NYC
Sitting Down in the Deep End
It was an oppressively cold day in New York. The wind was particularly icy. I was huddled between my girlfriend and a posse of union organizers. By nightfall over 14 million people would have marched against the US invasion of Iraq all over the world...
Cheney Orr's Fleeting Youth
For this week's Mahal, I got to meet up and talk photography with Cheney Orr. When he is not traveling the Middle East, “hunting for light,” he can be found tramping around New York City, documenting its youth and culture. Take a look at some of his...
Komplaint Dept. Why. I Hate. Graffiti.
Have you noticed how lame graffiti in New York has become in 2013? Especially the one-liners you see more and more of, with their pseudophilosophy and visual impairment. Where exactly is the art? And what's the message?
Trip Report: I Went to Lit Sober
The Lit Lounge, if you aren't from New York, is a leering black hole from which few memories escape intact. If the standard, workaday memory is already 50 percent confabulation, the average Lit memory is about eight frames of reality cobbled together...
Hanging with Al Rogers
For this week's Mahal, I met up with Baltimore rapper Al Rogers and New York City shredder Eby Ghafarian to cruise the Lower East Side and pregame the release of Al's first ever LP, 'Almost.' Al got his start by reciting poetry then graduated to...
Clayton Patterson and the History of Tattooing in NYC
For this week's Mahal, I met up with Clayton Patterson to discuss the history of tattooing in New York City. He has been photographing the tattoo scene both in New York City and around the world for over three decades and just recently hosted the book...
My Friend Adam Strauss Was Therapeutically Dilded by the Penis Mushroom
My old comedy-friend Adam Strauss has crafted a long and complex story about overdosing on a variety of Psilocybe cubensis known as "Penis Envy" into an amazing and funny 60-minute act. The show (called Varieties of Religious Experience) runs two more...
Tao Lin’s Apartment: A Review
Last October Tao Lin put up a post on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to sublet his studio apartment in Murray Hill while he visited family in Taiwan. I responded and PayPal-ed him the significantly discounted friend rate. I would be staying for...
Erotic Images by Robert Zash
For this week's Mahal, Vito Fun invited us to Robert Zash's Valentine's Day showing of his erotic images. It was a one-night only event, jam packed with beautifully lit photographs, colorful collages, and a leather-clad man.
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.
A Predator's Guide to Breaking Up
A sawdust joint is an end-of-the line kind of gambling parlor. It's a place without frills and pretension.This column will be about gambling and gamblers; about regular people who play games for money. Most won't be geniuses or savants. Some will win a...
Reality Check
I can’t tell you much of a personal nature about Sunando Sen. I only knew him as a helpful, pleasant, intelligent person who worked at the NY Copy and Printing Center at the end of my block for many years. On December 28th, a deranged woman with a...