Silence is Golden
05/31/2006
Urbanites have long used sunglasses for much more than merely protecting their eyesight, but to heighten concentration on the day's various missions by warding off undesired eye contact with random passersby. But what to do when you're trying to work at your local coffeehouse and find yourself getting caught up in the pointless conversation at the next table, or what' ... Read More
Posted in Cities | Permalink
After the Afterparty Comes the Russian Steam Bath
05/20/2006
You can only meet your friends for drinks at so many dive bars before the urge to somehow detox overtakes you and you succumb to the Russian bathhouse fad. Known to native Russian speakers as the "banya," Russian baths combine hot pools, ice-cold pools, dry heat, wet heat, layabout mobsters, and stern bath attendants whapping the poison out of your skin with bristly b ... Read More
Posted in Cities | Permalink
The Flying J: Starbucks for Truckers & Fugitives
05/08/2006
After a long day of riding along our nation's interstate highways, what could feel better than taking a hot shower, filling your tank with cheap gas, sharing a steak buffet with red-eyed truckers, and a kicking back for a few minutes in the warm glow of a wireless internet connection? NOTHING. Especially when you don't have to shell out sixty bucks a night for a motel ... Read More
Posted in Cities | Permalink
INTERVIEW WITH BILL WASIK aka THE FLASH MOB / HARPER'S GUY
03/23/2006
>The Untold Tale of His Magnificent Flash Mob Hoax>Why Hipsters Get So Angry When You Call Them Hipsters>The Pleasures & Perils of Living in New York City>How You Too Can Write Email That Gets Forwarded 2005 was a tough year for Harper's Magazine. If Vanity Fair was our starchasing aunt from Los Angeles and the New Yorker our pretentious, overbearing father-in-law, Ha ... Read More
Posted in Cities | Permalink
Public Pillowfighting is the New Electroclash
03/06/2006
A couple hundred kids with nothing to do in New York got a lot of attention for staging a pillow fight in Union Square two Saturdays ago. But is pillow fighting really as cool as the Times, Post and Daily News would like you to believe? The the Vulture never met a self-respecting scenester worth her salt who did or would deign to meet up with the masses to take part i ... Read More
Posted in Cities | Permalink
Bunnies Are Money: We're Talking Live Rabbits as Pets, Chief
02/01/2006
The mania for all things animal knows no bounds and shows no signs of slowing down. Not animal as in fur coats, mind you—today's fashionistas prefer a silkscreened tiger or coyote splashed 'cross their chests to a four legged-friend draped 'round their shoulders. Gallery goers still thrill to the art of Marcel Dzama, who combines humans and dogs, reindeer and bears (n ... Read More
Posted in Cities | Permalink
MTV Knows The Fans Will Work For Free
09/16/2005
In Britain, MTV's Starzine claims to be the world's first magazine to be created by its readers. Bored fans can submit photos and captions about their lives, which the editors then turn into Flash-enabled layouts, which are then voted on by other bored fans. The result is something like MySpace, except everyone gets to vote on who has the most interesting life and the ... Read More
Posted in Apparel, Art, Cities | Permalink
Portland, Oregon: White People Gone Wild
06/27/2005
This is where every homeless man has a Walkman, every spoiled terrier boasts two pair of Nikes, and even the mayor is known to join in a drum circle now and again. This is like the white Jamaica, where a racially purebred monoculture commits shocking fashion atrocities in the name of being "chill." And my goodness gracious, are Portlanders ever polite! Only yesterday ... Read More
