The Barbers of New York The Big Apple may have a million fancy restaurants and roped-off snobby clubs, but its the barbershops where the real schmoozing happens. Photographer and writer Lisa Whiteman visits a variety of New York salons and returns with a gallery and an essay.

Andy Crewdson of Lines & Splines Rosecrans Baldwin interviews Andy Crewdson of Lines & Splines. We especially like that he is an ‘average indie kid.’

The Indignant Correspondence of Folksy Ken Oakley Liz Phair is not the first artist to fight bad reviews with worse allegories – folk artist Ken Oakley invented the genre. Kevin Guilfoile reports on the only musician to have 184 albums panned in Rolling Stone.

The Art of The Cure Using salt to preserve meat goes back to the Egyptians, but curing pork in a small New York apartment? Food writer Josh Friedland takes us through the steps of making guanciale—including, do not plan to hang your jowls at your mother-in-law’s—with recipes for the finished product.