arts and culture : Buzz

John Waters, the man whose films based in Baltimore helped give the city it's quirky reputation, has a new book out. He stopped to answer a few questions about "Role Models" and bad taste in America.

Here's an excerpt:

"It has been more than a generation since your films "Pink Flamingos" and "Polyester" established you as a champion of the trash-into-art aesthetic. But now that bad taste is so prevalent in America, does it still carryan artistic charge for you?

Bad taste per se does not, because today it's reality television and gross-out, big-budget Hollywood comedies. Everything we export � it's all about bad taste, so it's not new anymore. You have to know the rules to break them with happiness, and thank God my mother taught me proper table manners."

Read the entire Q&A here.

Baltimore director, Matthew Porterfield, whose second film "Putty Hill" was featured at this year's Maryland Film Festival in May, will soon make its way into theaters around the U.S. thanks to a newly signed distribution deal.

Here's an excerpt:

"It's good to start the day with good news: in this case, word that the young Baltimore director Matthew Porterfield's extraordinary second film, "Putty Hill," has been acquired for theatrical and home-video distribution."

Read the entire post here.

He hasn't been in Baltimore long -- just three years -- but Gaia is already adding to and changing the City's street art scene, according to Elizabeth Evitts Dickenson.

Here's an excerpt:

"Like other street artists, Gaia straddles the line between indoor and outdoor, between the street and the gallery. His delicate posters become victims of the elements and city clean-up crews, but the work is immortalized in an extensive online gallery on his Flickr page. He recently had a show at Gallery Heist, in San Francisco, and this June he will have a solo exhibition at Irvine Contemporary, in Washington, D.C."

Read the entire article here.

A recent article published in the Baltimore Sun poopooing the City's plans to create a third arts district on Baltimore's westside has stirred up controversy among arts community. In particular, those involved with the Highlandtown arts district have taken exception to the reporter's characterizations of the area. It prompted this Letter to the Editor.

Here's an excerpt:

"Characterizing the Highlandtown Arts District as a "failure" ("Do arts districts live up to their hype?," May 14) is an insult not only to the hundreds of cultural workers who have poured their resources into turning East Baltimore into a set of thriving, expanding neighborhoods, but it's an insult to Baltimore as a whole. Baltimore's arts districts continue to grow and expand, and while most of the artists who work to bolster Baltimore's spirit and reputation are doing it more for love than money, the arts in Baltimore certainly seem to be thriving.

Nearly a decade ago, I moved to Baltimore because I fell in love with the city, particularly because of its place in the history of the arts and the potential for growth that permeated the city's atmosphere. I was in search of a city in which to change careers, and Baltimore won."

Read the entire letter here.

Kinetinauts lined up at the American Visionary Art Museum for the annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race a few weeks ago. This year's sculptures included a platypus, a sea monster and a gingerbread house among others. The man-powered sculptures make their way through a course consisting of hard surface, knee-deep mud and water. The WSJ ponders the artistic merits of the quirky race.

Here's an excerpt:

"The 45-year-old was getting the platypus ready for 15 miles of concrete, cobblestones, water and mud. The annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race matched people-powered creatures made of everything from tulle mesh fabric to recycled trash can lids.

"Some people think it's trash on wheels," says Theresa Segreti of the American Visionary Art Museum, the group that organizes the race. "But it's art."

Read the entire article here.

Check the WSJ slideshow of the race here.

Watch WSJ video of the race here.

The New York Times takes a look at the city's arts districts and its plan to create a third arts district on the Baltimore's westside. The paper of record doesn't draw any conclusions but presents both sides of the debate.

Here's an excerpt

"The idea for a west side arts district has been around at least since the administration of Kurt L. Schmoke, Baltimore's mayor from 1987 to 1999. Over the years, the city took steps to improve the area, though without official arts district designation.

One step was to turn the old Hippodrome Theater at 12 North Eutaw Street into the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, which opened in 2003. Another was converting the century-old Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, at 21 South Eutaw Street, which was modeled on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, into artists' studios.

Mr. Schmoke, now dean of the Howard University School of Law in Washington, said that while he had not seen specific plans for the new arts district, he supported the idea generally."

Read the entire article here.

Baltimore-based Charm City Devils won the opportunity of a lifetime -- a 20-minute opening set for Bon Jovi. The band beat out thousands of other entrants and impressed Bon Jovi with one song.

Here's an excerpt:

"As part of their promotional efforts for this current tour, Bon Jovi has been holding the "Wanted: A Superband Tonight" contest at various venues. The contest lets thousands of acts compete for the opportunity to open for the band.

The winner for Wednesday's concert is the Baltimore group, Charm City Devils. It will perform 20 minutes of original music before Bon Jovi and special guest Fuel take the stage.

The band, fronted by lead singer John Allen, won on the basis of the song "Best of the Worst," a midtempo rocker that Allen describes as "heartfelt and self-deprecating."

Read the entire article here.

Didn't make it to the American Visionary Art Museum's 2010 Kinetic Sculpture race? We've found a few videos, so you can see what you missed.

Watch the video:

A recent MICA exhibit, A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice, examined the possibilities of a medium that has only recently gained acceptance as an artform, to convey messages related to social justice. One piece in particular, stood out for Art-Full Life blogger, Doreen Bolger.

Here's an excerpt:

"On a recent visit to MICA, I was surprised but delighted that A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice remained on view after its scheduled conclusion in April. The exhibition presented the artistic results of teaching and mentoring done by Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, a documentary quilter who recently completed a quilt that told the story of Barack Obama's journey to the White House. As she spoke to the creators of textile work like this, she urged them to quilt "the story that needs to be told, one that only you can tell."

Demonstrating art's potential to impact society, every piece in A Pathway to Awareness had a story and a message. Perhaps the most arresting work was Sex is a Weapon (American Dream). The hand-crafted dress composed of individual quilted parts stood on an old-fashioned wire seamstress form. While its ruffles and medallions could be on any party dress, its quilted squares revealed images of objectified women, each striking a suggestive pose in a skimpy bathing suit."

Read the entire post here.

Read more about Baltimore's artsy goings-ons here!

Wondering where to go for some of Bmore's best fabrics and other home decorating ideas? Join the tour local blogger Meg Fairfax Fielding recently gave two of her readers.

Here's an excerpt:

"I had the chance yesterday to spend the afternoon with one of my readers who is in Baltimore from Australia. Nancy and her friend, Robyn are here with their husbands who are attending a conference, so we took the opportunity to visit some of the places that Nancy had read about on here on Pigtown*Design.

First stop was DeBois Textiles, where the gals were overwhelmed by the selection of fabrics. While Nancy bought one yard of a number of fabrics to use as pillow covers, Robyn bought a five-yard length of a gorgeous silk to use as a tablecloth."

Read the entire post here.

Baltimore is replete with independent theaters that offer theater lovers a wide range of choices from the well-known to the avant garde. The Strand, in the city's Station North neighborhood, recently launched a four-pack of short works written by company members. If you've been wondering what they're all about...take a gander at this brief review.

Here's an excerpt:

"On Saturday evening at the Strand Theater, Playwrights Group of Baltimore presented "Skin in the Game," an anthology of short plays written by members of the Group. Different in style, each play pivots around the phrase "Skin in the Game," apparently coined by Warren Buffet to indicate passionate investment. A packed audience at the Strand witnessed staged readings of plays ranging from the melodramatic to the romantic to the fantasist."

Read the entire post here.

Check out more about Baltimore's arts scene or Station North!

Last week, The Baltimore Sun ran a couple of pieces on the city's proposal to create a so-called arts district in West Baltimore.

Here's an excerpt from articles for and against the project:

"City officials backed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake are to be applauded for moving ahead with plans to create a new arts and entertainment district on Baltimore's West Side near downtown. The area has been pegged for redevelopment as a cultural hub for more than a decade, but the pace of change has been disappointing. Anything that helps jump-start the process is all to the good.

One might well ask why the area even needs a formal designation as an arts and entertainment district, given the ambitious renovation of the Hippodrome Theatre (which re-opened on the west side in 2003) and the imminent arrival there of the Everyman Theatre Company. Isn't it already on a path to becoming the cultural magnet its backers originally envisioned?"

Read the entire article here.

"A proposal endorsed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake would make the city's west side into an arts district, which the administration hopes will help turn around the ailing neighborhood.

This is not the solution. Why? Baltimore already has two arts districts -- Highlandtown/Patterson Park and Station North. It doesn't need a third.

The city declared Highlandtown/Patterson Park an arts district in 2003. That same year, the Creative Alliance at the Patterson (pictured), a mixed use arts/performance space, opened. Offering art exhibits and cutting edge performances, the Creative Alliance was supposed to be the cultural anchor for an arts renaissance in Highlandtown.

Nearly seven years later, Highlandtown/Patterson Park hasn't seen a sliver of the artistic explosion and revitalization that was supposed to happen. Aside from the Creative Alliance and the Southeast Anchor Library, Highlandtown/Patterson Park doesn't have much more in the way of arts than it did in 2003."

Read the entire post here. And now tell us what you think...

Baltimore's CityLit Project will host its annual literary festival this weekend, bringing joy to all of the area's literary-minded folks, including Age 30+...A Lifetime of Books' Heather J., Ambassador of Books.

Here's an excerpt:

"I'm planning to be there for most of the day. If you are within driving distance I'd love to meet you and hang out for all/part of the day! Let me know in the comments if you're planning to attend and we can coordinate our schedule. I can't wait!!!"

Read the entire post here.
Check out the CityLit site here.

Apple has scored yet another win the release April 3 of the iPad. The revolutionary media device has led to a crush of picture book apps for kids. But what about free apps for kids books? The University of Maryland offers free iPad apps from its International Children's Digital Library website.

Here's an excerpt:

"As with the iPhone and iPod Touch, paid iPad apps aren't the only game in town-there's free material for kid-lit lovers, too. The app for the eight-year-old International Children's Digital Library, housed at the University of Maryland and largely funded by the National Science Foundation, lets iPad users read (but not download) more than 4,000 books from around the world. More than half are either written in English or have been translated into English...

The University of Maryland creators took their existing Web site and adapted it for the iPad. When kids rotate their device vertically to "portrait" mode, they see one page of a book. When they turn it horizontally to "landscape" mode, they see two pages. "We encourage kids to read how they're comfortable," said Ben Bederson, associate professor of computer science at the University of Maryland. "iPad is really the first time the International Children's Digital Library can be used with children in their parents' laps." As a result of the iPad's portability and convenience, he said, he projects that kids will spend more time with stories."

Read the entire article here.

A few years ago, the Contemporary Museum asked an environmental artist, Fritz Haeg, known for his Edible Estates front lawn transformations to come to town and work his magic on a lucky recipient's front yard. Clarence Ridgley was that lucky guy. It was all part of the museum's "Cottage Industries" exhibit. Now, Haeg has included the experience in the new second edition of Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.

Here's an excerpt:

"Here's how it went down: Clarence and Fritz conferred over what types of foods the Ridgleys would like to grow (and eat), Fritz planned the garden and organized the volunteers, then executed the documentation with the help of photographer Leslie Furlong. Haeg acts as kind of a garden party organizer, if you will: he blows into town, gets it going and then leaves. "I just kind of make these gardens happen then disappear. I want the families to feel like they're their gardens, not my gardens."

Read the entire post here.