Arts and Culture : Buzz

MTV has released a sneak peek of its upcoming series "Skins." The series, due to premiere in January 2011, is set in Baltimore.

Watch the video:

It's been 10 years since Grammy award-winning singer Sade has gone on tour. But when she does this summer, the 51-year-old artist will stop first in Baltimore's First Mariner Arena.

"Music industry experts say that the fact that Ms. Adu hasn't toured the U.S. in some time will work in her favor," writes the Wall Street Journal.

"'Her core fans have not seen her in at least a decade,'" Pollstar Editor Gary Bongiovanni tells the newspaper.

You can read the rest of the article here.

What would a version of the All-American game Monopoly based on the "The Wire" look like? A U.K. site has the answer.

Here's an excerpt:

"A satirical article at thepoke.co.uk purports that Hasbro, the toy and game company, has joined forces with Mr. Simon's series about the wide-reaching tentacles of drugs and corruption in urban Baltimore."

Read the entire post here.

Eric Anthony is living his dream as a Broadway actor. He returns to Baltimore to star in the local production of "The Wiz."

Here's an excerpt:

"AFRO: How did you become interested in acting?

Eric Anthony: I think it's a combination of a lot of stuff. The story goes, when I was 18 months old, my grandfather, Baxter "Peanut" Jones, use to own a candy store on Edmonson Avenue and at 18 months, I would be at the candy store dancing and singing on the counter top. The customers would come in and pay me change to perform. This is the story from my mother, my grandfather and my family�"

Read the entire article here.

Fans of HBO drama "The Wire" who thought the show is a work of genius now have proof.

David Simon, creator of the crime show set in Baltimore, received a $500,000 "genius" grant from the John D. and Catherin T. MacArthur Foundation. Simon was one of 23 recipients of the award, along with University of Chicago anthropologist Shannon Lee Dawdy and New York jazz pianist Jason Moran.

News of the award was covered beyond Baltimore. The Los Angeles Times interviewed Simon to see what he plans to do with the money.

A graduate of the Maryland Institute of Art is hosting a new exhibit at his Remington art gallery Open Space. Titled "Liberty B," the show features the work of six international artists.

The show and gallery owner Neil Reinalda are featured in the York Daily Record, a newspaper in Reinalda's hometown of York, Pa. Reinalda tells the newspaper that Baltimore has a "'strong cultural scene for a city of its size.'"

You can read the article here.

Its status as Baltimore's first State-designated arts district got the neighborhood revitalization started, but it's the area's small businesses that keep the place humming.

Check out a few pics from the NY Times slideshow.

We knew the Baltimore Book Festival is popular among Charm City residents, but who knew that word of the event went as far as San Francisco.

The San Francisco Examiner featured an article on the event and its "celebrity authors."

The Baltimore Book Festival took place in Mount Vernon Sept. 24-26 and featured Holly Robinson Peete, Jesse Ventura and Michele Norris.

There's no fat lady belting out tunes here. Baltimore Rock Opera Society is spreading its gospel through local festivals and word of mouth.

Here's an excerpt:

"On Saturday, the H Street Festival introduced me to, as a friend put it, "the greatest thing since things became good." What is this wonder of awesomeness you ask? The Baltimore Rock Opera Society, my friends."

Here's the entire article.

OK fine, fer sure, fer sure.

Seventeen years after his death, Frank Zappa is making headlines in Baltimore and beyond. Baltimore, where the rocker was born, celebrated Frank Zappa Day Sept. 19 in a ceremony in Highlandtown, the Los Angeles times notes. The festivities included music from Zappa tribute band Zappa Plays Zappa, featuring the late musician's son Dweezil.

The city erected a bust honoring Zappa, known for songs like "Valley Girl," which embodied the Southern California teen spirit during the early 1980s. The ceremony included Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Zappa's widow Gail.

Baltimore's no longer known as a hotbed for jazz musicians, but one couple is doing what they can to showcase local talent.

Here's an excerpt:

"Jazzway 6004 rests in a tiny enclave dotted with mansion-esque dwellings just past the Baltimore city limits. A renovation in 2005 trimmed the original six bedrooms to four and created a performance space that seats 65 and houses a 6-foot Baldwin grand piano and a sound system. Matheny-Katz recalls how the couple didn't initially intend to hold concerts, but their desire to showcase local talent moved them to open their home to the public. The first concert in June 2007 sold out. "People started calling us and asking, 'When is your next concert?'" says Matheny-Katz, a vocalist who was prepping for a Billie Holiday tribute show in mid-July."

Read the entire article here.

It's not often that Maryland wineries get national attention. But a Sept. 2 New York Times article toasts the area's 39 wineries, including Boordy, Elk Run and Black Ankle Vineyards,

The article says Marylnad vintages are "worthy of national recognition, and a chance for some first-class vineyard-hopping."

Visiting one of these destinations is as "much about having a good time as as it is about having a good sip." The story sheds a spotlight on music and other festivities besides wine tasting that the vineyards offer.

Read the story here.

Move over Isaiah Mustafa, the Raven's Ray Lewis takes a fantastical turn as the latest pitchman for Old Spice.

Watch the video here:

New book from eight Loyola University students, including Cathleen Carris of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, uncovers Baltimore's jazz history.

Here's an excerpt:

"Much of the book centers on four iconic Baltimoreans. There's Eubie Blake, the ragtime composer whose 1921 "Shuffle Along" was the first African-American Broadway hit. There's Chick Webb, the diminutive drummer whose hot licks turned the Savoy Ballroom into Harlem's jitterbug central. There's Cab Calloway, the hi-de-ho man who ruled The Cotton Club. And there's Billie Holiday, who rose from the Baltimore slums to become the most memorable voice in jazz history.

But what Carris primarily ended up researching was a much more obscure � and intriguing � bit of local history."

Read the entire article here.