There are certain names that automatically conjure up the blues – Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf. At 6’ 6” and close to 300 pounds, Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett was as intimidating as a linebacker and had a rough-edged voice that sounded like he gargled with broken glass. The four-disk, 96-track Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 is a full-bodied early career retrospective that showcases Wolf’s iconic no-frills growl.

There are numerous alternate takes and mixes for many of Wolf’s best know tracks, including “How Many More Years,” “Dorothy Mae,” “Nature,” and “I’m Leaving You.” “How Many More Times” is served up no less than three times – re-titled as “No Place to Go” and “You Gonna Wreck My Life.” Many of the recordings sound as if they were recorded in a cereal box, but that helps, rather than hinders, Wolf’s pioneering primal blues delivery.

Wolf’s minimalist approach (harp, guitar, drums, stand-up bass) invariably makes some of the songs sound the same, but he varies his approach enough to show why burgeoning rockers like Keith Relf, Eric Burdon and Mick Jagger admired him so much. The horn section in “Oh! Red” gives it a fiery bounce, while his lack of a rasp in “Saddle My Pony” marks one of the few times Wolf softened his gravelly voice. “Smokestack Lightning” is deliberate and forceful with plenty of Herculean howlin’. “Neighbors” is highlighted by jaunty piano licks and a thudding bass line that saturates the mix, while “Hold Your Money” has happy harp passages that serve to remind the listener that the blues didn’t always have to be sad to be good.

Wolf’s vocal for “I Asked Her for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)” is so coarse it sounds like the woman in question gave him a match too. “Evil (is Going on)” is perfect for his devilish delivey: “Long way from home, can’t sleep at all, you know another mule is kickin’ in your stall/That’s evil.”

Smokestack Lightning also offers an insider’s warts-and-all look at how Wolf constructed his tunes. In “Howlin’ for My Baby” Wolf’s drummer searches in vein for the right beat. “You Can’t Put Me Out” begins with an amusing conversation between Wolf and his producer: Producer: “You gonna moan?” Wolf: “I’m hollerin’ now. You gonna give me some money?”

Smokestack Lightning finishes strong with three of Wolf’s songs that became the backbone of his act: “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Backdoor Man” and “Spoonful.”

Wolf would go on to write more classics, including “Hidden Charms,” “Killing Floor” and the humorous “300 Pounds of Joy.” Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 captures the Wolf as a cub in his early years – and it’s a howlin’ good time.

Location: Corona, NYC
Music: Björk’s Biophilia Live Show
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: New York Hall Of Science
Food: Sripraphai
Drink: Saints and Sinners
Miscellaneous: Baruirs

In partnership with The Creators Project and the New York Hall of Science, Björk is set to bring her live Biophilia show to NYSCI. Being that you’re in Queens anyways, you HAVE to take the 7 train to Sripraphai, one of New York’s top Thai restaurants. What makes it better than most is the fact that the ingredients are fresh, and instead of choosing your entree with a choice of meat, they offer a novel sized menu with pics of every dish, most under $10. Once a heavily Irish neighborhood, Saints and Sinners is one of the best looking Irish bars left. Grab a Guinness at the bar or traditional Irish food. If you can, head over to Baruirs in Sunnyside for one of the best cups of coffee in Queens.

Friday February 3

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Music: Class Actress
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: 285 Kent Ave
Food: Wild Ginger Pan-Asian Vegan Café
Drink: Teddy’s Bar & Grill
Miscellaneous: Verb Café

Class Actress make really great electro-pop fronted by Elizabeth Harper’s gorgeous voice. Also performing are Pictureplane and Beige. For vegetarians and those not in the mood for meat, Wild Ginger Pan-Asian Vegan Café offers Pan-Asian cuisine in a relaxed earth-toned environment with a menu featuring veggies, tofu, seitan, and soy. The best thing about Teddy’s Bar & Grill is that it’s just got this great neighborhood vibe that’s warm and friendly, while also having a great menu of drinks and American bar food favorites like burgers, salads, sandwiches, and steak. A great place to get good coffee, take a seat, and watch the passing hipsters stroll by, Verb Café even has excellent sandwiches and baked goods to snack on before the show.

Saturday February 4

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Music: Skrillex
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Terminal 5
Food: Eatery
Drink: Valhalla
Miscellaneous: Central Park

Blending hip hop, rock and dance music to perfection, Skrillex seems to have come out of nowhere to singlehandedly revolutionize electronic music. Definitely worth seeing live if you wanna dance and/or mosh. Also on board as openers are Skream & Benga, KOAN Sound, TOKiMONSTA. Nearby and delicious, Eatery offers a new American menu that’s asian influenced. Try the Red Curry Chicken Breast over roti pancake, with baby carrots and red curry coconut sauce ($16.95). Valhalla’s minimalist space is chill, letting the 24 brands of beer from all over the world on tap be the main attraction at this bar. While its warm out, waste a little time walking through Central Park, relax, and get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Just watch your step. The working horses tend to leave surprises behind them!

Saturday February 4

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Art: Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art
Show time: See website for schedule; Through May 14, 2012
Venue: Town Hall
Venue: MOMA
Food: Eatery
Drink: Valhalla
Miscellaneous: Central Park

Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art takes a look back at Diego Rivera, who was the subject of MoMA’s second monographic exhibition (the first was Henri Matisse), which set new attendance records in its five-week run from December 22, 1931, to January 27, 1932. This exhibition will bring together key works made for Rivera’s 1931 exhibition, presenting them at MoMA for the first time in nearly 80 years. Nearby and delicious, Eatery offers a new American menu that’s asian influenced. Try the Red Curry Chicken Breast over roti pancake, with baby carrots and red curry coconut sauce ($16.95). Valhalla’s minimalist space is chill, letting the 24 brands of beer from all over the world on tap be the main attraction at this bar. While its warm out, waste a little time walking through Central Park, relax, and get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Just watch your step. The working horses tend to leave surprises behind them!

Sunday February 5

Location: Union Square, NYC
Art: Hero, Villain, Yeti: Tibet in Comics
Show time: See website for schedule; Through June 11, 2012
Venue: Rubin Museum of Art
Food: Momofuku
Drink: The Village Pourhouse
Miscellaneous: Sundaes and Cones

Hero, Villain, Yeti: Tibet in Comics features the most complete collection of comics related to Tibet ever assembled, with examples ranging from the 1940s to the present. More than fifty comic books from Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, and the United States reflect on the depiction of Tibet, tracing the historical roots of prevailing perceptions and stereotypes and their visual and narrative evolution over time. If you like ramen noodles and pork, then Momofuku is your spot for food. The Berkshire pork is the best I’ve had and it’s the only place I’ll eat pork period, which should tell you just how good Momofuku really is! The Village Pourhouse looks like a neighborhood bar to watch sports but is actually has three more rooms, where you can order food or find a quiet place to smooch! For dessert a little left of the dial, Sundaes and Cones offers eclectic flavors like wasabi and corn and many more flavors that are familiar.

Sarah Steele and Janeane Garofalo star in Russian Transport

I don’t get to a lot of plays that I can write about here on THE SEX FILES. Every so often something sexy will come out and I’ll try and score some press to it, but generally I find sex isn’t so very well represented on stage these days (certainly not on Broadway) and when it is it’s not always so very sexy.

So keeping in this vein I saw a not so very sexy Russian Transport. playing at the Acorn Theatre at The New Group (410 W. 42^nd St,) through 3/10, and while it really is not specifically a sex play (about or centered around the naughty act or anything even close) there is intrigue and a good tremor of sexual terror running under the two hours plus.

I just wish I could recommend it.

This is a case of one of those ‘great casts, not so great piece’ that I know we have all seen from time to time. I often get this with movies where some heavyweight like a Meryl Streep plays an amazing part in a lackluster movie and her performance makes us forget the film. I wish I could say this for Erika Sheffer ‘s Russian Transport, but a play is a different experience than the old flickers.

Taking place as it does in the modern-day Russian Jewish community of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn right here at home, the cast does a fantastic job with a difficult language (at least we have to assume a heavy Russian accent would be difficult for American actors). I applaud a startling strong performance by Jeneane Garofalo as the tough matriarch of this disjointed little crew (and I call them a crew for a few reasons), Daniel Oreskes, Raviv Ullman, the truly spectacular Sarah Steele handling more than a few roles (even as she does so briefly) and the menacing (this is where the sexual menace comes from) Morgan Spector. Unfortunately, one figures out exactly what is happening and pretty much where it’s going to go in this predictable two act and though the cast is delivering one hundred percent, I found I didn’t much care what they are delivering or transporting…figuratively and literally.

The set design here is tops, as it always is at The New Group, outfitted by Derek McLane and Dialect Coach Doug Paulson needs to be commented as well, but Spector is used too infrequently, although his buff and snaky self is on stage a lot.

Russian Transport is playing at the Acorn Theatre at The New Group (410 W. 42^nd Street) through March 10, 2012. For more information, visit www.thenewgroup.org.

Legendary smoothness, super steamy romantic ballads and an unmistakable uptown swing made the four-part harmonies of super-Philly group Boyz II Men instantaneously successful. The resilient combination of soulfulness and a rhythm and blues pop sound made the group one of the best-selling R&B groups of all time. “Motownphilly” changed the sonic landscape of R&B in the 90’s. They revived the sound of doo wop music, made it hip, yet edgy and added an onslaught of accented synthesizers and sharp beats plus their impressive vocal styling. Boyz II Men has sold over 60 million albums since their first, Cooleyhighharmony, was released in 1991.

Singer, Michael McCary retired from the group around 2003, however Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman forged ahead releasing albums, one of which was of cover songs in 2009 and now their new album, Twenty, a two-disc set. The loveliness of “Water Runs Dry,” the romantic endearment of “I’ll Make Love to You” and the remorseful heartbreak of “End of the Road” are just a few of the nine re-recorded tracks on the album while there are 12 new singles. “Believe” is a futuristic upbeat dance track, while “Slowly” features their trademark romantic sensuality. “Benefit of a Fool,” grinds out a swinging 70’s energetic dance groove and those wonderful vocal dynamics. Twenty is very classic Boyz II Men, still featuring that same infectious harmonious vibrancy and soul-swooning rhythm and blues warmth.

Thurston Moore, one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, takes time out from his regular gig fronting Sonic Youth to share music from his new folk album, Demolished Thoughts—a complete departure for this “noise” specialist. His guitar will be stirred, not shaken, in The Allen Room. Low priced anything near Columbia University is getting harder to find, but at Symposium, you’ll get Greek food that won’t force you to take a mortgage out. The Pastitsio (baked macaroni with ground meat $9.95) is out of this world. Not the kind of dive bar you’re thinking, though Broadway Dive has a single malt scotch and bourbon menu big enough that you won’t even know where you are after a few. A coffee bar that also serves liquor, tapas, and baked goods all in one place? Sip sounds good to me.

Regardless of Billy Corgan’s actions in resurrecting The Smashing Pumpkins over the past few years, he’s thankfully been more dignified in handling the band’s back catalog, which is now in the reissue-and-remaster phase.

The Pumpkins’ debut, Gish, was, at the time, a sort of mid-way point between the band’s start as drum machine-driven goth wave and the dreamy alternative rock for which they’d become known. This is a more hard rock album than their later efforts, and when it rocks, it sizzles. “I Am One” and “Siva” are some of the best examples of Corgan’s searing guitar work on the record, the latter also expertly showcasing what was already a knack for super loud-to-whisper quiet dynamics.

The band’s dark side tinges the album with a hazy psychedelia, such as on “Rhinoceros,” the trippy “Suffer,” and “Daydream” (with lead vocals by bassist D’arcy), not to mention the odd hidden track “I’m Going Crazy.”

The remastering job is also nicely done, preserving dynamics while adding a bit more punch, clarity and heft.

The bonus disc features a wealth of rarities and alternate takes. There are live, acoustic, and demo versions of album and non-album tracks, some of which are quite worthwhile, like the echoey demos of “Crush” and a Corgan-sung “Daydream.” You also get a new mix of the band’s dream-rock epic “Starla” and a version of “Drown” with an alternate feedback solo.

The deluxe edition is packed in a shiny box with beautifully re-designed artwork, photos, a booklet with track-by-track commentary by Corgan, and a bonus DVD of a full 1990 performance in a Chicago club (as well as a home video of the band performing “Crush” in the living room), which so perfectly completes the picture of Gish from an archival standpoint, Corgan’s funny clothes and long hair included.

The band had such blistering live shows, and while the early gig shows them still in development, it’s an interesting peek at the way things were and gives hints of where it was all going.

Featuring extraordinary images from telescopes on the ground and in space and stunning, never-before-seen visualizations of physics-based simulations, the dazzling new Journey to the Stars launches visitors through space and time to experience the life and death of the stars in our night sky, including our own nurturing Sun. Cheap yet not too heavy, Hummus Place serves up surprisingly great hummus in the uptown version of their original downtown location. More a game room for adults than a sports bar, Jake’s Dilemmal offers more than 50 beers to choose from while you can play pool, video games, or foosball. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Alice’s Tea Cup is as much for adults as it is for kids. Get one of a vast assortment of teas flown in from around the world here or a gorgeously designed slice of cake.

Congrats on being the spokesperson for the Bon Appétit Collection. How did you get involved with HSN and Bon Appétit magazine for this endeavor?

I was lucky enough to do something with HSN and Top Chef last year and got my foot in the door with HSN. Over 100 chefs tried out for Bon Appétit and I was lucky enough to be the one who was chosen. It’s been one of the hugest honors of my life.

Tell us about the collection which includes cookware, appliances, cutlery and prep tools. What do you love about these products?

From small appliances, to pressure cookers, down to a pineapple corer, it is everything I would have done if I had designed them myself. The collaboration between BA and HSN is noticed in every single detail: from the warming button on the pressure cooker to the little latch on the immersion blender. I love everything about this line and am proud to have my name attached to it.

For someone interested in the products and cooking but not a pro, what would you recommend they start with? And if you have a recipe that say our readers (AKA me) could easily put together and impress their significant other with, please tell!

Start with good pots and pans. They are kind of like a good set of tires on a car. Keeps everything under control. Don’t skimp on good knives/pans. I absolutely love making soups and find it to be one of the most calming and relaxing things in the kitchen. If you puree it, you can’t mess it up. Here is one of my favorite soup recipes on BA, plus it’s in season. Enjoy.

So I have to ask about Top Chef. That must have been an extraordinary experience that showed off your culinary talents and made you a household name almost overnight. What was the most memorable thing that happened during that season?

Honestly, it wasn’t what happened during, but what happened after. My life got changed and turned upside down; in good and bad ways. The show put me on a national scale where I could have had 15 min of fame or made a career out of it, and thankfully I was able to make something of myself from it.

What was the most difficult thing that you had to do on Top Chef and what was the most fun?

Most difficult, the interviewing process. From the day they showed interest in me, I was given everything from a full body scan, background check, to pulling my dental records. Actually getting ON the show was the most difficult part. Most fun: Cooking and meeting new people. I definitely made some awesome friends for life.

Tell us about your restaurant in San Francisco, Brunch Drunk Love. What kind of food can people expect to see on your menu and what is the one dish they HAVE to try?

BDL is a form of expression for me; cooking and sarcasm at the same time. It gives me a form to express my culinary ability in a way I have never done before. A must try would be the pan-seared duck hash cakes with poached eggs, edemame succotash, horseradish salsa verde, and pomegranates. It’s a really well balanced dish.

You also started your 3-SUM EATS food truck. The menu consists of items that seem to have elements of breakfast and lunch like the Corn Flake Crusted Fried Chicken Sandwich. Is the food truck menu an outlet for experimentation?

It’s funny that you say that. 3-SUM EATS is a hodgepodge of everything I have seen while traveling with Top Chef. Also, people feel less guilty when eating from food trucks. Breaking boundaries in culinary arts is easier on the truck than in a restaurant. (an example being the corn flake crusted chicken sandwich).

Lastly, will we see you back on TV anytime soon with a show? Seems like a natural next step.

We have already shot 2 pilots for my own reality cooking show. Things are in the works for an amazing year!

For more information on the new Bon Appetit Culinary Collection which begins airing on HSN with Chef Ryan Scott tonight and to buy, visit HSN HERE.

Recently, the British newspaper The Guardian ran an article asking if indie rock was dying out. Around the same time, The Maccabees’ third album landed comfortably in that nation’s charts at number four, proving that there is still an audience for guitar-based rock.

The English band has certainly matured over the years with Given to the Wild proving to be their most cohesive album to date. There’s a certain cinematic quality to the record, with each song flowing smoothly into the next. It’s difficult to isolate individual tracks, but that’s for the best. While other albums can feel like a collection of random songs made around the same time, Given to the Wild is a solid, soulful work.

The overall tone is slow and dreamy with songs like “Child” and “Ayla” not being afraid to pull in elements like horns and piano. There’s a patient build to every track that goes from quiet, delicate guitar to swelling triumph by the end. Don’t mistake that for it being formulaic though; The Maccabees have hit their stride and know how to make music for the heart as well as the head. Fans of Foals’ atmosphere and Arcade Fire’s intensity will find admiration for an English group only growing more talented by the album.

Djuna Barnes, Sketch of a woman with hat, looking right, for "The Terrorists," New York Morning Telegraph Sunday Magazine, September 30, 1917. Ink on paper, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (32.4 x 21.6 cm). Djuna Barnes Papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries

Location: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Art: Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919
Show time: See website for schedule; Through August 19
Venue: Brooklyn Museum
Food: Tom’s Restaurant
Drink: Soda Bar
Miscellaneous: Old Brooklyn Parlor

Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919 is an exploration of the early journalistic career of American writer and women’s rights advocate Djuna Barnes (1892–1982). On view will be forty-five objects, including documentary photographs, drawings, works on paper, and Barnes’s stories in newsprint, including eight illustrations she composed to accompany her newspaper columns. Her work suggests a proto-feminist sensibility, emphasizing politics as something experienced on an individual, emotional level. It’s the place where Susanne Vega wrote “Tom’s Restaurant,” but Tom’s Restaurant is just as famous for its food. With a near insane breakfast menu, expect items like pancakes with apples and pecans to be brought to you by the sweetest waitresses in Brooklyn. Soda Bar is a great place for drinks. The alcohol is cheap, there’s surprisingly excellent food, and there’s even another room where DJs spin. If it’s too much, you can hang outside in the backyard patio under the stars. The Old Brooklyn Parlor specializes in old school drinks like the Brooklyn Egg Cream and the Lime Cherry Rickey, making it an excellent anchor to this neighborhood.