Tag Archives: Culture
Larry Clark: The Devil Down in Tulsa
was born in tulsa oklahoma in 1943. when i was sixteen i started shooting amphetamine. i shot with my friends everyday for three years and then left town but i’ve gone back through the years. once the needle goes in it never comes out.” -Larry Clark
We Are Doomed: The History Gap
“We are also focusing on how we select product designs in the future, and asking that our designers have a loose grasp of history. Or we are at least asking that they have the ability to conduct a successful Google search.”
The Future of Rap and Child Care
Children on leashes are the new accessory of choice for all strippers turned rappers.
The Death of Dickie Riley
Nearly two years ago, I wrote a short blog post that referenced photographer Peter B. Kaplan’s “Moon Over Manhattan” photograph (above) — which depicts a group of workers high atop the World Trade Center, installing a radio antenna. In the photograph, one of the men takes it upon himself to moon his coworkers.
Pittsburgh Renaissance: The Specter of Urban Renewal
Given the passage of time, and how the Pittsburgh Renaissance (1946-1973) and the destruction of the cultural institutions of the lower Hill District are viewed today, this 1960 Pittsburgh Press caption shows a skewed (but potentially widespread) sentiment:
Into The Wild: Santiago Street
Dispatch from the slums of suburbia.
When I parked my car at the end of Santiago Street, I half expected to find a cul-de-sac devoid of houses. Chris Blackwell, principal planner from the Penn Hills Department of Planning and Economic Development, told me how his department had demolished nearly all the street’s blighted properties in recent years.
The Hi-Riser On The Hill
Each day I drive past this hi-riser on my daily commute through Western Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley. In three years, it’s never moved, yet somehow it retains a shine — like the owner still regularly washes and waxes it even though he stopped driving it long ago.
Read or Regret, Vol. I: Hard Truths and Unshakable Horrors
A month or so back, for example, I unearthed a copy of The Soul of America (1986) — Esquire’s state-by-state look at life in 1980s America. A Ken Kesey essay on rodeo culture in Kansas is what prompted me to buy the book, but after paging through the table of contents some more, I discovered a story written by Lynn Darling titled “True Blue.”
Postcards from America: Rochester, New York
A year ago we did a project called Postcards From America. It was a groundbreaking experiment. Rather than waiting to be commissioned, we just made a decision to do something and hit the road. We drove from San Antonio to Oakland. It was really thrilling. But it was also pretty chaotic.
Scene From The Suburban Slums: ‘This Is All Gone Now’
For the last several months, I’ve been researching the topic of suburban decline for a series of nonfiction stories I’m working on. I’m looking at what is traditionally viewed as first-ring suburbs, or the first wave of planned communities beyond the city limits. My focus is on the eastern suburbs outside of Pittsburgh, an area I’ve lived nearly all my life.
New York City’s Faded Ethos in Colson Whitehead’s ‘Zone One’
I was not surprised when the “occupation” of Zucotti Park was cleared out last November by the NYPD. What surprised me was that it could persist for nearly two months in a place as spatially constricted as Manhattan. New York City is not particularly hospitable to those who wish to live off-the-grid or create autonomous spaces for themselves — artistic,…
The Last Night Of The Year
My uncle used to refer to New Year’s Eve as amateur night. That was because, well, he was a high-functioning alcoholic, and most social drinkers are not as well-versed in the dubious art of driving under the influence.
The Brilliance and Racism of Soul Man
Can we start a serious discussion on how inadvertently brilliant and terribly racist this film is?
In the Tunnels Beneath Las Vegas
Back in November 2010, Austin Hargrave wrote about his experience photographing the homeless who live in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas. His photographs appeared in Matthew O’Brien’s book, Beneath the Neon, which documents the people who live (for a variety of reasons) in the drainage tunnels beneath the city. With homelessness numbers in Las Vegas tripling since 2009, it makes you wonder if the tunnels have seen an influx of residents in the last year.
Alice Cooper and the ‘Chicken Incident’ of 1969
After an unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper and a live chicken garnered attention from the press, the band decided to capitalize on tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous ‘Chicken Incident’, which took place at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969, was in fact an accident.
Public Service: Preaching The Evils Of Comic Books
When I was a boy and played with the gang we did a lot of things. We roasted potatoes and went on expeditions, we tipped over garbage cans now and then, we wrote nasty remarks about the teacher on the sidewalk. We never spent our afternoons like this, reading.
Augmented Reality: June 20th, New York City
A dispatch from the ‘uncanny valley’.
The first time I ever actually saw augmented reality, I was living in Albany, NY. My friend loaded LAYAR onto his phone and we walked around our neighborhood, watching real estate data instantiate alongside buildings.
In Search Of Hanni El Khatib
Garage-rock revivalism holds a certain amount of sway over me, especially the type Hanni El Khatib has assembled on Will The Guns Come Out (Innovative Leisure). Most likely my interest has something to do with an adolescence steeped in power-chord worship.
