Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe

Baltimore Hip-Hop Vets Offer a Way Forward For The Scene--Looking Backnew

If you follow hip-hop journalism, you've heard this story before: Once there was a grassroots movement that established criteria for what made hip-hop matter. Now it's just people repeating the same old nonsense about big-screen TVs, money, and bitches.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 02-24-2009 | Music

Tags: Baltimore, hip-hop music, Di Na Ko Degg: Soul Power, Labtekwon

Director Marc Abraham Approaches Something Almost Universal in 'Flash of Genius'new

Tall and lean, Abraham's comfortably casual attire--sneakers, jeans, a white T-shirt, and a dark sport coat--belies both his early years as a sports reporter and his nearly 20 years as veteran movie producer, his diverse resume including work on 1991's The Commitments and 2006's Children of Men.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 10-07-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: Flash of Genius, Marc Abraham

Irvine Welsh Keenly Appropriates the Boilerplate American Crime Novelnew

It's amazing what a linguistically gifted writer can do once he decides to wander outside the confines of his comfort zone.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 09-30-2008 | Fiction

Tags: crime, Irvine Welsh

Teeth Mountain Doesn't Re-invent the Drum Circlenew

But its members do it with a sincere appreciation for the woollier end of late-'60s radicalism.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 09-16-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Teeth Mountain

'The Grand' Feels Like Inflated Sketch Comedynew

Writer and director Zak Penn's episodic comedy features a huge cast slouching toward and through a poker tournament, with every scene, from the table to the backstory inserts, feeling like an improv session.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 04-15-2008 | Reviews

Tags: comedy, poker, Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell, David Cross, Dennis Farina, Judy Greer, Michael McKean, Mike Epps, Ray Romano, The Grand, Woody Harrelson, Zak Penn

'Flawless' Isn'tnew

It's a pity that even escapist genre fiction stoops to having a message these days.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 04-01-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Flawless, Michael Radford

Baltimore in Songnew

Music -- a song, a beat, a refrain, a certain riff, a band -- can recall a place without having to spell it out in the title.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 03-18-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

David Simon: 'The Wire' Exit Interviewnew

The Baltimore-set and -shot series that debuted in 2002 is officially over following this past Sunday night's series finale. It's over. Finished. Kaput. Long live The Wire.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 03-12-2008 | TV

Tags: Baltimore, David Simon, HBO, The Wire, TV

Noir Treknew

Kevin Johnson's impromptu career in rare books has turned out a lovely crime-fiction tome.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 03-04-2008 | Author Profiles & Interviews

Tags: Kevin Johnson, The Dark Page

Launching Legacy Film Festivalnew

Last fall, Jasmine Richardson and Laura Green decided to launch a minority film festival in Baltimore. Some six months later and the pair has realized it's not only possible, but it's happening.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 03-04-2008 | Movies

Tags: Legacy Film Festival

Women of The Yearsnew

Forget SI's vacant swimsuit smiles -- here are 20 babes whose babeness matters.

Baltimore City Paper | Ian Grey, Emily Flake, Violet Glaze and Bret McCabe | 02-19-2008 | Commentary

Susan Alcorn Charms Stories Out of Her Pedal Steel Guitarnew

She moved to Baltimore at the end of last summer looking for a more inviting and active experimental-music community, leaving Houston after 26 years of working as a touring pedal-steel guitarist in country and western and western swing bands.

Baltimore City Paper | Bret McCabe | 01-29-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar, Susan Alcorn