Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless

28 Mar 2012

How Not to Become a Gay Icon

Shortly after graduating college, I found myself in an “identity crisis.”  I realized that I had spent the last four years of my life writing analytical essays about “thingness” or whatever other words I could add -ness to the end of, and over-using the word “utterly” to make myself sound

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27 Mar 2012

Hear Patti Smith Talk About “Just Kids”: FREE at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

Patti Smith is pretty much the quintessential New York icon. No matter how you slice it, that lady is badass. For this reason, the whole of New York City– and hip people everywhere– collectively peed their pants over her recent book about her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids.

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21 Mar 2012

Broke-Ass Fun: Dog-Watching (It’s Like Bird Watching, But Way Less Lame)

Living in a big city can be a major bummer.  There’s the lack of nature, the competition, the depressing drain on your finances.  It totally sucks.  But instead of getting wrapped up in your status anxiety and your rapidly depleting bank account, why don’t you embrace the most innocent, spirit-lifting

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20 Mar 2012

FREE Movie Screening of “A Better Life” Tonight at the Paley Center

Hailing from the greater San Diego area, I’ve come across a handful of  American flag-waving vigilante a-holes who make it their life missions to patrol and “protect” the U.S. border from immigrants who are supposedly going to steal their jobs, and ruin everything.  You can probably guess how I feel

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13 Mar 2012

See Keith Haring’s Famous Bathroom Mural– FREE at The Center

Look around you– art is everywhere.  It’s mounted gloriously on the white walls of the museum, in gorgeous sculpture gardens, and displayed on the refrigerators of doting parents.  And sometimes, great art is found in the crapper.  At least if you’re the legendary artist Keith Haring, who painted an awe-inducing,

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07 Mar 2012

Notes on a Nerd’s First Hardcore Show

Last weekend, I went to my first-ever hardcore show.  I was a serious geekazoid as a teenager, so I was too busy trying to get the high score on the next AP Bio test to buy black socks, become straightedge, and be in the throes of a steamy hardcore love

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06 Mar 2012

Check Out “Youthquake: The 1960s Fashion Revolution”: FREE at FIT

I think that pretty much everyone goes through a “60s phase” at some point in their lives. Whether you’re into the music, the tumultuous political and social goings-on, or the totally groovy fashions– the swingin’ 60s were for sure a culturally rich decade. Now you can get inspired by all

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