Thinking about Larry Scott recently—he would have turned 52 on July 9—I visited the blog for Blood on the Wall$, Barry Michael Cooper's 2005 film starring the late artist. The film, shot mostly in Baltimore using untrained actors such as Scott, was directed by Cooper, who wrote the screenplays for New Jack City, Sugar Hill, [...]

Late Wednesday morning, artist James Reid beamed as his Billie Holiday sculpture was reinstalled atop the black marble pedestal he'd always envisioned for it. The statue, originally erected on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1985, was supposed to include a pedestal with panels illustrating two of Holiday's best known songs, "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child," [...]

Today would have been artist Larry Scott's 52nd birthday. Larry passed away in late 2007, leaving behind a sprawling body of work and many friends and admirers. He is missed.

Interesting show tomorrow night, hosted by Baltimore contributor Geoff Himes. There's a good article in today's Sun about it.
THE ROOTS CAFÉ PRESENTS:
The Night of 1000 Dylans
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Sonia (of Disappear Fear), June Star, Anne Watts (of Boister),
Mark Brine, Red Sammy and Mary Battiata (of Little Pink) perform the songs of Bob Dylan
in [...]

Inspired by tomorrow's inauguration of Barack Obama, Peabody Jazz Studies Director Gary Thomas and George Washington University Professor Herman Burney have collaborated on an improvisational piece called "Hope for Tomorrow." Here's audio and video. Baltimore readers will recall that Thomas wrote a suite of original music for our "See Hear" arts extravaganza in September 2005.

Tuesday night’s Great Poe Debate at the Free Library of Philadelphia certainly lived up to its name. The event was front-page news in that day’s edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer (“Poe’s Heart Belong Elsewhere? Nevermore!”), and it drew a standing-room-only crowd to the library’s Montgomery Auditorium. That 400 people would turn out on a frigid [...]

This is my favorite photo of Grace Hartigan, taken by John Cohen.
There are Hartigan obits in The Sun and New York Times. Best of all, check out Cara Ober's piece at Bmore Art.

Grace Hartigan, Baltimore's grand dame of painting, passed away yesterday. She was 86. Hartigan, who taught at MICA for more than 40 years, burst onto the national scene in the 1950s with fellow abstract expressionists and running buddies such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Helen Frankenthaler. She was included in MOMA's landmark 12 Americans [...]

Tonight's birthday party for Joyce Scott (who's turning 60) at MAP dovetails nicely with her new show, Painful Death/Painless Life, at Goya. The exhibit, which opened today, runs through January 23rd and features some of Scott's finest, and most provocative, work.
But first things first... Happy birthday, Joyce!
Puddin' loves ya.

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.