http://www.citypaper.com/ Recent Baltimore City Paper Content. en-us Copyright 2009 Baltimore City Paper http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17315 The News Hole by Chris Landers: The Baltimore Guardian Angels are looking for help finding a hit-and-run driver. Marcus Dent, chapter commander of the Baltimore Angels, sent an e-mail, posted below, describing the incident and asking people to contact the organization if they have any information that may help it find the driver.... Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17314 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: We just read this story in The Sun and wanted to point it out for those who haven't seen it yet.... Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17313 Arts and Minds by Chris Landers: Good News: AMC has all of the old episodes of 1960s British television series The Prisoner for free on its web site. Bad News: The network is only doing it to promote a remake--sorry, "reinterpretation"--of The Prisoner. Indifferent news: I scored a shockingly poor 35% on AMC's Prisoner Trivia quiz.... Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17312 Arts and Minds by Chris Landers: I just finished the World War Z audiobook I got for Christmas, and caught up with the latest issue of The Walking Dead, so I'm pretty psyched for the debut of Rigor Mortis a new local zombie zine from Davida Gypsy Breier, who garnered a City Paper Best Zine award 2003 for Leeking Ink and Best Local... Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17309 The Mail: Reading Ranice Crosby's letter to the editor in the Dec. 31 edition of City Paper ("Gay and Betrayed by Obama"), I feel compelled to point out that Barack Obama's stance on gay issues has never changed. Obama made repeated, public declarations that he believes that marriage is between a man and a wo... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:13:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17308 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders This Week: 9Murders in 2008: 234Murders in 2009: 7 As 2008 ended and 2009 began, Baltimore City continued its backslide. Though the city's 2008 homicide total was its lowest since 1988, there was an uptick in murders during the last two months of the year. The trend continues into the new... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:09:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17307 What's the 311? by Chris Landers: Over the past three winters, there have been more than 6,200 calls to 311 from people complaining about snow and/or ice. Here are the top 10 streets that needed a little extra salt. 1. Gittings Avenue (43 calls) 2. W. Northern Parkway (35 calls) 3. North Rosedale St. (28 calls) 4. W. Cold Spring Lan... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:08:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17306 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: It's the holidays and unseasonably warm, a perfect time for some four-wheeling. A caravan of three fat-tired monster trucks filled with people is on the move in Rosedale, near where Philadelphia Road splits off from Route 40 in Eastern Baltimore County. The tracks they're riding on meander through... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:06:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17305 Feature by Anna Ditikoff: "My mom was killed by my dad so we moved," Takia* says when asked what brought her to Baltimore. Sitting in the kitchen in the House of Ruth's shelter for battered woman, the pretty 28-year-old with a soft, open face is matter of fact, saying it the way others might say their dad got a new job. It's... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:04:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17303 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Casperous Vine, a mournful gypsy/chamber outfit out of Buffalo, lays its haunt on the Metro Gallery. Franz Nicolay, one of the Hold Steady dudes performing solo, is at the Ottobar with Mischief Brew and Labianca. Brazil's Garotas Suecas, a garage-rock beach party with awesome accents, st... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:01:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17302 The Arts by Neil Ferguson: Ed Hamell has image problems. Hamell--Aka Hamell On Trial, the one-man wrecking ball-cum-manic and unholy combination of Elmore Leonard, the Clash, Joey Ramone, Charles Bukowski, Jim Carroll, Street Hassle-era Lou Reed, and Hunter S. Thompson all rolled into one savagely funny, profound-yet-prof... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:00:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17301 Political Animal by Brian Morton: Quite possibly one of the silliest and most pointless things a black American political columnist can write about is the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The only thing that can come of it is a sharp and fierce questioning of one's motives, a possible charge of anti-Semitism, and very l... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:53:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17300 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: So a couple of days after Christmas, me and the family find ourselves at the Lenox China outlet looking for new pieces for our black Nativity scene (where Joseph looks like my old barber and Mary looks like Vanity circa 1985) and a 2008 ornament. What can I say? One of the things my wife and I have... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:52:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17297 : Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:11:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17296 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:11:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17292 : Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:09:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14310 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Local filmmaking machine Chris LaMartina debuts a new horror short tonight prior to showing his and co-writer Jimmy George's latest feature, the omnibus Grave Mistakes. For "One Foot in the Grave" George and LaMartina get entertainingly silly, following the outright ridiculous exploits of a witch in... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:53:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14309 Film by Rob Boylan: If there was an academy award for Best Growling in a Motion Picture (and there should be), Clint Eastwood would be the prohibitive favorite every time out. Sure, the bravado and the mean, chiseled face are the hallmarks of Eastwood the actor, but the squinty-eyed snarl is his signature and he delive... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:49:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14308 Film by Geoffrey Himes: Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet are two of the most attractive stars, so why do they seem downright unkissable in Revolutionary Road? Why has DiCaprio disappeared inside the pudgy, glum face of Frank Wheeler, a marketing expert for the IBM-like Knox Business Machines? Why has Winslet shrunk into... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:48:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=14312 Know Your Product by Bret McCabe: Ms. Stress earned her local reputation as a fierce battle rapper, but her 2006 Surviving Life debut revealed a multi-dimensional MC as comfortable being vulnerable as she was being aggressive. The West Baltimorean born Tekia Johnson combines both sides of her personality on her follow-up--Flipside,... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:52:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=14311 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: The collaboration between Baltimorean Greg Malcolm and Coloradan Chad Mossholder known as Twine reportedly occurs almost entirely virtually. That is, the partners trade digital sound files long distance, building a final product that feels considerably more like a two-person project than your averag... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:52:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17311 The News Hole by Mel Guapo: Some of us here in the runup to Super Bowl XLIII still think "Weezy" is George Jefferson's wife, but apparently the current culturally-relevant owner of the handle is Hip-hop luminary and established avian enthusiast L'il Wayne, who today in his first-ever, um, take, on the Entertainment and Sports... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17298 Noise by Michael Byrne: Dan Deacon's follow-up his 2006 grand splash Spiderman Of The Rings now has a release date and an eerie, very cool cover. (Disclosure: said cover was shot by City Paper production staffer Frank Hamilton as a freelance project not affiliated with CP.) The record, Bromst, comes out March 24 on Carpark... Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17291 Arts and Minds by Lee Gardner: Tipster Runnykine directed us to a post just put up on a LiveJournal community page called Abandoned Places that captures images of a trove of lost Baltimore cultural trash/treasure: photographs of the former sound stage of The Wire. Posted by "Patty Boh," the photos depict the litter-strewn interio... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17290 Noise by Michael Byrne: Maybe it goes without saying, but Thank You's awesomely free show Friday night at the Windup Space was packed. As such, we realized another sort of cool/weird thing about the North Avenue venue/bar/etc.--it may be a weird spatial mind trick, but the Windup Space is huge. Pretty sure that same crowd... Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17289 Noise by Al Shipley: 2008 was a memorable and important year in the history of Baltimore club music, but not entirely in a good way. The shocking death of club's most popular DJ, Khia "K-Swift" Edgerton, cast a dark shadow over the second half of the year, and it feels like things still haven't returned to normal yet, i... Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17288 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Now that The Wire has once again earned a place in many critic's and publication's year-end Top 10 lists and DVD accolades, single episodes shout outs, and even a spot in the American Film Institute's official list of TV programs of the year, 2008 ends with a bit of interesting online chatter about... Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17287 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders This Week: 5 Murders This Year: 232 The death of Andre Gay Jr., a 31-year-old African-American man, has been removed from Baltimore City's homicide tally. Gay and a 21-year-old African-American man were found shot on the front porch of a rowhouse in the 4900 block of Gunther Avenue. The tw... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:34:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17286 The Mail: Where's the outrage? Why bother? ("Antihero," Feature, Dec. 17) In a city/culture/climate where illiteracy, slovenliness, and criminality are glorified and worshipped by the just too intellectually lazy, what else would one expect? Take a look around as you drive through; those bands of non-honor-ro... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:32:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17285 Mobtown Beat by Chris Landers and Van Smith: When law-enforcement agents intercept packages of illegal drugs moving through the U.S. Mail or a private parcel-delivery service, they use available clues about the packages to pursue criminal cases against those tied to the shipments. Mapping information from court records about six recent such... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:25:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17284 Feature by Edward Ericson Jr.: You do not know the darkness of life without mambo. This is because Israel Lopez, a Havana-born bassist, invented this dance/rhythm/feeling/universe some time in 1937, probably around a small round table with a bottle of rum on it inside a dark club in the wee hours of the morning. He was with his b... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:21:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17283 Feature by Edward Ericson Jr.: Bozo is the consummate clown, the epitome of clown. The fire-orange yak hair erupting sideways from the bald white head, the gateway-arch eyebrows, the red-ball nose, the huge greasepaint grin--Bozo, created in 1946 by Alan Livingston--is the archetype. Bozo's influence is seen from Ronald McDonald,... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:20:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17282 Feature by Anna Ditikoff: Mildred Loving had no intention of being a civil-rights hero. She and her husband simply wanted to go home. And that wish turned the soft-spoken Loving into a crusader, who struck down laws prohibiting interracial couples from marrying. Mildred Jeter, who was African- and Native-American, and Richar... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:18:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17281 Feature by Bret McCabe: Like jazz music and go-go dancing, funny women are one of America's most slept-on natural resources. From Anita Loos to Dorothy Parker, Dawn Powell to Alison Lurie, to be a smart, funny, and female writer in America means you inevitably get forgotten, overlooked, or otherwise sidelined, personally o... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:17:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17280 Feature by Lee Gardner: Klaus Dinger never called the drum beat/rhythm he created "motorik," as musicians and music critics have referred to it ever since. He found the term, a neologism which translates roughly as "motor-music," unflattering. He was once quoted as saying that he called it the "Apache beat," but in another... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:13:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17279 Feature by Lee Gardner: It's a little difficult to see the late Gary Gygax, a sturdy, bearded Midwestern uncle type, in Grand Theft Auto's glitz and violence, Spore's bizarro creature building, or Metal Gear's urban sneak 'n' shoot, but he's there. Indeed, the megabillions video-game industry likely owes a good chunk of it... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:11:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17278 Feature by Anna Ditkoff: You know that little information booklet you get with your prescriptions? How about the warning labels on the medications themselves? Well, if it weren't for Barbara Seaman you might not get that information at all. Seaman, a writer and activist, made a career of speaking up for women, and trying to... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:09:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17277 Feature by Michael Byrne: As far as processing and recording music goes, in 2008 anyone can do almost anything with a click of a computer mouse. Some 30 years ago, though, a tape delay meant slightly staggering two tapes of the same track and crossing your fingers, and edits to a recording were made with a razor blade and ta... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:08:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17276 Feature by Bret McCabe: A roving camera soaks in the Old World opulence of an unnamed castle. Handsome, trim men in evening attire and jeweled women expressionlessly stare at a refined entertainment. A Chanel-clad Delphine Seyrig emerges at the top of a Rococo staircase looking like the most desirable elegant object in the... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:06:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17275 Feature by Michael Gill: Victor Schreckengost, who died Jan. 26 at age 101, did not have an especially famous name. But to understand his impact on the way America lives, it helps to know that he designed not only the sissy bar that kept you from sliding off the back of your banana seat while popping the wheelies of your ad... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:05:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17274 Feature: Death took its usual toll this year, and seemingly then some. Genocide, war, terrorist attacks, disease--yikes. But for the purposes of City Paper's annual tribute to influential cultural notables whose deaths deserve a little extra note, it was a terrible harvest. In addition to the loss of A-lis... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:04:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17273 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: With all of one event being in the loosely defined category "big deal," New Year's Eve is kinda lacking excitement this year. A quick rundown: Wu-Tang Clan, the whole thing, including the RZA, rocks Sonar's main room with a local hip-hop who's who including Saleem and the Music Lovers,... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:01:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17272 Stage by Bret McCabe: By the time human powerhouse E. Faye Butler is choking back real tears and unleashing a lifetime of the title character's pain into a single song toward the end of the two-and-a-half-hour roller coaster that is Center Stage's heart-punching production of Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change, you have... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17271 Political Animal by Brian Morton: Some years back, during a summer vacation with friends at an Ocean City beach house, I was asked by their daughter to "explain politics." The girl was a bright and precocious junior high school student who, up until that point, really hadn't thought much about the political system. On a paper plate... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:55:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17270 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: Wow, I tried to prepare my Escape Pod, but it's too fucking late, man, the whole year is over and there's no more Economy or anything now. Bummer. I mean, seriously, it's like Everybody got fucking fired from Everything, right? I deduce both mathematically and through the Process of Elimination now... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:51:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17268 : Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:43:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17267 : Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:51:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17266 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:51:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14290 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Jean-Luc Godard's 1966 episodic portrait of '60s young people is both the platonic ideal of the carefree youth movie and the critical examination of that very entertainment and existence. Masculine Feminine follows young Parisians into cafes, Laundromats, and movie theaters in 15 mundane, prismatic,... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:35:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=14289 No Cover by Michael Byrne: Ami dang would prefer if you didn't refer to her music as "fusion." The style she's arrived at over her years studying music at Oberlin College and within Baltimore's avant-garde community is certainly distinctive, being a synthesis of classically trained, traditional Indian vocals and nimble, adr... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:35:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14288 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: In movies, people always seem to linger over breakfast. They sidle up to red leather and chrome stools for coffee and a newspaper in the local diner or share morning after lattes and muffins with tousled hair and shy grins in the corner cafe. No heart-healthy oatmeal or cereal on the run for these... Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:06:41 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17262 Noise by Al Shipley: The Baltimore Round Robin Tour 2008 is one of the more brilliant ideas to come out of the Wham City collective in its past few years. Not only did the two-night traveling show give exposure to dozens of local acts while pulling respectable crowds across the midwest and East Coast with the buzz of bi... Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17260 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders This Week: 5Murders This Year: 228 The death of a newborn boy was added to the homicide rolls this week. On Oct. 4, Melanie Blevins, a 22-year-old Caucasian woman from Westminster, went to Union Memorial Hospital at 8:30 p.m. complaining of urinary pain. Doctors examined her and discovered... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:10:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17259 What's the 311? by Chris Landers: 311 calls for the Rat Rubout squad during the calendar year ending last month. Standard Disclaimer: What's The 311 is based on data from the Mayor's Office of Information Technology (currently from Sept. 20, 2005 until November 30, 2008). It has been folded, spindled, and mutilated along the... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:10:28 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17258 Mobtown Beat by Jeffrey Anderson and Van Smith: After fleeing from a federal indictment in early 2007 ("Flight Connections," Mobtown Beat, March 12), Shawn Michael Green was arrested Dec. 14 in Pennsylvania and taken to Maryland to face drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. Aside from those charges, court records in other proceedings po... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:09:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17256 Feature by Chris Landers: Not quite an hour after the usual scheduled appearance of the Virgin Mary, Janet Freeman steps out of a cutting December wind in Emmitsburg and into St. Peter's Books, which is located between a sub shop and a Chinese restaurant in a strip mall near the intersection of Routes 15 and 140. Inside, Pe... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:04:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17255 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: With Christmas Eve and all, you'll be lucky to find a DJ spinning tonight. THURSDAY: See above. And Merry Christmas. FRIDAY: Two longtime revered area bands reunite/return at the Ottobar--the Slickee Boys, now a garage/punk/psych legend that started making music around here more tha... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:03:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17254 The Mail: To City Paper letter-writing fixture, Larnell Custis Butler, from this Eurocentric (Scotland) whitey--you go girl! ("The Butler Did It," The Mail, Dec. 17) One letter writer steers her on the race issue to some scientist on DNA. Great . . . all we need. I suggest we watch what happens in the cases... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:02:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17253 Music by Geoffrey Himes: Taylor Swift's recent album, Fearless (Big Machine), is such a triumph, both artistically and commercially, that you'd think it would be the answer to all of country music's problems. But it's not. It's not that its artistic reputation is undeserved, for it is one of the year's most impressive reco... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:58:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17252 Books by Tony Ware: In late '70s London, punk set out to bring rock back to basics after arena rock's excesses and guarded access. Along the way, it got a bit tripped up in its own identity, at which time Spartan skinheads rose in rejection of an exaggerated fashionable uniform. Over in Los Angeles, American hardcore t... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:58:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17251 Political Animal by Brian Morton: OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS OR SO, THE term "career politician" has obtained a connotation of disrepute. Now, perhaps that's because the term "politician" has always been laden with disrepute, but the idea that there is a professional class of something, where one has spent a career learning how to do so... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:56:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17250 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: On Dec. 18, The NAACP released a 40-plus-pages report condemning the ongoing lack of diversity in entertainment media, specifically in television, and how, as an organization, it's threatened to take political action if some changes aren't made. I figured that's right up my alley, and, post-election... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:56:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17249 : Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:56:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17248 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:55:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17244 : Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:54:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17202 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Ronnie Thomas, also known as "Skinny Suge" and "Suga da Pimp," is a tenacious media hound. He made a name for himself with the 2005 release of his video, Stop Fucking Snitching Vol. 1, a rambling, low-budget documentary that opened a frenzied national discussion on street-level abhorrence for poli... Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:34:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14287 Film Clips by Serena Donadoni: John Grogan (Owen Wilson) is a newspaper columnist who documents his middle-class marriage and family life--along with extreme canine misbehavior--and shares these experiences with readers who identify with his everyday struggles. The Marley & Me constructed by director David Frankel is conventi... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:44:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14286 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: This flummoxing 1961 diamond from director Alain Resnais and screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet takes one of the lamest pickup lines ever--Haven't I seen you somewhere before?--and turns it into the most absurdly elegant and decadently formalist exercise in high modernism ever frozen in time on cellul... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:41:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14285 Film Clips by Al Shipley: Disney's latest live-action feature is a typically wide-eyed, PG-rated family flick about magic and imagination. But it's also an Adam Sandler vehicle, and while his silly voices and lowbrow humor have always had a certain childlike appeal, he appears to chafe against the limitations of a project th... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:37:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14284 Film by John Barry: In one of the standout scenes in Doubt, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) interrupts basketball practice to ask a small group of 14-year-old kids to check out his fingernails. "They're a little long," he notes, "but I keep them clean." So goes the movie itself: an extended, polished, and creepy... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:36:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14283 Film by Cole Haddon: The Reader begins as a riddle of sorts, with an emotionally shut-off German attorney, Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes), kicking a beautiful woman out of his apartment before the sight of a tram inexplicably takes him back to 1958. As a teenager Michael (David Kross) begins an illicit relationship with... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:35:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14282 Film by Violet Glaze: "We have to show the world that not all of us are like him," vows Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) to a crowded room full of his fellow Nazi officers. They've gathered to plot the overthrow of the Third Reich, starting with the assassination of Hitler and ending with an elegantly crafted... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:34:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14281 Film by Bret McCabe: Ron Howard directing a Peter Morgan script should be a home run. Morgan revels in the talky machinations of power brokering--see: The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, the BBC's The Deal--and Howard is at his best when dramatizing the behind-the-scenes wonk work of events' public faces, whether it b... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:34:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14280 Film by Violet Glaze: David Fincher loves death and decay. All of his best movies, from Fight Club to Se7en to Zodiac, revel in how the world is falling apart, physically and spiritually--a decrepitude that even extends to the distressed and grainy film stock on which his gleeful doomsday parables flicker. So it makes s... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:33:16 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14278 Cheap Eats by Lee Gardner: When we first heard Café Mocha was "relocating" from its small, trim storefront on Howard Street, a block behind City Paper, we were both sad and skeptical. Sad because, well, Café Mocha's ne plus ultra sandwiches often made our frantic office lunchtimes worth looking forward to; skeptical... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:24:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14277 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Some restaurants we visit because we have to; some we visit because we want to. If we're lucky, obligation and anticipation intersect. Such was the case with my planned visit to TapaBar (413 S. High St., [410] 223-3020); I just couldn't wait to sample what I've come to love about authentic Spanish... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:23:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/clubs/review.asp?rid=14279 Drinks by Alex Walsh: It's hard finding a deal in the upscale Baltimore neighborhood that a certain first daughter calls home. But dollar domestic drafts on Thursdays at Federal Hill's Mad River Bar and Grille are a steal. The mostly young and attractive clientele gathers in mobs for a fun night on the cheap. Shots can g... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:25:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17243 Noise by Bret McCabe: Leave it to Normals Books and Records to assemble one of those days that remind you how great it is to live in Baltimore. On the Sunday prior to the "official" pagan-Christian-commercialism December holiday, Daniel Higgs put together his own celebration for Normals' third annual Christmaseastermass,... Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17242 Arts and Minds by Wendy Ward: The Autism Society of America and AMC Entertainment have partnered to provide a safe movie-watching environment for families touched by autism and other disabilities. At 10 a.m. Jan. 3 at participating AMC theaters in the area--While Marsh, Columbia Mall, Tysons Corner, Potomac Mills, and Gaithersbu... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17241 Stage by John Barry: When the money gets tight, operas, with huge production costs, and relatively brief runs, can be the canaries in the coal mine for the performing arts. Last week, the Baltimore Opera, $1.2 million in debt, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and cancelled the last two productions of its 2008-2009 season.... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:29:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17240 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: The Baltimore Sun editor Timothy Franklin is leaving the paper effective Jan. 1, 2009 and taking a job at the University of Indiana School of Journalism. Franklin has been editor of the Sun since 2004, when he left his post at the Orlando Sentinel to replace Bill Marimow, who served as editor of th... Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17239 The News Hole by Erin Sullivan: Today the Bivings Group, a Washington-based internet communications firm, released the findings of its 2008 study of how traditional print newspapers are coping with the steady evolution of online content in the media. The organization studied 100 "major" newspapers selected based on circulation (th... Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17238 Noise by Michael Byrne: A proper early Christmas present, Maxamillion Dunbar (Andrew Field Pickering)--Food For Animals MC, Future Times label boss, and producer/DJ about the Baltimore/Washington area--just dropped this nice little "Holidaze" mix for your funky fireside pleasure. Pretty much all groove, it moves nicely fro... Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17236 Noise by Al Shipley: Throughout his career, New Jersey native Ted Leo has stood at a crossroads between the divergent but frequently intertwined paths of a lifelong punk rocker and a literate singer-songwriter with a diverse set of influences. So when he plays a solo show, without his backing band of the past few years,... Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17234 Noise by Robbie Whelan: The theme of Monday night's Mobtown Modern concert series installment was "Hard as F#@!"--works of modern classical music that are finger-breakingly tough to play, fraught with the kind of quick technical passages, unsteady rhythms, and unfamiliar harmonies that make it near impossible for the audie... Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17233 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: Earlier this week City Paper received an e-mail informing us that Terry Long, a longtime local theater presence, passed away last weekend. Today, Fuzz Roark, executive director at the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre, sent out an announcement to the theater company's mailing list containing inform... Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17232 Murder Ink: Murders This Week: 2Murders This Year: 223 After three bloody weeks in a row, homicides slowed down again this week. As of Dec. 15, there have been 49 fewer homicides this year than the same time last year. Despite the decrease, Baltimore continues to have a very high per-capita homicide rate comp... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:08:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17229 Mobtown Beat by Erin Sullivan: A recent crackdown on the enforcement of a city code requiring residents to put their trash out in metal cans with tight-fitting lids has angered the residents of some neighborhoods where citations for the violation have recently been issued. According to Peggy Smallwood, a resident of East Baltim... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:53:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17227 Feature by Jeffrey Anderson: On a sunny October day last year, Anna Sowers stood behind mayoral candidate Keiffer Mitchell and waited to speak. Thin and seemingly fragile amid a crowd of firefighters and police, she shifted from side to side as her hands fiddled nervously with a purse that hung at her waist. Mitchell was runni... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:55:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17226 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Sun Circle--a two-man heavy drone unit utilizing voices, organ, and gong to spellbinding effect--takes over the Golden West for a few hours of relaxing inside the warm, colorful confines of the back of your skull with Bird Show and Ravi Bunning. THURSDAY: The first night, the "eyes ni... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:50:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17225 The Mail: That is it! Enough! Every other week, it seems, there is something wrong with the crossword puzzle! Clues from last week's puzzle; missing clues; and this week, clues that don't match the puzzle grid! Is there someone in charge of editing the crossword, or do you just shove it in the back section fi... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:48:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17223 Art by Bret McCabe: A series of studies captures some of the most intriguing painting Baltimore artist Kate MacKinnon has exhibited locally in recent years. Five panels of layered brown paint hang on the long wall in the first-floor CaseWerks showroom that Jordan Faye Block uses as gallery space, and they differ from... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:42:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17222 Political Animal by Brian Morton: Originally the term, "The Fourth Estate" referred to "the mob" or "the rabble," as it was used in 19th-century England and France, with the other "estates" being the king, the clergy, and the commons, or the legislature. According to William Safire's New Political Dictionary, the term didn't really... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:41:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17221 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: People ask me if I am ready for The Holidays, all up in my grille like "So, are you ready for The Holidays?" and I get a teensy bit irritated, as in, like, what the fuck kinda question is that, "Am I ready for The Holidays?" What if I am not ready for The Holidays? What if I am Unprepared, what are... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:39:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17219 : Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:31:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17218 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:30:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17214 : Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:29:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17194 Mobtown Beat by Jeffrey Anderson: In September, the Maryland state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced that it had hired a woman named Renata Henry to become deputy secretary for Behavioral Health and Disabilities. The announcement was made with little fanfare or public discussion, despite the fact that Henry, who pr... Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:34:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14238 Film Clips by Jeff Niesel: A Christmas celebration takes a turn for the worse when Anna (Elizabeth Peña) announces that she plans to divorce Edy (Alfred Molina), her husband of many years, because she suspects he's been having an affair. The adult children all react differently, and we soon learn each has his or her own... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:30:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14237 Film Clips by Robert Ignizio: Director Robert Wise exercised subtlety and taste with his 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still--one of that era's few science-fiction movies that can still play to modern audiences as something other than camp--putting story and character ahead of special effects and action. That can't be said about... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:28:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14236 Film Clips by Cole Haddon: Ostensibly an adaptation of Danny Wallace's memoir of the same name, director Peyton Reed appears only to be interested in the book's basic premise, that a man says yes to everything for a year--from credit card offers to invitations to people on the street--and spun that idea into a sometimes funny... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:26:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14235 Film Clips by Jason Morgan: For whatever reason, rodents have a rich film history, from Disney's 1950 Cinderella to last year's Oscar-winning Ratatouille. The Tale of Despereaux is the story of a young mouse (Matthew Broderick) whose bravery brings together a royal family and breathes life into a village obsessed with soup. Od... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:25:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14234 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Seven Pounds dedicates itself to the what and the why. What is IRS agent Ben Thomas (Will Smith) doing harassing a blind salesman (Woody Harrelson) in the opening minutes? What interest does Thomas have in the attractive Emily (Rosario Dawson) he tracks to a Los Angeles hospital? What is the plan Th... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:24:36 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14233 Film by Geoffrey Himes: There's a reason French novelist Philippe Claudel cast Kristin Scott Thomas as the protagonist in his debut as a director, I've Loved You So Long, and it's not because the British actress speaks flawless French. It's because filmgoers have an indelible memory of Thomas's perfect cheekbones and mesm... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:24:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=14242 Know Your Product by Al Shipley: Born King is quickly becoming one of Baltimore's most prolific and unique rappers, having released three albums in the space of a year. Two of them, 2007's Krad Edis and the more recent The Secret Order, had Halloween release dates, and each successive album has moved toward darker and more esoteri... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:42:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=14241 Know Your Product by Michael Byrne: It's been going on for a good while, sure, but it seems right now that Baltimore club music is scattering in many directions at once. It's not that it's fragmenting or diluting, but the range of experimentation in club is, frankly, awesome. Hybrids galore: 410 Pharaohs doing club/hip-hop; King Tutt... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:40:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14260 Cheap Eats by Edward Ericson Jr.: Newly opened near the corner of Read and Howard streets (conveniently around the corner from City Paper), Zachi Café and Gourmet Market boasts a large, stylish (though sparsely furnished) dining room for its eat-in customers, as well as takeout and counter service of sandwiches, pasta, salads, soups... Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:59:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14231 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Now that we're officially in a recession, it's harder to determine when an empty restaurant is a sign of something lacking in folks' pockets rather than something lacking in the kitchen. But a full house can be equally deceptive: just because a place is wildly popular doesn't necessarily mean it's... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:20:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17231 Noise by Michael Byrne: If only Mike Ness would age as gracefully as John "Speedo" Reis, the potent frontman of pomp-rock ensemble Rocket From the Crypt, guitarist for post-hardcore touchstone Drive Like Jehu, and, most recently, guitarist and vocalist for sweaty garage riot the Hot Snakes. All bands are defunct now, and R... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17230 Top Ten by Benji Anft: 1. Fallout 3 Fallout 3 is one of the biggest--if not the biggest--games ever made. It is so loaded with content and things to do that it takes months and months to be able to see everything and do everything that there is to do. Every little bit of the quests and content that can be found in th... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:55:53 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17224 Mobtown Beat by Jeffrey Anderson and Van Smith: Editor's note: An updated and more detailed version of this story appeared in the Dec. 24 issue. Fugitive Shawn Michael Green, who has been on the run from federal drug-trafficking charges since early 2007, was arrested recently in Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:43:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17220 Noise by Al Shipley: On Thursday night, local singer-songwriter Ellen Cherry crammed her tall 5'10" frame into a small room with just over a dozen audience members for a few hours, the occasion for the unusual performance being a "micro-show" at Mobtown Studios. The Charles Village recording facility opened earlier this... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17212 Noise by Raymond Cummings: Forget Guns 'N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, Portishead's Third, Dr. Dre's Detox, Eminem's Relapse. The first two have come and gone--finally--and who knows when the second two will actually see the light of day. Forget them all, because right now the bloggerati, critically inclined, and plebe-class ma... Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17211 UliBlog by Uli Loskot: I only have two and a half days in Kathmandu to get everything ready and organized for my trekking departure into the Himalayas. I decide it's time to get my hair trimmed and end up in a barber shop with a very skilled Indian barber cutting skillfully and fast. I have no time to resist when he i... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17210 X-Content: The impending departure of two important Baltimoreans—Kurt L. Schmoke as the city's mayor, and Steven Bunker as the Fells Point fixture who owned the China Sea Trader shop on Thames Street—consumed City Paper's news efforts a decade ago this week. In arts and music, Mike Giuliano reviewed an abst... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:24:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17209 Top Ten by Michael Byrne, Lee Gardner, and Bret McCabe : Consider this less a "best songs" list than a clearinghouse for songs we really, really wanted to write about but didn't get a chance to anywhere else this year. If the smattering that follows means something as a whole it's probably, at least, as further evidence that this was a mega year for rock... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:30:49 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17208 CPTV by Frank Hamilton: A walk from the 2008 Baltimore Washington Monument lighting to Joe Squared Pizza and the first annual 2-PIECE & A BISCUIT art show. ... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17207 Art by Martin L. Johnson: IF THE RECENT HOUSING CRISIS HAS anything to teach us, it's that even the most permanent structures are simply accumulations of capital, prime for sub-dividing and recombining into ever-more complex financial packages. All our material and romantic attachment to our homes is for naught when the teas... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:09:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17206 Arts and Minds by Joe Tropea: A mysterious press release came out of the state Department of Business and Economic Development Dec. 11 that's left some members of Baltimore's film community scratching their heads in wonder. The release, sent out by the department which houses the Maryland Film Office--the agency charged with att... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17205 Stage by Anna Ditkoff: A couple years back Christmas time at the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival meant artistic director Jimi Kinstle performing the original one-man show A Dickens of a Carol by Kimberley Lynne, deftly combining the well-known tale of Ebenezer Scrooge with the story of Charles Dickens' life. Kinstle left B... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:51:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17204 The News Hole by Van Smith: Federal authorities seized the contents of a cell phone that was found Nov. 24 in the Supermax prison cell of Stop Fucking Snitching Vol. 1 producer Ronnie "Skinny Suge" Thomas, City Paper reported yesterday. A copy of the affidavit [pdf] supporting the seizure of the phone, which has since been pro... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17203 Noise by Al Shipley: No album title was more prescient in 2008 than Ne-Yo's Year of the Gentleman, which led a small army of R&B albums by sharp-dressed male singers displaying both emotional maturity and musical progression, including efforts by Robin Thicke, Raheem DeVaughn, and Dwele. Two singers that stood out i... Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17200 Music by Raven Baker, Michael Byrne, Jess Harvell, Bret McCabe, and Al Shipley : We go to many shows. You might say it's an unhealthy amount of shows. And you'd think, after a time, that it would start to blend together, that we might lose our ability to be floored by a performance. Well, if that ever happens, we promise we'll look into careers in banking. Until then, here's our... Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:38:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17198 Noise by Raymond Cummings: First non-contact encounters with bats brand themselves in memory: they're jarring, shudder-full, unshakable. You're going about your business--attending a Japanese Club meeting in the basement of the campus International dorm or studying in the antiquated home you're subletting from a professor who... Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17197 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: On Nov. 16 I encountered a gray-haired gentleman in a business suit in the Bel Air Giant grocery store. He was trying to sell me a subscription to The Aegis, the bi-weekly community paper of Harford County. He looked like the publisher, not a contract salesman on peanuts commission. The deal: a six-... Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17196 Noise by Michael Byrne: Pardon if this sounds a little insider baseball, but, trust us, it's potentially a big deal. IMP is the large company out of Bethesda that operates Washington's 9:30 Club and Columbia's Merriweather Post Pavilion. IMP used to have a promotional partnership with Sonar, and over the years has worked w... Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17195 The News Hole by Anna Ditkoff: Today was the December monthly meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, a body that includes Mayor Sheila Dixon, State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy, and Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld, in addition to representatives from the courts, Parole and Probation, Public Safety, Correctional S... Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17193 Top Ten by Lee Gardner and Bret McCabe: 1. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Criterion) Even in an age where you can search up footage of anything online, Salo, freshly reissued with typical care by Criterion, still carries a transgressive charge. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini cannily transposed the Marquis de Sade's novel of sadomasochism... Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:24:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17192 UliBlog by Uli Loskot: I arrive in Kathmandu as the first rays of sun dissolve the morning mist. The humid hot air of Kolkata has given way to brisk mountain air. Kathmandu, with a population of 700.000 Inhabitants, lies in a valley in the southern foothills of the Himalayas at 1400 meters altitude. Since the valley is sh... Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17191 Top Ten: As this list attests, Center Stage had a banner year. From its spry production of an Edward Albee standby to its intimate adaptation of Stephen Sondheim, Baltimore's premiere theater company really earned its marketing tag this year by proving just how smart, bold, and alive it, and the theater, c... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:19:51 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17190 Top Ten: Baltimore's art community continued to grow in activity and quality in 2008, and it's increasing scope is the primary reason City Paper changed up its year-end top picks process a tad this year. So much is going on in visual art in Baltimore right now a good deal of it doesn't always get covered in... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:16:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17189 Top Ten: Publishers recently announced staff cuts. The book itself remains in the digital age's cross hairs as a relic. Publications in general are slashing page counts, staffs, and their own future. September saw the depressing suicide of one of American letters brightest contemporary voices. Literature t... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:06:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17188 Top Ten: A nice mix of already heavily lauded records and sleeper gems, this year's local top 10 astounds for its breadth. There's no easy "the year of..." here. If it's the year of anything, it's the year of Baltimore's corners, from lo-fi keyboard tinkering to groundbreaking hip-hop/Baltimore club collab... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:01:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17187 Top Ten: Yes, the list that follows is staggeringly bent toward indie-rock. Why? It's hard to say--it could just be this was a banner year for white hipster music (and Matador Records), but we're more inclined to think it was a banner year for music in general, and ballots got split something fierce in o... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:58:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17186 Top Ten: The year began in a writer's strike that threatened to sentence viewers to a spring season of nothing but reality piffle and endless syndication cycles of the Law and Order franchise, but 2008 soon turned out to be yet another banner year for television. We missed some longtime favorites--hurry up... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:52:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17185 Top Ten: Movies went pop this past year, if this list is any evidence to current tastes and predilections. Two outright comedies, two comic-book adaptations, an animated dystopian space odyssey, and an steroidal color explosion--all from Hollywood studios, occupy more than half of the top 10 spots below. G... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:47:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17184 Top Ten: If we had to pick one word to define 2008, it would have to be "crisis." National headlines this year were all about it: financial crisis, the foreclosure crisis, the crisis in the shrinking media industry. Locally, things weren't any better. Baltimore suffered from all of the major problems that... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:44:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17183 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders This Week: 7 Murders This Year: 221 Four homicide victims from last week have been identified. Adrian Andrews was the 17-year-old African-American male shot in the head behind Doris M. Johnson and Heritage high schools the day before Thanksgiving. The three males shot to death in the quadr... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:16:54 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17182 What's The 311? by Chris Landers: If we learned anything from The Wire, it was that vacant rowhouses are excellent places to hide dead bodies. Turns out that's not all they can be used for--the vacant house is like the Swiss army knife of urban blight, useful for multiple purposes, from drug houses to illegal dumping sites. The ci... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:13:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17180 Mobtown Beat by Chris Landers: The City Council last month asked state lawmakers to introduce laws limiting where registered sex offenders in the city could live. The law, which would prohibit offenders from living within 2,000 feet of "a school, day care center, or location where children congregate," would effectively ban reg... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:55:57 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17179 Stage by John Barry: On a rainy, late Monday night in the classroom of a Hampden charter school, Prescott Gaylord and five members of the Gus improvisational troupe are surrounded by a table loaded with handcuffs, chains, masks, swords, wigs, and other props. They've been through six months of rehearsals. They've got... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:54:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17177 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Angela Desveaux brings her well-chilled, updated brand of alt-country to the Golden West with the Mighty Ship. The Ottobar brings its "art fight" event back--kinda like a live art competition--with soundtracks courtesy of MC Frontalot, MC Lars, YT Cracker, and Karmella's Game. Alternaba... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:47:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17176 Feedback by Lee Gardner: Not only does Boris singer/guitarist/bassist Takeshi plug his double-necked instrument into a looming stack of Sunn amplifiers, he appears to have the Sunn logo tattooed on his inner right forearm, or at least that's what it looked like if you were right in front of the stage at the Ottobar on a re... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:46:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17175 Feedback by Michael Byrne: In theory, the multi-disciplinary aspect of the Los Solos series should be to its advantage. There is no law, after all, that says music performance can only be in the company of music performance. (The Transmodern Festival should serve as a good example.) Particularly given the relative forward-t... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:45:34 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17174 Books by Martin L. Johnson: For those who still marvel at capitalism, one of its most mysterious and beautiful processes is that of "creative destruction," whereby things fall apart only to reemerge, in new forms, emboldened by the failure of their ancestors. Creative Capitalism, a Baltimore-based loosely formed collective of... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:44:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17173 The Mail: I think the Long Island Wal-Mart where Jdimyatai Damour was trampled to death on "Black Friday" should be blown-up (Mr. Wrong, Dec. 3). In its place, a park should be established with a life-sized statue erected of the victim where all consumption is forbidden, a place where people would be forced t... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:32:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17172 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: Now that the holidays have hit, I am officially ready for 2008 to be over because, try as I might, there is nothing left to say about this past year. Barack Obama, the economy, race, class, gender, all of the arts--I think everyone has blogged, commentated, and, uh, columned as much as we can, and n... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:24:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17171 Political Animal by Brian Morton: Nature abhors a vacuum, and nothing sucks in the stupid quite like the period after a big, paradigm-changing election. It's the moment after the long run where you take a deep breath and inhale a bug. It's the time when your special teams blow the coverage on a kickoff return after a triumphant scor... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:23:26 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17170 : Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:25:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17169 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:24:40 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17165 : Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:22:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14214 Film by Bret McCabe: Director Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale contains all the dysfunctional holiday trappings audiences have come to expect from seasonal dramedy fare: the illness of a family matriarch brings an entire family together for the holidays, including the banished bad boy brother Henri (Mathieu Amalric)... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:53:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14212 Film by Lee Gardner: Max Ophüls' mutilated 1955 masterpiece Lola Montes has needed a proper restoration for more than half a century, and it re-emerges fully redone at just the right moment. While cocaine, limo-exit upskirts, and reality shows were unknown in early 19th-century Europe, the real-life Lola Montez was... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:48:58 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14211 Cheap Eats by Wendy Ward: The ex-Gampy's space in Mount Vernon has been renovated into the Euro two-level Marie Louise Bistro, the front of which serves as a café with gorgeous apple and pear tarts, individual chocolate cakes with architectural details in cocoa powder, huge croissants, and other pastries paired with loc... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:45:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17164 Noise by Michael Byrne: Never doubt the Juno effect. As we reported some time ago, local longtime children's songwriter Barry Louis Polisar, discovered by the filmmakers through sheer happenstance, landed the lead track in the teen pregnancy flick Juno, the incredibly cute "All I Want Is You." According to an e-mail he sen... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17163 The News Hole by Michael Byrne: We all have reason to be concerned.... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17162 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Tribune Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection today in Delaware, claiming about $7.6 billion in assets and nearly $13 billion in debt. The New York Times blogs it here. The Wall Street Journal has updated its coverage here. (This may require a $110 subscription). This graphic comes f... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17161 Arts and Minds by Bret McCabe: One of the more politically anarchistic television shows in recent memory says farewell tonight with a two-hour series finale from Boston Legal. And this show's outright ridiculousness comes from an unlikely source, perennial middlebrow television scribe David E. Kelley, the man behind the heinous A... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17160 UliBlog by Uli Loskot: The overnight train ride from Kolkata to Patna does not feel as enjoyable and safe as all the other train ride adventures I have had so far. I am a bit concerned about my safety and the safety of my stuff. During the entire ride persistent beggars come through the train and people look at me with le... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17159 The News Hole by Jeffrey Anderson: President-elect Barack Obama's key political appointments continue to hearken back to Pardongate, the 2001 scandal that resulted in a bipartisan Congressional committee investigation of influence peddling in the White House during the waning days of the Clinton administration. On Dec. 2, City Paper... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17158 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: The Tribune Co., which owns The Baltimore Sun and seven other major daily newspapers, may file for bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, The Wall Street Journal, relying on unnamed sources, reported Sunday. The Chicago-based media conglomerate has been in talks with creditors to restructure it... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17157 Noise by Al Shipley: It's been a bittersweet year for Sean Caesar and Unruly Records, the definitive Baltimore club label that he founded with DJ Scottie B in the early '90s. This summer, they signed a long-awaited distribution deal with the country's largest independent label, Koch Records. But, almost simultaneously,... Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17155 The News Hole by Chris Landers: Wordle (www.wordle.net) generates word clouds from blocks of text--the more times a word appears, the bigger it looks. I was geeking out over the site last night, and fed it the names of all the subjects of Baltimore's 311 complaints for the past three years. What you see in the word cloud generated... Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17154 Noise by Michael Byrne: Well, the good news is that it appears the record label of same name and the online store will remain intact--nothing has been said to indicate otherwise, anyhow. But the nearly two decade old punk/hardcore/everything-else-loud outlet cum institution Reptilian Records will close down next month, acc... Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17153 UliBlog by Uli Loskot: I spend only three days in Kolkata, as I have arranged to meet my friend Andi in Kathmandu, a mountain and expedition guide from Austria, who offered me to take me on a trek with him. On the day of my departure I hesitate and feel unsure about leaving. In the short time I have spent here I met a num... Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17152 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: U.S. District Court magistrate judge Deborah A. Robinson normally presides over matters in her Washington, D.C., courtroom. But on Dec. 3 she sat in the gallery of a federal courtroom in Baltimore to witness her 21-year-old son, Philip Winkfield, admit to being an armed heroin dealer. Winkfield was... Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:20:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17150 Noise by Al Shipley: The trend of seemingly every long-running band playing one of its albums in its entirety in concert is fairly recent, at least as a widespread phenomenon. But nerd-rock icons They Might Be Giants have been quietly engaging in the practice for years by playing their most popular release, 1990's Flood... Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17147 : Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:09:24 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17146 Feature by Bret McCabe: "I don't get it," she said, exiting the closet. "What am I supposed to be doing?" I have heard this question asked a variety of ways while working* weekend gallery hours at the Baltimore Museum of Art's major retrospective Franz West, To Build a House You Start With the Roof: Work, 1972-2008, Oct.... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:08:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17145 The Mail: So, I entered City Paper's annual Fiction Contest, and I did not win (Fiction and Poetry Contest, Nov. 26). This came as quite a shock. I'm kind of a big deal, but evidently the editors failed to recognize the genius of my writing. No biggie. I've decided to reward the editors for not rewarding me.... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:03:47 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17144 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders This Week: 8Murders This Year: 214 The man shot to death in the 1100 block of Abbott Court on Nov. 18 has been identified as Donte Graham, a 21-year-old African-American man. Frederick Ward, a 25-year-old African-American man, died 20 days after he was shot in the head. Ward was found ly... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:00:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17143 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Earlier this year, Baltimore was shocked by the case of Timothy D. Price III, the then 31-year-old music director of the large and influential Bethel A.M.E. Church who was arrested and pleaded guilty to having sex with a 12-year-old girl who was active in church activities he led. After his Aug. 1... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:57:55 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17142 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Arizona death metal outfit Job for a Cowboy soundtracks your bad dreams at the Ottobar with Hate Eternal, All Shall Perish, Animosity, and Annotations of an Autopsy. Whoa: ska-metal party Fishbone is apparently still a band and plays Towson's Recher Theatre with Heavy Mojo, Natives of th... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:56:31 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17141 Music by Brandon Soderberg: Gone are the days of rap's dumb pride in straight-talk misogyny. The use of auto-tune puts everything crooned through it in quotes; the safe preface of "this is real talk" tempers a rap that Ice Cube would've dropped without caution. Now, anger toward women is couched in twice-removed contempt. It'... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:51:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17140 Music by David Dunlap Jr.: By all rights, Max Ochs should be bitter. His college buddies, John Fahey and Robbie Basho, had more well-known and critically lauded musical careers. And the rare instance when Ochs does receive attention from the press, there's always an obligatory reference to his more famous cousin, Phil. Far f... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:48:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17139 Books by Geoffrey Himes: In Grace Cavalieri's latest book of poems, Anna Nicole (CreateSpace), the poems are delivered from the imagined perspective of Anna Nicole Smith, the tabloid celebrity known for her Playboy spreads, her marriage to a millionaire 63 years her senior, and for her own TV reality show. So it's appropria... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:44:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17138 Political Animal by Brian Morton: One of the clearest signs that the Republican brand is in for a long stint in the woods is the fact that Republicans continue to shill for the same policies that got us into the financial hole we find ourselves in. George Bush spent eight years making the argument that for any ill that ails the coun... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:37:46 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17137 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: What did I say two weeks ago? Do you see what They are doing? And you know who They are. You can't make this shit up: a guy got trampled to death on Black Friday, man, for real, it's in the newspapers and on the World Wide, seriously, this guy got stampeded on by shoppers in a goddamn Wal-Mart becau... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:37:27 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17136 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:36:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17132 : Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:35:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14209 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: The first half of director Gus Van Sant's moving portrait of assassinated activist Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States, is a fascinating mix of archival footage, historical re-enactment, and bravura acting. Newsreel footage discloses the 19... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:13:23 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14208 Film Clips by Bret McCabe: Writer/director Darnell Martin resorts to just about every music-movie cliché in this mythologized portrait of Chicago's proto rock 'n' roll label Chess Records. Fact: From the 1950s to the late 1960s, Chess--founded by a pair of Polish Jew brothers Leonard (Adrien Brody) and Phil (all but writ... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:10:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14205 Film by Jess Harvell: For a movie that could theoretically be described as a weepy-ass 90-minute soap opera with intermittent sword fights, Ashes Of Time Redux sure demands a lot from its audience. Viewers looking for updated Shaw Brothers kineticism or kung-fu kitsch are advised to steer clear of director Wong Kar-Wai'... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:03:39 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14207 Cheap Eats by Chris Landers: There aren't many all-night places in Baltimore, so there's some sadness in the brief life and recent passing of Park Avenue's Parthenon Diner. Its replacement, the Park Avenue Grill, is only open until 10 p.m. (11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), but for daytime denizens of downtown, it offers the b... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:08:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14206 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Walking into the silvery glittering light of Vernisage (1004 Reisterstown Road, [410] 484-7701), Pikesville's 18-month-old Russian restaurant, is like entering another world, one that is perpetually dressed for a wedding reception. Chandeliers drip glass beads like tears, the walls wear trompe l'o... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:04:48 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17149 The News Hole by Jeffrey Anderson: The only issue even remotely standing in the way of Eric Holder being confirmed as the next U.S. Attorney General seems to be his role in the 2001 pardon of federal fugitive and billionaire Marc Rich, who fled the country after being charged with tax evasion. However, a 2002 Congressional Report t... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17131 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: A brilliant, kind, patient, and acerbic wit died Sunday after a nearly three-year bout with ovarian cancer. Doris Dungey, 47, was a Marlboro-based mortgage banker who began blogging under the name Tanta in 2006, and explained in detail what was about to take place in the financial world. Although he... Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17130 UliBlog by Uli Loskot: Further on, craftsmen with their tools laid out in front of them are sitting on the sidewalk waiting to be picked up for a job. I walk far into areas where rarely another traveler has been seen. My favorite visual moment of the day is when I end up in a labyrinth of narrow streets that are jam-p... Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17129 Noise by Al Shipley: The Windup Space was bustling with activity on Tuesday night, somewhat surprisingly, given that it was just a couple days before a major holiday and the bar's entertainment was a couple of obscure out-of-town bands. Whether those in attendance were just Windup regulars getting a drink or otherwise,... Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17128 Mobtown Beat by Jeffrey Anderson: The alleged driver of the getaway car in the recent double murder in Odenton has not only a history of minor criminal convictions but associations with major Baltimore shadow economy figures. Kecia Liverpool, 31, of Brooklyn, was charged on Nov. 25 as an accessory after the fact in the quadruple... Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:30:56 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17127 Mobtown Beat by Jeffrey Anderson and Van Smith: Four days before Russell Kelscoe Harden allegedly committed a double murder in Odenton on Nov. 16, two federal judges denied a detention request from a federal probation officer who found that Harden was a flight risk. On Nov. 12, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey ruled that Harden failed to com... Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:50:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17126 : Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:20:42 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17125 Poetry Winners by Christopher Adams: I'm Just my sister with a beard. Or think The circus we'd long run away from seems To think so anyway. Hairs in the sink, A duffle bag: those found us, broke my dreams. They put me in a clown car. Of the meals I could have given up it's breakfast. Half My cornflakes and I'm gone. No talk,... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:20:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17124 Poetry Winners by Elizabeth Bastos: My poem is wrong for right now; you're too young to reach the table-top. You flip flop. At any little thing you drop into a puddle of tears. You are hungry!         You are tired! You clutch fiercely then release as if independence was your al... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:18:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17123 Poetry Winners by Maggie Beetz: Sometimes I write poems to you in the precoffee office hours when no one knows what I do. Sometimes I write poems. To you the widowed ink of caffeine sours sometimes. I write poems to you in the precoffee office hours. ... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:16:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17122 Fiction Winners by Penny Zang: Half drunk, half dazed, I wake up in the back of a car heading north on I-95, away from Baltimore. Two men whisper in the front seat and beneath the hum of the highway, their voices sound like static. I bring a strand of hair to my nose and inhale the stale popcorn smell of my favorite bar. It's nig... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:14:52 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17121 Fiction Winners by Sarah Perry: "Lila . . . Lila . . . Old Wooden Head's let me go. Light the fire for me. My feet are torn up with the cold." Standing in the open door, she heard the waving trail of his voice summoning her from across the white expanse. She opened her mouth, but nothing came. She didn't move, fearful that the rus... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:14:03 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17120 Fiction Winners by Benjamin Beast: It is four o'clock in the morning, and my brother is a whale. He is awake, outside. I am standing, and he is with me, crouched over a fire, burning photographs. We are silent. A birthday cake glows orange and curls. "Can I at least keep this one?" I ask him. "No way dude. That's exactly why you can'... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:13:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17119 Introduction: Thank you, storytellers and poets of Baltimore, for making these decisions so difficult. No, really: not only were there significantly more entries in both categories this year--224 fiction and 340 poetry entries--but they both dealt with a great variety of themes and subjects in narrative voices... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:12:14 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17118 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders Nov. 10-16: 6 Murders This Week: 12 Murders This Year: 206 Due to last week's early deadline, this week's column covers homicides from Nov. 15 to Nov. 23. Larry Franklin Jr., the 22-year-old African-American man murdered in the 2000 block of Robb Street on Nov. 12 was actually... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:09:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17117 Councilmania by Edward Ericson Jr.: On the Agenda for Nov. 17 Bill 08-0231 Health--Smoking on or Adjacent to Hospital Premises. Would impose a $50 fine for smoking in any area adjacent to any hospital. The no-smoking area includes alleys, sidewalks, and adjacent grounds "extending to the closest curb line." These areas should be po... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:08:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17116 Mobtown Beat by Edward Ericson Jr.: Mildred "Meme" Thomas says she was surprised this summer to discover, through an internet search, that her landscaping company was a listed subcontractor on a multi-million dollar Baltimore City Public School contract. Neither Thomas nor her company, Earthscape Design, had ever worked for the school... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:06:43 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17115 The Mail: Sorry about the letter writer who lives in Charles Village and has to deal with drunks keeping him awake ("Shuddup, Drunks!," The Mail, Nov. 19), but I am 100 percent against the Baltimore City police in this incident. Tell me, James Aguirre, how can you condone what the police did if they didn't e... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:05:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17114 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: DJ Action Pat shows off his latest vinyl scores at Joe Squared. College funk favorite the Bridge, releasing a brand spankin' new album tonight, is at Rams Head Live with Ekoostic Hookah. King Khan & BBQ Show, a kinda shticky duo that nonetheless makes real good times with blues-parod... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:58:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17113 Feedback by Geoffrey Himes: Marin Alsop's ambitious resurrection of Leonard Bernstein's Mass deserved all the media attention it received. When she guided her Baltimore Symphony Orchestra through full-evening performances in Baltimore and Manhattan, Alsop made a persuasive case that the considerable strengths of Bernstein's s... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:57:20 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17112 Music by Tony Ware: Dragonforce guitarist Herman Li is like a lottery scratch off--"power metal" guitar wankers all want a shot at him, hoping for the jackpot that some of his shred will rub off. In the case of an interview, though, the goal is a little more realistic. It would be great just to be able to scratch the... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:54:59 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17111 Stage by John Barry: Anton Chekhov always complained that the contemporary take on his work was a little too lugubrious--he would rather have the sense of humor that Wendy Wasserstein brings to the Three Sisters' scenario. While The Sisters Rosensweig isn't an adaptation, the parallels to his masterpiece are clear and... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:46:07 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17110 Books by Violet Glaze: What's wrong with Bill Clinton? How could a successful, popular, shrewd, and intelligent president allow himself to be dragged into a sex scandal so notorious it would forever overshadow all the good his administration had accomplished in his double-term tenure? That's the question that nags at mo... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:45:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17109 Political Animal by Brian Morton: There's something about Hillary Clinton. Well, to be honest about it, there's something about what happens when the Clinton name itself enters the picture, whether it's the senator from New York or the former president. It makes editors get stupid, it makes national political columnists spin into pa... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:43:19 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17108 Social Studies by Vincent Williams: As you might imagine, the vast majority of my conversations since the election have consisted of dissecting every single component of Obama's victory. What's been throwing me is how bringing up the tragedy of the passing of California's Proposition 8, which overturned the right of gays and lesbians... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:43:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17107 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:40:50 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17103 : Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:38:22 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14186 Film by Al Shipley: Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) are a loving, committed couple who, as children of divorce nursing deep psychological scars, have absolutely no plans for marriage or children. And every Christmas they head to a tropical island for vacation, and manufacture a cover story to avoid see... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:09:04 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14185 Film by Bret McCabe: Two hours into writer/director Baz Luhrmann's reprehensible Australia, an older aboriginal man stands silently gazing at the deplorable display of civilized man's existence as flying machines drop bombs onto a city and hospitals! and cars! and men! and women! and children! run and scream and hopes... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:02:44 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=14184 No Cover by Jared T. Fischer: Leaning his bicycle against the wall inside a warm Charles Village house, 22-year-old Kenneth Johnston, aka the Bow-Legged Gorilla, unzips his beige coveralls, takes a seat on the sofa, and opens a can of Natty Boh. He is a hardworking young man strengthened by construction jobs and time spent outd... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:01:15 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14188 Cheap Eats by Erin Sullivan: Seeing how Bolton Hill is populated with so many art students, professors, and young professionals, you'd think places like this would be popping up all over the neighborhood. But they aren't--as far as we know, On the Hill is the only casual coffeehouse/sandwich/hangout joint in the area. Its menu-... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:11:21 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14187 Free Range by Mary K. Zajac: Frank's Pizza and Pasta (6620 Belair Road, [410] 254-2900) doesn't look like much. Jammed between Joyce Beauty Club and an H&R Block in an Overlea strip mall patrolled by a security guard, Frank's has the neon-sign and fluorescent light glow of any other storefront pizza joint promising slices... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:10:38 EST http://www.citypaper.com/eat/review.asp?rid=14189 Drinks by Michael Byrne: Maryland Avenue, at least in the vague area between Charles Village and Station North, isn't exactly known as a nightlife epicenter, but after passing the iBar--one of only a few after-five o'clock establishments on the Methadone-clinic-populated strip--just about every day on our bike commute, curi... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:12:01 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17100 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: Last night Federal Reserve and CitiGroup officials dropped a financial bomb, emerging from all-weekend talks to say that the U.S. taxpayers are bailing out Citi. It was the inevitable result of policy decisions made a decade ago, after CitiGroup broke a 70-year-old law by merging with the Traveler'... Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17098 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: New York blogger Twanna Hines, who blogs as Funky Brown Chick, filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Maryland on Nov. 13 against Yesha Callahan of Odenton, alleging that Odenton's Funky Black Chick blog is too similar to her own nom de net. The complaint [pdf] is as... Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17097 UliBlog by Uli Loskot: I meet a family of at least five who live on a big bed outside a shop which sells traditional Indian embroidery. The father is already busy with hand embroidering a piece of fabric in mesmerizing high speed while some of his children are still sleeping and his wife is just getting up. ... Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17096 UliBlog by Uli Loskot:     ... Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17095 Noise by Van Smith: Scott Francis Gianforte, a 38-year-old man from Frederick, has a helluva collection of KISS memorabilia. A KISS bar stool, a whole lotta KISS dolls, a KISSOPOLY board game, KISS hats and belt buckles and even a KISS toothbrush, air freshener, and ashtray--and that's just for starters. In all, the va... Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17094 Noise by Al Shipley: The American Visionary Art Museum has always been a place to see weird, creative stuff, but last Saturday, it was also a place to hear some pretty interesting things as well--the "Music & The Brain Salon," a free all-day event of performances, panel discussions, and interactive activities. Still... Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17093 Noise by Michael Byrne: Details are still thin, but Rye Rye, aka the small dancing/rapping nuclear reactor that has quickly turned into the national face of Baltimore's young (read: youth) urban club culture, announced this morning via a MySpace blog, beginning "I BEEN BUSY. MADD BUSY," that her debut record will be arrivi... Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17091 The News Hole by Edward Ericson Jr.: An audit of the state agency that doles out loans and grants to corporations on the theory that they'll create lots of jobs has (again) found no confirmation of the jobs created. As it did in 2001 and 2005, the state Department of Legislative Audits reports that the Department of Business and Econ... Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17090 Mobtown Beat by Van Smith: Purveyors of psilocybin mushrooms--the kind that send users into psychedelic, sometimes hallucinogenic states--tend to share the peaceful, feel-good reputation of the hippy drug they sell. Still, they are illegal drug dealers, since the magic mushroom is a controlled dangerous substance under federa... Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:06:17 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17089 UliBlog by Uli Loskot: I get up before sunrise, and am out on the streets taking photos by 6:00am. I encounter a world I would never see, if I got up a couple hours later. At this time of the day there are mostly only men out on the streets. The sidewalk dormitories have turned into bustling street markets, chai stands, r... Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17088 Noise by Michael Byrne: Yes, it's been a while since we've heard a show at the old Falls Road mill building know as the G-Spot. Was it Beach House? That long? In any case, plan on trundling over this Friday for Phosphorescent, aka Matthew Houck, a Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans songwriter that makes lovely, drowsy beardo folk musi... Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17087 Holiday Guide Feature by Katherine Hill: The jingle that jangles the oncoming holiday season may be but a faint whisper before Thanksgiving, growing louder as November comes to an end and December arrives, hopefully as bright as it is chilly. We have the jingle tingle already, and it's because working on this chock-full-of Nutcrackers seas... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:32:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17086 Holiday Guide Feature: As we head into an exciting new year--with a president we can actually get excited about, and let's be honest, it was going to be an improvement either way--one teeny-tiny unrelenting fact keeps popping up to spoil our Yule: We're still broke. We know we can't expect Obama to magically fix the econo... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:05:45 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17085 Holiday Guide Feature by Emily Flake: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:31:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17084 Holiday Guide Feature by Michael Byrne: The personalized music mix should be dead. Digital music, starting with CDs, shoved a splintery spear through its chest and, a couple decades later, music on the interwebs stepped on its throat. Hate to get all "back in the day" but, well, back in the day, the mix was how many of us found and collec... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:12:52 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17083 Holiday Guide Feature by Charles Cohen: Linda Lynwander sat in a New Jersey country club one fall afternoon in 1983 with her tennis partner, plotting. Lynwander, who would one day become my mother-in-law, wanted to create a new holiday craze--the Chanukah ornament.Lynwander had always been on the lookout for the next big thing. Over the d... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:11:37 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17082 Holiday Guide Feature by Anna Ditkoff: The earthily sweet smell of baked goods hangs in the air outside Tamara Gabai's house this autumn evening. You can smell the spices before you even step in the door. Inside a table practically bends under the weight of desserts: sweet potato, pecan, and pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, rum cake, fruitca... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:10:06 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17081 Holiday Guide Feature by Wendy Ward: "Since we were the only two people who could spell in the class, we got stuck with doing all of the little tiny stuff, because we knew which way apostrophes went," laughs Mary Mashburn as she describes the letterpress class she and her journalist husband Steve St. Angelo took in New York four years... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:09:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17080 Holiday Guide Feature by Martin L. Johnson: Started just two years ago, the Charm City Craft Mafia, a 15-member collective of entrepreneurial artists, is Baltimore's anchor in what has become a sea of craft artists. Gathering online on the storefront site Etsy, and in craft fairs across the country, this new generation of screen printers, kn... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:08:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=17079 Holiday Guide Intro: This gift-giving season is looking kinda bleak. It doesn't seem like the economy is going to perk up anytime soon, and with everyone's retirement plans evaporating, every dollar we spend feels like giving blood. Still, if there was ever a time we needed to make merry, it's now. So this year, we deci... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:07:32 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17077 : Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:54:30 EST http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=17076 The Short List by Michael Byrne: WEDNESDAY: Electric Six--a rowdy, charged Detroit rawk confection--runs a current through Washington's Black Cat with Local H and Fall on Your Sword. Oregonian indie-Americana outfit Horse Feathers drifts into the Metro Gallery with Small Sur and Cool Sounds of the Continuous Revelation. The Grail... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:53:33 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17075 Stage by Bret McCabe: Barely 15 minutes into the third and final act of this brazenly DIY production of Eugène Ionesco's Rhinoceros, one of the cast members has shed his shirt, stepped off the stage, climbed over the first few rows of seats, handed me an ordinary beverage bottle turned into a bell-like noisemaker t... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:53:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17074 Murder Ink by Anna Ditkoff: Murders Nov 10-14: 4 Murders This Year: 192 Due to early deadlines for this week's Holiday Guide issue, this installment of Murder Ink only covers homicides between Nov. 10 and 14. Two deaths that occurred earlier this year were added to the homicide rolls this week. On April 14, 1996, Valando Good... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:49:25 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17073 Mobtown Beat by Edward Ericson Jr.: A local "restructuring" of a refugee-resettlement contractor, plus a seasonal influx of refugees, may have contributed to the troubles Iraqi refugees have recently complained about in Baltimore. Their case managers have also faced longer processes for getting them things such as food stamps and I.... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:48:13 EST http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17072 The Mail: Sorry to hear about the freelancer who had to spend the night in jail ("Epic Cop Fail," Mobtown Beat, Nov. 12), but I am 100 percent behind the Baltimore City Police in this circumstance. He obviously does not live in Charles Village by Johns Hopkins. This happens every night--the Giants win, there... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:46:05 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17071 Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod: Xmas is coming, but don't fall for it, man, it's a Trap. The Economies are in the fucking toilet and there's no credit for houses, and/or there's too many houses, also/and/or there's too many people crapping out on their house payments, and/also/plus the Financial Institutions are all being Institut... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:39:00 EST http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=17069 Political Animal by Brian Morton: It was a few weeks after the presidential election of 1992 when I emerged from the drafty escalators rising up from the Capitol South Metro station at First and C. Across the street was the GOP national headquarters, and right next to it was the Republican-friendly Capitol Hill Club. They probably... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:34:12 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17068 Books by Chris Landers: The Baltimore Trust Company Building, at 10 Light St. downtown, was conceived as a temple to commerce--an Art Deco monument to all things capitalist and great. In the banking area, four murals depicting pivotal moments in Maryland and Baltimore history--from the landing of the Ark and Dove at St. Cl... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:33:29 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17067 Art by Bret McCabe: The McDonald's storefront occupies an entire side of the Gormley Gallery on the second floor of Fourier Hall on the campus of the College Notre Dame of Maryland. And "occupies" is the operative word: the 18-by-42 foot large-form Xerox print covers the wall like a Mongol horde overrunning a tiny vil... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:32:10 EST http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=17066 Books by Michael Pursley: The movies of cinematic occultist Alejandro Jodorowosky are ripe with mind-bending theology and volcanic beauty. Early '70s works such as 1970's El Topo and 1973's The Holy Mountain brought heavy doses of mysticism and the surreal to hosts of acid-bombed flower children, and the Chilean-born directo... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:30:18 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17065 Whose Responible? by John Ellsberry: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:29:09 EST http://www.citypaper.com//story.asp?id=17060 : Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:27:11 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14167 DVD+Conquer by Bret McCabe: THE MOVIE Hungarian director János Szász's 2007 Opium: Diary of a Madwoman has some rather grim online-only reviews for a title that appears to have been screened primarily at festivals, reviews that soberly remark on its slow pace, its treatment of the (possibly) mentally impaired, its sh... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:22:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14158 Film by Cole Haddon: Since winning the coveted People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Festival, Slumdog Millionaire has established itself as the most-hyped art movie of the year. Director Danny Boyle's India-based drama is not the feel-good, life-changing experience so many would have you believe, though. T... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:26:35 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14157 Film by Steve Erickson: If Jia Zhang Ke didn't exist, Western critics would have to invent him. He emerged on the festival circuit just as former bad boy Zhang Yimou was taking on the mantle of mainland China's official filmmaker. Most explicitly in 2004's The World (Shijie), he's accepted the role of globalization's bard.... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:23:08 EST http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=14156 Film by Violet Glaze: When young boys in short pants and sweater vests spread their arms like airplane wings and buzz through charming market squares, you can be certa