Everybody Likes to Read about Butts: Our 25 Most Popular Stories of 2015
What better way to judge the relative success of a year than with numbers? After all, if an experience can’t be specifically quantified and then compared (hopefully favorably) with other similar experiences, was it even worth having? Hard to say, right? Or not. Anyway. On that note: Here are the 25 most read stories on bk mag dot com in 2015. Are they also the best stories? It’s your call, readers. Literally.
25) “Everything Got Better and Weirder”: On the Books that Changed Our Lives
In which Molly McArdle, our books editor, spoke with a variety of literary and media luminaries, from Jonathan Lethem to Taffy Brodesser-Akner, and found out what piece of reading changed their lives.
24) Fuck Turkey
In which Kristin Iversen, our executive editor, gives turkey the takedown it very much deserves.
23) New York Times Commenter Very Upset Because Girls Ruined Peter Pan Live! for Him
In which a Times commenter doesn’t understand that “there is literally NOTHING mutually exclusive about enjoying a musical theater production featuring a cross-dressing star as a boy who never wants to grow up and watching a television show featuring a bunch of women who also, clearly, never want to grow up.”
22) Vice’s “First Date” Series Is Horrible for Everyone
In which Caitlin White, our music editor, not only calls out the inherent sexism in VICE‘s “First Date” series, but also the gross way female music journalists (and female journalists, in general) are treated as well. For more on this, read White’s excellent piece on a particularly terrible Saturday Night Live skit.
21) The 15 Best Food Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Ranked
In which we give Brooklyn Heights residents the sad news that their neighborhood’s food scene is only meh.
20) The Best New Brooklyn Restaurants, 2015
In which Sarah Zorn, our food editor, celebrates the 10 best new restaurants to open in the borough this year.
19) As Usual, Kanye West Is Right About Everything
In which we praise Kanye for being right about everything from hating Ryan Seacrest to racism at awards shows. He’s also (with Kim) really good at choosing baby names.
18) The Cosmos of Enya
In which Caitlin White celebrates the music Enya, and reflects on what it is about this particular artist’s work that resonates so strongly during times of collective strife.
17) The Best Experimental Records of 2015
In which Jeff Klingman compiles a really solid list of the year’s best experimental records.
16) A Harry Potter Freak Sorts Brooklyn Neighborhoods into Hogwarts Houses
In which Park Slope gets called out for being full of Hufflepuffs.
15) Punk, 77: At Home with Alan Vega
In which Jeff Klingman talks with Suicide’s Alan Vega, and shows us all what it means to be punk for life.
14) It’s Really Expensive to Live Alone in Brooklyn
In which Margaret Eby reflects on how, at the very least, living in Brooklyn means you’ll never die alone, because you can’t even afford to live alone.
13) White Flight, Round Two, or: How Gentrification Ends
In which Kristin Iversen doesn’t really care if you’re yet another wealthy white family moving to Westchester as long as you stop writing articles in the New York Times about it.
12) The Best of the Bests: Ranking the 2015 Best Books Lists
In which Molly McArdle does an incredible job of ranking the year’s best books lists. Do better, Newsweek.
11) All the Times Food Has Been Mansplained to Me
In which Kristin Iversen reveals that she is, in fact, a motherfucking dragon.
10) 100 Totally Free Things to Do in Brooklyn this Summer
In which Dominique Stewart planned your whole summer for you.
9) 100 Books Every New Yorker Should Read
In which Kristin Iversen planned your whole 2016 reading list for you.
8) Brooklyn’s Hastily Built Condos Are Now Falling Apart
In which we give you “Schadenfreude: The Brooklyn Real Estate Edition.”
7) Only Ten Black Students Were Offered a Spot at Stuyvesant High School This Year, But Is this a Problem?
In which we examine one aspect of the city’s highly segregated public school system.
6) The Best Rooftop Bars in Brooklyn
In which we highly encourage you to make the most out of those warm weather months. (Which, apparently, now means “all of them.”)
5) “He’s Out”: The Exile of Ed Champion
In which Molly McArdle does an incredibly incisive job reporting on the downfall of lit- and media-world provocateur Ed Champion, whose frequently misogynistic history of threatening and abusive behavior was frequently ignored by the establishment—until it wasn’t.
4) Rough Trade Is Turning into Empire Records for Two Days
In which we reveal that the 90s will never die.
3) 30 Under 30: The Envy Index
In which we celebrate a lot of people doing some pretty incredible things.
2) To Highlight Gender Pay Gap, Brooklyn Bar to Sell Drinks to Women for 77 Percent of Their Price
In which we anger a lot of Men’s Rights Activists. Lol.
And finally…