http://www.citypaper.com/ Recent Baltimore City Paper Content. en-us Copyright 2009 Baltimore City Paper http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19242 Noise by Michael Byrne: Apologies for not getting this in the print edition of City Paper, but there's an especially notable show Saturday night, Nov. 7. Ecstatic Sunshine, now a rotating cast revolving around co-founder Matt Papich, releases its first full-length record, Yesterday's Work (Hoss)—a set of sunny, pasto... Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19241 Noise by Michael Byrne: The Talking Head is kinda sorta going away. Booker-in-chief Adam Savage assures us, however, that "Talking Head will never die." The Live Entertainment Bill passes a City Council vote; formerly hysterical DIY folks sleep in. The ever-prolific MC Wordsmith is circulating a new single, "Braggin' Rig... Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19239 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: This past July, Las Vegas tight-pants rock quartet the Killers sold out two nights at London's Royal Albert Hall, evenings recorded for the upcoming The Killers Live from the Royal Albert Hall CD/DVD/Blu-ray, due out Nov. 10. Tonight through Nov. 11, the Senator Theatre offers a sneak peak of that c... Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19236 Feature by Erin Sullivan: It's 7:58 a.m. Monday morning at the Baltimore County Department of Social Services office at Drumcastle Center in Towson. The waiting room is quickly filling with people who've come to apply for food stamps, temporary cash assistance, energy assistance, and other public benefits. There's already a... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:45:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19234 Political Animal by Brian Morton: The town of Monticello, Minn., sits at the northern end of the Mississippi River, about an hour's drive northwest of Minneapolis. It's a picturesque place, home to a little more than 10,000 people, according to 2006 census information. Back in 2007, the town thought that if it had a fiber-optic n... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19233 The Mail: Brian Morton's "Poor Health" (Political Animal, Sept. 23) combines excellent sympathies with a mistaken analysis of the forces at work in the current health-care reform debacle. True, as Morton observes, the voice of poor people usually has little impact on our politics. Indeed, I'd go so far as to... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:29:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19232 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 3 Murders this Year: 187 Monday, Oct. 26 10:15 p.m. Joshua McKinny, a 24-year-old African-American man, was pronounced brain dead at an area hospital. McKinny was shot two days earlier. Just after 10 p.m. on Oct. 24, police got several 911 calls about a shooting in the 2000... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:21:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19231 Councilmania: On the agenda, Oct. 26 Bill 08-0163 Live Entertainment and dancing--zoning--conditional uses. Creates new zoning rules for restaurants and bars wanting to host live bands or performances. The Read: This bill, tabled since July, was not listed on the agenda. Councilman James Kraft (D... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:20:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19230 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Lynae Chapman, a 21-year-old correctional officer for the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC), is obviously pregnant as she stands before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge John Prevas on Oct. 27. The father of her unborn child, concedes Chapman's defense attorney Lawrence Rosenberg, is 22-year-... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:19:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19229 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Polish speed/thrash/death-metal band Vader plays Sonar with Decrepit Birth, Warbringer, the Amenta, Augury, and Swashbuckle. Second-string post-hardcore outfit A Wilhelm Scream stops off at the Ottobar with Living With Lions, the Riot Before, the Side Affects, and Idleminds. Third-wave s... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:12:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19228 Music by Sam Hopkins: For soul singers like Syl Johnson, it's often been a choice between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore when it comes time to play the Mid-Atlantic. "I used to play the Howard Theater," the 73-year-old R&B legend says in a phone interview, recalling the Washington music landmark that is now a cin... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:11:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19225 New This Week: The Box Donnie Darko/Southland Tales writer/director Richard Kelly goes a tad more Hollywood conventional with this thriller about a couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) given the option to solve their financial woes by pressing a button in a box--although their gain comes with costs. Opens Nov... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:05:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19224 Books by Lee Gardner: "When I was in college, one of the TAs of one of my writing seminars asked me, 'Why are all your stories about kids?'" Natalie Standiford recalls. At the time, she says, "I thought, Well, I'm 18, what do you expect me to write about?" After she graduated from Brown University and moved to New York... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:56:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19223 Quick Sketches: CHEVOLUTION In the summer of 2006 the mammoth Sixties Fashion Exhibit took over a part of London's Victoria and Albert Museum to much fanfare, but an entirely different '60s emblem was also ensconced in the grand Kensington museum. Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon directly explored his graphical... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:54:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19222 Art by Martin L. Johnson: In an essay published in 2007, art critic Arthur Danto, quoting Joyce Kozloff, provocatively claims that there are not two, but three types of art: figurative, abstract, and pattern and decoration. And while the first two categories continue to inform art practice and criticism, issues of the third... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:42:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19221 Curtain Time: Notes of Note American Opera Theater kicks off its season with a brand new show called Songspiel. The Baltimore-based touring opera company created the show, featuring songs by Kurt Weill, to show off the mad skills of Grammy-winning soprano Sylvia McNair. Songspiel runs Nov. 6-14 at the Theatre Pr... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:31:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19220 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: It was jarring to hear Christmas carols on a Sunday afternoon in October. Even the woman handing out tickets at Vagabond seemed perplexed by it. "What are we listening to?" she asked of the holiday classics permeating the tiny lobby. "Oh, right, it's Christmas." And if thinking about Christmas bef... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:23:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19219 Stage by John Barry: The writer of The Prevalence of Mrs. Seal, currently running at the Spotlighters Theatre, isn't mentioned in the program. Intentionally or not, that tells you something about the play itself. It's the sort of idea a group of drinking buddies would come up with in Sardi's at closing time without re... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:17:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19218 Stage by Bret McCabe: "We had no idea how demanding it was gong to be," says Everett Quinton, recalling an opening night in a small Greenwich Village theater in the fall of 1984. "We had no idea if it was going to work. And then, we realized that it was the laughs that bought us the time to make the changes. The laugh b... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:14:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19213 : Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:51:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15428 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: In WWII-era Shanghai, former university student and actress turned resistance spy Wang Chia Chi (Tang Wei) infiltrates the house of Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) and his wife (Joan Chen). Yee works with the police arm of the occupying Japanese government, and the cell wants to honey-pot ensnare Yee with Wang... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:26:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15427 Film by Bret McCabe: Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is just a small-town journalist who seeks to prove his manhood after his wife leaves him by heading to Iraq during the first few months of the 2003 invasion. He's a reporter in search of a story; what he finds instead is his destiny in the form of Lyn Cassady (George Cloo... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:21:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15425 Film by Joe MacLeod: No, Yankee Doodle, it's not a movie about an airline. It's the late '60s/early '70s in drizzly old England, and if you don't fancy soccer, or sports, or at least really English movies, then run along so the rest of us Anglophiles can spread out and enjoy this amusing, emotional, and well-performed... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:10:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15424 Film by Wendy Ward: There's a moment at the end of Coco Before Chanel that's so unnecessary it's as if from another movie: a montage of earlier scenes that you have just watched, in a way, with Coco. Did director Anne Fontaine think you had forgotten what Coco went through before the last scene's fashion show of iconic... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:02:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15422 No Cover by Michael Byrne: "Something about a pint glass breaking always makes your night go better," sings Sick Sick Birds frontman Mike Hall in pop-punk's signature could-yell-if-I-want-to sing-song. That's the introduction to SSB's debut full-length, Heavy Manners (Toxic Pop)--a wicked-fun, eight-song pop-punk romp that n... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:40:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15423 Listening Party by Lee Gardner: More bands should do this: When the drummer quits, don't hire a new one and see what happens. That's effectively what took place after Jarle Vespestad left Norwegian electro-acoustic improvising group Supersilent last year. Remaining members Arve Henriksen (trumpet, voice), Ståle Storløkk... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:54:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15431 Cheap Eats by Edward Ericson Jr.: The radio is tuned to some oldies R&B and the aroma is tuned to a mix of steam and subtle spices. The attitude feels like home, but it's North Carolina-based. That's where owner Cheryl Townsend comes from, by way of Silver Spring: Red Springs, N.C. She opened Red Springs Café last spring, a... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:07:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15430 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Kali's Mezze doesn't have quite the visibility of the other Kali's enterprises. There's no wrought-iron balcony a la Kali's Court. No bright, wide windows to lure folks in, like Kali's Meli. No will-it-make-it-in-this-space anticipation, like the soon to be opened Tapas Adela (also owned by the Kal... Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:47:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19237 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: In the wake of Hamid Karzai's fraud-fueled resumption of power in Afghanistan, reported diplomatic overtures to the Taliban, and numerous other odd coincidences, we hereby present this handy comparison of Omar Little of 'The Wire' to Mullah Omar of 'The Taliban.' Omar Little ... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:44:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19227 Arts and Minds by Nicholas Harsh: When Will-e Robo took the stage Oct. 22 at the Baltimore Comedy Factory, he had a lot working against him. The joint was less than half full and the audience was lethargic. To warm himself up, Robo drew inspiration from the crowd in front of him. No one was safe from his blunt opinions and twisted i... Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19226 X-Content by Van Smith: Two tech-minded stories fill the feature hole this week: Steve Perry's "Y2K: Endgames and Entropy Curves: Notes on the shape of things to come" ("Y2K problems, on the whole, are far likelier to be chronic and nagging than acute and short-lived, and more likely to result in economic than civil upheav... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19212 Noise by Bret McCabe: For four years and two albums Nashville's Be Your Own Pet tore through garage punk with the sort of brashness that only teenagers can deliver. The quartet delivered everything at the frenetic clip of young people trying to live before they got old or the Jolt cola ran out—whichever came first.... Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19211 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: The Greenmount Avenue building that houses both Normals Books and Records and the Red Room performance space was sold at auction earlier today, but it looks like business as usual for both establishments. Details on the deal are still sketchy; Steph Campfield, the sale agent for former owner Proper... Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19210 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story today explaining that AIG has gotten back several billion dollars in collateral it posted last year against losses in the credit-default swap market. But, most of the "bad" contracts, which now look not-so-bad, were "closed out" by the government bai... Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19209 Noise by Raymond Cummings: When we chewed the fat with sonic collagist James "Twig" Harper about his latest compositions recently, the Nautical Almanac co-captain and HereSee co-operator had a great deal to tell us-more than we could cram into the print version of our recent story. In the full-length interview below, Harper c... Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19208 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: Josh Ginsburg was just a skinny, fledgling musician when he started playing bass as a teenager around his Baltimore hometown in the early '90s. On Friday he returned home for a concert at An Die Musik as the 32-year-old leader of the Josh Ginsburg Quartet. He brought along three top colleagues from... Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19207 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: The building at the corner of 31st Street and Greenmount Avenue (3048 Greenmount Ave.) goes up for auction at 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 29. This fact wouldn't be particularly notable in this era of wholesale foreclosures except that the building houses venerable used bookstore/subcultural center Normal... Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19206 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Gallery Imperato sent out an e-mail press release last Friday, Oct. 23, announcing immediate relocation plans: Gallery Imperato is in the process of relocating. We will no longer be conducting business at 921 E. Fort Ave. We look forward to announcing our new location and date for a grand re-opening... Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19205 The News Hole by Van Smith: Electracash, the California payment processor whose bank accounts were targeted in July by federal investigators probing illegal on-line gambling, is out nearly $800,000, according to court documents filed Oct. 21. On Sept. 30, Interstate Net Bank cut a $324,632.71 check to Immigration and Customs... Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19204 The News Hole by Van Smith: As the Maryland-based federal probe of on-line gambling continues, the latest move to show up in court records in Baltimore is the seizure of $365,366.69 from two bank accounts in the name of Atrium Financial Group (AFG). According to the affidavit in the case (below), Delaware-based AFG disburses m... Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19202 Feature: Seed Of Terror Pimpin' sting operations ain't easy. ACORN registers voters and agitates for the poor. It also receives federal funding. The horror! The horror! (This mask is especially scary to Republicans.) Download a large pdf version Image courtesy BlackThor... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:52:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19200 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: It really sucks having a column that only comes out every three weeks, seriously. I mean, last week I woulda had some Opinions and stuff about Balloon Boy or whatever was happening last week, but now Balloon Boy is over, right? I mean, now it's boring because it was an Inside Job or whatever, so who... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:15:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19199 The Mail: Thanks for the great story on public pensions ("Pension Headache," Feature, Oct. 14). Edward Ericson Jr. did an excellent job making a topic that is difficult for even insiders very accessible. After infrastructure repair, post-employment pay and benefits are probably the biggest public-money issues... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:14:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19198 Councilmania: On the Agenda for Oct. 19 Bill 09-0413-Water and Sewer Rates and Charges-Domestic Users. Would require that city water bills paid by residents be based only on the amount of water actually used, with no minimum service charge. The read: Councilman Bernard C. "Jack" Young (D-12th District)... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:07:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19197 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 3 Murders this Year: 184 The death of Constantine Frank, a 54-year-old Caucasian man, was added to the homicide rolls this week. On July 29 at 8 p.m., an employee of Frank's business, Precision Vending, found Frank in the office of the warehouse in the 1000 block of South La... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:05:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19196 Mobtown Beat: Linda Gunn is standing at the chart table at the bottom of a short, steep ladder on her schooner-a two-masted traditional sailboat-the Farewell. It's night, and it's cold and dark. The wind is blowing around 20 knots from the north, which is good, because the boat is traveling south, but also bad, b... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:03:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19194 Curtain Time: Transylvania Twist DanceRink returns to Theatre Project (45 W. Preston St., [410] 539-3091, theatreproject.org) to perform its version of Dracula. Adapted from a 1938 radio-play starring Orson Welles, director and choreographer Scott Rink's troupe will dance its way through the blood sucking Oct. 28... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:58:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19193 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: It's easy to forget that The Rocky Horror Show was a stage play before it was a picture show. Originally performed in London in 1973, the play was Richard O'Brien's homage to B-movies. Two years later, it debuted as the iconic movie starring Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a not-so-sweet transvesti... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:53:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19192 Stage by John Barry: In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde writes that "In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the important thing." With that in mind, Riccardo Hernandez's set for the CenterStage production of the play may be right on the money. It greets the audience with a mix of web-site c... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:49:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19191 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Avant-garde rhythm ensemble So Percussion performs at the Metro Gallery with Microkingdom and Gestures. Electro-acoustic string duo Myrmyr puts a spell on the Windup Space with Liz Meredith and John Somers. Attack Attack!, the latest blankcore band turning youth boring, doesn't get the jo... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:46:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19190 Music by Lee Gardner: As you listen to Keep an Eye on the Sky, the excellent new Big Star box set from Ardent/Rhino, you can hear Alex Chilton giving up. There's a quiet bravado on "The Ballad of El Goodo," from the band's 1972 debut # 1 Record; Chilton sounds blithely confident as he sings "I've been built up and truste... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:44:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19189 Music by Geoffrey Himes: "The rhythm section is the essence of every style of music," the late Max Roach told me back in 1992. "Charlie Parker can play whatever he wants on the saxophone, but if I play a polka beat on the drums, the music's going to sound like a polka-if I play swing, the music's going to sound like swing,... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:38:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19188 New This Week: ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN Classic horror-movie actors Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi join the comic duo in this pretty lively 1948 comedy. At the Charles Theatre at noon Oct. 31, at 7 p.m. Nov. 2, and 9 p.m. Nov. 5. (Children under 17 free on Halloween.) CORALINE Wonderfully dark and a... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:36:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19186 Quick Sketches: CREMASTER 4 Though not as visually indelible as 1999's Cremaster 2 nor as shamelessly decadent as 2002's Cremaster 3, Matthew Barney's Cremaster 4 may be the most accessible and linear of his five-part Cremaster Cycle. It was the first installment he made-in 1994-and features some of his soon to be... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:29:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19183 Art by Bret McCabe: Loneliness isn't easy to convey visually. Too often, the attempt involves a trite solitary figure against a background, or a figure depicted in some clich?d pose (i.e., sitting, knees drawn up to chest, head down). Tonya Gregg takes a completely different approach with her black-and-white abstract p... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:21:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19182 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:13:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19177 : Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:09:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15401 Film Clips by Robert Ignizio: Consisting of supposed found video documenting a terrifying, possibly supernatural event, Paranormal Activity works on the same premise as The Blair Witch Project. Both movies are complete fiction, but there's nothing wrong with the "true story" gimmick if the movie is good, and that's not the case... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:02:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15400 Film Clips by Lee Gardner: Writer/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller completely disregard the details and vibe of the beloved children's book in their new candy-colored computer-animated rendition, but perhaps that's just as well. In this zippy take on the premise, hapless young inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) finally... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15399 Film Clips by J. Bowers: Films by Hayao Miyazaki, Japan's most revered anime auteur, tend to use the same basic elements--kickass animation, a strong young female protagonist, skepticism or hostility toward machinery, Captain Planet concern and affection for the natural world, an Orlando Bloom-pretty male romantic lead, and... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15398 Film by Bret McCabe: Director Max Färberböck's A Woman in Berlin is a thoroughly unpleasant experience--and it should be. Based on the anonymous memoir of the same name--first published in English in 1954, and was republished in 2003, when it became a best-seller--it follows one woman's harrowing survival in B... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:58:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15397 Film by Steve Erickson: Is there any horror movie trope more tired than the urbanite who finds himself or herself lost in the woods and subject to attack from deranged rednecks or paranormal forces? It's the story of movies as different as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and The Blair Witch Project. As lo... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:58:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15405 Listening Party by Michael Byrne: As a heavyweight collaboration, Vic Chesnutt's ensemble with members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor has slipped through the indie public awareness relatively on the sly. Maybe part of that is the diminished currency of the GYBE name in the late '00s, but, more likely, it has to do with 2007's North... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:04:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15406 Cheap Eats by Chris Landers: According to their placemats, Werner's has been a "Baltimore Landmark" since 1950, and if the Art Deco-tinged wood paneling is any indication, the little lunch counter on Redwood Street hasn't changed very much. Convenient to City Hall, the Inner Harbor, and the Block, it's easy to imagine the polit... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:04:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19201 X-Content by Van Smith: On the cover, it's the inaugural offering of "Ooh, Scary!"—City Paper's since-institutionalized Halloween masks. Frightfully depicted are: mayoral candidates Martin O'Malley (D) and David Turafo (R); Orioles owner/super-lawyer/developer/political kingmaker Peter Angelos; U.S. Senator-for-life... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19185 Music by Bret Mccabe: Classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein is so chill even after gorgeously playing two lively, emotive solo pieces the morning of Oct. 23 she exudes the penguin cool of somebody who just woke up. That's not a knock—even a few of the women in the audience remarked on how calm and stately Dinnerstei... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:26:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19176 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Got word last night that Recreation and Parks Director Wanda Durden has resigned. Mayor Sheila Dixon's spokesman, Scott Peterson, confirms. He says he was told Durden is leaving for "personal reasons." Her replacement, at least for now, will be Dwayne B. "Doc" Thomas, who heads the Bureau of Recre... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19173 The News Hole by Van Smith: As federal authorities continue their Maryland-based investigation into online gambling, the lawyer for one of the two people charged in the probe—Edward Courdy, accused last year of laundering illegal gambling proceeds—tells City Paper that a piece of the government's information is wro... Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15381 Film Clips by Wendy Ward: One of Chris Rock's adorable toddler girls asked him why she doesn't have "good" hair and he brings his astonishment—at such a young thing already in tune with society's frown on black women's naturally curly and kinky hair—and unwavering funny to the documentary, Good Hair, directed by... Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:59:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19171 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Paul Miller—better known by his creative handle DJ Spooky—remixed the keynote lecture last night to kickoff the Maryland Institute College of Art's Transformations: New Directions in Black Art conference that runs through this weekend. And he did it with a casual brio: his nearly 90-minu... Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19169 The News Hole by Van Smith: Update: Accused Money-Launderer's Lawyer Says His Client No Longer Owns Payment-Processor Electracash Electracash, Inc., the California payment-processor whose bank accounts were seized in July by federal investigators in Maryland who are probing the online gambling industry, has been targeted aga... Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19168 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Thank you, BET, for reminding everybody that it was on this day that 1970s crime fiction lost one of its most immediate storytellers: Detroit's Donald Goines and his common-law wife were murdered 35 years ago today. Revisit CP sister paper the Detroit Metro Times Goines remembrance that ran when the... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19167 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: A Baltimore Office of Promotions and the Arts press release this morning outlined the time table for the 2010 Janet and Walter Sondheim Award. This fifth annual Sondheim prize will be the first shepherded by new Visual Arts Coordinator Jim Lucio (a former City Paper graphic designer and contributing... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19166 Film: The third annual, non-profit Baltimore Women's Film Festival runs Oct. 23-25 at the Landmark Harbor East, featuring an eclectic three-day schedule of documentaries, features, and shorts of cinema created by and/or for women, and a number of the filmmakers will be attending the festival. As in previo... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:47:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19165 The News Hole by Van Smith: On the morning of Oct. 6, the same day a federal racketeering indictment in West Virginia against 55 alleged members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club named a Maryland man, David Keith Barbeito, as the club's national president, a team of FBI agents executed a "no-knock" warrant on Barbeito's home at 4... Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19164 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: A press release sent out by Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts Communications Associate Dionne McConkey Oct. 12 announced that the Mayor's Cultural Town Meeting, an annual local summit where Baltimore's arts community got to speak with and to the mayor about the arts' place in the city, has... Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19163 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: In this week's Murder Ink, we reported on the sentence Melanie Blevins, a 23-year-old Caucasian woman, received after she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the death of her infant son. Blevins gave birth to the boy in a bathroom on Oct. 4, 2008. The baby was born alive, but Blevins put... Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19162 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Watch Frontline's historical retelling of the roots of the financial crisis. Yes, folks, it's derivatives, and Brooksley Born, the former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, fought the good fight, trying to get them regulated and transparent, in 1998. The usual suspects (Rubin, Summers... Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19161 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: The 40th anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus, commemorated on American cable television with the IFC's Monty Python Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut), expectedly earned its fair share of digital news ink (in everything from Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, The New York Times, and the Los Ange... Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19156 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: I've been looking forward to Black Dynamite since I first saw the promo writer/star Michael Jai White put together last year. Not so much a spoof as a homage, the film looks like a lovingly recreated black action film from the '70s, with, among other features, pitch perfect costuming, that strange... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:50:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19155 The Mail: While I agree with most of Brian Morton's article ("Capitalism Monte," Political Animal, Oct. 14), I differ on one point of fact and one of opinion. On Cargill, it was its sales that were $116.6 billion in 2008; its net income, i.e., what it actually earned or "made" on those sales was $3.3 billion... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:48:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19154 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 5 Murders this Year: 181 Tuesday, Oct. 13 8:46 a.m. A resident of the Saint Josephs neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore called police and told them a body could be found in the 3200 block of West Lexington Street. Mark Johnson, a 31-year-old African-American man, was discov... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:41:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19152 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: In 2008, 31-year-old prison inmate Tashma McFadden filed suit against 23-year-old correctional officer Antonia Allison. On Oct. 9, that suit survived Allison's attempt to have it dismissed. McFadden, who is seeking $800,000 in damages, claims Allison is a member of the Bloods gang and arranged for... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:28:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19151 Mobtown Beat by Joe Tropea: "This is a great day for city schools," says Tyler Brown, the 24-year-old project manager of Real Food Farm, a new agricultural endeavor located in Lake Clifton Park. On a recent fall day, Brown is working with a group of 30-40 volunteers, students, and construction workers who are building three h... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:24:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19150 Feature by Martin L. Johnson: On a hot summer night on the last Thursday in June, a crowd assembled outside the Windup Space, the performance venue/bar that always feels completely empty or absolutely full. News of Michael Jackson's death wafted through the air, and bits of "Billie Jean" could be heard from each passing car. ... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:13:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19149 New This Week: AMARCORD Ever wonder what kind of place could produce an idiosyncratic cinema genius like Federico Fellini? Fellini gave his own answer with Amarcord, a semi-autobiographical work built around his youth in the small Italian town of Rimini in the 1930s. The title loosely translates from regional dia... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:08:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19147 Curtain Time: Brand Aid In these tough economic times, people in the arts need any leg up they can get. So on Oct. 21, the Strand Theater (1823 N. Charles St., [443] 874-4917, strandtheatercompany.org) is hosting a branding workshop for artists, nonprofits, and small business called "The Power of Stories: A Cras... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:54:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19141 : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:50:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19140 Stage by Geoffrey Himes: From the start of The Puppetmaster of Lodz, it's obvious that something's wrong with Samuel Finkelbaum. He lives in the fourth-floor garret of a Berlin rooming house but refuses to open the door for anyone. Through the keyhole, he shouts at the concierge that he's on to her; he knows she's going to... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:38:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19139 Art by Alex Ebstein: The Seventh Annual Curators' Incubator at Maryland Art Place presents three exhibitions curated by Rachel Sitkin, Shelly Blake-Plock (an erstwhile City Paper contributor), and Margaret Winslow. The program mentors green curators as they develop show proposals into exhibitions, and this trio worked w... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:31:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19138 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Indiegrass stomp-along Deer Tick gets under your skin at the Talking Head with Dolorean, the Holy Sons, and Christopher Denny. Afterglow Spectroscopy Quartet--a band un-Google-able, but we're wagering has something to do with weird jazz and is awesome--performs at the Windup Space with... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:27:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19137 Music by Michael Byrne: Releasing a record with a band like Anal Cunt isn't the way into most heavy music fan's hearts. Vile, homophobic, sonically unlistenable, the band has made a crude art of not just pissing people off, but making people hate Anal Cunt just as much as Anal Cunt hates them--the necrotic tissue of heavy... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:24:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19136 Music by Marc Masters: "We've never really thought, 'This isn't percussion so we shouldn't do it,'" says Jason Treuting, founding member of New York percussion quartet So Percussion. "John Cage made music where you'd blow into conch shells or crumple paper, and it was never, 'Is this a percussion instrument? Can you play... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:16:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19134 Music by Geoffrey Himes: It's every music lover's dream: You walk into a non-descript roadhouse, and you find the floor crowded with locals dancing to a world-class band. This happens all the time in Louisiana, but it can happen in Maryland, too. If you head north from Baltimore on I-95 and take the first exit after crossin... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:07:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15375 Film Clips by Joe MacLeod: Fast-moving, lightweight animated entertainment with just enough weirdness in the details to mess with still-forming brains, Japanese comics king Osamu Tezuka's most mainstream creation is presented stylishly enough to please animation enthusiasts, along with a spattering of surprisingly on-point al... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:20:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15374 Film by Lee Gardner: Physics professor Larry Gopnik is distraught. His wife Judith (Sari Lennick) is leaving him for older blowhard Sy Adelman (Fred Melamed). He's up for tenure, but someone is sending anonymous poison-pen letters to the committee that decides his fate. His eccentric schlub brother Arthur (Richard Kind)... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:15:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15376 Listening Party by Erich Wagner: It's been four years since the last Lightning Bolt record, in which drummer/singer Brian Chippendale lyrically burned in effigy George W. Bush on "Dead Cowboy." Much has happened since then. But what's changed? For Lightning Bolt, not much, apparently. On Earthly Delights, Chippendale and bassist Br... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:27:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15378 Cheap Eats by Erin Sullivan: We've been seeing these big, blocky crispy-rice marshmallow things popping up all over the place lately--coffeehouses, farmer's markets, even at Graul's in Lutherville. And the only thing that has kept us from picking one up sooner is the sheer size--smaller than a breadbox sure, but about as large... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:54:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15377 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: "I'm here!" a woman announced as she walked through the front door of The Hill stopping briefly to strike a pose. Only a few heads turned as she made her way to a table of friends sitting by the restaurant's storefront windows. But later, as a wiry man sporting a tiny ponytail exchanged travel golf... Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:06:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19160 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Gaithersburg-based AmeriDream, Inc. is prominently mentioned in a Huffington Post story looking at seller-funded down payment assistance (DPA) programs for new home buyers. The programs allow home builders to give a three percent down payment to possibly unqualified buyers by laundering it through a... Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19159 Music by Barry Michael Cooper: As Jay-Z brings the traveling road show known as Blueprint III to Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena Oct. 27, he does so at a time when he is literally carrying both hip-hop and it's hostile captor—Rap Mu$ick, LLP—on his back. Shawn Corey Carter is at a crossroads in the continuous ascent of... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:51:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19158 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Erstwhile City Paper contributor Violet Glaze becomes a full-fledged writer today, and not a mere ink-stained hack like the rest of us here in alt-weekly journalism. Her debut paranormal erotic e-book, Hotel Butterfly, comes out today. Congrats. Also congrats to former CP contributing illustrator G... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19157 Noise by Al Shipley: The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad put on what has to be, by some distance, one of the oddest rock shows in Baltimore. Its members don outfits, such as a Mexican wrestling mask and a paper-mâché horse head, and perform under names such as Captain Mediocrity and Prof. Doktor Von Science, which... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19142 X-Content by Van Smith: Andrew Reiner's cover feature, "Wooden Ships," is a first-person account of learning about wooden boat-building by helping to construct a replica of the schooner Sultana at a boatyard in Cambridge, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. In Charmed Life Tom Chalkley recounts the early-1800s adventures in Balti... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19133 CPTV by Joe Tropea: ... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:52:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19132 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: We don't know if searchlights will be sweeping the sky outside the Senator Theatre this weekend as they used to when it hosted premieres, but the Belle of Govans is definitely presenting a marquee event this Saturday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m.: the Baltimore theatrical debut of Gospel Hill, a 20th Century... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19131 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: Avant-garde jazz can sometimes be a dour, cerebral exercise but not when Han Bennink plays it. The Dutch drummer may be 67, his hair gone silver beneath his bright red headband, his Amsterdam home full of Europe's top jazz prizes, but at the Windup Space on Wednesday, he played with sheer abandon an... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19129 Noise by Michael Byrne: Ace Baltimore MC E Major is hyping a new scratch-happy track off his forthcoming mixtape. Listen to "You Send Me" here. Under Sound Music, E Major's label/collective, also has a new weekly event Tuesdays at Red Maple. Aural States is hosting/releasing a remix album from MC Height with new takes of... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15358 Film by Bret McCabe: Two stories run through this Where the Wild Things Are. In one, a young boy straddles the innocence of childhood and the blunt reality of young adulthood; in the second, his imagination gives life to the chasm separating the two. Both worlds have their charms and faults, and they segue together in a... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:40:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15357 Film Clips by Joe MacLeod: OK, our Theory of the Crime is that this movie could have been an above-average psycho-vigilante picture but somebody dumbed down the criminal mastermind's game so Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx wouldn't look like a complete idiot as Nick Rice, a hotshot by-the-numbers prosecutor with sharp suits a... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:35:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19128 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Alan Greenspan has changed his mind, proving finally that he has one. As Bloomberg reports, Greenspan told the influential crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday that the too-big-to-fail doctrine must end:"If they're too big to fail, they're too big," Greenspan said today. "In 1911 we b... Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19127 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: City and state health officials are investigating the water and heating and cooling systems at the Stadium Place senior housing complex on 33rd Street today after one person died and four others have confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease, the Baltimore City Health Department has announced in a pr... Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19126 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Jose Joaquin Morales, the unlicensed mason, thief, firebug and drug dealer caught trying to smuggle six kilos of cocaine to Baltimore last August, has pleaded guilty to that crime, taken responsibility for his actions, and apologized to the government. He should have been sentenced today, Oct. 14, a... Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19125 Noise by Brandon Soderburg: Booked at the Depot, but moved at the last minute to after-hours spot 1722 a couple of doors down, and then ended early by 1722, this past Saturday's installment of Senari's Big Bang was all about keeping everybody, from those in attendance to the talent to promoter Puja Patel herself, off-balance.... Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19124 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The Wall Street Journal crunched some numbers and declared that, even though 10 percent of U.S. citizens are out of work while most of the rest are taking pay cuts, the Gilliganesque bunglers in the financial sector are again partying like its 1999, only more so. According to the Journal: Total co... Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19123 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: The Maryland Film Festival has just announced that it is now officially accepting submissions for its 2010 installment, which unspools over a long weekend May 6-9. Click here for full details.... Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19122 Stage by Bret McCabe: With its stripes of rain falling in an elevator, a chorus of talking stones, a shower of ping-pong balls that coat the stage, a juvenile lord of the underworld, and small pool of water directly at the foot of the stage, Single Carrot's production of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice isn't the usual night at the... Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:31:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19121 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: There's absolutely no way Hysteria can work. It's part broad farce, part serious drama. It wants you to take a lisping Salvador Dali seriously and giggle at Sigmund Freud's slapstick antics. There's just no way. And yet, Terry Johnson's masterfully written work in the ever-capable hands of Rep Stage... Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:19:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19119 New This Week: CRADLE WILL ROCK This 1999 musical drama takes as its starting point a footnote in U.S. theatrical history: the 1937 guerrilla staging of Marc Blitzstein's pro-labor musical The Cradle Will Rock in New York. The government subsidized the Orson Welles-directed show via the Federal Theatre then shut... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:06:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19118 Feature by Edward Ericson Jr.: UPDATE: As this story went to press, the police and fire pension board voted 5-2 to bill the city $164.9 million for next year's pension contribution. This figure lowers the "assumed" rate of return on the pension funds invested on behalf of retirees from 6.8 percent to 5 percent. The $164.9 million... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:19:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19117 : Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:20:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19116 Political Animal by Brian Morton: About 10 years ago, there was a short moment where the lawmakers of New York City mulled over the idea of legalizing the three-card monte game, calling it "a game of skill." But really--it's not. It's not even a gamble. You play, you'll lose. It's that simple. Slot machines, those are a gamble. Yo... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:32:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19115 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 5 Murders this Year: 176 Due to the Columbus Day holiday, this week's column only covers homicides from Oct. 5 to Oct. 9. Any additional homicides will be covered online at citypaper.com/go/murderink. Editor's Note: (The last three homicides in the online version of this... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:29:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19114 Councilmania by Van Smith: After prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, roll call, and a presentation by firefighter/paramedic Michael Hineline of the Baltimore City Fire Department's special-events team, the Baltimore City Council got down to business on Oct. 5. The first new bill introduced is something Hineline's likely to... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:27:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19113 What's the 311? by Chris Landers: The repo man comes a-knockin' in Baltimore around three or four hundred times a month, but before he does, he gives 311 a call. The chart above shows the number of calls about repossessed vehicles to the city's call center--more than 3,000 in total. Unfortunately, the 311 system only started keeping... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:23:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19112 Mobtown Beat by Erin Sullivan: Najwa Gadaheldan and her husband, Ewkehart Naumann, arrived in Baltimore from Vienna late in the evening in mid August. Gadaheldan, who lives in Europe and works for the United Nations, says she was suffering from a mysterious spinal problem that caused her to occasionally collapse. She had an app... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:18:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19111 Curtain Time: NIGHT AT THE OPERA Peabody Opera takes on three French pieces--Jean-Philippe Rameau's Adonis, Christoph Willibald Gluck's L'ivrogne corrigé, and Gaetano Donizetti's Rita--Oct. 19 in the school's Miriam A. Freidberg Concert Hall (1 E. Mount Vernon Place, [410] 234-4800, peabody.jhu.edu) at 7:30... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:16:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19110 Quick Sketches: BEYOND THE ALLEY OF THE DOLLS In the Just Really Cool Department, a group of Mid-Atlantic artists have taken over three blocks of alleyway behind North Calvert Street between 20th and 23rd streets for the inaugural Axis Alley walk. The event itself takes place Oct. 18 between 2-6 p.m., and features... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:07:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19109 Art by Bret McCabe: Jo Smail's mixed-media "Figure With Broken Halo" may give you the fantods. A quick glance reveals a seemingly chaotic collage of black and white paper against a sky-blue acrylic background. Some hotter colors line rounded lines that circle the hard angles of the paper polygons. And a vertical off-... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:56:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19108 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Rainy day/dripping forest new-folk songwriter Phosphorescent plants some seeds at the Ottobar with Alberta Cross and Caleb Stine. BET's "106 and Park" tour brings in some smooth characters to Sonar including Trey Songz, Mario, Day 26, Sean Garrett, and Iceburg. Drummer Han Bennink brings... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:52:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19106 Music by Bret McCabe: When invited to sing at a presidential inauguration, you do--even when it's for Richard Milhous Nixon. Especially when you've voluntarily taken yourself out of the traditional music business in search for something else. You work, but the calls come to you. Just ask local vocalist Ethel Ennis. "... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:48:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19104 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:36:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15356 Film by Lee Gardner: John Malkovich is almost too perfect for the part of Disgrace's David Lurie. His patina of erudition, his reptilian eroticism, and the air of amoral self-absorption he so often embodies onscreen all fit the protagonist of J.M. Coetzee's 1999 novel like a bespoke suit, but putting him at the center o... Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:58:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15347 Film by Wendy Ward: This gorgeous movie opens on an Australian beach. The driver of the Bronco-type truck speeding along the sand smiles and yells back soothing words to the folks on the beach screaming at him to get off, that it's unsafe. But other vehicles pass so what's the damage? The camera pulls back and you see... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:10:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15355 No Cover by Raymond Cummings: When discussing the unconventionally recombinant music he creates, James "Twig" Harper drifts into New Age-y abstractions, referencing different levels of consciousness and perception the way most musicians talk about chord progressions, instruments, and themes. Like Harper's albums--which include... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:08:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15344 Know Your Product by Bret McCabe: In two words: teepee rock. That's not intended as a knock one bit, merely the most succinct distillation of the shamanistic, 32-minutes-and-change single track contained on this new release from local psych quartet Sri Aurobindo. As in, when the leaders of the industrialized civilizations finally su... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:16:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15343 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: It takes about 30 seconds to fall into it. The Violet Hour's assumed debut--it's noted as having been recorded in 2007 with no explanation for the delay--is one of those records that feels like a place, less a linear journey through songs than somewhere you recline for 40 minutes--like an Earth albu... Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:15:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15342 Know Your Product by Raymond Cummings: A consummate headphones record, Husbands is the latest in a long string of recent releases that linger suggestively at the intersection of straight ambient atmospherics, bombed-out noise, and blissed-tone drone. Depending on your listening preferences, you can direct thanks or blame toward New Age T... Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:08:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15341 Listening Party by Lee Gardner: Om has carved a deep and unwavering groove through the '00s heavy/art-music scene with its bass-and-drums drones, combining mid-tempo sludge riffs and cod-mystic incantations into slabs of stoner mind-blow, each as essentially alike and unchanging as pyramid stones. As with Lungfish or Fela or the... Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:03:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15346 Cheap Eats by Bret McCabe: With its marble floors, granite counter tops, and posh ambience, this coffee-shop cousin to the Tremont Grand Hotel feels like its trying to be an opulent European café--you know, something you'd find in Vienna or anywhere in Eastern Europe the French migrated in the late-19th century. Grand C... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:44:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15345 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Unlike other Asian cuisines, Vietnamese food has been slow to create a presence in Baltimore. Before Mekong Delta opened earlier this year, the most visible Vietnamese restaurants had been Baltimore Pho near the Hollins Market and Saigon Remembered on the stretch of York Road just south of Northern... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:40:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19098 Arts and Minds by Chris Landers: The crowd at the 10th annual conference of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society that gathered in Baltimore Sept. 30-Oct. 3 was older, but not uniformly so, and perhaps a bit tweedy, but not entirely. The society's vice-president, Kirk Curnutt, a novelist who teaches at Troy University in Alabama, was not... Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19095 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The New York Times says CitiGroup is selling its secretive oil-trading arm, Phibro, to Occidental Petroleum, apparently to avoid bad publicity. Still no one's questioning the idea that the head guy in a business division that yields $400 million a year is all by himself worth $100 million a year.... Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19093 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The Federal Housing Administration's boss is saying he'll need no bailout, "absent any catastrophic home-price decline." The New York Times is flashing red on this one, and it's an entertaining read. U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.): A 7-plus percent FHA foreclosure rate is no bad thing: "I don't... Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19092 CPTV: When the Big Man calls, you best be ready: The Bishop also handles pest control too. From the mind of Marchant Media.... Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19091 Noise by Al Shipley: DJ Patrick is perhaps one of the most unsung heroes of Baltimore club music's early days. Just about any DJ that was active in the the late '80s and early '90s is likely to name-check him, but he's rarely received much press coverage himself. So when I finally got to track down the local legend at h... Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19090 The News Hole by Van Smith: The Washington City Paper today published a lengthy investigative piece about Peaceoholics, an anti-violence, gang-intervention group that has been funded by the Washington, D.C., government to the tune of $10 million since 2005, but with little oversight as to whether the investment has paid off. ... Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19089 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Not sure how long this is going to remain up on the web, but here's a link to the infamous Bed Post sex column in Towson University's Towerlight student newspaper that resulted in the resignation of the paper's student editor Carrie Wood. The column in question, which irked university administration... Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19087 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Parks and People Foundation is hiring a herd of goats to clear some brush out of Druid Hill Park. A company called Eco-Goats from Davidsonville, Md., which specializes in environmentally friendly vegetation control, will provide the 40-goat herd to Parks and People for three days to clear invasive s... Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19085 Music by Michael Byrne: Two Sundays ago, Sept. 27, Beau Velasco passed away in his adopted hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y. He was 31. (Nobody would confirm a cause of death on the record.) Earlier this summer, the afro'd, tattooed guitarist and singer played his first show with the Death Set, the scrappy punk band he co-found... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:29:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19084 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: I try really hard to be a law-abiding citizen of Baltimore, USA, and even though I have racked up more than my share of tickets for speeding, running stop signs and red lights, not having money for the tunnel, parking bad, etc., I still totally Believe in and wholeheartedly Endorse the speed-cams c... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:19:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19083 The Mail: As the chair of the committee facilitating the process to place six (not five) community murals on three sides of the building developed by Vanguard Equities for Giant Food in Waverly, it was good to see these murals receive recognition ("Best Mural," Best of Baltimore, Sept. 16). However, it needs... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:13:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19082 What's the 311? by Chris Landers: Over the past four years, 1,570 calls came in to the city's 311 call center complaining of vacant houses, but that only represents part of the city's burden in dealing with empty properties. The chart above represents all 14,713 calls mentioning troubles with vacants--water leaks, rats, abandoned ca... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:06:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19081 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 3 Murders this Year: 171 The death of Ethel Henderson, an 85-year-old African-American woman, was added to the homicide rolls this week. On March 8 at 5:20 p.m. in Rosemont, Henderson was found on fire. The flames were extinguished and Henderson was taken to an area hospital, b... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:03:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19080 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: "He's not a criminal," Shazia Maqbool says of her husband, Mohammad Ashfaq, after she opens her apartment door to a reporter on Sept 30. On Sept. 4, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made a pre-dawn raid of the family's Windsor Mill apartment and detained her husband. "They cam... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:01:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19079 Feature by Michelle Gienow: For the past three years, following the typical Michael Pollan-fueled, now-I've-seen-the-locavore-light conversion experience, I've been trying hard to feed my family good food. It's more difficult than it sounds; the supermarkets are full of tempting, affordable foodlike products that ultimatel... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:56:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19078 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: A Rocket to the Moon, another emo/blankcore/pop band for mall youth, does its thing at the Ottobar with the Summer Set, Vita, and Ian Walsh. Anti-pop Consortium takes its IDM-based hip-hop to Sonar with Lushlife and Cex (erstwhile City Paper contributor Rjyan Kidwell). Michael Holt, keyb... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:52:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19077 Music by Al Shipley: "When we opened up, we were like, 'Yeah, this'll work for the summertime,' like that'd be it," says Mike Riley, one of the founding members of the Charm City Art Space. "That was in July 2002." The past decade has seen several waves of DIY rock venues in Baltimore, some having a big local impact i... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:49:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19076 Quick Sketches: POSTER BOYS Occasional City Paper contributors Post Typography lead a discussion on poster design Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. at UMBC in conjunction with its solid The Art of Persuasion: Poster Design from 1896 through 2008 exhibition. Visit umbc.edu for more details.  GO HARD OR GO HOME Super Art Fight... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:45:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19075 Art by Martin L. Johnson: In recent years, Barry Nemett, an energetic polymath and professor of painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, has been on a creative spurt. He published his first novel, Crooked Tracks, set in Renaissance Italy and Hackensack, N.J., in 2006. A traveling exhibition assembled last fall,... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:33:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19074 Stage by Bret McCabe: For some people, the laws of gravity were made to be broken. "We have an airline recoiling spool at work," says local kinetic sculpture artist Tim Scofield, who uses his mechanics' hands to describe this object that accordions out from a fixed point. "It comes out off the wall and hangs down and I'... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:30:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19073 Books by Bret McCabe: Consider: One morning Mary sees her husband Steven off to his first day at an aluminum beverage-container manufacturer. He returns looking broken, a shell of the man who left that morning. The next day, Mary meets a neighboring woman who tells her two very important stories. One is about how the man... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:25:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19068 : Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:25:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15325 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Spike Lee's third writing/directing effort may not feel as volatile as it did when it came out in 1989--some reactionary journalists actually believed that it might incite riots--but this warts/all look at race in America as it affects one Bed-Stuy block on the hottest day of the year still packs a... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:32:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15324 Film by Bret McCabe: Since his 1996 When the Cat's Away, Cédric Klapisch has become France's congenial director of sprawling romantic comedies, typified by his 2002 hit L'auberge espagnole and its quasi-sequel, 2005's Russian Dolls. He excels at interweaving overlapping stories of large casts falling in and out of... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:26:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15323 Film by Lee Gardner: Nati Baratz's documentary opens with the 2001 funeral service of Nepalese Buddhist holy man Geshe Lama Konchog. Owing to the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, his young disciple Tenzin Zopa is immediately tasked to locate the late lama, who will have returned to earth in the form of a newborn--some... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:23:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15322 Film by Bret McCabe: When the camera slowly dollies into a close-up shot of high heels held in a woman's hands, soon followed by a long overhead shot of a staircase, you know a tumble is in the works. But director John M. Stahl and cinematographer Leon Shamroy aren't merely being blunt. As in, those heels aren't just h... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:20:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15326 Listening Party by Michael Byrne: File under "music you want to hate." Why? is a Cincinnati band associated with avant-rap San Francisco label Anticon (Doseone, Sole) that's been lurking around indie music's second tier for a good part of this decade. The music is broad--lushly orchestrated, rather pretty indie-rock paired with fron... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:34:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15328 Cheap Eats by Michael Byrne: Alright, the valet parking doesn't exactly scream "cheap," but unless pub filet mignon's your jam, you'd be hard-pressed to spend more than a 10 spot at Mid-Town Belvedere's newest and, arguably, only sports bar. In fact, if you hit one of Turp's handful of specials nights, you can walk out of here... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:47:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15327 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Blue Hill Tavern glows, an incongruous giant cube of radiating light smack dab on Conkling Street. That it's neither blue (at least from the outside), nor a tavern (though it does have bars) is immaterial. (According to our server, the restaurant's name was a last-minute choice, plucked from a ha... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:38:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19086 X-Content by Van Smith: In the feature, Rob Goldberg, a CP graphic designer at the time, writes about sharing his name with Rob Goldberg, professional wrestler: “This big guy with muscles and no hair has inadvertently had an impact on my life – and yet he has no idea. Maybe I should tell him.” Frank Dill... Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19017 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Remember Len Lazarick? He was the State House bureau chief for the Baltimore Examiner, when that daily was still a going concern. Before that, he was a producer at Maryland Public Television, and he worked first as political editor, then managing editor, at Patuxent Publishing before that. Suffice t... Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19066 The News Hole by Van Smith: Trenell Murphy, who pleaded guilty in July to having 41 kilograms of cocaine that he intended to distribute, today received his sentence from U.S. District Court judge Benson Legg: 20 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore.... Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19065 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: The Enoch Pratt Free Library starts off its month-long series of programs about the 1930s Federal Writers Project tomorrow by screening excerpts from Soul of a People, a documentary about the writers involved in the project, such as the late Studs Terkel. It's based on a book by David Taylor, who le... Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19064 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Yes, that's right: the shadowy organization/benefactors who last May awarded 10 local artists a total of $82,000-seven $1,000 winners determined by a popular vote (that was never disclosed) and three $25,000 winners picked by an unnamed group of jurors-is back with its 2010 call for entries. The Bak... Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19063 The News Hole by Van Smith: On Oct. 1 retired National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) senior scientist Per Gloersen (News Hole, May 13) received a sentence of five years' probation for downloading child pornography on his NASA computer. "In addition," writes U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Marcia Murphy in an e... Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19060 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Gay couples may not be able to legally marry in the Maryland, but there's a new way to show support for gay marriage and equality in the Free State: Equality Maryland license plates. The Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) and Equality Maryland have partnered to come up with a specialty plate, a la t... Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19059 Noise by Robbie Whelan: So an odd thing happened to me Sept. 16: I had my first real-time Twitter-based interface with a performing artist. Maybe that's not that weird for some critics, but it was new to me. I was at Sonar for the Baltimore leg of Mos Def's Ecstatic Tour, and I had been there since about 7:45 p.m., becaus... Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19058 Noise by Michael Byrne: From the Death Set's Johnny Siera: "R.I.P. my dear brother, friend and band mate Beau Velasco. We are all so devastated that I will keep this short. We love you and you will be missed. You affected us all so much in the most positive ways. Our lives would not be as is, if not for you. We love you."... Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19057 The News Hole by Van Smith: Mark J. Lunsford, the Baltimore City cop assigned as a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task-force officer who was accused in federal court Sept. 22 of lying and embezzlement (The News Hole, Sept. 24), looks like he's going to have some explaining to do. Yesterday, the search warrants in t... Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19056 Film by Jeff Meyers: By Hollywood standards, Whip It is practically an independent movie. Working with an $11 million budget, a large cast, and the need for kinetic roller-derby sequences, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut was no small endeavor. What makes it work? Well, the obvious chemistry between the cast members,... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:46:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19054 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: I'm fascinated by the political battle between the Obama administration and New York Gov. David Paterson. Reportedly, the president has urged Paterson not to run for re-election next year because of what many see as his slim chances of winning. Paterson has very publicly rebuffed the president's w... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:22:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19053 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders This Week: 2 Murders This Year: 169 Friday, Sept. 25 1:15 a.m. Police were called to the 2100 block of Sinclair Lane near Clifton Park Golf Course for an assault. When they arrived they found Shantel Brown, a 31-year-old African-American woman, on the ground in a pool of blood. She was... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:21:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19052 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the Agenda for Sept. 21 Bill 09-0398 Rezoning--2112-2136 W. North Ave. Would change the zoning designation from B-2-3 to B-3. The Read: Legendary heroin dealer and occasional actor "Little" Melvin Williams founded a nonprofit called Correct Choices in 2006, placing on the board (without... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:20:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19051 Mobtown Beat by Erin Sullivan: On Sept. 14, Ned Humphrey loaded his dog Haku into his car, drove downtown, and reported in for jury duty. Humphrey, a Charles Village resident, has worked with Haku, a 6-year-old Korean jindo, as his medical service dog since 2003. To date, Humphrey says, he's taken Haku everywhere--they've tra... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:18:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19050 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Four of the two-dozen alleged Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) prison-gang members indicted in Maryland federal court in April pleaded guilty recently before U.S. District Court Judge William Quarles. Lakia Hatchett was the first to do so, pleading on Aug. 27, followed by Marlow Bates on Aug. 28, Darry... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:11:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19049 Feature by Michael Byrne: The floor of the cavernous old church sanctuary space of 2640 is a minefield of under-construction props. A new second stage, lower and forward of the old one, bears a fresh coat of gray paint. The rough façade of a small wooden village sits in pieces around the room. Against the rear wall si... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:04:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19047 The Mail: In this week's Big Books Issue, the article "Let's Get Short" (Sept. 23) states that only four short-story collections have received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Actually, there have been two more winners in recent times: Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies (2000) and Elizabeth Strout's Olive... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:50:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19045 Curtain Time: WELCOME HOME The Annex Theatre returns from its recent Beowulf tour--which took the DIY company down to Gainesville, Fla., out to Minneapolis, Minn., and over to Northampton, Mass.--and stages its traveling production at 8 p.m. at the Fifth Dimension (405 W. Franklin St., [585] 750-4635, $5-$10) Oct... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:34:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19043 Stage by Geoffrey Himes: As Becca and her younger sister Izzy banter and bicker in Becca's modern suburban kitchen during the opening scene of Rabbit Hole, they're obviously avoiding a sensitive subject. They talk around it but won't mention it. playwright David Lindsay-Abaire is cagey about the secret, but most theatergo... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:22:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19042 Books by Scott Carlson: It's helpful to understand that Léon Krier is an architectural traditionalist before starting his book, The Architecture of Community (Island Press), or you might not get what his fuss is about. He begins with a rather provocative thought experiment: "If, one day, for some mysterious reason... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:19:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19041 Quick Sketches: THE BIG SHOW The American Visionary Art Museum's latest mega-exhibition, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, opens Oct. 3; the preview party takes place Oct. 2 from 7-10 p.m. FREE STUDIO SPACE The deadline for the C. Sylvia and Eddie C. Brown Studio at the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower Competi... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:09:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19040 Art by Alex Ebstein: Behind the alligator mural on 28th Street, the Baltimore Body Shop began to show signs of life and late-night activity back in June. Afghans hung from the windows and large groups of twentysomethings gathered on the sloped driveway, going in and out of the functioning repair shop. The year-long... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:56:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19039 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: No-fi-whatever outfit Wavves busts up some pop at the Ottobar with Ganglians and Popo. Honor Society, a kiddie-pop band with something-or-other to do with the Jonas Brothers, corrupts some youth at Sonar with Esmee Denters. Dark-side drone haunt Aluk Todolo performs at the Golden West C... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:49:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19038 Music by Michaelangelo Matos: When a record label hits a divisible-by-five anniversary, it celebrates--especially in dance music, which takes all the parties it can get. And as you'd expect, most of the compilations that ensue tend to be fairly self-indulgent. That certainly describes the new box set from Warp marking its seco... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:46:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19037 Music by Geoffrey Himes: O'Donel Levy remembers sitting on a stoop in the Gilmor Homes, the West Baltimore housing project, in the early '50s, watching his neighbor Ethel Ennis going off to one of her jazz gigs dressed in a glittery gown. It was proof positive that someone from Gilmor could have a career in music. He decide... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:39:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19035 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:08:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19030 : Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:01:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19029 : Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:54:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15305 Film by Justin Strout: Drew Barrymore has always excelled at keeping secrets--E.T. in the closet, a certain pyrokinetic ability, Adam Sandler's ability to love--but her feature directorial debut may be her best-kept one yet. The woman can make a helluva movie. Whip It is an emotionally honest feminist switcheroo with an e... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:37:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15304 Film by Joe MacLeod: This year's Oscar-bait journey into low-rent pathos is written and directed by Robert D. Siegel, writer of the Oscar-nominated The Wrestler, and stars funny comedian/accomplished actor Patton Oswalt (The Comedians of Comedy, Blade: Trinity, Ratatouille) as Paul Aufiero, a pudgy schlump of a man who... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:32:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15303 Film by Bret McCabe: Michael Moore ends Capitalism: A Love Story with one of his now infamous displays of irreverent street theater. He pulls an armored truck up to the New York-based corporate headquarters of financial magnates such as Goldman Sachs, American International Group, etc., to make a citizen's arrest and a... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:24:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15302 Film by Chris Landers: George Romero, the acknowledged master of the zombie flick, has said that one of the toughest parts of making zombie movies is thinking up creative ways to kill them. What Romero fans get, though, is that the kills are just window dressing for the larger ideas Romero tries to get across. He has to,... Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:07:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15307 Know Your Product by Bret McCabe: The typical album format for female R&B artists has been set in stone for so long now that Beyoncé turned it into a faux concept-album template: a few up-tempo, risqué-leaning jams offset by a few down-tempo, melodic ballads. It's an approach that caters to both the dance floor and the... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:48:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15306 Listening Party by Bret McCabe: The squishy, skipping beat and heathery electronic pulsation that introduces Andrew Weatherall's debut solo album is the sort lissome electronic texture you'd expect from a DJ/producer from the acid-house-y Sabres of Paradise and, more recently, the electro duo Two Lone Swordsmen. And the catchy mel... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:40:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15308 Cheap Eats by Tim Hill: Hey clubbers and farmers' market shoppers: the Hollywood recently reopened after an extended hiatus. It's still the same old diner with the fading movie memorabilia and the familiar pink and grey marble, but the offerings and the service have taken a huge leap forward. We stopped in after a recent... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:56:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19055 X-Content by Van Smith: Eileen Murphy's feature, "Artists in Residence", describes how some artists, done with squatting, get help legitimizing their home-studio living arrangements. "Business and community leaders aren't involving themselves in such projects for the love of art or because of sympathy for its creators," Mu... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19036 Noise by Al Shipley: Being a music blogger generally means receiving a constant stream of promo e-mails, usually from every indie-rock band and mixtape rapper under the sun. So when you get an e-mail from, say, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, it's a refreshing change of pace, to say the least. The BSO held its first "... Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19019 Noise by Michael Byrne: Brooklyn Vegan reports that Beau Velasco, one of the founding members of the Death Set, has passed away. No other details are available at this time, but the band's MySpace page has this posted: "R.I.P. Our Dear Brother, We love you." ... Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19018 The News Hole by Chris Landers: An insurance-claims clerk who pleaded guilty to being part of an identity-theft conspiracy was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for her part in the scheme and ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution. Shanell Bowser, who worked as a claims clerk at an insurance company, along with Mi... Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19016 Noise by Michael Byrne: Jazz-plus club An die Musik, which had been waiting on IRS approval for non-profit status, got it. Sources around Hampden and previously booked musicians report that coffeeshop/performance space El Rancho Grande has been shuttered for some time with an on vacation sign on the door. It's phone is als... Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19015 Noise by Bret McCabe: Guitars are rock's phallic object, but volume remains its big dick. Ever since the Who hit 126 dB in the late 1970s, the loudness = greatness paradigm is both a joke and operating cliché, as pushing decibel levels became metal's concert Everest even though "softer" bands-see: My Blood Valentine... Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19013 The News Hole by Van Smith: Update: Accused Money-Launderer's Lawyer Says His Client No Longer Owns Payment-Processor Electracash As recounted in court documents made public yesterday in Maryland's U.S. District Court, federal authorities seized the contents of six Wachovia Bank accounts held by a company called Forshay Ent... Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19011 The News Hole by Van Smith: On Sept. 22 Mark J. Lunsford, a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) detective assigned as a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task-force officer, was charged in federal court with lying and embezzlement, based on a fast-moving investigation conducted by the FBI public-corruption unit in Balti... Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19008 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: RUSH HOUR: The opening reception for Maryland Art Place's Sevent Annual Curator's Incubator takes place this evening, with a 5 p.m. reception and a series of gallery talks and sound performances starting at 6 p.m. Curators include: Erstwhile City Paper contributor Shelly Blake-Plock, whose Art of... Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19007 Noise by Raymond Cummings: In the mid-1990s, Nuclear Power Pants would have been lucky to snag a third-string indie stage gig on selected Lollapalooza dates. In the late-'90s, they might've found themselves opening for the Make-Up, Olivia Tremor Control, or Love As Laughter. Today, at the twilight of the penny-pinching '00s,... Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19006 The News Hole by Van Smith: For pleading guilty to selling guns without a license-including over the counter of the Utz potato-chip stand at Baltimore's Lexington Market-U.S. District Court judge Richard Bennett sentenced 53-year-old Michael Papantonakis yesterday to 15 months in prison and three years' probation. City Paper c... Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19004 The News Hole by Van Smith: Back in April when he was arrested, investigators took $23,530 in cash from Wade Coats, the Republican political donor accused in U.S. District Court of being an armed, high-dollar coke-and-dope-dealer in Baltimore. Now the U.S. Attorney's Office has filed a civil-forfeiture case to keep the money [... Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19001 Big Books Feature: Writers write, period. They're going to find the places to put their ideas, their characters, their feelings, their thoughts—their need to say it in their out-loud voice on the page. And some things are, quite simply, better said in short stories. Patricia Highsmith, the creator of the beguiling To... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:58:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19000 Big Books Feature by John Barry: National literatures each tell their own stories. The American short story is, I think it's fair to say, formed in the American university system. It's where writers are born, it's where they teach, and it's how they survive. Many of them teach undergraduates about the short story. And most of tho... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:44:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18999 Big Books Feature by Adrienne Martini: From an outsider's point of view, science fiction and fantasy fiction is the literary equivalent of the "Song That Never Ends," the recursive little ditty that kids like to sing in the middle of a long car trip in order to drive their parents insane. This is the genre that can never let a story... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:36:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18998 Big Books Feature: Last week Oprah Winfrey named Uwem Akpan's debut collection of stories Say You're One of Them as the latest title in her book club. Say whatever you want about the quality or choices of Oprah's Book Club selections, but few things guarantee sales like being anointed into Winfrey's reading circle... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:35:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=18997 Political Animal by Brian Morton: One of the most stunning parts of the debate about health-care reform is how often the plight of the poor gets shut out of the discussion. This is understandable, if still unconscionable. If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, then the wealthy own the wheel, the tires, the car, most of the roads,... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:26:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18996 The Mail: Those of us who work for Mayor Sheila Dixon appreciate City Paper's acknowledgment of the Mayor as Baltimore's Best Politician (Best of Baltimore, Sept. 16). Short on space, City Paper could list just a few accomplishments; there are many more-for example, the smoking ban, inclusionary housing, free... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:25:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18995 Murder Ink: Murders this Week: 5 Murders this Year: 167  A man was killed while allegedly trying to burglarize a home in the 300 block of East University Parkway near Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. University security was called to the home at 1:21 a.m. on Sept. 15 by neighbors who saw a s... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:09:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18994 Mobtown Beat by Edward Ericson Jr.: City drug-treatment officials are hoping to attract more than 1,000 people to the third annual "Recovery Walk and Rally" on Saturday, Sept. 26. "It's a really big deal," says Saundra Flowers, project director for the Northwest Baltimore Drug Free Community Coalition, one of the sponsoring organiz... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:06:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18993 Mobtown Beat by Michael Byrne: This past summer, Gov. Martin O'Malley selected what's known as alternative "4C" as the preferred route for the planned Red Line, MTA's long overdue extension of Baltimore's stunted public rail-transit network. The plan, as drafted, is to run a light-rail train from the Centers for Medicare and Med... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:02:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=18992 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: TV songwriter Sara Haze plays the Ottobar with Sepia and the Baby Grand. Sonar is all metal tonight with Finnish beast Stratovarius on the main stage with Pagan's Mind, Visionary, and Mikhail; in the club room, drone-metal force Sunn O))) turns it way up with Eagle Twin. Philly prog-rock... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:59:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=18991 Music by Raymond Cummings: There's a knee-jerk tendency on the part of some musicians to avoid their own press-especially the potshots. But ask HEALTH singer/guitarist Jake Duzsik to single out what he sees as the weirdest take on what his band does, and he'll point you to the comments trailing a Stereogum review of the E... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:57:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18990 Big Books Feature by Petula Caesar: I'm a writer, an author. A pretty good one, I've been told. And because of that, I've also been told that I need to try to write a Great American Novel. You know, a novel that is always a weighty, lengthy tome. I'm supposed to produce my version of Carl Sandburg's Remembrance Rock or Margaret Mi... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:53:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=18985 : Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:13:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15286 Film by Bret McCabe: JOHN KEATS WAS ONLY 25 years old when he died in Rome in 1821. In that brief life, he penned some 100-something poems, becoming a shooting star of English Romanticism alongside Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron and a scourge of slow-learning high-school English students who don't care to different... Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:50:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15285 Film by Lee Gardner: His epiphany comes in a blue VW, smoking weed with his church choir director. The unnamed young man (Daniel Breaker) is growing up middle-class and alienated, and the fact that he's black and lives in 1970s South Central Los Angeles only makes the alienation feel worse. Stoned, he listens to Mr. Fra... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:19:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15281 Film by Jeff Niesel: Chan-wook Park's Thirst covers some of the same ground as his acclaimed Vengeance Trilogy but somehow doesn't quite compare. The story starts out as something of a period piece as a young priest Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) becomes frustrated at the rampant disease that's killing off the parishioners in... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:53:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15279 Film by Bret McCabe: Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) and Sokol (Alban Ukaj) dream of a better tomorrow. Like many young couples in love, they're working hard to better themselves, squirreling money away so that, one day in the near future, they can save enough to open a snack bar. They even check out the properties in the Belgian... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:43:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15278 Film by Ian Grey: Somewhere in Uli Edel's long, brutal, and failed account of Germany's infamous Red Army Faction's 30-year reign of terror, a security operative asks his superior what causes people to murder bystanders. His answer? "A myth." We wait for more, but that's it. For another 144 minutes we wait, but "a... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:38:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15282 Listening Party by Lee Gardner: The Feelies Bar None Got the remasters yet? Not those, these. Admittedly, the Feelies are a mere footnote compared to the Fab Four, but they did enervate the postpunk '80s with their jittery, deadpan version of guitar pop. A listen to the band's first two albums, newly revamped and reissued for th... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:03:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15284 Cheap Eats by Anna Ditkoff: King's Pizza is fine--it's nothing special but it does the job. So when King's opened up a kabob restaurant next door, we weren't in a big rush to get over there. Now, we wish we had been. The dolled-up King's Grilled Kabob opens into King's Pizza and on the night we went, there were no servers ded... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:38:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15283 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: The cry of "Irasshaimase!" rings out each time someone walks through the door at Joss Café and Sushi Bar. It's a cry of welcome uttered by servers, manager, and even the chefs behind the bright sushi counter, and all you need is one visit to Joss to know that they damn well mean it. Located i... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:22:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19002 X-Content by Van Smith: Martin O’Malley, now Maryland’s governor, had just been elected Baltimore’s mayor 10 years ago, and CP’s scribes wrote at length about it. Editor Any Markowitz ‘fessed up to voting for the white guy, while Eileen Murphy’s Media Circus column tore up TV’s... Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18984 Noise by Al Shipley: The High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music is, perhaps more than other music festivals, best thought of as an exotic buffet. You might not enjoy the strange flavors it has to offer all the time but for one weekend every year you get to binge on a staggering variety of creative and unusu... Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18983 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: I goofed. As everyone knows, ACORN does—or did—receive federal grants through HUD and other agencies. This, perhaps not surprisingly, despite a claim on its web site to the contrary: Does ACORN Recieve Federal Funding? The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now does not ap... Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18982 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: The city's powerful Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals raised eyebrows during its Sept. 15 meeting when it took the votes of its chairwoman, Michele Lipkowitz, via cell phone. Several observers, including City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke (D-14th), wondered if the vote was legal. "I've never seen... Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18981 Noise by Bret McCabe: Four songs. That's the problem with beguiling songstress Abby Mott's new EP Go West! Get East!: it's only four songs. Yes, a mere four tracks that don't even crack the 20-minute mark in total running time from the supercute vixen with the golden pipes who wrote and recorded her 2007 debut Hearts a'F... Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18978 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: The May 19 death of Michael Chase, a 47-year-old African-American man, was added to the homicide rolls this week. Chase was shot on Aug. 20, 1988; he was 26 at the time. Chase was walking in the 1500 block of Hopewell Court when he was shot in the neck. He collapsed and remained on the street until... Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18977 Noise by Tony Ware: Hailing from Philadelphia, MC Amanda Blank has been blowing heads with the way she works a rhyme for a good five-plus years, though only in the wider public eye for the last three or so. After guesting on singles and mixtapes from Spank Rock, Aaron LaCrate, Britney Spears, and Ghostface Killah, Blan... Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15260 Film Clips by Wendy Ward: Actually, Nothing Happens or Something Totally Predictable Happens better fit this Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart flick. Widower Burke (Eckhart) uses the tragedy of his wife's death to spawn a successful motivational empire based on his book, A-Okay, a self-help guide to dealing with the loss of... Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:32:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/bob/story.asp?id=18650 Introduction: Baltimore Living WinnersArts and Entertainment WinnersGoods and Services WinnersNews and Media WinnersDining WinnersNightlife Winners OK, enough of this the-economy-sucks whining. We're sick of it. Sure, it's awful but moping isn't going to help. Instead, let's take a moment--or 240 pages--to... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:26:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=18649 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Mos Def, who turned out an excellent record earlier this summer that didn't get nearly the love it deserved, hits Sonar with Talib Kweli, Jay Electronica, and Soul Cannon. Illinois emo outfit the Graduate gets into plastics at the Ottobar with Better Without You, the Kindness of Stranger... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:19:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18648 The Mail: Astounding. Truly, truly astounding (Comics Contest, Sept. 9). How is it that, year after year, City Paper fosters the blithering insanity that is Larnell Custis Butler? When she was confined to The Mail, she was tolerable, though just barely. Now--dear God!--she's being PAID for being insane? Shall... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:17:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=18647 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:24:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=18643 : Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:20:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15259 Film Clips by Wendy Ward: Sandra Bullock's production company Fortis Films seeks projects featuring strong female leads, much like Drew Barrymore's Flower Films, Inc. and Reese Witherspoon's Type A Films, and it produced the silly All About Steve. It's a harmless and really quite sweet romp that Bullock quirks her way throug... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:22:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15258 Film Clips by Milan Paurich: Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to his virtually unwatchable 2007 debacle Youth Without Youth is the 70-year-old director's finest work in almost two decades. Taken from Coppola's first original screenplay since 1974's The Conversation, this grandly operatic tale of two siblings (a remarkably, impr... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:16:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15257 Film Clips by Corey Hall: Devon Bostick is Simon, a sensitive orphan teen raised by his sulky uncle (Scott Speedman), and struggling to give meaning to his parents' deaths through a bizarre school project that's part social experiment. Simon's French teacher (Arsinée Khanjian) urges him to take the story of a Middle Eas... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:11:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15256 DVD by Lee Gardner: THE MOVIE Remember Planet Earth, the epic BBC nature documentary/mini-series everyone went nutty over a few years ago? Well, long after its run on the Discovery Channel and brisk DVD/Blu-ray sales and rentals, Walt Disney Studios released a theatrical version, which has now made its way to DVD/Blu-... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:06:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18641 Noise by Al Shipley: After interviewing local R&B singer Lynee' Michelle a few months ago, Saturday night at 5 Seasons was the first time I've had a chance to see her perform live. The event she was headlining was titled A Love Affair: An Evening of Eloquence and Entertainment, and if nothing else it was a refreshin... Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18640 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Update: Accused Money-Launderer's Lawyer Says His Client No Longer Owns Payment-Processor Electracash The years-long, Maryland-based federal investigation into money-laundering tied to Internet gambling ("Bodog Internet Gambling Investigation Leads to Money-Laundering Charges," Oct. 30, 2008) has... Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:32:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18639 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Fox and The Baltimore Sun both reported that ACORN has fired the two part-time workers who appeared in the hidden camera video we posted about yesterday. So, ACORN says the vid is "defamatory" and false, but fires the employees because they "acted outside of the ACORN policy?" Comedy gold. On the o... Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18638 Noise by Michael Byrne: Beach House signs to venerable indie Sub Pop. Expect to be drugged anew in early 2010. Thank You delivers a new album, complete with remixes from Dan Deacon, Jason Urick and Joe Williams, and Lungfish/Zomes' Asa Osborne. It's out Sept. 29 on Thrill Jockey. Remington gets a new performance/galler... Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18637 The News Hole by Van Smith: George Victor Kraft was nabbed by the feds last fall when, at a house in Fells Point, he received an Express Mail package from Oregon containing nearly eight pounds of psilocybin mushrooms ("Bad Trip: Fells Point Mushroom Bust Snares a Guns-and-Drugs Convict," Nov. 19, 2008). Today, after having ple... Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18636 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Never been down with the ACORN hatred on the right. Calling community organizers "thugs" for registering poor people to vote is—or should be—out of bounds. But these videos, if they're legit, kick matters up several notches. They also appear to demonstrate how the city's shadow econom... Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18635 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Fans of The Wire know Savino Bratton as the character played by Christopher Clanton, the Baltimore actor who was stabbed last year at an Overlea party. Clanton's character in Season One was a dreadlocked soldier in the Barksdale organization who helped set up the shooting of Detective Kima Greggs an... Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:40:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18634 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Two months ago when Gov. O'Malley opened his e-mail box for budget suggestions, I sent a few lines and links to two stories—one on MMG, the other on Commercial Fuel Systems. Both these contracts are sole-source, shady, and expensive compared to what they should be. Today I received this respon... Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18633 Noise by Al Shipley: Five years ago, Comp was looking like Baltimore hip-hop's best mainstream hope, with a Def Jam contract, songs on movie and video game soundtracks, a guest spot with Ghostface Killah, and a single in rotation on 92Q. Since then, he's gone independent as his music has become more and more personal an... Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18632 The News Hole by Chris Landers: Baltimore's Ride the Ducks amphibious tours made their last run through the streets and waterways of the city on Monday, according to the company. Bob Salmon, vice president for marketing for Ride the Ducks, which is owned by Herschend Family Entertainment, says financial concerns led the company,... Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=18630 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Towson University's Department of Electronic Media and Film recently announced its fall 2009 film series, and it's a doozy: a 20th anniversary celebration of the movies of 1989. Don't expect the Oscar fodder from that year, such as Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July, Peter Weir's Dead Poet's... Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18629 Comics Feature: Just Ask Larnell by Larnell Custis Butler I want to watch this self-destruct. Cuz you know it will. And it will be awesome. (Benn Ray) Larnell for the win, basically because this is so, so much bona fide crazy that I can see looking forward to this every week with a little shiver of apprehens... Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:43:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18628 Comics Feature by Benn Ray: 1. Give your strip a title. All comic strips have titles. Peanuts? A title. Garfield? A title. Calvin & Hobbes? A title. Christ, even Cathy or For Better Or For Worse have freakin' titles. "Untitled" is not a title. If you can't figure out what to call your comic, maybe reconsider submitting yo... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:24:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18627 Comics Feature: ... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:05:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18626 Comics Feature: Edgerock by M.G. Toth Untitled by Ben Stiegler Pickle Jar by Ryan Dumas Sassyfrass by Jenna Brager Dumb Ass by June Schmidt ... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:33:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18625 Comics Feature by Christopher Adams: ... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:12:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18624 Comics Feature by N: ... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:06:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=18622 Film by Lee Gardner: After putting global warming at the forefront of American mass consciousness with 2006's Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, director Davis Guggenheim took an entirely different tack for his follow up, training his cameras on three iconic rock guitarists—Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page,... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:36:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18621 Comics Feature by Larnell Custis Butler: ... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:36:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=18620 Comics Feature: By overwhelming majority vote, Afrocentric feminist and regular letter-to-the-editor writer Larnell Custis Butler's Ask Larnell is the winner of the 2009 installment of City Paper's Comics Contest, earning her a one-year paid gig in Baltimore's Most Comical Alternative Weekly. Thanks to this yea... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:29:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=18619 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: Next week in the pages and pixellations of Baltimore's Best Free Alternative News and Information and Entertainment and Wacky Astrology and Sex Column and Sudoku Weekly is the biggest-deal issue of the year that people always have issues with, namely the City Paper Best of Baltimore episode, and i... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:16:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18618 The Mail: Google "Rosalind Nester Ellis" and you get more than 100 hits--including the smug, self-righteous letter that castigated Gary Kachadourian because he, by the way, happens to like the Jonathan Borofsky "Male/Female" sculpture ("Too Big, Too Bogus," The Mail, Aug. 26). Ms. Ellis is a prolific writer o... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:13:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18616 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 5 Murders this Year: 153 Because of the Labor Day holiday, this week's column only covers homicides from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4. Any murders over the weekend will be addressed online at citypaper.com/news/murderink.asp. (The last two homicides in this column were added after we... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:08:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=18615 Mobtown Beat by Edward Ericson Jr.: On June 24, 2008, two calls came into the city's 311 system describing the rowhouse at 1226 Argyle Ave. The back wall had collapsed, both callers said. The owner of the occupied house at 1224 told the operator that 1226 Argyle, owned by the city, was letting water in and damaging her property. T... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:02:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=18614 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Liturgy, an excellent ambient black metal band of the Wolves in the Throne Room variety, puts a hex on the Talking Head with Janitor--Baltimore's Throbbing Gristle, basically--and Baby Venom. THURSDAY: Akron/Family, a freak-folk band that puts on a live show to put most of its peers to... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:57:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=18613 Music by Robbie Whelan: What most critics and academics refer to as "new music" occupies a strange space in the world, and especially in Baltimore. Somewhere between the lingering notes that seep out of concert halls and conservatories and the dissonant, bohemian sounds produced by avant-garde improvisers and noise-roc... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:55:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=18612 Film by Wendy Ward: The famously private editor Anna Wintour introduced a new era of her career earlier this year when she allowed a condescending Morley Safer to interview her on 60 Minutes: She's opening up for the first time in her 20-year stewardship of Vogue. That even a fellow media professional would refuse... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:29:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=18611 : Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:25:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=18610 Art by Bret McCabe: The seven Melissa Webb designs currently installed at Gallery Imperato's In a Material World . . . form an incomplete exhibition for the local fiber artist. That's not to imply that the pieces aren't visually alluring, impishly creative, or engagingly accessible. Far from it, in fact: Webb's imagi... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:26:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15236 Film Clips by Michael Gallucci: Little surprise that Tim Burton is one of the producers of this CG-animated story about a group of tiny creatures (they look like grown-up versions of Little Big Planet's Sackboy) trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The movie's bleak look and tone resemble the dark gothic mood of Burt... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:51:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15235 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: The movie is a French neo-noir that comes from 1962. The setting is the Parisian underworld. The dodgy nightclub owner is Michel Piccoli. The snitch paranoid that a just released prisoner is out to get him is Jean-Paul Belmondo. The title refers to a type of hat, the kind worn by the informer, hence... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:45:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15234 Film by Bret McCabe: In the mid-1990s, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra launched one of the more ambitious art education programs of recent memory. Throughout 1999, the Orchestra celebrated the centennial of Duke Ellington's birth by playing more than 100 shows around the world spotlighting the art... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:39:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15233 Film by Bret McCabe: Director Ana Sofia Joanes' documentary Fresh is the latest salvo in the ongoing American reevaluation of food--what's in it and where it comes from--and practically picks up where Robert Kenner's recent Food, Inc. leaves off. Both documentaries include interviews with Michael Pollan, whose 2006 boo... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:37:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15232 Film by Wendy Ward: As the editor of Vogue magazine for 20 years, Anna Wintour believes that most of the public doesn't understand and is frightened of fashion. And many members of the public believe that the people who work in the fashion industry or follow it are frightened of her. R.J. Cutler's documentary The Sep... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:56:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15231 Film by Lee Gardner: The Edge sits calmly in an arm chair on a soundstage in Los Angeles as the cameras roll for Davis Guggenheim's new documentary It Might Get Loud. Much of the movie to this point has focused on the build up to a live-in-person "summit" featuring the U2 guitarist and two other rock-guitar icons of th... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:22:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15237 Listening Party by Michael Byrne: There's certainly a school of thought out there, however incorrect, that music like this--stripped bare of electronics, manipulation, or even most non-percussive instruments--is reaching at something more pure than what most pop music has become. And the music of Wildbirds and Peacedrums is archly... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:53:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15239 Cheap Eats by Lee Gardner: This suburban carry-out stand is one of those places where work trucks swarm the parking lot at lunchtime and urban foodies tend to speak well of the fare. While we're still not completely convinced that Maryland-style pit cooking is the best thing one can do with a piece of beef, the Charcoal Gril... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:58:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15238 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: "I'm off to the gin mill," a friend's father used to say before he took off for the corner pub, where he would get a pint and a bite to eat. Baltimore still has its fair share of gin mills and at least one Gin Mill, the Canton pub that remade itself last year as a classic neighborhood joint with a... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:56:01 EST