Blogs: Arts and Minds

In a story filled with AP images of Baltimore blight and not much else, the UK’s Daily Mail marvels that “Five years after The Wire left screens… the real Baltimore is still poverty-plagued city of series.” What, did they think a TV show was going to solve that shit? Amid the photographs are generalized...
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The Maryland Film Festival has continued to roll-out the 2013 lineup. The latest batch of films includes Prince Avalon, David Gordon Green’s new feature; Hit and Stay, about the Catonsville Nine, by CP contributor Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk; I Am Divine, a documentary about drag-icon  and John Waters collaborator/ star; and Leviathan, which...
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As the Hollywood Reporter noted yesterday, Strand Releasing acquired U.S. distribution rights to Matthew Porterfield’s new film I Used to Be Darker, set for a local premiere at the Maryland Film Festival in May. When the film opened at Sundance in January, we talked to Porterfield about the business of film, Baltimore, the transition...
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Maryland Film Festival announced the first dozen feature films for this year’s film festival on its website today. The impressive list includes 12 O’Clock Boys (see our interview with director Lotfy Nathan and the trailer), Matthew Porterfield’s I Used to Be Darker (read our interview), If We Shout Loud Enough, about Double Dagger, and...
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The  organizers of the Transmodern Festival (2011′s  “Best Festival”) have finally broken their silence to give us an idea of what to expect from its 10th incarnation. The festival, running from May 2-5, will feature performances by Dan Deacon, film and talks by the festival’s founder Catherine Pancake, film by Martha Colburn, and tribute...
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Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing announced this week that it will publish Tales from the Holy Land, the third collection of short fiction from Rafael Alvarez, the long-time reporter for The Sun papers, Wire writer, and frequent contributor to our City Folk section. The press describes the collection:  “The stories take place along the narrow...
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The farmers gathering for the annual opening of the Baltimore Farmers’ Market beneath the JFX today might be surprised to read this gem about Baltimore in an article about a hip Portland-based butcher in  the New York Times Magazine.  “ ‘We have the Willamette Valley and eastern Oregon that’s full of great small farmers.’...
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In Gallery Four this afternoon, I bumped into one of our critics, Michael Farley, with Deana Haggag, one of B‘s 30 under 30 and curator of Gallery CA, and Paddy Johnson of the blog Art Fag City. As they were leaving, Johnson said, “We’ve only seen two spaces, but if it keeps up like...
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Dr. Ben Carson stepped onto the national stage in February with his pointed, right-leaning speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, defending the flat tax and slamming Obamacare in front of President Obama, and has stayed there ever since. In a series of subsequent public appearances, on Fox News, at the CPAC conference, and on...
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In a post on its blog yesterday — April Fools’ Day, mind you — Atomic Books announced plans to take over a space being vacated in the spring by Doubledutch Boutique and expand the square footage of both the bookstore and record shop Celebrated Summer. The space that Celebrated Summer and the store’s offices...
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What do Jerry Saltz, Ben Marcus, and Ryan Seacrest have in common? As the Baltimore Fishbowl reported this morning, it turns out that New York magazine’s art critic, the arch-postmodernist fiction writer, and the, uh, what does Ryan Seacrest do again? have all been been chattering about Dina Kelberman, the Wham City author of...
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For THIRTY: 30 Creative Minds Under 30, Maryland Art Place instigated a conversation between some of the area’s brightest young artists, filmmakers, curators, and performers. Each month, three practitioners will give public talks about their work, beginning tonight, Wed. March 27, at 6 P.M. with talks by Emily C-D, Mia Weiner, and Ashley Minner....
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