Andrea Chalupa

This week in the East Village is the third annual Kinofest NYC, a chance to discover independent films from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries. With a win at the Cannes Film Festival last year for Ukrainian director Maryna Vroda, for her short film Cross Country, and a production...

Innovation is a dirty word. Everyone wants to be innovative. But wanting and doing are two different things. George Lois, the Orwell of design, has been bridging that gap for decades, most notably as the ad man brought in to save Esquire and a nascent (and artistic) MTV.

Long...

When my friend and I met up last week to go to Occupy Wall Street, I wore my long flowing pin stripe skirt, a black-and-white vintage blouse, and a nude pair of shiny ballet flats. After the police brutality at the start of the occupation, dressing chic seemed both a...

At the height of the Vietnam War, Robert Altman's M.A.S.H. ignored that war is hell, lampooned office politics and celebrated camaraderie. Since the Iraq War has yet to receive the definitive dark comedy treatment, The Birthday Boys, the latest play to open off-Broadway, at the Access Theater, if adapted for...

Since 2001, 1,622 American troops have been killed in Afghanistan, and since 2003, 4462 have died in Iraq, according to iCasualties, a website that tracks the latest Defense Department data. In the decade we have been at war, tens of thousands -- nearly 44,000 American men and women...

John Kerry took the stage last night at the New York Restoration Project's annual Hulaween Ball at the Waldorf Astoria dressed in a gray suit and tie. Addressing the at-capacity charity gala, a literally sparkling crowd decadent with intense costumes--from a fleet of giant flag waving Chilean miners...

George Lois, advertising giant whose agency, Papert Koenig Lois, produced a decade of fearless magazine covers for Esquire during the turbulent '60s that are on permanent collection in the MoMA, deserves a homage character in Matthew Weiner's Mad Men so he can silly slap Don Draper. 1962: The fictional Draper...

"If George W. Bush can run for President, so can I," came the initial shrugged sentiment in the camp of a pragmatic, plain-spoken governor of Vermont who ignited a movement that would go on to elect the first African-American President to the White House. Ari Berman does a wonderful thing...

It was an election so electrifying it seemed to unite the country more than divide it, turning the busiest of people and pop stars into volunteers, working for a reform-minded politician who stood for healing, unity, and greater liberalization. It had catchy songs and iconic fashion statements, and just like...

The BP oil spill has nothing on the hundreds of miles of garbage floating in the Atlantic Ocean, and its bigger sibling, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a plastic-soup in the Pacific Ocean estimated to span the size of the continental U.S. Our oceans are our...

JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater gave us a meme we couldn't get enough of. Now that the jokes have been exhausted, it's time to focus on an issue in the shadows of his fabulous escape: caregiver stress.

Susan Balda in eCareDiary writes in response to the

I love HBO's True Blood, the sexy, often hilarious (the battle-hardened and still swanky Lafayette deserves a spin-off) drama based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries, the serialized novels by Charlaine Harris, set in rural Louisiana. Every Sunday my friends come over, and I cook dinner, usually something southern or French,...

Lots of exciting things coming out of the generous minds of the great Pacific Northwest. First, Urban Honking, a blogging community in Portland, Oregon that has been compared to "a chic Fendi handbag," has launched a $1,000 scholarship for an entering college freshman. "We're giving...

"Black Americans seem to think that their vision of race is the only one that matters. In Canada and England, they don't have our history and so they view race differently," says Nelson George, a cultural historian and filmmaker who candidly explores race, sex, parenting, gentrification, internet dating, the current...

Monday night, Caroline's in New York hosted FX's premier of "Louie," the Seinfeld-esque series by Louis C.K., that follows his life in New York, going through a divorce and raising two young daughters. The show relies on gag-riddled skits to show the awkwardness and abuse that comes with making this...

During the battle royale for health care that gained us a mighty inch, I had my House representative and U.S. senators on speed dial. Running errands, walking to work, I could make a quick call and tell a friendly receptionist, "Yo, tell her/him I support the public option. I'm a...

Over four years ago, Molly Crabapple dropped out of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology to become a full time artist. This meant modeling for a hundred dollars here and there, often nude, to raise enough money to print and mail postcards of her illustrations to the New York Times,...

This is the happiest Matt Berninger has ever been. Sitting backstage in his dressing room at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Saturday night, about to play a sold-out concert and begin a year-long tour around the world, the baritone frontman is enjoying fatherhood and the fact that

MTV has gone from "My Super Sweet Sixteen"--a reality show on 16-year olds' birthday parties that rivaled the Oscars--so Old Economy--to "MTV Hired," an incredibly good docu-series about young people competing for dream... entry-level jobs.

"The idea was how do we come up with something that talks about...

Last week, I had the privilege of covering an Emmy-sponsored panel featuring SNL stars and producers. (An Rare Inside Look at What Makes 'SNL' Tick). From that discussion, here are some choice quotes from Lorne Michaels, the show's creator, executive producer and the inspiration for Alec...