Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Gil Scott Heron, Hookah Bans, La Birreria and Why Kids Drink



Nightlife News for June 1, 2011
Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

Prince of the City
Yelp

I’ve recently started developing a list of reviews on the popular venue site. Take a look at my new listings for Les Enfants, Pravda, SubMercer and assorted SoHo venues. Let me know what you think…

Liquor as a Rite of Passage
There is a direct relationship between the rules for drinking and people’s relationship to alcohol. Until we understand and deal with that relationship, we can’t deal with underage drinking on any meaningful level.

The Private Lounge
My new residency at one of Esquire’s top clubs of the year. Stop by tonight to experience a unique blend of music and spirits created to help you look forward to Wednesdays.

Culture
DJ Qu
The Village Voice sat down with a DJ who has seen the evolution of the house scene from Zanzibar to Limelight to the House Dance Conference. His interview reveals a strong connection between West Indian and urban dance culture. It also hints at a tradition that has developed over the past 30 years not just for DJs, but for music, dancing and technology in general.

Gil Scott Heron
While he never took any credit for his influence on hip hop, Gil Scott Heron is recognized by many successful artists as the person who took spoken word, urban anger and music and combined them into a new form of expression. While drugs and overconsumption crippled him for several years, Heron had recently released an album and return from a European tour when he died last Friday. Anyone who listens to funk, hip hop or neo-soul today has heard Heron’s influence in the samples and lyrics of the artists who came after him.

Business
Is hookah the target of the next smoking ban?
Now that New York and several other cities have banned smoking in restaurants, bars, parks, beaches and other public areas, it appears that hookah might be on the radar of the anti-smoking lobby. Unlike most smoking, hookah is allowed indoors in New York City under for an exemption for “tobacco specialty shops.” This is one of the reasons that hookah bars came into prominence in the Lower East Side in the days after normal smoking was banned in local bars. While the health information contained in the report is accurate, it is not coincidental that this report comes out a week after the park ban on smoking went into effect…

New Venues
La Birreria
Eataly opens a rooftop beer garden on the top of its Chelsea venue

Have fun.
G

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