Hi, I'm Choire Sicha, and the average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 kilometers. Oh, sorry, sir -- would you like fries with that?

I'm also the editor of Gawker, a website obsessed to death with Manhattan's media and culture, and a contributing writer at The Morning News. Certainly I do love me some freelance. Enquire within.



Recent essays and stories:

24 Hour Movie People [in Wired]. New York City's 24-hour digital film-making competition, with Xeni Jardin and Aliya Naumoff.



Entertainment, Weakly [in The New York Observer]. An evening with The Believer, in which -- go figure -- I find myself as conflicted as everyone else.



Meet Me On Joey Ramone Place [in The New York Observer]. Sometimes memorials have meaning; East 2nd Street gets a new name.



Chelsea's Crazy Hanging Garden [in The New York Observer]. West Chelsea may get an incredible -- or unincredible -- public park. But what do the landlords get?



French Film, French Film [at The Morning News]. After a decade in New York, every streetcorner, building, and section of the deli will remind you of someone you've been in love with.



Over the River And Through the Sleaze: Corcoran Uncorks [in The New York Observer]. Real estate queen Barbara Corcoran, conceptual artist Glen Seator, and a theory of the gentrification of Brooklyn.



The Media Lunch [in The New York Observer]. The California recall, porn star and candidate Mary Carey, The Day of the Locust, and the media profit centers do lunch.



Ronald Reagan and Reading Proust [at The Morning News]. So heavy hangs the head of she who wore the crown the night before: a three-day diary of literary celebrities, self-loathing, and the Wolfowitz Riots at the New Yorker Festival.



The Non-Expert: Broken Hearts [at The Morning News]. In this everchanging world in which we love in, to misquote Mr. McCartney, people get hurt every day. What we sometimes forget is that people get un-hurt every day too. Let's patch you up and get you back in the game.



The New York City Tattoo Convention [at The Morning News]. In a generation, body art has gone from subversive to suburban, so it now takes a lot more ink to stand out. Geoff Badner and I cover the permanently-etched tragedies that become comedies.



It Must've Been Something I Hate [at The Morning News]. I spent three days recently in New York City's prison industrial complex Criminal Court, being judged on whether I was the right person to judge others in a series of unseemly trials. Join me on an in-depth tour of jury duty in Manhattan, won't you? Just pass through this metal detector, check your politics at the door, and come on in!



The Complicated Art of Chelsea [at The Morning News]. Don't get me wrong: my middle name is Art. No really, after my grandfather. Anyway, I love the the stuff... or at least, I did. Join me on a three-hour tour of West Chelsea's art galleries.







block Friday, August 1


 Staying in my mother's house in bloody Oakland, California, makes me feel like I've given up. For a moment I did think about moving home, sponging off the organic produce, getting a job in some fucking wireless-internet-enabled root-vegetable-roasting cafe, doling out the dolphin-safe coffee, and simply waiting out the rest of my life, probably not too long anyway until I get gunned down in a drive-by. And why not? I have nothing to say. I don't want anything. I could go anywhere in the world right now, I have the resources and the time, and I don't want to. I don't wanna be fucking anywhere.

Even so, being in California is worse than anywhere else, so I probably won't stay long. In San Francisco they have installed little countdown timers in the pedestrian walk/don’t walk signs. You have 10 seconds in which you can still walk across the street, they blink. 9. 8. 7. That is why I hate San Francisco, the useless pretend-socialist paternalism. And the provincialism, which really is just like New York’s, except New York has real rich people and real artists. In the near future, everyone in San Francisco will be carried by transgender robots across the busy intersections for maximum safety.

God knows I won't be back. ⊕

This was how I won the West: I've been trying to make a good news/bad news joke out of my life these last two days, but I couldn't quite get the punchline right. There hasn't been any good news at all.

Except now finally there is, there is. After these fucking awful two days, the good news is that my sense of humor is back, and that means that, even if I'm completely heartbroken, I'm gonna be just fine -- and maybe even better than before. Once again we learn that irony and sarcasm save lives. With that in mind, please enjoy another excellent breakup song, except this time with tongue in cheek:

All You Need Is Hate, ©The Delgados, 2.7MB. ⊕

block Thursday, July 31


 Excommunications, ©Thalia Zedek, 4.8MB mp3. ⊕

block Wednesday, July 30


 The Tonga Room, Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco. (Where I met a group of incredibly great San Franciscans, and heard the Pan-Asian Pat Benatar perform in this little fake boat. Delightful all around.)
the tonga room
⊕

Mr. Thai, Powell Street, San Francisco. Philo and George. (Not pictured: Laura and Casey.)
philoandgeorge
⊕

block Tuesday, July 29


 Retarded Childrens Thrift Store, Ventura, California.
retarded children's thrift store
⊕

Anti-Bush/Anti-War demonstration, Ventura, California.
anti-Bush demonstration
⊕

Indoor/Outdoor Bookstore, Ojai, California.
ojai books
⊕

Wind Farm, Palm Springs, California.
wind farm
⊕



the xml feed is here, and if you really must, you can delve into the past here.
thanks for spending a moment with me. perhaps you'd enjoy seeing who i see:
my girl gang will totally cut you:
→blaise →elizabeth →jennie →jonno →lance →leslie →meg →philo


gangsters from the block:
→aaron →anil →ariel →ernie →faustus →lisa →lockhart →mom →nick →richard →steve


join me for a meeting in town hall:
→gothamist →the morning news →world new york


clock some mofos who can write:
→alison →bob →dana →dong resin →mary →matthew →michael →mimi →skot


about this site:
©2000-2003, choire sicha. i use blogger for posting automation. the rest is handcoded by my squirrels. i am hosted by kinetic medium. this page is validating css.




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