AltWeeklies Wire
Gil Scott-Heron: The Last Holiday: A Memoirnew
Gil Scott-Heron’s memoir isn’t intimate, but it casts him in a new light nevertheless.
Baltimore City Paper |
Pierre Bennu |
01-18-2012 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Gil Scott-Heron
Extinction On Demand?new
Will print-on-demand technology save publishing or deliver its final death blow?
Baltimore City Paper |
Rachel Monroe |
09-20-2010 |
Books
Tags: POD
Christian Siriano Talks About Success, Style, the Industry, and Ferocitynew
Prior to evolving into the gravity-defying-coif-sporting, catchphrase-spouting enfant terrible who walked away with Project Runway's fourth season title, Christian Siriano was a self-described "little fairy white kid walking around in giant FUBU jerseys" in Annapolis.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
01-12-2010 |
Nonfiction
Writer Collaborates With Iraqi Refugee to Tell a Different Story From Iraqnew
What Justin Sirois wanted to do was offer a different perspective of the war that wasn't being as accessibly covered in conventional war journalism. He wanted to argue that there might be more going on than journalism can offer. He wanted to tell a different story.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
12-21-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Madison Smartt Bell Brings the Civil War to Your Doorstepnew
Devil's Dream's frontispiece includes a photograph of the small-eyed, dark-bearded Civil War general Nathan Forrest. Prepare to flip back to that single photograph over and over again as you read.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
12-08-2009 |
Fiction
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
'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
Thomas Pynchon's 'Inherent Vice' is an Endlessly Entertaining Variation on the Detective Yarnnew
Unlike any previous Pynchon work, Vice fully embraces genre. And in doing so it's difficult to tell if the genre is merely pliable enough to accommodate all of Pynchon's literary whims or if the now 72-year-old author has basically been riffing on this form his entire career.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
08-25-2009 |
Fiction
In 'Hound Dog,' Songwriting Duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Remember Redefining Postwar Pop Musicnew
Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography is a delightful read. Both men are terrific storytellers, witty and succinct, with a sharp eye for the telling detail.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
08-18-2009 |
Nonfiction
Louis Maistros Weaves a Luring Tale from New Orleans in 'The Sound of Building Coffins'new
To risk stating the obvious, the Big Easy has a long and complicated relationship with water, both its redemptive and destructive qualities. The two go hand-in-hand, to judge from reading the gritty and sometimes surreal second novel from Louis Maistros.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joab Jackson |
07-28-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
The More Tom Waits Creates 'Tom Waits,' the Less Anyone Knows About Himnew
Outside of his showman's persona, Waits is intensely private, banking perhaps on the presumption that his fans possess a happy lack of curiosity about what fuels his greatness. Barney Hoskyns confirmed this trait the hard way while working on Lowside of the Road.
Baltimore City Paper |
Van Smith |
07-07-2009 |
Nonfiction
Considering Dominique Green, Capital Punishment, and Justicenew
Dominique Green's execution and short life--he was arrested, convicted, and sent to Death Row at age 18--is the subject of popular history writer Thomas Cahill's remarkable new book.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Corbin |
04-21-2009 |
Nonfiction
A South African Novelist Shows How Passivity Corruptsnew
Damon Galgut's story ambles along languidly though pleasantly enough, but ultimately never reaches a satisfying end.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joab Jackson |
03-31-2009 |
Fiction
A New Study Storms the Barriers Between Punk and Metalnew
Whether you agree with the author or not, This Ain't the Summer of Love considerably raises the bar for engaged exploration of music subcultures.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
03-31-2009 |
Nonfiction
Two Photography Books Remember Punk's Growth Spurtsnew
Punk may roll a little in its grave now that it's been mythologized, but if it's going to get the coffee table treatment at least Skins & Punks and Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music offer it respect.
Baltimore City Paper |
Tony Ware |
12-30-2008 |
Nonfiction
