The Block Survives Despite Fires and Police Raids

Posted on December 12, 2010 by atomictv

City’s historic adult entertainment strip continues to prevail
by Peter Hermann (The Baltimore Sun, 12/11/2010)

photo by Jerry Jackson, Baltimore Sun

The city’s adult strip known as The Block, as seedy as it is historic, is, if nothing else a survivor.

Civic leaders long ago erased references to the entertainment zone from tour books and promotional pamphlets, yet visitors still come to gawk and to indulge.

A hundred federal agents converged on the clubs in 1971. One mayor tried to buy the clubs out. His successor tried to move them to the city’s industrial hinterlands. State police sent 500 troopers in on raids in 1994. A grand jury investigated alleged kickbacks to liquor board inspectors.

All the efforts kill it failed.

On Monday, fire destroyed several buildings, including Gayety Show World, shutting down most clubs on the strip on East Baltimore Street through Thursday. Work crews are still shoring up buildings as federal investigators search for a cause.

But as spectacular as the fire was, and if history is any guide, the blaze that sent plumes of flames shooting into the cold night air will probably not accomplish what a long line of police, politicians and civic leaders have tried to do but couldn’t: close the clubs permanently.

Continue reading “The Block Survives Despite Fires and Police Raids” at The Baltimore Sun.

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Lazerbitch – “Twilight”

Posted on December 12, 2010 by atomictv

Baltimore electro-pop duo Lazerbitch and their vampire-themed “Twilight” music video:

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A Modest Defense of Denise Whiting

Posted on December 11, 2010 by atomictv

by John E. McIntyre (The Baltimore Sun, 12/11/2010)

The Baltimore Sun article on Denise Whiting’s trademarking the word hon for her business, Cafe Hon and its enterprises, has provoked a great outpouring of outrage.

Cafe Hon, we are informed, serves lousy, overpriced food. The annual Honfest insults Baltimore and its working-class heritage. Ms. Whiting is a greedy self-promoter who shamelessly exploits Hampden and reduces it to a tawdry stereotype. And then the comments get intemperate.

I hold no brief for Ms. Whiting. I have eaten at her restaurant a few times, finding the food and drink agreeable, and my daughter enjoys attending Honfest. But I am an auslander in Baltimore, and my daughter doesn’t count as a native either, because she was already two years old when we moved here. But I do think that I can detect something simmering beneath the unfavorable comments: envy.

Ms. Whiting is a shrewd businesswoman who has made a success of her enterprises. Her restaurant continues to have customers, and Honfest draws hundreds of people to Hampden every year. Successful entrepreneurs do not tend to have charming personalities, and if people find Ms. Whiting pushy, well, that is part of the package.

A while back, John Waters denounced Honfest as cheap and inauthentic, and that is part of the chorus of denunciations of Ms. Whiting as exploitative. But really, though Mr. Waters has portrayed Baltimore’s working-class personalities lovingly, isn’t there a degree of exploitation in his displaying those personalities for personal fame? And cash. Ms. Whiting is doing for business what writers and filmmakers do for art.

Continue reading “A Modest Defense of Denise Whiting” at The Baltimore Sun.

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Dan Rodricks: You Don’t Own Me, Hon

Posted on December 11, 2010 by atomictv

Denise Whiting’s crass effort to control use of a Baltimore regionalism
by Dan Rodricks (The Baltimore Sun, 12/11/2010)

Anyone who ever had an inclination to do so should get all their family members sweatshirts or T-shirts invoking “Hon” in some way: “Merry Christmas, Hon,” “Happy New Year, Hon,” “Welcome to Bawlmer, Hon,” and, to drive home the point, “You Don’t Own Me, Hon” (off the 1964, Hon-era Lesley Gore song). That’s my suggestion for a unified public response to Denise Whiting’s crass effort to own a Baltimore regionalism — take away the local market for her wearable Hon merchandise by springing for some custom-made sweats and T’s for our next of kin.

Let her try and put a stop to that.

I won’t go into the legalisms, the whole business of Whiting making “Hon” a trademark so that no one can use it for any public or commercial endeavor without her permission or — despite her denials of profit motive — without paying her a fee. I’ll leave that for the lawyers and the intellectual property experts.

The response to Whiting’s move has been so strong and negative — so much so that you wonder if Café Hon’s owner has squandered the good will she’d established with her customers. Here’s why: You can’t own something that doesn’t belong to you. You shouldn’t be allowed to control use of something that has been in use by Baltimore’s extended family for years.

Continue reading “You Don’t Own Me, Hon” at The Baltimore Sun.


Lesley Gore – “You Don’t Own Me” (link via takebackhon.com)

Posted in 2010s, Baltimorons, Hampden, Kitsch, Pranks | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments