AltWeeklies Wire
Jazz Writer Ted Gioia Bites Off More Than He Can Chew in 'The Birth (and Death) of the Cool'new
Gioia presents convincing evidence that people trust brand names less than they did for many years. But he spends endless energy hard-selling the idea that brand-name obeisance has, or has ever had, anything to do with "cool."
Baltimore City Paper |
Michaelangelo Matos |
11-24-2009 |
Nonfiction
Renaissance MEN: Le Tigre's JD Samson and Friends Fuse Music and Visual Art, Dance-Pop and Politicsnew
What would a man do? That's the question that powered first a DJ duo, then a band, and now a full-blown art collective.
Baltimore City Paper |
Judy Berman |
11-17-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Director Joe Berlinger Talks About 'Crude,' His New Documentarynew
"I wasn't necessarily sure there was a film. It was more like a humanitarian impulse, basically. So I'm as surprised as anyone that the film’s had the life that it’s had. Although, once I got deep into it, obviously I thought there was a feature-length film."
Baltimore City Paper |
Joe Tropea |
11-17-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Graham Reznick Ventures into the Genre Woods and Twists Out the Unique 'I Can See You'new
I Can See You takes its characters out to the woods for the scare of their lives, but it isn't overly concerned with subtext. Reznick draws on the non-narrative avant-garde for inspiration; ultimately, his movie has as much in common with David Lynch's weirdest moments or Stan Brakhage as The Blair Witch Project.
Baltimore City Paper |
Steve Erickson |
11-03-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Graham Reznick, I Can See You
Bop and Swing Give Way to New Percussive Influences in Jazznew
Almost no one disputes the achievements of bebop and swing percussion. The big argument today is whether that's the way jazz drumming has to sound or whether it's just one of the ways jazz drumming can sound.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
11-03-2009 |
Music
At the Root: Going Beyond Potatoes for Starchy Holiday Side Dishesnew
Living in an era of total potato domination, it's not surprising that few people know what many root vegetable staples of yore even look like, let alone how they taste. Here's a quick and dirty guide to the red-headed stepchildren of the root vegetable diaspora.
Baltimore City Paper |
Henry Hong |
11-03-2009 |
Food+Drink
SOLE Food: Eating Organically (and Responsibly) on a Food-Stamp Budgetnew
Given this brave new economy and our financially fragile place within it, when feeding my family do I now have to choose between my beliefs and my budget? Only one way to find out.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michelle Gienow |
10-13-2009 |
Food+Drink
Two Dance Lables -- Warp and Hyperdub -- Look Back at Their Own Historiesnew
When a record label hits a divisible-by-five anniversary, it celebrates -- especially in dance music, which takes all the parties it can get. And as you'd expect, most of the compilations that ensue tend to be fairly self-indulgent.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michaelangelo Matos |
10-06-2009 |
Music
'The Architecture of Community' Advocates a Return to More Conscientious Urban Developmentnew
Leon Krier contends that modernism, whatever its virtues in small scale, has been nothing but a disaster in larger scales -- a force that has managed to sterilize cities aesthetically, ruin years of expertise in building trades, and lead planners and developers to compose cities in unsustainable ways.
Baltimore City Paper |
Scott Carlson |
10-06-2009 |
Nonfiction
Kombucha: Science-Fair Project or Refreshing Beverage?new
I had shied away from brewing my own home kombucha because, well, I make so many other damn things from scratch, I didn't need one more high-maintenance weekly food chore. But once budget woes axed my Whole Foods checkout-line kombucha treat, I missed my 'booch and decided to take a shot at making my own.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michelle Gienow |
10-06-2009 |
Food+Drink
After DJ Nights and Day-Glo, the Band-Band Makes a Comeback in Baltimorenew
This "new" breed is influenced by groups as disparate as uncompromising postpunk band Shellac, psych-pop favorite Animal Collective, and Baltimore's own art-aggro trio Double Dagger, but they don't sound like them, or, for that matter, each other. And they're churning out a sound as exciting and unbound as early Dan Deacon-in-a-warehouse -- as un-retro as the Wham City scene, but working with the DNA of far more deeply rooted music.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Byrne |
09-08-2009 |
Music
'Cold Souls' is a Delightfully Coy, if Featherweight, Comedynew
Writer/director Sophie Barthes' debut feature is a philosophical meditation hiding behind a science-fiction premise and all wrapped up in a intelligently nutty comedy of manners.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
09-08-2009 |
Reviews
Reading The Bills: Health Care Reformnew
The government of the United States is not trying to kill your grandmother. Or at least, if it is, no one saw fit to include that detail in the broad proposals for the reform of the American health-care system. Putting aside the name-calling for a moment, here's a look at some of the major proposals in the House and Senate versions of the bill.
Baltimore City Paper |
Chris Landers |
09-08-2009 |
Politics
Oneida's 'Rated O' Feels Like a Watershednew
There aren't many (any?) indie-ish rock bands of whom it can be said that their 11th full-length is their best, especially given that said full-length comes out to much more than "full length" -- nearly two solid hours of music spread across three CDs or LPs.
Baltimore City Paper |
Lee Gardner |
09-01-2009 |
Reviews
The Flaming Lips Keep Their Fearless Freak Flag Flyingnew
Put simply, you'd have to be the most loathsome, granite-hearted reptilian cynic this side of Bill O'Reilly -- or quite possibly clinically dead -- not to be moved or uplifted by the Lips in action. Which is all well and good, but Wayne Coyne insists that the evolution of their live shows has been down to a series of happy accidents and a certain degree of "dumb luck."
Baltimore City Paper |
Neil Ferguson |
09-01-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: wayne coyne, The Flaming Lips
