Who Says Machines Must Be Useful?
First published in The New York Times on January 6, 2012. Read the original (with videos!) here.
ON the roof of a small row house in Brooklyn, a black powder fuse flared brightly against the gray sky. Hissing and sparking, it burned through a platform installed inside a repurposed Ikea bookshelf, sending four [...]
Schmekel, a Band Born as a Laugh
First published in The New York Times on November 25, 2011. Read the original here.
THE basement auditorium of the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side is a sincere space. Big, brown and bare, it suggests a school gym, a place for officially sanctioned fun — which made a recent concert by [...]
Where Novices and Artists Indulge the Quilter Within
First published in The New York Times on September 29, 2011. Read the original here.
THE stores are already stuffed with polar fleece, Gore-Tex and Thinsulate. But as temperatures dip, one unassuming shop in Midtown Manhattan has everything needed to weather an old-fashioned winter in the oldest of ways — though you should start sewing now. [...]
A Gay Oasis, With Beer and Barbecue
First published in The New York Times on August 11, 2011. Read the original here.
WALK past the low-ceilinged bar, the jukebox and the pool table. Keep going, beyond the stage where “Queeraoke” erupts every Tuesday, and right out the back door. Feel the sunshine on your face and inhale the relatively fresh air (this is [...]
Is It Summer? Time to Party at the Museum
First published on The New York Times on July7, 2011. Read the original here.
THREE young girls zipped across the crowded dance floor, dresses fluttering, as a new D.J. took the stage. Their parents watched from beneath a small grove of plum and oak trees, drinking beers and discussing the exhibition of Ryan Trecartin videos. Nearby, [...]
An Arcade to Make Gamers Cry
First published in The New York Times on February 10, 2011. Read the original with comments and photo gallery here.
ON my first visit to Babycastles, an independent arcade in Queens, I watched as two young women explained to a friend the rules of a video game. It didn’t involve fighting, special moves [...]
