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The Hummer Files
by a variety of people 11/14/2003Neighborhood: All Over
We don’t like them, and they don’t like us. What follows are brief reports on encounters between civilians and Hummers (and their owners) in an urban environment. ANY urban environment. If you want to add your own, please go to the “Tell Mr. Beller A Story” button and send one in. (The most recent additions [...]
Make Clothes, Not War: Notes From Fashion Week
by Pamela Grossman 10/15/2003Neighborhood: All Over, Manhattan
My devotion to fashion shows began with the designer Cynthia Rowley. About six years ago I inherited an invitation to her show when a fashion editor at the magazine where I worked couldn’t attend. I still remember grabbing a cab at the last minute and scrambling in as the show was just beginning. Sly Stone’s [...]
The Politics of Hair Removal
by Alicia Erian 11/24/2002Neighborhood: Manhattan
Last August, when the Russian woman who waxes my legs in Brooklyn went on vacation, I made an appointment at a spa in SoHo. I’d actually been meaning to switch for some time. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Vicki—I did. She was dirt cheap, and we shared an interest in politics. Even though her [...]
The Whiffle Ball Kid
by Thomas Beller 10/25/2002Neighborhood: East Village
The swimming pool was very warm. There were huge trees in the backyard and they swayed in the breeze, and at the local Haymarket–which is sort of a Balducci’s for Connecticans–my friend left the key in the car while we went shopping and it was still there when we came back. I mean, he left [...]
My Secret Socks Life
by Jeanette Winterson 10/25/2002Neighborhood: Midtown
Illustrations by Elisha Cooper Some people come to New York for the thrills. Some for romance. My desire starts lower down–well below the knee–in a hidden, private erogenous zone, where I get my kicks. This is the story of my socks life. I was travelling along Broadway in one of those reassuring black Town Cars. [...]
The Barber Shops On Amsterdam
by Rachel Sherman 10/23/2002Neighborhood: Upper West Side
Photographs by Rachel Sherman Inside Miguel’s Barbershop on 942 Amsterdam Avenue, Spanish speaking men sit in barber chairs facing the mirror. It is a sunny Friday in the early afternoon and the shop is busy. I ask a guy named Anthony, who is sitting in the back, about Miguel’s. "This is a guy’s place," he [...]
The Four-Dollar Haircut, or Shaving Above the Apple
by Joshua M. Bernstein 01/11/2002Neighborhood: East Village
Several months ago I was stuck in a rut. You know, drinking at the same tired bars, hanging with all-too familiar friends, masturbating in the same routine sock. So in my grand tradition of superficial alterations-buying new shoes, switching from contacts to glasses, wearing headbands instead of hats-I buzzed my skull. And now, several months [...]
How Do You Want It?
by Rene Georg Vasicek 01/02/2002Neighborhood: East Village
Once a month, I take the downtown number 6 train to Astor Place for an $11 buzz cut. Near the corner of Broadway, a red and white awning urges me to Beware of Imitators as dozens of celebrity snapshots are exhibited in the storefront window — Judd Nelson, Susan Sarandon, Rosie O’Donnell, Yannick Noah . [...]
Hemut Lang speaks
by Thomas Beller 05/01/2001Neighborhood: SoHo
Style and Structure With Helmut Lang By Thomas Beller Helmut Lang spent his boyhood years roaming the alps in shorts. He was a country boy until he turned ten, when his father re-married and moved to Vienna, whereupon his step mother proceeded to enforce a strict dress code of suits and ties. Needless to say, [...]
Helmut Lang: Clothes Unmake The Man
by Thomas Beller 08/04/1999Neighborhood: West Village
I once had a girlfriend who bought me clothes. At first this made me extremely happy, but then something changed, and these gifts, which had seemed such a pure expression of love, began to seem like little apologies. The first thing C. gave me was a blue T-shirt that she had embroidered, while on jury [...]
