Featured Article

Post image for Banksy of Brooklyn

Banksy of Brooklyn

Originally in: The Economist's Intelligent Life.

February 4, 2009

New York Police seem to have apprehended a clever billboard graffito who calls himself Poster Boy. Last summer, Jeffrey MacIntyre interviewed the man himself for this retrospective of his work.

For four seasons running, the city’s greatest art crawl has been the New York subway system, courtesy of an anonymous razor-witted and -wielding graffito who calls himself Poster Boy. His flair for remixing subway advertisements into strident polemics on late capitalism has drawn an enthusiastic following. But that gig may be up. [read more]

{ 0 comments }

jm_headshot

Welcome to my writing portfolio.

I am a New York-based freelance journalist and interactive media consultant.

My writing appears in publications such as the New York Times, Slate and Wired. Archives here include selected past work.

What I'm reading around the web. See All | RSS

Articles

Out Out, Damn Blind Spot

Originally in: Globe and Mail

13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time, by Michael Brooks.

Thumbnail image for Out Out, Damn Blind Spot

The Roswell incident notwithstanding, cold fusion was the 20th century’s original “I want to believe” moment.

In a few short weeks in May, 1989, the two…

[read more]

Articles

U. Tube

Originally in: Boston Globe's Ideas section

Want a free education? A brief guide to the burgeoning world of online video lectures.

Thumbnail image for U. Tube

Reserve another laurel for Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor emeritus at Harvard, serial Pulitzer winner, and prominent intellectual: online celebrity.

Forget Charlie Rose –…

[read more]

Articles

SnagFilms: Best Thing for Documentaries Since Netflix

Originally in: GigaOm's NewTeeVee.com

Thumbnail image for SnagFilms: Best Thing for Documentaries Since Netflix

Last week’s splashy entry into the online video arena of SnagFilms, a widget platform for watching and sharing documentary films that’s being headed up by…

[read more]

Articles

Microsoft’s Shiny New Toy

Originally in: MIT Technology Review

Photosynth is dazzling, but what is it for?

Thumbnail image for Microsoft’s Shiny New Toy

At last March’s Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference in Monterey, CA, a summit that’s been described as “Davos for the digerati,” the calm-voiced software architect…

[read more]

Articles

The Tao of Screen

Originally in: Slate

In search of the distraction-free desktop.

Thumbnail image for The Tao of Screen

If your computer desktop is anything like mine—and, brother, it is—you’ve paved over every spare pixel in an iconistan of clutter. Desktop design originated in…

[read more]

Articles

The Starving Artist’s Revenge

Originally in: New York Observer

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. By Lewis Hyde. Vintage, 435 pages.

Thumbnail image for The Starving Artist’s Revenge

That first solo exhibit, magazine contract or book advance—for creative types, there’s nothing so thrilling as the promise of artistic breakthrough. Ask friends in publishing,…

[read more]

Articles

Music is Cure and Curse

Originally in: San Francisco Chronicle

Tales of Music and the Brain. By Oliver Sacks. Knopf; 381 pages.

Thumbnail image for Music is Cure and Curse

Who is the most important person in your local hospital? Seek – or, rather, listen – and ye shall find, according to Oliver Sacks.

Leading a…

[read more]

Articles

Q&A with Lewis Lapham

Originally in: Boston Globe's Ideas section

Thumbnail image for Q&A with Lewis Lapham

Machiavelli predicted the Blackwater debacle. The Qing dynasty’s homeland security experts knew Great Walls make for great neighbors. Riding the rails was safer in Joseph…

[read more]