What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
.... the moments of art  that calmed my madness or inspired me to inhale texas and live or to open my heart so wide, and wider and wider that it surrounded jupiter and stood standing nearly proudly even when the other planets laughed... this [...]

High Zero, Baltimore's premier festival of improvised music—in fact, we cited it as "Best Music Festival" a few years back—wraps up tonight with a series of performances at Theatre Project. The lineup includes Shelly Blacke-Pock and Towson University's Dave Ballou. Doors open at 7:30, show starts at 8:30 pm.

NPR's excellent "All Songs Considered" blog features an amazing Dan Deacon concert video. It's a time lapse video, so you can watch Deacon's entire 9:30 Club performance in four minutes. Amazingly, it captures the utter joy of a Deacon show. Check it out here and keep on the lookout for how the band departs the [...]

This Sunday's lineup at the African American Heritage Festival is particularly impressive. Starting at 2:50 pm, the Verizon Wireless stage will feature Big Daddy Stallings,Winslow Dynasty (featuring Dontae Winslow), Fertile Ground, and the Jazz Allstars (featuring Terence Blanchard and Gary Thomas). You can also catch Anita Baker on the Main Stage at 7:30 pm. Admission [...]

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The Virgin Mobile Festival will return to the area after all. This year's event will be held at Merriweather, rather than Pimlico; it's one day (August 30), instead of two; and it's free.
And at that price point, the lineup rates as superior with Weezer, The National, Public Enemy, Blink-182, Girl Talk, Franz Ferdinand, St. Vincent, [...]

Baltimore was well represented at last Saturday's Groove City Jazz and Blues Festival in Cambridge. The  Junkyard Saints brought the New Orleans-flavored funk with a high energy set that included a rousing cover of the Meters' "Cabbage Alley." Saxophonist Carl Grubbs (above, with band), who recently won the $25,000 Baker Award, followed with a transcendent [...]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
As an artist and mother of three young children, I am affected by any book that I actually have time to read. On my nightstand at the moment is Mother on Fire by Sandra Tsing Loh. It's a fiercely hilarious book about Sandra's life as [...]

This year's Maryland Film Festival opens on Thursday evening with a program of short films hosted by Bobcat Goldthwait at MICA's Brown Center.It should be a hoot. The festival also includes appearances by John Waters and Fugazi's Ian Mackaye. Check the schedule for details.

Junot Diaz gave a wonderful reading at the Pratt library, as part of the City Lit Festival, on Saturday. For 60 minutes in a packed Wheeler Auditorium, he was tender and bold, candid and cool, elegant and earthy, reading excerpts from the story "Homecoming, With Turtle" and fielding questions from the audience. Hats off to [...]

In February, I met Dan Deacon—indie electronic composer, performer, and merrymaker—at Karl Ekdahl's workshop at True Vine Records in Hampden. They discussed the modifications that Ekdahl, a tech geek, was making to Deacon's performance rig.
Deacon, who's well known for setting up his equipment on the dancefloor and performing amongst his loyal audience, is apparently transitioning [...]