What's a "best scene" without a great music festival? This year's Virgin Fest figures to be quite a spectacle with Bob Dylan, Kanye West, Wilco, Nine Inch Nails, Iggy & the Stooges, Cat Power, Chuck Berry, Stone Temple Pilots, Jack Johnson, Foo Fighters, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Black Keys, Andrew Bird, Lil [...]

The new issue of Rolling Stone magazine, the "Best Of Rock" issue, cites Baltimore as "Best Scene." We've known it for awhile—now, the rest of the country is catching on to the likes of Wham City, Dan Deacon, Beach House, Darkroom Productions, Sound Garden, MICA, Normal's, and Golden West Cafe.

At the end of last year, things were grim at Globe Poster. There was talk of selling the presses for scrap and shutting down the Highlandtown plant by January. In today's market, it's nearly impossible for an old school poster company to survive—despite the fact that Globe's designs are now iconic [...]

Later this month, Plume publishes The James Brown Reader: 50 Years of Writing About the Godfather of Soul. It’s quite an entertaining read, with a few Baltimore references along the way: Brown owned a radio station here, WEBB, and used a local print shop, Globe Poster, to produce many of his classic show posters. One [...]

A friend burned me a copy of The Tinklers documentary, Everybody Loves The Tinklers. Directed by a pair of local undergrad filmmakers, it’s a wonderful tribute to a beloved Baltimore duo known for deftly combining performance art, common sense philosophy, and a lo-fi/diy sensibility. For almost 30 years, Chris Mason and Charles Brohawn have created a unique, [...]

I remember telling Charles Brohawn of the Tinklers that James Brown, after one of his infamous run-ins with the law, had been sentenced to counseling youth. Charles furrowed his brow. “Isn’t that what he’s always done?” he asked.

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An impressive crowd of admirers, students, friends, and family turned out yesterday for Les Harris' memorial service at Clipper Mill. Harris, who passed away at his Bolton Hill home in January, taught at Park School and spent decades creating an elaborate, visionary installation of paintings and sculpture that he called the Amaranthine Museum. The speakers included Sally [...]

Watching the Gold Fence controversy unfold in Mount Vernon—in the days prior to the launch of this site—it was frustrating to see the parameters of the conversation remain so narrow. I understand the dogwalkers and bench sitters were inconvenienced, dismayed, and outraged. I got that within hours of the fences’ installation. And I also understand [...]

Last week, I walked over to Sound Garden and plunked down 13 bucks for the new REM CD, Accelerate. (“How retro,” a colleague quipped.) I consider myself a fan, but it’s been a long time since I bought an REM disc on the day of its release. In fact, it was probably sometime before REM [...]

Last year, John Waters mentioned that he'd been asked to do a benefit print for the 2008 Armory Show. The show—featuring work from 150 international galleries—recently closed in New York, and I got a chuckle from the image Waters submitted...

Look familiar? For years, the sign hung on Charles Street between 24th and 25th streets.