Tim Murphy NYC Writer

In Spring 2014, I had the great pleasure of traveling to Vienna for Condé Nast Traveler. There I found, amid orderly classical buildings and gardens, an exciting new surge of contemporary art and design, all in an unhurried atmosphere brimming with stately cafés and rich with the ghosts of modernism. Have a look at the wonderful new world of art I found tucked away in this oh, so stately capital.

When the actress Rose McGowan said recently that gay men could be more misogynist than straight men, I had to weigh in–because I think she’s (often, not always) right! Gay men may identify with women in many ways and may know their own form of cultural oppression, but they’re still men in many ways–and the time-honored gay ritual of doing drag can often be as much a put-down of women as an homage to them. 

Many fashion insiders were outraged when they learned that disgraced design genius John Galliano would be the new creative director at the avant-garde Maison Martin Margiela…but their outrage had nothing (well, little) to do with the drunken anti-Semitic meltdown that got him fired from Dior in 2011. Here’s the real reason the news was greeted with confusion and dismay (and, let’s admit it, more than a smidge of curiosity and excitement) by the fashion faithful.

Toplessness–and even bottomlessness!–is par for the course in European fashion editorials and ads. So why not in the U.S.? Whether it’s Kim Kardashian’s bottom or Madonna’s nipples, nakedness is still a no-no on this side of the pond, which is perhaps why this story–for Yahoo Style–elicited thousands and thousands of comments! (But before you get your hopes up…all images here have been pixilated. Waaanh!)

For Yahoo Style, now directed by Elle vet Joe Zee, fashionistas including hairstylist Harry Josh and models Natane Boudreau and Kiara Kabukuru told me why so many style folks are getting deeply into meditation. It’s helping them find peace and groundedness in a crazed, fast-moving business…and it might even be helping them become nicer people! 

For The New York Times, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with actors John Lithgow and Alfred Molina to talk to them about playing a longtime gay married couple forced to live apart in Ira Sachs’ wonderful new film Love is Strange. I was taken by surprise at the end of the interview, in a way that reflected the film’s inevitably tear-inducing conclusion. 

For this July 2014 cover story for New York magazine, I talked to dozens of gay men of all ages and races about whether Truvada, the first pill approved to prevent HIV infection, would change their feelings about sex and intimacy. This is quite a frank and also very moving story if I don’t say so myself, so brace yourself!