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Baltimore magazine
Q & A: Gary Bartz
Our full interview with the legendary Baltimore-born saxophonist.
Play It
Mikel Gehl, Lisa Mathew & Rainer Friends
Published: April, 2013
Manuel Barrueco & The Stone Hill All-Stars.
Published: March, 2013
Dan Deacon - America (Domino), Height With Friends - Rock and Roll (Friends/Cold Rhymes)
Published: August, 2012
Read It
Jill Smokler & Joy Peterson Heyrman
Published: May, 2013
Daniel W. Webster & Jon S. Vernick, Laura Castellani & Alessandra Catalioti and Justin Sirois
Published: April, 2013
Stephen Hunter, Stephanie Barber & Brian Norman
Published: March, 2013
Hello, Camden!
The stakes are high for Baltimore's Charm City Devils as they team up with Mötley Crüe for a shot at rock 'n' roll glory.

Not even an unforgiving, scorching summer sun could convince the Charm City Devils to trade their weathered leather jackets and skin-tight black jeans for more sensible clothes.    They are, after all, aspiring rock stars playing a much-hyped show at Camden, New Jersey's Susquehanna Bank Center, outside Philadelphia.

Baltimore, Why the Edge?
From Poe to Pac, artists connected to Baltimore consistently push the envelope. Is it something in the water?

Think of the artists most commonly associated with Baltimore and a common trait begins to emerge. Poe. Dark, right? Zappa. Eccentric. Waters. An auteur unto his own.

Immediately, other names come to mind: Mencken, Tupac, David Byrne, David Simon, Philip Glass, Grace Hartigan, John Barth, Divine, John Doe, Gertrude Stein, Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, Cab Calloway, and even Anne Tyler. For such a mainstream author, Tyler creates more than her share of offbeat characters.

College Radio Grows Up
WTMD reflects the profound changes happening at college and public radio stations.

If you went to college before the mid-1980s, you probably remember your campus radio station as a student-run affair—most likely long on individuality and short on professionalism. There might have been a weekly blues show as well as a weekly polka show, with lots of obscure rock bands sprinkled in between.

Kid Rock
For some youngsters, back to school means learning guitar riffs and choosing between Hair Metal and New Wave.

At 4 p.m. on a Saturday, 25 kids are huddled in the back of Cancun Cantina, a Hanover nightclub known mostly for country music line dancing. The kids, ages 8 to 16, are dressed a lot like their parents might have been in the '60s: miniskirts, go-go boots and platform shoes, headbands and newsboy hats, fancy suits and puffy shirts, and lots and lots of fringe.

Charm City Freakout
So where, exactly, is the Frank Zappa monument going to go?

Both of Frank Zappa's grandfathers had close ties to the Baltimore waterfront. Just before World War I, one of them ran a barbershop near the old city fish market around Pier Five, while the other, Charles Colimore, owned a lunchroom called Little Charlie's at 122 Market Place. Those two businesses—a pre-Roaring '20s shave-and-haircut joint and a workingman's diner near the Fallsway, neither visited by Frank—are the only historical connections between Zappa and the waterfront.

Marin's Sacred Space
The BSO maestra's new digs give her divine inspiration.

After living for nearly two years in a corporate rental apartment, BSO Music Director Marin Alsop wanted a place that felt like home.

"I wanted to have my own space," says Alsop, who also shares a house in Denver with her partner Kristen Jurkscheit and their five-year-old son Auden. "I started looking at a lot of high rises with a Realtor, and one day I finally said to her, 'I'm so sorry. I hope you don't think I've wasted your time, but I lived in a high rise in Manhattan, and it's just not what I want.' I said, 'I'd love to live in a church or someplace with real character.'"

Mrs. Smith Goes to Television
In TNT's HawthoRNe, Jada Pinkett Smith plays a character who's a lot like her mom.

Even when Jada Pinkett Smith was still a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA), her mentor, theater department head Donald Hicken, knew his diminutive pupil was headed for stardom.

"What I remember most was that she was interested in everything: dancing, music, and acting," he says. "We had a student-driven variety show, and Jada took over the whole thing. She choreographed, danced, and acted. She was incredibly energetic."

Arts Under Attack
The Baltimore Opera Company is gone and other institutions are struggling to survive.

A new display turned up at the Walters Art Museum this March. It wasn't fashioned around an Egyptian artifact or some newly acquired piece of medieval weaponry. Rather, it was part of a grassroots advocacy campaign concerning arts funding.

On Location
Matthew Porterfield and a new crop of local filmmakers utilize Baltimore as both setting and muse.

It was a father-and-son bonding experience, one that would forever chart the arc of a kid's life, but it wasn't exactly playing catch in the backyard.

"Dad would rent a print of Lili from the Pratt Library, set up a projector, and show it over and over again," says Baltimore filmmaker Matthew Porterfield.

All That Jazz
Desiree Collins was just looking for an investment property—she found a treasure trove of local jazz history.

When Desiree Collins stepped into Benny Kearse's house in 2001, she wasn't looking for a piece of history. She was looking for an investment property. Kearse, who lived in the 2800 block of Brighton Street in West Baltimore, had passed away two years earlier, and his house was being auctioned.

"When you buy a house like that," says Collins, "you have about ten minutes to go inside, look around, and see if it's structurally sound. You always come across leftover junk, and Mr. Kearse didn't throw away anything. That house was full of stuff."