Martin Scorsese is the executive producer of a forthcoming doc about the Dead, but it may not be released for a while. To read the story on the Press Democrat’s site, click here. BY MICHAEL SHAPIRO FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT If you happened to visit Olompali...
It’s no secret that many of the cooks making New York City’s best ethnic food didn’t grow up eating smoked salmon or corned beef sandwiches. On the upper east side I found two Chinese brothers selling fantastic sturgeon and the guys making the...
Patrick Amiot’s carousel in Sebastopol, Calif., where he built it in during late 2013 and early 2014. He recently dismantled it for shipping to a suburb of Toronto. Photo courtesy of Sonoma magazine.[/caption] I met Patrick Amiot in 2002, just after he began to...
En route to Thailand last year, I saw a short video about the Moken, a Polynesian who traditionally have drifted among the islands and coasts of Thailand and Burma. Inspired to see them, we found a group that arranged visits and provided a translator, which led to...
One thing I love about my job is that sometimes I have no idea where my day will lead. In early 2014 an editor emailed me on a chilly morning and that afternoon I was surrounded by the spirit-lifting art-filled warehouse of collector Jack Leissring. Here’s my...
By Michael Shapiro Was sad to hear about the death of folk legend Pete Seeger today – here are three stories you won’t read in his obits. 1. Decades ago, Warren Hellman, then a NY investment banker (he was head of Lehman Bros.), asked Seeger if he would...
