The History Issue
Blood Splashed On A Daisy In The Sunshine
When Siouxsie Sioux climbed onstage at the 100 Club in September 1976 with a band made up of nonmusician buddies-Marco Pirroni, Steven Severin, and Sid Vicious-she probably wasn't thinking about world tours with roadies, lighting rigs, and costume...
Cogitations Upon The Nature Of History
They say that history is written by the winners. One day the feral scum of Britain will win and roam the country free. My problem is that they can't read or write.
Hey, Where Did Bridget Cross Go?
How cool is Bridget Cross? She was the bassist for Unrest, the king of all early-90s indie bands, plus she was in Velocity Girl and Air Miami. If you cared about underground music in the 90s, she's already one of your crushes/heroes.
Whsshkkkk! - Part 2
In the 1980s I was in bands, three or four guys trying to play music together. It wasn’t necessarily good or well practiced, but they were always like, “Hey, let’s try to play that song again. Let’s prove we can actually write this stuff.”
Thomas Cahill Is Saving Civilization
Over the course of books such as How the Irish Saved Civilization, Sailing the Wine-Dark Seas, and Mysteries of the Middle Ages, historian Thomas Cahill has done more for making ancient history readable and entertaining than all the cobweb-covered...
Napoleon Bonaparte
The worst thing about history is the fact that most of the really cool stuff happened centuries ago so anyone who can tell you anything remotely vivid about it has been dead for ages.
Yesterday's Tomorrow Is Today's Colossal Disappointment
For 100 years, movies have tried to show us what the future might hold. Now, in 2008 (which is officially "the future"), we can look back and say: They were almost entirely wrong. Nevertheless, here are their best efforts.
Big And Ugly
It's 1979 and Robert 'Simply Irresistible' Palmer stands at the back of a dingy Melbourne venue in his best pop star finery looking at the stage in mild disgust. Someone from his entourage has dragged him along to a Little Bands night and he doesn't...
The Kids Were Alright
These are photos from the fucked-up party days, from when Ryan first started taking pictures of all his crazy friends up to when he had his solo show at the Whitney Museum, which flung him like a wet young noodle into the boiling pot of the art world.
Video Games Killed The Radio Star
This isn’t particularly fair. It’s like they’ve told me to review the universe in a text message.
The Saga Of True Norwegian Black Metal
I met Metalion during a drunken night at Oslo's Inferno Festival in 2003. I was impressed by his kind nature and unparalleled knowledge of extreme metal, so we stayed in touch over the next few years, occasionally geeking out over cameras and records.