One of the coolest things to emerge in Baltimore last season was Mobtown Music at the Contemporary Museum, a series of concerts featuring hotshot players and the kind of repertoire you'd usually have to travel to Lower Manhattan to hear.

 Two of the guys behind Mobtown, brilliant saxophonist Brian Sacawa and unbridled turntablist/composer Erik Spangler (or DJ Dubble8), also collaborate under the name Hybrid Groove Project, and, in that guise, recently produced a wry, hip-hoppy track called HGP Anthem, which is well worth a spin.

 The lyrics, filled with references to the contemporary music scene, describe Baltimore as "a city that's too gritty for the New York set" and hail the Mobtown/Hybrid ventures as "chamber music insurgents with an urgence to earn it." There's even a sly allusion to The Rest is Noise, the title of the blog and stunning, best-selling history of 20th century music by New Yorker critic Alex Ross, guaranteeing some mutually satisfying cyber cross-referencing.

Give this heavy-beat, amusing track a listen. It should get you in the mood for Hybrid Groove Project's performance July 20 as part of Artscape, and for the 2008-2009 Mobtown Music series, which opens Sept. 9 at the Contemporary Museum.   

Posted by Tim Smith at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The nation’s premier stage plans to mount a three-week festival next season of the arts and culture of the Arab world – a programming decision with political overtones.

The festival, called Arabesque, will be held from Feb. 25 to March 15, 2009, and will include performances from 22 nations in dance, theater and music, including 12 premieres.

In recent years, the Kennedy Center has shone spotlights on the arts of Japan and China – but neither is a culture with whom the U.S. recently has been at war.

Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, said today that this will be the largest presentation of Arab arts ever in the U.S.

"I believe the arts create peace and provide a window into understanding people," Kasier says in a press release. "I hope this festival will act as a catalyst towards achieving both between the Arab and western worlds."

Bolstering that point, Kennedy Center officials also announced that Arabesque will be held during the same season as a festival highlighting American contributions to the arts and culture. Artists from each of the 50 states will be featured during the 35-day Arts Across America festival.

 

Posted by Mary McCauley at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

The Hamilton Arts Collective, a two-year-old gathering place for Northeast Baltimore artists and arts lovers, has been forced to shut its doors after city fire inspectors declared its Harford Road headquarters unsafe for public gatherings.

"We are in somewhat of a holding pattern," said Steve Thomas, the group's managing director. "One of the main things that we need to determine is whether or not the building is suitable for us even to start doing renovations."

The key, Thomas said, will be the cost of updating the 80-year-old building's fire escape to meet code requirements. The collective operates out of the second and third floors of a commercial building at 5440 Harford Road.

Thomas said there have been indications the cost could reach into six figures, a sum he said is "way out of [the] price range" of the nonprofit organization's budget. The group hopes to bring in an architect or engineer soon, to come up with an estimate.

If the cost is prohibitive, Thomas said, the group may have to look for other space in the area. That could prove difficult, however, since the city only recently changed the building's zoning so that it could be used for assemblies, and may not be willing to designate a second building in the same area for such purposes.

"There's no way that we want to give up on this at all," said Thomas, refusing to assign blame for the group's situation on any of the city's regulatory agencies, which he said are "simply trying to keep people safe."

"We're going through the school of hard knocks, that's for sure," Thomas says. "The folks who are the board members, this is the first time we've ever tried to do something like this in our lives. We just wanted to have some shows and display art."

The building, which has been used as a  meeting hall, photographer's studio and live theater in previous incarnations, houses a pizza restaurant on the first floor. It has not been affected, Thomas said. 

Posted by Chris Kaltenbach at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

If you are a huge Star Trek fan, maybe you already have a ton of fan fiction about the show. Wednesday, CBS and fanlib.com launched a new contest that might be just for you. The contest is hosted by Trek stars George Takei (who has even more geek cred as of late thanks to his role as Hiro's dad on Heroes) and Wil Wheaton (who has a huge online following thanks to his blog, his books and other writing), who go over the scenario in more detail in video.

Here's the scenario, as emailed from fanlib:

KvP is a fan-driven storytelling event, powered by FanLib, that invites you and other members of the Star Trek community to write and review scenes for a new adventure around one of the oldest Star Trek fan debates: Who's better? Kirk or Picard? This is the first time CBS has ever invited fans to officially play in the Star Trek universe at an online fan writing event.

Hosts George Takei and Wil Wheaton will present story ideas that were developed by writer/producer Andre Bormanis, in which captains Kirk and Picard clash. Your first mission is to vote for the story idea you want to write or read as a script. Next week, the writing and reviewing begins. To help you on your KvP mission, you can watch videos of George and Wil discussing their favorite episodes, the strengths and weaknesses of their respective captains, and other Trek-related topics.

 

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Whatever your opinion about the finale of The Sopranos -- and that issue is being debated elsewhere on this blog -- the controversy highlights how tough it is to write a good ending. On the difficulty scale, it ranks second only to writing beginnings.

When the very best writers first set pen to paper, they don't always know what story they're trying to tell. Instead, they write because there is a question they want to explore, a particular place they want to reach that they can see just dimly over the horizon. Slowly, they begin to row towards that ever-vanishing spot.

A truly satisfying ending implies that a writer has reached that temporary oasis. But sometimes, the writer -- wearied by the exhausting, complex mental process -- drops anchor prematurely.

Even the greatest writers occasionally struggle with endings. I've always suspected that an example of that is Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The Bard knew exactly into what issue he wanted to delve into: the battle between the sexes. But he didn't know how that battle ideally would be resolved, so he tacked on a deplorable finale to that delightful play in which Kate caves in to Petruchio. It's a young man's fantasy of a happy solution, but not one that holds up in the real world.

I am guessing that even Shakespeare realized that his first attempt was a cop-out, because years later, he wrote the same play all over again, but with a much-improved ending. He called this play Much Ado About Nothing. In it, Beatrice and Benedick are equal parts flawed and noble. To have a grown-up relationship, each bends, and each is willing to change. Ultimately, neither dominates. The balance of power teeters back and forth, first from one then to the other ... just as it does in real life.

The writer always has the prerogative to pull up anchor and try again. Maybe, in a few years, we'll be watching a new David Chase television series called The Baritones.

 

Posted by Mary McCauley at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

In his newly released Classic Literary Trivia, author Richard Lederer has fun imagining the headlines that the tabloids would devise for ancient myths.

For instance, remember the story of Oedipus Rex? If the National Enquirer or Star got hold of that sensational story, they might come up with: KING KILLS HIS FATHER, THEN MARRIES WOMAN OLD ENOUGH TO BE HIS MOTHER -- AND SHE IS!

Here's the story of Prometheus: FIERY GOD PUNISHED EACH DAY BY EAGLE EATING HIS LIVER!

Or Jason and Medea: MANIAC COOKS KING'S CHILDREN; SERVES THEM UP FOR DINNER!

You can order Classic Literary Trivia on amazon.com. But chances are you have some mythical headlines of your own that you're craving to share with the world. How about the story of the Cyclops? Orpheus' descent into the underworld? The birth of Athena?

Post your best ideas here. We could all use a good chuckle ...

Posted by Mary McCauley at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)