Life is sweet. Once again, I was rewarded for ignoring the grim, prison-cell interior, terrible choices in photography and seeming disregard for health safety laws at Suehiro, the Heiwadai Katsu joint I wrote about a few weeks back. My wife and I found ourselves in the rare position of both being free for lunch and suggestions …
A friend of mine has lived in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn for the last five years. For that entire period, the street in front of his house has been under construction. For weeks, the construction zone will be dormant — the cones, the silent back-hoes, the dumpsters, the stacks of ceramic pipe taking up …
This Part 2 of my exploration of the conscious and roots music produced and released by Coxsone Dodd for Studio One and his other associated labels. This one begins in the early 70s, delving into some of Dodd’s more straight-forwardly “roots” sounding productions; it then moves into the rocksteady revival that occurred when Studio One …
My mother is one of the world’s greatest teachers. She taught me to drive. She taught my son how to read. She patiently showed me the basics of old-school graphic design, using Letraset, mechanical pencils, rubber cement and other such tools to lay out “book covers” for 4th grade class projects (I got an “A”!). …
Over the weekend, I received a care package from my good friend Reid, the co-owner and “jerk master” of Munchie’s Take a Lickle Taste, a stellar Jamaican restaurant in South Orange, New Jersey. Inside was a gigantic bag of Betapac Curry Powder and about a dozen packets of Grace Fish Tea mix. I quickly got to …
For those that do not know, Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One was the most important record label in the history of Jamaican music. They were the Caribbean equivalent of Detroit’s Motown Records. Initially formed as a sound system in the 1950s to promote his mother’s restaurant, Coxsone began recording his own music in the late 50s …
As you may have guessed, I come from a family obsessed with food. My wife is a chef. My sister is married to a chef and owns four wonderful Manhattan restaurants. My other sister is an extraordinary cook, especially masterful at Italian dishes. My mother instilled sound and healthy eating habits into her children, combining …
