Mecca

Five NYC Rappers Who Deserve To Be In XXL's 2013 Freshman Class Issue

XXL magazine revealed their annual freshmen list today. Among the10 picks for future rap fame (plus a boxed-out bonus picture of Chief Keef's head), New York City is represented by the monolithic Action Bronson, Pro Era leader Joey Bada$$ and Angel Haze. In the interest of municipal pride then, here ... More >>

Detroit '67

Rap Songs That Sample Shuggie Otis

Cult funkateer Shuggie Otis plays the Highline tonight. Despite his talent as a multi-instrumentalist and savvy singer-songwriter, Otis's career never quite went mainstream back in the '70s, but his legacy has been well served thanks to a judiciously reissued back catalogue and a series of rap types ... More >>

Sunday Funnies: LRH Gets an Answer from Tricky Dick!

We've shuffled up our schedule a bit here in the underground bunker -- it was either that, or the cats would be dining on our corpse with the klaxons going off for weeks before we were discovered. Now that things are a bit more relaxed, we can take in the past week with a Sunday morning warm beverag ... More >>

Scientology Greenery: Commenters of the Week!

Note: We'll have a special St. Patrick's Day report at 1pm this afternoon. Please come back for that after you check out these comments of the week! We went to Mecca and back this week -- Scientology's Mecca that is, the town of Clearwater, Florida to celebrate L. Ron Hubbard's 101st birthday. And ... More >>

Download: Christopher Paul Stelling's Pastoral "Solar Flares"

Christopher Paul Stelling is a gifted Brookyn songwriter walking an austere, somber, gloriously pastoral line between William Elliott Whitmore-style indie-blues and the ever-emerging new breed of fleet-fingered Faheyesque fingerpicking. Every song on his debut album Songs of Praise and Scorn (just o ... More >>

The Road to Mecca: Karoo for You

Rosemary Harris stars in the Roundabout's Fugard revival

BREAKING GROUND

Celebrating new films from South Asia

Zagat Doesn't Think New York Makes the Best Bagels and Pizza. They're Obviously Wrong.

Village Voice​The supremacy of the New York City bagel has been disputed as of late, with many people believing that Montreal is the bagel capital of the world. Um, hello, Montreal bagels are flimsy and always in need of salt. And now Zagat is positing that New York City might also no longer ... More >>

This Town Isn't Big Enough For Two Frozen Hot Chocolates

Dunkin DonutsFor when you don't want to pay $8.95 for a chocolate drink​Frozen hot chocolate, Serendipity 3's claim to fame (though there, it's spelled Frrrozen, because, it's, like, extra cold) is suddenly at the middle of a controversy now that Dunkin Donuts has come up with a frozen hot cho ... More >>

Tomorrow: Our 10 Best Bushwick Restaurants

​Will this humble taqueria, right off Maria Hernandez Park, make the cut? Convenient to the L, J, and M trains, Bushwick is gradually developing as a dining destination. Tomorrow, we explore its manifold possibilities in Our 10 Best Bushwick Restaurants. But is it merely an eastward extensio ... More >>

Yi Lan Halal Restaurant--on the Lamb in Flushing

We sneak out for some Muslim Chinese

Q&A: Singer Angela "Mecca" Scott, Star Of Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, On Working With Jay, Big L, And A Real Housewife Of Atlanta

"I was before my time, as the record labels would say." ​At 17, Angela "Mecca" Scott was beckoned by producer Ski Beatz to fly from her Virginia home up to New York City to sing on a track for an up-and-coming Brooklyn rapper named Jay-Z. Over a beat based around a sample from jazz pianist Ah ... More >>

Food Truck Discrimination on the Upper East Side?

prjctns.wordpress.comThings aren't looking too sweet for food trucks​ There's a rumble in the streets of the Upper East Side, and residents are saying they don't want any food trucks in their hood.

Junk Food Is Popular? Shocker!

healthnative.comSo tasty​ The New York Times is at the forefront of trends once again (err, not) with an article that notes--gasp--that junk food restaurants are popular on Capitol Hill.

Happy Eid al-Adha! A Guide to Where Not to Buy Halal Meat (NSFV - Not Suitable for Vegetarians)

Keeping an eye on Eid ul-Fitr​Happy Eid ul-Fitr Eid al-Adha! Last night marked the beginning of Eid, the three day festival celebrating the end of the Ramadan month of fasting in the Muslim world celebrating the end of Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca. We stopped by our local halal market last night ... More >>

MAKE SOME NOISE

A 12-hour workout for your ears

Open & Closed: Say Hello to Traif; Goodbye to Bushwick's Market Hotel

Restaurants, they come and they go. Here are a few making their debuts and taking their leaves this week. The Market Hotel, a music hall in Bushwick, has been shut down for operating without a license. Promoter Todd Patrick hopes to relocate his events to Monster Island, off Kent Avenue. [Brooklyn ... More >>

Ma Peche Stalking; Montreal Food Invasion

This week in food blogs... Eater continued its plywood stalking of Ma Peche, now readying for a mid-April opening. Grub Street found a wienermobile for sale on Craigslist for $12,900. Diner's Journal learned that Colicchio & Sons, which went from prix-fixe to a la carte, is now doing a ton of bus ... More >>

Noruz and the Feasts of Iranian New Year

Jennifer MartineAsh-e-reshteh​ Long after most of us are done with the holiday season, in Iran they're busy celebrating the New Year, Persian-style. Around the spring equinox, March 20 this year, marks Noruz (also spelled Norooz or Now-Ruz) and the time to cleanse body, mind, and property of l ... More >>

Is the Baby Loves Disco Party Finished In New York City?

​I was bummed to hear that Baby Loves Disco, the infant-friendly dance-party empire run by Heather Murphy and Andy Hurwitz, will be slowing down considerably. I myself don't have a baby, but these toddler-themed events have gone so far beyond your typical hipster-parent cliches that you can't ... More >>

The Top 10 Records Sold This Month at Fat Beats on Sixth Avenue

In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that sold in the last week at a store near you. Fat Beats photo via t ... More >>

Mr. Cutlets Likes DBGB, But Where's the Sausage Porn?

Ok, likes is an understatement. The Feedbag lurves the newly opened DBGB, declaring it a sausage Mecca. ("The DiFara of sausage," no less.) But where's the sausage porn--or the burger porn--for that matter, Mr. Cutlets? Not being professional food pornographers, we have only these humble snackshot ... More >>

Free Will Astrology: May 6 through 12

"A Splendid Prolongation": Studies in Crap Visits Mallorca, the Land of the Gilded Run-On

Your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from  basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power. Mallorca: English Edition Author: Antonion Campana and Juan Puig-Ferran Publisher: Postales Color ... More >>

Rightbloggers Angry Iowa is Making Them Get Gay-Married

Gay people are supposed to know about show tunes, so they'll understand when we say: There's nothing halfway about the Iowa way to treat you. The Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously said a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. New York and California have not done so much for the cause of mar ... More >>

What's for Dinner?

What's For Dinner? In which we ask random New Yorkers about their food lives.Names: David and Miok.Occupations: Editor and Financial Analyst, respectively.Location: Brooklyn Trader Joe's. Live: Married with two kids in Park Slope.What are you planning to do for dinner?David: Beet salad with arugula ... More >>

Clip Job: Where the 'Hipnicks' Live

Public Vulgarity and Claire Danes

And other whore stories in post-crackdown clubs. Then, suddenly, a Pygmalion-like transformation.

Free Will Astrology

The Day After

No news is bad news in another 9/11 play

Paola's Little Sister is Huge!

Fat Tuesday: Yakitori Totto Edition

Festival Frenzy

Try a little of everything at fall dance smorgasbords

Pearl of the Antilles

The elephant in Guantanamo's living room gets 4,200 calories a day and a Koran

The Cartoons Conspiracy

The story behind the story of the furor over the Muhammad cartoons

The Birth of the 'Voice': 1955–1965

From the Beats to Civil Rights, Lenny Bruce to Warhol's Factory . . .

'Run, Beatniks, Run!' To Mecca, 1960

Hipniks: Where Do They Bed-Down When the Sun Comes Up

In This World

Rappers in Cuba, pilgrims in Mecca, killer fish in Tanzania, James Carville in Bolivia

Backed by a Jazz Quintet, Tap Master Is as Big as All Outdoors

Machine Age

Quadruple-Nerd Score: Scrabble Nuts' National Smackdown

Act Up

Pushing the modernist ideal further than it could go

Horoscope

Palestine 101

A Short Take on a Long History

Listings

Playing Through

Achieving Par and Other Goals at the Eastern Amputee Golf Association Tournament

Beats Below the Street

Bother From Another Planet

Aliens Invade New York