Patti Smith
Streets of Your Town: Live shows in New York, featuring TORRES, Kurt Vile, Patti Smith, Tune-Yards
Our weekly look ahead at the live music scene. More
A 'New Yorker' Festival triptych: Patti Smith, Alison Bechdel, Salman Rushdie
“Islam at our house stopped at ‘no swine,’” Rushdie said. Once out of that house, while at Cambridge as a student, he finally broke that single rule with a ham sandwich. He was nut struck down by a thunderbolt. “That was the moment,” he deadpanned, “I realized god did not exist.” More
(2)Patti Smith offers words (not song) under the Brooklyn Bridge
The next question—about her clothing and style—elicited a more sporting response. That baggy black jacket? Made especially for her by the Belgian fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester. Smith did a little catwalk, twirled and revealed the matching vest’s backless design to cheers from the onlookers. Those rather masculine boots? Brushed, gold-flecked leather pull-on boots by Jimmy Choo. “Fashion-wise, I’m in a Hunger Games mood,” she said. “Sort of Katniss in the woods.” More
Streets of Your Town: Mingus Big Band, Patti Smith, Deer Tick, and more treats to ring in the new year
If the run-up to New Year's Eve can be fraught with expectation, it can also be a time for reflection—looking back over the course of the past year and trying to sort out what can be learned from it. That, in a way, has been the mission of the Mingus Big Band (Dec. 26, Jazz Standard) since the jazz giant's widow, Sue, founded the group in 1991. More
From Patti, with love: The Church of Smith gathers at the Met to honor O'Keeffe and Stieglitz
Smith even managed to amp up the feeling of the generally laid-back evening, a foot on her monitor, and the spirit rolled her into "Gloria." I attempted to send a text message and got snapped at by the woman next to me for sinning in the church of Patti. (The audience was, atypically for any rock show, more than half women.) Still, such fervor said something about Smith's own idolatry. More
Will Hermes on how he uncovered a history of musical foment in a crumbling New York
"The triumph of rhythm is really the story that connects all these genres," Hermes told Capital. "Punk was simplifying rock to very basic rhythms. The minimalists were taking 12-tone compositions and reducing them to a pulse. Disco was all about rhythm, obviously, hip-hop, salsa, and the loft jazz scene to an extent." His book, Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, chronicles how five years of music in New York City changed American music forever. More
The Strand bestseller list, annotated: January 2011
The last time we visited The Strand’s bestseller list, it was in the heat of the summer, when tourists were crowding the air-conditioned Broadway and 11th Street mainstay, picking through the displays to find a page-turner for the flight home. More
The McNally Jackson bestseller list, annotated
If a Soho model—a lithe, long-locked creature in a poncho sweater and leggings—were to be seen reading a book in some Nolita cafe, smoking a cigarette, sipping black coffee, the book could very well be Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids. So it's not terribly surprising Smith’s charming memoir, which chronicles her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, appears at the top of this week’s bestsellers list at Prince Street’s McNally Jackson Books. More
The WORD bookstore bestseller list, annotated
Unlike Spoonbill & Sugartown, North Brooklyn's other independent bookstore, the place called WORD is a hike from the L train stop at Bedford Avenue and North 7th Street, the beating heart of Williamsburg. It's in a quiet corner of Greenpoint among furniture stores and small restaurants, so the clientele is strictly local. More
