Last week we lost a dear friend and old contributor at Gothamist, Ben Chappel. We wanted to take a moment to remember the work he did and the wonderful person he was. When Ben first started here, he interviewed Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. After he got back from their meeting, he sent us a photo of him and her and explained that there would be no interview. The two became friends instead. That's......

Hello, music fans! My name is Ben Chappel and I've taken over the reins of Coolfer's legendary music picks column. Please know, before going any further, that Coolfer has enormously large feet for which he orders specially-made size 17 Reebok's Pumps, and I have absolutely no hope of fitting my little Campers into his elephantitic footsteps. I'll do the best I can, though, weekly, in my average-sized eleven-and-a-halfs. Here, sometime hovering around the beginning of......

Conversation And Call To Action With Errol Morris...

Fashion week is in full swing in New York, celebrating the irritatingly recurring time of year that all of the self-congratulatory super-socialites take the opportunity to stop patting themselves on the back and pat each other for awhile.  Last night, Betsy Johnson took the opportunity to share the limelight with the Great-Uncle of Glam, John Cale, the founding member of the Velvet Underground, to celebrate the release of his new record, "HoboSapiens." For anybody mystified......