Write Man in the Palais: Michael Azerrad's New Site Brings DIY Ethos and Peer Review to Music Criticism
Stare Thee Well: Eye-Gazing Parties Aren't Just for Pick-Up Artists Anymore
Naked Ambition: Paul McCarthy Takes the Park Avenue Armory
Kickstarter Thinks Redditor's Creepy Dating Book Is 'Abhorrent,' But Declines to Remove It
Teachers' Union Endorses Bill Thompson for Mayor
Manhattan Man Sues Gym After Slipping on 'Foreign White Substance' in Sauna
Cuomo to Investigate Legislators After Campaign Finance Reform Fails
Stratasys Is Acquiring MakerBot for $403M in Stock
Ellen Biddle Shipman's Beekman Place Townhouse House Fetches $35 M.

Naked Ambition: Paul McCarthy Takes the Park Avenue Armory
If you harbor childhood memories of Snow White and would prefer their innocence remains intact, avoid the Park Avenue Armory this summer. A few minutes inside “WS,” artist Paul McCarthy’s staggering new project, which opened there earlier today, will be enough to make you never look at Dopey the same way again.
If, however, the prospect of spelunking through the weirdest corners of Mr. McCarthy’s subconscious—a Boschian realm that lays bare the sinister side of fairy tales, subverts American domesticity with unhinged humor, and involves enough debauched sexuality to send any mental-health professional screaming from the room—appeals, get to the Drill Hall. Read More

Kickstarter Thinks Redditor’s Creepy Dating Book Is ‘Abhorrent,’ But Declines to Remove It
In a statement provided to Betabeat, the powers that be at Kickstarter announced that they will not be taking down the project for Redditor Ken Hoinsky’s dating advice book, which contains unsettling suggestions for how to treat women, including “grab her hand and put it right on your dick.” The book, called Above the Game: A Guide to Getting Awesome With Women, far surpassed its Kickstarter funding goal and promises to compile much of the dating advice the prolific Mr. Hoinsky has published to Reddit over the years. Read More

Teachers’ Union Endorses Bill Thompson for Mayor
Former Comptroller Bill Thompson’s mayoral campaign got its most significant boost to date this evening with an endorsement from the city’s powerful teachers’ union.
The endorsement, which was officially announced just before 6 p.m. following a vote by the union’s 3,400-member Delegate Assembly, will provide Mr. Thompson with the organizational muscle of the United Federation of Teachers, which boasts a sophisticated voter outreach operation, approximately 170,000 members across the five boroughs and millions of dollars to spend. Read More

Manhattan Man Sues Gym After Slipping on ‘Foreign White Substance’ in Sauna
That’s an icky situation.
In a cringe-inducing lawsuit, Manhattanite Mark Moskowitz is suing Bally Total Fitness for injuries incurred when he slipped in the sauna in their E 55st location.
His lawsuit he claims that the slip was caused by a “foreign white substance.” Use your imagination folks.
Mr. Moskowitz also claims that Read More

Cuomo to Investigate Legislators After Campaign Finance Reform Fails
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that he will follow through on his threat to create a Moreland Commission to investigate state legislators after they failed to come to a deal on a proposed new public campaign financing system the governor has tried to sell as an anti-corruption bill.
“That is the direction I am planning to proceed,” Mr. Cuomo told reporters at a press conference in Albany this afternoon, as the legislative session winds to a close. Read More

Stratasys Is Acquiring MakerBot for $403M in Stock
First Tumblr, and now comes another sizable New York City exit. Turns out the whimsical MakerBot won’t be raising a round, after all, because the desktop 3D-printing startup is being acquired by publicly traded behemoth Stratasys, for $403 million in stock. (Of course, that’s just the initial value, based on today’s $84.60 closing price for shares of Stratasys stock.) Stakeholders qualify for additional performance-based earnouts, with an initial total value of $201 million. Read More

Ellen Biddle Shipman’s Beekman Place Townhouse House Fetches $35 M.
New York is a city with many fabulous townhouses, but for those who desire a manse on the East River, the options are few. One of the rare houses to come on the market in recent years—if one does not count Gracie Mansion, which Christine Quinn et al are now vying to take possession of—is the Ellen Biddle Shipman mansion at 21 Beekman Place, which was listed in late September. So The Observer was not particularly surprised when we learned that a buyer has already snapped up the former home of the late, trailblazing landscape architect.
“There is not in all New York another piece of property like it, for it has the seclusion of Beekman Place, southern exposure, beauty of architecture combined with the extended view of the East River,” Biddle once of the neighborhood that she helped mold into the fashionable district after buying 21 Beekman in 1919. The buyer, whose identity remains a mystery (at least until the sale hits public records), apparently agreed with Shipman, given that he or sale paid $35 million for the the furnished home, according to sources familiar with the deal.
Read More
Prospective Mayors Spar on Transportation Policy
At a Democratic mayoral forum this morning focusing on New York City’s transportation policies, the candidates often agreed on many of the issues–stated support for bike lanes, for example–but starkly disagreed when it came to several topics, including school bus contracts.
Setting up the dispute, former Comptroller Bill Thompson, the leading candidate for the teachers’ union endorsement set to be announced later this afternoon, defended pricey school bus driver contracts and provisions that protect current employees. Read More
Love in the Time of Algorithms

‘Grab Her Hand and Put it Right on Your Dick:’ Redditor Successfully Kickstarts His Terrible Dating Book
Update: Kickstarter has decided not to remove the project.
Are you a foreveralone munching on Cheetos in your mom’s basement, wondering how to get women to touch your penis? Good news: Ken Hoinsky, whom you might know as “TofuTofu” on Reddit, has drawn up a comprehensive dating guide to help teach guys everywhere how to “get awesome with women”–and also make creepy unwanted advances on them. Read More

To Do Wednesday: Pig Out in the Park
Prepare the juice cleanse: at the Central Park Conservancy’s annual “Taste of Summer,” dozens of fancy food tables amount to a cavalcade of calories. Gourmet grub is provided by the 21 Club, Armani Ristorante, La Esquina, PJ Clarke’s, Sirio Ristorante, Swifty’s and Tulsi, to name a few. Those with fat wallets and hungry tummies who Read More