Down a Harlem side lane off 146th Street you’ll discover a divine diversion. At the Greater Hood Memorial AME Zion Church, hip-hop legend turned Reverend Kurtis Blow and a group of young rappers bring alternative worship to the ’hood.
The Rev requests that, as a sign of respect, do-rags and hats are not to be worn. There’s a shuffle as a hundred scraps of material are removed from their owners’ heads. As one, the congregation praises His name and a beat played at mega-decibels starts heads bobbing. Blow paces in front of his flock and begins to big Him up, rapping about how God changes people’s lives.
A wailing parishioner falls trembling to his knees, testifying his sins. When the hallelujahs and praise-be-to-heavens are done, the convert cries out, confessing even more wrong-doings. The transgressor, it seems, is having a good time unburdening himself of his bad deeds, and at each new shortcoming the congregation cries out in unison, praising God’s precious name. Each time the testimony gets particularly juicy a silence falls as the flock soaks up the newest offence. “Hear thy humble servant’s words,” the Rev pleads to the ceiling. Animated, he continues, spinning a holy rap to his gathering and working them into a dancing frenzy.
This unconventional approach to soul saving is hugely entertaining. To some it may seem somewhat bizarre, but the spirit of camaraderie, the urban street sounds and the unconditional bonding are real.
So many tourists to New York have a view of the metropolis heavily influenced by the settings of TV shows – Sex and the City, Law & Order – they never think to venture further than that narrow rectangle of Manhattan bordered by Times Square and Central Park. Head north, though, and you’ll discover a complex, colourful inner-city neighbourhood. Harlem has left faded bohemian seediness behind and blossomed to, once again, become a centre of culture.
Feeling cleansed of spirit I take a walk towards the jazz district. En route businesses have been spontaneously set up on footpaths outside homes. Whole families accompany them, having moved their sofas to the curb in order to better watch the world pass by.
On a street lined with pimped-out saloon cars, four beautiful women dressed in tight skirts shine an already gleaming vehicle. Its owner, relaxed in his curbside chair, approves of their work. From behind him a bear of a man slowly shambles towards me. His bleak expression suggests someone soured by the burdens of life. I fix him with the most respectful grovelling look I can muster and enquire if I can take a few photographs for a magazine. Time hangs like cobwebs in the air; I can see the questioning in his eyes then, suddenly, they sparkle and he signals to the man in the chair to join him on the bonnet of the newly polished car. “D’ya see dis?” he wheezes at one of the women. “My boy here and me, we’re gonna be famous, I tell ya.” Later he positions himself in a chair and poses again, arching an eyebrow at the camera.
At the Big Apple Jazz bar I meet Bill Hill, a New York sporting legend, and his sidekick Rob. They are sitting outside on the footpath, either side of a small table, swapping yarns about the good old days. Blues music spills out around them, its lazy rhythm demanding immediate attention. Bill’s eyes shine with excitement as he relays memories of Harlem in the twentieth century and how it has experienced a social and economic gentrification. A police cruiser slides by, a wave of acknowledgement exchanged.
The early 1920s saw the beginning of Harlem’s renaissance. Back then, the junction of 7th Avenue and 131st Street harboured the Shuffle Inn and later Connie’s Inn. It was in this building Florence Mills, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson and Eubie Blake entertained audiences from around the world. The 1930s and 40s then brought some of the world’s biggest musical legends. This was the era Harlem became the epicentre of the jazz world. Venues like the Cotton Club and Apollo Theater made stars out of entertainers such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald, then in the ensuing years James Brown, Michael Jackson, D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill. While the Cotton Club closed its doors years ago, the Apollo marquee is still lit with the names of major acts.
Today, the neighbourhood continues to shape the world’s musical and cultural landscape. Harlem’s historic district has experienced a rebirth, but the one aspect that remains constant is the music. From neighbourhood dives, small clubs in old brownstones, soul food restaurants and Art Deco clubs from its heyday, jazz can be heard throughout the district. It’s in this part of the city’s bones. Everywhere you’ll see jazz junkies nodding their heads in slow rhythmic agreement to the unhurried blues thump, because this is also where you’ll hear fresh talent destined for greatness.
Harlem is also where NYC’s provocatively potent hip-hop poets can be found teaching empowering life lessons. As a cultural phenomenon, hip-hop emerged from this neighbourhood and the Bronx in the 1970s. Around 125th Street, names like DJs Red Alert and Hollywood, Spoonie Gee and, of course, Kurtis Blow forged this new type of music from elements of other genres, playing two copies of the same record on different turntables while rapping over the beats.
Today the lyrical skills and heart-thumping rhythms of hip-hop are everywhere. It has taken the world by storm and become a cultural staple on every continent – in the United Arab Emirates, for example, brothers Salem and Abdullah Dahman, known as Illmiyah and Arableak (and collectively as Desert Heat), have given hip-hop an Arabic and Muslim sensibility.
If all you associate with hip-hop is the pimped-out cars and voluptuous women pushed by music videos, be prepared to experience the real deal on Harlem’s streets.
At a block party I meet MF Grimm. He raps about the first time he picked up a microphone as a kid, as well as the day he lost the use of his legs to gang violence. From a wheelchair, he tells of his incarceration, the rediscovery of his former self and his rise to the top of his game as a hip-hop grandmaster. His lyrics tell a gritty tale of righteous redemption. They leave no question unanswered and no apologies are made.
A visit to Harlem is a sensory experience – a vibrant fusion of music, a noisy explosion of sounds. It’s chaotic, intoxicating, raw, in your face and utterly exciting. And a completely different Manhattan scene to the one so often portrayed.
A decade ago, Downtown LA was a ghost town. The clock would hit five and its army of office workers would march back to the ’burbs. Oh, how things have changed. The seeds of renewal were sown in the 80s when a law passed allowing people to live in warehouses. Creative types began slinking back to the city centre, fostering communities fiercely protective of the area’s artistic and industrial history. Since the turn of the millennium Downtown’s population has doubled, transforming it from a place you’d never dare wander at night into a cultural hub of more than a dozen unique districts, where revellers stream between the newest bistros and bars.Books galore at The Last Bookstore.
4.30pm
Before frying your senses during a night soaked in booze, whip your brain into shape with the contents of the Last Bookstore, the world’s largest independent bookshop. Scour shelves of poetry and graphic novels or sink into an armchair and chew through a chapter on modern art. If you’re shooed away – it’s technically a shop, not a library – hide out on the second level among stalls selling art and curiosities and soak up the aroma of ageing paper wafting from 100,000 pre-loved books stored in the ‘Labyrinth Above the Last Bookstore’. Last Bookstore 453 S Spring Street lastbookstorela.com
5pm
Wander the Broadway Theater District, a strip peppered with charming but shabby Art Deco architecture and capped with Grand Central Market, an entire bacon-scented block dedicated to multiculti cuisine. The first theatres opened on South Broadway in 1910 and the district flourished as studios cranked out flicks to feed America’s love for the screen. As the twentieth century trudged on, Downtown sunk into decline, the cinemas’ curtains closed and there they sat, decaying, until the recent stream of life saw many converted into churches, swap meets and shops. When you hit the market stop for a US$3 snack from Tacos Tumbras a Thomas, or find Wexler’s Deli for the tastiest smoked salmon and pastrami in LA. Grand Central Market 317 S Broadway grandcentralmarket.com
6pm
Put Downtown in perspective with a trip to the top floor of Perch. This multi-storey affair features a French restaurant, balcony and bar on one level and a patio crowning the upper deck. Elaborate floor tiles and fairy lights twinkling on trees give the rooftop a provincial European vibe, but look past the glass barriers and the scene could not be more inner-city urban. Settle on a couch with a glass of Californian pinot noir and watch planes soar over the high-rise offices swelling around the deck. Perch 448 S Hill Street perchla.com
7pm
You’ve been up, now go down, beneath the concrete and into a 1920s boudoir where fairies dole out absinthe and black-and-white films dance on the wall. To access the Edison you first need to locate an unmarked door on a side street and clear inspection – that means no flip-flops, hoodies or torn jeans – before making the grand descent down metal stairs. A century ago the space housed a power plant, and ancient machinery still sits in place between leather armchairs, lush drapes and Art Deco fixtures. The Edison 108 W 2nd Street #101 edisondowntown.com
8pm
The streets of Downtown are a playground for bumbling TV cops and murder mysteries, so get with the theme and try your skills as detective. Two local establishments – Philippe The Original and Cole’s – opened in 1908 and each swears they gifted the city the famous French dip sandwich, consisting of tender strips of roast beef layered in a baguette and served with a dish of the juices. Both claims bear equal clout, but scour the garlic-scented dining room at Cole’s and uncover a secret worthy of attention. No, you won’t solve the who-made-it-first mystery but an unmarked door hides something even better: the Varnish. This speakeasy holds 60 at best, so put your name on the guest list, head back to the bar and slam down a pickleback (whiskey and pickle brine) while you wait. Cole’s might be bustling, but the Varnish is all sultry jazz, dark wood and apothecary bottles of elixirs. Settle into a booth and a waitress channelling Frida Kahlo will whisk cocktails and ginger beer topped with piquant cubes of crystallised ginger to your candlelit table. The Varnish Backroom of Cole’s E 6th Street
9pm
Ask a local where to eat and Bestia will spill from their lips before you’ve had time to exhale. Grab an Uber and cruise to an almost abandoned lane on the cusp of the Arts District. From the outside Bestia’s warehouse doesn’t look much chop but the interior has all the right trimmings – red brick walls, concrete floors, exposed piping and feature light globes. Hard furnishings make the joint roaring loud, but the Italian nosh is so good it’s worth a mild case of tinnitus. Order the roasted bone marrow and take pleasure in the somewhat macabre experience of scooping the rich mess from a femur cleaved in two onto a bed of handmade gnocchetti while ‘You Can Do It’ jostles the sound system. Bestia 2121 7th Place bestiala.com
10.30pm
Move over flashy cocktails, craft beer is on the rise, and where better to sample a flight of the stuff than at an Arts District brewery? Giving new purpose to a warehouse that once made wire for suspension bridges, Angel City Brewery produces a range of beers and even grows its own hops on the roof. Sure, the way they play with flavours is a purist’s nightmare, but for the rest of us a brandy-finished beer or sake-based ale tastes a treat. At one end of the establishment vats brew about 8000 barrels a year and the remainder welcomes guests to chill out as they please. Don’t be surprised to see people hanging with dogs, artists sketching, chess contests and punters lobbing beanbags at a platform in a battle of cornhole. Angel City Brewery 216 S Alameda Street angelcitybrewery.com
12am
Within stumbling distance of the brewery stands a modern take on the 1980s arcade, where reliving your youth costs only a quarter. A line marks the entrance to EightyTwo, a rotating trove of old favourites including Donkey Kong and Space Invaders. Make your gaming sesh a touch more adult with on-theme cocktails sporting names like n00b and Kill Screen, or pep up with a Wizard Mode, a mix of rye whisky, cold brew coffee and vanilla-infused black tea. When you need a break from tinny electronic tunes, head to the garden for a breather but don’t rest too long ’cause 25 cents will never again buy this much fun. EightyTwo 707 E 4th Place eightytwo.la Sausages galore at Wurstküche.
1am
Switch back to beer, but the imported kind this time. Styled as a Bavarian beer hall, Wurstküche pours 23 European beers from the tap and serves an impressive selection of snags. A cabinet at the entrance displays raw sausages waiting to be cooked to order and piled high with your choice of fried onion, sauerkraut, sweet capsicum or hot peppers. If you’ve recovered from dinner order the favourite: the Rattlesnake & Rabbit with jalapeño peppers. Totter down the corridor to the hall and plonk your rump behind a long wooden table adorned with pillars of ketchup and mustard. Wurstküche Corner 800 E 3rd Street and Traction Avenue wurstkuche.com
1.30am
LA starts powering down at 1.30am and bolting its doors soon after, but don’t throw in the towel just yet – you’re needed in Little Tokyo. On the second floor of a nondescript shopping centre, Max Karaoke keeps on going, every night of the year. Bring your own grog, stock up on salty snacks at the front counter and spend the next couple of hours serenading the city with your newfound love for DTLA. Max Karaoke 333 S Alameda St, #216 maxkaraokestudio.com
Tucked in the Funk Zone, an industrial waterfront area packed with restaurants, bars and galleries, AVA Santa Barbara is the ideal establishment to learn about the region’s famous wines. The first thing you notice stepping into the sleek tasting room is a giant chalkboard behind the bar. On it Los Angeles artist Elkpen has scrawled a map of local wineries complete with the geographical features that influence the wine.
Plonk yourself down at the long wooden table, sip a glass of Californian chardonnay and learn about the different temperatures at which grapes are harvested, the impact of microclimates and the influence of fog, smoke and the ocean. Move to pinot noir, syrah or maybe even malbec, and examine petri dishes stuck to the wall and mason jars studded with soil samples that demonstrate differing terroirs.
Some say it’s one of the most beautiful places in the States, and with good reason. Yellowstone National Park consists of almost 900,000 hectares of lakes, canyons, rivers, ranges and some pretty wild geothermal action with a generous side of grizzlies, wolves, bison and other creatures. On its eastern edge, where Montana borders Wyoming and about 50 kilometres from Old Faithful Geyser, you’ll find this glorious campsite.
You can choose from a variety of tents; take the suite option and enjoy your own indoor bathroom with freestanding tub, timber deck and wood-burning stove all in a secluded location with uninterrupted views of the landscape. During the day you can choose from a range of activities, from horse-riding to hiking, fly-fishing to mountain-biking, all of which can be organised by the hosts.
Perched above the waters of Humpy Cove on a private island near Anchorage in Alaska is a string of cool yurts. Each has its own timber deck overhanging the bay and, even if you never venture further than here, you’ll still be stunned by the surroundings. Harbour seals frolic in the cove and porpoises feed here, otters and Steller sea lions are frequent guests to the area and, during spawning season, black bears can be spotted fishing for salmon.
Each of the yurts is fully kitted out with a kitchen (although you need to bring all your food for your visit), private shower and a barbecue out on the deck. During the day, jump in a kayak and watch out for Willy, as killer whales frequent the waters year-round. You can also take out skiffs and stand-up paddleboards. Take a walk through the forests, bait a line to try and catch your dinner, go tide-pooling on the shore or take in the breathtaking scenes on a cruise.
If you’re driving up the famous 101 freeway along the central Californian coast, the landmark Madonna Inn is hard to miss, and downright impossible to pass up.
A bizarre mix of Wild West bordello, Fred Flintstone’s cave and the Playboy mansion, Madonna Inn features rooms fitted out with unique themes, including kitsch details such as mounted buffalo heads, old prairie wagons, bold animal prints and showers (and urinals) carved out of rock. Try one of the trio of merry-go-round themed rooms for a whimsical slumber that’s sure to induce sweet dreams.
Where else but Las Vegas – city of sin and excess – would you find an eating den that is such an unashamed peddler of super-sized fast food? The Heart Attack Grill is the baron of big-bastard burgers: obscenely humongous grease towers, dripping with almost 10,000 calories. You are considered a patient here, not a customer, and the wait staff (nurses) will take you through a menu that defies all sense of dietary restraint.
Choose between the Quadruple Bypass Burger and, because you’re a serious glutton, the Octuple Bypass Burger, and see if you can stomach up to 1.8 kilograms of beef. Grab a side of Flatliner Fries (cooked in pure lard) and wash it all down with a Butterfat Milkshake. Diners who weigh more than 350 pounds (159 kilograms) get unlimited free food. Finish the Quadruple Bypass Burger and you’ll receive a free ride to your car in a wheelchair, which is handy because heart attacks aren’t uncommon here.
Who says you need to be a professional parachutist to dabble in an extreme sport outlawed in many jurisdictions? In Twin Falls, Idaho, Tandem Base lets you fling yourself off the 150-metre Perrine Bridge, the Snake River sliding by below, while strapped to a trained accomplice. (Did someone say murder–suicide?) This is one heart-stopping rush and a unique opportunity to experience skydiving sans aeroplane, without the risk of being arrested.
On its website Tandem Base warns that the activity is “not safe but… can be performed safely”. If you are thinking of chickening out, know this: a 102-year-old granny took the plunge on her birthday.
By 1926, the gray wolf – thought to be a danger to man and livestock – had, for all intents and purposes, been eliminated from Yellowstone National Park. Of course, as we now know, taking out an apex predator in any ecosystem causes all kinds of problems and, as early as the 1940s, scientists and conservationists began campaigning to reintroduce the wild animals to the region. In 1967, the gray wolf was one of the first animals to be listed in the Endangered Species Preservation Act, but it wasn’t until 1995 that 14 wolves were released into Yellowstone. The latest figures from 2012 show there were at least 83 wolves living in 10 packs throughout the national park. They’re around all year, but the best time to see them is at the height of winter when it’s easy to spot their dark figures against the white backdrop and track their footprints in the snow. Take off with a naturalist into the spectacular Lamar Valley, where you can watch these majestic creatures in their natural habitat. You’re also likely to see bison, elks, coyotes and other wild animals.
You’ve been up all night, trying your luck at the tables and your eyelids are drooping. To cure all symptoms of fatigue instantly, head to SkyJump Las Vegas at the top of the Stratosphere. Standing 108 storeys (or 260 metres) above the earth, toes hanging off the edge of the ledge, your heart will be pounding faster than that of a gambling addict on a roll. This isn’t a free fall, but rather a controlled descent (a bit like a vertical zip-line). Still, you’ll reach speeds of more than 60 kilometres an hour. Be warned: if you wimp out, the folks at the SkyJump gift shop will be happy to sell your friends their famous ‘chicken’ t-shirt on your behalf.
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