
If you’re in Manhattan, there’s no better place to go for a sugar hit on a balmy, sticky night. From caramel marshmallow sundaes to chocolate peanut butter malted shakes, Lula’s Sweet Apothecary beckons you in with a saccharine finger. There are all your childhood favorites & flavors: hot fudge sauce, tantalizing maraschino cherries, & chocolate or rainbow sprinkles, but the best thing? Lula’s fare is completely vegan. The entire joint is animal-free, right down to their non-gelatin gummy bears & coconut whipped cream.
Monthly Archives: June 2010
A Few of My Favorite Things Featured A Few of My Favorite Things: Reid Speed for Los Angeles
LA’s Reid Speed has been holding down bad-assery for female DJs since she began her career in 1996, just shy of graduating high school. Known not only for her extensive drum & bass background – she cut her teeth working at DJ Dara’s Breakbeat Science shop – but for electro, fidget and dubstep, Reid is one DJ that makes the word mashup sound good. Between running her label Play Me Records, extensive touring and her own production, LA’s leading lady found the time to share a few of her favorite local spots with us.
1. Best Place to have a drink watching the sunset:
Music Mike Posner IS Cooler Than Me
Mike Posner is one cool dude. He’s young, he’s talented, and he’s touring around the country playing clubs and festivals. Cooler Than Me should definitely be on your summer play list. Although he’s been lucky catching the right ears at the best possible time of his career, he remains humble and dedicated. I like that in a prodigy. Keep making straight hits young man…carry on!
Moody Mondays Moody Mondays: Chapel Club
Every week, China Shop asks persons of interest one question: Pick a mood and 5 songs that put you into that mood?
This week’s list from UK Chaps “Chapel Club” will warm you up from the inside out. Do yourself a favor and savor the flavor of their sensitive selections.
Mood: Loving
Gallery Music Portrait of A Movement :: Detroit 2010
The spirit of a movement lies in the hearts, and in this case the costumes, of its people. We say goodbye to this year’s Movement Electronic Music Festival with a look at the crazy characters who made it special.
Music A Conversation with Detroit’s Finest :: Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat, Slum Villages’ Elzhi and Will Sessions’ Sam Beaubien
Throughout the weekend, the Red Bull Music Academy brought a variety of polarizing acts into Movement 2010’s growing spotlight. On Sunday evening, as the heat subsided and the Detroit River sat calm and picturesque to the south of the stage, local emcees Guilty Simpson and Phat Kat took to the stage with 8-piece funk group Will Sessions (think Detroit’s Dap Kings) to rock the mic and rock the crowd. Running through a catalog of music — from Guilty Simpson’s recently released full-length OJ Simpson (produced by Madlib) to Phat Kat’s legendary hip-hop album Carte Blanche (including a guest cameo on “Cold Steel” by Slum Villages’ Elzhi) along a selection of classic cuts from legendary producer J Dilla — the two emcees set out to translate their rhymes from written lyric to live, fluid poetry while Will Sessions brought recorded sounds live to the stage. It didn’t take long for those unfamiliar in the crowd to wave their hands on command nor did it take long for Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat, Elzhi and Will Sessions’ Sam Beaubien to dish on the experience of performing together on one stage and the state of Detroit hip-hop while relaxing post-show in the Red Bull Lounge.
Gallery Music Mr. Scruff :: You Can’t Force A Dance Party
As Mr. Scruff frantically packs up his gear backstage (as frantically as one can pack their gear with a Budweiser in one hand), my mind wanders around the universe for questions to ask when my time to shine finally arrives.
“Why is a guy who professionally brews his own tea and adores ale drinking a Budweiser?” I wonder. “Is Budweiser available overseas? Is Budweiser considered a delicacy for dudes from the UK?”
“His beard doesn’t seem the least bit unruly,” I observe. “In fact, it’s barely there. Where is the hair on his body that helped give him the stage name of Mr. Scruff? Do I really want to know?”
“Did this dude really manage to fit ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ by Aretha Franklin into his set?” I asked aloud to myself (my brain was overheating from all the introspective questioning).
Music Brian Gillespie, Martyn and Francesco Tristano :: Wunderkind Unite at Movement 2010
For the past twenty years, Brian Gillespie has sat behind the decks serving up an educated selection of deep, melodic techno, funk and obscure jazz alongside his signature ghetto-tech blend to the Detroit scene. As part of the deejay duo Starski & Clutch (Gillespie as Starski, DJ and producer Todd Osborn as Clutch), has expanded his brand to a fresh audience after an eclectic set on the Red Bull Music Academy stage last Sunday afternoon. But as a representative for the Red Bull Music Academy in Detroit, many don’t realize that the same determination Gillespie puts into searching for records, he also piles into “helping give young, local talent the resources to [experience] the same exposure in a year that would normally take five, 10, 15 years.” Beginning in Berlin in 1998, The Red Bull Music Academy is built to cater to and foster budding talent. While burgeoning musicians, deejays, singers and producers attend, waves of established and often legendary artists come to visit and educate — think ?uestlove, Madlib, Melvin van Peebles, Chuck D, Carl Craig, Caribou and many more. Held at a mixture of exotic locations around the globe, the Red Bull Music Academy is an opportunity for young talent to get lost within their craft, to hone their skills live and begin building a name through one of the most accomplished music programs to date. But the reach doesn’t end there.
Music Ghostland Observatory :: Lazers, Lights, Action!
“Sometimes, there aren’t a lot of people” at the show, explains Thomas Turner, the caped crusader behind the menacing electro-pop and rock of Ghostland Observatory, “but those people go off and tell their friends and it just keeps growing, you know?” As Austin, Texas-based Ghostland Observatory closed the Red Bull Music Academy on Sunday night, the word had spread to Movement 2010. Over 3,000-plus rabid festivalgoers refreshed themselves in the waves of guitar and synths working together to redefine just what “electronic music” means at the start of a new decade. Fueled by the classic rock theatrics of a laser lightshow and a barrage of smoke, lead singer Aaron Behrens brought his fierce, unfiltered energy to the Red Bull Music Academy stage (especially apparent on the duo’s raw cover of Prince’s “Darling Nikki”), turning the DJ decks into his own private catwalk. Meanwhile, Turner was lost in the fog manipulating an array of knobs and synths. “We’re never the average rock band,” laughs Thomas when asked how it felt to be performing at an electronic music festival built around mostly understated electronic deejays. “We always stick out like sore thumbs everywhere we go. After a while, people either get it or they don’t. Obviously, the people who do get it end up having a really good time.”
Music Richie Hawtin is Plastikman
From the time the gates opened at Hart Plaza, ushering in a single-day record attendance of 35,000-plus patrons, anticipation filled the festival grounds. Perhaps it was raw excitement for the weekend ahead — dozens upon dozens of international electronic musicians from all genres were represented and ready to take the stage at Movement 2010. Perhaps it was the smell of carnie-style corndogs simply upsetting stomachs. Perhaps it was the idea that even as Detroit’s economic woes plagued the city’s day-to-day existence, Memorial Day weekend was going to be blessed with something that actually worked for once. In the end, it was all those reasons plus one more. After taking a year off, Richie Hawtin was returning to Movement and bringing his alter ego back to the stage for the first time in six years. The reason behind the crowd’s collective eagerness was unveiled — Plastikman was set to close the festival that very night.












