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Take a Sneak Peek Inside Courtney Love’s NYC Townhouse

By Emily Temple on

Recently, we found out that Courtney Love was facing eviction from her West Village townhouse “after she set it on fire and ‘ruined’ its designer décor” by painting and wallpapering the walls (the fire was a minor one caused by a candle). According to her landlord, Love is also $54,000 behind on the $324,000 annual rent. All this aside, or perhaps in part because of it, yesterday we were treated to a detailed romp through Courtney Love’s house courtesy of xoJane, whose editors have been using Love’s home as a “sort of Pop-Up office.” Lucky them! Love’s townhouse is full of cozy, lived-in glamour, and its cheerful blues and pinks mixed with dark hardwood and slightly sinister art make it seem a little bit like a deliciously ornate doomsday cake. All we can say is, we hope she gets to keep it. Click through to see a few of our favorite photos, then head over to xoJane for many more. … Read More

Design

Fading and Beautiful Ghost Signs in New York City

By Emily Temple on

However unceasing our culture’s push towards modernity, there are, thankfully, some things that stick with us. In Fading Ads of New York City, recently published by the History Press, Frank H. Jump collects photographs of the fading ghost signs of New York, a project that he began after learning he was H.I.V. positive at age 26. Jump wrote, “The sense of urgency I felt every day drove me to document New York’s fading advertisements, and capture the marks left by artists and artisans, most long since dead, who spent their lives painting huge commercial murals over the last 150 years.” There are thousands of these fading signs all over the country, especially in New York. Some are beautiful in design, some are funny, some are almost gone. Click through to see a few of our favorite finds, from Jump’s book and beyond. … Read More

Architecture

Beautiful Green Spaces Built on Strange Ground

By Emily Temple on

Earlier this week, we saw these great photos of a steel mill converted into a park over at Colossal, and felt a rush of warm feeling. After all, it seems that all anyone can talk about these days is how the world is spiraling downward, how the environment is crumbling, and basically how the seas will soon rise up to claim us. But there is still hope, it seems, as cities and organizations are managing to turn eyesores like industrial ruins, trash heaps, and abandoned military camps into beautiful, green parks for the public to enjoy. At any rate, we think it’s a step in the right direction. Click through to see a few great green spaces — both existing and in the works — that are or will be built on the most un-green of spots, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorite natural hideaways in the comments! … Read More

Books

We’re Not Sure If We Want to Read the Scratch-n-Sniff NYC Book

By Emily Temple on

New York has been immortalized over and over again in literature — but never quite like this. The folks over at Good recently alerted us to the existence of a strange (and smelly) new children’s book, New York, Phew York: A Scratch-N-Sniff Adventure, which is, you guessed it, a scratch-n-sniff tour of New… Read More

Events

Pic of the Day: 9/11 Memorial Dedication in NYC

By Emily Temple on

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the attacks on New York on September 11, 2001. At 8:46 this morning, the memorial ceremony began with a moment of silence led by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush were also in attendance. Hundreds of family members, firefighters, police officers, and other New Yorkers were in attendance as the names of those killed in the attacks were read aloud. Today is also the official opening of the long awaited 9/11 Memorial, which will now be open to the public. … Read More

News

Pic of the Day: Grand Central Station Completely Deserted

By Emily Temple on

Here’s something you don’t see every day. Or, well, ever. This photo of NYC’s Grand Central Station was taken yesterday after the MTA system shut down at noon as Hurricane Irene approached the city. It doesn’t seem that alarming until you realize that this was a Saturday afternoon, when business around and in and out… Read More

Photography

Kodachrome Photos of 1940s New York City

By Marina Galperina on

What’s sweeter than a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge under bright blue Kodachrome skies? That bridge and those skies on top of a large stack of even more vintage New York City shots from the early 1940s, when the boys all wore suits and hats and a hot potato cart was just around the Clinton Street corner. Before the irreplaceable Kodachrome film processing went extinct, amateur photographer Charles Weever Cushman donated his collection of 14,500 color slides to Indiana University. The images were shot all around the world between 1938 to 1969, but these captures of early 1940s Manhattan — spotted by How to Be a Retronaut — are just incredible. See McSorley’s Old Ale House looking nearly as it does now, olde timey sailors sauntering about on Fleet Week and other nostalgia-inducing scenes in our gallery. … Read More

Partner Buzz

Flavorpill's Stomping Grounds Returns with Freelance Whales

By Doug Levy on

In the second installment of our original video series Stomping Grounds, presented by PUMA, we spend a night out with New York’s own musical merrymakers Freelance Whales. Tag along as drummer Jake Hyman and bassist Doris Cellar take us out to one of their favorite nightspots, East Village rock n’ roll hangout the HiFi Bar. While there, they school us in pool, get serious with CSI pinball, and pause just long enough to tell us about how they met and why their early shows weren’t that different from busking in the NYC subways. Click through to watch the video, and tell us who you’d like to spend a night on the town with next! … Read More

News

Four Loko Is Alive and Well and Living in New York Delis

By Judy Berman on

Good news, New Yorkers! We may have to suffer high rents, incessant snowstorms, and increasingly ridiculous commutes, but at least we still have Four Loko to drown our sorrows. Its magical combination of liquor and caffeine was recently banned, but The Awl noticed that an unnamed Brooklyn deli is still selling plenty of the newly caffeine-free beverage. So, what do we think is happening? Has the controversy driven the brand’s name recognition through the roof, are many Four Loko fans just too stupid to realize the caffeine is gone, or is it possible that some people actually just like the way it tastes? … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s

By Leah Taylor on

Better known for his comedic work directing Saturday Night Live, in 1979, director Gary Weis infiltrated two brutal young gangs in the Bronx to film 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s. This fall, the previously unavailable film is now out on DVD, in a package that also includes the 40-page Esquire article by Jon Savage that inspired it.

Originally shot to fill one of SNL’s weekly time slots on NBC, the documentary, which was ultimately deemed too controversial to air, examines street culture before hip-hop blossomed, at the fomentation of breakdancing and graffiti. Members of the Savage Nomads and the Savage Skulls give frank testament to the harsh reality of life in the South Bronx: their crimes, families, communities, and cops. … Read More