Songs with Atmosphere
A selection of 14 songs that defy description
Singing the Lady Electric
In the five decades since Jimi Hendrix founded Electric Lady, on West Eighth Street, the music studio has kept its look—and caliber—intact
How Hip-Hop Was Made
After photographing London’s nascent punk scene, Janette Beckman moved to New York to chronicle hip-hop’s early days and founding artists—A Tribe Called Quest, Run-DMC, and LL Cool J among them
Street Scenes
A collection of Saul Leiter’s newly discovered color photographs offers a rare look at his pioneering, painterly vision
The Downtown Set
A list of the 50 young New Yorkers who are remaking Lower Manhattan in their own image
What Makes a Neighborhood?
Debbie Harry, Woody Allen, Cat Marnell, Ian Schrager, Diane von Furstenberg, and others weigh in
Sunglasses After Dark
A guided tour of CBGB, the Mudd Club, Tunnel, and downtown’s other lost nightlife haunts
Go Big or Go Home
A new generation is discovering the pleasures of classic movies at Alexander Olch’s Lower East Side revival house, Metrograph
Isaiah Barr
The saxophonist and co-founder of Onyx Collective, an experimental group of artists, is taking on fashion and filmmaking
“Why Can’t You Write Normal?”
Kathy Acker’s journey from daughter of Sutton Place to genre- and gender-bending cult novelist
A Night at the Odeon
Jay McInerney, Emma Cline, and Iké Udé gathered at the Tribeca restaurant in celebration of AIR MAIL’s Downtown Set
Yoko Before John
To understand the most misunderstood woman of the last half-century, you have to go back to the beginning
Ludlow, Lady Gaga, and Me
In 2006, Pianos, on Ludlow Street, was a divey service-industry spot attracting the likes of Sweetbitter author Stephanie Danler—and a pre-fame Lady Gaga
Bohemian Rhapsody
The artist Duncan Hannah’s unpublished 1980s diaries chronicle his run-ins with everyone from Bowie and Basquiat to Warren Beatty and a precocious call girl
Neighborhood Watch
Michael Kimmelman, the New York Times architecture critic and lifelong New Yorker, discusses the old Village and new downtowns
The Music Man
From the stage of the San Francisco Opera, Jakub Józef Orliński’s Orpheus enchants the Golden Gate
Acquired Taste
The granddaughter of the River Cafe’s Ruthie Rogers discovers the thrill of cooking, one page at a time
The King of Lies
Separating fact from fiction in the latest, heavily fabricated season of The Crown
The Jewel Is The Crown
Even though Season Five of Netflix’s hit series is a laughable portrait of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, the show’s critics will keep watching
Luca Guadagnino
Introducing our new Seasoned Traveler feature, a questionnaire devoted entirely to travel routines. First up: the Italian director behind A Bigger Splash, Call Me by Your Name, and the new film Bones and All
Hollywood’s Lost Stories Come to Light
Sam Wasson discusses a new oral history of movies, told by the people who made them