Indie Vibes & World Tribes: music, film, travel and...

Is the new celebrity-studded 'Tidal' subscription music service, supported by the likes of Jay Z, Madonna, Beyonce and music...

Los Texmaniacs Music festivals are one of my favorite things in the entire world, 'world' music especially, music originatin...

I guess I’m a sucker for spectacle.   I’ve been known to watch the Olympics opening ceremonies (just leave out the smoke machines, please),...

It had to happen sooner or later, of course, that the summer would end, and that life would resume its typical humdrum course of ‘norma...

It is the best of times; it is the worst of times.   It is Rome before the Fall.   It is the last cabaret in Berlin .   The Emperor sip...

Did you know that Peru had Africans?  If you’ve heard (of) Susana Baca, then you did; or should, anyway.  They’ve been there since the...

If you saw the movie “La Bamba” many years ago, and hopefully paid attention to the Los Lobos soundtrack, then you know there’s a folk ve...

How’s this global warming working out for you?   If it gets any hotter, I might have to go buy some beachfront property in Point Barrow,...

“Hendrix of the Desert:” don’t you just love that name they try to hang on Vieux Farka Toure’, son of Ali, son of Ishmael and Mariam?  Ye...

The last thing I had in mind when I left my apartment last Saturday was to receive some musical epiphany at LA’s   MacArthur   Park… yes...

Have you ever noticed that the best travel writers never really considered themselves as such?  Look at anybody’s list of favorites ...

  My glorious career as a music promoter lasted a total of one band (I count time in personalities, not days-months-years).  ...

Primero, Segundo, Tercero, Cuarto, Quinto, and… and… Sixto, ahhhh…  And the sixth time was a charm (not that the first five weren’t)...

It’s horrible, of course, the war currently going on in Mali, the desecration of Sufi shrines in Timbuktu, and the disruption of...

Traveling through space is geography.   Traveling through time is history.   I just finished reading the Travels of Marco Polo and ...

It is the best of times; it is the worst of times.   We make love to our iPhones and our egos, while begrudging food...

I’ve often speculated that our golden age—like many others before it—must sooner or later be followed by a corresponding dark age o...

A couple weeks ago I was listening to KPFK and their special guest was Manuel Agujetas, the flamenco master vocalist.  The occasion was ...

If music reviewers had to be certifiably impartial judges in order to air their opinions in these not-so-hallowed nets and webs of intri...