http://www.citypaper.com/ Recent Baltimore City Paper Content. en-us Copyright 2010 Baltimore City Paper http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19930 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: French filmmaker François Ozon was a bit of a busybody during the early to mid-2000s, thanks in large part to the range of his movies and the excellent female performances powering them: Charlotte Rampling in 2000's meditative drama Under the Sand; an entire cast of French screen royalty for 20... Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19929 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: State Auditors released an interesting audit of the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission (MPBC) today, finding that the corporation spent a couple million dollars with a fund-raising company without seeking competitive bids or clearing the contract through the Board of Public Works, as required b... Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19928 Noise by Bret McCabe: One totally hairless gold man is supporting another hairless gold man entirely with his neck. No joke: Atop a platform placed front and center on the Meyerhoff stage, two male acrobats clad in goldish trunks and tinted with golden body paint, slowly move through a series of poses that this writer co... Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19927 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: When New Yorker film writer Richard Brody made up his list of the best films of the '00s for his blog last December, he put Baltimore filmmaker Matthew Porterfield in the company of the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Wes Anderson, and Catherine Breillat by including Porterfield's 2006 Baltimore-shot inde... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19926 Crash Course: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Obama plans to nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin, who has headed the Maryland Department of Financial Regulation since 2007, for an open seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. ... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19925 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: A reader pointed us to this death notice for John Elder, the former city-employed engineer whose troubles with the law and association with building collapses City Paper chronicled. Elder died March 3. His last couple of years were tough. Besides two investigations by the state Board for Professiona... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19924 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The long-awaited autopsy on Lehman Bros. is out. Big news: The bank hid liabilities off its balance sheet! Everyone is shocked, shocked. The amazing thing is the mundanity of Lehman's methods: Repos. This was inside-the-box thinking even 10 years ago, when the bank apparently started using them. A... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15840 Film by Jeff Meyers: IT'S ONLY HALF of a great movie but, wow, what a half! Philipp Stölzl takes a documentary-style approach to his period drama about German mountain climbers confronting the northern peak of the Eiger (dubbed "the death wall") during the Third Reich, creating an experience that's as brutal as it is ri... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:47:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15839 Film by Emma Brodie: OUT OF ALL THE TRAGEDIES and forced ironies in this movie, the one that takes the cake is the title. While a movie is called Remember Me, you don't want to walk out of the theater scratching your head and thinking, Dear Lord, please let me forget this ever happened. Seemingly attempting to take the... Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:55:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19923 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Jose Morales was sentenced on March 8 to 262 months—nearly 22 years—in federal prison for trying to bring 6 kilos of cocaine to Baltimore on a chartered jet. Judge Randy Crane of the Southern District of Texas heard several sealed (and therefore secret) pleadings before sentencing. Crane... Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19920 Stage by Phyllis Zhu: It's hard to take puppets seriously, but Sandglass Theater's production of All Weather Ballads, written by Eric Bass, makes you think twice about writing them off as child's play. Ballads comes to Baltimore Theatre Project for QuestFest, a two-week celebration of visual theater. The five segments o... Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19919 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: The Maryland Democratic Party has finally discovered one of last century's sincerest forms of satire, culture jamming.... Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19918 Noise by Al Shipley: Reina Williams is one of the more unique musicians working in Baltimore these days, someone who straddles a few different genres. As a hip-hop producer, she's made beats for brash young rappers like Lil D, and recently won the producer competition No Guts No Glory at 5 Seasons two months in a row. A... Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19917 The News Hole by Michael Byrne: That was fast. It seems like just yesterday we were clicking Facebook petitions asking Google to add bike routes to its maps, which previously included directions for walking, driving, and public transit only. Yesterday the internet behemoth announced that, due in large part to "public support," a b... Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19911 Political Animal by Brian Morton: In America, nearly every black person believes in conspiracies. Now that I've gotten that massive generalization out of the way, think about it for a second. No matter how rationalist an African-American you may be, history has already provided plenty of evidence. What was slavery but a conspiracy... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:43:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19910 The Mail: Critics of the tea baggers inevitably mock their fascination and self-identification with the Founding Fathers of the United States. Given the average tea bagger's grasp of history, the disdain the Founding Fathers would possess for the average tea bagger, and the tea bagger's dependency on the gove... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:40:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19909 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this week: 4 Murders this year: 28 Wednesday, Mar. 3 8 a.m. A person walking by Dr. Bernard Harrison Elementary School in the 1400 block of North Caroline Street saw a man lying on the ground near the school's basketball courts. Kenly Wheeler, a 29-year-old African-American man, had b... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:37:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19908 Mobtown Beat by Erin Sullivan: Lisae Jordan can tell stories about child abuse and neglect that would make most people's stomachs churn. Children tied to chairs by parents and not allowed to get up to go to the bathroom, so they're forced to urinate on themselves. Kids locked in closets during the day, or locked out of their... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:36:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19907 Feature by Michael Northrup: Traveling around Baltimore's major thoroughfares inevitably brings you face to face with impossible-to-ignore evidence of one of the city's longstanding problems: people standing in the median at major traffic lights holding signs bearing some variation of the plea homeless and hungry. City Paper c... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:28:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19906 New This Week: GREEN ZONE The Bourne team of British filmmaker Paul Greengrass and actor Matt Damon tackle the so-far box-office kryptonite of the Iraq war with this adaptation of journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran's 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone. In this Brian Helgeland-writt... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:19:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19905 Curtain Time: CURSES A hunchback jester can't get a break in Verdi's opera Rigoletto. To be fair, he kind of brought all this crap on himself, but still, this story is way harsh. Listen to the Baltimore Opera Theatre belt it out Mar. 11 at the Hippodrome Theatre (12 N. Eutaw St., [410] 837-7400, baltimoreoperath... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:10:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19904 Stage by Bret McCabe: Like any libidinious young university dropout, Valia (Nathan Fulton) likes to get with his girlfriend Olia (Giti Jabaily) whenever time permits--even if that means his bedroom while his mother is home. Olia obliges, even if she's not exactly enthused: at 33, she feels she's well past the point of g... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:58:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19903 Stage by Geoffrey Himes: There's nothing about the new CenterStage show, Working It Out, to challenge the belief that the one-act play is a lost art form. Unlike fiction, where the short story continues to thrive despite its commercial futility, the theater has allowed one-act plays to wither away to little more than short... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:51:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19902 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Brother Danielson, of the Danielson Family, brings his sublimely odd devotional folk to the Ottobar with Ortolan, Ben and Vesper, and Man and Dog. The Goodie Mob gets back together at Washington's 9:30 Club with Bobby Ray. Scout Niblett, a biting songwriter ball of fire, performs at the... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:48:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19900 Music by Nate Oak: Futurism as a theme in funk is not a new idea. George Clinton piloted the Mothership; Afrika Bambaataa crafted the electro-funk anthem and hip-hop cornerstone "Planet Rock." In the spirit of progression, Dâm-Funk takes his music down yet another bold new road worthy of the future-funk greats.... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:32:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19899 Art by Bret McCabe: The problem with Mats Sivertsen's photographs, currently on view at Gallery Four, isn't readily apparent on first viewing. Well, perhaps "problem" isn't the appropriate word here. "Distressing" might be a more appropriate descriptor, but it's an unseemliness that sneaks up on you from behind like a... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:28:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19895 : Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:20:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19894 : Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:19:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15835 DVD by Joe Tropea: THE MOVIE: Amie Williams' case study of two clothing-for-change businesses, American Apparel and SweatX, is a compelling, tight, and even-handed effort. The two highlighted brands share a mission to offer American-made clothing that attempts to avoid sweatshop conditions. Easier said than done. Ap... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:05:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15838 No Cover by Al Shipley: CJ Hilton is a hard guy to get a hold of. After more than a year, on and off, of failed attempts at an interview, he finally got around to a telephone conversation from his studio in Philadelphia. The 21-year-old R&B singer is a down-to-earth, approachable person, he just hasn't been home in B... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:20:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15834 Listening Party by Michael Bryne: Philadelphia guitarist/improviser/heir to the John Fahey throne/all-around genius Jack Rose passed away last December at the age of 38. At the time of his death, he'd already amassed 19 full-length albums on almost as many record labels--and, moreover, as flattering as it may be to be the kind of br... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:56:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15837 Cheap Eats by Lee Gardner: Amid the usual sandwiches, salads, and soups on the menu at this small, newish Mount Washington spot we spied something we just couldn't not try: the "savory Italian stew" ($8), which was described on the menu as "Zesty Tomato Gravy loaded w/Beef, Sausage, and Ground Meatballs and Crusty Bread for... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:14:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15836 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: "They used to make ammunition here during the war," said one of my dining companions as we sipped beers at Langermann's, the newest addition to Canton's Can Company. The more recent history of the former American Can Company--which also manufactured cans used by the long row of canneries that edged... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:11:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19916 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: On March 8 the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland announced that Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced former federal fugitive Shawn Green to 12 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute 330 pounds of cocaine. In December, Green pled guilty to charges of drug dealing and being part of... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19914 CPTV by Michael Northrup: ... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:59:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19913 Councilmania by Andrea Appleton: On the agenda for March 8 The highlight of the latest City Council meeting was Carl Stokes' unanimous election to the 12th District seat left vacant when Jack Young ascended to the president's chair last month. "Apparently you can go home again," Stokes told a crowd of supporters after he was swo... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:00:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19912 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: As the pop stars of the 1960s enter their 60s, as their hairlines recede and voices roughen, the second-tier stars begin to play smaller and smaller rooms. Thus it was possible on the night of March 2, within the intimate confines of Annapolis's Rams Head Tavern, to sit less than 20 feet from Ray Da... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19893 Noise by Raymond Cummings: The first thing you notice about Unsung Stories from Lilly's Days as a Solar Astronaut is its distinctive packaging, a cryptic collage overlaying a backdrop the color of faded parchment paper: ragged, Ralph Steadman-esque lettering interspersed with distressed typefaces, washed-out snapshots of an '... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19892 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Toward the end of Wild River, Elia Kazan's under-seen 1960 Cinemascope drama playing as this week's revival at the Charles Theatre, appears a single image that conveys a profound force. It's a small graveyard, the setting for a sparsely attended funeral, that occupies a small island surrounded by th... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:53:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19891 Noise by Al Shipley: ScholarMan may be the hardest working Baltimore rapper you probably haven't heard of, with a thick discography that appears to grow every few months. His 2009 included a solo full-length and two collaborative EPs and, at the top of 2010, he came right back with a new album, Free Spirit of a Troubled... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19890 X-Content by Van Smith: The feature hole is filled by three pieces about Detroit automakers and climate change—two by Curt Guyette and one by Michael Anft—and a fourth, on the risks of self-esteem education, by Andrew Reiner. In Mobtown Beat, Terrie Snyder reports on police success in fighting drug dealing at... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15817 Film by Justin Strout: Antoine Fuqua's latest crime drama, Brooklyn's Finest, is deeply, insultingly flawed. It's a story that weaves together events involving three New York policemen (Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, and Don Cheadle) and their respective awakenings to the existential horrors that surround them every night in... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:29:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15816 Film by John Thomason: In light of its director's high-profile September 2009 arrest--and the festering old wounds broken open anew because of it--Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer may be the rare movie in which the name of a world-class filmmaker actually hurts the project rather than helps. It might not be the right tim... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:29:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15815 Film by Emma Brodie: Fans of the Disney franchise will thrill as Tim Burton and some very impressive CGI animation join forces in this intricate and engaging take on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll sticklers beware: if you go to this movie expecting a loyal depiction of the original story you'r... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:30:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19887 Mobtown Beat by Erin Sullivan: With a police helicopter circling overhead and a line of police cars parked, lights flashing, along the sidewalk, a throng of young people, mostly teenagers, crowded around the front of the Baltimore Juvenile Justice Center on North Gay Street. The kids, mostly students from Baltimore City schools,... Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:02:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19886 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Somewhere, Rene Magritte is smiling (from the WSJ): Herbert Allison, who oversees the Treasury's $700 billion financial rescue plan, disagreed with members of a congressional oversight panel that some financial firms benefit from the assumption that the government would step in to prevent their fai... Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19885 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: On the evening of March 3 the winners for the 2010 Baker Artists Awards were announced on the Maryland Public Television program ArtWorks This Week. Host Rhea Feikin first spoke with Connie Imboden, president of the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund that oversees the awards, who talked about the re... Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19882 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Interested in biohacking? Ryan Ogle, a local massage therapist and first-year biotechnology student at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), wants to meet you. Even if you have no hands-on experience with the world of biohacking, DIY science, or synthetic biology, if you're curious abou... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19880 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Per the Baltimore City Health Department, as of March 1 it's mandatory that you have a carbon-monoxide detector installed in your home. We haven't heard much about this ordinance which, according to information posted on the Department of Health's website, was introduced in Jan. 2008 but only went i... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19878 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Baltimore Boxer Mike "The American Dream" Dietrich, who survived a 2005 stabbing to establish a professional record of 12-1, died suddenly yesterday. Details are unavailable so far; a man who answers the phone at Baltimore Boxing and Fitness, the Broadway gym where Dietrich trained, says Dietrich ha... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19877 Noise by Robbie Whelan: There are heaps of nice things to say about the Baltimore Choral Arts Society's Feb. 28 program at Goucher College. The program—Franz Schubert's Mass in G Major and Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna—included two highly beautiful pieces of music that made an interesting counterpoint to one a... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19875 Feature: In honor of our 2010 EAT dining guide, tucked inside this issue all glossy and stuffed with restaurant info, we polled our main foodies--Michelle Gienow, Henry Hong, and Mary K. Zajac--about noteworthy food experiences and personalities from the '00s. We compiled their lists and came up with some in... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:31:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19874 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: American Diary, "a Baltimore based alternative punk-rock band," plays Sonar with Secret Secret Dino Club, This Condition, Ian Walsh, Better Without You, and the Baby Grand. Iowan hardcore brutes Former Thieves take on the Hexagon with Cut Short and Into It Over It. Sorta hilarious prog-p... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:44:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19873 Feature by Geoffrey Himes: One of the past decade's landmark avant-garde jazz albums was recorded at Towson University on Dec. 9, 2007. Released in 2009 as One Great Night . . . Live and credited to "Ellery Eskelin with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black," the CD was remarkable for its unusual instrumentation, its unusual approach... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:24:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19872 Art: BAKER ARTIST AWARDS ANNOUNCED Has this sophomore installment of the Baker Artist Awards felt a little less omnipresent and cheerleader enthusiastic than last year's debut? By no official count at all, the inbox certainly felt less pelted with Baker Awards-pimping e-mails this year, either from part... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:20:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19871 Art by Martin L. Johnson: The public lecture, once a common form of education and entertainment, has been out of style now for generations. Instead of bearded men and bonneted women giving lectures on the gold standard and temperance, lecturers now are only found on college campuses, pontificating on academic minutia. But... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:12:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19870 Arts and Entertainment by Bret McCabe: Anzio is a picturesque seaside town on Italy's west coast, some 35 miles south of Rome. Prior to World War II, it was a popular holiday beach spot; during WWII, a 15-mile stretch of shore, including this vacation hamlet, was the site of one of the pivotal battles of the Italian campaign. On Jan. 22,... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:08:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19869 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: "The goal of any drug dealer is to cut out as many middle men as possible in order to increase profits." That statement was made by Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein a year ago, when he unveiled Operation Xcellerator, a U.S. Justice Department initiative aimed at laying low the long reach of... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:55:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19868 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 3 Murders this Year: 24 Monday, Feb. 22 12:15 a.m. Leonard Gee, a 28-year-old African-American man, died at a local hospital. Gee was shot several times in the alley behind the 3500 block of Cliftmont Avenue in Belair-Edison two hours earlier. Tuesday, Feb. 23 11:25 a.m. T... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:48:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19867 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the Agenda Feb. 22 Bernard C. "Jack" Young's first meeting as City Council President took a slower pace than some in the past, either by accident or design. Young actually paused for audible roll call votes on several issues. Despite the council's tradition of baffling speed, some might think... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:45:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19866 Film: ALICE IN WONDERLAND The recently MOMA-ized Tim Burton takes a swing at Lewis Carroll's children's novel of Victorian fantasia with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, and Mia Wasikowska as the titular adventurer. Opens March 5. BRO... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:43:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19865 Film by Anna Ditkoff, Lee Gardner, Bret McCabe, Joe MacLeod, and Wendy Ward: Dear Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Just give the damned Best Director Oscar to Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. No, really. There's the whole absence of women director's in the awards' 82-year history, during which it has only nominated female directors four times while 83 men hav... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:41:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19864 The Mail: Thanks for the great article on Joe Gans ("The Old Master," Feature, Feb. 17). When I was a kid in Rosedale in the 1950s, a kindly old man who was a retired stonemason told us he had worked on Gans' hotel in 1906. We thought it was just a story, because Baltimore had a southern racist streak in it a... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:38:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19863 Music by Michael Byrne: "Calcination" means, in short, purity through fire. In alchemy, it is the first of seven steps in the process of transformation. A person trashes his or her ego, burns themselves down into humility--and then comes out clean. "In psychological alchemy, it's looking at the kind of shadow side of your... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:31:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19862 Stage: DIVALICIOUS The Baltimore Concert Opera takes over Germano's Cabaret (300 S. High St., [410] 752-4515, germanostrattoria.com) Mar. 5 for a night of high and low notes courtesy of the BCO's slate of singers and special guests. It's an intimate opera experience. The following night join the Bravo Lyri... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:27:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19861 Stage by Emma Brodie: For centuries, visionaries from the Buddha to Leos Carax have been turning to the homeless for wisdom and inspiration. Man on the Mountain by Percy Thomas is yet another attempt to tout the "beggar" as the under-appreciated oracle of society. Unfortunately, the play doesn't accomplish this goal. ... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:13:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19860 Stage by Phyllis Zhu: There's something about the intensity of Mobtown Theatre's production of Patrick Marber's Closer that leaves you marveling at the psychological torments of love. The plot may seem familiar as the dark romantic drama--which made its North American debut on Broadway in 1999--was also adapted to film i... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:10:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19859 Stage by Lee Gardner: Shakespeare never dropped the f-bomb, and any cunnilingus references he may have made were smuggled in discretely among the iambs, which perhaps helps explain the stony faces on some of the more patrician-looking ticketholders at a recent performance of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's Lysistrat... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:07:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19858 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: So They (and you know who they are) want to make a Walmart in Remington, a neighborhood of Baltimore, U.S.A.,1 and some Concerned Citizens are against it and they have a petition thing on the Internet where you can go and say you are Anti the Walmart.2 Personally, I am more on the laissez-faire3... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:59:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19856 : Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:09:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19854 : Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:27:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19853 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:29:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19847 : Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:36:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19843 Eat Feature: Andy Nelson's BBQ 11007 York Road, Cockeysville, (410) 527-1226, andynelsonsbbq.com, $$ It's probably impossible to get bad barbecue at a restaurant with a giant pig on the roof, and it's definitely impossible to get anything other than fantastic food at Andy Nelson's. Everything is slow-smok... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:39:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19842 Eat Feature: Baltimore Pho 1114-1116 Hollins St., (410) 752-4746, baltimorepho.com, $$$ Baltimore Pho was one of Baltimore's first serious Vietnamese restaurants, and still boasts the broadest menu and most lovely dining room. Pho is first rate here, fragrant and brimming with tendon or meatballs. A whole... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:31:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19841 Eat Feature: Ambassador Dining Room 3811 Canterbury Road, (410) 366-1484, ambassadordining.com, $$$-$$$$ Summer or winter, the Ambassador is one of Baltimore's most romantic dining spots. During cold months you can snuggle up in front of the fireplace cupped in one of Ambassador's giant, cushiony chairs;... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:00:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19840 Eat Feature: Dogwood Restaurant 911 W. 36th St., (410)889-0952, dogwoodbaltimore.com, $$$$ Dogwood's reopening in December 2009 ushered in a new menu (casual fare and more formal entrées), an oyster bar, and a better wine list with inventive cocktails and house-infused spirits, all under the thoughtf... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:51:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19839 Eat Feature: Atwater's Belvedere Square Market 529 E. Belvedere Ave., (410) 323-2396; 1425 Clarkview Road, Suite 300, (410) 821-6021; 798 Kenilworth Dr., Towson, (410) 938-8775; atwaters.biz, $$ If Campbell's didn't have the copyright on "Soup is good food," the motto should belong to Atwater's. Sure, it... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:36:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19838 Eat Feature: Chaps Charcoal Restaurant 5801 Pulaski Highway, (410) 483-2379, chapspitbeef.com, $$ It's right by the Gold Club, and, um, if that means nothing to you, it's the place that Guy Fieri went to on Food Network. The pit beef here is always tender and moist, if a little bland. However, the meat co... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:29:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19837 Eat Feature: Alexander's Tavern 710 S. Broadway, (410) 522-0000, alexanderstavern.com, $$$ We first heard about this place while drinking next door. Tipplers at food-less bars like to order from here, a good sign. The menu ranges from familiar bar grub--tater tots in various stages of dress, wings, and abo... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:23:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19836 Eat Feature: Abbey Burger Bistro 1041 Marshall St., (443) 453-9698, abbeyburgerbistro.com, $$-$$$ We're glad someone thought up this concept: a bar devoted to gourmet burgers and equally gourmet toppings (and really good beer, too). The Abbey folks are doing it up right in their snug space, offering ostri... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:05:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19835 Eat Feature: Bagby Pizza Co. 1006 Fleet St., (410) 605-0444, bagbypizza.com, $$$ Crispy, thin-crust pizza is Bagby's raison d'être, but if you don't try its pasta--a baked penne with sausage and a creamy tomato sauce, fettuccine with homemade meat sauce--you'll be missing out. Sandwiches tower high w... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:42:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19834 Eat Feature: Attman's Delicatessen 1019 E. Lombard St., (410) 563-2666, attmansdeli.com, $$ One of the few "real" delis left in the city, by which we mean they don't simply serve up commercial lunch meats. Chicken salad is good, shrimp salad and pastrami are very good, and corned beef is excellent. Essent... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:26:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19833 Introduction: It's been a rough year for restaurants. Some well-loved places closed their doors--Bicycle, Brass Elephant, Ixia, Miss Irene's, Bulkoki Corner. It's been a rough year for many restaurant goers, as well. Washington can tell us we're in a recovery all they want, but until that starts equaling money in... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:10:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15814 Film by Michael Byrne: A VILLAGE DOCTOR discharges his matronly lover-qua-vessel for sexual gratification with an icy, "You disgust me," adding with an indeed disgusted-sounding, "My God, why don't you just die?" In this small German village just before the dawn of World War I, he is one of the town's few aristocrats and... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:12:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15813 Film by Steve Erickson: The Vanished Empire's very title gives the movie a weight it can't live up to. Set in 1973 Moscow, its strongest points are its evocation of the period. When its characters go to the movies, they see a newsreel about Pinochet's coup in Chile. Since American and English rock music is banned from offi... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:04:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15812 DVD by Wendy Ward: THE MOVIE The Zellner brothers usually make shorts, and that focus influences their feature Goliath, a meditation on a man who loses his wife, job, and cat. Goliath writer/director David Zellner plays the man (who remains nameless), a sad sort whose trip to the cemetery for his ex-wife's aunt's fune... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:57:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15810 Listening Party by Lee Gardner: In 1993, an unknown band from the faded indie-pop epicenter of Athens, Ga. followed up a handful of vastly obscure singles with sessions for its debut album, recorded with engineer-to-the-indie-stars Bob Weston (of Shellac fame). The sessions were never released and the master tapes were misplaced--... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:40:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15809 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Before Owl City there was Imogen Heap--if you can imagine the Owl City dude's crappy older sister making saptronica for British squares and The O.C. soundtrack. The source material for "Heap the Bitch" is Heap's "Hide and Seek," a track so overblown and cheesy it wound up part of a Saturday Night Li... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:36:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15808 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: As in most music genres in 2010, the finer bands in heavy music aren't providing many proper surfaces on which to stick labels. Punk isn't just punk; hardcore isn't just hardcore; black/death/sludge-metal isn't just black/death/sludge-metal. News at 11, sure, but it makes for a good starting point w... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:22:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15807 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Mullyman promised on last year's heavy-as-lead, Mbah-produced "Imma Be More" to "put B'more on the map." Now, he's enlisted Bossman for the cause--an old mission, sure, and one Bossman has been marching behind for a long time--on this update slated to appear on Mullyman's forthcoming Harder Than Bal... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:16:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15811 Cheap Eats by Erin Sullivan: When you live in the southwest corner of Baltimore City, your options for sushi are rather limited. You could drive into, say, Federal Hill and hit Matsuri, or you could head over to the Baltimore National Pike and get something at the H-Mart, but neither is exactly convenient. Which led us, recentl... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:50:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19857 Mobtown Beat by Erin Sullivan: On March 3 and March 4, prosecutors from around the state and advocates for children's welfare will go before the General Assembly to testify on a bill to strengthen the child-neglect laws in Maryland. The bill—HB 962 in the House and SB 757 in the Senate—would amend the state's criminal code to mak... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:01:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19855 X-Content by Van Smith: We here at X-Content try mightily to post City Paper's decade-old content exactly 10 years to the day after it was first published. Alas, the year 2000 was a leap year, and it jumped up on us, so today we are posting it on March 2 instead of March 1. Starting next week X-Content will go online on Mo... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19849 The News Hole by Van Smith: More than a week before Maryland correctional officer (CO) Shanika Johnson was charged on Feb. 21 for bringing pot and cell phones into a Baltimore prison, another CO was charged for a similar offense at the maximum-security Western Correctional Institution (WCI) in Cumberland. In the Western Maryla... Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19848 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: There are many nuances to former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's argument, now before the Supreme Court, that he should be released from the minimum-security federal prison that houses him. There is the question of venue—should he have been tried in Houston, where the bulk of the 5,000 people who lo... Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19846 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Today I received the first of what I expect will be a million billion (more) e-mails focused on the tyranny of forcing people to buy health insurance. It came from Joe of Towanda, Pa. (he doesn't want his name used here—"I know where you're coming from," he says). I have no idea why he sent it... Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15789 Film by Emma Brodie: COP OUT, THE LATEST FROM director Kevin Smith, is a far cry from Dogma, or even Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The movie isn't bad, just exceedingly average. It is funny at certain points, but it isn't the writing or the directing that pull off the humor so much as the actors slipping into fallback mat... Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:47:52 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15788 Film by Bret McCabe: A MOTHER AND her two daughters dancing to one of the most soul-wrenching hip-hop songs ever might not sound like a touching moment, but that's exactly the sort of bracing alchemy writer/director Andrea Arnold earns toward the end of Fish Tank, the British filmmaker's sophomore feature after her arre... Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:53:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19845 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Read this. In examining President Obama's pledge to (finally) take on financial services reform, and Paul Volcker's prescription for ending too-big-to-fail, Peter Boone and Simon Johnson, writing in The New Republic, take note of something that until now has mostly escaped the notice of us financia... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19844 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: We were wondering how many building collapses resulted from the big snows of a couple of weeks back, so we asked. Cheron Porter, director of communications for Baltimore Housing, e-mailed today with the official count: There were no complete building collapses as a result of the storm. In 14 cases... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19832 The News Hole by Andrea Appleton: A new tenant has been chosen for the large retail and housing development proposed for 25th and Howard streets in lower Remington. And the winner is? Wal-Mart. The 93,000 square-foot big box would fill a space that had been billed by the developers as "a grocery store" from the time the project was... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19831 The News Hole by Tim Hill: A couple months ago, Verizon sent me a flyer offering 7.1 megabit-per-second internet service. My DSL speed has been around 3.0 Mbps, much slower than the speeds Comcast offers. I had been thinking of switching to the cable monopoly, but I figured that if I could more than double my speed at a sligh... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19829 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the Agenda Feb. 22 Bernard C. "Jack" Young's first meeting as City Council President took a slower pace than some in the past, either by accident or design. Young actually paused for audible roll call votes on several issues. Despite the council's tradition of baffling speed, some might think... Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:04:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19828 The News Hole by Van Smith: Awareness of suspected corruption among Baltimore's prison guards grew on early Sunday morning, with the arrest of 20-year-old correctional officer Shanika Johnson after she was searched as she entered the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC). According to court records in the case, when Johnson a... Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19827 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: The City Council's chambers were full the evening of Feb. 23, as spectators filed in to watch the council's Vacancy Committee hold public interviews of the seven candidates interested in filling the 12th District City Council seat vacated by former Councilman Bernard "Jack" Young (D) when he was app... Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19825 Books by Joe Tropea: Former Weather Underground Organization (WUO) member and U.S. political prisoner Laura Whitehorn appears at Red Emma's Bookstore Coffehouse Feb. 25 to talk about the new book she's edited, The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison, and Fighting for... Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:54:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19823 Feature by Edward Ericson Jr.: A statuesque woman dressed in a snake-skin jacket sits on an oak bench in courtroom 226 of Courthouse West on Calvert Street, waiting for the start of her brother's murder trial. "This is horrible," Cheyenne Ward says. "It's horrible for this man to sit in jail like this. Horrible." It is 10:05 a.m... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:09:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19820 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: I am hypnotized by dancing Predators. About a week ago, I ran across a video on the interwebs showing a group of men in surprisingly authentic-looking Predator costumes doing, like, the Chicago Bears Super Bowl shuffle in what looked like the Predator ship from Predator 2. Now, if the existence of... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:01:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19819 The Mail: I read with great interest Andrea Appleton's piece on the efforts underway to memorialize Joe Gans, the Baltimore native who in 1902 became the first African-American to hold a professional boxing championship ("The Old Master," Feature, Feb. 17). In this year, 2010, the centennial of his death, the... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:54:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19818 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 4 Murders this Year: 22 Tuesday, Feb. 16 1:15 a.m. Daron Howard, a 21-year-old African-American man, was at his girlfriend's apartment in the 3200 block of Woodland Avenue when he got a phone call. After the call, he left his girlfriend's apartment and walked to the interse... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:52:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19816 Film: COP OUT Don't let the inane silliness of the trailer scare you. This buddy cop/action comedy is helmed by Kevin Smith--yes, Kevin "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" Smith--who no doubt knows how to make the comedic possibilities of pairing Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as NYC cops teenage-boy raunch funn... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:47:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19815 Stage by Bret McCabe: Oh those lights! Oh those productions! Oh those dames! Back before WWII came along, Broadway used to mount some dazzling displays of Depression distractions, productions of vamping vaudevillian variety shows complete with funnymen and high-heeled showgirls smiling and shaking their glittering gams.... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:41:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19814 Stage by Andrea Appleton: Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie is exquisitely crafted. The semi-autobiographical play about a mother and her grown children is dense with symbolism, with the smallest elements--a glass unicorn figurine, a strain of violin music, a casual remark--seeming to add to the sense of the whole. T... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:36:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19812 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: Alfred is an asshole. He's a bigot and a bully, saying horrible things to his grown daughters and throwing ethnic slurs about as if they were confetti. And the problem with Kwame Kwei-Armah's play about him, Let There Be Love, is that in order for it to really resonate, we have to care about Alfred... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:31:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19811 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Multi-instrumentalist Franz Nicolay, formerly of the Hold Steady, performs at the Ottobar with Romania, the solo project of the Oranges Band's Roman Kuebler, and Sea Couch. St. Vincent crushes with cuteness at Washington's 9:30 Club with Wildbirds and Peacedrums. THURSDAY: Twizted, l... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:27:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19810 Music by Michael Byrne: When's the last time you described a band as "instrumental"--as in, the first thing that comes to mind about whatever you're listening to? Not like a band on the radio--where, yes, being instrumental would actually be strange--but a blog or indie band, or generally a band or artist that-people-are-... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:24:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19809 Music by Geoffrey Himes: "THE DOCTOR, HE SAID, 'CANCER,' I stopped in my tracks," Wendell Holmes sings over bluesy gospel chords on the Holmes Brothers' new album. "I did not have the answer, but I knew you'd have my back." Holmes, who has lived in Baltimore County since 1992, did wrestle with bladder cancer at Johns Ho... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:16:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19803 : Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:57:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15787 Film by Emma Brodie: As the theater lights lowered, the viewers of Shutter Island seemed reluctant to turn off their cell phones. It was as though they were all saying, "Turn it off? Then who will hear me scream?" All around, girlfriends cuddled up to their boyfriends, who in turn madly sipped their sodas as though look... Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:24:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15786 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: On its surface, writer/director/co-star John Cassavetes 1970's Husbands sounds a tad like a proto-Apatow exploration of male midlife crisis. Three old friends, each middle-aged--Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, and Peter Falk--come together for an extended bender after the funeral of a fourth. Today's touch... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:53:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15784 Listening Party by Bret McCabe: Georgia Anne Muldrow has been throwing down intoxicating free-form honeyed vocals over intergalactic funk and electro R&B for a minute now, and any fan of her solo albums or work with Dudley Perkins knows she can open her mouth and make the angels weep. And as she incontrovertibly proves on the... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:24:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15783 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Off a stopgap remix EP leading up to Future Islands' much-anticipated sophomore record and Thrill Jockey debut ("Thrill Jockey debut" being a rather popular phrase in Baltimore these days). The original was a favorite from debut full-length Wave Like Home, with Sam Herring showing off his powerful v... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:20:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15782 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Slippery, free-form techno-house in the vein of Detroit's electronic music rebel warrior Omar-S. Shuffling, thickly layered percussion drops into a synth melody-cum-future-groove, and by the halfway mark the track has turned busy as hell and very bumpin'. It's a weird stylistic nowhereland that pops... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:16:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15781 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: If there's a complaint to be had with last fall's Splice Today compilation Baltimore Does Baltimore Part 1, it's that the Baltimore being done--as in covered, remixed, re-imagined, etc.--is actually pretty small. That is, not many of the 10 artists contributing looked too terribly far for source mat... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:06:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15785 Cheap Eats by Andrea Appleton: The Laughing Pint may look like your average windowless Highlandtown corner bar, but it's actually a homey hipster haven in disguise. Inside, rotating art exhibits adorn the turquoise walls, there's free wi-fi, cheap pool, and shuffleboard, and the staff is as friendly as they come. In fact, you mi... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:26:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19822 The News Hole by Van Smith: The devastation wrought by mountaintop-removal mining was brought into tight focus by Catherine Pancake of Baltimore (a native West Virginian), with the 2006 release of her documentary Black Diamonds: Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice, to which CP devoted a cover story that yea... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19821 Noise by Michael Byrne: Well, no, we're not likely to get confirmation that this is actually a prank but, come the fuck on, just watch it. In which Kate Levitt, of Teeth Mountain fame, and Jonathan Coward, aka Shams, parody art-hipster culture via a case about a dead cat for a daytime television audience that could probabl... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19813 X-Content by Van Smith: A must-read for the scrapple-and-rye crowd is Tom Scocca's feature, "You Gonna Eat That?" If this—"And in Baltimore, people characteristically eat—what? The Whole Pig, yes, consolidated into a loaf and sliced and fried for breakfast. The familiar and tourist-friendly produce of the Chesa... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19802 The News Hole by Van Smith: Robert Simels, the New York criminal-defense lawyer who for decades represented some of Baltimore's most notorious drug-world defendants, won't be using his Water Street condominium in downtown Baltimore anytime soon. In early January, he began serving a 14-year prison sentence for intimidating witn... Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19801 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: "Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs," the New York Times noticed on Saturday in a story about people it dubbed "the new poor." The story is a good reminder to the ruling class. One should never forget that millions of rich douchebags pretend to have no idea how the majority of us live.... Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19800 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: The City Council has posted notice on its web site that the Vacancy Nominating Committee for the 12th District City Council seat, which has been empty since Feb. 8, when former Councilman Bernard "Jack" Young (D) was appointed City Council president. According to the announcement, a public hearing... Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15765 Film by Wendy Ward: Jayne (Parker Posey) in pencil skirt, old lady chic (think Marc Jacobs) salmon-colored car coat, and brand new so-dark-blue-you-can-only-tell-they're-not-black-in-the-sunlight high-heeled boots drags her large Louis Vuitton rollie up the front steps of a decrepit old Victorian house in Pittsburgh wh... Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:05:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19799 Television by Andrea Appleton: For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots has a promising premise. The new four-hour documentary, presented by Maryland Public Television, chronicles an aspect of American history that has been largely ignored: the role of black servicemen and -women in war. The two-part series begi... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:43:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19798 Noise by Al Shipley: 2009 was a whirlwind year for DJ Class. The veteran Baltimore club producer's breakout single "I'm The Ish" got him signed to Universal Records, sent him on tours across the country, and spun off remixes featuring superstars such as Kanye West and Lil Jon. But as the year came to a close, the song's... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19797 CPTV by Joe Tropea and Andrea Appleton: Read the accompanying web-only Mobtown Beat article, "The Mean Season: Small Charles Village shelter for the homeless facing early closure due to funding shortage" by Andrea Appleton. ... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:37:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19796 Noise by Michael Byrne: Not totally, but due to an editing mishap a few notable shows are listed under the wrong day in the print version of Wednesday's paper (Feb. 17). Specifically, the Golden West dates are one day early, and the Chrisette Michele show at Rams Head Live was one day late. City Paper regrets the error. Fi... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19794 Mobtown Beat by Andrea Appleton: Heart's Place, a 20-bed homeless shelter in the basement of St. John's Methodist Church in Charles Village, is nothing fancy. Particle-board partitions separate the men's and women's beds, and a semi-circle of mismatched couches and chairs draped in afghans serves as a living room. The dining and sl... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:49:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19793 Film by Bret McCabe: For the fifth year in a row, Shorts International has bundled the live-action and animated Oscar nominated shorts program and brings them into theaters for ordinary moviegoers to check out prior to the awards show March 7. Four of the five live-action entries explore the darker side of human emotion... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:09:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19792 Film by Bret McCabe: South Carolina native Mary Helena Clark started the Magic Eye Film Series Jan. 17, 2009, featuring the works of Robert Todd. In the year since, Clark has screened works of contemporary experimental and expanded cinema filmmakers such as Bruce McClure, Fern Silva, Anne Robertson, Larry Gottheim, and... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:12:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19789 Feature by Andrea Appleton: He was the first black American to win a world boxing title, and one of the country's first black sports heroes. H.L. Mencken called him "probably the greatest boxer who ever lived," and heavyweight champ Jack Johnson said he moved around the ring "like he's on wheels up there." More than 7,000 peo... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:52:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19781 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 0 Murders this Year: 18 There have been no murders since this column last ran on Feb. 10. This is only the third time since Murder Ink began in July 2004 that there has been a column week without a single homicide. As of Monday Feb. 15, there have also been 12 fewer homicid... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:32:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19780 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Months remain before the July 6 filing deadline for candidates in the 2010 elections, yet one race in Baltimore City--for sheriff--has already attracted three Democrats and one Republican seeking to challenge incumbent Democrat John W. Anderson. The sheriff's race hasn't seen this much action since... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:31:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19779 Mobtown Beat by Erin Sullivan: Shortly after former City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake replaced the disgraced Sheila Dixon as Baltimore mayor in early February, Councilman Bernard "Jack" Young (D-12th District) was unanimously elected by his fellow council members to fill the City Council president slot vacated by R... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:28:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19778 : Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:14:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19777 The Mail: I was very glad to see Tom Chalkley's musings on Sheila Dixon in the Jan. 13 issue ("Oh, Sheila!," Feature) Frankly, after all the coverage (including my favorite--Jean Marbella's "Finding Clues to Dixon's Jury Mood in Member's Hair," which she admitted stemmed from " the courtroom version of cabin... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:05:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19776 Political Animal by Brian Morton: One thing you learn about politics is that the closer you get to the local level, the harder it is to just talk and not get the job done. Former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill codified this in his timeless aphorism, "all politics is local," and nothing makes it more obvious than when 40 inches of... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:03:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19774 The Short List by Michael Byrne: Editor's Note: Due to a production error, an incorrect version of The Short List appeared in this week's paper and online edition. The correct version appears below. WEDNESDAY: Jam unit Segway at Joe Squared is about all you're getting tonight. THURSDAY: Sean K. Preston brings his roadhou... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:57:52 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19773 Music by Michaelangelo Matos: This is reductionist, but here goes anyhow: The easiest way to think of the pack of similarly minded, laptop-focused post-dance artists coming out of Los Angeles--three of whom, Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, and Jogger, come to Baltimore this Tuesday--is as the new IDM frontline. Like it says, reductionis... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:56:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19772 New This Week: DESCRIPTION OF A MEMORY MICA visiting artist Dan Geva's 2006 documentary is a response to Chris Marker's Description d'un Combat, a 1960 documentary about Israel that wove together text and still imagery. Screens Feb. 18 at MICA's Brown Center's Falvey Hall at 7:30 p.m. FAVELA RHYTHMS and "City... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:52:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19771 Film by Martin L. Johnson: Aspiring filmmakers in Baltimore--regardless of what types of movies they make--often wrestle with comparisons to John Waters. But Baltimore artist Brady Starr, whose vampire faux-documentary The Lift screens at the Senator Feb. 19, has a closer relationship than most with the director who exposed B... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:16:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19770 Culture by Andrea Appleton: It's the time of year when Joe Thomas eats a lot of deer meat. Spaghetti and deer meatballs, deer liver and onions, deer steaks. Maryland's hunting season just ended, and, at 82, Thomas still has a firm trigger finger. He also uses those steady hands to bring dead animals back to life, or at least... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:14:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19769 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:03:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19764 : Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:56:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19757 Councilmania by Andrea Appleton: On the agenda for Feb. 8 Much of this week's council meeting was given over to the election and swearing-in of new City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young (D), formerly representative for the city's 12th District, Young takes over the seat vacated by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake when she becam... Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:05:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15758 DVD by Andrea Appleton: THE MOVIE Rupert Wyatt, director of The Escapist, has clearly studied the art of creating tension. His prison-break flick is all about the cliffhanger: Will the prison kingpin foil the escape plan? Will the escapees drown in the rapidly filling prison sewers? Will they break through the wall before... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:15:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15757 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Journalist-qua-cineaste Peter Bogdonavich really proved himself the movie know-it-all with 1971's The Last Picture Show, his first directing effort after which he could really call himself an auteur: a nostalgic looking and feeling drama that is unmistakably modern. Part coming-of-age story involvin... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:06:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15755 Film by Bret McCabe: On May 11, 1970, Henry "Dickie" Marrow, a 23-year-old ex-Army man, was killed by three white men in his hometown of Oxford, N.C. Although the Civil Rights movement and its hard-fought battles in the South had already claimed a number of lives--such as Emmett Till in 1955; Medgar Evers in 1963; Deni... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:54:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15763 Know Your Product by Michael Bryne: Don't know about sneaking "Baltimore-ah" into a rhyme with "Nick and Norah," but the lead single from Rapdragons' much-anticipated remix album Ten Stories Hijacked is promising. The production of Moss of Aura (Gerrit Welmers from synth-poppers Future Islands) is a bit of fun retro-futurism of '80s-f... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:18:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15762 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: A solid freestyle over Kid Cudi's able send-up of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." The Major Major Mixtape is, by and large, pretty dramatic but this one's for the party. (For more information, visit emajor.bandcamp.com.) Correction: The print version and a previous online version of this story erroneousl... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:52:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15761 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: On a list of words least likely to be found in a Baltimore club track, put "heck" near the top. But Jonny Blaze is an unlikely DJ, a devout Christian who essentially makes Southern gospel versions of club music. Here, he unleashes a track that, like Rod Lee's "Dance My Pain Away," runs through a gam... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:30:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15760 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: Rapping on club tracks is still kinda/sorta an emerging thing, but talk-barking over them is old news. Wale's flow on this very basic horn-driven track is somewhere in the middle, leaving rhymes as lackadaisical as feeding pigeons, but still totally making sense against club's aggro stride. (For mor... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:26:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15759 Listening Party: In the file folder of missed cult bands, Clockcleaner is somewhere very the near the top. The would-be heir to the Jesus Lizard throne released a small handful of records, including the revered Babylon Rules, and threw in the towel sometime last year. Clockcleaner's singer/guitarist, John Sharkey II... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:21:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15764 Cheap Eats by Bret McCabe: When having to head north into the great suburban unknown during pleasant and sunny days, it helps to know that you can reward yourself with a stop at this kinda/sorta hidden pit-beef grill. Basically a walk-up stand offering a mouth-watering assortment of meats, its picnic tables out front provide... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:39:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19787 Noise by Michael Byrne: Fan Death is a punk label run by Sean Gray and the Baltimore-based Chris Berry that's put out swell music from the likes of Drunkdriver, Rosemary Krust, Clockcleaner, and Ringo Deathstar, among others. Fan Death is also largely responsible for the now-mammoth DNA Test Fest, which moves to Baltimore... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19766 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) announced on Feb. 12 that all the days students are missing from school shouldn't have to be a complete wash—it's trying to turn the snowstorm into a "service learning" opportunity for the state's schoolkids by encouraging local school district... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19763 X-Content by Van Smith: Brennen Jensen, in one of this week's two features, learns bar-room history from the famous matron of Club Charles, Esther Martin: "'Esther did the right thing,' [John] Waters says. "'She changed it from the scariest bar in Baltimore into the coolest.'" In the other feature, Molly Rath's "Education... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19762 The News Hole by Andrea Appleton: Those rallying for changes in the controversial retail and housing development plan proposed for lower Remington just gained another ally. Baltimore Brew notes that local preservation nonprofit Baltimore Heritage has posted a blog detailing its "significant concerns" about the demolition of a late 1... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19761 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: On Saturday night the New York Times posted an interesting piece on Goldman Sachs' connection to the unfolding Greek tragedy. For those who have missed it, for the past week or two capital markets have been fretting over what they cheekily call "the PIIGS"—Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19760 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: As reported a few weeks ago, local filmmaker Matt Porterfield is in the final stretch of fundraising for his new movie, Putty Hill (see the gorgeous trailer below). He and his producers achieved their $10,000 goal, but as Porterfield revealed today in a Facebook note, they're still hoping to raise s... Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19759 CPTV by Van Smith: ... Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:22:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19758 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The housing crisis seems to be entering a new phase, with government programs that had been designed to try to keep people in their homes now being subtly shifted into a program meant to ease them out. One sign was this e-mail that came today with the headline, "Understanding the New Rules of the... Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19756 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: According to press releases from the Baltimore Department of Public Works, Bureau of Solid Waste, there will be no trash, recycling, or bulk-trash pickup for the rest of this week due to our "extreme" (i.e., infuriatingly disruptive) snowstorms. There will also be no trash pickup Monday, Feb. 15, be... Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19755 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: This just in from the Baltimore Police Department: Don't drive anywhere today. Not that you were planning to, right? Seriously, public transportation isn't even running today. The city has also implemented "Phase III" of its snow-emergency plans, which means no vehicles on city roads, except for aut... Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19751 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: Wow, that Blizzard was pretty fucking awesome, eh? I think it's over. It's over, right? Man, I mean, first it was kinda like an old Monster Movie where you're waiting and waiting for The Monster to show up, and then KABOOM, errbody was under two feet of snow. I stayed up almost the whole night whil... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:26:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19750 The Mail: As an Afrocentric feminist and loyal City Paper reader, I was disturbed to learn of the premature cancellation of Just Ask Larnell ("Bring Back Larnell," The Mail, Jan 27). No other comic in any publication has so consistently brought me such spontaneous joy. We suffer so much mediocrity; why not l... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:24:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19749 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the agenda for Feb. 1 Bill 10-0447 Zoning--Conditional Use for the Elderly--616, 618, 620, 622, 624, 626, 628, 630, and 634 Baker Street. Would permit an elderly-housing complex on the consolidated properties. The Read: On its web site, Castlewood Communities LLC promises "no more worries... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:19:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19748 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 6 Murders this Year: 18 Monday, Feb. 1 8:15 a.m. Police found John England, a 27-year-old African-American man, lying between the curb and a construction wall in the 2200 block of North Monroe Street in Mondawmin. He had been shot numerous times and died at an area hospital... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:16:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19747 Mobtown Beat by Edward Ericson Jr.: At first glance, the zoning change to the 600 block of Baker Street, which is backed by city officials, appears routine. It would aid developer Castlewood Communities in building "spacious, maintenance-free homes" for "active seniors," according to the company's brochure. The project has been sheph... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:14:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19746 Feature: Big Bad Murph Thank you for making me dinner every night and taking such lovely care of our beautiful bunny babies. I appreciate every little thing you do, even the things you do while drunk. You're everything I've always wanted, and I promise I'll try to do the laundry more often. Happy Valentin... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:09:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19745 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Miss Tess brings her rootsy jazz swing to Joe Squared with Coastal Vibrations. Goof-pop extraordinaire Jonathan Richman plays the 8X10. THURSDAY: Polish black-metal band Stillborn brings the "killing and raping sounds of Death" to the Ottobar with Dead End Lane, Idleminds, and the Snal... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:06:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19744 Books by Bret McCabe: Stephen Hunter's I, Sniper(Simon & Schuster) is a ridiculous book. No harm there--many great genre outings are ridiculous books. Elmore Leonard is the king of the ridiculous. Ridiculous can be obscenely entertaining. Ridiculous can also offer excoriating satire, and parts of Sniper take aim at... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:05:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19743 Quick Sketches: GET ON THE BUS This Sunday, Feb. 14, the Evergreen Museum and Library sponsors an Art Bus Tour of Baltimore's "lesser-known art world," as coordinated and chaperoned by local artist/curator Jason Hughes (an erstwhile City Paper contributor). Starting at 10 a.m. at Evergreen, the bus tour hits the L... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:02:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19742 Art by Alex Ebstein: On Jan. 20, an unusual crowd spilled out the door, down the steps, and onto the sidewalk in front of the C. Grimaldis Gallery. A mix of formally dressed and costumed gallery-goers intermingled in the customarily conservative setting, equally anxious to see celebrity filmmaker and artist John Waters... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:51:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19741 New This Week: THE ISLAND Towson University kicks off its Bridges to the World International Film Festival this week with this 2006 Russian drama from director Pavel Lungin, who directed 1990's Taxi Blues and '92's Luna Park. The Island is set at a remote Russian monastery in the White Sea where a monk is said to... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:49:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19740 Film by Michael Byrne: The face of horror in 2010 is comprised largely of elaborate methods and situations for killing people in increasingly convoluted, increasingly painful ways. Plot? A waste of time. Character? Ditto. Humor, self-reference? Modern movie viewers can't handle violence and comedy together, right? That's... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:32:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19735 : Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:24:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19734 : Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:22:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15733 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Somebody over at the Enoch Pratt has a wickedly wonderful sense of humor: What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a movie about two crazy all-American young people who fall into a good, old-fashioned love affair over their mutual infatuation with each other and . . . firearms? Yes, di... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:45:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15732 Film by Bret McCabe: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is--well, surely you know the rest. That's the problem with writer/director Michael Hoffman's entertainingly brisk The Last Station. Hoffman wants to show how an unhappy family--that of Leo Tolstoy in 1910, by which point the 82-year-old Russian wri... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:40:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15736 Listening Party by Lee Gardner: If you're the far-thinking sort, you might wanna lay aside a coupla extra copies of Earthology for your kids to bust out when they hit the college-party circuit. This is the stuff a crate-digger's dreams are made of: dusty-sounding throwback funk, laced with enough exotic sonic seasoning and drips o... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:07:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15735 Know Your Product by Micheal Byrne: The sound of cold wind blowing through an old house; a rising crest of feedback, an ultra-slow motion riff; a black-metal demon snarling and roaring--"Nail of Dicara" is like your ears freezing to death, and it's a great Burning Witch homage. But then, in the quick track's final seconds, the vocals... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:56:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15734 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: It's already a consensus pick--the Merriweather Post Pavilion of 2010, perhaps--and why shouldn't it be? Beach House came onto Baltimore's scene in 2006 with a simple idea about music: unassuming basic pop melody over equally unassuming machine percussion. The result was duo love songs reimagined in... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:51:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15738 Cheap Eats by Michael Byrne: RIP Kennedy Fried Chicken, but Greenmount's coming out ahead with Sea Blue, the new spot that's taken over the corner takeout counter across from Pete's Grill. The first thing you notice is a display case with the biggest filler-happy crab cakes you've ever seen, alongside rows and rows of stuffed s... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:14:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15737 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: The fun of tapas, reminded a friend, his glass of cava drained, his plates scraped clean at the end of a recent meal at Tapas Adela, is in the trying. He was right, of course. Although it's easy to dismiss the tapas/small-plates phenomenon as overdone, there's little a compulsive grazer likes mor... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:11:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19754 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Front of the Wall Street Journal's website on Sunday was this lament/apologia from Jason Zweig, who writes the Journal's Saturday money and investing column, the Intelligent Investor, with a long-view, seen-it-all tone. So this is the first sign I've seen in the Journal or anywhere that a crisis in... Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19753 CPTV: Who cares if the heavy snows knock out electricity, snarl commutes, pull tree branches onto cars, and give you a heart attack as you shovel your vehicle out of oblivion? The heavy white makes for some pretty imagery, particularly in glorious black and white. We've posted pictures from friends and s... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:13:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19739 X-Content by Van Smith: Comic-strip fans Tom Scocca and Vincent Williams team up to fill the feature hole with a story about two young syndicated cartoonists with Maryland roots: Aaron McGruder and Frank Cho. Mobtown Beat is Jill Yesko on a local rabbi who is using Kabala study to help treat urban ills. The Nose covers... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19732 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the agenda for Feb 1 Resolution 10-0188R Informational Hearing--Department of Public Works--Leaf Vacuuming Program. Asks the cirector of the Department of Public Works and bureau head of solid waste to tell the council how it chooses the neighborhoods that receive the service and how well it is... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:13:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19731 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Just in from Towson University: My Favorite Things: Song Cycles by Great Composers, the voice recital of local soprano Theresa Bickham, who was interviewed in this week's issue, has been rescheduled for Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. due to the upcoming snow forecast.... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19730 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: I can't remember the last time I cried during a play. I'm not the type that gets teary easily, but Two Rooms at Everyman Theatre left me wiping my eyes with the back of my hands as the lights went up. Lee Blessing's play is a deeply powerful work about an American teacher in Beirut, who is kidnapp... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19729 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Simon Johnson's Economix blog on the New York Times' site has some notions to chew on regarding too-big-to-fail. His key idea: Banks' capital ratios need to be increased three or four fold from what's proposed (and being fought by bankers as too high). What would a 25-percent cap ratio requirement d... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19728 Arts and Minds by Anna Ditkoff: Funny Business Make your way to the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatree (817 St. Paul St., [410] 752-1225) on Feb. 7 for Drop Three Comedy & Improv's monthly show. The February edition features comic Will Carey. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Haitian Earthquake Relief.Move It The B... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19727 The News Hole by Emma Brodie: On Feb. 3, David Scott, director of the city's Department of Public Works, announced that midyear budget cuts by the city's Department of Finance is forcing the Baltimore Public Works Museum to close its doors. The museum will be closed immediately, but the historic Eastern Avenue Pumping Station (t... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19726 Noise by Michael Byrne: Given that we're all going to die an icy death Friday night and into Saturday morning as an apparently sure-shot nor'easter pounds the Mid-Atlantic, Jazzway 6004 has moved up rather than postpone its very exciting collaborative performance between local jazz powder keg Lafayette Gilchrist and South... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19725 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: On Jan. 29, two of the doctors from our recent feature story on activism in the name of health-care reform, Margaret Flowers and Carol Paris, were arrested again in Baltimore. The two showed up in front of the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in the Inner Harbor that day, where President Barack Obama w... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19724 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: A $13 million mixed-use development in Upper Fells Point would not be financially viable without 38 percent more apartments, the developer says. And it will have less parking than required by zoning regulations, a situation City Councilman James Kraft (D-1st) pledged to oppose. "We basically won th... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19721 Noise by Michael Byrne: Until last week, the only thing particularly unique about the Hexagon's decision to ditch ASCAP and the other performing rights organizations (PROs), was the public nature of it. It's difficult to say how many venues, restaurants, and other businesses currently operate without PRO licenses, while pl... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19720 CPTV by Erin Sullivan and Frank Klein: Drs. Carol Paris, Eric Naumburg, and Margaret Flowers, and retired psychological counselor Charles Loubert, are Maryland-based health-care practitioners who feel so strongly about health-care reform--more specifically, they'd like to see some form of a single-payer system put in place in the United... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:22:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19719 Councilmania by Andrea Appleton and Edward Ericson Jr.: Bill 10-0445 Public Ethics Law--Ethics Board Composition, Tenure, etc.--Ethics Training Would reconfigure the city's Board of Ethics by adding new training and membership requirements, staggering terms, and requiring an annual-activities report. The Read: City Council President Stephanie Rawlin... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:22:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19711 The Mail: There are too many murders in Baltimore ("Rising Tide," Feature, Jan. 20).A We know this. At the same time, tremendous progress has been made. There are great neighborhoods all over the city where newcomers are sinking roots to take advantage of great houses, improving schools, beautiful parks,... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:57:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19710 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this Week: 2 Murders this Year: 12 With just two homicides this week, as of Feb. 1, Baltimore City had 10 fewer homicides this year than the same time last year. Monday, Jan. 25 9:36 p.m. Michael Manning, a 35-year-old African-American man, was found shot in the shoulder in the... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:55:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19709 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: James Riffin, who for years has been mounting a one-man campaign to resume freight-train service on the Cockeysville-to-Baltimore light-rail tracks ("Train Wreck," Feature, Oct. 10, 2007), won two significant victories in recent weeks. On Jan. 5, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled in Riffi... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:53:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19708 Feature by Erin Sullivan: No matter how strongly we may feel about the health-care debate--and no matter which side of the debate we're on--most of us stay safely out of it. Aside from a few boisterous town-hall meetings, we monitor the dealings in Congress from couches, desks, and smartphones, where we can keep tabs on... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:46:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19707 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: About a year ago, my family and I were in Florida for a short business trip. While we were there, on a humble, we went to Disney World for a few days. My then-4-year-old daughter made us promise to bring her back for her birthday, and, being the good parents that we are, my wife and I planned it ou... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:36:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19706 New This Week: The Beetle Israeli documentary filmmaker Dan Geva is MICA's spring 2010 Schusterman visiting artist, and during his stay in Baltimore he's curating a series of contemporary Israeli movies. The series starts off with this 2008 documentary from writer/director Yishai Orian, Hachipusheet, which docume... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:35:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19705 Film by Martin L. Johnson: When Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo, the latest anime from the director of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, opened in Baltimore last August, it ran at the Harbor East Landmark Theater, a theater whose programming normally includes safe art-house fair and high-end Hollywood hits. Despite glowing reviews... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:24:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19704 Film by Bret McCabe: "I almost lost my mind in the process of putting this together," Michael Kimball confesses with a laugh about 60 Writers/60 Places, his latest film project, which he created in collaboration with New York writer/artist Luca Dipierro. Kimball laughs, but the Baltimore-based novelist behind 2008's wo... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:06:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19703 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Omni-metal band Winds of Plague play the Ottobar with Despised Icon, For Today, Stray From the Path, the World We Knew, An Obscure Signal, and And It Must Occur. This month's edition of the Mobtown Modern series presents a retrospective of the Washington, D.C. avant-garde composer Alexan... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:03:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19702 Music by Bret McCabe: Perhaps you grew up listening to classical music. This set of ears didn't. In fact, it wasn't until those ears entered the back door of classical composition through 20th-century composers such as John Cage, Milton Babbitt, and various INA-GRM personalities that they started realizing there were ce... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:59:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19701 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:25:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19697 : Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:23:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15715 No Cover by Michael Byrne: "Independent rap" is a fraught term in Baltimore. Besides the glaring fact that almost all rap is independent here, there are a great many so-called "independent rappers" in the city, playing to frequently different crowds in different parts of the landscape--and rapping based on wildly different... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:13:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15714 Cheap Eats by Tim Hill: Late last year, Little Italy got a New World update on its cuisine with an Argentinian empanada restaurant. We've been meaning to check it out, and our first thought walking through the door: Why did we wait so long? Bottles of homemade chimichurri sauce and bags of Argentinian coffee on the left,... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:35:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15713 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: If Tim Burton designed a restaurant, it would be Mr. Rain's Fun House. Of course, in Burton's hands, the mirrored mosaic animal heads that hang just inside the restaurant's entrance would probably speak, the lollipop-pink and -orange psychedelic starburst painted on one of the restaurant's walls w... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:05:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19717 The News Hole: The internet is blowing up these days over Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancer cells were used in the 1950s to produce culture media that allowed major scientific advancements ever since. The reason for the interest, presumably, is the release of a new book about Lacks and her scientific signifi... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19716 X-Content by Van Smith: The Block, Baltimore's downtown adult-entertainment district, takes the stage in a two-story feature package by Van Smith: "Around the Block" and "What's Around the Block." Land deals in Washington Hill involving Baltimore City government and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions have neighbors in... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19715 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The Washington Post seems to be catching on to a story Crash Course warned about last fall: that FHA is not in good shape, and may need a taxpayer bailout. As with most WaPo stories, the problem is depicted in the past tense:FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens, who joined the agency in July, flagged... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19713 Noise by Michael Byrne: Context: Twig Harper is Baltimore's resident out-of-body traveler, mystic, and noise celebrity. He's also at or near the nexus of a swirl of rumors and accusations surrounding Andrew WK—pop musician and cult figure formerly of Michigan's noise scene—some of which have Harper as being the... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19712 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Retired assistant State's Attorney Page Croyder has an interesting blog post about a prospective raise for state judges. It's nearly $40,000 each, and could happen, she says, if state legislators do nothing to stop it. Omitted from the piece: existing salaries for District court judges. They make... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19695 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: A long-planned redevelopment project in Upper Fells Point hit what may be another obstacle last week when city housing officials posted an "emergency condemnation and demolition notice" on the building. Yellow caution tape adorned the sidewalk near the front door of 1621 Bank St. on Thursday, Jan.... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19693 The News Hole by Van Smith: The requirements of holding elected office are far from burdensome (and come with many rewards), so one would expect that incumbent officeholders would have the routine down: You raise and spend money to get elected, and you file timely reports that accurately reflect your campaign's accounting. But... Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19691 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: The NY Times' Floyd Norris has a column today about a surprising paper just out at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Turns out those securitized mortgage derivatives that sank the economy two years ago were not new. They were just like the ones that triggered the Great Depression. Norris:... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19690 Noise by Michael Byrne: Well, this one slipped through the cracks, as even the best fool-to-miss shows do on occasion, so all apologies. And lord knows there's enough going on this weekend already, but tomorrow somehow thread a stop at Floristree into your night's plans. Northampton Wools, the duo of Bill Nace and Thurston... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19688 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Citing the Supreme Court's Jan. 21 decision to allow unlimited corporate financing of political "issue ads," a Kensington-based public relations firm has announced its intention to run for Congress. Pledging to run a campaign that "puts people second, or even third," Murray Hill, Inc., which was fo... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19687 The News Hole by Michael Byrne: Last summer, cyclist Jack Yates was killed at the intersection of Maryland and Lafayette avenues. He was riding to the right of the right lane of Maryland as a truck passed him, also in the right lane. That is, both vehicles were smooshed into the right lane as the truck instigated a right turn onto... Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19686 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: For years Somebody Scream Productions hosted terrific zydeco and Cajun dances at the Community College of Baltimore County's Catonsville campus, but when the school decided over the summer of 2008 to stop renting buildings to outside groups, the series was left homeless. After a brief, unsuccessful... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19684 The News Hole by Van Smith: When the storied Mount Royal Democratic Club (MRDC) announced its demise in December, one of its younger leaders, Kim Forsyth, said she planned to see what she could do to keep it alive. Forsyth recently shared with City Paper details of her plans, including a discussion, to be held at Alonso's, 415... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19683 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: It's hard out there for a simp.... Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19682 Political Animal by Brian Morton: Is it any wonder how George W. Bush was able to roll congressional Democrats for eight years? (No--not just six, all eight. Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately taking impeachment off the table was the first sign that the Democrats took all the bullets out of the gun.) If the Democrats in the House of... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:05:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19681 The Mail: Please return Larnell Custis Butler's Just Ask Larnell, the winner of the most recent City Paper comics contest, to the pages of City Paper. When we agreed to judge the contest, the rules were clear: The winner would be awarded space in the newspaper for a full year. Just Ask Larnell was our overw... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:04:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19680 Murder Ink: Murders This Week: 4 Murders This Year: 10 Monday, Jan. 18 2:35 p.m. Darius Goines, a 19-year-old African-American man, was found shot several times in the head and body in the hallway of an apartment building in the 1000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. Goines was shot in the 600 block of Wes... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:51:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19679 The Nose: The Nose recently attended a jovial gathering at the Center Club, an invitation-only business dining club on the 16th floor of the former Legg Mason building in downtown Baltimore. A coterie of men and women in business suits listened as attorney Larry Gibson, former campaign manager for erstwhile... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:49:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19678 Mobtown Beat by John Barry: Baltimore poet David Franks, who was found dead in his Fells Point apartment on Jan. 14 after a long battle with cancer, was an artist, a performer, a musician, and a self-promoter. In the days since his death, Baltimore's arts community has traded memories of the idiosyncratic figure who worked ac... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:41:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19677 Feature by Van Smith: Tuesdays are Retro Night at Baltimore's 580-seat Apex Theatre, meaning old VHS porn tapes are projected on the big screen instead of the usual DVDs. On a recent Tuesday, the onscreen action featured a mustachioed guy with a champion mullet going down on a big-breasted blonde. It's a long, quiet sce... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:35:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19676 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Washington MC-done-good Wale takes the mic at Sonar with DJ Ki, DJ Aasha Adore, DJ Kali, DJ Reem, and three rooms' worth more (full lineup at sonarbaltimore.com). Baltimore multi-core band the Defect rattles the Ottobar with Light on Film, Somewhere Anywhere Else, Why They Kill, the Mark... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:29:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19675 Music by Michael Byrne: At this point, poking fun at Owl City is kinda like poking fun at the dudes on Jersey Shore. Not only is it way too easy--a band delivers a third-grade version of the Postal Service to large-scale success--but the chorus of jeers is already out there. A quick skim: "hack electronica," from Pitchfor... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:28:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19674 New This Week: EDGE OF DARKNESS Mel Gibson once again delivers the righteous revenge in director Martin Campbell's movie adaptation of the actually quite excellent BBC miniseries that he directed in 1985, in which a daughter's death pushes a policeman father to get totally unseemly on some asses. With a supportin... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:24:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19673 Film by Bret McCabe: The second feature by local filmmaker Matthew Porterfield is almost finished--though not the one you may have heard about. Although his debut feature, 2006's Hamilton, continued to screen through last year (at New York's UnionDocs, at the Philadelphia International House), since late 2007, Porterfi... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:15:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19672 Stage by Erica Bauman: Murder mysteries have come a long way from their stodgy origins: The Sherlock Holmes of yore was an eccentric, sure, but also cerebral, and most of Doyle's writing involved long explanations of his thought process. The Sherlock Holmes of today is, well, Robert Downey Jr. And while the Audrey Herman... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:09:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19671 Stage by Andrea Appleton: The Fells Point Corner Theatre's production of Moliere's The Miser is set in Depression-era New York City, with nary a bosom-boosting corset or powdered wig. It's a choice that may disappoint purists--at least those with a fetish for men in tights--but the classic comedy of manners doesn't suffer fr... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:55:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19670 Stage by Geoffrey Himes: CenterStage has given us a terrific Cyrano de Bergerac, full of all the poetry and passion Edmond Rostand's play is capable of. That was back in 1980 when an up-and-coming actor named F. Murray Abraham, four years before he starred in the movie Amadeus, insisted on playing the role of the French sw... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:48:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19669 Books by Michael Corbin: "But man that ain't nothing." Tayvon pulls his shirt back down after showing me the scar that extends below his waistband to his groin and up to his sternum. About an inch-wide, raised, milky sheen standing out from his caramel skin with symmetrical dots framing the disfiguration, marking where... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:42:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19665 : Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:52:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15694 Film Clips by Wendy Ward: Remember when you were a kid and little stuff appropriated into miniature worlds blew your mind, like Ernie's bug family on Sesame Street using postage stamps for fine art or all the stuff the Little family stole in the series of books by John Peterson? Flushed Away, the first completely CGI movie f... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:15:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15697 Listening Party by Michael Byrne: Liz Harris could sample a nuclear explosion and the net result very well could wind up as soul-deep soothing as the most atmospheric hum she's unassumingly unleashed as Grouper. It's the point received as, toward the end of one her four drone-folk cloudforms here, "Pulse," a dog begins barking-and s... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:33:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15696 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Glowing with warm light, Sam's Kid pulls you, like a bewitched insect, into its mod Fells Point storefront. Dazzled by white walls, a plump purple sofa, the clean lines of blond wood tables, you take your seat only to be made dizzy again by the menu in front of you, which lists dishes with impossib... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:22:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15695 Cheap Eats by Anna Ditkoff: If there is one thing we like more than delicious sugary treats, it's a good yarn. Our visit to Charm City Cupcakes in Brown's Arcade on Charles Street provided both. The man that greeted us at the small counter, identified himself as the uncle of the owner. He said his niece, Sandra Long, asked him... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:20:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19664 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: "Last year at this time I was attending a lot of balls," Spike Lee wryly offered when he first took the low-rise stage on the campus of Loyola University. It was a casual yet smart way to set the tone for his entire chat. In Baltimore Jan. 20 to deliver the Loyola University MLK Convocation 2010, Le... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:01:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19663 X-Content by Van Smith: Michael Anft, in the Feature entitled "Councilmania," says the Baltimore City Council gets no respect. Sections devoted to the president and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th districts show why. In Mobtown Beat, Augusta Olsen covers the shuttering of the Golden Temple health-food store, and Bren... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19662 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: In the 1980s, before they were declared hipster heroes by Rick Rubin and Jack White, Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn were more or less ignored by non-country audiences as they served out the tail end of distinguished country careers, playing mid-sized halls and competing against youngsters such as Geor... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19661 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: (HT Alexander Mitchell, who supplied the photograph) Neighbors say the city began demolishing this house several weeks ago, but stopped, supposedly to wait for gas and electric service to be cut off. This morning they heard a crash as the building collapsed amid 50 mph winds, and a near-simultaneo... Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19659 Arts and Minds by Wendy Ward: Carmen is a bitch—but, oh, what a voice. The opera named for the dancing, flirtatious gypsy songstress who seduces a soldier until he loves her back, leaves, and returns, moves from the streets of 1830s Spain in Georges Bizet's tragedy Carmen to a 1920s Parisian nightclub in American Opera The... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19657 The News Hole by Van Smith: These photos were taken today at about 1 p.m., two hours prior to the 3:05 p.m. scheduled high tide for Fells Point. The water taxi stop for the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park is inaccessible due to the extremely high tidal waters in the Patapsco River in downtown Baltimore, and the pi... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19656 Noise by Michael Byrne: Last October, a rumor circulated that the Hexagon, a small and eclectic arts/music space in Station North, planned to ditch performing rights organizations (PROs), i.e. ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. It turns out that was premature, but not inaccurate. This morning, a press release arrived from the Hexagon... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19655 Noise by Michael Byrne: According to a tweet from The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton, eight people have been tazed outside of the Club Paradox in the past three months. Weird/bad shit going on at the LOF/t with the upshot seeming to be that there is no more LOF/t. Dru Hill reunites, mostly. [The Baltimore Sun] You shou... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19654 Crash Course by Edward Ericson Jr.: Both ABC News and the Wall Street Journal are saying that the Senate vote to reconfirm Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose term expires Jan 31, is no longer a sure thing. ... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19653 Noise by Geoffrey Himes: The three young string-band musicians in the Carolina Chocolate Drops began their show at the Ramshead Tavern Tuesday with "Peace Behind the Bridge," an instrumental by the late Piedmont blues guitarist Etta Baker. Giddens, her long dark hair cascading down the back of her purple quilted jacket, sat... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19649 CPTV by Aliza Sollins: See Michelle Gienow's article Hard Cider: Homemade hooch is cheap and easy in the Jan. 20, 2010 Eat Me. ... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:21:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19652 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders this week: 0 Murders this year: 5 There were no murders in Baltimore this past week through Friday, Jan. 15, the last date for inclusion in this column due to an early holiday deadline.... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:54:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19651 : Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:41:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19648 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Last week Flo McGarrell—MICA grad, multidisciplinary artist, and son to James and Ann McGarrell of Newbury, Vt.—passed away Jan. 12 during the earthquake that devastated Haiti. At the time, McGarrell was inside the Peace of Mind Hotel, which collapsed. McGarrell was the director of the F... Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19647 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Baltimore City went six consecutive days without a murder. As of Monday, Jan. 18 there were nine fewer homicides this year than at the same time in 2009. Sunday, Jan. 16 5:30 a.m. Police were called to the 2300 block of West North Avenue near Coppin State University for a shooting. Darnell Tay... Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:46:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=19645 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: Hey Baltimore, if you like the football and Your Baltimore Ravens, I'm real sorry, seriously, you have my Deepest Sympathies. I mean, the Ravens lost to the Indianapolis Colts for a spot in the AFC Championship, which is kind of an insulting injury if you are still holding on to all that Bad Stuff... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:58:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19644 The Mail: As many grassroots organizations do, the Baltimore Green Party has changed a lot since the departure of Bob Kaufman ("A. Robert Kaufman," Mobtown Beat, Jan. 6).  Not having been a member of the party or a city resident at the time he withdrew himself from the party, I can't comment on the speci... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:55:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19643 Feature by Anna Ditkoff: Illustrations by Jennifer Daniel Baltimore City reported four more homicides in 2009 than in 2008--238 vs. 234. It wasn't a big increase, especially for a city used to numbers closer to 300. Still, it affected every corner of the city. There were a few positive trends--fewer children were murdered... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:52:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19642 Councilmania by Andrea Appleton and Edward Ericson Jr.: On the Agenda for Jan. 11 Bill 10-0436 BMore Streets for People Program--Establishment Would establish the BMore Streets for People Program, allowing for periodic street closures throughout the city for use by pedestrians and cyclists. The Read: Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke (D-14th Distri... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:44:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19641 Mobtown Beat by Andrea Appleton: Normally, a developer with a project the size of the $65 million retail and housing development proposed for 25th and Howard streets in lower Remington would request financial incentives from the city. After all, the current plans call for a Lowes home-improvement store, a grocery store, an Anna's... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:41:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19639 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Baltimore thrash band Destined for Nothing bucks up at the Ottobar with Daylight and Pay No Mind. NYC improv jazz-plus trio the In Betweens take on the Windup Space with Deaf Threat and the Out of Your Head Quartet. Mobtown Modern curators Brian Sacawa and Erik Spangler bust out their Hy... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:24:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=19638 New This Week: THE APARTMENT Billy Wilder's 1960 The Apartment isn't just a classic, but a template for today's smartest dramedies. Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a hapless office drone who frequently hands over the keys to his bachelor pad to his philandering bosses in exchange for career advancement. When Miss... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:23:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19637 Quick Sketches: ÎLE-DE-TOWSON Favorite son local filmmaker/writer John Waters installed his first public solo visual art show in 1995 at New York's American Fine Arts Co., and ever since his insouciant, ribald eye for appropriating found imagery--from the everyday world, from media, from movies--has made its... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:15:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19636 Curtain Time: Pole Position The Baltimore Polesque "Baltimore's only pole dancing burlesque troupe" take a spin at the Ottobar (2549 N. Howard St., [410] 662-0069, theottobar.com, baltimorepoledancetroupe.com) Jan. 24. The same night, the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre (817 St. Paul St., [410] 752-1225, spot... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:10:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19635 Stage by Erica Bauman: At the beginning of Man of La Mancha, Miguel De Cervantes (Edward J. Peters ) states "I come in a world of iron to make a world of gold." And while the Vagabond Players' production of the Dale Wasserman musical isn't quite gold, it is a pleasant diversion. Man of La Mancha weaves together two dif... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:00:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19634 Stage by Lee Gardner: The last thing actor Jeffrey Combs was looking for was another horror role. Not, he hastens to add, that he isn't "humbly grateful" for the lengthy list of horror and sci-fi movie and TV credits that began with his indelible turn as nerdy mad-scientist manqué Herbert West in director Stuart Go... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:53:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19633 Stage by Bret McCabe: A solitary man drags a cart into the center of the room. He looks haggard, at his wit's end. A patch covers one eye. And just as he turns a cursing fist to the sky, a woman approaches. She looks at him as if she hasn't seen another person in forever, and they stare at each other. They both appea... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:50:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19632 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:28:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=19628 : Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:23:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15672 Film by Bret McCabe: Everything about Black Dynamite adores its 1970s-era inspiration, and nothing is played for a cheap, condescending joke. You know the moustaches are manly because they're thicker than shag carpeting. Both men and women rock afros that add five inches to their height. The fashions--from men's suits... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:21:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15676 Listening Party by Bret McCabe: Knocking a band for its pedigree is kinda pointless. Witness Vampire Weekend, the New York quartet whose African rhythms-inspired pop on its 2008 self-titled debut was hailed with equal ecstatic fanfare and condescending righteousness. It's not as if VW's four twentysomethings are the only Ivy Leagu... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:38:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15675 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: No sense in overcomplicating it--Bernt Anker, Rosemary Krust's second 7-inch of '09, is simple in dissection. Take one part "pretty" and blast, flood, or stew it with two parts fuzz and/or feedback. For the net result, imagine His Name Is Alive caught in a dust storm, if you like. And it's that simp... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:35:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15674 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: In which Jon Spencer does vocals over one or another of the ambient-IDM Ghost International monikers--with a synth pipe organ fed into the mix for good measure. That's the sound, anyway, of the surprisingly well-produced nonsense courtesy of MT6 duo CAVEMEN!, alarmingly one of the least cave-ready o... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:31:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15673 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: The Honest Mistakes The Honest Mistakes keep it simple. Breezy country-rock handled with care and craft, these are swinging songs suited well for venues with peanut shells on the floor and listeners that, well, like to keep things simple. Not that Break Up is unsophisticated, per se, but the whole w... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:26:02 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=15677 Cheap Eats by Wendy Ward: Across the street from the Walters Art Museum sits Cozy Corner, a warm little breakfast/lunch spot with handmade soups perfect for the chilly winter winds blowing through Mount Vernon. Its two booth tables beneath big street-level windows filled with cheery plants are pretty much directly under a h... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:42:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19646 Noise by Bret McCabe: Here at Baltimore's Most Continuing-2009's-Furlough-Days-in-the-Twenty-Ten Alternative Weekly, production weeks abridged due to holidays or furlough days or furloughed holidays, such as Martin Luther King Jr. day Jan. 18, means sometimes shows/events announced late in the production cycle sadly get... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19627 The News Hole by Van Smith: Since Jan. 13, when City Paper mistakenly reported that the City of Baltimore awarded a $10,000, one-year contract to the online publication Bmore, new information has come to light about the deal, which was pulled from the Jan. 13 Board of Estimates agenda at the last minute. First Deputy Mayor And... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19626 X-Content by Van Smith: The feature is Eileen Murphy's celebration of renowned Baltimore artist Joyce J. Scott, to mark Scott's solo exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art. City Paper's decision to run Savage Love is debated in The Mail. In Mobtown Beat, Michael Anft reports on efforts to strengthen Maryland's brownfields... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=15656 Film by Erin Sullivan: Back in 1990 when Jerry Zucker was making the movie Ghost—the story of murdered man (Patrick Swayze) whose spirit resists being subsumed by the afterworld and who resides in an in-between place where he can observe the living—CGI didn't really exist. Zucker had to rely on his and his act... Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:31:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19625 Noise by Al Shipley: It was hard to know what to expect from a show billed as John Berndt's Multiphonic Choir, since Berndt is primarily known as one of the main brains behind two of the biggest institutions in Baltimore's experimental improvised music scene, the Red Room collective and its annual High Zero festival. Bu... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=19624 Stage by Blair Bedford: Starr isn't someone you would want to play games with. First introduced to the Theatre Project in 2003 in Roxi Starr in 3-D with Elvis, this self-praising diva is loud, brash, and has eccentricities that cross the line from quirky to criminal. As Theatre Project's first show of the year, Tell Baby... Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST