GQ: First Cow is based on Jonathan Raymond’s novel The Half-Life, which is an epic, sprawling book—but there’s no cow in it. How did you and Jonathan end up inventing what would end up being the central character? The cow was sort of the key that unlocked the whole thing. The novel spans four decades,
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In the summer of 1989 in Detroit, N.W.A. made it through some 30 seconds of “Fuck Tha Police” before apparent gunshots went off in the crowd at Joe Louis Arena. Prior to that, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E and the rest had played their signature anthem exactly one time on stage—at the Celebrity Theatre in
My turn came up earlier. Lauren Bacall, accompanied by Jon Voight, regally walked on to bestow the awards for screenwriting, both adapted and original. She put me back into the Bogart-Huston era, still looking like a lynx with those slits for eyes and that 1940s smoker’s voice. My nerves couldn’t help but take a quantum
On the phone from L.A.’s Men’s Central Jail on a Wednesday afternoon, Drakeo the Ruler says, “My judge has coronavirus. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m supposed to be in court on Friday. But my judge has coronavirus. What are the odds of that?” Then, as he does with improbable regularity, he
Montage Kapalua Bay When Governor David Ige announced that out-of-state travelers looking to vacation in Hawaii can avoid the required 14-day quarantine if they show a valid COVID-19 test with proof of a negative test result prior to their arrival. Travelers will be required to provide printed or emailed pre-test certification as evidence of a negative
“It deserved fire and passion. I wanted those jurors mad about what happened to Tim Coggins,” Broder would later tell me. “I wanted them rocking back on their heels.” Prosecutors called more than a dozen witnesses: the medical examiner who detailed the various wounds to Coggins’s body, friends and family members who testified that Coggins
Jul. 18th, 2020 Once upon a time. These are four words that we all remember from the bedtime fairy tales of our early years. Many of those stories included a princess in a royal castle and adventures of knights in shining armor. As adults, many of us have kept an ember of those childhood fantasies
Yo Gotti used to be a picky eater. Not anymore—with a few exceptions. Asparagus, brussels sprouts, and kale—especially kale—are still tough to swallow, he says. But the rapper is committed to his new diet and exercise routine, which he started last October and doubled down on during quarantine. Gotti says he’s lost 40 pounds this
Actor and activist Kendrick Sampson knows what happens when well-intentioned celebs speak without doing the homework: their efforts backfire. “A lot of celebrities read an article, think they’re an expert, go out and tweet something, and then it actually ends up making organizers in the community have to do even more work,” Sampson says. So
By now a dozen vaccine candidates have been dropped, five appear to offer minimal protection, and the rest are still in too early a stage of testing to tell. Regardless of how they ultimately turn out, it’s looking less and less likely that a vaccine will be ready by the end of 2021. To add
“Oh, my gosh, I just don’t know if I should share all of this information,” Saweetie says after a fit of giggles. The rising Los Angeles rapper is talking about her superstar boyfriend of more than two years, Quavo—specifically, what first attracted her to him. She is stretched out on a low-slung chaise at the
Ciragan Palace Kempinski Despite the uncertainty of the last several months, many of us have daydreamed about traveling again, but as more countries open their borders, there is no denying that things look a little different. While COVID-19 has undoubtedly impacted the way airlines and hotels will operate for the foreseeable future, it’s not all doom
Migos have secured their spot as rap kings by constantly revamping their sound and reorienting their goals to set themselves apart from their peers. “We all got one mission,” Offset says on the newest episode of The Drop-In. “To stay on top.” Or, as Quavo puts it, “Always add an extra string to your guitar.”
This morning I woke up, drank a glass of warm water with lemon, did 30 minutes of breathwork and my sun salut—okay, this morning I woke up, rolled over, checked my phone, saw a text from midnight that read, “just search Sqirl on the timeline,” searched Sqirl on the timeline, and spent 20 bleary-eyed minutes
This is not to suggest that Mahomes didn’t capitalize on any of the perks afforded a megastar Super Bowl winner. For instance, the day that the Chiefs paraded their Super Bowl trophy through Kansas City, Post Malone happened to be playing in town. What better way to extend the party? “We didn’t buy tickets,” Mahomes
“I would be playing my piano.” Finally, I couldn’t wait. Here was a question that lingered in my psyche for decades. I said, “General Giap, was Black Lang real or myth?” The general said, “He is real. And he is alive.” Nguyen Quang Thieu (a poet, painter, and translator who had attended college in Cuba)
So in 2019, Samberg shot the seventh season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He said yes to co-hosting the Golden Globes, and also to going out on a Lonely Island concert tour. He made a sublimely weird “visual poem” about Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco with Akiva Schaffer, too, under the logic that their most seemingly bird-brained
In 2016, Coel was sexually assaulted by strangers, after being drugged while meeting a friend for a drink, like Arabella, the night before a deadline. The details of the incident aren’t necessary, they’re painful, yet Coel chose to share them with the world in 2018, when she became the first black woman to deliver the