charliejournal - Tumblr blog

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*GAG*

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Good design ~!

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Critics of Airbnb say the company is changing the fabric of the city and posing a safety risk for residents

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Finding adequate practice space for performing arts students at Lang continues to be a problem

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In case you were wondering what turned out of that protest a few weeks ago - - 

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How are we supposed to talk about "queer rap", if at all? Critic Eric Shorey examines what happens when we turn identity into genre labels.

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The governor signed the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act at a private ceremony this morning.

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Civil liberties experts are raising serious questions about expelling the University of Oklahoma students.

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Movies take place in a weird alternate universe where men outnumber women by more than 2-to-1, and where it's strikingly rare for women to have a real conversation about something other than a man....

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In this episode, we expose the secrets one powerful religious group was keeping; whether officers are being held accountable for committing acts of torture; and why so many U.S. cities still lack d...

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A video from NASA shows how air pollution moves around the world. So what happens when emissions from Asia blow across the Pacific Ocean to North America?

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A Party about Boobs

Its 10:53 p.m. on a rainy Tuesday and hundreds of people are squeezed shoulder to shoulder inside the Boobs of Bushwick party at The Rookery on 425 Troutman St.

Holding a glass of white wine in one hand, party-affiliate Alex Feld stood by the front door and directed all latecomers to wait along the wall and outside the bar in the drizzling rain for their chance to come in.

“It reached capacity at 10,” she said, smiling to me before breaking off to keep a group of guys from pushing through the line. Meanwhile behind her, a throng of sloshed guests are bumping through the crowd and flocking around the bar.

These guests tread through slush, snow and puddles to reach the first official party thrown by the girls that made Boobs of Bushwick, a Brooklyn-based Tumblr that celebrates the naked breasts of men and woman.

Nine guys in rain gear and one young girl are lined up along the wall by the front door waiting to enter the party, separated from it by a short enclosure. Across from them they can see crowds of people dancing, chatting and drinking. Colorful lights flash along the walls, a Whitney Houston remix surges from the speakers and photographers meander around snapping shots of the scene.

The crowd was about 70 percent guys and not a single guest I could see had their shirt off.

“It started off being tons of cute girls I recognize from the neighborhood and there was also a couple creepy guys, now there’s lots of creepy guys,” Feld said.

The event wasn’t advertised as a topless party but three photographers and a photo booth were present for those who wished to have their bare-chested selves photographed for the blog. 

“I haven’t seen a pair of tits in awhile though,” Feld said. “Maybe once the vibe is better.”

Blog-creator Kate Chiplinsky, resembling Liza Minelli in a black tunic embellished with colorful gems and glitter, walked up to the front line and began pointing out which of those waiting could enter the party, mostly letting in people she'd known by name.

Known to some of her friends as “Chip”, she started the blog in the Summer of 2013 during the infamous heat-wave that reached heights up to 107 degrees.

“She and her friends were partying and their clothing started coming off and they took photos,” Feld said to me while explaining the blogs origin.

According to the Village Voice, Chiplinsky began posting the photos on Tumblr in May of 2013. After a Reddit thread brought more attention to the blog in January of this year, the project began to catch fire with a rising wave of followers.

“Universally everyone likes boobs. Its what we were born with that’s how we survive as babies,” Chip said, sipping a pint of beer.

She said the party was packed when she arrived a couple hours ago. After being written up by Vice, Brooklyn Magazine and the Village Voice earlier that week, she expected the turnout to be huge.

“Gay men, straight men, gay women, straight women, everybody loves boobs,” she said.

The event appeared to be a smash, but according to a post from The Bushwick Daily the next morning it had taken a grisly turn after I left. A man entered the party and began spitting insults towards many of the women attending, calling them “sluts” and “whores.”

The post states that when Chiplinsky asked the man to leave, a woman he was seen associating with punched her in the face and fled the scene with him.

Images of her bloody nose can be found on the Facebook pages associated with the event, along with an appeal to find the woman's identity.

[charliejournal]

About a girl from Fernley.

In the packed corner of a Starbucks off Union Square East and E. 15th street, 18-year-old Laura Knightreads her book and sips a decaf coffee, leaving a bright red lipstick spot on her cup.

           Speaking with a stutter through her freckles, makeup and long brown bangs she describes how weaning herself off caffeine has changed her sleeping patterns and consequently, her whole day.

           “This week has been really weird for me,” Knight said.

           “Usually all my homework would be done at like three or four in the morning ‘cause I always drink coffee because I like doing things at night,” she said while fidgeting with her fingers. “But I can’t do that. So I’m going to bed at more like two or three in the morning, so I have to rearrange my schedule.”

           Since adjusting to a new sleeping pattern and finishing her homework at an earlier time, she’s returned to her usual pace of reading a book or two a week. Today she’s reading I Regret Everything: A Love Story by Seth Greenland.

It’s one of many impulsive book buys she’s made since moving to New York last August from Fernley, Nevada to attend Pratt University.

Her hometown of Fernley lies 34 miles east of Reno, Nevada. It houses five casinos, one Wal-Mart Supercenter and sits on 130 square-miles of desert.

           “Don’t let the name confuse you, there are no ferns,” she said with a smirk.

           Knight said there isn’t much to do in Fernley, but being situated only a couple hours from Black Rock Desert did give it some quirks.

“There was the occasional interesting thing, like Burning Man,” she said. “Everyone would stop by my town to go get water and supplies and stuff for Burning Man.”

           In 2014, nearly 65,000 people attended Burning Man. Every year a chunk of these costumed festival-goers would stop by Fernley in their decorated cars and vans to buy water and supplies.

           “It would just become an event. All of us in our town would just randomly go to Wal-Mart just to watch the burners,” she said, laughing. “It was fun and it was interesting and it was probably how Wal-Mart and Fernley made the most money.”

           Newcomers to New York may struggle with moving from a small town like Fernley, but moving 2,600 miles from a town of 20,000 people to a city of 8.4 million felt natural to Knight.

           “I just love the vibe of the city. I like how it’s always going and not stopping and I love that,” she said, smiling. “I feel more at home in the few months I’ve been in New York than I felt in the 18 years that I spent in Fernley.”

           Knight said she didn’t appreciate the stillness and nosiness of being in a small town. “I just wanted something different. My mom graduated from the same high school I did, I didn’t want to do that,” she said.

           When she, her friends or other teenagers got bored, they would do what many teenagers did no matter what city they were in: smoke pot and drink alcohol wherever no adults were around.

           In Fernley that would be in secluded spots with nicknames like the “fossil pits” and the “salt flats.”

           Knight recalls a particular story about some teenagers that went to the “salt flats.”

           “These drunk kids went over to a nearby farm and tortured a goat,” she said.   

           She said she doesn’t know what exactly happened to the goat, but from that day on that part of Fernley became a common DUI checkpoint.

           But Knight didn’t usually take part in these desert excursions. She mostly cavorted with her friends on the academic debate team.

           “I was a nerd,” she said, describing her love for Doctor Who and literature. “The thing is, the nerds, because nobody suspected us, we ended up being the worst kids. We drank, we smoked pot, we smoked cigarettes.”

           Though she had her share of reckless recreational activities, her passions have always been with the written word. Books were her best friends in elementary school and since the 4th grade she said she’s written an endless stream of poetry and short fiction.

           Her love for literature and writing growing up in Fernley connects to where she is in life now, a freshman at Pratt University getting her BFA in Creative Writing.

           Knight said she never wishes to go back.

           “New York is its own little world and I enjoy that,” she said. “Once you get used to it, it just sucks you in and you don’t want to leave. You just become a part of it.”

[charliejournal]

What is Charlie Hebdo?

1. "I have no idea."

2. "*laughs* No idea."

3. "Don't know"

4. "Well he is a man. This is kind of embarrassing. I knew a lot of people didn't like him & what he writes. There was an attack on the building that he writes in. I don't know much other than that. I never heard of it until the attack."

5. "Isn't that a magazine? The cartoon magazine."

6. "He's a french cartoonist. An editor and cartoonist for a french magazine."

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Union Square Hand Drawn Map (sorry, no scanner)