Music
BERBER BANJOS AND GNAWA TOADS: Searching for the Sounds of Marrakech
By Kurt GottschalkThere are certain things we expect of common spaces, reliable markers to help us move through the public sphere. If were at a shopping mall, we expect signs telling us where the exits are.
BAM Agonistes
By George GrellaIn the mid-1980s, I lived on Ft. Greene Place in Brooklyn, a sketchy block in a neighborhood that mixed the grand and the rough-and-tumble.
NEWTOWN RADIO: Brooklyn's First Rock Radio Station
By Mimi LuseUntil last fall, neither Williamsburg nor Bushwick, two neighborhoods with vibrant music scenes, had rock radio stations to call their own. To what can we attribute this?
Endless Summer
By Kate SilverConey Island is beautiful in winter. Really. The boardwalk is well populated by elderly Russians pickling in the sun, surly teenagers, and tourists anxious for an off-season taste of Nathans Famous (no lines!).
Outtakes
By Steve DalachinskyWeve lost a lot of music-related folks over the past few months: writer Harvey Pekar, saxophonist Fred Anderson, Dutch bandleader Willem Breuker, the great Abbey Lincoln, and composer, trumpeter, and friend Bill Dixon.
Persuasive Percussion
By Julie KocsisWhen I was in the eighth grade, my music class consisted of singing off-pitch choral exercises and learning to play Hot Cross Buns on the ear-piercing recorder.