https://drewschwartz.me/essays-and-commentary daily 0.75 2022-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582309108294-8KP987MV8Y05DDCT1EB1/_illo.jpeg Essays & Commentary - A Eulogy for the Mix CD, the Best Way to Tell Someone 'I Like You' Mix CDs have been innovated out of existence—but nothing has managed to replace how meaningful it was to make and receive them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627597567627-9I8PHB77B0WVP9DY6FZB/celevbs.jpeg Essays & Commentary - So You're a Celebrity Who Wants to Buy a House There’s a niche industry built around helping celebrities drop millions of dollars on real estate without the public ever finding out. Here’s how it works. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627597977980-LDMVBLG8U6JQMHTR99G2/dad.jpeg Essays & Commentary - I Can’t Spend Time With My Dad, But Doing Crosswords Over the Phone Helps Working on puzzles side-by-side has always been a ritual for us. Even with quarantine keeping us apart, we found a way to hold on to it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627598242110-NIRB5CN4PPLGL2PBUI6X/tony.jpeg Essays & Commentary - I Want All of Tony Soprano's Clothes So Bad After binging 'The Sopranos,' I have way too many thoughts about the Skip's wardrobe, from his short-sleeved button-downs to The Robe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582309204006-FLNIKAWPTFU6YMPXSAAJ/dusty.jpeg Essays & Commentary - The 'Dusty Stick' Is the Best Slack Emoji That Nobody Uses What does it mean? Where did it come from? And why isn't everyone as obsessed with it as I am? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582309300173-4AFCIZMQB3GH2SGDWQB1/robert+pat.jpeg Essays & Commentary - Enough With the Batman Movies Already Robert Pattinson will apparently be the new Batman. But do we really need more Batmen? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582309661902-O06VN36WH8T97OT11KZ1/_spoon.jpeg Essays & Commentary - Streaming Killed the Greatest Hits Record. So Why Do They Keep Getting Made? Playlists on Spotify and Apple Music have rendered best-of compilations obsolete—but that isn't stopping Spoon from releasing one. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582309422876-8JT8KW1CS16EI3S408VE/_illo2.png Essays & Commentary - We Had Mediums Ask Dead People What the Scariest Halloween Costume Is Between a blond woman from former Yugoslavia named Karen, a World War I veteran with great posture, and Jimi Hendrix, the dead had a lot to say. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582309924796-6Z8LVYWWZ03OMHRR8HQW/_pounds.jpg Essays & Commentary - Here's Why You Should Give a Shit About the Panama Papers Soon after the story broke, people were already tweeting: "Oh shock, horror: rich, powerful person is corrupt—why should I care?" This is why you should care. https://drewschwartz.me/home daily 1.0 2023-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/4ce97497-2ba3-4ae8-957c-9e9980a39180/website+photo.JPG https://drewschwartz.me/featuresss daily 0.75 2024-04-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1bfe806f-d151-4e75-998f-60decd34423a/graphers.jpeg Features - King of the Autograph Hounds: A ‘Bum’ Who Befriends Movie Stars In the billion-dollar industry of professional “graphing” — collecting celebrity signatures for resale — nobody does it like Radio Man. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/c2bc75df-a94a-4c76-83b0-001b1af51577/dive+abr.jpeg Features - I Spent 72 Depraved Hours Searching for the Gnarliest Dive Bar in Las Vegas 17 bars, six games of pool, and an unknowable number of Miller Lites later, I finally tracked it down. But I could never have prepared myself for what I found along the way. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/45fa920c-4250-4cd7-a0ed-8b5a83081522/aaronagain.jpg Features - They Missed Student Loan Payments. Years Later, They’re Stuck in Credit Hell. Thanks to a mysterious 1986 law, credit reporting on student loans is mandatory. For millions of Americans, that’s meant financial disaster. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1621965766815-0O5OLX8R3T7RJOBRIIYN/image-asset.png Features - A Year Ago, the ‘Big Three’ Record Companies Pledged $225 Million to Racial Justice. Where Did It Go? Universal, Sony, and Warner have paid out just a portion of the money they promised to give, VICE found—revealing a disconnect between how they’ve publicly characterized their donations and what’s really happening behind the scenes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/ead6a069-df17-475d-ac87-398ff42104e8/spiedies.jpeg Features - All Hail the Spiedie, the Greatest Sandwich on Earth Spiedies are deceptively simple: marinated meat on a roll and nothing more. But biting into one is a life-changing experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/0999717d-e603-4183-ad18-0a8caaf123e1/dylan.jpeg Features - Artists Can Make Millions Selling Their Catalogs to Private Equity. Should They? Big-name musicians from Bob Dylan to Shakira have recently sold their publishing rights, but it's hard to put a price on owning what you create. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1608067408432-8IG3XW8CVCC4HP7BJVBN/jukebox.jpeg Features - The Last of New York City's Jukebox Repairmen Are Searching for Their Successors There are only five people in New York capable of fixing antique jukeboxes. Unless they can find someone to carry on their line of work, it might go extinct. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627595591864-E29JCX66OPOQBIJGRD0K/divebars.jpeg Features - Dive Bars Need PPP Loans to Survive—But Big Chains Sucked the Fund Dry Corporations took millions from a program designed to help small businesses. Without that money, dives across the country are at risk of closing permanently. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627595379422-VMVJ5XA0XN0S6GLB9WMI/busker.jpeg Features - For New York City's Subway Buskers, Going Online Isn't an Option The pandemic has left musicians who perform underground without a place to do what they love—and, in turn, without a sense of purpose. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1608066600078-PLHQXUI27A9D1OQYD03T/GettyImages-457631130.jpg Features - This Is How Taylor Swift Wins Her plan to re-record her back catalog isn't just a way for the pop star to get back at Scooter Braun—it's a shrewd power play that could earn her millions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627595893394-SJM799TB4ZKASER9VX38/vote.jpeg Features - Pretty Much Every Celebrity Encouraged People to Vote This Year. Did It Work? All those posts may have seemed like half-assed, empty gestures, but according to experts, they might have actually made a difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582261298947-UP2YR7J3WDA77YYAKIE6/big+lee+and+sasha.jpeg Features - The Life, Death, and Rebirth of New York City’s Most Resilient Dive Bar Sasha and Lee Lloyd overcame abuse, homelessness, depression, and betrayal to open The Hard Swallow—and they'll do anything to protect it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1608067027530-6H4RQ007UEWUYBF98ODH/GettyImages-457631130.jpg Features - Black Artists Are Still Getting Ripped Off the Way Little Richard Was The kind of egregious exploitation he faced in the 1950s might seem unthinkable today. But for many Black artists, not much has changed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627596045581-QTTN7BKF8WYLDHI4AZHQ/NFTs.jpeg Features - NFTs Won't Save Small, Independent Musicians—But the Blockchain Could Non-fungible tokens have been touted as a way to rescue lesser-known artists from financial peril. Instead, they're mostly helping the rich get richer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627596937120-NLEUEDFKG7BEG9G7NPMH/burning.jpeg Features - Burning Man Is Going Virtual, and So Are the Orgies Burners told us their plans for the digital festival, from throwing sex parties on Zoom to driving an "Ass Cream Truck" around the block. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627596390936-T6M8VXCF504KV6VA4N4Q/band.jpeg Features - 'What's the Point of Going to School if We Can't Have Band? COVID-19 has left high school band programs in crisis, and some teachers worry their students might drop out altogether. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/b4dacf17-f76e-4b71-9004-7a14c18c15a0/movie+set.jpg Features - Hollywood Finally Has a Plan for Reopening—But Should It? Film industry workers and union reps told VICE that production during the pandemic is going to be risky, expensive, and ruled by compromise. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582262144222-IFE41A0K46SE6B6P6J6Y/musgraves.jpeg Features - Inside Country Radio's Hidden, Sexist Policies That Keep Female Artists Off the Air We spoke with researchers, DJs, and artists to unpack why there aren't more women on country radio—and it involves years of discrimination. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582262390622-YELU58M3GKZCOM79J1T7/plaza.jpeg Features - Your Local Theater Might Never Screen Classics Like 'Die Hard' Again, Thanks to Disney Disney is refusing to let some independent theaters show movies from 20th Century Fox's catalog, from 'Alien' to 'The Sound of Music.' https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582262636898-VQMIVL4WDUGI0HSSLLA0/sara.jpeg Features - A Bartender and Her Favorite Regular Went Sober. They Still Hang Out in a Dive Booze nearly destroyed both of their lives. And yet they find solace in the place where their drinking peaked. https://drewschwartz.me/blogs daily 0.75 2022-02-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627598472847-S9NV031K3WLCNVLLOKR1/bees.png Blogs - The TikTok Beekeeper Drama Is Totally Bogus It’s fun to baselessly accuse a TikTok beekeeper of being a Trump-supporting fraud. But that’s probably not the real story here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627598582236-CUGENZUDAMEUDLKH67UZ/tuna.jpeg Blogs - What’s Actually Going On With This Subway Tuna Situation? A lawsuit claims the sandwich chain's tuna isn't actually tuna, but won't say what the allegedly fake tuna is. Let's unpack that. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582312387171-4Y51DFGMI4BFKDCD0BDQ/_blue.jpeg Blogs - Did Blueface Really Sleep With 1,000 Women in 6 Months? An Investigation "It's like sometimes it might be a threesome, it might be a foursome. I done had a fivesome." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582312584161-8V9V7OOGRC7KPUCRA86A/weinstein.jpeg Blogs - We Asked a Doctor If Harvey Weinstein Really Needs That Walker Is he just trying to drum up sympathy as his trial begins this week? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582312735709-IVTWP84YA0577XHTG3PQ/_jenner.jpeg Blogs - Nothing Says 'I Love You' Like Giving Your Entire Family Botox for Christmas Kris Jenner is giving everyone facial injections this year, from her 22-year-old daughter to her 85-year-old mom. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582314027239-K4TAQ26PVK2F5NU76JC6/_SAND.jpg Blogs - 18 Terrible Movies Adam Sandler Should Make to Punish the Academy for His Snub He said if he wasn't nominated for 'Uncut Gems,' he'd make a movie "so bad on purpose" as an act of revenge. We have some ideas. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582312952550-8TWHZ1WKFR5C63UFZTO4/_HUST.jpeg Blogs - Airbnbing Hunter S. Thompson’s Cabin Sounds Miserable and Also Terrifying Have a relaxing stay next to a bunch of squawking peacocks at the good graces of Thompson's widow, who, by the way, "does own a weapons permit." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582313156718-U20XMXZ1A0HOHTQUIJ94/_vaul.png Blogs - Vaulter From 'Succession' Is Probably VICE, Right? We just got owned. Or at least we think we did. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582313287516-GDJ2FV2XT1W5SP74KZT7/The_Comedy_Cellar_%2848072765427%29.jpg Blogs - We Talked to the Heckler Who Told Louis C.K. to Take His Dick Out at the Comedy Cellar "I am four feet away from him, and I yell: ‘Get your dick out!’ He looks at me and makes direct eye contact and says, ‘What?’ And I say: ‘Get your fucking dick out.’" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582313580026-NU06SABYKEEOULN3J533/_crowe%3F.jpeg Blogs - Russell Crowe Is on the Market, and So Are All His Prized Possessions He's auctioning off part of Denzel Washington's chair, prop horses from 'Gladiator,' and a protective thong to celebrate his divorce. https://drewschwartz.me/profiles daily 0.75 2022-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1627597166767-YQZXQ5JTGGMF4RDMK8YL/swamp.jpeg Profiles - How Jerry Williams Became Swamp Dogg, the Unsung King of Soul Music After writing hundreds of songs, making more than 20 albums, and breaking racial barriers in the recording industry, Swamp Dogg still hasn't gotten his due. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582266096625-PHJKRSLPPHGV3Z02QXWB/mcgrath.jpeg Profiles - You'll Have to Pry the Microphone From Mark McGrath's Cold, Dead Hands We talked to the frontman of Sugar Ray about his first new record in a decade, 'Little Yachty,' and why he'll never stop making music. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4f5d5ce8b790561bbb7a11/1582265984165-XZV8HWY5375MXZBLSVMT/walt.jpeg Profiles - The Walkmen's Walter Martin Couldn't Care Less About Being Cool VICE talked to the songwriter about his decades-long career in music, and how the death of his best friend influenced his new album, 'The World at Night.'