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, September 26


 Well just remember this: don't adapt to them, you'll lose your edge, and if you lose your edge you lose who you are, and if you lose who you are you lose what was attractive and the next thing you know you end up dead in the bottom of a motel swimming pool. -- Advice from Philo Hagen, June 26, 2003. Status: heeded. ⊕

block Wednesday, September 24


 Once upon a time, the slightly aged but very glamorous and, of course, rather pickled and smoky Lucille Ball was being interviewed on television. The show may very well have been Biography with Mr. Mike Wallace; undoubtedly it was the early 60s, as Lucy and Desi divorced in 1960.

It is unlikely, but still possible, that this conversation occurred when Lucy was on the classic gameshow Password, also with Mike Wallace. Unlikely, but lovely.

Mike, or, really, whoever it was, wanted to know about the difference between Lucy's husbands. She had recently married Gary Morton. Gary and Lucy had been set up on a blind date, also in 1960, while Gary was headlining at the Copacabana. They were married just about a year later.

So. Lucy's on the couch, or in the very modern chair, with her chin up and her bright hair even more up. Always smoking. She's the very picture of brassy. And Mike asks: so, what's the difference between Desi and Gary? And Lucy says: Mike, I'll tell ya...

God I love that story. ⊕

block Monday, September 22


 "3:30 p.m. The cargo-shorts-bomb guy is sitting right behind me with his 8 or 9-year-old kid. You can feel anxiety ricocheting around the oval room. The kid asks, ‘Is Bush here?’ ‘No,’ his dad answers, ‘a guy who works for Bush and who invests money with him is here.’ ‘Is Bush bad?’ asks the kid. His dad answers, ‘He’s one of the worst people on the planet.’"

A diary of my superlong superweird weekend at the New Yorker Festival: Ronald Reagan and Reading Proust [at The Morning News] ⊕



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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