Who Wants To Be Luke Skywalker?

by Hope Whitmore

Is the Internet Dying? Let’s Go to the Cemetery and Pick Out a Tombstone

Will China Destroy The Moon?

“China successfully launched a lunar probe into space Monday morning, on a two-week journey to deliver a…

How Much Longer Can Virality Master Speak Truth To Internet Culture?

Take The Nay Train

I have a pet theory that the reason organizations like the Murdoch press are so dead-set against bike lanes or anything that makes cycling easier in New York City is because they know that, at some point in the future, the city will inevitably be forced to acknowledge the environmental and…

A Cyber Monday eBook Sale: Up to 80% Off

by Awl Sponsors

Black Friday is hard to get behind. First of all, the name. Black Friday — see also black plague, black widow, black hole — does not inspire enthusiasm. Then there is the event itself. Predawn call times, lines out…

Tinariwen, “Toumast Tincha”

Will This Brief Moment Of Beauty Help You Forget About How Horrible Your Monday Morning Has Been?

All Italians Have A Little Bit Of Berlusconi In Them

“Mr. Berlusconi embodies some of the best, and many of the worst, features of the Italian character. He has a few of our virtues and all of our vices in spades. He is intuitive, easygoing and often very funny. He knows his soccer, enjoys…

New York City, December 1, 2013

★★★ The sidewalks were fairly empty, in the mild morning, except where people crowded outside waiting…

Peter W. Kaplan, 1954–2013

Former New York Observer editor Peter Kaplan died on Friday. “The meat of his tenure occurred during the unfettered, exuberant, often crass nineties boom, and the Observer glorified the city’s inhabitants and their rituals even as it skewered them, turning them into Drew Friedman…

Local Press Gets In One Last “Where’s The Mayor?” Story

“Rather than acknowledging that he sometimes leaves town, the mayor insists that his private time is his private time and the public doesn’t have the right to know where he is when he’s off the clock. But the challenge of being mayor…