The only hint of their presence in Midtown’s Hotel Pennsylvania—the lobby still garlanded for the holiday season and crowded with milling tourists—was a 20-something guy shuffling around in medium-rinse jeans and a lackluster black leather jacket. He might have been one of the tourists himself were it not for the fluorescent pastel sign he held reading: THIS WAY TO BRONYCON! Pictured on the sign was a pink and purple pony in a green field.

The so-called Bronies—a herd of mostly male, mostly white, mostly mid-20s fans of the animated TV show "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic"—have had plenty of press coverage of late, but this [...]

Jolie Kerr: Bon L’(h)iver, John! I’ve actually been looking forward to this Drynuary! I know, I’m as surprised as you are! But it’s because, unlike last year, I don’t see this month as a desperate attempt to dry out… despite the fact that December basically looked like the picture above, taken by you, at a certain holiday party.

This go-round, my attitude is that this is an opportunity and that feels pretty cool and exciting. When we last chatted, I mentioned that 2011 had started out as a teenaged butthole of a year, and it sort of ended that way too. But! There were some awesome [...]