Photo Stephen Rannazzisi and Katie Aselton in "The League." Credit Patrick McElhenney/FX Unlike most other TV shows, FXX’s fantasy football-themed comedy “The League” has never needed a writers’ room. Its husband-and-wife creators, Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer, write the show’s story…

By Beth Schwartzapfel A few years back, Jennifer Vekris says she was prescribed the sleeping pill Ambien for insomnia. It took her a while to figure out that the drug was affecting her in dangerous ways. “I'd wake up to car damage, bruises, fast-food wrappers, and who knows what else, because I was…

1:15 pm ET By Nick Corasaniti 1:15 pm ET By Nick Corasaniti Tea Party and other conservatives had hoped to make their gathering in Washington on Wednesday a clarion call to rally against the Iran nuclear deal, drawing on the star power of Donald J. Trump, the rhetoric of Senator Ted Cruz and a cast…

Dawn is breaking over the Kungenga diamond mine, a crude pit of conflict capitalism and child slavery hacked into the jungle straddling the lawless border of Angola and Zaire. The place is thick with gunmen — irregular forces loyal to the ruling Buta tribe — so I took my time infiltrating, carefully…

The developers at Ashley Madison created their first artificial woman sometime in early 2002. Her nickname was Sensuous Kitten, and she is listed as the tenth member of Ashley Madison in the company’s leaked user database. On her profile, she announces: “I’m having trouble with my computer ... send…

For a Silicon Valley gadget designer, Robert Brunner can get surprisingly nostalgic. “Very few people print pictures anymore,” says the founder and president of design firm Ammunition. “Now, you share on social media, or at a party you pass the phone around. Photography used to be about that sense…

DJ Premier and Dr. Dre are widely considered to be two of Hip-Hip’s greatest producers of all-time. While the two have worked on the same projects occasionally over the last two decades, and maintained a friendship along the way, they had not had released a full collaboration, until now. The arrival…

When I set out for my first expedition in Renowned Explorers , I had one goal: win only by talking. I was not disappointed. Renowned Explorers: International Society is a new turn-based tactics game about fantastical expeditions in the 19th century. I’ve been playing for a couple hours, and so far,…

Apple stumbled into the games business almost by accident not long after it released the iPhone in 2007, igniting a new multibillion-dollar mobile games industry in the process. Could a new Apple device — one linked to the television — shake up the market for game consoles? The idea no longer seems…

It sounds impossible but it's true: a Grammy-nominated, critically acclaimed, indisputably hot rock star with no groupies. Yet in a fascinating Twitter stream of consciousness this weekend, Neko Case, the New Pornographers vocalist and solo artist, admitted a dark, often sexless secret of celebrity.…

Ad blocking started as an initiative by independent developers who wanted to improve our browsing experience. Now that at least one company, Apple, has made Content Blocking “official”, ad-supported publishing business models are in trouble. Back in the days when we bought a newspaper or magazine at…

And I know I’m over my limit of one fictional hero, but my new book focuses on a 9-year-old boy, and my favorite child protagonists are Sherman Alexie’s semifictional alter ego in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and the 11-year-old pop-star protagonist from Teddy Wayne’s “The Love…

Phish singer Trey Anastasio "phlipping the bird." A few hours ago I published a story on Noisey called Phish Has Been a Band for 30 Thirty Years Now and They Have Sucked the Whole Time . While this wasn't exactly James Agee-caliber hard-hitting journalism, I thought I had a few choice zingers in…

Photo Credit Shannon May If someone had told me 10 years ago that I would one day announce in The New York Times how old I was when I lost my virginity, I would have died of embarrassment. By the time I was in my 20s, there were only two valid explanations for being a virgin: 1. You were extremely…

Believe it or not, 2013 is the thirty-year anniversary of Phish, Vermont's pied-pipers of Wookie stoner trash. Yesterday I was poking around on the Internet and I came across an article that Katie Bain wrote for the LA Weekly in defense of jam bands . In the piece, she defines these musicians as…

Images by Paul Raffaele Streaming is the future of music. It’s a controversial subject, but it’s a foregone conclusion. Many people, particularly artists, say that digital streaming promotes a view of music as a cheap commodity, while its advocates see it as a rebirth for an industry that’s often…

The vinyl resurgence first went from a trickle to a stream – could it yet become a flood? In January 2015 the British Phonographic Company reported record vinyl sales, reaching levels unheard of for over two decades. The only issue is, these record-breaking figures only account for 2% of total…

Revelers take in the Robot Heart art-car sound system at the 2014 Burning Man festival. Ellie Pritts Noise complaints are not an issue you would expect to associate with Burning Man, the week-long, outsider arts festival that takes place in Nevada's remote Black Rock Desert. But that is exactly what…

Nigel Parry Over Skype. Johnson in L.A., Raab in Cleveland. Man, you're gorgeous. Awww. That smile speaks a universal human language. Do you ever think about how huge you are right now? I just came back from the gym, and I'm driving down Sunset and I see a massive billboard that says San Andreas,…

Share Game Info Platform 360, PS3, Win, PS4, Xbox One Publisher Konami Developer Kojima Productions Release Date Sep 1, 2015 It's fitting that one of the recurring themes of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is about the loss of a part of your being. Phantom limb pain is the sensation that flesh…

Game Info Platform Wii U Publisher Nintendo Developer Nintendo EAD Group No. 4 Release Date Sep 11, 2015 In a perfect world, every video game franchise would have its own Super Mario Maker . By giving the keys to the Mushroom Kingdom to players in such an approachable way, Super Mario Maker does…

Following his acclaimed documentaries “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Sinatra,” Alex Gibney will achieve a rare non-fiction hat trick this September when Magnolia Pictures releases “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine.” A critical exploration of the iconic Apple CEO and…

D ajabón is divided from the Haitian city of Ouanaminthe by a bridge that spans the trickle of the Río Masacre. In 1937, Dajabón was the site of the largest number of killings of Haitians, but there is no memorial or museum of any kind, unless you count the Hotel Masacre in the middle of town, which…

There’s a cutscene, late in Metal Gear Solid V , that’s ostensibly serious but contains a musical interlude so awkward it sent me into giggle fits. A dozen missions later, there’s a harrowing sequence that ranks among the best video game scenes I’ve ever played. If you don’t know how to reconcile…

Lessons for creatives from the world’s fastest growing companies “The most basic concern of any strategy is to increase our ability to survive on our own terms in a threatening and confusing world” — Chet Richards As someone with fresh eyes (i.e. limited experience) playing in the entertainment…

You’re never going to get to the end of your Netflix or Spotify queue. And that’s okay. Recently, many critics have taken to complaining about the fact that there is just too much content floating around out there. Some of the complaints, like those lodged on a recent Grantland podcast , are smart…

The hardest thing to do as an artist is to identify and monetize an audience that will allow you to create full time “The hard part isn’t solving problems, but deciding what problems to solve.” Paul Graham All creative industries are a game of hits. As a creator in any arena, it’s often feast or…

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is finally getting serious about pushing into our living rooms. That ambition will be underlined at an Apple event in San Francisco on Wednesday, when the company plans to unveil an upgraded Apple TV, a device similar to a set-top box that brings video and music from the…

Ten or so years ago, you said that food in this country was like what sex was in the ’70s: our last decadent act. Are we out of the ’70s yet? I think we’ve moved into the ’80s. The decadence is being replaced by a potentially appropriate austerity. The orgy of the unfamiliar and new has given way to…

Vladimir Rys/Bongarts / Getty Images In the middle of 1989, suburban soccer dad Chuck Blazer had just lost his job, had no income, and was struggling with debt. But he did have a few things going for him: He was audacious, with a keen eye for opportunity; he was a splendid salesman; and he knew a…

Jump to navigationJump to search The Principality of Hutt River , often referred to by its former name, the Hutt River Province , is a micronation in Australia. The principality claims to be an independent sovereign state founded on 21 April 1970. The territory is located 517 km (354 mi) north of…

The Republican Party and its acolytes in the news media are trying to demonize the protest movement that has sprung up in response to the all-too-common police killings of unarmed African-Americans across the country. The intent of the campaign — evident in comments by politicians like Gov. Nikki…

LL Cool J in 1990. By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images. August of 1990 was unseasonably warm. The hottest month in one of New York City’s hottest years in history, ever , it was a fitting climate for the release of one of hip-hop’s greatest albums. LL Cool J, née James Todd Smith, began releasing albums in…

“ DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK!! I’VE BEEN HERE FOR YEARS!!! ” Despite his protest in the opening lines of the title song to Mama Said Knock You Out , a triumphant return is exactly what that album was for LL Cool J when it was released 25 years ago on August 27, 1990. For many, LL had burst onto the…

The Awl Be less stupid. The Awl Be less stupid.

In many ways, the world we inhabit today isn’t so dramatically different from the one that existed in 1994. The roads were full of Americans SUVs and Japanese sedans; Congress was mired in partisan dysfunction. Americans vaguely roused their enthusiasm for soccer as their team surpassed expectations…

odd Wilson didn’t know these guys. But he didn’t usually handle the setups for the drug deals; it was an associate who typically made the connections — someone who had dated an Italian girl with an older sister who was tapped into Boston’s druggy Euro scene. Wilson and his partner, Larry Jenkins,…

CITY BY THE FROTH In the U.S. alone, nearly 100 tech start-ups are currently considered unicorns. Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. One Thursday morning in early June, the ballroom of the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, in Menlo Park, was closed for a private presentation. The grand banquet hall appeared…