ARTICLES BY SAM MCPHEETERS
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 THE DESSERT PSYCHO
Punk Drummer Transforms Into World-Class Chef With Alarming SwiftnessI’ve worked in just enough restaurants to recognize an abnormally large pastry station when I see one. It was January, and I was standing in the kitchen below Del Posto, one of New York’s—and thus the world’s—most prestigious restaurants. The spotless counter before me was at least a dozen feet long, and the region it...
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  SURVIVAL OF THE STREETS
Snake Plissken, the Cro-Mags, and the Persistence of Megatoilet NostalgiaNew York City’s comeback has been an odd thing to watch from afar. When I moved out of Manhattan in 1990, the city was every inch the pee-smelling woe zone I’d known since childhood. When I returned this spring, I couldn’t even find key graffiti on subway windows. Taxi rides are like something from a science-fiction movie now—not because New York cabs have televisions in them, but because these televisions actually work. People still talk to themselves in the streets, only now there’s someone on the other line...
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 WHEN MEN WERE AWESOME
Visiting George Washington’s House With Joe PrestonThis May I finally visited Mount Vernon, plantation home of America’s first president, George Washington. Joe Preston escorted me. By this point, the burly bearded bassist (Earth, High on Fire, Melvins, Thrones) had joined me on three and a half tours. We’d intersected in various far-flu...
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 DISNEYLAND AFTER DARK
By Sam McPheetersLast week I chaperoned a graduating high school class of 2009 to Grad Nite, an exclusive all-night party at Disneyland. My teacher friend Antonio requests that I not name the school, but says it is perfectly fair for me to mention that the school serves the same LA County city from where all good ra...
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 SCREWED BY SEARCH
An Entire Generation, Em-Bare-Assed on the WebIn 1984, I was 15 and always eager to learn something new about the human experience. For some reason, the photo booth at the Central Avenue Woolworth's in Albany, New York, was my preferred venue for these lessons. Where could I document the creepy JFK...
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 THE FUTURE OF FASHION
Fad Forecasts for the Twenty-TeensIt might seem presumptuous to make fashion predictions after a decade that saw so few fashion innovations. With the exception of a few extra gadgets, a bit more midriff, and the occasional message scrawled across a sweatpants backside, people in 2009 still look a lot like people in 2000. If the last...
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 MY OBAMA HAJJ
Words and Photos by Sam McPheetersAs someone raised on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I have to report that the actual invitation to the 2009 presidential inauguration looked a tad underwhelming. Heavy linen paper and miniscule security threads gave the invite the feel of new currency, but its purple border, puffy emb...
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 THE TROUBLEMAKER
How Crucifucks Frontman Doc Dart Became a Man Named 26On a Wednesday afternoon in February 2007, I shared a booth with a man named 26 inside the Travelers Club International Restaurant & Tuba Museum in Okemos, Michigan. We'd picked a spot far enough from the door to give us some respite from the winter blast, and dozens of African masks and beautiful b...
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 FIRST NOVEL
By Sam McPheetersHow can I describe how it felt to complete my first novel? For me, the moment was a medley of emotion: relief, pride, closure. And sorrow. I was going to miss my quirky band of characters, all their pratfalls and gambling debts and incorrectly made chai lattes. But the time had come to say goodbye. ...
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