Jamaica

Royal Thunder's MLNY Parsons Kicks Ass, Drives A Haunted Van

Back in November at Saint Vitus, we were enchanted by Atlanta rock/metal band Royal Thunder (who play the Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight). After their set, we asked lead singer and bass player MLNY Parsons to chat with us. It was cold outside and loud inside the bar, so she invited us to sit in ... More >>

5 Best Things To Eat at 4Knots

The caprese salad at Acqua is perfect summer fare, and only steps from the 4Knots Music Festival. [See More 5 Favorites: 5 Cooling Dishes to Beat the Heat | Best Cheap Eats on Eldridge Street] Tomorrow the second annual 4Knots Music Festival cranks up at the South Street Seaport, with an afterpar ... More >>

"Ertra, Ertra, Ertra" And The Problems With Patriotism Performed At A Shrill, Unpleasant Register

THE SONG: "Ertra, Ertra, Ertra." THE YEAR: 1993. THE REASON: Unbearably shrill second half; ruined all Uncanny X-Men back issues featuring Siryn and/or Banshee. To write that the Eritrean national anthem sounds as though the Horn of Africa has severed ties with its mainland and receded into the Re ... More >>

Chris Isaak

Live: Jimmy Cliff Reclaims His Porkpie Crown At Miss Lily's

by Vivien Goldman Jimmy Cliff with Pat McKay Miss Lily's Variety Monday, November 28 Better than: Anywhere else in the world. "I can't believe it! My first night in New York and I'm getting to see Jimmy Cliff! In a tiny place like this!" The gobsmacked girl reggae journalist over from London had ... More >>

Times Writer Gets A Book Out of His Firing

​In 2009, Mike Albo was famously let go from his travel column gig at the New York Times after it came out that he'd gone on a free trip to Jamaica. In his new book, The Junket, Albo changes some of the names but sticks to his story of what it was like to be demonized, mocked, and sent on a f ... More >>

The Obamas Gave the Cameron Kids Scooters and a Bo Stuffed Animal

Double the Bo.​Despite the media focusing on any number of alleged "gaffes" on the part of President Obama (awkward toast, a car getting stuck, etc.), the Obamas have been quite etiquette-appropriate in terms of giving presents to their hosts. The following items have been given, according to ... More >>

Jerry Lawson, Inventor of the Video Game Cartridge, Dead at 70

​Remember when video games used to come in cartridges? Everyone born in the '80s or early '90s remembers the satisfying click of putting their favorite game into their NES, Super Nintendo or Nintendo 64. Everyone remembers going to their one rich friend's house and seeing his jumbled crate of ... More >>

Why Doesn't New York City Sell the World's Best Ice Cream Flavor?

WikipediaThe real breakfast of champions​New York City is truly an ice cream wasteland. And not just because Late Night Snack is ridiculously difficult to find here. This city is devoid of the world's best ice cream flavor--Grape Nuts. Yes, the cereal itself might evoke breakfasts of blandn ... More >>

Dwayne Houghton, Shot to Death New Year's Day in Queens; Cops Hunt Suspect

Wanted: Carrie Dixon​Cops are searching for Carrie Dixon, 25, a suspect in a homicide around 5:30 a.m. on New Year's Day in the area of Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Park in Queens. Dead is Dwayne Haughton, 29. Cops heard shots and found Haughton on the ground at 127th Street and 94th Avenue with gunshot ... More >>

NYPD Releases Video of Suspect in Queens Homicide

Police have released surveillance video in the October 11 homicide of Tony McFadden, 26, of 177-53 119th Road, Queens. McFadden was shot once in the head outside of his door and pronounced DOA at Jamaica Hospital. The suspect, in the video, is described as 20-23 years old, 5'8", and 180 pounds. An ... More >>

R.I.P. Ari Up of the Slits

​"Wild and crazy, like an animal let loose, but an innocent little girl with it too" is how Ari Up would later recall her 15-year-old, dreadlocked, Slits-fronting self, telling Simon Reynolds: "It wasn't to shock anyone." But shock people it did. The Slits began playing their inept, dub-damage ... More >>

The LIRR's "Average People" Problems Will Not Bother Hamptons-Goers

​While the electrical fire at an LIRR switching station on Monday has continued to mean delays for commuters, those heading out to the Hamptons will apparently be blissfully impervious to such pedestrian difficulties. The Cannonball trains to Montauk (with stops in the Hamptons) are running as ... More >>

Charting The Rise Of "Hold Yuh," Gyptian's Inescapable, NYC-Driven Dancehall Summer Anthem

"When I played it for him, he said, 'Go back to that, what a ping ping ting?'"​Whether you know it by name or not, if you've stepped outside in the last several months, you've heard Gyptian's "Hold Yuh" flickering out of at least a few idling vehicles. The über-minimalist dancehall ditty's pi ... More >>

Sean Bell Case: Feds Say No Charges, End Probe

Sean Bell and fiance Nicole Paultre Bell.The federal government says it won't charge anyone and is ending its investigation into the death of Sean Bell, who was killed in November 2006 by NYPD cops the night before his wedding in a barrage of bullets outside a Queens nightclub. The investigation is ... More >>

Clip Job: The Second Annual Village Voice Film Poll (Bonus: The First Poll, Too!)

Julie Christie in 'Darling'​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. February 10, 1966, Vol. XI, No. 17 Films By Andrew Sarris The Second Annual Village Voice Readers' 10-best poll, held this year in conjunction with my Films in Focus program on WBAI, received entries from a ... More >>

Live: DJs Cavort With DJs At Plan B

​ Puja PatelToddla T (above) begets some obnoxious dancing (below)​Once a month (every third Tuesday, to be precise), the East Village's Plan B hosts a nameless party that could very well be the best Tuesday-night-out around. Publicity is a word-of-mouth affair--lots of DJs re-Tweeting D ... More >>

A Rough Guide to the Irie Jamboree

Who to watch for at the Queens reggae blowout, and why

Cheek, in Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

"As Christians we are sorry if you have ever felt pushed away from Church or ever felt like you didn't fit in. That was people, not Jesus." -- message handed out by members of the Awakening Church at Union Square station. Tea parties were all the rage -- literally! We read the tea leaves and att ... More >>

Pix from the Extreme Pupusa Run

This week, Counter Culture documents an extreme pupusa run in extremely cold weather. The objective was to eat pupusas (delicious stuffed masa pancakes) in all six of downtown Jamaica's pupuserias. Read the story here, and see our photo documentation below. First stop Dona Mari (aka Dona Maria, ... More >>

Ricardo Montalban, 1920-2009

Ricardo Montalban, who died today at his Los Angeles home, started out as a sort of ethnic utility man in Hollywood, playing not only a variety of South and Central American characters but also Asians and Native Americans. (He is shown here receiving an award in 1993 from Anthony Quinn, who knew ho ... More >>

The Quarterly Report: Status Ain't Hood's Favorite New Albums

The Mother of Tears: Dario Argento Clowns Himself

The Italian master caps off his horror trilogy with horrific parody

Melting the City Council Slush Funds

Pucker Up Turns 200!

Celebrating a gala anniversary with a look back at a near decade of debauchery

New African/Jamaican Comes to Clinton Hill

Mavado's Gangsta for Life: The Symphony of David Brooks

A fiery Jamaican upstart as schizophrenic and dangerous as his hometown

Top Chef, Caribbean Edition

Where Is the Rage Over Sean Bell?

Dancehall's Humble Origins Finally Shake Off Their Humility

Download: Desmond Dekker, 1941-2006

Wifeys vs. Mateys

One Jamaican diva's confused quest for gender equality, flat-screen TVs

Aggressively Adorned

The search for this season's hottest (and largest) jewelry

Raw Deals

The Voice's James Ridgeway reveals who controls what

Gates of Zion

Mixing up the medicine and thinking about the government

Gandalf Gets Swivey on the Wheels

Cool out, it's only Ringo and his three friends, doing the same stuff they've always done

A thunderous retrospective for a reggae storyteller

Close-Up on Crown Heights

Giving Good Gift

Presenting 'The Body'

From Berlin and Rochester, Dissection and Homage

Trash Drive

Cuba Libre

Art and Contradiction at the Havana Bienal

Music

African Connection II

Baby Blue

Uno Step Beyond

Consumer Guide

Island Hopping

Roadhouse Scholar

But Then Again, Who Says It Should?