A Pearl Inside?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by atomictv

“A small boy peeps into a papier-mache clam for a look at what turns out to be Cindy Whitelock, who gives Governor Agnew a sample at Chesapeake Bay Soft Shell Clam Festival, Annapolis, Maryland, 1967.” Found on Ebay.com.

Posted in Baltimorons, Festivals, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wall Street Journal Soapbox: John Waters

Posted on March 30, 2012 by atomictv

The enigmatic auteur on his weird childhood, the sorry style of today’s rebels and the social importance of bad taste

By John Jurgensen (The Wall Street Journal, 3/29/2012)

GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL At 65, director John Waters is still impish, hilarious and subversive but has also mellowed a bit with age. Photograph by Adam Golfer.

John Waters, the writer and director who emerged from the midnight movie circuit of the 1970s, has earned his status as a social critic. In 13 feature films, including “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray,” he gleefully presents depraved characters undermining a society of squares.

In the seven years since he made his last film, the director has written “Role Models,” a collection of essays about his idols who hurdled over adversity, including Johnny Mathis, Little Richard and a seedy pornographer. He’s also hunting down funding for his next script, “Fruitcake,” a Christmas movie for kids. He lives in Baltimore, his native city and the setting for his films, in a house purchased in 1990.

At age 65, Waters remains a celebrated figure for counterculturists but accepts that his time as a revolutionary has passed. Earlier this year, protestors at Occupy Baltimore built an encampment they called Mortville, a tribute to the criminal enclave depicted in Waters’s film “Desperate Living.” Waters supports them but declined to join. “I have three homes and a summer rental, and some of my money is in Wall Street,” he explained. He champions younger filmmakers whom he says succeed in subversion, including Johnny Knoxville and Todd Phillips. At the same time, he reviles “the new bad taste,” which he defines as entertainment that tries too hard to shock and lacks inventiveness and wit.

“If your kid comes out of the bedroom and says he just shut down the government, he should have an outfit for that.”

Continue reading “John Waters” at The Wall Street Journal.

Posted in 2010s, Dreamlanders, John Waters | Leave a comment

What is an Alt-Weekly?

Posted on March 29, 2012 by almosthipguy

Judging City Paper and Life in Baltimore by 35 Years’s Worth of Each

by Lee Gardner (City Paper, March 28, 2012)

Perhaps the best tribute to a long-lived publication like City Paper would be a full-on Synecdoche, New York-style compendium of everything in every issue ever, all between one set of covers. (Or, you know, a complete run of 35 years’ worth of issues scanned in their entirety and available as PDFs online. Someday.) But flipping through old issues, it’s the covers that draw the eye. Each was (and remains) the print edition’s face to the world, announcing what the paper’s about, even if sometimes cryptically—the 1977 issue with nothing on the cover but a photograph of cheetahs stopped me cold mid-flip.

Thirty-five years of covers also serve as a sort of museum of publication design, as the black-and-white, blocky covers of CP’s earliest years gave way to spot color, then more elements, then fewer, then full color, then the telltale spidery fonts of early computer-assisted graphic design, and on up to the present. You can watch the elements ebb and flow: single images to multiple images and back, scant coverlines, as many coverlines as will fit, and everywhere in between.

Continue reading “What is an Alt-Weekly?” and view the cover gallery at City Paper.

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, Decades, Entertainment, Media, Music | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Who is the Route 29 Batman? This Guy.

Posted on March 28, 2012 by atomictv

By Michael S. Rosenwald (The Washington Post, 3/28/2012)

Police pulled a man over on Route 29 in Silver Spring last week because of a problem with his plates. This would not ordinarily make international news, but the car was a black Lamborghini, the license plate was the Batman symbol, and the driver was Batman, dressed head-to-toe in full superhero regalia.

HOLY MOVING VIOLATION!

It didn’t take long before images of the Dark Knight’s encounter with law enforcement began turning up everywhere from the Washington Post to CNN to the London tabloids.

Jokers emerged instantaneously too. “Let him do his job,” one commenter urged on the Post Web site. “Batman has expensive taste,” noted another. Meanwhile, questions about Batman’s identity mounted: “Did they make him take off his mask?” someone asked.

No, they did not. Even Montgomery County police honor a superhero code of conduct, just like the Howard County officers who once helped him with a flat bat tire. Batman told officers his real name was not Bruce Wayne but Lenny B. Robinson, and that his real tags were in the car. (He was not ticketed then, but has been before for a heavy bat foot.)

The Caped Crusader is a businessman from Baltimore County who visits sick children in hospitals, handing out Batman paraphernalia to up-and-coming superheros who first need to beat cancer and other wretched diseases.

Continue reading “Who is the Route 29 Batman? This guy.” at The Washington Post.

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