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T he black Cadillac pulls into the diner’s parking lot in Queens. Built in the 1950s, the building looks like it only exists on a rainy day, the rock-lined exterior out of another time. I step out of the Uber and look up at the restaurant where, in 1983, my father was arrested after escaping federal prison. He had spent two years on the lam, and was brought down by the U.S. Marshals after eating breakfast with his longtime mistress. He had just come from organizing a new shipment from Colombia. I imagine the day was also rainy. Almost 40 years later, I am there to meet with the Drug Enforcement Agency officer who tracked him for nearly a decade, trying to bring down one of the biggest mari juana kingpins of the 1970s, the man I once called “Daddy,” and one of the architects of the modern drug trade: Dan McGuiness. When the Cadillac arrived at my hotel, I had to laugh. The last time I saw my father, he, too, was driving a black Cadillac. He had just arrived in Los Angeles … [Read more...] about Learjets, Mistresses, and Bales of Weed: My Dad’s Life as a Drug Kingpin

Leslie West , the towering guitarist who created the hard-rock milestone “ Mississippi Queen ” with his band Mountain , died Wednesday morning. West’s brother, Larry West Weinstein, confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone. He was 75. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. On Monday, West was rushed to a hospital after suffering cardiac arrest at his home near Daytona, Florida, where he never regained consciousness. Released in 1970 on Mountain’s debut album, Climbing! , “Mississippi Queen” was two and a half minutes of boisterous bliss built around West’s burly yowl and guitar blasts and drummer Corky Laing’s completely unironic cowbell. One of those never-say-die songs of the classic-rock era, “Mississippi Queen” has been featured in countless soundtracks, TV shows ( The Americans , The Simpsons ), and in Guitar Hero III . In an interview with Guitar Player earlier this year, West said the song “has just everything you need to make it a winner. You’ve got … [Read more...] about Leslie West, Mountain Guitarist Who Belted Out ‘Mississippi Queen,’ Dead at 75

Since quitting the 2020 U.S. Olympic team and stepping away from competitive skateboarding , Leo Baker has had no regrets. “I am happier than I’ve ever been in my life, beyond what I could have ever even imagined,” he says, speaking on a hot August day by Zoom from his Brooklyn apartment. He’s wearing a black tank top, exposing tattoos on his chest and arms, and his side-parted blonde hair has just the right amount of bounce to call to mind another Leo’s beloved Nineties style. “Purging all the stuff that was not working for me, like quitting the Olympics and getting rid of all this stuff that was not ‘it,’ created a clearing for things that are it or could be it.” After rising to fame as a child skater on the competition scene, Baker was considered a sure thing for the sport’s debut at the 2020 Tokyo games. But he felt deep ambivalence. A new documentary , Stay On Board: The Leo Baker Story , which premiered at the Outfest film festival last month and begins streaming Aug. … [Read more...] about A Skateboarder Quit the Olympics to Come Out As Trans. A New Doc Shows His Journey

In February 2020, Sarah Thankam Mathews was struggling to write a novel; freelancing wasn’t going so great, either. So, she took a writing break, looked at the burgeoning threat of Covid-19, and immersed herself in the needs she predicted were on the horizon as the pandemic altered everyone’s reality. “What grew out of that anxiety-spiral-meets-moment-of-clarity was I built this online Slack network that was sort of a neighborhood-based mutual-aid network,” she says. It started with a few flyers — which called on her Bed-Stuy neighbors to “stay together and keep each other safe and be connected as a community,” and also included a join link to her Bed-Stuy Strong Slack — and snowballed into an organic form of mutual-aid organizing, where people worked together to provide for one another within Bed-Stuy. By the end of 2020, she says, “We had supported 23,000 people during those first seven months with a week’s worth of groceries. And by the end of our Covid-specific … [Read more...] about How the Pandemic Allowed One Author to Affect Change in Her Community and Reinvent Her Debut Novel

After promising to release new music this month, Blackpink have revealed their next single “Pink Venom” will arrive in less than two weeks. The K-pop girl group announced Sunday that the track would arrive on Aug. 19; “Pink Venom” is available to pre-save now on streaming services, as well as digitally preorder on Blackpink’s site. #BLACKPINK Pre-Release Single ‘Pink Venom’ Release Poster "Pink Venom" is available for Pre-Save now! https://t.co/WM0YOPNg9s #BLACKPINK #블랙핑크 #PreReleaseSingle #PinkVenom #20220819_12amEST #20220819_1pmKST #Release #YG pic.twitter.com/OWwGvJtey1 — BLACKPINKOFFICIAL (@BLACKPINK) August 7, 2022 Blackpink previously revealed in July that they are in the “final stages of recording a new album ” as well as plans to embark on a massive world tour. “On top of new music and large-scale projects, Blackpink will also go on the largest world tour in the history of a K-pop girl group by the end of the year to expand their … [Read more...] about Blackpink Reveal New Single ‘Pink Venom’ Is Coming Soon