Pressed for Time (Globe Poster)

Posted on January 25, 2011 by atomictv

Baltimore’s Globe Poster Company holds decades of music and printing history–and it’s on the verge of being lost

By Lee Gardner (Baltimore City Paper, 1/26/2011)

photo by Baltimore City Paper

Bob Cicero has the air of a man carrying a heavy load, despite the fact that his load just got a bit lighter. The day before a reporter visits Globe Poster Company, the printing business run by Cicero’s family for nearly 40 of its 81 years, he sold its two Miehle letterpresses. Nine feet wide and 18 feet long, the cast-iron presses had stamped out batches of colorful posters for Globe for decades. The rigger who hauled the behemoths away, Cicero says, told him the scrapyard weighed them out at 24,000 pounds each.

The money Cicero gained from selling the presses may help him pay rent on Globe’s cavernous Highlandtown warehouse space a little while longer. But, leaning back in a padded leather office chair, he doesn’t look relieved. “It’s hard,” he says quietly about the sale, looking away. “I used to run them presses every day for a long time.”

photo by Baltimore City Paper

Like the Miehles, Globe Poster is an anachronism. Throughout much of the mid-20th century, bold, colorful Globe posters bombed the walls and lampposts of American cities large and small, advertising circuses, carnivals, auto races, and appearances by touring musicians. By the time Cicero began working full time in his father’s shop in the 1960s, television had begun to supplant such live entertainment, but Globe retained a faithful clientele highlighted by constantly touring R&B stars such as James Brown, Solomon Burke, and Ike and Tina Turner. Globe kept churning out its distinctive designs into the hip-hop era, though cheap four-color reproduction flourished and cities began passing ordinances against posters.

Continue reading “Pressed for Time” at the Baltimore City Paper.

Posted in Advertisements | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Baltimore’s New Wave

Posted on January 24, 2011 by almosthipguy

Our indie music scene is far from one note. The success of Dan Deacon and the Wham City arts collective has given rise to a new crop of experimental musicians.

By Erik Maza (The Baltimore Sun, 1/22/2011)

Neal Reinalda, 24, artist, musician and curator, is part of a co-op that operates the gallery Open Space. (photo by Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun)

“…Two years after Beach House and Wye Oak were signed to major indie labels and the goofballs at the artists’ collective Wham City brought national attention to the Baltimore area’s ramshackle music scene, Lower Dens and several other bands, none of them more than five years old, are poised to be the city’s next breakouts.

In the past year, the art-pop trio Future Islands, rock ‘n’ rollers J. Roddy Walston and the Business and Lower Dens all released their first label albums, sold thousands of copies and toured internationally. And upstarts Weekends and Lands & Peoples have moved from playing shoebox venues to opening for bands like Wye Oak, and are on the verge of releasing their first full-length albums.

None of them is originally from this area, but it was the city itself that expedited their rises to success, they say.

“Literally everything changed for us when we moved here,” said William Cashion, bassist with Future Islands.”

Continue reading at The Baltimore Sun.

Posted in 2000s, 2010s, Music | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Harbor Debris in 1902: Cats, Dogs, Rats, Corned Beef, Livers and more

Posted on January 24, 2011 by atomictv

Gave Up Its Dead

(Baltimore Morning Herald , 7/4/1902)

On account of the cool weather that prevailed throughout June the harbor scavengers’ haul of dead cats, dogs and other debris was much smaller last month than ordinarily.

The scavengers began work at the end of May, and during June they usually capture many tons of deceased animals. But June, 1902, brought forth nothing more startling than the following:

150 cats, 126 dogs, 545 rats, 283 chunks of meat, 82 fowls, 201 fish, 84 livers, 11 hams, 100 pounds of corned beef, 1 side of veal, 4 rabbits, 37 turtles, 73 crabs, 45 pile heads, 18 railroad ties, 5 logs, 41 boat-loads of garbage and 1 leg of mutton.

During the month 21,035 cubic yards of mud were dredged from Spring Gardens and 35,317 from the back basin.

Posted in 1900s, Inner Harbor | Leave a comment

David Simon: ‘The Wire’ Has Nothing To Apologize For

Posted on January 24, 2011 by atomictv

Show was not a ‘smear’ but a realistic depiction, its creator says

By David Simon (The Baltimore Sun, 1/24/2011)

(“The Wire” creator David Simon was invited by The Sun to respond to comments made recently by Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III that the HBO show was a “smear that will take decades to overcome,” reviving a debate that took place throughout the show’s run.)

Wikipedia.org photo

It is my understanding that Commissioner Bealefeld — by finally choosing to emphasize the quality rather than the quantity of arrests — has been able to reduce the homicide rate somewhat in our city. If true, this is not only commendable, it is a long time coming. Too long, in fact.

Interestingly, the newspaper that covered his department began making the argument to do exactly that as early as 1994, in a series of articles entitled “Crisis In Blue” that carefully articulated the disconnect between the Baltimore department’s aggressive street-level prosecution of the drug war and the root causes of violence in the city. The arguments were furthered in a book entitled “The Corner” that was published three years later. After a new election cycle, however, those arguments were ignored in favor of years of “zero tolerance” of minor street crimes and an obsession with street-level drug enforcement that actually de-emphasized quality police work and led to marked declines in arrest rates for major felonies.

Later, when a mayor sought to become governor using public safety as an issue, the same police department went further down the path, emphasizing widespread street arrests of dubious quality and legality. This did not reduce crime so much as it violated the civil rights of many city residents and led to the widespread alienation of our jury pool, with many city jurors no longer willing to trust the integrity of testifying officers — a problem that will plague Baltimore law enforcement for years.

Continue reading “David Simon: ‘The Wire’ Has Nothing To Apologize For” at The Baltimore Sun.

* * *

Baltimore Crime Beat
Bealefeld: “The Wire” a “smear that will take decades to overcome”

By Peter Hermann (The Baltimore Sun, 1/18/2011)

“The Wire” concluded its run on HBO in 2008, but Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III says Baltimore is still smarting from its depiction and that the show was a “smear on this city that will take decades to overcome.”

…”What Baltimore gets is this reinforced notion that it’s a city full of hopelessness, despair and dysfunction. There was very little effort – beyond self-serving – to highlight the great and wonderful things happening here, and to indict the whole population, the criminal justice system, the school system.”

Continue reading at “Bealefeld: ‘The Wire’ a ‘smear that will take decades to overcome'” at The Baltimore Sun.

Posted in 2000s, 2010s, Baltimorons, Crime | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment