NYUterview An Interview With A Real Life NYU Dominatrix
Some people spend hours at shitty work-study jobs pretending to look busy while actually browsing Facebook, but one NYU student—who goes by the name Mistress Ava—wears leather, humiliates people and gets paid for it. Here’s what she had to say about working as a dominatrix this summer. Continue…
Monday, December 1, 2008 12:02 - by Jessica Roy
Live From New York Three Bands and Two-Thirds Charmed at Minsk/Coliseum/Baroness
Three Bands and Two-Thirds Charmed at Minsk/Coliseum/Baroness
Poor Coliseum. They gave a perfectly serviceable show: high energy, tight, loud as hell. The sound emanating from their Coliseum brand amps (the band’s namesake) was dutifully crusty, the EQ pushed to red. Their songs were short and catchy, in a post-hardcore-meets-Motörhead kind of way. But this Louisville, KY band, with their monotonous, genre-bound songs that meld into each other two minutes at a time like a formulaic beat poetry reading, had nothing on the bookends surrounding their set—bipolar acts who both sit at the very forefront of heavy music today. Continue…
High Culture Kanye West Makes Music For Himself on “808s and Heartbreak”
Kanye West Makes Music For Himself on “808s and Heartbreak”
It’s not like Kanye West was ever really at home in hip hop. Rappers tacked him on as a producer—that’s the guy that stands on the other side of the glass—and he tempered his emcee dreams with a troupe of more accomplished artists. His own vocal contribution to his first two albums was a product of the distance he felt from his peers—he didn’t have the cred to be a G, let alone the stylings, so he approached hip hop talking points like a well-meaning fan who failed to be oblivious to their flaws. That made him funny. But he struggled with his chosen lifestyle’s willful disobedience towards the Christian morality he credited with saving his life. That made him interesting, too.
Late Registration was a great work by a genius. 808s and Heartbreak is genius work by an artist whose major gift is the drive afforded by his pop fanaticism (and the beats, I know). Continue…
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:21 - by Justin Spees
Literature Junot Díaz and Samuel R. Delaney Read at NYC’s Solas
Junot Díaz and Samuel R. Delaney Read at NYC’s Solas
In the middle of the throng at Solas last night, I was listening to Samuel R. Delaney, the former sci-fi writer and all time polymath, read a preposterous molestation scene from his latest, Dark Reflections, when I heard the thump of a head against either the bar or the floor as its owner lost consciousness.
“Someone call 911!” someone shouted.
Delaney, a veteran of perilously over-crowded, jungle-aired literary events, kept reading in his strange, somehow soothing, completely ignorable, rising and retreating cadence, and the woman quickly recovered. It was the heat and maybe the booze—not Delaney’s story “about a black, gay, poet who lived in this area” (lower Manhattan)—that caused it. Not to harp on Delaney, but it was nothing to fall down about. He’s best know for his science fiction, work which even Díaz says “drove [him] in part to be a writer.”
Solas had it set up so that Díaz and Delaney each read twice, once upstairs and once downstairs because they didn’t have enough space. Díaz came up just as the paramedics were leaving with the (perfectly fine) girl and said, “Let’s do this thing.” Continue…
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 17:35 - by Jake Fournier
Art World Update But If We’re All Poor, Who Will Buy My Modern Art?
But If We’re All Poor, Who Will Buy My Modern Art?
It’s been two months since our lives were supposed to end and money matters are still getting more frightening each day. But where does that leave the art world? Sure, the status of the arts should be one of our least worries, but New York City is one of the world’s major centers of culture and we should start being more concerned.
Are our museums going to start closing and are the wealthy going to stop buying art? Continue…
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 10:02 - by Beau Rutland
E-Tragedy Teen’s Internet Suicide Begs Generational Questions
Teen’s Internet Suicide Begs Generational Questions
In case you missed it, a Florida teenager overdosed on prescription pills and let the world watch through a live, streaming webcam on the Web site Justin.tv.
Obviously, his death is a tragedy, and suicide should never be taken lightly. But I’m fascinated by how Millennial this episode was.
Have we reached the zenith of over-sharing? Giving birth on camera is nothing new (half of Discovery Health’s roster of shows is of the women-perilously-going-through-labor variety), but here we see a homemade snuff film and a paradox most emblematic of the MySpace Generation, encapsulated in the teen’s suicide note:
“I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless,” he wrote on another message board. He found his life meaningless, yet still felt the need to share his death with the world. Such public communication suggests that he actually felt his life had plenty of meaning. I am not doubting his depression, and I’m not saying he was an idiot—what I am saying is that anytime you put something on the Internet, you imply its importance to others. After all, if it wasn’t important, why would you share it in the first place? Continue…
Monday, November 24, 2008 13:54 - by Josh Becker
Cultural Detritus “Bring Back the Wooly Mammoth?” Asks New York Times…
“Bring Back the Wooly Mammoth?” Asks New York Times…
In last week’s New York Times, an editorial board with a bit less to mull over between election night and inauguration took a stand on one our generation’s most overlooked issues: should we or should we not resurrect a wooly mammoth? Hold on to your butts, kids—Jurassic Park is becoming a reality. Continue…
Monday, November 24, 2008 9:37 - by Mike Vilensky
The Now Big Thing I Am Trying to Understand “Twilight”
I Am Trying to Understand “Twilight”
Beginning with last night’s line-around-the-block midnight showings, the Twilight takeover is now in full force. I want to understand—it’d be great to “get it.”
And I’ve opened my mind, but I wouldn’t say I’m trying too hard. In the internet equivalent of cramming, I’ve immersed myself in reports on the Twilight phenomenon, hoping that the minds of our prescribed class of cultural sieves—from movie critics to pop culture connoisseurs—could clear this all up for me. But I’ve just about given up. Continue…
Friday, November 21, 2008 17:26 - by Joe Coscarelli
Free Stuff Better Than Bond and $12 Less
Better Than Bond and $12 Less
The Village East Cinema is hosting a Macedonian Film Festival this weekend in association with the International Film Circuit. The festival, running through Sunday night, ends with the film Before the Rain, which the New York Times called “one of the best 1,000 films ever made.” On top of being able to see some pretty good foreign cinema, there’s even better news: it’s free. Show up at the theater and mention the International Film Circuit’s founder, Wendy Lidell, and you’re golden. So, before heading to a token hipster bar in the LES (I recommend Gallery or the Library), be even more trendy and watch these Macedonian flics.
For all additional info, check out the festival’s website.
Friday, November 21, 2008 13:52 - by Keith Olsen
WTF Will Smith and Steven Spielberg To Remake “Oldboy”
Will Smith and Steven Spielberg To Remake “Oldboy”
About a week ago the rumor started to circulate that Will Smith and Steven Spielberg would be working together to remake Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy. The internet has been ablaze with groans and pleading, but after sitting on this information and going back through YouTube clips from the film, I have to speak up. This must be stopped.
Spielberg’s Oldboy? Old news, you might say. Maybe I hoped this was all a bad dream. Maybe I was waiting for a statement from Smith refuting these dirty, ugly rumors. “Shit no,” he might say. “I may have starred in Hitch, but I know an untouchable classic when I see one.” We could all benefit from a little humility. Continue…
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:27 - by Joe Coscarelli
