New York
Superstorm Sandy, Six Months Later
Just over six months ago, Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast and devasted entire communities, especially in areas that had never before been hit by such weather events. Now towns and cities all across the coast are scrambling to ready their houses and...
'No Condoms as Evidence' Legislation Up for Debate in Albany
Soliciting, promoting, and patronizing prostitution are all illegal in the state of New York. Carrying a condom is not illegal, but there’s no law that says the NYPD can’t confiscate a sex worker’s condoms and use them as evidence in trial. A proposed...
Cruising ‘New York’ Magazine’s Wedding Convention
After spending a few minutes nervously lurking in the shadows, I spotted my first target: a rosy-cheeked septuagenarian who was leaning against a pillar. I looked up some pickup lines on my phone because I have no game. “Are you a parking meter?” I...
Ben Kilpatrick's Tri-Coastal Photography
For this week's Mahal, I got to talk with Ben Kilpatrick about what it is like to travel the country, photographing on and off his skateboard. Check out some of his most recent work and read our conversation about how NYC and LA inspire different kinds...
Richard Hell Talks About His Epically Badass New Memoir
Richard Hell—legendary punk rock iconoclast, intrepid novelist, and poet—is lounging on his couch in the cozy East Village pad he’s called home since 1975. Considering how brutally forthcoming Richard is about his drug use in his new autobiography 'I...
Why New York's Failed Soda Ban Matters
There are plenty of reasons to object to the soda ban that was recently overturned by a judge, and most have nothing to do with carbonated beverages—it's just another part of the government’s effort to police our bodies and place routine activities...
The Passing of a Magnificent Wind
In not-really-that-surprising news, this week the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered Fung Wah Bus, the notorious progenitor of low-cost interstate bus services, off the road. This news hit me especially hard. Not only because I...
The Golden Age of the Cockroach
The cockroach was a cultural muse of the 20th century, but it's curiously absent in the 21st. We’re looking at a generation of artists that didn’t grow up with roaches, that don’t live with them, that don’t relate to them, that don’t even know where to...
Apes on a Gilded Treadmill
The really tragic events at Downton Abbey are not Lady Cora’s miscarriage (brought about by the sinister, ever-machinating Miss O’Brien with a strategically placed bar of soap), or Bates’s unjust conviction for killing his wife (who ate a poisoned pie...
R.I.P. Ed Koch (1924-2013)
Former NYC mayor Ed Koch, the guy who literally hauled New York's ass out of the gutter in the mid-70s and once recommended using wild wolves to combat graffiti, died this morning at 2 AM of congestive heart failure. He was 88 years old.
New York Is a Paradise
Was there ever any doubt that the city that never sleeps is overflowing with strange perverts, dope addicts, and creepers. It's why we are happy to call it home.