Month: April 2014
Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City is a real place. Judge Dredd, Total Recall, Blade Runner, etc… They all borrow from what is, essentially, the world’s biggest, most compact projects, which were finally demolished twenty years ago, after two failed attempts by the Chinese government in 1947 and 1963. Home to 40,000 people at its height, Kowloon Walled City was […]
Yes, if you live in New York — especially if you live in Manhattan or the trendier parts of Brooklyn — you’re probably paying too much for rent. But your landlord probably isn’t exactly making bank from your monthly check. A post at RealtyTrac catalogs the best and worst counties in the U.S. for rental […]
Photographer Elegance Bratton’s new book Bound By Night is “a snapshot of the contemporary House Ballroom scene in America,” of the Femme Queens, Butch Queens, Sex Sirens, and Voguers, their lives and their battles, of the “underground society through which individuals can find family and fame.” Elegance Bratton starts at Vogue Knights in New York City (featured in ANIMAL’s short documentary […]
At first glance, the video below seems to show a thriving enterprise. Using Citi Bike’s openly available rider data, Jeff Ferzoco and Sarah Kaufman of NYU’s Rudin Center visualized two days in the life of the cash-strapped bike share program: over September 17 and 18 — two 60-degree, non-rainy days — we see 75,000 trips happening […]
It wasn’t just the New York Post that pointed an accusatory finger at innocent young men who just so happened to have brown skin in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, and now, they won’t be the only ones getting sued for it, either. Abdulrahman Alharbi, a Saudi Arabian student who was present at the scene […]
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Wes Anderson’s newest film minces/gallops inside/around a hotel, its visitors (rich hags, writers), staff, proprietors, and one particular concierge whose professionalism is so divine and immaculate, it brings a tear to your eye. And then, the other eye. ALL PERFECT EVERYTHING: 5.0 out of 5.0 This is Wes Anderson’s most opulent […]
A funny thing that no one seemed to notice when Parquet Courts “released” their new “single” “Sunbathing Animal” on sheet music last month: the song sits on one chord for almost its entire length, rendering all those notes on the page close to unnecessary (more efficient instructions might have simply read “Just play B Major”). Today, the […]
Vincent Gray, mayor of Washington, DC, has signed a bill that will decriminalize weed in our nation’s capital. Under the new legislation, possession of up to an ounce will be punishable only with a $25 fine, but you still won’t be able to smoke in public or sell the plant legally. In order to be […]
Redditor dakisking created the above map, which charts the nations with a smaller population than the New York metro area (including Long Island and parts of Jersey, Connecticut, and the Hudson Valley). Those areas, together with the five boroughs, make for 19.9 million people in total, and a surprising number of countries don’t measure up. I’m […]
As if a tiny wall on Elizabeth Street wasn’t enough to keep the majesty of 5 Pointz alive, now, a Long Island City gallery is carrying the torch as well. “Whitewash,” a show of artists involved in running the formerly graffiti-covered warehouse complex, opens April 5 at Jeffrey Leder Gallery, and aims to “explore the […]
