Mark Harp & The Tralalas at HonFest 2004

Posted on January 31, 2011 by almosthipguy


http://www.markharp.net

Mark Linthicum (aka “Mark Harp” or “Harpo”) was born on October 13, in 1947 and passed away Christmas Eve of 2004 at age 47. This is one of the last remaining clips of him playing with The Tralalas at the 2004 Hampden HonFest. His music remains timeless. R.I.P. Harpo!

Posted in 2000s, Atomic TV, Festivals, Hampden, Music | Tagged | Leave a comment

John Waters talks about appearing in SNL’s ‘The Creep’

Posted on January 31, 2011 by atomictv

By Mike Sragow (The Baltimore Sun, 1/31/2011)

John Waters owned the best part of “Saturday Night Live.” All the Sunday headlines went to the flat “surprise” appearance of Mark Zuckerberg next to guest host Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,” and Andy Samberg, who sort of plays him, too. The night’s one knockout, though, was a wild Lonely Island digital short: a crazy-funny video for a new dance called “The Creep.”

Who did the Lonely Islanders tap to introduce it?

“Hi, I’m John Waters,” said the smiling face from a video monitor, mugging, hilariously, like an old horror-show host. “And this is the Creep.”

The Lonely Island trio — Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — went on to feed Watersmania. They paid homage to Waters by sporting natty slim suits and pencil mustaches. They put over an engaging spasmodic rap — with lines like: “When the judge is a hottie/And you can’t control your body/Do the Creep!” — and had fun creeping out everybody with moves like strung-out marionettes.

When Nicki Minaj joined them for verses like “get your knees flexing and your arms T-Rexing,” the number topped itself. Then the camera drifted back to Waters’ video monitor, where he was saying “Don’t forget to smile.” Who could forget? This song-and-dance killed.

Waters kindly answered questions about “The Creep” the next day.

What led to your appearance in “The Creep?”

I always get a lot of weird offers and sometimes I take them, especially if it’s a chance to cross over to a big audience and a young audience. I was in San Francisco when I got the offer. They sent the song, and I loved it, and they said they were fans. They told me who they were, and sent links to their work – I’d already seen a lot of it and liked it.

Continue reading “John Waters talks about appearing in SNL’s ‘The Creep'” at The Baltimore Sun.

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald in Baltimore

Posted on January 30, 2011 by atomictv

The author’s five years in Charm City were more cursed than charmed—but he loved Baltimore anyway

By Deborah Rudacille (Baltimore Style, 12/2009)

In the dark, a man paces. He gazes out over the city, but a gray mist obscures all landmarks. Suddenly, a specter appears. “Like a broken-stringed bow upon a throbbing fiddle— I see the real horror develop over the roof-tops, and in the strident horns of night-owl taxis and the shrill monody of revelers’ arrival over the way. Horror and waste. Waste and horror— what I might have been and done that is lost, spent and gone, dissipated, unrecapturable.”

Asked which writer penned these despairing words in Baltimore, most would probably guess Edgar Allan Poe. But the ghostly echoes of pleasure-seeking gone sour point to the true author: F. Scott Fitzgerald. The laureate of the Jazz Age was only 36 when he came to Baltimore in 1932. But like the country, he had crashed. His wife and muse, Zelda, was mentally ill. He was drinking heavily. His income had plummeted. He hadn’t published a novel since “The Great Gatsby” in 1925, and he was struggling to finish “Tender is the Night,” a book he hoped would pull him out of debt and re-establish his reputation as the greatest writer of his generation. As it happened, neither of the tenuous hopes Fitzgerald nurtured on his arrival in Baltimore— that Zelda would be cured, that his new book would be a critical and commercial triumph— would be fulfilled.

Even so, Baltimore gave the peripatetic Fitzgerald family something they’d never really had before: a home. The nearly five years that Scott, Zelda and their daughter, Scottie, lived in Baltimore was the biggest chunk of time the family ever spent together in one location, says University of Maryland professor emeritus Jackson Bryer. “Five years in one place is a pretty long time for them,” he points out. Though Zelda was a patient at the Henry Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins and the Sheppard-Pratt Hospital for much of that time (with a short stint at Craig House outside New York City in between), “they had a stable life here,” says Bryer. “And the relative stability of Baltimore and having his family all in one place may have given Fitzgerald what he needed to finish ‘Tender is the Night.’”

Continue reading “F. Scott Fitzgerald in Baltimore” at Baltimore Style.

Posted in Baltimore Babylon | Tagged | 1 Comment

Baltimore Rock 1985: Larry Hinshaw Leaves Child’s Play

Posted on January 30, 2011 by atomictv

Larry Hinshaw, Hammerjacks bikini contest, Summer 1985

By Sue Hodges (ROX Magazine, 6/1988)

PSSSST… You wanna hear some rumors being circulated about one of Baltimore’s hottest rock ‘n’ roll bands?

An exceptionally large crowd gathered at Network on Saturday, June 11 to verify what rumors they had possibly over¬heard over the past month… “Did you hear the Child’s Play has a new line-up?” or “Did you hear the one about the band losing their frontman Larry Hinshaw?” or “Have you heard that Child’s Play MIGHT have a record deal?” You may have heard one of these or a variation, but just what are the facts concerning the band and their future. At Network on the warm summer night, as the stage lights went up and the band broke into the Child’s Play Anthem “Good Ol’ Boys” all in attendance were on-hand to witness a new chapter in the Child’s Play story.

Child's Play publicity shot

The “story” unfolds in early 1983 when two co-workers, Hinshaw and Brian Giacubeno, decided to set Baltimore and the world on fire with a “kick-ass” rock ‘n’ roll band. Through a series of early personnel changes and the absorption of members of Cry Tuff, the original CP was formed. The band —consisting of lead vocalist Hinshaw, guitarist/backing vocalist Brian Giacubeno, drummer/vocalist John Allen, guitarist Jimmy Schaefer and bassist Phil Wizer — began their quest for recognition and success by rocking local audiences at the Seagull Inn, The Capricorn, the Desert Lounge and other area venues. Approximately one year after the formation of Child’s Play, Schaefer quit and was soon replaced by Nicky K. The line-up remained the same until a year ago when Wizer decided to pursue a career in medicine and Idzi entered the framework as the band’s new bassist.

That was the line-up until about a month ago. Since then, an integral part of Child’s Play has left and some drastic changes have occurred.

The first major change directly affecting the band is the unexpected resignation of the band’s frontman. After devoting five years to the project, writing the majority of the band’s original material, and firmly believing this band was “the best band around,” Hinshaw quit. Rumors have been rampant regarding the unexpected occurrence, but the ex-frontman set the record straight: “I was not pressured by any members of the band to quit. Actually, they wanted me to stay, but I felt like I had to do it.”

Larry Hinshaw, Baltimore 80s rock icon

What was the cause behind Larry’s decision to leave CP when success was so close at hand? After the band had showcased at the Cat Club in New York earlier this year, major recording labels expressed major interest. According to Hinshaw, “One record label offered the band an impressive deal. The only problem was that they didn’t like my voice. I was confronted by our manager, Jack Dean, and I made a career decision and quit.”

Hinshaw is, however, still writing for the band, starting his own publishing company, Silent Songster Songs, and offering the band his valuable advice. Larry considers, “I still have a future with the band because when they get picked up (by a major label), I get picked up.”

However, to land that record deal, the band needed a stellar new frontman. According to Nicky, the band wanted someone who “was not an outsider so we could keep it in the family.” Brian Giacubeno, with his natural good looks, powerful vocals and dynamic stage presence, was the perfect choice to take Hinshaw’s place. With this change, MCA Records has been negotiating with the band on a contract and the guys are optimistic about their future.

Fronting Child's Play, Larry Hinshaw played to numerous packed houses at Hammerjacks and rock clubs throughout Baltimore in the 80s

The future of the band, as well as their past, is filled with the challenges of transitions confronting them. Allen admits, “Things are rough right now on the stage show with Brian taking over. It’s hard to redo songs you’ve been playing out for awhile. Brian has to learn Larry’s parts, which are different from what he’s used to.”

Brian agrees, “This is a challenge for me since, now that Larry’s left, it’s kinda taken away from my guitar playing; I can’t concentrate as much on it. I was just starting to get a style and technique that I had been working on, but now I’m not really focusing on that as much as I’m trying to give the whole style of Child’s Play a more powerful and distinct sound.”

So, how about that relentless rumor Child’s Play has signed on the dotted line? More on that later…

Posted in 1980s, 80s Rock, Hammerjacks, Music, Nightspots | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments