In New York City, a person knows where they stand. You know before you hop on the subway if a person is going to show up to a date. Then if they’re not showing, and […]
Blog
The Sopranos “Woke up This Morning” and Chose Violence
In a post #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter world, The Many Saints of Newark feels intentionally prescient, but ultimately fails to deliver a story that challenges the racist and sexist tropes that pervade American gangster cinema.
Common Sense
On January 8th, 2021, a new Netflix original series appeared called Pretend it’s a City. It stars a seductive, if not minimal cast: Martin Scorsese in the company of the infamous Fran Leibowitz. Their show […]
Black or Blue: White Protestors, Black Cops, and Race Shaming
Something feels off about watching white people berate, accost, and hurl insults at black police officers during protests against systemic racism.
On the Maturer Sex
Through the myth that women have the upper-hand when it comes to expressing emotions, a burden is placed on women to coddle, take care of, and excuse men’s inappropriate actions.
On Becoming a God in Clifton Park
Vicente was, in many ways, NXIVM’s chief propagandist. I shouldn’t be surprised by this exaggerated performance of victimhood. I’d feel guilty for making my wife sleep next me on the floor, too. But he lets her forgive him a few too many times.
MIXED™
Do you find yourself too “white-nized” to be fully non-white, but too non-white to be white?
Who needs Representation when you have Suggestion?
These shows have built into them opportunities to show sides of the sixties that have seldom been seen before in mainstream media, and yet they don’t take them.
What does this election mean to you?
I sat in the park for two hours with my crooked teal-lettered sign talking to New Yorkers.
Henry Drobbin Talks Unions, Layoffs, and Restructuring
“It’s union busting. To have clear and direct language in a collective bargaining agreement, a precedent that has been followed for ten years, and then to cast it aside and say, ‘We don’t follow that. We don’t need to have this conversation with the union.”
Restructuring the Conversation: Richard Bernstein on The New School Layoffs
“For six months now, they’ve been talking to us about restructuring. There’s now a task force about this, but no one has a concrete idea of what that restructuring means. All you have to work on is rumors, and that’s terrible […] No faculty member has a clue about what this concretely means and when it’s going to happen. And that, I know, has caused enormous anger and frustration.”
Born Sinner
On one of the first days of Morality, my teacher passed each student an index card and asked us to write whether we were pro-life or pro-choice.
Coming So Far to Fall
DIY touring requires a lot more than musical skill to make it work. You have to be comfortable with a not insignificant level of humiliation.
Ambiguous Asian Blend
“So, what kind of South Asian are you?” the bartender asks coolly.
Me & Mary Frances
“Mary Frances” is my own invention. That was how her friends and family referred to her, but she’s better known as MFK Fisher, the matriarch of food writing.
Screens Were my Salvation
Corona stole my spring, and in doing so, it also stole my fresh start.
Saints, Sinners, and Horny Teenagers
We are watching Saved!, the 2004 cult classic with all the markers of an early aught’s hit: Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, and premarital sex.
Staples, Are You There? It’s Me, a Laminating Fanatic.
When my laminator seals plastic packets around the papers that I feed it, it also seals my sanity into place.
Subsisting and Social Distancing with 12th Street
We’re taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming this week to tell you a bit about what we’ve been up to.
Notes from Flavortown
Amidst these thoughts, I wonder how I am going to show off my quarantine six pack that I have simply not found the time to work on.