WillScore

wordtothemother: Hip Hop Weekly. Portraits 1980 -...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:52:06 -0400

Hip Hop Weekly. Portraits 1980 - 2010.

Jay-Z.

Jigga

gq: Diner For SchmucksJames Beard Award Winner It isn’t often...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:13:51 -0400

Diner For Schmucks
James Beard Award Winner

It isn’t often that a restaurant review makes big news, but that’s what happened with Alan Richman’s account of his experience at M. Wells, the diner in Queens, NY that went from culinary sensation to closed-for-business in a matter of months, like a comet across the food world. Last night, Alan won a James Beard award in the category of restaurant criticism for three columns including this one, The Very Tasty Liberation of Paris, and I [heart] SF. Here’s a short portion of Diner For Schmucks.

Sooner or later, depending on how long it takes to get a reservation, you’ll end up having a bad time at what is supposed to be a good restaurant.

When that happens, you might be startled by how upset you become. It probably won’t be the food that’s to blame. You can always shrug off a tough steak, since the chef didn’t mean to disappoint you. But everyone takes poor service personally. Get a bad table and you’ll wonder if the hostess finds you unworthy. Find yourself with a disrespectful server and you’ll feel worse, because you’re expected to tip.

Now and then, poor service is the result of a restaurant having an unfortunate day. Maybe the chef snapped at your waiter and made him sulk. Maybe the front of the house, as it’s called, is short-staffed because a waiter called in sick.

More than likely, poor service is inherent, caused by a staff with lackluster spirit or a manager with a lax attitude. Here in New York, with our restaurants tumbling into informality, a guest can easily become a casualty of incompetence. We’ve entered the post-service era, where fewer and fewer restaurateurs still stand watch.

Which brings me to M. Wells, a metal-clad diner as shiny as a magpie’s trinket, situated on a corner in Queens as dead-drab as one of the borough’s countless cemeteries. A little more than a year ago, the diner was an abandoned shell, and now it symbolizes the renewal of Long Island City as surely as the MoMA PS1 art museum and the Silvercup film studios. I don’t know what a burger once cost at the derelict diner that became M. Wells, since I never ate there, but I’m betting it was about $2.99. M. Wells sells one for $42, proof that gentrification is thriving in Queens.

Walk in and you might presume that you’ve stumbled on a formulaic re-creation of the diner genre, but you’d be wrong. M. Wells is not a faux-old-fashioned spot with black-and-white shakes and brassy waitresses to put you in your place. It’s not retro-romantic, with votive candles, arugula salads, and flourless chocolate cake.

My experience there was like no other. The motto is “All’s well at M. Wells.” I assure you it is not.

gq: Umm… Mount Rushmore?

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:13:44 -0400

gq:

Umm… Mount Rushmore?

gq: Anja Rubik At the Met Gala Your move, Angelina.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:13:30 -0400

gq:

Anja Rubik At the Met Gala

Your move, Angelina.

gqfashion: The GQ Guide to Shoes Say no to square toes. Here’s...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:13:23 -0400

gqfashion:

The GQ Guide to Shoes

Say no to square toes. Here’s how.

gq: The Rise of the Himbo A himbo is a man who is more...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:13:14 -0400

gq:

The Rise of the Himbo

A himbo is a man who is more attractive than he is smart. A bimbo with nuts, to put it testicularly. Behold this Y-chromo parade of stupid.

gq: Hot Mama! Your discerning editors at GQ have pulled...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:13:08 -0400

gq:

Hot Mama!

Your discerning editors at GQ have pulled together these photos of famous moms from the GQ archives, to celebrate what Mother’s Day is all about. The answer: Lingerie. (Sorry, Mom.)

gq: Catching Up With Willie Nelson GQ: People love to...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:13:03 -0400

gq:

Catching Up With Willie Nelson

GQ: People love to mythologize your marijuana intake. Is your current pot consumption level exaggerated?

Willie Nelson: No, I still probably smoke as much as I ever did! I use a few different methods now. I don’t smoke as many joints as I used to. I use vaporizers a lot. It cuts down on the heat and the smoke. And for a singer that’s not a bad idea.

gq: The Week in Style: George Clooney So now we know what...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:59 -0400

gq:

The Week in Style: George Clooney

So now we know what George Clooney’s impersonation of a pterodactyl looks like. Cool.

gq: Hot Mamas! In honor of Mom, here are some of our favorites....

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:53 -0400

gq:

Hot Mamas!

In honor of Mom, here are some of our favorites. Happy Holidays!

gq: Celebrate Moms. Like Adriana Lima.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:49 -0400

gq:

Celebrate Moms. Like Adriana Lima.

gq: GQ June 2012: Michael Fassbender If you know a lot about...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:42 -0400

gq:

GQ June 2012: Michael Fassbender

If you know a lot about Michael Fassbender, you’re probably obsessed with him. If you know only a little about Michael Fassbender, it’s probably one thing in particular—that he’s well, ahem, represented in certain, ahem, places. What is it like simultaneously living with the mantle of being the next great actor of your generation and being reduced to a caricature of a single sex organ. GQ correspondent Chris Heath finds out in our cover story this month about the Irish actor and star of the upcoming Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s sort-of-prequel to Alien. Below, an excerpt. Click here for the full story. And here for more scorching photos of Fassbender from Mario Testino.

In the middle of the room is a mini Ping-Pong table, borrowed from his British agent, who lives nearby. “Now that it’s here,” says Fassbender, “it’s not going. This table has been the best contribution for fun I’ve had in a long time. This table has seen some action…” He pauses, laughs. “That sounds wrong.”

But has it? I say, gently pushing.

“Just the paddles,” he deflects, and of course he then realizes that this sounds wrong, too, in exactly the same way.

No matter. Just an inconsequential bit of innuendo. Except that right now, and ever since the release of Shame, I’m not sure that in the life of Michael Fassbender there is such a thing as an inconsequential bit of innuendo. For every person who actually saw the movie, and Fassbender’s monumental, unflinching portrayal of a man lost in the abyss of his unappeasable sexual appetite, there are dozens more who only know it as the movie in which he shows absolutely everything. And so, for the past few months Fassbender has been cast adrift in a shoreless ocean of innuendo. It has been relentless. He has been required to smile through endless hilarious penis-joke interviews. (Here’s a representative example, from the prime-time British boys-and-cars TV show Top Gear: “You had to do, let’s be honest, a full-frontal nude scene—was it hard?” Next, the pithy follow-up remark: “I mean, this was an impressive sausage….”) He has been required to grin appreciatively at playful public mockery from his peers. (Most notably, George Clooney’s speech at this year’s Golden Globes: “Michael, honestly, you can play golf…with your hands behind your back.”) And he has been required—this really happened—to identify a series of screen shots of famous penises in the movies. (Twice. Both times on MTV. The second time while standing on an awards-show red carpet.)

All of this he has done with apparent good humor, at least if you don’t try to read too much into his body language or the way his eyes shift or the flickering edges of his smile. Next to all that, what’s a gentle double entendre about sex on a very small Ping-Pong table? Go with it.

“Paddles,” he repeats. “And balls.”

And he grins, exactly as you would grin if you found this funny, though it’s easy to understand why he also says, “So it starts.”

gq: GQ’s Sexiest Couples Michael Fassbender and his lady-friend...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:32 -0400

gq:

GQ’s Sexiest Couples

Michael Fassbender and his lady-friend are just the latest in a long line of dynamic duos. See the rest in this scintillating gallery.

gq: We Tried To Make a Man Out Of Justin Bieber. We Failed. We...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:25 -0400

gq:

We Tried To Make a Man Out Of Justin Bieber. We Failed.

We sent the perfect guy for the job: GQ contributor and Deadspin columnist Drew Magary. Justin Bieber had just turned 18 years old, and we thought it was high time someone put him through some rites of passage. We tried everything. Little did Drew know, we effectively sent him on a mission doomed from the start. Click here for the full story.

On Tuesday, I was told that I could meet Bieber at his recording studio and then we’d hash out whatever manly activity was left for us once we ruled out anything fun. I got there at 8 p.m. and was told by Bieber’s PR lady that Justin was in the studio but was about to go to dinner with his mom and I’d have to wait till he got back.

“So he’s here now?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Can I see him?”

“No.”

“Can I go to dinner with him and his mom? I’ll eat light.”

“No. He’ll be back in an hour.”

To keep me occupied, I was escorted into the studio, where Kuk Harrell, Bieber’s vocal producer, was working on Believe without him. Harrell is an incredibly nice man who looks like a black version of Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka, so I was happy to sit around and stare at his hair for a while.

After a few minutes, I noticed that someone had drawn a bunch of dicks all over the grease board by the door. So I pointed at them and asked, “Hey, who drew all the dicks?” One of the sound engineers immediately jumped up, ran over, and erased them with his sleeve. This is the new and mature Bieber. We can’t have dicks being drawn all over the place. People might get the wrong idea about filthy-rich 18-year-old pop stars.

At eight forty, the PR lady came in to tell me—surprise!—Bieber would not be returning tonight. Finally, after I sat in my hotel room for another day and ran through as many imaginary conversations with the Beeb as any of his 12-year-old fangirls, word came down from the mountaintop: I would meet Bieber at his studio at 6 p.m. that night and we would box. Given all of our suggestions that had been rejected, this made no sense. Well, we can’t have Justin openly buying pornography—why don’t we just endanger his singing voice and orbital bone structure instead? But only a fool would argue. If someone asks you if you’d like to punch Justin Bieber in the face, the answer is yes.

gq: You’ve Heard of Girls, Now it’s Time to Watch Boys In a...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:16 -0400

gq:

You’ve Heard of Girls, Now it’s Time to Watch Boys

In a separate but nearby universe, the most talked-about new show on premium cable is Boys. Created by Philip O’Keeffe, the 25-year-old grandson of painter Georgia O’Keefe, the show follows four male friends in Brooklyn, NY who are busy trying to become who they are.

gq: The Bieber Sessions: Extras, Outtakes, and Everything...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:12:05 -0400

gq:

The Bieber Sessions: Extras, Outtakes, and Everything Else

If our recent 3,500-word profile of Justin Bieber wasn’t enough for you, good news! There’s plenty of material that didn’t make the final cut, so we’ve collected it all here.

At one point, Bieber told me that the massive gold chain he was wearing was a gift from Usher. (Apparently Usher, along with Scooter Braun, also gave Bieber a Fisker Karma, because Usher likes wasting money.) Anyway, I put that tidbit in an early draft of the article, but then Bieber’s PR lady complained. I am amazed we live in a world where shit like this matters to people. NO! WE CAN’T LET THEM KNOW THE SOURCE OF THE GOLD CHAIN! USHER’S ENTIRE GIFT-GIVING OPERATION DEPENDS ON IT!

gq: The D’Angelo Outtakes:More From GQ’s Exclusive Over at...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:11:48 -0400

gq:

The D’Angelo Outtakes:
More From GQ’s Exclusive

Over at GQ.com, our correspodent Amy Wallace posted some of her favorite bits with the soul singer that didn’t make the final story. They’re all worth reading if you’re a D’Angelo fan, but we re-read this one a couple times:

Even his first album, Brown Sugar, had been audacious—with its references to “Chocolate Thai,” has often been presumed to be an ode to the powers of good weed, while “Shit, Damn, Motherf*cker” was as dark and ominous as anything since Sly & the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On.” But D’s onstage persona was more muted—it simmered, but didn’t burn. D’Angelo looks back on that time with some discomfort. A perfectionist, he wishes he’d had more of an active interplay with the audience. But it all took off so fast, he says. He was confused, he says, by his sudden notoriety, even as he, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and others were credited with launching the “neo-soul” movement (a label he hates). “It counteracts the very fucking idea of what it was in the first place,” he says. “It’s black music thinking — it’s black music manifested outside of the box. And when you label it neo soul, you’re putting it right back in the box. How about you just call me soul music?”

That argument was just one of many D was having in his own head. “I tried to fight, I guess, what typically fame quote-unquote does to people,” he says. “I didn’t want to stop being, you know, the rambunctious mug that I was, because that’s what made my music what it was. It happens to the best of them, you know: At some point in everyone’s career, it was like the music lost its bite. I’m like, ‘Well, how do you avoid that?’”

“You’re some kid from wherever, you get signed, you come out with a record, and boom, you’ve got money and instant success and there’s really no template to follow,” he says, recalling how Gary Harris, the EMI exec who’d signed him, gave him a copy of Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, David Ritz’s commanding biography. Hungry for guidance, D devoured it in two days. When B.B. King first met the 22-year-old D’Angelo, Vibe magazine reported in 2000, the bluesman remarked that D had an old soul. Says Harris today: “He’s the oldest young man you’ll ever meet.”

gq: Happy Memorial Day!Please Join Jessica Alba in the...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:11:36 -0400

gq:

Happy Memorial Day!
Please Join Jessica Alba in the Water.

[Photograph by Terry Richardson]

gq: 50 Things a Man Does Not Have to Do Before He Dies 42. RUN...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:11:28 -0400

gq:

50 Things a Man Does Not Have to Do Before He Dies

42. RUN WITH THE BULLS

Sometimes it’s the fate of a good writer to bear the blame for what he inspires a bunch of idiots to do. Hunter S. Thompson is on the hook for a generation convinced it’s charming to be a drug-addicted asshole. Jack Kerouac spawned a million annoying vagabonds. And then, of course, there’s Ernest Hemingway, who has to answer not only for reams of bad, muscular prose but also for turning the San Fermín festival, celebrated in the town of Pamplona, Spain, into a three-minute institutionalized rite of passage, offering a frisson of real danger to the proceedings without being automatically fatal. It’s worth remembering, though, that courting death is not, ipso facto, cool. If there were a contest in Toledo where you drank a bottle of Drano and saw what happened, would you be proud to tell stories about it over dinner?

gqfashion: GQ Endorses: The New White Suit Don’t treat the...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:11:22 -0400

gqfashion:

GQ Endorses: The New White Suit

Don’t treat the white suit like some dainty costume. Split it in two, dress it down, get it dirty—and know which style icons to emulate. Try one this summer.

WillScore

wordtothemother: Hip Hop Weekly. Portraits 1980 -...

gq: Diner For SchmucksJames Beard Award Winner It isn’t often...

Diner For Schmucks
James Beard Award Winner

gq: Umm… Mount Rushmore?

gq: Anja Rubik At the Met Gala Your move, Angelina.

Anja Rubik At the Met Gala

gqfashion: The GQ Guide to Shoes Say no to square toes. Here’s...

The GQ Guide to Shoes

gq: The Rise of the Himbo A himbo is a man who is more...

The Rise of the Himbo

gq: Hot Mama! Your discerning editors at GQ have pulled...

Hot Mama!

gq: Catching Up With Willie Nelson GQ: People love to...

Catching Up With Willie Nelson

gq: The Week in Style: George Clooney So now we know what...

The Week in Style: George Clooney

gq: Hot Mamas! In honor of Mom, here are some of our favorites....

Hot Mamas!

gq: Celebrate Moms. Like Adriana Lima.

gq: GQ June 2012: Michael Fassbender If you know a lot about...

GQ June 2012: Michael Fassbender

gq: GQ’s Sexiest Couples Michael Fassbender and his lady-friend...

GQ’s Sexiest Couples

gq: We Tried To Make a Man Out Of Justin Bieber. We Failed. We...

We Tried To Make a Man Out Of Justin Bieber. We Failed.

gq: You’ve Heard of Girls, Now it’s Time to Watch Boys In a...

You’ve Heard of Girls, Now it’s Time to Watch Boys

gq: The Bieber Sessions: Extras, Outtakes, and Everything...

The Bieber Sessions: Extras, Outtakes, and Everything Else

gq: The D’Angelo Outtakes:More From GQ’s Exclusive Over at...

The D’Angelo Outtakes:
More From GQ’s Exclusive

gq: Happy Memorial Day!Please Join Jessica Alba in the...

Happy Memorial Day!
Please Join Jessica Alba in the Water.

gq: 50 Things a Man Does Not Have to Do Before He Dies 42. RUN...

50 Things a Man Does Not Have to Do Before He Dies

gqfashion: GQ Endorses: The New White Suit Don’t treat the...

GQ Endorses: The New White Suit