The Awl: Joe Brown, you have spent a lot of time in New York City and environs and you have been commended to me as wildly outdoorsy, despite your indoorsy day job as features editor of Gizmodo. I would like to know your secrets without you blowing up any secret spots. So tell me: if I want a good hike within reasonable distance of New York, and maybe I lived a little, so maybe not too hard a hike, wherever would I go? READ MORE

We've published a lot over the last couple weeks about the battle in Wisconsin over labor, and nearly always been critical of Scott Walker and the Republicans. So I found a reasonable 20-something Wisconsinite named Sarah Helms, who was willing to explain her support for Scott Walker and his bill. Her answers have not been edited at all. READ MORE

The Awl: Dan Shanoff! Not long ago, after some scheming, you left a job and started your own company and its first publication, Quickish, which is sports-oriented, and in beta, and provides immediate, quickly done news and views and updates. You plan to expand beyond sports in the future. Dan, why did you do this? READ MORE

If rapping is for bad boys, Shad has little business being in the field. The Kenyan-born, Canada-raised hip-hop artist with a positive attitude has been nominated for multiple prestigious awards, and was even deemed the #1 rapper in Canada by the still rather-conservative National Post—and that wasn't in, like, 2008 or anything, but just last week. On Shad's third album, "TSOL," released this spring, his lyrics address everything from how the same thing that floats your boat can also capsize it, to the time his sister taught him how to parallel park, to why rapping about rapping isn't that interesting. Shad is performing tonight at the Highline Ballroom.K-os will also be there. READ MORE

Michael K runs and writes the website Dlisted, which gives a rundown on the day's celebrity comings and goings with crude humor that often verges on the vulgar (though he disputes this point). Our 3 p.m. conversation took place between a post that featured some pap photos of A-ha! singer Morten Hackett ("For being almost a half-a-century old, dude is....still doing things to me. Take on my no-no, Morten!") and one that questioned the authenticity of Soulja Boy's Twittered pic of his groin ("Is that a bottle of Strawberry Suave in your boxers?"). Michael K lives on Manhattan's Lower East Side with a roommate and a chihuahua named Elvie (he admitted the breed with sigh: "it's such a gay man's dog," he said). READ MORE

Stephen J. Cannell is the creator of 40 television shows, including 21 Jump Street, The Rockford Files, The A-Team, and The Commish. He has written 450 TV episodes and produced some 1500. His production company is heading up work on feature films of 21 Jump Street and The Rockford Files. Also: he is also a popular mystery writer and has written 14 novels. We spoke at about noon on a Tuesday while he was in the car headed to lunch with a writer in Santa Monica. He had already spent five hours at his desk working on a novel. READ MORE

Damian Mason is a Bill Clinton impersonator, a corporate comedian, and a farmer. He attended Purdue University and was selling lighting fixtures in San Diego when he won a costume contest dressed as Bill Clinton and decided to make a go of it. Today he still does his Bill Clinton show but he also does two shows as himself: one for corporate events, and one for agriculture conferences. Mason is the kind of man that uses your name when he talks to you, and he asked me just as many questions about myself as I did about him. When we spoke, it was lunch time in Indiana. He had just come inside after working on his ranch. READ MORE