Vanishing Point

“Without the right kind of help, Oakland could lose yet another piece of its vibrant, artistic legacy.” As affordable residences and art spaces are becoming increasingly scarce, artists in Oakland are forced to move elsewhere. Laney Tower journalists take a look at the history, present, and uncertain future of the city’s arts and culture scene.

Source: Laney Tower
Published: Jul 21, 2017
Length: 43 minutes (10,855 words)

Inside LeEco’s Spectacular Fall from Grace

When a well-publicized Chinese tech company raised billions of dollars to become the Netflix of China, it diversified quickly, expanded from streaming into manufacturing, and challenged Apple and Tesla. When it fell apart, it fell hard.

Source: Engadget
Published: Jul 20, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,987 words)

Mourning the Low-Rent, Weirdo-Filled East Village of Old

A chapter excerpted from Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost its Soul, by Vanishing New York blogger “Jeremiah Moss” (the pseudonym for activist and psychoanalyst Griffin Hansbury). Moss traces the current wave of what he calls hyper-gentrification back to the Koch era.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 24, 2017
Length: 27 minutes (6,876 words)

Instagram Is Pushing Restaurants to Be Kitschy, Colorful, and Irresistible to Photographers

How the popular app has transformed the way diners, designers, and marketers approach restaurants. (Hint: that bold wallpaper pattern isn’t there by accident.)

Source: The Verge
Published: Jul 20, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,592 words)

Do The Right Thing

The newest film of Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit, depicts the beginning of the city’s 1967 uprisings. As he examines the film, Detroit-born writer and professor Michael Eric Dyson asks important questions about who can tell what stories and how the lives of black residents in Detroit have changed over the last 50 years.

Source: Elle
Published: Jul 20, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,179 words)

The Woman Who Steals Every Scene in “Girls Trip”

BuzzFeed profiles comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish on the eve of her star-making turn in Girls Trip, an ensemble film about four lifelong friends reuniting for a weekend of fun in New Orleans.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Jul 19, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,977 words)

Let’s Go to Jerusalem for Soup Again

Taffy Brodesser-Akner travels to Israel to reexamine the soup of her youth and the gap between memory, desire, and (ugh) reality.

Source: Saveur
Published: Jul 21, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,816 words)

Percy Ross Wants to Give You Money!

He was was a self-made, blue-collar millionaire in Reagan’s America. But when Percy Ross decided to give away his fortune, he made things simple: all you had to do was ask for it.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 20, 2017
Length: 22 minutes (5,700 words)

The Teenage Whaler’s Tale

For a teenager in the Siberian Yupik village of Gambell, killing a whale would be a rite of passage, and entry into manhood. But then, Chris Apassingok, age 16, was targeted with online harassment for his kill, and the town of 700 felt the weight of an internet-pile on tear through the community.

Published: Jul 17, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,986 words)

Flying Solo

A personal essay in which Jen Doll, author of Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest, tries to makes sense of a breakup that happened the day before a romantic vacation — and blindsided her in the same ways the presidential election did.

Author: Jen Doll
Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 21, 2017
Length: 24 minutes (6,048 words)