The 1865 is realer than most of your fave Punk bands right now — and they’re performing live tomorrow at Lincoln Center

and The Don’t Tread on We! album remains ‘essential’ … Birthright Punk Rock is never apologetic, nor written for digital real estate. It speaks truth to discomfort. Yes, and to power. It’s the kind of music that can make you lose social media friends, if done right. Which means The 1865’s debut album, Don’t Tread […]

Amazon’s pullout and New Yorker’s confusion about economic growth

My response — after laughing — when I heard Amazon is pulling out of that sweet deal to set up a second headquarters in New York City was short, but loaded with meaning. “Jeff Bezos must’ve thought he was playing with Independence, Iowa.” Or some other small town. But even those places are pushing back […]

Remembering David Mancuso, Loft Lord

When placed in chains, they created spirituals that gave birth to much of the music you hear today. Gave them tough, green leaves — long thought to be degenerative cabbage shoots — and the resulting simmered collard greens they made have graced the menus of countless restaurants. Shut their writers out of the mainstream publishing […]

Remembering David Mancuso, Loft Lord

SCHOOL SEGREGATION — NYC STYLE

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not fooled — not even for a minute. And if some of you didn’t shut down your MLK studies immediately after reading his “I Have a Dream” speech, you wouldn’t be so surprised that members of the White/Liberal/Hipster/Wall Street/Creative/Techie class in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, New York have […]

BLIZZARD BREAD-CHASERS

This is a summary of conversations I had today with a bunch of people about my response to NYC’s Snowmageddon: They: Did you go shopping for the blizzard? Me: Nah. They: Why not? It’s supposed to be a serious storm. Me: I buy food every week, and have a pantry that’s probably good for two months. Why […]

ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE BLACK ONES WITH THE BRICKS

The Broken Windows paradigm of law enforcement – or more specifically, the policing strategy of stopping or arresting perpetrators of minor, quality-of-life crimes to prevent more serious offenses from occurring – received a big endorsement from most New Yorkers inclusive of the Black community, thanks to a recent Quinnipiac survey of attitudes about the […]

STOP AND FRISK COMES TO BARNEYS

I’m not surprised to hear about the New York City Police Department extending its stop-n-frisk behavior to upscale joints like Barneys when they falsely arrested 19-year old African American Trayon Christian, after he legally bought a $350 Ferragamo belt from the retailer. But since we now know the NYPD “periodically” visits Barneys to nab credit […]

WHO DIGS POOR FOLKS ANYWAY?

This quote by Democratic strategist Howard Wolfson during an interview with The Atlantic confirms for me why electing a Liberal like Bill De Blasio to be Mayor of New York City will not mean the magical disappearance of income inequality, and also serves as a reminder of why I don’t have a party […]

HUNTED

A Black man’s experience with racist police practices and racial violence Add a new rule to the List of Things a Brother Must Never Do to Avoid Being Profiled as a Criminal or Shot Like Trayvon Martin — don’t do pull ups on building scaffolds after dark. True story … It was past 10 o’clock […]