A lifelong lover of chocolate, Yael Rose is as happy sipping a cup of hot chocolate as she is nibbling sea-salted caramel or cocoa nibs. “To be honest, I think it’s an addiction,” she said. “There’s something about the smell and colors of chocolate I simply can’t resist every single time.” Ms. Rose has...
AS THE music industry searches for new voices and talent, entrepreneurs are pinning their hopes on emerging African artists both from the continent and the diaspora. Africa Unsigned is an Amsterdam-based start-up music label founded by Pim Betist that promotes African artists. Under Mr Betist’s watch, Africa Unsigned has invested €525,000 (about $725,000) in...
Promotional fliers for rock shows typically end up in the trash. But David Ensminger collects them. He’s stockpiled them for more than 30 years, documenting a Xeroxed history of punk gatherings, an anthropologist of punk rock’s printed images and text. The do-it-yourself tradition of punk-rock fliers are just part of his new book, “Visual...
London did not make USA Today’s “10 Great Places for City Cycling” list this July. But the city did earn a top-20 mention in a more European-focused Danish report on the best bicycle-friendly cities. Combined with local efforts to promote cycling in anticipation of the upcoming 2012 Olympics, some would argue that London’s cycling...
When the Memphis design group turned up at the 1981 Milan Furniture Fair with their plastic laminated, brightly colored and highly patterned furniture, the exhibition was reportedly mobbed and streets were blocked as people tried to cram into the tiny exhibition space. In an effort to explore how this and other examples of postmodernism...
Because of the million or more people who attend it, the Notting Hill Carnival, an annual celebration of Caribbean culture, can feel overwhelming to say the least. Sprawling over roughly 20 miles of West London, the carnival is often cited as one of the largest street festivals in Europe. This year’s festival takes place...
When performing live, Galactic makes playing funk music look easy. It isn’t. Delivering precise, tight funk is hard work, but this five-piece New Orleans band seems to power through their shows as if they could keep it all going endlessly. Their most recent album, “The Other Side of Midnight: Live in New Orleans”, captures...
Evan Parker, a saxophonist from Bristol, England, who helped shape the improv-heavy sound of European free jazz through the ’60s and ’70s, told an interviewer in 2003 that “you can make just as bad a mistake when you think you are doing absolutely the right thing as you can when you just make a...
When I ask my university journalism students why exactly they want to be journalists, a majority tell me it’s because they “like to write.” Considering most of them are in their 20s and grew up with the Internet, this response always surprises me. With a seemingly endless supply of emerging technology and digital storytelling...
Meet the KKK’s seamstress of hate couture. A photo essay by Anthony Karen with audio. Produced for Mother Jones Magazine.