Messenger Boy

June 24, 2011
Update: 33 Ayes, 29 Nays — Marriage Equality PASSED
In an extended New York State Senate session, a few issues still remain on the agenda, from the “non-controversial” to the very controversial: raising statewide property tax cap, allowing of Yellow Taxi Medallion status to about 1,500 livery cabs, and, again, passing marriage [...]

He combines afrobeat and freestyle like no other, and, calling electro music his “heartbeat,” Chico gives it all he’s got in his new album Analog Drift.

As a child, he grew up in a very musical Cuban family (is there anything BUT that in the Caribbean?). In the ’70s and ’80s in New York City, while [...]

In a step backward for LGBTQ international human rights protection, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly voted to remove references to sexual orientation from a resolution that condemns extrajudicial and arbitrary executions. This marks the end of a decade-long inclusion of sexual orientation in the resolution.
Why the change? Mobilzation. To redefine human [...]

George W. Bush’s new memoir Decision Points sold 775,000 copies within its first week on the market, almost reaching total sales of Bill Clinton’s My Life. But the book did not claim the honor that a few other politicians have managed to reach: the New York Times bestseller list.
Since the book was released in the [...]

“It’s not rocket science,” says aerospace engineer and DJ Mark Branch about being drawn to deejaying, chuckling to himself. By day, he supervises electromagnetic tests for the Hubble Telescope at NASA; by night, he pumps out rhythms to the dancing masses, from local school children to Bill Gates and 3,000 of his closest Microsoft friends.
Mark’s [...]

Out of chaos springs beauty when it comes to illustrator and graffiti artist Swoon. “The things that drew me to [New York City] are its intensity and its harshness.”
A Florida native, Swoon illustrates her large-scale evocative portraits and with the occasional help of a small army of volunteers, cuts away until just the curves of [...]

A New Testament church in Gainesville, Florida, has proclaimed an “International Burn a Quran Day,” in commemoration of the ninth Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and to “protest radical Islam.”
Citizens, both Muslims and their allies, are perplexed and angry. Even military leaders, including an outraged General David Petraeus, are calling for the event to be [...]

Public school teachers spent $1.3 billion out of pocket on classroom expenses in the 2009-2010 school year, according to a National School Supply and Equipment Association study. Educators indicate they spent both on classroom supplies and instructional materials. Read the full story in The Journal, a publication geared toward changing education through emerging technology. Given [...]

Self-confessed thriller and suspense novel fans don’t fit one category of frenzied readers. Some of us perk up at the gritty doorstep of a psychological villain who follows his prey into their bedrooms, others prefer the bloody detective whodunit that tracks a vicious murderer around the world. And still other must-love-heart-stoppers can’t get enough of [...]

CalArts graduate Miwa Matreyek is not just an “experimental artist,” nor is she defined by whatever head-scratching, hives-inducing reactions that term usually sparks in art purists. She’s stepped forward from behind the screen, using multi-projection art, set to melodic blips and beeps, to draw sweeping cityscapes, watery scenes, domestic tinkerings and the clashing of them [...]