THE SPRING ISSUE
Traveling to the Beat
The Other Side’s New York guide Fischerspooner Text by Lily Moayeri Lonely Planet. Let’s Go. Fodor’s. Frommer’s. Rough Guide. These are the familiar names in the world of travel. While one might be dubious to take travel advice from a company called Deaf Dumb + Blind, said company has teamed up with weekly handbook Time […]
Oh, St. Ouen!
Text by Ann Tornkvist “May I sit down?” I ask. “As long as you get up again,” Monsieur Volfinger responds. His stubbly cheeks pull back as he smiles. I sink into the welcoming chair, letting my fingertips caress the small cracks in the brown leather. Volfinger bought the chair in Copenhagen and drove it down […]
Morrissey Country
Text by Amity Bacon A fascination with the cult of the Smiths leads me to Manchester, the city of their origin. It seems the stuff of urban myth that a tour of this post-industrial, northern English town could draw fans from around the world seeking a pilgrimage for an ’80s pop act that only lasted […]
Globetrot Gadgets
As a workaholic who routinely angers friends and family with my obsessive need to be connected to the internet whenever I travel on business or pleasure, I am the ultimate expert on technology for jetsetters. These gadgets help you work and pass the time while you’re running around the globe. Panasonic Toughbook CF-W4 | The […]
Michael Kenna’s Nightscapes
During the sleepy hours most of us never witness, a lone photographer shoots an empty landscape. Michael Kenna is a master at capturing the arresting echoes of light in dim landscapes. There is something mysterious, haunting and – at the risk of sounding cliché – Zen about his work. His pictures are almost always taken […]
Conducting Lightning
Text by Matthew Nestel For his annual show at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Brian Chippendale, madman drummer of the two-piece Lightning Bolt, stagedhimself on a second-story rooftop, tossing candy to onlookers below. Soon he pulled out a heavy inventory of road-kill and gave it the heave-ho. When it hit, even the crystallized […]
Ginger Lychee Gimlet
Ginger Lychee Gimlet By Christopher Nur For 7,000 years, the Chinese have celebrated the medicinal properties of ginger and its ability to cleanse and warm the body. Duly taking note, ginger devotees are amassing in this country by the day. How better to usher in Spring and good health with the snappy taste of a […]
Urban Space Invaders
Text by Matthew Nestel Graffiti specialist Sixten requests a flat white and a can of matte black. The white would “make the stencil pop-off the wall a bit more,” Sixten says. “Preferably purchase Belton as it dries quick.” Late night, he has to make due with a couple cans of Home Depot’s locked and carded […]
The Street, C’est Chic
No matter how fierce your outfit, how rarefied your game or how brilliant your dance moves, at a certain point in the evening you realize you’re either going to hook up or give up. For the Street Issue, SOMA has devoted our nightlife prowess to scouring the best places to drink, dine and mingle, followed […]
Beyond the Gritty Streets
Text by Franklin Melendez Visceral, raw, combative – these are the terms that dominate our concept of viable “street art.” Whether it’s the guerilla tactics of KAWS or the defiant gratuitousness of Larry Clark, street’s encounter with art seems inextricable from an incessant drive to shake up the status quo. This aesthetic of transgression has […]
Layin’ Down Tracks with the Father of Hip Hop
Text by Patrick Knowles Photography by Ruvan Few artists have had a greater cultural impact and influence in contemporary music than the “Father of Hip Hop,” Kool Herc. The inspiration he found as a young man in the avenues between neighborhoods helped him to create the current soundtracks that resonate from any concrete city today. […]
Surveillance as Lover and Art
Text by Scott Indrisek We are surrounded by webs of information and surveillance – databases, crime cameras, entire hidden matrixes of observation and recording. While some may choose to loudly protest the status quo as an invasion of civil liberties, others are taking subtler approaches, tweaking and provoking the system in a way that exposes […]
Ciudad Sangre
Text by Gabriel Leif Bellman Photography by Ruvan Like bees in a hive altering their wings to fit the wax, urban low-fliers buzz to the beat of their surroundings. From the intrinsically collective call-and-response wisdom of the classic DJ Kool party record announcing, “Fuck it, I ain’t from Philly, but I don’t give a fuck […]
Avenue Eyes
Photography by Curtis Eberhardt Fashion editor: Alice Bertay Multicolored overall dress by ALEXANDRE HERCHCOVITCH. Stockings by PUCCI for WOLFORD. White shoes by YOhJI YAMAMOTO. White tuxedo shirt by YOHJI YAMAMOTO. White belt with blue dots by BASSO & BROOKE. White and blue striped short by TSUMORI CHISATO. Blue leather gloves by BOUDICCA. Shoes by MOSCHINO. White […]
Film Reviews
Our Brand Is Crisis Directed by Rachel Boynton Plenty of documentaries have captured the do-or-die tactics of high-pressure political campaigns, yet something about Our Brand Is Crisis – which highlights the exporting of our American political machine to Bolivia – is more jarring and alarming than its homebound counterparts. Perhaps it has something to do […]
