GEHRY'S DISNEY HALL, TECHNODREAMING
The New York Times, Sept. 16, 2018
A swirling projection on steel for the Los Angeles Philharmonic
A COLLECTIVE WILL NOT BE PINNED DOWN
The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2018
The Propeller Group shines a light on Vietnamese influences.
WHERE'S HUMANITY IN THE DIGITAL FUN HOUSE?
The New York Times, July 30, 2017
Millennial artists are anxious about tech and its future.
HE IGNORED THE ART WORLD, THEN INSPIRED IT
The New York Times, June 25, 2017
A year after his death, Alan Vega looms over a scene.
A MISSION TO MAKE ART UP THERE
The New York Times, March 26, 2017
An earthbound artist and an astronaut team up.
VIRTUALLY REAL AND REALLY COOL
The New York Times, January 8, 2017
Artists test the power of a new tool to create 3-D works.
THE MISSION TO SAVE VANISHING PIXELS
The New York Times, October 23, 2016
A group sets out to preserve digital art before it's too late.
THE BEATS' FERMENT, STILL BUBBLING
The New York Times, August 28, 2016
A new exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris, “Beat Generation: New York, San Francisco, Paris,” is the first major retrospective on the Beats since the 1990s.
UNLEASHING DEMONS IN THE ARMORY
The New York Times, June 8, 2016
The artist Martin Creed brings his Freudian obsessions to the Park Avenue Armory.
BEYOND OUR CONTROL
The New York Times Book Review, November 29, 2015
Matt Ridley argues that the emergence of big ideas has little to do with top-down direction.
The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge, by Matt Ridley
THE BIG BANG OF ART AND TECH
The New York Times, November 8, 2015
Collaborations in the 1960s presaged convergence today.
AN APP THAT KNOWS YOU ALL TOO WELL
The New York Times, April 5, 2015
Karen is part story, part game and designed to be unsettling.
A PALACE OF WONDERS
The New York Times, July 20, 2014
The Panza Collection mounts a show challenging perceptions.
DON'T MESS WITH MY 'SACRED VALUES'
The New York Times Sunday Review, November 17, 2013
Sometimes, cash bargains just aren't acceptable.
WORD TRAVELS FAST
In #tech @life
The New York Times Book Review, November 3, 2013
Twitter and Facebook are just the latest incarnations of a tradition that dates back 2,000 years, Tom Standage says.
Writing on the Wall: Social Media—The First 2,000 Years
By Tom Standage
MOVIES OF THE FUTURE
The New York Times Sunday Review, June 23, 2013
Goodbye, passive viewing. Soon, every moviegoer will be a player.
THE PROMISE OF VIRTUAL REALITY
The Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2018
The story of VR, the most immersive communications technology to come along since cinema, as told by two of its pioneers.
Experience on Demand, by Jeremy Bailenson, and Dawn of the New Everything, by Jaron Lanier
WHEN MACHINES RUN AMOK
The Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2017
The author was taken aback when he observed an AI program teach itself to play an arcade game—much better than its human designers.
Life 3.0, by Max Tegmark
THE WORLD'S HOTTEST GADGET
The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2017
Apple's iPhone—a 21st-century American icon—could not exist without the labors of Bolivian miners and Chinese factory workers.
The One Device, by Brian Merchant
SOFT SKILLS AND HARD PROBLEMS
The Wall Street Journal, May 27-28, 2017
There's a cultural bias in business and technology against any information that can't be quantified.
The Fuzzy and the Techie, by Scott Hartley, and Sensemaking, by Christian Madsbjerg
CONFRONTING THE END OF PRIVACY
The Wall Street Journal, February 1, 2017
We don't want companies knowing too much about us, but we kind of like the personalization. In any case, we don't know what to do about it.
Data for the People, by Andreas Weigend, and The Aisles Have Eyes, by Joseph Turow
WE'RE ALL CORD CUTTERS NOW
The Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2016
At one chain, the top 100 movie titles accounted for 85% of the DVDs rented in-store. But online, the top titles make up only 35% of rentals.
Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment, by Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang
LET THE SELLER BEWARE
The Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2006
With MySpace, YouTube and blogs, the customer is always right and online.
Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message, by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba
AUGMENTED URBAN REALITY
The New Yorker/Elements, July 29, 2016
Can smartphone connectivity and shared data solve the problems of crowded cities?
THE POWER OF IMMERSIVE MEDIA
strategy+business, Spring 2015
The most successful advertising today convincingly takes on the qualities of real experience.
DISRUPTION . . . DISRUPTED
The Milken Institute Review, Summer 2016
The emperor needs a makeover.
THE ATTENTION ECONOMY 3.0
The Milken Institute Review, Summer 2015
How efforts to measure the impact of Internet content are undermining the medium.
THE BLOCKBUSTER SYNDROME
The Milken Institute Review, Summer 2014
Will Hollywood's road to success be paved with ever-fewer, ever-more-expensive mega-movies?
SCHUMPETER AND THE FUTURE OF MEDIA
The Milken Institute Review, Fall 2013
First print, now cable? The road to obsolescence for TV programming.
THE SELFISH MEME
The Atlantic, October 2012
Twitter, dopamine, and the evolutionary advantages of talking about oneself.
Anthologized in The Academic Writer (Macmillan, 2016).
Correspondent, 2010-present
Contributing Editor, 1999-2009
IMMERSE YOURSELF
Wired, August 2014
Why the smartphone means a golden age for journalism.
Reprinted in GQ South Africa, December 2014-January 2015
THE ART OF IMMERSION
Wired/Business, March 7-10, 2011
Part 1: Why Do We Tell Stories?
Part 2: The Star Wars Generation
Part 3: Fear of Fiction
Excerpted from The Art of Immersion (Norton, 2011). Anthologized in Reading Pop Culture: A Portable Anthology (Macmillan, 2013)
THE CREATION
Wired, December 2009 ⎢ Wired UK, January 2010
Building the world of Avatar meant inventing effects like you've never seen before.
AS SEEN ON TV
Wired, October 2008
There's something new on the Web: all your favorite shows, free and legal. Why Hulu is the place for prime time, anytime.
THE HOLLYWOOD TREATMENT
Wired, August 2008
Sexy stars. Big-name producers. Greenscreen tricks. Watch out, amateurs: Hollywood has finally figured out how to make Web video pay. Rule 1: Product placement gets top billing.
Anthologized in Annual Editions: Mass Media (McGraw Hill, 2009)
THE SECRET LIFE OF A BLOG POST
Wired, February 2008
Mapping the journey from servers to spiders to suits—to the world.
Issue a winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence
AND NOW, A GAME FROM OUR SPONSORS
Wired, January 2008
The future of advertising isn't writing better slogans or using cool photography or video. It's creating interactive stories people can explore over their phones, on the Web, maybe even through a flash drive hidden in a bathroom. It's a new art form. Just ask Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor.
A SECOND CHANCE FOR 3-D
Wired, November 2007
Trilogies are done. CGI is ho-hum. Now Hollywood directors are tapping into the third dimension—starting with Angelina Jolie in Beowulf.
Issue a finalist for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence
LONELY PLANET
Wired, August 2007
Second Life: It's so popular, no one goes there any more. How Madison Avenue is wasting millions creating ads for an empty digital world.
Plus BLIND SPOTS
Embedding ads into videogames seemed like a good idea. Too bad users don't notice them.
Reprinted in GQ Mexico, March 2008
PHILIP K. DICK GOES LEGIT
Wired, June 2007
COMMERCIAL BREAK
In Web Video Grows Up
Wired, December 2006
In a risky experiment, Chevrolet asked Web users to make their own video spots for the Tahoe. A case study in customer-generated advertising.
Issue a winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence
CAN THE PS3 SAVE SONY?
Wired, September 2006
The company that created the transistor radio and the Walkman is at the precipice. If Sony's new $600 console doesn't blow gamers away, it may be time to say sayonara.
Reprinted in GQ Mexico, February 2007
SKY DAYTON AND THE NEXT WAVE OF MOBILE PHONES
Wired, March 2006
High rates, low tech — when it comes to cell phones, the US is the third world. The trend surfer who started EarthLink wants to sell you a fully loaded device from the wiredest place on the planet.
Plus FEATURE-RAMA
The new Helio Hero, coming soon.
BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE MP3 PHONE
Wired, November 2005
Consumers want an iPod phone that will play any song, anytime, anywhere. Just four little problems: the cell carriers, the record labels, the handset makers, and Apple itself. The inside story of why the ROKR went wrong.*
Plus AAARGH!
Why you don't yet have the perfect music-playing phone.
(*And what it wIll take to make a truly rocking music phone.)
ESPN THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX
In The All-You-Can-Eat TV of Tomorrow
Wired, August 2005
Web, WiMax, cell phones, and more: The sports powerhouse is about to be on every screen in your life.
WAR OF THE WORLDS
Wired, June 2005
This time E.T. wants to kill us. How Steven Spielberg reinvented H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds in 72 days and learned to love digital filmmaking—fast.
Plus WW4
The evolution of alien invasion.
SEOUL MACHINE
In The 2005 Wired 40
Wired, May 2005
Cell phones. Memory chips. Plasma TVs. How Samsung made Korea a consumer electronics superpower.
Reprinted in GQ Korea, July 2005
BUILDING THE FUN BOMB
Wired, February 2005
South Park and The Daily Show made them number one with the PlayStation generation. But seriously, how do you top Jon Stewart? Inside Comedy Central's R&D lab.
THE LOST BOYS
Wired, August 2004
Online gaming all night: Cool. Hour after hour downloading MP3s and porn: No problem. Thirty seconds so you can try to sell me something? Outta here. How the 18-34 male is reinventing advertising.
HELLO, NINGBO
Wired, April 2004
Motorola is losing its hold on China's mobile phone market. The little local startup that has Moto's number: Ningbo Bird.
Plus RING-A-BLING-BLING
Cell phone shopping with Red Poppy Ladies Percussion.
THE SECOND COMING OF PHILIP K. DICK
Wired, December 2003
The inside-out story of how a hyper-paranoid, pulp-fiction hack conquered the movie world 20 years after his death.
Plus REALITY CHECK
Uma Thurman on the surreal world of Dick, karmic paybacks, and working with mind-bending auteurs.
and THE HOLLYWOOD TREATMENT
Why do filmmakers love Philip K. Dick? Credit his mix of head-spinning imagination and high-concept action — not to mention big fans like Tom Cruise. Here's a breakdown so far.
Reprinted in Rolling Stone Deutschland, February 2004
THE FAST-FORWARD, ON-DEMAND, NETWORK-SMASHING FUTURE OF TELEVISION
Wired, October 2003
What happens when digital video recorders give viewers control of the TV schedule, the content, and the ads? The full story after this 5-second word from our sponsors.
Plus JUST-IN-TIME PRIME TIME
HBO's on-the-fly drama is ripped from the headlines and produced on a weekly deadline.
Anthologized in Navigating America (McGraw Hill, 2009) and Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader (Cengage, 2005)
BARRY DILLER HAS NO VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET
Wired, April 2003
That's why the no-nonsense honcho of Home Shopping Network, Match.com, and Universal is poised to rule the interactive world.
THE CIVIL WAR INSIDE SONY
In Rip. Mix. Burn. The Fall of the Music Industry
Wired, February 2003
Sony Music wants to entertain you. Sony Electronics wants to equip you. The problem is that when it comes to digital media, their interests are diametrically opposed.
Issue a finalist for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Reprinted in GQ Korea, March 2003. Anthologized in Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader (Cengage, 2005)
BIG MEDIA OR BUST
Wired, March 2002
As consolidation sweeps the content and telecom industries, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has a plan: Let's roll.
Plus THE FATHER OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
Why Joseph Schumpeter is suddenly all the rage in Washington.
POCKET MONSTER
In Japan Rocks: The Liberation of Disintegration
Wired, September 2001
How NTT DoCoMo's wireless Internet service went from fad to phenomenon — and turned Japan into the first post-PC nation.
Plus THE NEED FOR SPEED
Another DoCoMo first: running into trouble with 3G.
Issue a finalist for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence
TELECHASM
Wired, May 2001
Can we get to the future from here? First we have to get telecom out of the Stone Age.
MEET YOUR NEW ADVISORY BOARD
In Gigatrends
Wired, April 2001
The European Commission has a mandate to shape a New Economy policy around the globe. It's called borderless bureaucracy.
VIVENDI'S HIGH WIRELESS ACT
Wired, December 2000
CEO Jean-Marie Messier's deals with Vodafone and Seagram were a star turn on the European stage. As information becomes truly portable, will a global media company paired with continent-wide distribution prove an unbeatable combination?
Plus TELE-PROMPTER
Europe leads the way in advancing wireless.
REMINDER TO STEVE CASE: CONFISCATE THE LONG KNIVES
Wired, September 2000
Time Warner brings fat pipe and petabytes of content to the AOL party. Plus a little something extra: a history of amazingly expert corporate infighting, ankle-biting, and all-around backstabbing. This is gonna be fun!
TV OR NOT TV
Wired, March 2000
Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB aims to capture Britain's interactive TV market with a Sun set-top strategy. But a growing Microsoft alliance has different plans.
Plus RUPERT DISCOVERS THE INTERNET
THE TELEVISIONSPACE RACE
Wired, April 1998
Forget the browser. Bill Gates has. Microsoft wants to be in the box. And if he has his way, television and Windows will be as inseparable as television and football are now.
Plus THE BIG PICTURE
Microsoft moves beyond the desktop.
SEX SELLS
Wired, December 1997
Young, ambitious Seth Warshavsky is the Bob Guccione of the 1990s.
KEYWORD: CONTEXT
Wired, December 1996
Five million new members in two years. Stock value cut by two-thirds in six months. Service outage, lawsuits, churn - and talk of becoming the fifth network. What's really up at AOL?
Issue a winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence
Contributing Editor, 1998-1999
ARGENTINA'S LAKE DISTRICT
Travel + Leisure, February 2008
In northern Patagonia, Frank Rose explores the waterfalls, forests, parks, and many, many lakes of alpine Argentina.
SEVEN GLORIOUS DAYS IN THE LOIRE
Travel + Leisure, March 1999
Along the garden paths and through the forest to nights in the châteaux.
Plus HOW TO RAMBLE
Anthologized in Travel + Leisure's Unexpected France (Dorling Kindersley, 2007)
SANTA BARBARA: WHERE CALIFORNIA DREAMS
Travel + Leisure, January 1998
Town meets country and ranch meets the sea.
Plus SANTA BARBARA'S WINE COUNTRY
NEWPORT: WHERE SUMMER BEGAN
Travel + Leisure, April 1997
A century ago, the American seaside resort was practically invented at Newport. Today, Rhode Island's coastal towns are still defining themselves against its strange and alluring myth.
THE BEST OF VIRGINIA
Travel + Leisure, February 1997
The cradle of America is more seductive than ever.
Contributing Writer, 1997-1999
THINK GLOBALLY, SCRIPT LOCALLY
Fortune, November 8, 1999
American pop culture was going to conquer the world, but now local content is becoming king.
HELP! THEY NEED SOMEBODY
Fortune, May 24, 1999
With Garth Brooks and the Spice Girls, EMI seemed to have everything going for it. But a series of management missteps has left it in disarray. Now CEO Sir Colin Southgate is leaving and a new CEO, dubbed the "biscuit bungler" by the British tabloids, must sort things out.
EDGAR BRONFMAN ACTUALLY HAS A STRATEGY—WITH A TWIST
Fortune, March 1, 1999
Let others bulk up on cable. The Seagram heir is challenging Disney in theme parks and laying out billions to be No. 1 in music. Can this possibly work?
Plus SEAGRAM + MCA + POLYGRAM = ?
THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
Fortune, June 22, 1998
A handful of powerful CEOs are battling for the hearts, minds, and eyeballs of the world's six billion people. But the harder they fight, the more they need each other.
THE DREAM FACTORIES REBORN
Fortune, February 16, 1998
Fifty years after the demise of the studio system, Hollywood's back lots are busier—and grander—than ever.
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO MICHAEL OVITZ?
Fortune, July 7, 1997
Striving to make his comeback, CAA's superagent is now an unemployment statistic. Seven lessons to be learned from the fall of the image king.
THE END OF TV AS WE KNOW IT
Fortune, December 23, 1996
Forget HDTV. Forget interactive television. Forget the 500-channel universe. Instead start thinking PCTV.
CAN DISNEY TAME 42nd STREET?
Fortune, June 24, 1996
They blew it in Paris. They got thrown out of Virginia. Now, looking for a home on Broadway, Team Disney is pouring millions into one of the most crime-ridden blocks of Manhattan. What does Michael Eisner know that you don't?
IF IT FEELS GOOD, IT MUST BE BAD
Fortune, October 21, 1991
That's the new philosophy of "non-ism." It's a hot button among baby boomers, a strenthening force in Washington—and there's lots of money to made from it.
Plus SELLING SIN TO BLACKS
NOW QUALITY MEANS SERVICE TOO
Fortune, April 22, 1991
In the latest phase of the quality campaign, managers are discovering that the point is not only to satisfy but also to delight the customer. Just ask IBM or Federal Express.
A NEW AGE FOR BUSINESS?
Fortune, October 8, 1990
Visionary thinkers are rejecting the by-the-numbers approach to enterprise and seeking a new paradigm for viewing the world. Love and caring in the workplace? The profit motive less than preeminent? Major corporations are buying in.
Plus THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS GOES GREEN
THE LOVE SONG OF E. BRONFMAN JR.
Esquire, June 1997
Dante's Peak fizzled. The stock price is stalled. But two years after the Seagram heir spent $5.7 billion for MCA Inc., Hollywood's top power brokers are betting he's not a third-generation bimbo.
SOAP GETS IN THEIR EYE
Esquire, May 1996
CBS thought Darren Star's Central Park West would make the network younger and hipper. CBS was wrong.
AS THE ESCROW FLIES
Los Angeles Times Calendar, December 24, 1995
There's more room than ever in the film business for wannabe players. Just ask the people involved with last summer's aborted feature Divine Rapture. (Second of two parts)
NO FLOWERS, SEND MONEY
Los Angeles Times Calendar, December 17, 1995
Divine Rapture was to have been producer Barry Navidi's first feature. He had it all—$13 million to play with and Marlon Brando, Debra Winger, Johnny Depp and John Hurt signed. Yet the picture folded two weeks into the shoot. What went wrong? Welcome to Hollywood Accounting 101. (First of two parts)
MIKE, BEFORE MICKEY
Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1995
Ovitz will soon be president of Disney. His friend Ron Meyer is a honcho at MCA. But before they were big, they were already planning for the big time. It all started at the William Morris Agency. . . .
Excerpted from The Agency (HarperCollins, 1995)
TWILIGHT OF THE LAST MOGUL
Los Angeles Times Magazine, May 21, 1995
Charming, intelligent and ruthless, Lew Wasserman has been shaking Hollywood since the '30s. When Seagram bought MCA, was he really out of the loop—or was he king of the deal-makers to the last?
WHY ELVIS?
Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 2, 1994
Forget the messiah with the guitar—the King was just a sweet mama's boy whose vague dreams of stardom took him places he'd never dreamed of.
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, by Peter Guralnick
GUESS/JORDACHE: THE BOTTOM LINE
Los Angeles Times Book Review, April 12, 1992
Skin Tight: The Bizarre Story of Guess v. Jordache, by Christopher Byron
MEN OF STEEL
Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 19, 1991
American Steel: Hot Metal Men and the Resurrection of the Rust Belt, by Richard Preston
Contributing Writer, 1991-1995
THE PRODIGAL SON
Premiere, October 1993
When Tony Perkins played Norman Bates, he pressed his finger firmly against America's psychosexual trigger. One year after his death from AIDS, his story can finally be told.
THE CASE OF THE ANKLING AGENTS
Premiere, August 1991
Or, how the most powerful agency in Hollywood became a mere shadow of its former self.
TIM CUTS UP
Premiere, January 1991
So far, Tim Burton has exercised his febrile imagination on other people's movies. Now he's done a personal project, Edward Scissorhands. Watch out!
Reprinted in Tim Burton: A Child's Garden of Nightmares (Plexus, 2002, 2007)
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
Premiere, November 1990
Under Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Disney became the mouse that roared. Can they keep the money rolling in?
LAST LAUGH
New York, June 25, 1990
Jay Gorney sells art that sends up collectors. "I think my artists are great," he says, "but I'm amazed the world is letting me do this."
CELEBRITY VICTIMS
New York, July 31, 1989
Crime casualties are turning into stars on tabloid TV.
COOL JOHN B.
California, April 1990
With a remote but highly charged style, John Baldessari played pied piper to today's biggest art stars. Now he's taking a step into the spotlight himself, and things are getting very warm.
TOMORROW, INC.
California, January 1989
Apple chairman John Sculley started out as a white-bread WASP. Then he became an innovative mass marketer. These days, he's a dyed-in-the-wool Silicon Valley visionary. Have these self-transformations equipped him to lead his company into the twenty-first century?
Excerpted from West of Eden (Viking, 1989)
PIED PIPER ON THE COMPUTER
The New York Times Magazine, November 8, 1987
WHERE THE MYSTICAL MEETS THE BIZARRE
The New York Times, July 12, 1987
An accretion of Victoriana in Silicon Valley.
AMARILLO'S ANSWER TO STONEHENGE
The New York Times, January 11, 1987
10 Cadillacs buried nose-down in a Texas alfalfa field recollect an era of bluster and bravado.
AS THE ART WORLD TURNS
GQ, October 1986
The mix of art, big bucks and hype has turned the art world into a frothy soap opera. Which brings us to Julian Schnabel. . . .
WIRED TO GOD
Vanity Fair, August 1984
Acolytes of high tech in Santa Cruz speak of computers in terms once used for drugs: expand your mind through software. A report from a land some call Oz.
Excerpted in Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age (Abrams, 2013)
THE BLACK KNIGHT OF AI
Science 85, March 1985
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus dares the "artificial intelligentsia" to come up with a machine that really thinks.
Adapted from Into the Heart of the Mind (Harper & Row, 1984).
JOY OF HACKING
Science 82, November 1982
Passionate devotees of the computer prefer beating, crashing, and perfecting the system to meals, sleep, dating, or good grades.
Plus A HACKER'S GLOSSARY
Issue a winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence
Contributing Editor, 1982-1987
IN THE GRIP
In Success!
Esquire, February 1985
T.J. Rodgers was born to win, trained to conquer, but is he fit enough to survive?
MITCH KAPOR AND THE LOTUS FACTOR
In The Best of the New Generation:
Men and Women Under Forty Who Are Changing America
Esquire, December 1984
The hypergrowth of an entrepreneur.
THE PANDORA PROJECT
Esquire, July 1984
The story of artificial intelligence, and how to stay dry while it's raining.
Excerpted from Into the Heart of the Mind (Harper & Row, 1984)
THE MASS PRODUCTION OF ENGINEERS
In Teachers, Engineers, Hispanics: Three Tales of America in Crisis
Esquire, May 1983
The future is being designed by engineers who have been trained simply to be engineers. The one thing we know about the future is that it's more complicated than that.
WALKING ON WATER
Esquire, March 1982
There are so many surfers in southern California that they've staked out scraps of beach and chopped up the endless wave. And from the melee emerges a new order of surfer, one who rides with Jesus and waits for Armageddon.
A ROTTEN SUCCESS STORY
In Quarter Notes: The Esquire Music Review
Esquire, September 1981
Public Image Ltd.: Are they committing rock'n'roll suicide, or are they simply boring?
BIZ RAG BOFFO SAY BUFFS
Esquire, May 1981
For seventy-five years now, Variety has been the trade paper for the entertainment business. Rakish and irreverent, crammed with the numbers that tell the real stories of hits and flops, stars and has-beens, the weekly paper of record pauses only to let a few outraged subjects cool off.
Plus MITTING FITTING FOR YESTERDAY'S BALONEY
WELCOME TO THE MODERN WORLD
Esquire, April 1981
Scavenging through the artifacts of the Fifties and the attitudes of the Sixties are the brave new children of today. Like the beats and the hippies before them, they have something to tell you. Are you listening?
Plus MODERN LIVING: A SAMPLER
Cities, Role Models, Bands, Magazines, Fanzines, Natural Resources
HOW THE PENTAGON FLIES
Esquire, November 1980
Start with five multileveled wings, lots of brass nuts and bolts, a crew of 25,000. Fuel it with the international concerns of the American people and the personal ambitions of the entire military establishment. Then cross your fingers.
Plus PENTAGON PLAYERS
Number 1: Blowtorch Bob and the Persian Gulf
Number 2: Dr. Gaffney and the Theater of the Absurd
Number 3: General Pustay and the Brain That Guides the Sword
Reprinted in Esquire & Derby (Italy), November-December 1980, and Trans-Atlantik (West Germany), January 1, 1981
DEE DEE RAMONE DIDN'T WANT TO BE A PINHEAD NO MORE
Esquire, April 1980
So the New York rocker who practically invented punk—with three chords, sheer energy, and a rotten attitude—kicked heroin, bought a dinette set, and married Vera, who was, you know . . . normal.
Plus DEE DEE'S NORMAL HOUSE
Excerpted from Real Men (Doubleday/Dolphin, 1980)
THE WEST POINT OF THE SOUTH
Esquire, January 1980
Somewhere between stabbing sausages with their bayonets and "raping" virgin ducks, the cadets of Virginia Military Institute become men. They don't call themselves men. They call themselves rats or dykes or rankers or something even ruder. But we'll call them men.
Excerpted from Real Men (Doubleday/Dolphin, 1980)
THE MARTIAL SPIRIT AND THE MASCULINE MYSTIQUE
The Washington Post Book World, October 19, 1980
The Lords of Discipline, by Pat Conroy
HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN GROUP?
Rolling Stone, July 14, 1977
The Bee Gees did it with disco.
Plus BABY BROTHER ANDY TAKES HIS FIRST STEPS
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
New Times, April 15, 1977
Anita Bryant took one look at Miami's new gay rights ordinance and decided it was time to drive homosexuals out of the sunshine and back into the closets.
SELLING THE VOLUNTEER ARMY
The Village Voice, July 23-29, 1980
The Ad Campaign That Went Plop Plop Fizz Fizz
DISCOPHOBIA
The Village Voice, November 12, 1979
Rock & roll fights back.
ELVIS COSTELLO WINS FRIENDS AND INFLUENCES PEOPLE
The Village Voice, April 9, 1979
MEN AND BOYS TOGETHER
The Village Voice, February 27, 1978
Sex for Love or Money: A Report on the Boston Scandal
DANNY FIELDS IS A NUMBER-ONE FAN
In Avant-Punk: Consider a Movement Whose Time Has Come
The Village Voice, October 24, 1977
"When I first saw the Ramones I said, 'This is the best band in the world.' I went up to them after the set and—'You guys are great! You guys are great!' That's all I could say."
FOUR CONVERSATIONS WITH BRIAN ENO
In British Rock Lives: Roll Over Mick Jagger, Tell John Lennon the News
The Village Voice, March 28, 1977
Art, to Eno, is not mere self-expression; getting dressed in the morning is self-expression. Art is life in microcosm.
THE BUTCH FANTASY: AMERICA GOES PUNK
The Village Voice, August 9, 1976
Once a gay term for self-conscious masculinity, "butch" now applies across the spectrum to a growing variety of sexualized fantasies. You too can be a redneck, a trucker, or a punk.
KITSCH ME DEADLY
The Village Voice, February 17, 1976
Comic-book heroes and rock stars fulfill similar fantasies, but rock stars have the advantage of being human. You'll never be Superman, but you might become another Robert Plant.