http://www.citypaper.com/ Recent Baltimore City Paper Content. en-us Copyright 2010 Baltimore City Paper http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19753 CPTV: Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer var so = new SWFObject("http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf", "PictoBrowser", "655", "640", "8", "#EEEEEE"); so.addVariable("source", "groups"); so.addVariable("names", "Baltimore Snowpocalypse 2010"); so.addVariable("userName", "Baltimo... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:13:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19739 X-Content by Van Smith: Comic-strip fans Tom Scocca and Vincent Williams team up to fill the feature hole with a story about two young syndicated cartoonists with Maryland roots: Aaron McGruder and Frank Cho. Mobtown Beat is Jill Yesko on a local rabbi who is using Kabala study to help treat urban ills. The Nose covers... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19732 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the agenda for Feb 1 Resolution 10-0188R Informational Hearing--Department of Public Works--Leaf Vacuuming Program. Asks the cirector of the Department of Public Works and bureau head of solid waste to tell the council how it chooses the neighborhoods that receive the service and how well it is... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:13:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19731 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Just in from Towson University: My Favorite Things: Song Cycles by Great Composers, the voice recital of local soprano Theresa Bickham, who was interviewed in this week's issue, has been rescheduled for Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. due to the upcoming snow forecast.... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19730 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: I can't remember the last time I cried during a play. I'm not the type that gets teary easily, but Two Rooms at Everyman Theatre left me wiping my eyes with the back of my hands as the lights went up. Lee Blessing's play is a deeply powerful work about an American teacher in Beirut, who is kidnapp... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19729 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Simon Johnson's Economix blog on the New York Times' site has some notions to chew on regarding too-big-to-fail. His key idea: Banks' capital ratios need to be increased three or four fold from what's proposed (and being fought by bankers as too high). What would a 25-percent cap ratio requirement d... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19728 Arts and Minds by Anna Ditkoff: Funny Business Make your way to the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatree (817 St. Paul St., [410] 752-1225) on Feb. 7 for Drop Three Comedy & Improv's monthly show. The February edition features comic Will Carey. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Haitian Earthquake Relief.Move It The B... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19727 The News Hole by Emma Brodie: On Feb. 3, David Scott, director of the city's Department of Public Works, announced that midyear budget cuts by the city's Department of Finance is forcing the Baltimore Public Works Museum to close its doors. The museum will be closed immediately, but the historic Eastern Avenue Pumping Station (t... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19726 Noise by Michael Byrne: Given that we're all going to die an icy death Friday night and into Saturday morning as an apparently sure-shot nor'easter pounds the Mid-Atlantic, Jazzway 6004 has moved up rather than postpone its very exciting collaborative performance between local jazz powder keg Lafayette Gilchrist and South... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19725 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: On Jan. 29, two of the doctors from our recent feature story on activism in the name of health-care reform, Margaret Flowers and Carol Paris, were arrested again in Baltimore. The two showed up in front of the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in the Inner Harbor that day, where President Barack Obama w... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19724 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: A $13 million mixed-use development in Upper Fells Point would not be financially viable without 38 percent more apartments, the developer says. And it will have less parking than required by zoning regulations, a situation City Councilman James Kraft (D-1st) pledged to oppose. "We basically won th... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19721 Noise by Michael Byrne: Until last week, the only thing particularly unique about the Hexagon's decision to ditch ASCAP and the other performing rights organizations (PROs), was the public nature of it. It's difficult to say how many venues, restaurants, and other businesses currently operate without PRO licenses, while pl... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19720 CPTV by Erin Sullivan and Frank Klein: Drs. Carol Paris, Eric Naumburg, and Margaret Flowers, and retired psychological counselor Charles Loubert, are Maryland-based health-care practitioners who feel so strongly about health-care reform--more specifically, they'd like to see some form of a single-payer system put in place in the United... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:22:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19719 Councilmania by Andrea Appleton and Edward Ericson Jr.: Bill 10-0445 Public Ethics Law--Ethics Board Composition, Tenure, etc.--Ethics Training Would reconfigure the city's Board of Ethics by adding new training and membership requirements, staggering terms, and requiring an annual-activities report. The Read: City Council President Stephanie Rawlin... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:22:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19711 The Mail: There are too many murders in Baltimore ("Rising Tide," Feature, Jan. 20).A We know this. At the same time, tremendous progress has been made. There are great neighborhoods all over the city where newcomers are sinking roots to take advantage of great houses, improving schools, beautiful parks,... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:57:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19710 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 2 Murders this Year: 12 With just two homicides this week, as of Feb. 1, Baltimore City had 10 fewer homicides this year than the same time last year. Monday, Jan. 25 9:36 p.m. Michael Manning, a 35-year-old African-American man, was found shot in the shoulder in the... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:55:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19709 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: James Riffin, who for years has been mounting a one-man campaign to resume freight-train service on the Cockeysville-to-Baltimore light-rail tracks ("Train Wreck," Feature, Oct. 10, 2007), won two significant victories in recent weeks. On Jan. 5, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled in Riffi... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:53:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19708 Feature by Erin Sullivan: No matter how strongly we may feel about the health-care debate--and no matter which side of the debate we're on--most of us stay safely out of it. Aside from a few boisterous town-hall meetings, we monitor the dealings in Congress from couches, desks, and smartphones, where we can keep tabs on... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:46:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19707 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: About a year ago, my family and I were in Florida for a short business trip. While we were there, on a humble, we went to Disney World for a few days. My then-4-year-old daughter made us promise to bring her back for her birthday, and, being the good parents that we are, my wife and I planned it ou... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:36:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19706 New This Week: The Beetle Israeli documentary filmmaker Dan Geva is MICA's spring 2010 Schusterman visiting artist, and during his stay in Baltimore he's curating a series of contemporary Israeli movies. The series starts off with this 2008 documentary from writer/director Yishai Orian, Hachipusheet, which docume... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:35:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19705 Film by Martin L. Johnson: When Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo, the latest anime from the director of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, opened in Baltimore last August, it ran at the Harbor East Landmark Theater, a theater whose programming normally includes safe art-house fair and high-end Hollywood hits. Despite glowing reviews... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:24:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19704 Film by Bret McCabe: "I almost lost my mind in the process of putting this together," Michael Kimball confesses with a laugh about 60 Writers/60 Places, his latest film project, which he created in collaboration with New York writer/artist Luca Dipierro. Kimball laughs, but the Baltimore-based novelist behind 2008's wo... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:06:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19703 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Omni-metal band Winds of Plague play the Ottobar with Despised Icon, For Today, Stray From the Path, the World We Knew, An Obscure Signal, and And It Must Occur. This month's edition of the Mobtown Modern series presents a retrospective of the Washington, D.C. avant-garde composer Alexan... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:03:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19702 Music by Bret McCabe: Perhaps you grew up listening to classical music. This set of ears didn't. In fact, it wasn't until those ears entered the back door of classical composition through 20th-century composers such as John Cage, Milton Babbitt, and various INA-GRM personalities that they started realizing there were ce... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:59:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19701 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:25:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19697 : Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:23:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15715 No Cover by Michael Byrne: "Independent rap" is a fraught term in Baltimore. Besides the glaring fact that almost all rap is independent here, there are a great many so-called "independent rappers" in the city, playing to frequently different crowds in different parts of the landscape--and rapping based on wildly different... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:20:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15714 Cheap Eats by Tim Hill: Late last year, Little Italy got a New World update on its cuisine with an Argentinian empanada restaurant. We've been meaning to check it out, and our first thought walking through the door: Why did we wait so long? Bottles of homemade chimichurri sauce and bags of Argentinian coffee on the left,... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:35:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15713 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: If Tim Burton designed a restaurant, it would be Mr. Rain's Fun House. Of course, in Burton's hands, the mirrored mosaic animal heads that hang just inside the restaurant's entrance would probably speak, the lollipop-pink and -orange psychedelic starburst painted on one of the restaurant's walls w... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:05:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19717 The News Hole: The internet is blowing up these days over Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancer cells were used in the 1950s to produce culture media that allowed major scientific advancements ever since. The reason for the interest, presumably, is the release of a new book about Lacks and her scientific signifi... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19716 X-Content by Van Smith: The Block, Baltimore's downtown adult-entertainment district, takes the stage in a two-story feature package by Van Smith: "Around the Block" and "What's Around the Block." Land deals in Washington Hill involving Baltimore City government and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions have neighbors in... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19715 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The Washington Post seems to be catching on to a story Crash Course warned about last fall: that FHA is not in good shape, and may need a taxpayer bailout. As with most WaPo stories, the problem is depicted in the past tense:FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens, who joined the agency in July, flagged... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19713 Noise by Michael Byrne: Context: Twig Harper is Baltimore's resident out-of-body traveler, mystic, and noise celebrity. He's also at or near the nexus of a swirl of rumors and accusations surrounding Andrew WK—pop musician and cult figure formerly of Michigan's noise scene—some of which have Harper as being the... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19712 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Retired assistant State's Attorney Page Croyder has an interesting blog post about a prospective raise for state judges. It's nearly $40,000 each, and could happen, she says, if state legislators do nothing to stop it. Omitted from the piece: existing salaries for District court judges. They make... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19695 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: A long-planned redevelopment project in Upper Fells Point hit what may be another obstacle last week when city housing officials posted an "emergency condemnation and demolition notice" on the building. Yellow caution tape adorned the sidewalk near the front door of 1621 Bank St. on Thursday, Jan.... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19693 The News Hole by Van Smith: The requirements of holding elected office are far from burdensome (and come with many rewards), so one would expect that incumbent officeholders would have the routine down: You raise and spend money to get elected, and you file timely reports that accurately reflect your campaign's accounting. But... Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19691 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The NY Times' Floyd Norris has a column today about a surprising paper just out at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Turns out those securitized mortgage derivatives that sank the economy two years ago were not new. They were just like the ones that triggered the Great Depression. Norris:... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19690 Noise by Michael Byrne: Well, this one slipped through the cracks, as even the best fool-to-miss shows do on occasion, so all apologies. And lord knows there's enough going on this weekend already, but tomorrow somehow thread a stop at Floristree into your night's plans. Northampton Wools, the duo of Bill Nace and Thurston... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19688 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Citing the Supreme Court's Jan. 21 decision to allow unlimited corporate financing of political "issue ads," a Kensington-based public relations firm has announced its intention to run for Congress. Pledging to run a campaign that "puts people second, or even third," Murray Hill, Inc., which was fo... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19687 The News Hole by Michael Byrne: Last summer, cyclist Jack Yates was killed at the intersection of Maryland and Lafayette avenues. He was riding to the right of the right lane of Maryland as a truck passed him, also in the right lane. That is, both vehicles were smooshed into the right lane as the truck instigated a right turn onto... Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19686 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: For years Somebody Scream Productions hosted terrific zydeco and Cajun dances at the Community College of Baltimore County's Catonsville campus, but when the school decided over the summer of 2008 to stop renting buildings to outside groups, the series was left homeless. After a brief, unsuccessful... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19684 The News Hole by Van Smith: When the storied Mount Royal Democratic Club (MRDC) announced its demise in December, one of its younger leaders, Kim Forsyth, said she planned to see what she could do to keep it alive. Forsyth recently shared with City Paper details of her plans, including a discussion, to be held at Alonso's, 415... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19683 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: It's hard out there for a simp.... Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19682 Political Animal by Brian Morton: Is it any wonder how George W. Bush was able to roll congressional Democrats for eight years? (No--not just six, all eight. Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately taking impeachment off the table was the first sign that the Democrats took all the bullets out of the gun.) If the Democrats in the House of... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:05:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19681 The Mail: Please return Larnell Custis Butler's Just Ask Larnell, the winner of the most recent City Paper comics contest, to the pages of City Paper. When we agreed to judge the contest, the rules were clear: The winner would be awarded space in the newspaper for a full year. Just Ask Larnell was our overw... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:04:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19680 Murder Ink: Murders This Week: 4 Murders This Year: 10 Monday, Jan. 18 2:35 p.m. Darius Goines, a 19-year-old African-American man, was found shot several times in the head and body in the hallway of an apartment building in the 1000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. Goines was shot in the 600 block of Wes... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:51:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19679 The Nose: The Nose recently attended a jovial gathering at the Center Club, an invitation-only business dining club on the 16th floor of the former Legg Mason building in downtown Baltimore. A coterie of men and women in business suits listened as attorney Larry Gibson, former campaign manager for erstwhile... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:49:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19678 Mobtown Beat by John Barry: Baltimore poet David Franks, who was found dead in his Fells Point apartment on Jan. 14 after a long battle with cancer, was an artist, a performer, a musician, and a self-promoter. In the days since his death, Baltimore's arts community has traded memories of the idiosyncratic figure who worked ac... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:41:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19677 Feature by Van Smith: Tuesdays are Retro Night at Baltimore's 580-seat Apex Theatre, meaning old VHS porn tapes are projected on the big screen instead of the usual DVDs. On a recent Tuesday, the onscreen action featured a mustachioed guy with a champion mullet going down on a big-breasted blonde. It's a long, quiet sce... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:35:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19676 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Washington MC-done-good Wale takes the mic at Sonar with DJ Ki, DJ Aasha Adore, DJ Kali, DJ Reem, and three rooms' worth more (full lineup at sonarbaltimore.com). Baltimore multi-core band the Defect rattles the Ottobar with Light on Film, Somewhere Anywhere Else, Why They Kill, the Mark... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:29:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19675 Music by Michael Byrne: At this point, poking fun at Owl City is kinda like poking fun at the dudes on Jersey Shore. Not only is it way too easy--a band delivers a third-grade version of the Postal Service to large-scale success--but the chorus of jeers is already out there. A quick skim: "hack electronica," from Pitchfor... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:28:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19674 New This Week: EDGE OF DARKNESS Mel Gibson once again delivers the righteous revenge in director Martin Campbell's movie adaptation of the actually quite excellent BBC miniseries that he directed in 1985, in which a daughter's death pushes a policeman father to get totally unseemly on some asses. With a supportin... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:24:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19673 Film by Bret McCabe: The second feature by local filmmaker Matthew Porterfield is almost finished--though not the one you may have heard about. Although his debut feature, 2006's Hamilton, continued to screen through last year (at New York's UnionDocs, at the Philadelphia International House), since late 2007, Porterfi... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:15:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19672 Stage by Erica Bauman: Murder mysteries have come a long way from their stodgy origins: The Sherlock Holmes of yore was an eccentric, sure, but also cerebral, and most of Doyle's writing involved long explanations of his thought process. The Sherlock Holmes of today is, well, Robert Downey Jr. And while the Audrey Herman... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:09:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19671 Stage by Andrea Appleton: The Fells Point Corner Theatre's production of Moliere's The Miser is set in Depression-era New York City, with nary a bosom-boosting corset or powdered wig. It's a choice that may disappoint purists--at least those with a fetish for men in tights--but the classic comedy of manners doesn't suffer fr... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:55:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19670 Stage by Geoffrey Himes: CenterStage has given us a terrific Cyrano de Bergerac, full of all the poetry and passion Edmond Rostand's play is capable of. That was back in 1980 when an up-and-coming actor named F. Murray Abraham, four years before he starred in the movie Amadeus, insisted on playing the role of the French sw... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:48:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19669 Books by Michael Corbin: "But man that ain't nothing." Tayvon pulls his shirt back down after showing me the scar that extends below his waistband to his groin and up to his sternum. About an inch-wide, raised, milky sheen standing out from his caramel skin with symmetrical dots framing the disfiguration, marking where... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:42:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19665 : Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:52:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15694 Film Clips by Wendy Ward: Remember when you were a kid and little stuff appropriated into miniature worlds blew your mind, like Ernie's bug family on Sesame Street using postage stamps for fine art or all the stuff the Little family stole in the series of books by John Peterson? Flushed Away, the first completely CGI movie f... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:15:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15697 Listening Party by Michael Byrne: Liz Harris could sample a nuclear explosion and the net result very well could wind up as soul-deep soothing as the most atmospheric hum she's unassumingly unleashed as Grouper. It's the point received as, toward the end of one her four drone-folk cloudforms here, "Pulse," a dog begins barking-and s... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:33:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15696 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Glowing with warm light, Sam's Kid pulls you, like a bewitched insect, into its mod Fells Point storefront. Dazzled by white walls, a plump purple sofa, the clean lines of blond wood tables, you take your seat only to be made dizzy again by the menu in front of you, which lists dishes with impossib... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:22:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15695 Cheap Eats by Anna Ditkoff: If there is one thing we like more than delicious sugary treats, it's a good yarn. Our visit to Charm City Cupcakes in Brown's Arcade on Charles Street provided both. The man that greeted us at the small counter, identified himself as the uncle of the owner. He said his niece, Sandra Long, asked him... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:20:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19664 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: "Last year at this time I was attending a lot of balls," Spike Lee wryly offered when he first took the low-rise stage on the campus of Loyola University. It was a casual yet smart way to set the tone for his entire chat. In Baltimore Jan. 20 to deliver the Loyola University MLK Convocation 2010, Le... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:01:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19663 X-Content by Van Smith: Michael Anft, in the Feature entitled "Councilmania," says the Baltimore City Council gets no respect. Sections devoted to the president and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th districts show why. In Mobtown Beat, Augusta Olsen covers the shuttering of the Golden Temple health-food store, and Bren... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19662 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: In the 1980s, before they were declared hipster heroes by Rick Rubin and Jack White, Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn were more or less ignored by non-country audiences as they served out the tail end of distinguished country careers, playing mid-sized halls and competing against youngsters such as Geor... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19661 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: (HT Alexander Mitchell, who supplied the photograph) Neighbors say the city began demolishing this house several weeks ago, but stopped, supposedly to wait for gas and electric service to be cut off. This morning they heard a crash as the building collapsed amid 50 mph winds, and a near-simultaneo... Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19659 Arts and Minds by Wendy Ward: Carmen is a bitch—but, oh, what a voice. The opera named for the dancing, flirtatious gypsy songstress who seduces a soldier until he loves her back, leaves, and returns, moves from the streets of 1830s Spain in Georges Bizet's tragedy Carmen to a 1920s Parisian nightclub in American Opera The... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19657 The News Hole by Van Smith: These photos were taken today at about 1 p.m., two hours prior to the 3:05 p.m. scheduled high tide for Fells Point. The water taxi stop for the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park is inaccessible due to the extremely high tidal waters in the Patapsco River in downtown Baltimore, and the pi... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19656 Noise by Michael Byrne: Last October, a rumor circulated that the Hexagon, a small and eclectic arts/music space in Station North, planned to ditch performing rights organizations (PROs), i.e. ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. It turns out that was premature, but not inaccurate. This morning, a press release arrived from the Hexagon... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19655 Noise by Michael Byrne: According to a tweet from The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton, eight people have been tazed outside of the Club Paradox in the past three months. Weird/bad shit going on at the LOF/t with the upshot seeming to be that there is no more LOF/t. Dru Hill reunites, mostly. [The Baltimore Sun] You shou... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19654 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Both ABC News and the Wall Street Journal are saying that the Senate vote to reconfirm Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose term expires Jan 31, is no longer a sure thing. ... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19653 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: The three young string-band musicians in the Carolina Chocolate Drops began their show at the Ramshead Tavern Tuesday with "Peace Behind the Bridge," an instrumental by the late Piedmont blues guitarist Etta Baker. Giddens, her long dark hair cascading down the back of her purple quilted jacket, sat... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19649 CPTV by Aliza Sollins: See Michelle Gienow's article Hard Cider: Homemade hooch is cheap and easy in the Jan. 20, 2010 Eat Me. ... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:21:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19652 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this week: 0 Murders this year: 5 There were no murders in Baltimore this past week through Friday, Jan. 15, the last date for inclusion in this column due to an early holiday deadline.... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:54:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19651 : Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:41:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19648 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Last week Flo McGarrell—MICA grad, multidisciplinary artist, and son to James and Ann McGarrell of Newbury, Vt.—passed away Jan. 12 during the earthquake that devastated Haiti. At the time, McGarrell was inside the Peace of Mind Hotel, which collapsed. McGarrell was the director of the F... Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19647 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Baltimore City went six consecutive days without a murder. As of Monday, Jan. 18 there were nine fewer homicides this year than at the same time in 2009. Sunday, Jan. 16 5:30 a.m. Police were called to the 2300 block of West North Avenue near Coppin State University for a shooting. Darnell Tay... Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:46:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19645 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: Hey Baltimore, if you like the football and Your Baltimore Ravens, I'm real sorry, seriously, you have my Deepest Sympathies. I mean, the Ravens lost to the Indianapolis Colts for a spot in the AFC Championship, which is kind of an insulting injury if you are still holding on to all that Bad Stuff... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:58:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19644 The Mail: As many grassroots organizations do, the Baltimore Green Party has changed a lot since the departure of Bob Kaufman ("A. Robert Kaufman," Mobtown Beat, Jan. 6).  Not having been a member of the party or a city resident at the time he withdrew himself from the party, I can't comment on the speci... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:55:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19643 Feature by Anna Ditkoff: Illustrations by Jennifer Daniel Baltimore City reported four more homicides in 2009 than in 2008--238 vs. 234. It wasn't a big increase, especially for a city used to numbers closer to 300. Still, it affected every corner of the city. There were a few positive trends--fewer children were murdered... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:52:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19642 Councilmania by Andrea Appleton and Edward Ericson Jr.: On the Agenda for Jan. 11 Bill 10-0436 BMore Streets for People Program--Establishment Would establish the BMore Streets for People Program, allowing for periodic street closures throughout the city for use by pedestrians and cyclists. The Read: Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke (D-14th Distri... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:44:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19641 Mobtown Beat by Andrea Appleton: Normally, a developer with a project the size of the $65 million retail and housing development proposed for 25th and Howard streets in lower Remington would request financial incentives from the city. After all, the current plans call for a Lowes home-improvement store, a grocery store, an Anna's... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:41:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19639 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Baltimore thrash band Destined for Nothing bucks up at the Ottobar with Daylight and Pay No Mind. NYC improv jazz-plus trio the In Betweens take on the Windup Space with Deaf Threat and the Out of Your Head Quartet. Mobtown Modern curators Brian Sacawa and Erik Spangler bust out their Hy... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:24:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19638 New This Week: THE APARTMENT Billy Wilder's 1960 The Apartment isn't just a classic, but a template for today's smartest dramedies. Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a hapless office drone who frequently hands over the keys to his bachelor pad to his philandering bosses in exchange for career advancement. When Miss... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:23:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19637 Quick Sketches: ÎLE-DE-TOWSON Favorite son local filmmaker/writer John Waters installed his first public solo visual art show in 1995 at New York's American Fine Arts Co., and ever since his insouciant, ribald eye for appropriating found imagery--from the everyday world, from media, from movies--has made its... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:15:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19636 Curtain Time: Pole Position The Baltimore Polesque "Baltimore's only pole dancing burlesque troupe" take a spin at the Ottobar (2549 N. Howard St., [410] 662-0069, theottobar.com, baltimorepoledancetroupe.com) Jan. 24. The same night, the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre (817 St. Paul St., [410] 752-1225, spot... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:10:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19635 Stage by Erica Bauman: At the beginning of Man of La Mancha, Miguel De Cervantes (Edward J. Peters ) states "I come in a world of iron to make a world of gold." And while the Vagabond Players' production of the Dale Wasserman musical isn't quite gold, it is a pleasant diversion. Man of La Mancha weaves together two dif... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:00:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19634 Stage by Lee Gardner: The last thing actor Jeffrey Combs was looking for was another horror role. Not, he hastens to add, that he isn't "humbly grateful" for the lengthy list of horror and sci-fi movie and TV credits that began with his indelible turn as nerdy mad-scientist manqué Herbert West in director Stuart Go... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:53:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19633 Stage by Bret McCabe: A solitary man drags a cart into the center of the room. He looks haggard, at his wit's end. A patch covers one eye. And just as he turns a cursing fist to the sky, a woman approaches. She looks at him as if she hasn't seen another person in forever, and they stare at each other. They both appea... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:50:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19632 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:28:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19628 : Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:23:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15672 Film by Bret McCabe: Everything about Black Dynamite adores its 1970s-era inspiration, and nothing is played for a cheap, condescending joke. You know the moustaches are manly because they're thicker than shag carpeting. Both men and women rock afros that add five inches to their height. The fashions--from men's suits... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:21:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15676 Listening Party by Bret McCabe: Knocking a band for its pedigree is kinda pointless. Witness Vampire Weekend, the New York quartet whose African rhythms-inspired pop on its 2008 self-titled debut was hailed with equal ecstatic fanfare and condescending righteousness. It's not as if VW's four twentysomethings are the only Ivy Leagu... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:38:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15675 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: No sense in overcomplicating it--Bernt Anker, Rosemary Krust's second 7-inch of '09, is simple in dissection. Take one part "pretty" and blast, flood, or stew it with two parts fuzz and/or feedback. For the net result, imagine His Name Is Alive caught in a dust storm, if you like. And it's that simp... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:35:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15674 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: In which Jon Spencer does vocals over one or another of the ambient-IDM Ghost International monikers--with a synth pipe organ fed into the mix for good measure. That's the sound, anyway, of the surprisingly well-produced nonsense courtesy of MT6 duo CAVEMEN!, alarmingly one of the least cave-ready o... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:31:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15673 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: The Honest Mistakes The Honest Mistakes keep it simple. Breezy country-rock handled with care and craft, these are swinging songs suited well for venues with peanut shells on the floor and listeners that, well, like to keep things simple. Not that Break Up is unsophisticated, per se, but the whole w... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:26:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15677 Cheap Eats by Wendy Ward: Across the street from the Walters Art Museum sits Cozy Corner, a warm little breakfast/lunch spot with handmade soups perfect for the chilly winter winds blowing through Mount Vernon. Its two booth tables beneath big street-level windows filled with cheery plants are pretty much directly under a h... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:42:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19646 Noise by Bret McCabe: Here at Baltimore's Most Continuing-2009's-Furlough-Days-in-the-Twenty-Ten Alternative Weekly, production weeks abridged due to holidays or furlough days or furloughed holidays, such as Martin Luther King Jr. day Jan. 18, means sometimes shows/events announced late in the production cycle sadly get... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19627 The News Hole by Van Smith: Since Jan. 13, when City Paper mistakenly reported that the City of Baltimore awarded a $10,000, one-year contract to the online publication Bmore, new information has come to light about the deal, which was pulled from the Jan. 13 Board of Estimates agenda at the last minute. First Deputy Mayor And... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19626 X-Content by Van Smith: The feature is Eileen Murphy's celebration of renowned Baltimore artist Joyce J. Scott, to mark Scott's solo exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art. City Paper's decision to run Savage Love is debated in The Mail. In Mobtown Beat, Michael Anft reports on efforts to strengthen Maryland's brownfields... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15656 Film by Erin Sullivan: Back in 1990 when Jerry Zucker was making the movie Ghost—the story of murdered man (Patrick Swayze) whose spirit resists being subsumed by the afterworld and who resides in an in-between place where he can observe the living—CGI didn't really exist. Zucker had to rely on his and his act... Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:31:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19625 Noise by Al Shipley: It was hard to know what to expect from a show billed as John Berndt's Multiphonic Choir, since Berndt is primarily known as one of the main brains behind two of the biggest institutions in Baltimore's experimental improvised music scene, the Red Room collective and its annual High Zero festival. Bu... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19624 Stage by Blair Bedford: Starr isn't someone you would want to play games with. First introduced to the Theatre Project in 2003 in Roxi Starr in 3-D with Elvis, this self-praising diva is loud, brash, and has eccentricities that cross the line from quirky to criminal. As Theatre Project's first show of the year, Tell Baby... Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19621 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: Interested in displaying your art/performance or selling your wares at this summer's Artscape? Applications for prospective participants of all kinds, from artists to vendors, are now online. Some applications aren't up yet, while the deadline for the prestigious (and lucrative—$25,000) Janet... Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19620 The News Hole by Van Smith: Correction: According to the Baltimore City Comptroller's Office, the $10,000 one-year city contract with "Issue Media Group - Bmore," which we reported was awarded yesterday by the Board of Estimates, was in fact withdrawn from the board's agenda prior to the meeting. No further information about t... Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19619 The News Hole by Van Smith: On Jan. 11, the last of 10 bank-account seizure warrants filed in connection with the ongoing federal probe of online gambling were returned to U.S. District Court in Maryland. The latest returns—for three warrants, all seeking funds from accounts held by a payment-processing company called HM... Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19618 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Baltimore's artist-run collective multipurpose space the Hexagon is seeking a new logo, and is sponsoring a design contest to come up with a visual brand for the space and its community. The deadline is Feb. 20. Details from the open call below: The Hexagon, Baltimore's darlin' multi-use art and per... Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19615 : Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:14:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19614 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: I wonder what Sen. Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) apology to Barack Obama was like. How do you apologize for saying that Obama was electable because he was "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one"? As impolitic as the statements are, they resemble something like the truth. We... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:48:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19613 The Mail: The article on Bob Kaufman from Jan. 6, ("A. Robert Kaufman," Mobtown Beat) states that he "was often his own worst enemy." The author should have probed a bit deeper about Bob's alleged disruptive behavior.   As a general matter, the differences between Bob and those who accuse him of bad b... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:44:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19612 Murder Ink by Andrea Appleton and Anna Ditkoff: Murders this week: 4 Murders this year: 5 One murder was removed from the 2009 homicide total in December and another was added. Baltimore Police are no longer counting the Dec. 9 police-involved shooting that left Byron Matthews, a 20-year-old African-American man dead, as a homicide. The Dec. 8... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:39:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19611 Mobtown Beat by Edward Ericson Jr.: Ken Koehler's first foreclosure was officially filed on Oct. 5. It was a bit more than a year after the real-estate investor sat in his living room telling a reporter about the history of his Fells Prospect neighborhood and the likelihood--very high, he maintained--of a house-price rebound. Four of... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:35:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19610 Feature by Tom Chalkley: The first and last time I came within arm's reach of Sheila Dixon, I gave her a hug. It was March 2008,  and Baltimore's newly elected mayor had just delivered a spirited little speech to an environmental conference at Goucher College. Dixon ticked off a list of specific projects the city... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:28:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19609 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Good Morning February, a classic dreamy/angry chamber-rock band out of Annapolis, builds to burn at the Sidebar with Marsupial, Perfect Future, Sensible Nectar, and Fair Root. THURSDAY: Sextacy, a "glam" band from College Park with a special talent for making two related words into one... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:26:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19608 New This Week: THE BOOK OF ELI Denzel Washington stars as the titular loner badass who wanders a post-apocalyptic somewhere protecting a sacred book from Gary Oldman--or something like that, suggests the trailer. Directed by Albert and Allen Hughes, their first feature outings since 2001's From Hell. Opens Jan. 1... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:25:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19607 Curtain Time: OPENINGS The Miser hits Fells Point Corner Theatre (251 S. Ann St., [410] 276-7837, fpct.org) Jan. 15-Feb.14. Molière's comedy pits the titular tightwad against his free-spirited romantic kids. Wacky French satire ensues. Gaslight illuminates Spotlighters (817 St. Paul St., [410] 752-1225, spo... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:21:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19606 Stage by Bret McCabe: With only two productions to its credit, the new local company Teatro 101 is already proving itself an emerging player in Baltimore's up-and-coming young theater community. Back in July, the company founded by David Gregory debuted with the intimate comedy The Little Dog Laughed and now it digs in... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:01:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19605 Books by Phyllis Zhu: Thanks to journalists such as Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), buried somewhere deep in Americans' meat-loving unconscious is the vague knowledge that the ground beef grabbed from the supermarket has undergone a strenuous process of plumping, pounding, chopping, and compressing--often not... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:56:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19601 : Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:52:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15649 Film by Wendy Ward: After making a name for himself saving Gucci in the mid-'90s, designer Tom Ford's own label of clean yet glamorous clothing and accessories has had the distinction of selling to both men as well as women--and not all designers appeal to both sexes. His homosexuality is reserved and glamorous, too--r... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:20:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15648 Film by Bret McCabe: "That's the thing about the good ones," singer/songwriter "Bad" Blake (Jeff Bridges) tells Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) about a song he just wrote. "You've heard them all before." That's the magic actor-turned-filmmaker Scott Cooper hopes to work in his writing/directorial debut. Based on Thomas Cobb's... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:16:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15653 Listening Party by Michael Byrne: Patience, friend, and an extremely open mind will let you in. You can listen to the Necks and be pleased; it is very often pretty, unobtrusive music. At the same time, the Aussie trio is one of the most difficult bands around and one of the most transgressive. Over 20-plus years, the Necks have indu... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:53:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15652 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Here's one vote for Secret Mountains being indie-Baltimore's current most likely to succeed act. The five-piece, formed from the ashes of local ensemble the Owls Go, has created the sort of rapturous, deeply considered debut that shows a group of musicians out-of-the-gate ablaze--analogous to Wye Oa... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:46:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15651 Know Your Product by Lee Gardner: Charley Jamison has been playing music for a long time without much widespread acclaim, a fact he tackles head-on on LandSpeedRecord!'s new Unfailurelessness. "The deaf want to know what I've been doing with my life," the guitarist sings on the urgent, nervy indie-rock exemplar "The Deaf Want to Kno... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:22:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15650 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Of all the many indie rappers in Baltimore, PT Burnem is the one that sounds like he could kick your ass. Deep, a tad worn, and boulder-heavy, his is the steamroller to, say, Jones' wood lathe. Which he understands well enough: "I'm a 10-ton Brontosaurus, and I'm rumbling out," he raps on "Baltimore... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:31:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15655 Cheap Eats by Bret McCabe: This natural/health foods and goods store, located in the strip mall across the street from the Timonium Fairgrounds where a big-box Giant recently opened, has always occupied a special place in the heart for its endlessly friendly staff, nice selection of natural skin-care products, and comforting... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:02:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15654 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: "You want to sit at the bar? Watch the chefs make sushi?" asks the hostess at Sushi Hana. No, my companions shake their heads, we want to talk. And so our hostess ushers us around the corner, past full tables and glass shelves filled with paper fans and figurines, to a private table made more priva... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:58:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19617 The News Hole by Van Smith: Only two Baltimore City legislators—state Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-43rd District) and state Del. Frank Conaway Jr. (D-40th District)—filed bills prior to the opening bell of the new state's legislative session, which starts tomorrow. Here's the rundown of their pre-filed legislation.... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19616 X-Content by Van Smith: Geoffrey Himes, in his feature "From the Hills," explores the musical migration of bluegrass to Baltimore: "Bluegrass might be a recessive gene in Baltimore's DNA, just waiting for the right circumstances to express itself again." In Mobtown Beat, Tom Scocca covers the Playhouse Theater's revival s... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19600 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: Wire nerds all over the internet have been abuzz the past 24 hours or so thanks to the release of the first teaser trailer for Treme, David Simon's new series for HBO. The series focuses on musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans, and "New Orleans" and "music" is about all you get from the very Wire-e... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19599 The News Hole by Andrea Appleton: It looks like more bad press for—and in—Baltimore. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism released a study today on the news "ecosystem" of our fair city. It focuses on how the news is reported and who reports it, how it's disseminated, and the roles of new versus... Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19597 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: A report released yesterday by the state Office of Legislative Audits revealed the results of an audit of the Rosewood Center, a state-run facility in Baltimore County that provided treatment to developmentally disabled individuals until it closed its doors in June 2009. The report notes that ther... Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19596 The News Hole by Andrea Appleton: The community has no comment. This was the message—at least for reporters—at a Thursday, Jan. 7 meeting of the Greater Remington Improvement Association on a big-box retail development proposed at 25th and Howard streets. Developer Rick Walker, CEO of Detroit-based Walker Developments In... Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19595 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Here's the government trying to hide the bad deal it made on taxpayers' behalf. The e-mails leave no doubt: Tim Geithner gave the banks, including a foreign bank, at least $13 billion extra U.S. taxpayer dollars over and above the amount AIG execs were negotiating. Bloomberg got it first. NYT's De... Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19594 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: COOL TEXTS Maryland Art Place's Instant Messages ends its run Jan. 9, and if you haven't checked out this show—featuring MFA students from MICA's Graphic Design program directed by Ellen Lupton—just do yourself a favor and check it out. The show features the sort of innovative approaches... Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19593 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Just as we were dropping our 2009 Baltimore City Department of Public Works calendar in the recycling bin, we received the terrible news: A new DPW calendar for 2010 is not forthcoming from the city. The calendar, which we gave a Best of Baltimore award to in 2005 for being the "Best Use of Taxpay... Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19591 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: If you missed Where the Wild Things Are in theaters and are looking forward to watching it on DVD in a few months, don't count on it showing up in a Netflix envelope the week it's released. The Los Angeles Times reports that Netflix and Warner Bros., which distributes Wild Things and other hot title... Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19590 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: A federal judge dismissed Baltimore City's lawsuit against Wells Fargo yesterday, saying it was implausible that the mortgage lender's business practices had done as much damage as the city claimed. "In the present case, the city's allegations . . . of a causal connection between Wells Fargo's all... Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19589 Noise by Al Shipley: 2009 was a big year for Baltimore club music to mutate and combine with other sounds, whether it was indie-rock duo Wye Oak's tender take on Rod Lee's club classic "Dance My Pain Away," Cex's IDM dissection of club breakbeats on his Battaille Royale, or Debonair Samir and Aaron Lacrate getting Jamai... Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19588 Curtain Time by Anna Ditkoff: OPENINGS A fairytale takes flight Jan. 7-16 when In-Flight Theater presents The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen at MICA's BBox performance space (The Gateway, 1601 W. Mount Royal Ave., [410] 800-8685). It's an aerial show that looks seriously Cirque du Soleil and features a mixed cast of heari... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19586 Noise by Al Shipley: There was a healthy buzz in the room for local folk quintet Man & Dog Monday night. Nearly every seat in the small Charles Street venue was filled. That in itself is impressive given that the band formed less than a year ago, and even more so when they took the stage with a charming, polished pe... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19585 The News Hole by Van Smith: It's official: The 68th Street Dump, a Superfund site in Rosedale that doubles as a woodsy playground for trespassing locals, is definitely not safe for recreation—though moreso because of the rough terrain than the pollutants that linger in the soil there, according to a newly released public... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19584 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: The murder of Roger Dennis, a 25-year-old African-American man, has been closed by exception. Dennis was shot in the 1900 block of West North Avenue in 1997. He died on Aug. 1, 2008. The man police believe was responsible for Dennis' death has died. The March 6, 2009 murder of Herbert Carsten Jr, a... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19583 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: By the end of January 2010, the Lof/t—the mixed-use performance and gallery space located on the first floor of the Load of Fun Studios on West North Avenue—will no longer exist. At least, it won't be operating, as it has for the past 12 months, under the organizational watch of Ric Roye... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19578 Mobtown Beat by Joe Tropea: Imagine the sight of A. Robert Kaufman, a young, Jewish high-schooler, and Paul Robeson, the African-American opera singer, star of stage and screen, and social activist, demonstrating together in front of Ford's Theater on West Fayette Street. In 1947, the theater admitted blacks, but they were co... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:34:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19576 Feature by Michael Byrne: There are few cult figures like Scott "Wino" Weinrich. Heavy music has set aside a very special kind of reverence for the singer/guitarist, who helped develop and codify doom metal's slow-motion gnash of ponderous tempos, bleary riffs, and vocals growling the language of end times. Now nearly 50 ye... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:26:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19575 New This Week: Daybreakers Much to the chagrin of movie critics with a soft spot for ludicrous genre flicks squeeze-played into theaters during the January doldrums--see also: Taken, Cloverfield, Smokin' Aces, Hostel, et. al--this sci-fi/horror mash-up from the German writing/directing brother team of Michael and... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:23:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19574 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: All of the very many sound-alike mall-punk bands spawning lukewarm solo-songwriter projects and spin-off bands like Brand New's Sainthood Reps aren't really fooling anyone: find your creativity elsewhere. Anyhow, said band are at the Ottobar with Caspian, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer, Ton... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:21:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19573 Music by Bret McCabe: Lizz King has places to be and things to do. You can tell by the way this string-bean hurricane shoves into a room like a gust of wind through a cracked door. She carries two bags and rifles through both in search of items to show and tell. The bags get dropped and a winter coat gets peeled off and... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:19:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19572 Books by Raymond Cummings: Prior to evolving into the gravity-defying-coif-sporting, catchphrase-spouting enfant terrible who walked away with Project Runway's fourth season title, Christian Siriano was a self-described "little fairy white kid walking around in giant FUBU jerseys" in Annapolis. Today, the bespeckled imp is a... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:14:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19571 Art by Bret McCabe: Something strange is definitely afoot in Shannon Donovan's wall-mounted porcelain and earthenware works at School 33. Her three "Hubcap Portraits" and the wall-covering "Exuberance Is Better Than Taste" are ostentatious and tacky, and feel intentionally so. "Hubcap Portrait: Chintz" is this fuchsia... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:10:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19570 Political Animal by Brian Morton: There is a time in the day of anyone who decides to run for office that that person despises. It entails sitting down in a small room, possibly with a staffer, and a phone and a piece of paper. On that piece of paper is a list of names. And that candidate--whether in office or just aspiring t... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:03:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19569 The Mail: Three cheers to City Paper for including Judith Krug in its annual homage to late little-known greats ("People Who Died," Feature, Dec. 30, 2009).  (Don't forget the Bible, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are, and To Kill a Mockingbird as other hard-to-imagine banne... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:03:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19568 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 4 Murders in 2009: 238 Murders in 2010: 1 Baltimore City saw four more homicides in 2009 than in 2008. While this total keeps the city's homicide rate at a low not seen since the 1980s, the rise in murders, modest though it was, reflects a trend opposite of what's being see... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:00:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19567 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:40:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19562 : Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:32:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19561 : Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:28:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15633 Film by Phyllis Zhu: For a movie titled Youth in Revolt you'd expect something a little more revolutionary, but indie film's favorite awkward teen actor Michael Cera (actually now 21) brings humor to this dark romantic comedy. Adapted from C. D. Payne's 1993 three-part novel, Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp,... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:13:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15626 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Hollywood clichés get their comeuppance in this down and dirty feature quickie from JPNT Films, the local production outfit of producers/writers/directors/actors Jimmy Traynor and Peechee Neric. The JPNT home page (jpntfilms.com) boasts "We are best known for making full length feature movies... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:37:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15625 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: The gravelly voiced Tom Waits playing a bowler-topped devil figure is such a no brainer that it's a wonder nobody ever thought of it before, but director/co-writer Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is so otherwise leaden that it never draws you into its fantastical world. Years bac... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:28:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15624 Film by Wendy Ward: Pretty sure this message got thrown at us when the frenemies-in-nuptial-frenzy Bride Wars came out last year: Ladies, we need to get married. We want it so badly we are willing to sacrifice our friendships, an expensive pair of heels, and our future happiness if it means we can get a freaking ring... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:24:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15623 Film by Bret McCabe: The biggest complaint leveled against the ongoing mature period of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is that he has too comfortably settled into crafting sudsy women's melodramas. For the most part that's true: The transgressive glee of 1980s movies such as Matador and Law of Desire is absent f... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:16:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15627 Listening Party by Michael Byrne: Lindstrøm is a gold-standard Norwegian producer of powerfully fuckable, interstellar tech-disco music (frequently with Prins Thomas); Christabelle is his longtime vocal contributor, a darkly sexy, disembodied vocal force that makes Glass Candy's Ida No sound low-voltage. Together and double-bi... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:53:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15629 Cheap Eats by Lee Gardner: The once bright walls of the former Freda's Kitchen space in Mount Washington have been painted an eggplant-y gray, rows of elegant white tables and chairs look out onto Kelly Avenue, and racks of wine bottles have replaced coolers full of Dr. Brown's soda. There's obviously some ambition here to m... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:56:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15628 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: More than a decade after opening its doors, Sotto Sopra still feels like a night out. Never mind that some folks are in jeans while others are in ties and sports jackets. Dim lighting, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, the delightfully old-fashioned tiled floor (a leftover from the building's days as an o... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:51:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19582 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: For more than three decades the Walter P. Carter center, the only public psychiatric hospital in Baltimore city, provided inpatient and outpatient mental-health services to the poor and uninsured of Baltimore. Over the years state budget cuts reduced the numbers of programs and services offered by t... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19579 The News Hole by Lee Gardner: And maybe not even Baltimore. The fine folks at The Awl (the occasional second home to the Mr. Wrong column) directed our attention to Alec MacGillis' new piece about urban-studies professor/civic revitalization guru Richard Florida in The American Prospect. Florida, as you may recall, is the guy w... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19560 X-Content by Van Smith: The cover story of City Paper's first issue of the new millennium is Joab Jackson's how-to guide to digitizing music from vinyl, advising that "digital music is still an entirely new way of thinking about recorded music." The sidebar notes that digital copies aren't always perfect. Mobtown Beat fea... Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19559 The News Hole by Van Smith: Darvin Moon became a folk hero to many (including yours truly) when he rose from small-time card games in Western Maryland to sit at the table for the World Series of Poker's 2009 main event on Nov. 9. The same day, City Paper earned the ire of many readers by reporting that Moon—whose aw-shuc... Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19558 Noise by Michael Byrne: WMUC's DNA Test Fest is back for 2010 with Pissed Jeans, and it's in Baltimore, not Washington. Our wallets give thanks. [Beatbots] Effing "Frank Zappa Day" is a thing that exists. [AP] J-Roddy Walston and the Business gets a fancy new record label. [The Baltimore Sun] Animal Collective's Deacon... Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19554 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: Hey everybody, Happy Fucking New Year, OK? Have a great big 2010 on me, seriously and for reals, I am all about the Positivity this time around the Sun, and I would enjoy to be one of the first who wishes you a big, wet, sloppy Happy Brand New Two Thousand Ten And No Cents. "No Cents," get it? That... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:10:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19553 The Mail: Tom Tomorrow (This Modern World) is more right than he knows on Obama's liberal Democratic wars. In his cartoon of Dec. 9, he correctly stated that voters projected onto candidate Obama what they wanted him to be, while he, meanwhile, clearly stated he would ramp up our current second war in Afghan... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:09:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19552 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 8 Murders this Year: 235 Two deaths were added to homicide rolls this week, putting the city one homicide above last year's total of 234. Police were called to the 2800 block of Kentucky Avenue in Belair-Edison for a child not breathing at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 19. When they arr... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:07:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19551 Mobtown Beat by Edward Ericson Jr.: The Federal Housing Administration suspended Equitable Trust Mortgage Corp., a prominent Canton mortgage lender, from originating new FHA mortgages for six months. The FHA then reinstated the company a few days later after it agreed to make restitution averaging about $4,000 per borrower and pay a... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:05:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19550 Feature by Edward Ericson Jr.: If you've never heard of "the area rule" or admired the counter-intuitive lines of the F-106 Delta Dart fighter jet, that's OK. You still have Richard Whitcomb to thank for your ability to fly from New York to Miami for under $250, round-trip. Whitcomb was an aeronautical engineer who worked most... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:00:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19549 Feature by Wendy Ward: Back in 1966, women wore wide-legs to hostess, recipe books included multiple versions of aspic, and Clamato--a blend of tomato juice and clam juice--was brand new on grocer's shelves. The latter was just one of the ways Sylvia Schur, the lady mixologist behind Mott's odd savory beverage, influenc... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:58:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19548 Feature by Bret McCabe: Backing up a legend is a sure-fire road to obscurity. Hard-core football fans may recognize the names Gary Cuozzo, Earl Morrall, George Shaw, and Tommy Tuckerton, but nearly everybody has heard of Johnny Unitas, the quarterback who all the aforementioned snap-callers played behind at some point in... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:55:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19547 Feature by Lee Gardner: Most of the time, people show up in these year-end obit round-ups because of something they've contributed to the world. Allen Klein is notable in large part for what he took from it. As an accountant and manager for 1960s soul and pop acts, including Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:53:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19545 Feature by Lee Gardner: Jack Cardiff would be on no one's list of great film directors of the 20th century--the movie for which he is perhaps best known as an auteur is usually considered a laughable disaster. As a cinematographer, however, Cardiff was one of the foremost technician/poets of the big screen, responsi... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:47:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19544 Feature by Joe Tropea: Long before Paris Hilton or Pamela Anderson gave their first video blowjobs, there was Marilyn Chambers. Before trash culture became normalized and piped into homes via cable and wi-fi, she scandalized pre-internet America. We will remember her as porn's first and arguably best-known mainstreamer.... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:45:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19543 Feature by Anna Ditkoff: If you've read The Catcher in the Rye or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you might have librarian Judith Krug to thank. Hell, if you've used the dictionary--which has actually been removed from school library shelves for bad language--you should light a candle for Krug, the patron saint of not... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:43:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19542 Feature by Edward Ericson Jr.: In 1951, while American fight fans argued about whether Ezzard Charles or Rocky Marciano was the world's greatest fighter, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound Brazilian named Helio Gracie made fight history by losing badly to a Japanese judo champion named Masahiko Kimura, who weighed about 180. Kimura had told... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:41:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19541 Feature by Bret McCabe: The truth is, most writers would gladly settle for one great book. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it'd be great to have a long and prosperous career, cranking out celebrated genre works that get adapted into movies--and maybe even write a movie yourself. But if you get right down to it, any writer wouldn't mind... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:38:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19540 Feature: Michael Jackson was only 50 when he died on June 25. Claude Lévi-Strauss was 100 when he passed on Oct. 30. Jackson was undoubtedly the more famous of the two, a household name all over the planet, and the ludicrous hype of his later career and his tabloid notoriety don't dim the appeal of... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:35:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19539 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Slave Scene, a presumably punk band from Florida whose name brings up a lot of slave-girl porn on the internet, puts a hurt on the Hexagon with Needlegun, Pfisters, and Nazi Dust. The Roots wrap up a two-night run at Washington's 9:30 Club. The Dark Star Orchestra, "continuing the Gratef... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:30:52 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19538 New This Week: 42ND STREET Bebe Daniels, Ginger Rogers, and Ruby Keeler star in this 1933 Warner Bros. musical about the backstage goings-on behind a Broadway musical. With Busby Berkeley musical numbers and a knife-sharp script set in and shaped by the Depression, it's one of the granddaddies of the ridiculously... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:29:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19537 Art by Bret McCabe: Local artist Jen Kirby is a master of the epic ephemeral. Her string installations, as seen at the Whole Gallery's Off the Wall last April and the University of Maryland at College Park Stamp Gallery's The Unfolded Crystal in August, straddle the onerous environmental and the whispery psychological... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:25:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19531 : Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:07:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19530 : Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:06:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15608 No Cover by Al Shipley: "I listen to every style of music," says Gary Barrett Jr., over a few beers one snowy night at a Charles Village bar. "I have a favorite band in each category. But the guitar band with the lead singer, and all his characteristics and all his neuroses, that's the best. Like if Woody Allen had a ban... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:40:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15610 Cheap Eats by Erin Sullivan: Leon's is a fixture in Arbutus. It's operated in the same spot for almost half a century, serving basic diner-menu staples--burgers, omelets, club sandwiches--as well as some Maryland favorites, such as crab fluff, stuffed shrimp, and tomatoes stuffed with shrimp salad. The best meal of the day serv... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:47:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15609 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Sunday, we are told, is the day to visit Immeasurable Chicken and Waffle. Try early afternoon, suggests Yanna Foster, just after church services let out, and everyone is ready for comfort food after being spiritually nourished. On Sundays, men and women in sharp suits and hats fill the tables and b... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:26:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19555 The News Hole by Lee Gardner: The still-developing story of West Baltimore activist Lenny Clay and his injury due to alleged police brutality has so far provided more questions than answers, and here's today's question. Justin Fenton's follow-up in The Sun on a rally held in support of Clay refers to the following locations: Acc... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19546 Mobtown Beat by Lee Gardner: On Sunday evening, Dec. 27, I received an e-mail informing me that A. Robert Kaufman had died on Dec. 25. The local radical-left activist and perennial candidate for political office had succumbed after a protracted struggle with health complications resulting from a 2005 attack. The Sun soon weigh... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:49:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19536 X-Content by Van Smith: In this week's feature, "Charmed Century," Tom Chalkley and Brennen Jensen scroll through the century's Baltimore news, with a time-line accompaniment. In Mobtown Beat, Andrew Reiner profiles the African Museum, part of Yahney Sangarey's effort to change perceptions about Africa, and the Nose sniff... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19527 The News Hole by Michael Byrne: The Baltimore Sun's Getting There blog posted a response from the Maryland Transit Authority to all the hullabaloo about bikes not being allowed on MARC trains generated by a Greater Greater Washington post a couple of weeks ago. No surprise, but it's not exactly satisfying. The MTA's Henry M. Kay n... Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15591 Film by Anna Ditkoff: The Young Victoria delivers something woefully few movies have lately--a believable and engrossing love story. It chronicles the early life of Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt) from her sheltered childhood to the early years of her reign, which began when she was just 18. But the heart of the story is no... Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:46:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15590 Film by Erin Sullivan: Sherlock Holmes, the character, has been portrayed in as many ways as there are actors who've played him--that is, 75 different men in 211 different movies. He's been played as a stuffy, middle-aged Victorian detective, a cocaine-addicted headcase, a teenage boy at boarding school, a Nazi-fighting w... Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:00:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15589 Film by Wendy Ward: Rarely does a movie convincingly concentrate on a divorcée. Yet in It's Complicated Nancy Meyers, a director whose movies are peopled with Hollywood's older leading ladies (The Women, What Women Want, and Something's Gotta Give), trains her camera's eye on divorcée Jane (Meryl Steep), who is finally... Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:41:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19526 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: When you have a trio of piano, trumpet, and upright bass, the temptation is to make up for the missing drummer with a heavy left hand on the piano, repeating riffs on the trumpet, and a steady stream of eighth notes on the bass. The Eddie Palmieri Trio not only resisted this temptation at An Die Mus... Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19525 The News Hole by Van Smith: The Sun's crime reporter, Justin Fenton, has been on a roll, measured as much by his prodigious output of stories as by the depths to which he's been digging. ' His coverage of the recent stabbing death associated with a party held at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum has been particularly probing. Th... Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19524 Feature by Rahne Alexander: The landscape in White Sands, N.M., consists almost exclusively of high, brilliantly white sand dunes that are constantly shifting. The limited vegetation is hardly enough to keep the land in check, so there are National Park Service signs everywhere reminding you to turn back if you can no longer s... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:00:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19523 Feature by Anna Ditkoff: I've never been an early adopter. I didn't get e-mail until college, and then barely used it for years. I waited as long as humanly possible to get a cell phone, and even then it took me a while to start using it as my primary means of communication. It's not that I'm a Luddite. I just don't inheren... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:57:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19522 Feature by Erin Sullivan: I remember liking the way he looked in the pictures--the corners of his mouth curled up in this clownish grimace, and his amber-colored eyes looked so innocent and pleading--pleading for what, I didn't know at the time. Naively, I thought maybe understanding or affection, after living life as just a... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:55:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19521 Feature by Heather Harris: If she had told me what was going on, instead of letting me discover it for myself, I wouldn't have felt betrayed. I would have supported her, taken her side even. It's not like I've never been in a morally questionable situation and in need of feedback from people who believe I'm basically a decent... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:52:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19520 Feature by Lee Gardner: I don't know if it's a story I'll tell my grandkids, but I remember the first time I downloaded an album. I recall sitting in front of the Mac in the dining room one evening, pulling up iTunes, and clicking on the buy album button to purchase British grime dude Wiley's Treddin' on Thin Ice. This is... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:49:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19519 Feature by Tim Hill: On March 19, 2003, the most powerful military force on the planet began raining bombs on buildings across Baghdad, attempting to decapitate the most evil head on the planet from its oppressed corpus. A shattered leadership would soften the resistance for when the tanks rolled in. Six-plus years late... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:48:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19518 Feature by Anna Ditkoff: I'm not sure what inspired me to buy a house. I wasn't married and I didn't have kids. Maybe it was because by 2002 so many people I knew had scored $40,000 rowhouses. Maybe it was a desire to invest in my adopted hometown, a declaration of my adulthood, or a feminist act--a single woman buying a ho... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:38:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19517 Feature by Lee Gardner: In 2001, music seemed kinda done to me. Or maybe I was done. Either way, it was kind of a problem. I had been a music obsessive since elementary school, spending hours listening to my dad's Allman Brothers albums and old Chess Records LPs and studying the sleeve notes like they contained the secrets... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:32:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19516 Feature by Van Smith: At first, in early spring, the business that took over the vacant garage on the alley behind my house seemed like it'd make a good neighbor. Evidently, it required only a blow torch and an air wrench powered via an illegal hook-up off the utility pole. The place hummed: zzzztch-zzzztch, vvvvt-vvvvt,... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:26:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19515 Feature by Bret McCabe: The Y2K scare, the dot-com bust. Sept.11, weapons of mass destruction, mission accomplished. Hurricane Katrina, evacuation, "looting," George Bush doesn't care about black people. A president admitted to knowingly giving misleading testimony. A different president's born-again son served two terms a... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:12:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19513 Feature: Arts Editor's Note: I sent Michael Yockel an e-mail asking about how the original "My Favorite Year" came to be. Below is his response and the original issue. To the best of my recollection, we--the editorial staff of City Paper--based "My Favorite Year" on no existing model. We created it. While... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:00:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19511 Feature by Edward Ericson Jr.: MOST STORIES OF GOOD FORTUNE don't start with losing your job. Mine does. In February of 2003, I was abruptly fired from an alternative weekly newspaper. I had been there for nearly four years, and the publisher was a friend who I had known for more than a decade. She had given me my patio furniture... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:52:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19510 New This Week: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA The setting is appropriate for the Marx Brothers' most popular movie, a farce pitched to such grandiose comic heights it's almost operatic. As ever, Groucho plays a scheming wise guy who, when he isn't busy hustling dowager Margaret Dumont, teams with foils/accomplices Chico and... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:53:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19509 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: I'm not a big reality TV person, but I have to say, the drama around Jersey Shore has been provocative enough to make me check out a few episodes of MTV's newest entry into the genre. Taking place on, well, the Jersey Shore, the show follows the misadventures of eight twentysomething self-proclaime... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:50:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19508 The Mail: As a socially conscious filmgoer, I would differ with many of the 10 selections in City Paper's "The Year in Movies" (Top Ten, Feature, Dec. 9). Of course, as a long-time reader I know that social relevance is of no importance to most of the critics who review the cinema for City Paper. I agree... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:49:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19507 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: North Carolina post-punk band the Quarantines infects the public at the Ottobar with Snake Charmer and Old Line Regulars. Get sweaty and nasty with a bunch of attractive young 'uns at the Baltimore Bass Connection's annual holiday party at Sonar; Spank Rock, the Death Set, Amanda Blank,... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:45:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19506 Feature by Michael Byrne: IT WAS A YEAR OF HOTEL ROOMS. The Greenwell Inn, Price, Utah: Everything was light blue-green in and outside of the rooms, almost the color of the swimming pool, on a wide ex-highway boulevard through a desert town of 8,000 in Carbon County—which means coal. The (former) Narrows Motel, Glen Ar... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:40:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19505 Feature by Bret McCabe: BY THE TIME WE reached the flea market, I had to confess that everything wasn't going as planned. In Bucharest, Romania, a flea market crops up every Sunday morning along the banks of the mighty Dambovitza River, where you can finds odd crafts and various Soviet-era artifacts—or so I was led t... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:18:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19504 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders This Week: 3 Murders This Year: 227 Wednesday, Dec. 16 3:33 p.m. Darnell Gray, a 35-year-old African-American man, was riding in the back seat of an SUV with a bunch of friends. When they rolled into the 700 block of Bartlett Avenue in East Baltimore Midway, two men standing on the... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19501 : Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:00:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19500 : Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:58:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19498 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:08:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15588 Cheap Eats by Anna Ditkoff: I recently stopped into Nam Kang for lunch. I wasn't thinking about having a thrifty lunch, I just had a serious hankering for a Korean hot pot. But it turns out, Nam Kang is loaded with lunch specials from jampong ($7.95), a spicy noodle soup with seafood, to the classic dol bab ($8.95), rice, vegg... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:40:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19499 X-Content by Van Smith: Michael Anft's feature about the impending demolition of Flag House Courts, the last of the city's public-housing high-rises, examines a city program that critics dubbed "a deliberate effort to reduce the density of poverty by reducing the number of housing units for the poor." In Mobtown Beat, Moll... Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19493 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: Halfway through his two-hour-plus show at the Rams Head Tavern on Sunday, Jerry Douglas departed from the program's Christmas theme and led his sextet through one of his signature instrumental tunes, "From Ankara to Izmir." Standing tall in his loose black shirt and red goatee, Douglas slid his silv... Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15592 Film by Anna Ditkoff: Much of this romantic comedy centers on Hugh Grant making jokes that nobody else thinks are funny. Nobody--not the wife he cheated on, nor the country folk he ends up surrounded by. As each joke echoes in the silence of those around it, you start to really feel Grant's pain. His wry one-liners are a... Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:26:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19491 The Arts by Michael Byrne : ON NOV. 23, WALTER CARPENTER, a powerful presence in both Baltimore's avant-garde music and art communities, passed away. He was 27. The Maryland native was one of the co-founders of the now defunct Hollins Market performance space SCarey studios, one half of freeform ambient-noise proje... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:13:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19492 Arts and Minds by Erin Sullivan: Pop-up retail—the practice of opening temporary stores, often in unusual locations—is not a new phenomenon. For years, artists and indie artisans have reclaimed vacant spaces for short-term uses, such as craft fairs or art markets, and in 2004 the Trendwatching blog observed the practice... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19486 Feature by Bret McCabe: Blunt facts can only tell part of any story. Fact: Fallujah is a modest-sized city located in central Iraq on the banks of the Euphrates River, roughly 69 kilometers west of Baghdad. In 2003, its population was estimated by the United Nations at around 425,000, a size that doesn't even make it one... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:13:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19485 The Mail: I am afraid that Rosalind Ellis is "failing to comprehend" the wrong thing ("Beans and Fiends," The Mail, Dec. 9). I feel confident that the Catholic Church has a pretty clear understanding of the risks of providing services. As an 18-year veteran of homeless services, I appreciate the risks, and a)... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:51:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19484 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 6 Murders this Year: 224 The death of Josue Zelaya, an 18-year-old Hispanic male, has been removed from the Baltimore Police Department's official homicide tally because it has been ruled an accident. Zelaya was shot to death at a friend's house in the 400 block of North Glover... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:45:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19483 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the agenda for Dec. 10 The City Council's last meeting of the year was a busy one. Four proposed ordinances and two resolutions concerned rights, and rights-of-way, for cyclists--and that's not even counting the brewing controversy over mountain biking around Loch Raven Reservoir (Councilmania,... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:43:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19482 Mobtown Beat by William Robinson: A new program that provides cell phones for individuals who qualify for social services, such as Medicaid and food stamps, has officially been approved in Maryland. SafeLink Wireless, a new service provided by cell phone provider TracFone Wireless, was approved last month to begin offering free pr... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:39:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19481 Political Animal by Brian Morton: Who would have thought that such a simple and historic process such as jury deliberations could be affected by the modern wave of social media? Currently, Sheila Dixon is mayor-for-now, but "now" may last a good long while, since her attorneys have a veritable candy store of arguments from which... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:35:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19480 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Lazlo Lee and the Motherless Children bring their bluesy garage-rock to the Metro Gallery with the Expotentials. Justin Jones, a singer/songwriter and Townes Van Zandt disciple with some momentum, and his band the Driving Rain play the 8X10 with American Aquarium and David Andrew Smith. ... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:33:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19479 Music by Michael Byrne: A backyard shed, a basement, a kitchen, a cabin in Shenandoah National Park--bedroom pop needn't be recorded in a bedroom. Emergent songwriters Kurt Vile, Tickley Feather, Ducktails, and Toro Y Moi--all making indie music characterized by a certain manner of lo-fi production and devil-may-care atte... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:31:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19478 New This Week: DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant star as a couple on the rocks that gets further shaken up when they're forced into witness protection together; from Two Weeks Notice writer/director Marc Lawrence. Opens Dec. 18. MANHATTAN Woody Allen's 1979's bittersweet mash n... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:25:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19477 Books by Andy Markowitz: What's that line? Talking about music is like dancing about architecture. It popped into my head a lot over the first 289 pages of John Ortved's The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, and I thought I was pretty clever until Ortved himself trotted it out on page 290. My piercing insight... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:19:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19476 Books by Lee Gardner: Of course Robert Altman gets an oral biography. What better way to tell the life story of a filmmaker whose trademark was overlapping dialog that offered many levels of information and occasional competing takes on reality? Not that there's that much substantive disagreement voiced in Mitchell Zuck... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:16:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19475 Quick Sketches: THE BIG SHOWS Late December is frequently an art-looking quiet time, as the year comes to a close along with a number of gallery shows. During this time, though, some of you may be taking a day off here and there so as not to lose any 2009 vacation days, or perhaps just have a few more days off tha... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:13:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19474 Art by Martin L. Johnson: Bulky, slow, and hard to use, the facsimile machine is the last of the office-technology dinosaurs. Although the underlying technology was first patented in the 1840s, it took almost a century and a half for the demand for the devices to make them practical for business use. But in its heyday, the... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:00:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19473 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: At the preview performance of The Santaland Diaries at CenterStage, production director and company Artistic Director Irene Lewis hilariously and unnervingly described her disdain for the Bob Dylan Christmas carols that were the pre-show house music. It was a fitting way to kick off David Sedari... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:40:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19468 : Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:21:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15569 Film by Joe MacLeod: Directed by James Cameron James Cameron (Titanic, The Terminator, Aliens) pissed everybody off at the Oscars once when he said he was the "king of the world" just because he won an Oscar, but now he has gone and made a whole new planet of which he really is king of--God, basically. Also, he will s... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:15:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15568 Film by Bret McCabe: Jason Reitman has one of the more casually confident senses of tone of any young mainstream director working right now. In but three features, he's managed to view seemingly thorny subjects--including the tobacco lobby in 2005's Thank You for Smoking and teen pregnancy in 2007's Juno--through a bro... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:08:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15575 Know Your Product by Michael Bryne: Thank You's first recording since losing drumming force-of-nature/band centerpiece Elke Wardlaw two-odd years ago, Pathetic Magic delivers a scant two new songs, packaged with three remixes from Baltimore luminaries Dan Deacon, Jason Urick (with Joe Williams), and Zomes' arch-minimalist Asa Osborne.... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:37:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15572 Listening Party by Bret McCabe: Hustling may be a recession-proof business--see: Rick Ross' "Rich Off Cocaine," Birdman's "Money to Blow," Pill's "Trap Goin' Ham"--but hip-hop hopelessly devoted to rags-to-cocaine riches stories in 2009 feels rather, well, like Bernie Madoff talking about how it's hard out there for a pimp. Just h... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:50:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15571 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Lo-cum-no-fi/shitgaze--pop/punk-lite music purposefully made to sound shitty, basically--should probably be taken behind the barn, shot, and buried without a gravestone. It's a novelty, if not an inside joke that won't shut up. Its shining moments--Eat Skull's Sick to Death, the Hunches' Exit Dreams... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:35:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15570 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: A nicked Ozark Mountain Daredevils lyric (or a wicked coincidence) then a nicked Biggie lyric over a sped-up nicked Bob Marley song, and it's obvious that BiggPatch is much more than the "Marleyboy" advertised in the track's title. Aries Rising as a whole travels along those meshed lines, a smooth C... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:26:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15574 Cheap Eats by Michael Byrne: It should probably be a red flag when a restaurant offers up an introductory special of free food nearly equal to food paid for. This is what happened with Hampden's Friend Kitchen: a couple of standard entrées (Hunan chicken, $8.55, and kung pao tofu, $7.95, both excellent by cheap-delivery st... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:14:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15573 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Diablita, a painted she-devil all curves and shadows, beckons from the south wall of the old Tack Factory building. She draws you inside her namesake, Diablita (1300 Bank St., [410] 522-0012, diablitacantina.com), plies you with liquor and smiles from a friendly staff before you stumble back out on... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:03:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19488 CPTV by Joe Tropea: Emmy award-winning, Oscar-nominated documentarian Ken Burns was in Baltimore Dec. 8, at the B&O Railroad Museum. He's been in town often this year, he says, giving speeches, doing promo appearances, visiting The Sun. This time it was to win yet another award: the 2009 Patriotism Award bestowed b... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19487 X-Content by Van Smith: Staff writers Michael Anft and Molly Rath fill the feature hole by expounding "Ten Things We Love About 1999" in Baltimore news: Martin O'Malley as the new mayor, the flailing school-reform effort, the high murder rate, the weather, the Westside renewal project, the Annapolis battle over the Interco... Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19465 Music by Michael Byrne and Lee Gardner: All apologies for the misleading title, but now that you're here, I might as well confess that this is hardly a coprehensive primer on music's better singles in 2009. No, nope, there isn't time. What follows is a smattering--and only that--of the tracks that we've been obsessing over, that crowd our... Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:09:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19467 The News Hole by Michael Byrne: The Greater Greater Washington blog and The Baltimore Sun's Getting There blog—both generally excellent regional transportation sites—have two recent posts up discussing the possibility of allowing bicycles on MARC trains. It's an issue that doesn't come up much because, I imagine, MARC'... Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19464 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: This morning Shawn Michael Green, a former federal fugitive accused by the feds of drug trafficking and money laundering, pleaded guilty to drug dealing and being involved in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The plea agreement also outlines Green's involvement in a fraud scheme, along with his mo... Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST