An Embarrassment of Riches
One of Frank Rich’s sons writes for 'Saturday Night Live.' The other’s a published novelist. And they don’t like what you’re thinking.
I had been invited to witness a typical “brothers hang,” as Nathaniel Rich had dubbed it over the phone from the Paris Review office in the Tribeca, where he works as an editor. It was a mid-August evening, and Nathaniel and his younger brother Simon and I surrounded a four-person table at Waterfalls, a family-style Middle Eastern restaurant in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. This is a place the Rich brothers know...
Flavor of the Week: Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist
He was looking for love, but JOSEPH ALEXIOU ended up elbow-deep in shit
ALTHOUGH THE PROMISE of orgasm was available in every direction, my dick was as soft as an old banana. Visiting a sex party in the Meatpacking District called “Oktoberfist” was not my debut appearance in the illicit gay underworld, but it was the first time I’ve ever attended such a party without feeling an ounce of sexual desire. It was also the first time I’d brought along my friend and unr...
Gut Instinct: DC Me ASAP
In a world of organic panaceas, JOSH BERNSTEIN still believes in artificial sweeteners to numb the pain
IN MY BLUEBERRY living room, curtains shielding my apple-red eyes from sunlight, I grasp a small, cold cylinder and release a crisp psshhhhhh. “What are you doing?” my girlfriend calls from her office, where she’s watching the acne-free antics of Gossip Girl. “Words! They hurt!” I moan, clutching ears made sensitive by too much Mama Juana, an herb- and wood-soaked Dominican rum touted a...
Fangin' Out
Forget seeing Twilight, the guys from Vampire Weekend want to kick back when they’re home
SINCE THE RELEASE of Vampire Weekend’s remarkable debut in January, demand for the New Yorkbased foursome’s clever African-inspired indie pop has been higher than high. So they spent most of the year banging around the globe—crisscrossing the United States, making stops all over western Europe (even Iceland!) and touching down in Japan, Australia and New Zealand—performing for packed audiences...
If You Liked It, Then You Shoulda Put a Wig on It
Beyoncé gets real as Etta James, Jeffrey Wright gives a Best Actor performance in what could be termed ‘The Muddy Waters Movie’
IT'S OBAMA TIME and black artists still suffer segregation. How else to explain the Gotham Independent Film Awards ignoring Cadillac Records, the most excitingly performed American movie this year? Cadillac Records tells a story of black popular music— its rapidly changing phases during the 1950s from the blues to race records, from rock ’n’ roll to R&B—with richly exciting characters but not ...
