In the winter of 2020, my neighbor in Sing Sing told me that there was a true crime documentary on TV about Robert Chambers. The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park was an AMC limited docuseries that was playing for three nights on the A&E channel, which was part of the prison's cable package. It had been a big case at the time. In 1986, Chambers, nineteen, strangled eighteen-year-old Jennifer Levin under an oak tree by a bike path in New York's Central Park, after a night of drinking at an upscale bar nearby. The name resonated with me because for as long as I had been in prison, both prisoners and COs had been telling me that I looked like Robert Chambers. In 1988, the trial was everywhere. At eleven years old, I remember hearing my mother talking to my aunt about the case, expressing a clairvoyant sort of empathy for Chambers's mother. The documentary, like most traditional true crime, retold the saga of his crime, the investigation, the trial, and, in this case, the sensational media frenzy. At trial, Chambers had claimed that Levin's death was the result of a sexual encounter gone wrong. Rosanna Scotto, a Fox 5 news anchor who covered the case at the time, said Chambers "looked like a Hollywood Adonis." Another described him as Kennedyesque. The fact that Chambers was an Upper East Side preppy added a whiff of irony—in these elite circles, violent crime just didn't happen. |
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For the last decade, office-appropriate clothing has been in flux. Not that long ago, you just wore a suit and tie. Maybe there was a briefcase, even a hat, but the basics were set. Some guys still wear a suit every day—a curious few hang on to the hats, too—but most of us are expected to turn up to work in an amalgam of "professional" attire that includes (but is by no means exclusive to) "smart" sneakers, button-downs, stretchy chinos, company-branded vests, and polo shirts that might not make the cut at a PGA invitational. It is, one could argue, a cursed era of office-wear. So what the hell should you wear to a job interview? |
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The Lost Buckingham Nicks Album Is Still One of Music's Great Mysteries |
In 1974, Fleetwood Mac was on the ropes. The group that had started out as a blues band in London had been through multiple lineup changes and crises, losing members to drugs, alcohol, mental illness, and religious cults. There had even been a set of imposters touring under the name Fleetwood Mac; that situation was working its way through the courts. Scaled down to a four-piece—drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John and keyboardist/singer Christine McVie, and guitarist/singer Bob Welch—the band had relocated to Los Angeles, but after the release of the lackluster Heroes Are Hard to Find album, Welch made it clear that he was halfway out the door. |
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Want to know the exact moment I knew I loved Netflix's Black Rabbit? There's a certain scene in the miniseries, starring Jason Bateman and Jude Law as two brothers (named Vince and Jake, respectively) who fire up a New York City restaurant: a sexy, dimly lit, celebrity hot spot called the Black Rabbit. When episode 2 opens, we're treated to a glimpse of their past life, when they were alt-rockers in a band called—you guessed it—the Black Rabbits. The duo is very much like a washed-up American Oasis, but for series creators Kate Susman and Zach Baylin, the flashback was an excuse to give Bateman a set of drumsticks and throw a dreamy wig on Law. "We got Albert Hammond Jr. [of the Strokes] to write their songs," Susman says. "We were huge fans of the Strokes, and we told him our idea for the show, and he was totally game." "Then he took Jude into the studio," Baylin adds. "That's Jude's vocals. He's got a really good voice. Who knew?" |
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Most men won't talk about finishing too fast, even though studies show about 20 to 30 precent of sexually active men report experiencing premature ejaculation at some point in their lives. Michael*, a bespoke woodworker in Philadelphia, didn't show signs in adolescence—it started only after a car crash at 22 left him with scars, a broken hip, and orgasms that came too soon. For the newest installment in our series on the Secret Lives of Men, we talked to Michael about how learning to slow down not only saved his sex life but also transformed the way he approaches love, honesty, and intimacy. |
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Hopefully, we all learned as children to never do certain things in polite company. Don't talk with mouthfuls of food, for instance. But for 29-year-old British actor Jonathan Ajayi, who stars in the buzzy sci-fi horror series Alien: Earth on FX and Hulu, such indecorous manners got him the role of a lifetime. Recalling his audition for the series, Ajayi tells me how he won over the show's casting directors by not simply playing a child, but behaving like one. "We had a scene in the show where I'm giving Slightly a flavor strip," says Ajayi. ("Flavor strips" are basically snacks for synthetics.) It's kids eating snacks, basically, which gave Ajayi an idea. "I was like, Children talk with their mouths full. I bought a can of Tango for my Zoom meeting with [casting director] Kate Rose James. I said the lines, I took a sip, and I shesh, 'Hey broh, dhu yuu wan shum aysh kreem?'" Replicating that moment for me over Zoom, Ajayi lets out a wide smile, and I can picture carbonated orange liquid leaking from his teeth. "Kate put her hands on her chest like, 'He's so sweet.' It was so much fun." |
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