From The Desk Of Tom Moon: The Ginger People

You might know award-winning critic/journalist Tom Moon from his bestselling book 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, his contributions to NPR’s All Things Considered or his freelance work in the likes of Rolling Stone, GQ, Blender, Spin and Vibe, but around the MAGNET office, when we think of Moon, we think of the nearly two decades he spent as the music critic of our hometown newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer. When you regularly read a writer’s work for that long, you feel like you really get a sense of who someone is, so we were shocked to find out that Moon is also a musician who just made an album. Into The Ojalá (Frosty Cordial) is credited to Moon Hotel Lounge Project and came out earlier this month. MHLP is an impressive, instrumental, jazz/lounge/Latin-leaning project featuring Moon and six local musicians playing nine Moon-penned tunes as well as a cover of gospel standard “Rock Of Ages.” We are excited to have Moon guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.

Moon: Sometime in the last year or so, Canada Dry began touting the presence of “real ginger” in its ginger ale. Wow! What a concept! From a distance it seemed like great marketing, except for the fact that the product didn’t taste appreciably different; as far as I was concerned, the fake ginger was fine. The campaign did, however, get me thinking about the amazingness of “real” ginger; whether raw or liquefied in ginger beer or dusted with sugar and crystallized or in really any form, ginger has long been regarded by healers as an effective digestive aid and immune booster. My favorite ginger delivery system is the bite-sized Ginger Chew, a taffylike, pleasingly spicy concoction that I’m beginning to think has magic powers.

Video after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ThGLk1ga60