (Jean-Luc) Godard film (1968's Sympathy For The
Devil), in which you actually see the song "Sympathy
For The Devil" come together in the recording studio, which
is fascinating, so this is a direct reference to the past films.
Question: Marty, when you
set-up the sequence in the beginning where you were on the long
distance call with Mick, and you were waiting for the set of
songs to be given to you, how real is that tension between you
guys?
Jagger: Totally real, I think.
Scorsese: Absolutely.
Scorsese: I trimmed it a bit
because the actual phone call was forty-five minutes, so I cheated
a bit. Over forty-five minutes. But the idea is to capture the
spontaneity of the group, and the word "capture" means
you have to control it in some way. But you can't control the
spontaneity. Therefore, the cameras have got to be in the right
position. Then I wanted to go a little further, and that is have
them all moving cameras, but that means they could collide with
the performers, so you have to be very careful, and all this
sort of thing, and also, the band is on tour. So basically, we're
actually kind of talking to each other, like little talking boxes.
So let's just get that shot. I shot that, I think, at eleven
o'clock at night on video. I sent my assistant over to the hotel
next door. They had white phones. "Get me a white phone,"
because I had to have a white phone. So I shot that. They put
it right in the machine, David and I. I said just get the voice,
a little box there, a speaker, like the voice of Zeus coming
out of the air, you know. But the humor of that was that we could
never really be in the same city together for any really given
long period of time. We just couldn't do it, and so we had to
work that way. And I did trim down the phone call down, that's
true. I trimmed it down. Although me talking about a camera moving,
I couldn't stop talking. That's real. That's very real, And the
set list, itself, I mean, had to be something that they all worked
out almost, I think, 'til the last minute. And afterwards, he
said you have to know the room, you have to feel the temperature
of the audience, you have to feel what's happening. As he said,
it could be a sore throat, it could be anything. And so I was
just concerned that we got as much as we could on film, because
the film is running out of the magazines at ten clips a minute.
So I wanted to get the first three songs completely with all
twelve or fifteen cameras, whatever it was. But inevitably, some
of them are going to go out, which happened, I think, in "She
Was Hot." But luckily we had the back-up cameras on "She
Was Hot," you see. I actually found out the set list a little
earlier than that. Someone did purloin it. I don't want to say
the word "stolen," or who it was, but we did find it.
Richards: I didn't realize
it was such hard work, Marty.
Moderator: I believe this
is the last question.
Question: This question is
for you. Mr. Scorsese, this question is mostly for you. Over
the last few years, you've reinforced your work with a kind of
development of a public persona in a lot of ways. You did the
Amex commercial. You've lent your name to certain causes, and
executive produced certain films. You start and end this film.
And I'm interested, I mean, we haven't seen a director like
this since Hitchcock, in a lot of ways, kind of the public persona.
And I'm interested in how you've cultivated that over the years.
And also, to The Stones, I guess, how you felt about Mr. Scorsese
beginning and ending the film.
Scorsese: Do you want to speak
to that first, or should I?
Jagger: Yeah, well, we had
a lot of trouble working out the ending of the film; Marty had
to go to a lot of different acting coaches to do it.
Scorsese: Really, really,
it was sad, yeah. I do it on my own pictures. I'm sort of the
Edward Kennedy, the slow burn. You know, the guy always used
to go always go like this (holds his face in his hands in mock
frustration). And that's happens when you make films. And so
one of the things to do is to get into that, and literally send
up the hapless director, so to speak, which, and very often,
you do feel like a hapless person sitting there. And the actors
doing one thing, the camera. It starts snowing the other night
when we were shooting, it wasn't supposed to snow, you know,
things like that. Do we keep continue shooting? I mean, but that's
the nature of what it is. And to have fun with it. I think there
are so many documentaries now, or there are so many sections
of concert films where you see the actual setting of the concert
interview with people. Well, let's have fun with it. Let's get
to the actual tension and the humor of that tension. Really it's
the good humor of that tension.
Moderator: I believe we have
one more, this lady right here. .
Question: I wonder whether
you had planned for this arc in pre-production, how you set that
up, or whether this happened during the course of the film, where
you found what you were getting, or whether it happened in the
editing room?
Scorsese: That's a good question.
We hoped for that arc. That's where the tension is. We need them
to perform the way they are. I can't put cameras in their way.
Yet, I wanted to get that arc. I knew that getting certain cameramen
working together, they also could find the angles and find the
looks, and know when to pan to Ronnie on guitar, know when to
pan to Keith, know when to stay on Mick and Charlie, and that
sort of thing. And so I was hoping that the cameras in those
positions would get those moments, and then it was constructed
in the editing.
Moderator: I think this will
be the final question.
Jagger: Thank you very much
indeed. Ladies and gentlemen.
Phyllis Pollack lives in Los Angeles where she is
a publicist and music journalist. She can be reached through
her blog.
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