Buzzcocks want to show you "The Way"

Tom & Dave compare their tees

Gina & Amy: These girls just wanna have fun

Buzzcocks Black Cat set list (Setlist.fm)

Dave bites his knuckles listening to Loud Boyz, while the gals cool their heels

Follow-through on a Diggle windmill power chord

Diggle prepares for lift-off

More Diggle cod-rock guitar antics

Diggle, Shelley & Remington kick out the jams

Steve Diggle: Always Chasing Rainbows

Diggle strums his strange machine

Diggle & Shelley: A Different Kind of Duo

Pete: "Steady now Steve!"

It's this dynamic tension between [Diggle's] scissor kicking rockism and Pete Shelley's sardonic very much non rock approach that is the key to Buzzcocks- the two opposites, the warring couple- each with their own powerful, creative agenda and yet when they join together and those two guitars interplay with each other it's perfect.

Pete Shelley: Sardonic Rocker

Pete making one of his coy faces

The Dynamic Duo

In contrast to his more reserved, gray-bearded bandmate, Steve Diggle unleashed his inner 18-year-old guitar hero throughout the set, playing to the crowd and bumping fists with the punters. His enthusiasm clearly inspired the audience, which he implored to “Blow the fuckin’ roof off!” and “Keep rock ’n’ roll alive!” Diggle walked the stage hoisting a microphone over the crowd during a singalong version of “Harmony in My Head”, and seemed to invigorate Shelley as the band rolled through “Noise Annoys” and “Oh Shit!” during the set’s latter half. Crediting rocks’s standard bearers at night’s end, Diggle said this music was “about Chuck Berry, the fuckin’ Ramones”, and despite his accent, I’m 90% sure he threw in the Buzzcocks at the end of that listing. After their set, it’s hard to disagree that his own band belongs in that rarified company.

Buzzcocks: In rarified company

Pete Shelley and Chris Remington

Diggle, emoting

Amy standing guard over Diggle's Corner

Amy with Gary Razorpop

Dave, Chris & Danny (backed by Chris Calabrese) outside Black Cat

Dave Cawley, Lover of All Mod Cons, poses by a scooter outside Black Cat

Amy to Tom "Aren't you glad you came now?"

“...the record is like a mix of Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy and Bowie’s Low –– though it is so endearingly sweet, you have to imagine Bowie on ecstasy, not blow." -  TulipFrenzy.com

Martha made claims to the press that the White House officials were corrupt and engaged in illegal activities, as well saying that she had been drugged and held prisoner in an attempt to stop her talking. Her claims were dismissed as delusional, that she was suffering from a mental illness and that she was an alcoholic. However the Watergate scandal that followed proved much of what she had been saying to be correct. There is a psychologist term "The Martha Mitchel Effect"which is when a practitioner mistakenly perceives a patient as delusional by the patients extraordinary claims.  

One of the lyrics that I could make out is, "You know that I saw you on old Frosties TV show". It gave me the idea that Martha had appeared on The David Frost Show, which was correct, in 1974 she was interviewed by David Frost on the BBC. There's a video clip of the interview on the BBC website.

Life Is A Grand came out in 1981, and in the States at least, was discovered by approximately three people.  Happily we were one, and it brings a certain joy to tell you that just today, for the first time since the early Reagan years, we have dusted off the record, ascertained that our phonograph works, and put it on. 

It holds up!  With just James Stevenson on guitar and bass, Badowski sang, played keyboards, programmed the drum machine, and played sax.  The record is like a mix of Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy and Bowie’s Low –– though it is so endearingly sweet, you have to imagine Bowie on ecstasy, not blow.  It is almost entirely upbeat, and the rhythm section could easily have been the Moxhams from Young Marble Giant — minimalist, spare — underneath Farfisas and simple keyboards.  All we see of Badowski from the album cover is a fey, Bryan Ferry head of hair posed near a hedge on one of those great British country gardens.  And that’s all we’ve seen of him for 30 years or more; he disappeared, at least on this side of the pond.  And the record?  It disappeared too. 

If today you heard on the radio “My Face,” which leads off the album, you’d think it was a contemporary band that owed a debt to Eno, which is never a bad thing.  “My Face” was a minor British radio hit, but it’s “Henry’s In Love” that has kept spinning in our head for lo these many years, a gorgeous British pop song with a melody XTC’s Andy Partridge would have made too angular, would have stripped it of its languorous charm.  “Swimming With The Fish In The Sea,” has a bass line programmed by Bach after one too many lagers and is another song that you’d swear was an Eno outtake; if I put it on and claimed it was the lost Eno single, “Seven Deadly Finns,” you’d take it at face value.  “Silver Trees” sounds like it could have been sung by Wire’s Graham Lewis on a champagne bender.  “This Was Meant To Be” is somewhere between Berlin Trilogy Bowie and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.

Now, let us say, we are opposed to artists not getting paid for their work, and have never participated in illegal fire sharing.  But there is no other way to get a digital file of this record.  And we justify posting a link to the site where you can download the record thusly: we bet that, if Henry is not going to be able to get royalties from his 1981 masterpiece, he would want people to listen to it.  To remember him.  To recognize that he produced The Great Lost Album of the post-punk era. 

Happily, it’s lost no more.

Henry Badowski - "My Face" b/w "Making Love With My Wife"

"My Face" b/w "Making Love With My Wife" single back cover

"Making Love With My Wife" b/w "Baby, Sign Here With Me" (Deptford Fun City DFC11, 1979)

A pen, like love, is "A Many Splendored Thing"

The Enoch Pratt Central Library has enjoyed an impressive acting career, having played itself in a number of television and film appearances, from a 1961 supporting role in CBS’ popular television series Route 66 to a cameo in the 2017 Netflix mini-series The Keepers. But its greatest role was as the crime scene of a bizarre murder in the 1994 Season 2 finale of NBC’s Homicide: Life On the Street. That episode, “A Many Splendored Thing” - about a man with a pen fetish who shoots another man at the Central Library after arguing over a $1.49 pen - was based on a real-life killing that took place at a donut shop in Severna Park, MD on August 25, 1993. “A Many Splendored Thing” is available on the Homicide: Life On the Street - Seasons 1 & 2 DVD and may be checked out from Pratt through their Sidewalk Service or Books-by-Mail services.

Pratt Central stars in "Homicide" Season 2

“A Many Splendored Thing” was nominated for a 1994 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay of an Episodic Drama and The Baltimore Sun rated it one of the ten best episodes of the Baltimore-based series - based on the book by David Simon and executive-produced by Barry Levinson -  that ran for seven seasons from 1993-1999.

As in the board game Clue, the plot featured a “Mr. Boddy” discovered in the library - specifically, Pratt’s Social Science & History (SSH) Department - shot to death by a gun. There, detectives Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson) and Steve Crocetti (Jon Polito) identify the victim as a Mr. Max Zintak, with Crocetti cracking, “Either it's murder or this library has a very strict overdue book policy.”

Mr. Boddy in the Library, permanently checked out

Lewis and Crocetti interview Mrs. Newdow in the SSH Department

It is indeed a great scene. When detectives Lewis and Crocetti interview the librarian, Mrs. Newdow (Jane Beard), about the shooting, she explains that the suspect asked to borrow a pen from the victim and they had a friendly conversation (“I even had to tell them to shush once.”). But when the shooter offered to buy the pen from the victim, he refused, saying “It's just a $1.49 pen and it's the only one I have. You can buy one anywhere.” Then, according to Mrs. Newdow, “The man who shot the man who got shot took out a gun and he shot him. He just kept on firing. It was very noisy!”

SSH Librarian Mrs. Newdow: "I even had to tell them to shush!"

As the victim is wheeled past him on a gurney, an incredulous Lewis says, “There's gotta be more to this than a lousy five-and-dime ink pen.” Crocetti thinks not, recalling another local killing over a pair of sneakers. “Yeah, sneakers,” Lewis sighs. “Baltimore, home of the misdemeanor homicide.”

"There's gotta be more to this than a lousy five-and-dime ink pen!"

The killer is later identified as Mitchell Forman (Sal S. Kousaa), a former Spring Grove hospital patient. "Insane asylum," Lewis snorts, to which Crocetti replies, "You don't say insane anymore, Meldrick. You say mental health disorder...and you don't say asylum anymore, you say diagnostic center." Lewis dismissively concludes the discussion with a single word: "Nutcase!"

Lewis stands by his assessment after a visit to Forman's apartment, which is furnished from floor-to-ceiling with nothing but pens. But Lewis later comes to understand the pen fetishist's obsession when he talks him down from a rooftop suicide attempt by promising to write his life story. "What pen will you use?" Forman asks. "This one," Lewis replies, holding up his own prized gold pen, given to him by his dying grandmother. "Oh, very nice!" says a transfixed Forman, who then surrenders.

Lewis promises to write Forman's story with a good pen

"A Many Spendored Thing" is notable for a number of reasons besides its "Central casting" of Pratt Library.

• This episode was the final appearance of Jon Polito as detective Steve Crocetti (1993-1994). 

Julianna Margulies as Linda

• The episode featured guest appearances of future TV star Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) and indie film darling Adrienne Shelly (The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Waitress). Margulies plays Linda, the violin-playing waitress girlfriend of Stanley “The Big Man” Bolander (Ned Beatty), while Shelly portrays Tanya Quinn, the owner of The Leather Chain, a S&M fashion store that seems to be modeled after the old Leather Underground boutique on Read Street. At one point, detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor), concerned about the risks Shelly takes in her S&M role playing, asks “If you know you could be killed, then why keep doing it?” The scene is eerily prescient, for the Homicide actress later became a homicide victim when she was strangled to death in her Greenwich Village apartment in 2006.

Kyle Secor and Andre Braugher interview Adrienne Shelly

• Local connections abound in this episode and the series as a whole: the casting director was none other than Pat Moran, most famous for her work on John Waters’ films, The Wire and HBO’s Veep. Another John Waters regular, Vincent Peranio, was production designer. Both worked on Homicide for its entire series run. And filmmaker Mark Pellington (Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies, Henry Poole Is Here), son of legendary Baltimore Colts linebacker Bill Pellington, created the series' opening title sequence. The St. Paul’s School for Boys graduate is perhaps best known for his award-winning music video for Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” (1992) and his portrayal of an irate director in Jerry Maguire (1996).

I only recently discovered this film in the Pratt Library's 16mm film collection. It is an early celebration of Baltimore's rich painted window screen heritage, then at its height before the advent of air conditioning and changing times shuttered the tradition. - Tom Warner

Elysium(1961) (Directed by Lincoln F. Johnson,14 minutes, color, 16mm film)

The film also includes a narration in verse adapted from Michael Drayton's The Muses' Elyzium (1630), which is set against a background of street noises and the improvisations of a jazz combo (The Furys), which at one point plays "Madison Time” - a Top 40 hit for Ray Bryant (uncle of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno bandleader Kevin Eubanks) that in 1960 became a national dance craze rivaling The Twist after the “Madison steps” (which ranged from tracing an M on the floor to mimicking Jackie Gleason’s “and away we go” gesture) were popularized on Baltimore TV's The Buddy Deane Show - as young African-American girls are shown dancing the steps on the sidewalk.

Young girls dancing "The Madison"

Two local Black DJs, Al Brown and Eddie Morrison, released separate recordings of the song in 1960 and The Buddy Deane Show version, called "The Madison," featured Al Brown and his Tunetoppers calling out instructions to the teenage dancers. The Madison was later featured in both Jean-Luc Godard’s Band of Outsiders (1964) and John Waters’ Hairspray(1988).

Al Brown calls out "The Madison"

Al Brown's Tunetoppers featuring Cookie Brown

Skillfully edited scenes also offer commentary on the verses and contrasting images: a shot of flowers is juxtaposed with one depicting the metal petals of a window rotary fan; a window display of brassieres is followed by an image of teat-shaped balloons at a festival; a painted screen of a bucolic horse-drawn fruit vendor is followed by footage of a Baltimore “Arabber” cart slowly making its way down a city street. Verses about rural landscapes are recited over scenes of Baltimore’s Block. Formstone, another Baltimore tradition, is seen everywhere, framing the painted screens.

Elysium was written and directed by Dr. Lincoln F. Johnson, an art historian and teacher who chaired the fine arts department at Goucher College until his retirement in 1985. A painter himself, Johnson championed film as the 20th Century’s major artistic medium and in the 1960s helped organize the Maryland Film Festival (later the Film Forum). Johnson was the author of the book Film: Space, Time, Light and Sound (1974) and in the 1970s wrote art criticism for The Baltimore Sun and introduced films shown at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

"My ideas lead in the direction of poetic documentary, as far as educational films are concerned,” he told the Baltimore Sun in 1968. He explained he was interested in making films about Baltimore that examined “vanishing aspects” of its culture and contrasted the different levels of society in the city.

One of those different social levels in the city was its African-American community. That’s why the film segment showing young Black girls dancing the Madison was significant. As Mary Rizzo observes in Come And Be Shocked: Baltimore Beyond John Waters and The Wire (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), “The Madison symbolized the complicated cultural politics of race in Baltimore.” Though it was created by Black Chicagoans and popularized by two Black Baltimore DJs, it was only after “it was featured on the segregated Buddy Deane Show that ensured that white teens in Baltimore and, soon enough, the rest of the country, would be dipping and swaying in Madison time.”

Elysium is also a wonderful time capsule capturing the architecture, fashion and culture of the city before the many changes that were to come in the turbulent 1960s. But many traditions have endured the winds of change: Formstone, painted screens, Arabbers, street cars (now called “light rail”) and even the notorious Block have stood the test of time. Dr. Johnson died in Towson in May 2001, age 80; the Baltimore Sun's Jacques Kelly wrote a touching obituary. Elysium was photographed by Roland Read; the music was composed by Sherodd Albritton, then a Goucher music professor; and the verse was narrated by Hilary Hinrichs, whose rich, drawling intonation reminds me of Hermione Gingold if she was a poetry professor. In a clever touch, Elysium's opening and ending credits are superimposed over painted screens.

Meet the New Wave of Charm City Cinema

[This post was originally written for the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s blog.]

The 23rd annualMaryland Film Festival (MFF) takes place from May 19-27, with an opening night double-bill, “Balti-Shorts & “Strawberry Mansions,” that showcases the work of young and upcoming local filmmakers. It’s part of the festival’s mission to introduce the next generation of homegrown talent while highlighting stories made in and about the city that reflect its “pain, angst, and hopefulness” as it looks towards a brighter future after a year of lockdown and a history of social and racial divisions. Everyone knows Baltimore’s “old guard” directors club of John Waters, Barry Levinson, David Simon and Charles Dutton - but who are the young artists representing the next wave of local filmmaking?

Well, one of them is our very own Gillian Waldo, a Library Associate in the Enoch Pratt Central Library’s Humanities Dept. whose film Diary gets its premier screening May 19 in theBalti-Shorts program. Gillian grew up in Baltimore City and graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in film and museum studies before joining Pratt in 2020. She likes to make what she calls “small films on 16mm.” Diary, shot on 16mm and digitized by Colorlabs in Rockville, documents “a summer without precedent in Baltimore” - the lockdown summer of 2020. 

“The pandemic forced us to renegotiate our relationship to the spaces we live in and notice how the city had changed,” says Gillian. “The pools were empty, fireworks were set off every night, people marched in the streets daily. This allowed me to reflect on my relationship to Baltimore and highlight the small beauties present in something as small as car dealership streamers or as large as collective action stopping traffic.”

Gillian Waldo’s “Diary” records the small beauties of a city in lockdown

2020 was a busy summer for Gillian; in between filmmaking and working at Pratt, she found time to co-produce a 24/7 public access-style live-streaming channel,QuaranTV, with Thomas Faison. The channel was created as a way for people in Baltimore to “gather to watch things alone together” in the wake of local theaters closing their doors. As if that wasn’t enough, she also recently made a music video for Ed Shrader’s Music Beat, the local rock duo of Ed Schrader and Devlin Rice.

Joining Gillian on the “Balti-Shorts” program is documentarian Joe Tropea, who co-directed the shortFugazi’s Barber - about punk rock kids frequenting an old Italian barber shop in Washington D.C. - with Robert A. Emmons Jr. Tropea, whose day job is Curator of Films and Photographs at the Maryland Center for History & Culture (formerly the Maryland Historical Society), is no stranger to the MFF, having previously screened Hit & Stay (with co-director Skizz Cyzyk, 2013) and Sickies Making Film with co-writer Emmons, 2018) there. Hit & Stay addressed draft resisters during the Vietnam War, including Baltimore’s famous “Catonsville Nine”; Sickies Making Film looked at the history of Hollywood censorship, with a special focus on John Waters’ one-time nemesis, the Maryland State Censor Board. Both films can be checked out on DVD from the Pratt Libraryand Sickies Making Film is also available to stream onKanopy.)

MFF’s opening night feature film Strawberry Mansions - the story of a dystopian future where the government records and taxes dreams - isn’t specifically Balto-centric but its director and crew certainly are. Working again with co-director/star Kentucker Audley and featuring a soundtrack by Baltimore electronic maestro Dan Deacon, it is the fourth and most ambitious feature film yet by Gilman grad and former Johns Hopkins University lecturer Albert Birney. Strawberry Mansions finally gets its hometown premier after receiving critical acclaim earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Birney’s previous film with Audley, 2017’s Sylvio, is currently available to stream onKanopy. The story of a mild-mannered Baltimore gorilla who becomes an overnight TV celebrity, Sylvio was named one of the ten-best films of 2017 by New Yorker film critic Richard Brody.

And also returning to this year’s MFF is Theo Anthony, a filmmaker who splits his time between Baltimore and New York. Anthony’s new filmAll Light, Everywhere is an exploration of “cameras, weapons, policing and justice” in a time of surveillance technology and features a segment on the use of body cams in Baltimore’s police department. And, like Albert Birney's Strawberry Mansions, it features a soundtrack by Dan Deacon. Anthony previously screened Rat Film, an acclaimed experimental documentary about Baltimore’s “3 Rs” (Race, Red lining, Rats) at MFF 2017. Rat Film, which also featured the music of Dan Deacon, is available from Pratt onKanopy andDVD.

But wait, there’s even more homegrown talent in the Pratt Library's Local Film Collection! Create your own Maryland Film Festival at home by using your library card to watch these “locally-sourced” films about Baltimore people, issues and institutions:

• Native son and JHU film studies teacher Matt Porterfield’s Putty Hill and Take What You Can Carry are available onKanopy and Sollers Point, I Used To Be Darker, and Putty Hill  are available from Pratt onDVD.

• MICA grad Lofty Nathan’s12 O’clock Boys (2013) follows the exploits of a notorious West Baltimore dirt bike pack as seen through the eyes of an impressional adolescent.

• Park School grad Amanda Lipitz’sStepis the story of three high school students at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women as they work hard at their studies just as much as their “step team” dance moves.

Two docs about the real people living in Nomadland

[This post was originally written for the Enoch Pratt Free Library blog.]

Nomadland swept the Oscars this year, winning awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Chloe Zhao - the first woman of color and of Asian descent and only the second woman ever to win the award) and Best Actress (Frances McDormand). Loosely adapted from journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 nonfiction book - which documented how a devastating global recession transformed old-fashioned “company towns” into ghost towns and created a new class of elderly transient workers - director Chloe Zhao’s film version uses the fictional character “Fern” (Frances McDormand) to represent this real-life diaspora. Shortly after the death of her husband, with whom she lived in the now-shut-down mining town of Empire, NV, Fern loads up a van that is now her home and hits what Robert Frost famously called “the road less traveled,” taking an itinerant journey of healing across the American West. Along the way she encounters many of the real nomads who first appeared in Bruder’s book, here playing themselves. Their appearance is important because, though Fern’s journey is financially-driven, not everybody hits the road for economic reasons. For many, the challenging lifestyle is a choice and their road leads to a place where they can enjoy both solitude and community. Nomadland is currently streaming only on Hulu and Disney+, so unless you have a subscription you’ll just have to wait until the DVD eventually comes out to see it. In the meantime, you can use your Pratt library card to check out two rare documentaries in the Best & Next Department’s video collection (yes, we still have video tapes!), Loners on Wheels and Roam Sweet Home, which complement the subject matter of Nomadland as they chronicle the lives of non-conventional seniors choosing to spend their golden years living on the road. While Zhao’s docudrama utilized the star power of Frances McDormand (and co-star David Straithorn) to tell a compelling story about societal drop-outs surviving economic and emotional hardship, the offbeat characters inhabiting these two small-budget films from the ‘90s are even more fascinating and their personalities and stories will hold your attention every bit as much as Hollywood stars like McDormand and Straithorn.

Loners On Wheels

(Susan E. Morosoli, 1997, 53 minutes)

88-year-old road warrior Duchess Grubb

Loners On Wheels documents the life of Duchess Grubb and her friends in “Loners on Wheels” (LoW),  a national, singles-only recreational vehicle organization offering freedom, friendship and fellowship to older adults who prefer to spend their retirement driving across America instead of sitting quietly in a rocking chair. Crediting the organization with providing an active alternative for people that otherwise would have been “staring stupid at four walls,” Duchess recites a poem celebrating “the friendly hello and the nice smiling faces upon your arrival from faraway places” that characterizes the community. Those faraway places include Joshua Tree, Salvation Mountain at Slab City and other scenic vistas. Along the way viewers are introduced to a trio of singing sisters (identical triplets!) whose side-hustle is stand-up comedy, a man who keeps fit exercising on his home-made trampoline, and plenty of campouts and cookouts - even a roadside birthday party for Duchess! (Also available on YouTube.)

Roam Sweet Home

(Ellen Spiro, 1996, 52 minutes)

Airstream trailers: tin chateaus on wheels

Director Ellen Spiro and her dog Sam hop in a vintage Airstream trailer and follow a group of “Geritol gypsies” - elderly drop-outs who have “side-stepped the system” by pulling out of conventional society and into roadside trailer communities. Along the way she captures the spirit of the roamers and the variety of reasons they abandoned the more traditional models of retirement. They range from a love of travel to the freedom from restrictive relationships. There are still challenges to be overcome living on the road: the owner of a pet chimpanzee recounts how she once snuck her chimp into a roadside diner - only to shock customers who saw a hairy arm emerge from under her blouse to grab some morsels! The film is narrated by Spiro's dog Sam, with the voice provided by renowned Southern novelist Allan Gurganus (Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All). Gurganus wrote Sam’s narration, using it to share his perspective on the whims and follies of human nature, as exemplified in this cast of colorful characters. (Also available on YouTube.)

Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre

By Tom Warner

Aftermath of the Tulsa Race Massacre

May 31, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, when an angry white mob looted and burned down the thriving African-American Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing as many as 300 residents. It has been called “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history,” injuring over 800 people and leaving 10,000 residents homeless.At the time, the 35-square-block Greenwood District was known as “Black Wall Street,” a vibrant community that had prospered throughout the early 20th century despite rampant discrimination in a highly segrated and hostile environment (the Ku Klux Klan headquarters was located just four blocks away) where Black prosperity made it a threat to white supremacy. Greenwood’s Black entrepreneurs had built and supported two movie theaters, two newspapers, two public schools, 15 grocery and drug stores, 13 churches, a library and several restaurants, funeral parlors, clubs and hotels. 

But all of it disappeared after the events of May 31, 1921, when Black teenager Dick Rowland stumbled getting on an elevator at the Drexel Building and grabbed onto the young white elevator operator to steady himself. When operator Sarah Page screamed in response, Rowlands fled.Rumors of what happened on the elevator soon circulated throughout the city’s white community and that afternoon the Tulsa Tribune reported that police had arrested Rowland for sexually assaulting Page. As evening fell on May 31, an angry white mob gathered outside the courthouse to demand that Sheriff Willard McCullough hand over Rowland. He refused and his men barricaded the station to protect the teenager. With rumors of a possible lynching spreading, a group of around 75 armed Black men arrived at the courthouse, where then encountered over 1,500 white men, some of whom also carried weapons. Though the Black Tulsans fought hard to protect their homes and businesses, they were outgunned and outnumbered. By the time National Guard troops arrived in Tulsa on the morning of June 1, most of Greenwood had already been burned down.

Dick Rowland was ultimately exonerated, but an all-white grand jury blamed the Black community for the lawlessness and, despite overwhelming evidence, no whites were ever sent to prison for the murders and arson that transpired. Initially called the “Tulsa Race Riot,” historical hindsight has correctly relabeled the outbreak a “massacre.”

In a testament to the spirit of the community, the neighborhood rose from the ashes and by 1936 boasted the largest concentration of Black-owned businesses in the U.S. 

In commemoration of the centennial anniversary of this dark chapter in American history, PBS is rebroadcasting “Goin’ Back To T-Town,” a 1993 episode of its American Experience series about the Tulsa Race Massacre that mixes archival footage with commentary from survivors and historians. If you are unable to tune in or stream this documentary when it airs, you can use your library card to check out Goin’ Back To T-Town from the Best & Next Department’s video collection.

Goin’ Back To T-Town (1993)

Another documentary available from Best & Next, director Rachel Lyon’s award-winning Hate Crimes in the Heartland, focuses on two hate crimes set in Tulsa almost 90 years apart - the 1921 Greenwood massacre and the 2012 Good Friday murders - as it examines the racial animosity and inequality that still defines much of modern American society - as the Ferguson, Charleston, Trayvon Martin and George Floyd cases attest. By exploring these events set in a city forever divided, it reveals the dangerous connection between the media, race and social justice.

Hate Crimes in the Heartland (2016)

Want to learn more about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre? 

Pratt Library has over 20 print books and eBooks on the subject, including a number hand-picked by Pratt’s African-American Department: 

• The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth (2021)

• The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: A Photographic History by Karlos K. Hill (2021)
  

• Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples With Its Historical Racial Trauma by Hannibal B. Johnson (2020)

• Fires of Greenwood by Frederic Williams (2014)

• The Burning: Massacre, Destruction and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Tim Madigan (2001)

• Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921 by Alfred L. Brophy (2002)

• Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy by James S. Hirsch (2002)

• Riot On Greenwood by Eddie Faye Gates (2003)

If you have a chance, stop by the Af-Am Dept. to check out their Tulsa massacre display; these titles are also available from our Social Science & History Dept.

Pratt’s African-American Dept. Tulsa Race Massacre book display

Thee Katatonix - "A Long Time Ago" CD (2022)

I'm enjoying listening to A LONG TIME AGO, the Katatonix CD recorded live (at Cal Ripken Jr's old hangout Club Razzmatazz?) "a long time ago" (1984? 1985?) I just got in the mail from the "born-again"Adolf Kowalski who, according to the Dundalk Eagle, now goes by the name "Reverend Ross" of the Universal Life Church. 

As a bonus, the self-financed release is actually a picture disc, depicting then-bandmates Mr Urbanity (lead guitar & vocals), Big Andy Small (drums), and Rockin St Anthony (the bassist who once cured a ham). (Does the hole in the middle represent the "Big A Hole"? Jes' kidding, Adolf...)

Big Andy, St Anthony and Mr Urbanity are picture-disc perfect

A LONG TIME AGO captures that transitional period between thee original Kats cock-rock thrash-punk output (as first heard on vinyl on the 1983 "Valentine's Day" EP) and the more sophisticated, psychedelic-leaning songwriting of 1984's DIVINE MISSION LP that would soon enough blossom into full-on psychedelia during the mid-80s Paisley Underground revival (viz "Daisy Chain,""Ordinary Sunday,""Crown,""Something For You" et al). 

Divine Mission (UK Spud, 1984)

Whereas the 30th anniversary release THANKS HON (2009) was a 50/50 split between tunes by songwriting guitarists Adolf Kowalski and Mr Urbanity...

Thanks Hon, 30th Anniversary CD (2009)

...this live setlist is still dominated by fearless founding leader Kowalski. Sure, there's Urbanity's "Chain Letter," Not In Love""and "Formula For Our Happiness" (co-written with Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, no less!) from DIVINE MISSION, as well as the that album's Kowalski-Urbanity co-writes "Maison Le Rock" and "Better Living Through Chemistry," but "Your Mother,""Buy Our Record," the encore "I Got VD Again" (based on a true story?) - all new to these ears! - and "Joie de Vivre" (from the '83 EP) are all (for better or worse!) pure Adolf K. And that's not to mention the half-dozen vintage tunes rescued from the original Tommy Gunn-Katie Katatonic-Adolf K Era (circa '79-'80) and played here by real musicians: "My Son the Gynecologist,""Basket Case,""Fungus,""Valentine's Day,""I Don't Wanna Marry a Dyke," and the heart-of-darkness psychobilly joyride that became the "cleaned-up""Cindy On I-95." 

Original Kats Trio, circa '79-'80

Admittedly, "(You Grow On Me Like a) Fungus," a 1979 Kowalski-Tommy Gunn original, should be co-credited to Urbanity who pulled it into the garage for a quick remake/remodel and refurbished it as a road-worthy psychedelic trip.

"Recorded Live A Long Time Ago" is Something For You

There are also two cover songs here, Hank Williams'"She Thinks I Still Care" and an encore rendition of the Stones'"Mother's Little Helper" (again foreshadowing the pills-a-go-go psychedelic trip the Kats were about to embark on).

Katatonix created a scandal during their Aug. '80 Scandals appearance

"Vamp" is just a 28-second aside, a shout-out to the night the Tom-Katie-Steevee Squeegee edition Kats (Summer 1980) got banned for "inciting a riot" at the DC dive Scandals (oh well, as the saying goes, when it comes to promoting fact or fiction, print the legend!) All in all, pretty impressive. Or, as an earlier Kowalski title put it, this labor-of-love freebie release truly is "Something For You."

How the Stinch Stole Tuesdays on WKHS (90.5 FM)

WKHS volunteer DJ Charlie Stinchcomb

DJ Charlie Stinchcomb owns the airwaves on Tuesday nights when he spins records from 6-10 pm on WKHS (90.5 FM) at Kent County High School ("The Voice of the KCHS Trojans") in Worton, MD. That's when the volunteer jock hosts two must-listen shows dedicated to two very different music genres: Doo-Wop and psychedelic-tinged '60s Garage Rock.

• "Voices In the Hallway" (Doo-Wop), 6-8 pm
• "Psyched Out," (Psych-Garage), 8-10 pm

WKHS has been "serving the shore since '74" and Charlie has been spinning old R&B and "Doo-Wop" platters from his personal collection (over 6,000 LPs and 10,000 45s) there since 1992 on shows like "Voices from the Hallway" (originally co-hosted with Bucky Murphy) - not to mention his previous stints hosting "R&B Alley" on WYRE 810 AM and his long-running "oldies" show "The Time Machine" on WNAV 1430 AM in Annapolis. 

Charlie Stinchcomb tunes "The Time Machine" for WNAV 1430 AM

The retired Anne Arundel Health Department worker is one of the many talented volunteer jocks who take over the airwaves at the student-run station on nights and weekends because they not only know "Who put the Bomp in the Bomp" - they love the Bomp! (As well as the lama lama ding dong, the bop shoo bop & the dip da dip da dip!) Or, as Charlie says, "I love the music. You just have to have a passion for the music, and radio. I mean no one's getting rich doing this."

Charlie Stinchcomb in the WKHS studio

(The “music jones” must run in the Stinchcomb family bones, because Charlie’s vinyl junkie brother Bart operates Bart’s Records in Chestertown MD, as well!) 

Every Tuesday starting at 6 pm, Charlie Stinchcomb hosts “Voices in the Hallway," a two-hour block devoted to what is generally called "Doo-Wop" (though purists would probably prefer calling it "Group Vocal" or "Group R&B"), a fascinating genre that existed from the late 1940s up through the early 1960s and featured predominantly Black vocal harmony groups (typically two tenors, a baritone and a bass singer, often with alternating bass and falsetto tenor vocal solos) backed by minimal R&B instrumentation. (In fact, the term "doo-wop" wasn't ever used as a title during the genre's reign, making its first appearance in print in a 1961 review of The Marcels'"Blue Moon" - just as vocal harmony groups died out and groups with guitars took over the airwaves).

Whatever one calls it, the music from this period provided the roots of what would evolve into early Rock & Roll,  Jump Blues, Soul and the "Motown Sound." If you ever listened to Nay Nassar and Kenny Schreiber’s “Echoes of the Past” doo-wop show on WTMD back in the ‘90s (1990-2004), "Voices in the Hallway" is the heir apparent to that legendary show - and that's high praise indeed!

And now, Charlie is hosting the required-listening program "Psyched Out" on WKHS Tuesday nights 8-10 pm, when the "Voices In the Hallway" grab their guitars and head out to the garage. It's one one of the best psychedelic-garage rock shows out there, highlighting the rarest and choicest underground nuggets and psychedelic pebbles from the '60s and early '70s. If you read SHINDIG! or Mike Stax's UGLY THINGS, this is the auricular version of those mags, with vintage playlists Jon Savage and Little Steven would tip their hats (or bandana wraps) to. So chapeaus off to Charlie and his show that'll make ya flip your lid as you turn on and tune in!

Like Robbie White (left) and Weasel (right), Stinchcomb is a tenured professor at the Radio College of Knowledge

I get a musical education every time I tune in to Charlie's shows, for like WTMD 89.7 FM's John "Weasel" Gilbert (host of "Weasel's Wild Weekend" every Friday night 7-10 pm and Saturdays at 12-3 pm) and WOWD 94.3 FM's Robbie White (host of "Forbidden Alliance" every Sunday 9 am-12), his knowledge of his material is second to none. I admit I only have a superficial knowledge of psychedelic and garage rock gleaned from Lenny Kaye's Nuggets and similar compilation series, such as Pebbles and Back From the Grave. But Charlie digs deep into his massive collection, introducing listeners to lesser knowns purveyors of this genre, often creating mini-playlist sets for a featured artist. Case in point, he played five or six songs by The Blue Things on the very first show I heard. 

The Blue Things (RCA Victor, 1966)

The Blue Things, I learned, were a mid-'60s garage-rock band from Hays, Kansas. Originally called The Blue Boys, they changed their name to avoid legal issues with Jim Reeves' backing group of the same name and while Kansas may be flat, their psychedelic-tinged sound was anything but, mixing gritty garage-folk (Dylan's "Girl From the North Country") and freakbeat ("La Do Da Da" - not to be confused with Sting's "De Do Do Do, De Da da Da"!) with Dylan-inspired lyrics and Byrds-influenced guitars on tunes like "You Can Live In Our Tree" and "The Orange Rooftop Of Your Mind." The Blue Things blew my mind and, suffice to say, their lone '66 LP on RCA Victor is well worth seeking out!

Repeat As Necessary: Artist, Song, Label, Year

And, like a seasoned "Oldies" format jock, he always lists the artist, song, label and year released. (e.g., "That was the Pasternak Progress, 'Cotton Soul' on Original Sound, 1967"). I love this because it's short and sweet (a la Sgt. Joe "Just the Facts" Friday) and harkens back to the days when indie and regional labels ruled and singles platters mattered to fans, bands and collectors alike.

The Fallen Angels (Roulette, 1967)

Also, if you call in to the show or contact Charlie on his Facebook page, he will play your requests - though maybe not that minute (it's a lot of work to prepare for a request show, as he well knows from his days hosting the WNAV oldies show) - as I learned when he recently gave me a shout-out on-air and played a four-song set of tunes by The Fallen Angels,  a legendary Washington, D.C.-area band whose eponymous 1967 album can fetch anywhere from $50-$200 these days. I had previously contacted Charlie on Facebook after a patron at my workplace, the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, mentioned that her brother Rich "Spider" Kumer played drums in this band; the minute I mentioned them, he excitedly texted back "Yes, they had a minor hit with "Room At the Top"! I will try to incorporate them into a show." And true to his word, the very next week he not only played "Room At the Top" but also "Your Friends In Dunderville,""I Don't Want To Fall," and "No Way Out." (For more on the Fallen Angels, check out the fanzine Here 'Tis #9.)

Fallen Angels - "Room At the Top"

And the week before Charlie gave a shout-out to my friend Ariel, who had requested songs by Grapefruit, one of the first bands signed to the Beatles' Apple Records label in 1968 and a favorite of both Paul McCartney (who directed the promo film for  their song "Elevator") and John Lennon (who named the band after the art book by Yoko Ono). (Grapefruit's main songwriter was George Alexander - born Alexander Young - who was the brother of Easybeats rhythm guitarist George Young and AC/DC founders Angus Young and Malcolm Young.) Charlie responded with another mini-playlist set featuring not only their minor UK hit "Dear Delilah" (#21 UK charts) but also "Yes,""Elevator" and their Four Seasons' cover "C'mon Marianne." 

By request: A playlist slice of Grapefruit

Grapefruit's "Dear Delilah" single (RCA Victor, 1968)

There's not a whole lot of information about Stinchcomb on the internet, but according to a 2012 Capital Gazette feature about "Record Store Day," Charlie grew up in Annapolis and has been collecting records since he was a kid, buying 45s at the old Homewood Pharmacy (now Pinky's Liquors), the old Sears at Parole, and Cooks in Brooklyn Park. "If you wanted good soul or R&B, you got that stuff at Richman Drugs at the corner of West and West Washington streets," he told the Gazette. Better yet was the Jess Radio shop on Francis Street, where they had listening booths. "You could listen to both sides of the record to see if you liked it. And they were all under a buck."

Radio Free Worton: WKHS 90.5 FM

And what's better than a listening booth to check out music for free? Radio shows like "Voices From the Hallway" and "Psyched Out," every Tuesday night, from 6-10 pm! So tune in and let Charlie turn you on to some great sounds!

Stinchcomb Serendipity:

Charlie's first album purchase: The Buddy Holly Story (Coral, 1959)

Charlie’s all-time favorite vocal group: The Ravens (“They had a great falsetto and a phenomenal bass singer, so they covered both ends of the spectrum.”)

The Ravens: Featuring Jimmy Ricks (uptempo bass) & Maithe Marshall (soaring tenor)

Charlie’s vote for all-time most influential person in history of music: Ray Charles

The Music Man: Ray Charles

Partial "Psyched Out" Playlists:

Charlie doesn't post his playlists, so below are some music highlights (culled from the internet) of some bands played on recent programs.

"Psyched Out" Highlights (3-1-2022)

"Psyched Out" Highlights (2-22-22)

"Psyched Out" Highlights (2-8-22)

Related Links:

"The Faces of Annapolis Radio" (Capital Gazette, Jan. 2016)

A Few Minutes With Charlie Stinchcomb (WNAV News video, Dec. 2017)

"Record Store Day Trumpets Remaining Disc Shops" (Capital Gazette, April 2012)

Remembering David (Steptoe T. Magnificent) Wilcox: 
May 28, 1950-June 8, 1972 

(Friday, June 17, 2022) Great memorial celebration - standing room only! - today for the late great David (Steptoe) Wilcox. Steptoe was a popular and beloved guy who fronted many, many bands (The Great Pooba Subway, Pang Pang, Rock Hard Peter, The Alcoholics, The Non-Alcoholics, Problem Pets, Chelsea Graveyard & The Screams At Midnight), so it's not surprising that a who's who of local musicians & artists packed Evans Funeral Home to pay their respects to him and his family - and not once but twice (2-4 and 6-8 pm). Many great anecdotes were shared by friends and family, but none better than this John Lennon lyric on the back of the memorial cards adorned with Steptoe's art.

In his life, he was loved by all

Oh well, here's a partial roll call of the many (good) old familiar faces on hand, along with the Wilcox Family: Bruce Lilly (he lives!), Bill Bowen and Donna Stinnett Bowen (wearing her "Bravo Baltimore Weirdos" button!), Ed Linton, Robin Linton, Beth Sherring (Henry Lingenfelder and Robbie were out of town, but were there in spirit), Harry Chick Veditz (in his Chelsea Graveyard tee, natch), Marble Bar matriarch LesLee Anderson, Richard Taylor, Robyn Webb, Charles Gatewood (Mr Urbanity, still urbane, still on the wax and not the wane!), Mark O'Connor, Rod Misey, Carol Underwood, George Wilcox (sharing great anecdotes about Steptoe's teen years!), Bob North, Tommy Reed, Bob Tiefenwerth, Paul and Diane Reiger (thanks for the flash drives of Pooba mp3s, Paul!), Marty Benson and his fellow Loch Raven High alumni Diane Hosmer, scrappy Keith Worz (battered but not shattered after a rough night at the Dead Kennedys show at the Baltimore "Poundstage"), Rosalie Wampler, former Katatonix drummers Big Andy Small and Ken Hebden, Joe "Baltimore Sounds" Vacarro, John Spokus, Patti Codd, Pierre Volkman, Kathleen Glancy Milstein and Chelsea Graveyarder Mike (Squeegee) Milstein, Cindy Borchardt, Mary Butler, Mary Crivello Milburn ("Myrt"!), Michele Hovatter (Mrs. Bill Dawson), Beef Jerky, Ronnie Barker, Kyle Andrea Powers, Chuck Gross and even more at the late show...the list goes on, and included many young faces of artists and musicians Steptoe inspired and mentored (you know who you are!), including a "Stoc Marcut" (or a mini-Jeff Lynne, if you prefer) lookalike whose name I didn't catch, but who gave a touching, tearful tribute to David at the end, much like Steptoe's old Pooba pal Wayne. The Wilcox family - Alice, Julia and Alex - gave boffo tributes to the legend known as Steptoe T. Magnificent to the world at large but who was just "Dave," doting dad and couch potato roustabout, at home.

There would have been even more friends there if not for work and the pesty pandemic & other related medical maladies - case in point: longtime friend Scott Pendleton was supposed to speak at the memorial but had to cancel because of Covid (which he may have caught at the June 12 Camden Yards Super-Spreader Event, aka, The Paul McCartney "Got Back Tour"). Likewise, Chelsea Graveyard super-fans The Maxwells (Mike and Gayle, who were also at the Macca concert) had to play it safe, otherwise they'd have been sure to post.

The fans were legion and they turned out in numbers. In his life, Steptoe was loved by all. That's a life well lived by any standard!

P.S.: Steptoe always called me by my Marble Bar nom-de-stage, "Tommy Gunn." I liked that his worldview was always framed through the lens of rock 'n' roll! And his depiction of me for a Katatonix flyer remains my favorite artistic rendering (it made me look good - proving that art, like fiction, is the lie that tells a better truth!).

Related Links:

Pooba Page (From Paul Rieger's United States of Existence. web site) - contains Pooba songs and Rod Misey's WCVT Pooba radio interview

First Annual End of the World Party (Tom D'Antoni)

Pooba On WCVT (Baltimore Or Less)

Marble Bar, a Haven for Punk (Baltimore Magazine, May 2022) - David Wilcox quoted throughout

Retro Baltimore: The 2016 Marble Bar Photo Shoot (Accelerated Decrepitude)

(The following was written for Tim Hinely's "Dagger Boy" magazine.)

Baltimore City Paper writer Michael Yockel described it best: “Dark. Dank. Sweaty. Fetid. Subterranean. A physical eyesore in the basement of a once posh hotel long gone to seed. In other words, the perfect rock venue." He could have been talking about any number of grubby clubs providing refuge for rock and roll misfits and their bands, but he was talking about Baltimore’s answer to CBGBs, The Marble Bar. 

The Congress Hotel, 306 W. Franklin Street

Buried in the basement of the Congress Hotel (306 W. Franklin Street), a once swank venue that had become a fleabag hotel by the late ‘70s, the Marble Bar became a mecca for punks and New Wavers under the management of Roger and LesLee Anderson from 1978-1985. 

LesLee Anderson behind The Marble Bar (photo by Jim Moon)

“Talk to any Baltimorean who was a punk in the late ’70s and ’80s, and they will wax rhapsodic about the Marble Bar,” Kendall Shaffer and Hope Tarr observed in a May 2022 Baltimore Magazine retrospective. 

What’s in a name? The iconic Marble Bar

"It was a dump, no two ways about it,” Adolf Kowalski (Thee Katatonix) recalled, not quite rhapsodically, in a 2000 City Paper profile ("Glory Hole" by Brennen Jensen, City Paper, December 6, 2000). “In the summer it was blistering hot, in the winter it was freezing cold. It was dark, dingy, and stunk like piss." 

Maybe so, but it was also the only game in town for aspiring local indie bands like Da Moronics, Judie’s Fixation, Thee Katatonix, The Accused, Food For Worms, Infant Lunch and countless others - not to mention nearby DC-based acts like Bad Brains, The Razz, Black Market Baby, Tru Fax & The Insaniacs, Root Boy Slim, The Insect Surfers, Teen Idles and especially The Slickee Boys, who adopted the Marble as a second home. Roger and LesLee Anderson themselves played there with house band The Alcoholics, who were fronted by David Wilcox (aka Steptoe T. Magnificent), a veteran musician (Pooba, Rockhard Peter, Problem Pets, Pang Pang, Chelsea Graveyard) and artist who, along with his brother George, created many of the club’s iconic flyers. Even Baltimore native David Byrne’s Talking Heads played there in their early days. “At that time, the network of clubs where emerging acts could play was spotty and limited,” Byrne told Baltimore Magazine. “We played Marble Bar when Talking Heads just had our first record out [1977], which allowed us to play outside the handful of NYC clubs that had supported us.”

David “Steptoe” Wilcox and LesLee Anderson of the Marble Bar house band, The Alcoholics (photo by Jim Moon)

And it was also a haven for Baltimore weirdos of all stripes, be they from the ‘burbs or creative types from the nearby Maryland Institute of Art.“It was a refuge for a lot of people, and nobody judged you,” Wilcox said in a 2022 interview with Baltimore Magazine. “You knew you were hiding in a safe place to be who you were. If you had a two-foot-high mohawk, nobody was going to bother you, but you walked out onto Eutaw or Howard Street and somebody might hit you in the head with a rock.”

Probably the highest-profile alumni of the Marble Bar scene is Gina Schock, a Dundalk gal who went on to find fame playing drums with The Go-Gos after playing there in Scratch 'n' Sniff and backing John Waters's underground film star Edith Massey in Edie and the Eggs. “It was like the hippest, coolest place,” she fondly recalls. “If you were a musician, that’s where you wanted to go.”

And then there were all the national acts that came to town, from Bauhaus, Black Flag and Butthole Surfers to The Stranglers, The Undertones and X (the latter featuring baltimore native John Doe). Many were standing room only affairs, including Iggy Pop, The Psychedelic Furs, Squeeze, Simple Minds, The Cramps, Dead Boys, 999, The Ventures, A Flock of Seagulls, Johnny Thunders and The Dead Kennedys. Who can forget: Dead Kennedys' singer Jello Biafro almost getting electrocuted when his microphone shorted...Katatonix frontman Adolf Kowalski writing "Huey Lewis SUCKS" on the men's room wall just as Huey Lewis came in to take a leak - and then shaking his hand and giving him a Katatonix button!...Mark “Harpo” Harp (Null Set, Cabal, etc.) shaving his beard onstage with the Casio Cowboys...Rootboy Slim passing out in the dressing room...Judie's Fixation singer Ben Wah (Vaughn Keith) opening beer cans with his teeth...Da Moronics singer Don White banging his mic and ad-libbing "Spinal tap, I got a spinal tap" during technical difficulties...Edie Massey doing her "punk" show with a last-minute pick-up band to open for Eddie & The Hot Rods...Half of the Sex Pistols (Steve Jones and Paul Cook) showing up as The Professionals…A well-medicated Johnny Thunders vocally abusing the crowd throughout a shambolic set until someone plunked him in the head with a beer can and he abruptly pulled his band offstage...The Butthole Surfers taking a dump in the electrical closet and wiping their asses with (local band) Grey March flyers...So many memories of performers there spring to mind, covering all styles and skill levels, from the comedic performance art of Oral Fixation and the Motor Morons to the guitar artistry of Jorma Kaukonen and Chris Spedding…and from  the prog rock stylings of Allan Holdsworth and Pierre Morlen’s Gong to the hardcore thrashings of Fear of God and the Circle Jerks.

Goodbye Marble Bar poster listing all the bands that played there

“The Marble Bar had its own fanzine, Tone Scale, and its own after-hours restaurant, the Renaissance Room,” Michael Yockel wrote in a 1987 City Paper appreciation. ““Both were crummy. Both were cool.” The Marble Bar also played host to open mic nights, jam nights, poetry readings and film screenings like John Ellsberry and Michael Gentile’s Dead Strippers that was shot in Baltimore’s famous red light district, The Block.

When Roger Anderson passed away following a sudden heart attack in 1984, LesLee carried on managing the bar for one more year before calling it a day. She then passed the baton on to others. Ed and Robin Linton ran the Marble for another year until closing the doors for good on May 9, 1987 with a final “Goodbye Marble Bar” gig featuring Da Moronics, Thee Katatonix and Human Remain.

The final show: May 9 1987

Many people lost their marbles at the Marble Bar and the club lost a number of regulars as goodbyes would follow to many who once called it home. Edith Massey died in 1984; Vaughn Keith (Judie’s Fixation) died in 1990; “Stoc Markut “(Scott Marcus, Fear of God) died in 1995; Mark Linthicum (aka “Harpo” and “Mark Harp” of  Null Set/Cabal, Beatoes, Casio Cowboys) died in 2004; City Paper writer and Marble Bar chronicler Pam Purdy died in 2007; Tom “Pope” Croke (Infant Lunch) died in 2012; Chris Dennstaedt (Poverty & Spit, Beatoes, Casio Cowboys) died in 2020; David "Steptoe" Wilcox - who probably fronted more bands at the Marble than anyone - passed away in June 2022; Keith Worz (Iowa Basics) died in October 2022; and Adolf Kowalski (Ross Haupt, Thee Katatonix) died in March 2023.

"The only reason any scene ever happened in Baltimore was because of the Marble Bar,” Wilcox said after the lights went out for good in 1987. It truly was a place and a scene etched in time that may never come again. Or, as Baltimore Magazine’s Kendall Shaffer and Hope Tarr concluded: “It was the coolest place, with the coolest bands, and the coolest vibe—like nothing that came before it or since. Either you were lucky enough to have been there in person, or you missed out—your loss.”

Remembering David (Steptoe T. Magnificent) Wilcox: 
May 28, 1950-June 8, 2022 

In his life, he was loved by all

David W. Wilcox: Steptoe T. Magnificent

Oh well, here's a partial roll call of the many (good) old familiar faces on hand, along with the Wilcox Family: Bruce Lilly (he lives!), Bill Bowen and Donna Stinnett Bowen ("Donna Diode" was wearing her "Bravo Baltimore Weirdos" button!), Ed Linton and Robin Linton, Beth Sherring (Henry Lingenfelder and Robbie Lingenfelder were out of town, but were there in spirit), Harry "Chick" Veditz (in his Chelsea Graveyard tee, natch), Marble Bar matriarch LesLee Anderson, Richard Taylor, Robyn Webb, Charles Gatewood (aka "Mr. Urbanity," still urbane & still on the wax and not the wane!), Mark O'Connor, Rod Misey, Carol Underwood, George Wilcox (sharing great anecdotes about Steptoe's teen years!), Bob North, Tommy Reed, Bob Tiefenwerth, Paul and Diane Reiger (thanks for the flash drives of Pooba mp3s, Paul!), Marty Benson and his fellow Loch Raven High alumni Diane Hosmer, scrappy Keith Worz (battered but not shattered after a rough night at the Dead Kennedys show at the Baltimore "Poundstage"), Rosalie Wampler, former Katatonix drummers Big Andy Small and Ken Hebden, Joe "Baltimore Sounds" Vacarro, John Spokus, Patti Codd, Pierre Volkman, Kathleen Glancy Milstein and Chelsea Graveyard bandmate Mike (Squeegee) Milstein, Cindy Borchardt, Mary Butler, Mary Crivello Milburn ("Myrt"!), Michele Hovatter (Mrs. Bill Dawson), Steve "Beef Jerky" Daudican, Geoff "Holy Frijoles" Danek, Ronnie Barker, Kyle Andrea Powers, Chuck Gross, Adolf Kowalski, Patti Jensen Vucci, and even more at the late show...the list goes on, and included many young faces of artists and musicians Steptoe inspired and mentored (you know who you are!), including a "Stoc Marcut" (or a mini-Jeff Lynne, if you prefer) lookalike whose name I didn't catch, but who gave a touching, tearful tribute to David at the end, much like Steptoe's old Pooba pal Wayne. The Wilcox family - Alice, Julia and Alex - gave boffo tributes to the legend known as Steptoe T. Magnificent to the world at large but who was just "Dave," doting dad and couch potato roustabout, at home.

There would have been even more friends there if not for work and the pesky pandemic & other related medical maladies - case in point: longtime friend Scott Pendleton was supposed to speak at the memorial but had to cancel because of Covid (which he may have caught at the June 12 Camden Yards Super-Spreader Event, aka, The Paul McCartney "Got Back Tour"). Likewise, Chelsea Graveyard super-fans The Maxwells (Mike and Gayle, who were also at the Macca concert) had to play it safe, otherwise they'd have been sure to post.

Self-portrait memorial card art by David Wilcox

Memorial Cards art by David Wilcox.

Many people "lost their marbles" at the Marble Bar and in turn the Marble Bar has lost many of its people. A number of friends were absent today because they had already said their goodbyes over the years to the house that Roger and LesLee built: Vaughn Keith (Judie’s Fixation) died in 1990; “Stoc Markut" (Scott Marcus, Fear of God) died in 1995; Mark Linthicum (aka “Harpo” and “Mark Harp” of  Null Set/Cabal, Beatoes, Casio Cowboys) died in 2004; City Paper writer and Marble Bar chronicler Pam Purdy died in 2007; Kraig Krixer (The Accused, Trixy & the Testones, various GOHOG Revue bands) died in 2011; Tom “Pope” Croke (Infant Lunch) died in 2012; Chris Dennstaedt (Poverty & Spit, Beatoes, Casio Cowboys) died in 2020.

But many remain with memories intact of why those now gone mattered. In the end, the fans were legion and they turned out in numbers to pay props to a man whose art and charisma touched so many. In his life, Steptoe was loved by all. That's a life well lived by any standard!

P.S.: Steptoe always called me by my Marble Bar nom-de-stage, "Tommy Gunn." I liked that his worldview was always framed through the lens of rock 'n' roll! And his depiction of me for a Katatonix flyer remains my favorite artistic rendering (it made me look good - proving that art, like fiction, is the lie that tells a better truth!).

Related Links:

Pooba Page (From Paul Rieger's United States of Existence. web site) - contains Pooba songs and Rod Misey's WCVT Pooba radio interview

First Annual End of the World Party (Tom D'Antoni)

Pooba On WCVT (Baltimore Or Less)

Marble Bar, a Haven for Punk (Baltimore Magazine, May 2022) - David Wilcox quoted throughout

Retro Baltimore: The 2016 Marble Bar Photo Shoot (Accelerated Decrepitude)

He called himself The Living Legend," but since his family didn't publish an obituary (it's, um, complicated), it's up to his friends, lovers and bandmates to insure that he is remembered and that his legacy (good and/or bad, depending on one's point of view) lives on in some form. There's the music, of course; he may be only cremains but the tunes remain...but more than that are the memories gathered here, there and everywhere on social media. Ross Haupt/"Adolf Kowalski" touched many, many lives in Baltimore and across the globe. He certainly touched the lives of me and my wife Amy and was always, without fail, nice to us. Following are our thoughts about his untimely passing from renal failure on March 21, 2023. He was 63 years old.

******************************************************************

Tom Warner (aka "Tommy Gunn," friend and co-founding bandmate in Thee Katatonix)

 March 21, 2023: I heard the news today, oh boy...the King is dead.

Ross Haupt, aka "Adolf Kowalski"

45 years ago, Katie Glancy and I met the young Ross Haupt in the Towson State University Glen, where Katie and he concocted a plan to start a rock and roll band. I came in as part of a package deal with Katie (kind of like a multiplayer MLB trade) because I wanted to go out with her and lied and said I could play drums because, well, how hard could it be in a punk band? (I hadn't yet heard Rat Scabies - dummy me!). Who knew then that Katie & the Katatonix, the fledgling group soon to be rechristened Thee Katatonix, would blossom and grow (like a fungus) and that Ross - soon to be rechristened Adolf Kowalski - would soldier on through the decades and additional bands (All About Suzie, Blunt Force Trauma, etc), never abandoning his career and lifestyle aspirations of being a rock star and Living Legend. Well, he is no longer living but the legend lives on - warts (there were plenty) and all.

The Heroic Trio? Thee Original Katatonix, 1979 (illustration by David Wilcox)

Katie Katatonic, Tommy Gunn  & Adolf Kowalski

Adolf was always fronting the image, but beneath the hubris there was a guy who would do anything for those he loved. He was my confidant in those early band days, the keeper of secrets I'll take to my grave (and vice versa). He once confided, "The old days were best, man"...They were, but they weren't made to last, not at the pace he set. A charmer, a harmer, a lover, a hater, a changer and a re-arranger -  Ross/Adolf was a complex character who found Better Living Thru Chemistry, even when his body disagreed. RIP, old friend. I know you'll be pissed at missing Svengoolie each weekend, but what the hell ya gonna do? Indeed, that was the question when you became financially independent and stopped working: what the hell ya gonna do? There was dope and booze, of course, but given your creative spirit, that wasn't enough. So you poured your energies into some "venture capital" projects, like releasing Katatonix CDs, recording other artists you liked, financing the ill-fated Coffin Cuties magazine and clothing line, going to lots of concerts, and so on. And supporting any friends that needed a helping hand. That's why Robyn Webb once quipped that, while "Adolf Kowalski" could be one of the biggest a-holes on earth, Ross Haupt was the best friend anyone who experienced that side of him could ask for.

The old days were best, man!

Ah, more memories of those good old days...The early Kats did everything together and saw a lot of shows en masse: Blondie/Rockpile at Merriweather, Elvis Costello at Georgetown, The Ramones everywhere. One of the best was Devo at Painter's Mill, December 29, 1978 - when Mark Mothersbaugh came into the audience playing a wireless guitar, Adolf grabbed his ass and tore this piece off his yellow jumpsuit. I treasured it and had it laminated, apparently using a TSU photo laminator!

Mark Mothersbaugh's Devo suit

When the Cramps played the Marble Bar, we all went and I recall Lux Interior leaning over the stage to swipe Adolf's sunglasses (worn, like as the song goes, after dark) and put them on his head. Adolf was touched.

Of all the achievements in his tragically short life - founding Towson's first (and Baltimore's 2nd) punk band, backing Edith Massey, touring SanFran and the UK, playing the Mudd Club, running for Guv'nor, releasing a cult LP (DIVINE MISSION) that goes for hundreds of bucks in Europe, winning those Battle of the Bands contests, the media accolades (who can forget Pam Purdy's "Boogie Nights" profile for the Baltimore City Paper?) - I think Adolf may have been most proud of winning the Dundalk Eagle's "Best Chili in Dundalk" award last year on “21222 Day.” (Dundalk celebrated a once-in-a-century date that Saturday, when the date, abbreviated as 2/12/22, matched Dundalk’s main ZIP code, 21222.) Of course, we “rocked” the vote (much as years ago we got “Katie Katatonic” elected “Homecoming Queen” by canvasing the Towson State campus with “Vote for the Punk” flyers!) It made the front page with the accompanying photo. Too bad he cannot defend his title.

Flanked by event organizers Peggy Sue Oliphant (left) and Will Feur (right), Adolf Kowalski takes home the cash prize for winning the “21222 Day” Dundalk chili cook-off (Dundalk Eagle photo by Dan Belson)

Kathleen Glancy Milstein (nee Katie Katatonic) just reminded me of another Adolf Kowalski achievement in his CV: He won the 1977 "Best Punk Costume" prize at the Iggy Pop/Ramones/Crack the Sky show at the Civic Center. This was before either of us had yet met him!

Best Punk Costume winner, 1977

His look changed constantly over the years from that initial bad boy punk style... 

I particularly liked his Prince Valiant look when the Kats went into their psychedelic flower-power phase.

Adolf, you left us too soon and took away all those great memories of "the good old days." I will miss your anecdotes, your wit, and your sense of humor. But hey, you went out on your terms, living the high life and going for the gusto. Living fast and, well, dying young. It’s kinda cliche, but it’s  “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Way.”

***********************************************

Amy Warner (nee Davis, nee Linthicum; friend and former Dundalk High schoolmate)

Ross Haupt before the transformation…into Adolf Kowalski

Way back in the Dark Ages when I was in high school, I was friends with this guy Ross. He was likeable, kinda pudgy, quite smart. We liked the same music. That's how you bonded with people in those days. He took me to my first rock concert (Kiss), and my second (Queen). Then I went off to college in southern Maryland and we lost touch. Then either through a chance encounter or a phone call, I forget which, we were communicating again. He told me he was now calling himself Adolf Kowalski and fronting a band, Thee Katatonix, and he invited me to see them at the Marble Bar. I didn't drive back then, and I actually took public transportation to go and check them out. But alas, something happened and they didn't play that night. That was my first visit to the Marble. I did see them play soon enough, and was amazed at the transformation of Ross into this gaunt, theatrical and somewhat threatening persona. Adolf was always pissing people off, and would say and do things that would make me cringe. He could be quite rude. Yet he was always so generous to me, and to Tom. I remember a few years ago he plucked us out of the crowd at The Damned show, and put us where he was, with the unobstructed view. He offered to send us on a honeymoon... I wouldn't have met Tom Warner (Kats' drummer), or my first husband [Mark Linthicum, aka “Mark Harp” or “Harpo”], or any of my Marble friends if I didn't know him...so I will miss Adolf; I will miss Ross. R.I.P. my friend.

Rest in Peace

(July 15, 2023) - Saddened and shocked to hear the news that Christopher Jensen has died. A true Baltimore character, Chris was a multi-talented guy - a working class hero and craftsman beloved by arty bohemians and blue-collar tradesmen alike. (Be sure to check out The Tradesmen, the documentary by his filmmaker cousin Richard Yeagley that features Chris hard at work plying his trade!)

He was essential OG crew for early Atomic TV (along with Kelly Conway, Melissa Darwin and Todd Stachowski) – a guy who not only could hold the camera while Scott Huffines and I made asses of ourselves, but actually keep it in focus. He was a total pro and (like Adolf Kowalski and Dave Wilcox), a big, charismatic personality, the likes of which we'll never see again. He was very self-deprecating, as reflected in his humor. One needed only to see the Jensen Plumbing van pull up on the street with its Tom Chalkley-designed cartoon of a wrench-clutching plumber bending over to show off his butt crack with the slogan "Your Poop Is My Bread and Butter" to realize that this was not your dad's Roto-Rooter Man! All Jensen Plumbing memorabilia - the business cards, the refrigerator magnets, the t-shirts (I wish I still had my "Your Poop Is My Bread and Butter" shirt!) were and are collector's items, especially the Christmas cards he had specially made by his artist pal Tom Chalkley.

The Jensen Plumbing Man (art by Tom Chalkley)

Everything I know about camerawork I learned from the self-trained Chris, and I used to edit titles in his basement where he had a very effective, old school analog setup (two Panasonic S-VHS AG-1970s! I gave him one of mine when his died, as Chris was an avid fan of "cuts-only" editing, even when he upgraded to fancy digital software), the same setup he used to edit Laure Drogoul's 14Karat Cabaret TV show with her (he also did camerawork for her because he loved crazy Art and Music of any sort!).

Good lord the man loved his art. Every time he did a plumbing job for me, he was willing to trade his time for art – he especially craved the framed R. Crumb “Tommy Toilet” poster I had hanging in the Porcelain Palace and the Yellow Submarine Toilet Seat an obsessive library fan gave me when I got married. I wish I had given them to him now.

He also helped me clean up the clutter in my old Townhouse Shabby in Rodgers Forge. “Tommy, I deal in shit & grime every day, so when a plumber tells you that you need to clean up your act, heed the advice!” Of course, he was the Felix Unger of plumbers, a neatnik who always obsessively cleaned up his work afterwards, just as he obsessively cleaned up the litter around his block in Charles Village.

He was one of a kind, the Joker Wild in the card deck, a loveable nut and loyal friend. I wish we had kept up more. The last time we saw Chris was December 2018 at Joe Squared, where he was out to support a show featuring The Jennifers and ex-Slickee Boy Marshall Keith. He had a cane (years of hard labor had taken their toll on his back and knees), but despite losing a step or two, he was as gregarious and energetic as usual. Time will not flush away memories of what a treat it was to know Chris Jensen.

Be sure to check out Scott’s Huffines’ wonderful appreciation of Chris Jensen on the Baltimoreorless site, which is full of great photos of Chris. Baltimore IS less without Chris. 

As Scott says:

How do you describe Chris Jensen? He was a community organizer and community activist, art collector and artist, plumber and model, unofficial mayor of Charles Village, Atomic TV cameraman… he was a pro and an essential part of what made our little-watched public access program Atomic TV so great and we'll miss him. The last time I saw him (pre-rona) he brought me a case of Bud and I drank it like it was the 1990s at Memory Lane. The thing that impressed me most about Chris was how engaged he was with the community. Baltimore is losing too many cool people too soon – at least the memories survive.

Related links:

"Chris Jensen, Rest in Peace" (Baltimoreorless)
"Chris the Plumber Turns 50" (Accelerated Decrepitude)
"Close Encounters of the Turd Kind" (Accelerated Decrepitude)
"Everyman Art Collector" (Baltimoreorless)
"Underdog Lady Encounters the Negativity Scene" (YouTube)
"Jensen Plumbing commercial for Atomic TV" (YouTube)

2023 was a year I couldn't wait to get past because, for the most part, it was a shit-burger with a side of dies. Too many friends shuffled off their mortal coil in this deadly year - Ross Haupt (aka "Adolf Kowalski," the leader of my college punk band), Mark O'Connor (another TSU college pal - a brilliant musician, and one of the funniest people I've ever known), Chris  "Da Plumber" Jensen ("Plumber to the Stars" of Charles Village, musician, artist, Atomic TV cameraman and all-around lovable loon), Keith Worz (my neighbor and a veritable speedball of manic artistic and verbal energy) - to name but a few. Closer to home, I found yours truly suffering from chronic sinusitis, asthma and opthalmic migraines (a scary temporary loss of vision in which one sees only flashing lights). And, despite all the shots and precautions, my wife Amy and I both got Covid. That said, we tried to find solace in some of the following distractions that brought us joy over the past 365 days.

Sports:

2023 was a banner year for Charm City ornithophiles. The long-suffering Orioles had the best record in the American League, winning 101 games on their way to being crowned champions of the toughest division in Major League Baseball, the American League East. Sure, they got burned in the post-season - albeit by the eventual World Champions, the Texas Rangers - but what a ride it was, and the league and pundits agreed as Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson won 2023 American League Silver Slugger Awards, Gunnar won AL Rookie of the Year, Felix Bautista won the Mariano Rivera Award as the top relief pitcher in the AL, Brandon Hyde won AL Manager of the Year and Mike Elias won MLB Executive of the Year. But for me, nothing topped being at Camden Yards for all four games of a four-game series against the Rays on September 14-17.  Amy and I cancelled our plans to go to the beach, sensing that this would be a crucial series, and it sure was - starting off bad with two tough losses, but ending with the Birds clinching a playoff spot after beating the Rays in the 11th inning, 5-4, on September 17. And nothing brought more joy than attending the September 15 Adam Jones Retirement Night at Oriole Park. Sure, we lost in a laugher of a game (lone mitigating factor:  witnessing rookie Heston Kjerstad's first MLB hit - a 418-foot home run to right field!), but nothing beat seeing the smile on Adam Jones face as our favorite Oriole got his due from the team and the fans. #10, legend!

And now it looks like the Ravens might go the O's one better, hopefully winning the Super Bowl and another MVP award for Lamar "Action" Jackson? They capped the year off by destroying the Miami Dolphins at home, guaranteeing themselves a post-season bye, one week after they destroyed the NFC's best team, the San Francisco 49ers. I'm not a football fan, but I love the joy they bring the city (we certainly can use it). Maryland may be Blue politically, but on the gridiron, we're a solid Purple State.

Movies: 

Christopher Nolan's OPPENHEIMERand Yorgos Lanthimos' POOR THINGS were the two best films I saw and by rights Cillian Murphy as quantum physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer and Emma Stone as beastly beauty Bella Baxter should get Best Actor awards for their performances. I didn't see KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON - the 3 1/2 running time scared my bladder off (and believe me, POOR THINGS was long enough! Tell me again, whatever happened to brevity being the soul of wit?) - but if it doesn't win Best Picture, then surely OPPENHEIMER will? It's based, and skews closely to, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's 2005 book American Prometheus, which is also highly recommended.

Best Movie Runner-ups: GODZILLA MINUS ZERO (I cried! So did Amy!) and Miyazaki's latest (but not last, apparently) THE BOY AND THE HERON- which, like all Miyazaki films, bears repeated viewings in order to take in and understand the surfeit of images and concepts absorbed. Of course Amy and I saw the subbed version, it goes without saying (why are Americans so linquistically lazy?). And it inspired us to read the 1937 book How Do You Live? by Genzabuo Yoshino - in the film it's the book left to young protagonist Mahito Maki by his late mother, and apparently it greatly influenced Miyazaki and other young men of his generation when it first appeared in pre-war Japan. 

GODZILLA MINUS ONE is not just another title in the Gojira canon, it's also an incredibly moving Japanese post-war drama. Action fans will love it for the action, Godzilla fans will love it for the amazing design of This Year's Model, but there's also plenty on offer here for everyone's tastes, even, say, Ozu lovers. Because it's a real story, with real meaty content and character arcs, and not just mindless shooting and explosions (we saw enough of that in the 30 minutes of trailers for American action movies that preceded the movie at the Towson Cinemark; mental note: always arrive half an hour after listed start time to avoid the interminable Cinemark/Amazon/SUV/Paramount+/etc ads and mindless franchise movie trailers). And thank god it was subbed and not dubbed. 

Most Honorable Mention: I also liked Todd Haynes' quiet drama MAY DECEMBER. At the risk of sounding pretentious, it reminded me of an Ingmar Bergman film in the way it examined the complexity of relationships below the skin-deep surface. The film was loosely based on the real-life tabloid story of American teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, who had a sexual relationship with her sixth-grade student and later married him. Like Bergman's PERSONA, it featured two strong female protagonists - Natalie Portman (is there a more beautiful woman on Earth? No wonder she's Thor's GF!) and the always brilliant Julianne Moore - psychologically probing one another, looking for chinks in one another's body armor, but it was Charles Melton as the "May" husband to Moore's complex "December" who truly stood out in the acting chops. Truly a sleeper star in the making, and no doubt worthy of a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Portman & Moore: Psychological Beauty PERSONA-filed

Breakout Star: Charles Melton as "Joe"

And forget the first half of the BARBIEHEIMER phenomenon. Amy and I saw BARBIE (it was hard not to given the hype) and were underwhelmed - sure, it was fun but total fluff and the 2nd half was overly preachy and hokey-wokey (a fat Barbie? Where was that in the canon? Sure, there was a "Curvy" Barbie in 2016, but it was more Kardashian of figure than Lizzo-esque) and Will Ferrell's "comic antics" were painful to endure. And we had no interest in ASTEROID CITY. We’ve seen enough self-indulgent movies about nothing and lasted a mere 10 minutes before clicking the remote. I like a lot of early Wes Anderson movies, but ever since THE FRENCH DISPATCH I find myself agreeing with critic Roger Moore that Anderson's oeuvre has metastasized from cleverly-linked bits & bobs into oxygen-free stylish twee.

TV:

We mostly caught up on old series we hadn't seen before (SUCCESSION, WESTWORLD, THE TERROR, the "Running Up That Hill" 4th season of STRANGER THINGS, etc.), but of the new offerings, Amy and I loved:

1. Aussie comedy FISK (Netflix). Kitty Flanagan is Helen Tudor-Fisk, a former high-end lawyer forced to slum it at an estate planning firm where, in her floppy “festival of brown” pant suits, she endures humiliation on a daily basis. I think I love Helen most because she's no-nonsense when it comes to coffee, preferring cheap convenience store java (I'm a RoFo man myself!) to the outlandishly pricey lattes served up at curated coffee cafes. Her put-downs of pretentious barristas and smoothie-dispensing snowflakes ("Hi, I'm Malcolm, pronounced 'Melcome, like welcome!'") warm the cockles of my overly-caffeinated heart.
   
   
   
   
2. Season 6 of BLACK MIRRORon Netflix was a welcome return after pandemic-induced limbo. Besides showing the dark side of technology and social media (“Joan Is Awful,” “Beyond the Sea”), the series branched out into horror and true crime spoofs. Especially satisfying was the Scottish serial killer episode “Loch Henry” in which the old John Nettles detective series BERGERAC and VHS tapes figured prominently (and hilariously!).
   
   
3. The latest seasons of INSIDE NO. 9 (#8) on Britbox and the classy DALGLIESH (#2) and Kiwi-centric BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES (#9) on Acorn.
   
   
4. We also enjoyed the 2nd season of Acorn's SHORT FILM SHOWCASE (also on Amazon Prime and others), which seemed to feature all Irish shorts (Erin go bragh!). They were all good, but the standout for us was the romantic CROSSWORD, which thankfully you can also see for free on YouTube. "On a significant day in her life a lonely woman, who finds solace in the daily crossword, discovers that the answers to the clues are all around her. Is it magic, coincidence, or something else entirely?"
   
   
   
   
5. The neo-operatic WHITE LOTUS Season 2(Max) may not have been as good as Season 1, but it still had the marvelous Jennifer Coolidge unpacking her anxieties in a lush Neapolitan setting, and added the always-stellar Aubrey Plaza, F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hollander (The Rev!) to the cast, not to mention the extremely sexy Napoli native Simona Tabasco as a calculating working girl. And a great soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer (see also: the UK Utopia)!
   
   
6. We also loved BEEF(Netflix), my gateway drug into the comedic genius of Ali Wong. I subsequently binged on all her Netflix stand-up specials. And Steven Yeung (Minari, Nope, Burning) was a revelation, showing that his acting chops were wasted killing zombies all those years on The Walking Dead.
   
   
7. And while it's an old series (later remade in a US version, begging the question: why?) the original 2014 UK version ofUTOPIA (Britbox, Amazon Prime) was one of the most brilliant - and, given the pandemic, topical - dystopian British TV series I've ever seen. A total mindfuck with a stellar cast of unknowns (at least on these shores, saving James Fox and Stephen Rea, of course), a villain named Mr. Rabbit, an on-the-spectrum killer addicted to Raisinets, and probably the most graphic, unrepentantly scenes of violence (school children massacred!) and torture (eye-gouging, eww!) I ever recall seeing on the boob tube. But I couldn’t look away! Watch it and you too will be asking, "Where is Jessica Hyde?" Between this series and Jeffrey Epstein's "suicide," I'm all in on Conspiracy Theories now! There were 2 seasons, but hope springs eternal that there will be a reboot somewhere down the line. And the outstanding series theme music? Cristobal Tapia de Veer (White Lotus)!
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. This just in...LETTERKENNY's final season - Season 12 - just dropped on Hulu on December 26. Amy immediately gave herself a post-Christmas gift by re-subscribing to Hulu just for this. Even though we haven't had a chance to binge it all, consider it top of this list. Oh, and as part of Hulu, we finally got to see FARGO Season 5 (FX), which we just started binging. All I can say is two words: Juno Temple. Sure, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jon Hamm (who's having a "Go Ham" year, showing his comedic chops in the otherwise lame GOOD OMENS 2) are great, too, but this is basically a one-woman play, as the TED LASSO (which I've still never seen!) English star nails the Minnesota accent and kicks Rambo-ass as Midwest hausfrau-cum-Tiger Mom Dorothy "Dot" Lyon.  
   
   
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Books:

1. LET'S DO IT by Bob Stanley. This was Stanley's prequel to his outstanding capsule history of rock ‘n’ roll (YEAH! YEAH! YEAH), wherein he writes with flair about both the famous (Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Gershwin, Ellington, Armstrong) and the forgotten (Mystic Moods Orchestra, Jeri Southern, Whispering Jack Smith, Annette Hanshaw) of the pre-war era.
   
    
   
   
2. MONICA, the latest graphic head-scratcher novel from the always fascinating Daniel Clowes, America’s reigning cartoonist. Like the best of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli films, Clowes' comics warrant return visits to unravel the many layers of meaning and detail in each panel..
   
   
   
   
   
3. Quentin Tarantino’s CINEMA SPECULATION. I’m not a Tarantino fanatic by any means, but I gotta give props to his film writing, especially about ‘70s cineplex fare. He was blessed with a boho mom and his mom’s cool Black boyfriend who took him to not-for-kids movies, everything from Euro arthouse and indie American features to Blaxploitation and Kung-Fu flicks. The influence on his subsequent hipster-populist career is telling.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Peter Biskind's PANDORA'S BOX: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV. Biskind is the master guide to the golden age of American independent filmmaking (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls; Down and Dirty Pictures) and in PANDORA’S BOX he turns his attention to the golden age of “Prestige/Peak Television” and its unfortunate demise into today’s fodder: a return of cable and streaming platforms to commercial network TV’s “standards and procedures”, i.e., a dearth of freedom and imagination. Peak TV is now merely peaked: pale, wan and emaciated.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. THIS WAS HOLLYWOOD by Carla Valderrama. I love all the TCM film books that have come out recently and this one presents the most fascinating stories about the legends and forgotten stars of Hollywood, from its birth through its Golden Age. The LA-based Valderrama's prose is as slick as the photographs and imaginative layout that accompany it, and her jacket photo - showing her sporting heart-shaped glasses and a leopard-skin blouse - indicates she is trying to carry on the spirit of Hollywood glamour from its mythic-glory days.
   
   
   

Music:

1. The Monuments' first-ever CD, Supreme (which is available to stream or purchase on CD from Bandcamp) was my favorite record of the year. Originally hailing from the Baltimore/Annapolis area, The Monuments have been working off and on for more than 40 years, but surprisingly, these are their first trax on wax. Though a number of players have come and gone over the years, the nucleus remains frontwoman Cindy Borchardt (Bobby Sox, The Beaters, Silver Birches) on vocals, William Sutherland (Judie's Fixation) on guitar and vocals, Russel Stone on guitar and vocals, and Jay Turner (Judie's Fixation, Tom Principato Band, Leah Simmons) on bass, with Richard King now providing the rock-steady beat on drums.
   
   As the title suggests, the single features two Supremes covers, "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "My World Is Empty," both written by Motown's hit songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Many groups have covered the Motown songbook and countless female singers have tackled Diana Ross' vocal stylings, but Cindy Borchardt's pipes are more than up to the task. But what really makes The Monuments' covers a Supreme achievement is the arrangements. They retain Holland-Dozier-Holland's soulfulness, while the twin guitar attack of Stone and Sutherland add a hard-edged punk vibe to the classic soul melodies. But don't take my word for it, check them out for yourself at their Bandcamp page: monumentz.bandcamp.com (Yes, it's Monumentz spelled with a "z" because there are other bands using that name! Same deal with their email, it's TheMonumentz@gmail.com.)
   
   
   
   
   
2. It’s not new, but the SITA SINGS THE BLUES soundtrack (the movie is streaming on Kanopy) was my favorite musical discovery of the year, an unlikely but successful mix of Indian and 1920s jazz music. This film itself is about The Ramayana, an important text in Hindu mythology, and primarily focuses on Sita, an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi, who is married to Rama, an avatar of Vishnu.
   
   I discovered this amazing film after Amy came across an old 78 rpm record at her parent’s house by a “Miss Annette Hanshaw,” who apparently was famous for always ending her songs with her signature, “That’s all!” Curious, we Googled the name and immediately came across this movie directed, produced and animated by artist Nina Paley that cleverly juxtaposes Indian mythology and iconography with Annette Hanshaw's flapper-era blues songs. The art, story and soundtrack were an imaginative mix of East and West and how, now, ever the twain shall meet. Including Hanshaw's music led to copyright snafus, making this a hard soundtrack to come by. Oh, and Nina Paley was later "cancelled" for "cultural appropriation" (which is why she now labels herself: "Animator. Director. Artist. Scapegoat."). Tough biscuit, that. Regardless, click here to hear Annette Hanshaw's music.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Amy and I also really loved The Routes’ REVERBERATION ADDICT, wherein the Kyushu, Japan-based Anglo-Japanese garage band reimagined Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady Going Surf-Rock. Yes, twangy guitar versions of punk classics! The Routes also covered Kraftwerk’s canon - of all things! - quite successfully on THE TWANG MACHINE. Check 'em out at Bandcamp.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Sonny Stitt - BOPPIN' IN BALTIMORE. Sonny Stitt was one of my dad's favorite sax players and this 2023 release by Zev Feldman for his Jazz Detective label shows why. Presented by the Left Bank Jazz Society, this two-disc set was recorded live on November 11, 1973 at The Famous Ballroom on North Charles Street at what is now The Charles Theater. Stitt never got his due compared to the "other Sonny" (Sonny Rollins), but here, backed by the stellar trio of pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Louis Hayes, he more than makes his case that he is one of the greatest hard-bop stylists of all time.
   
   
   
   
5. Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs' Ace Records compilations. Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs are not just members of the UK indie-pop group St. Etienne, but also avid record collectors, DJs, pub pop-quiz curators and, notably in Stanley's case, authors. And, thankfully, their tastes are exquisite. I especially liked their '80s synth-pop THE TEARS OF TECHNOLOGY compilation. As they write in the liner notes, "Like mellotrons before them, synthesizers could project a strange and deep emotion - something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy. Previous generations had often disparaged synths as dehumanising machines but, at the turn of the '80s, a new crop of musicians appeared who could coax them into creating modern and decidely moving music. It was almost as if these groups had set out to prove the doubters wrong." Well said, lads!
   
   
   
   
   

Standouts tracks here include the lovely cascading synths on China Crisis' opener "Jean Walks in Fresh Field," Turquoise Days'"Grey Skies," Oppenheimer (him again!) Analysis'"Behind the Shades," and, as always John Foxx, the synth-pop pioneer himself, with "An Evening in the Rain" from 1981's The Garden. They rub elbows with the usual suspects here: The Human League, OMD, Simple Minds, Soft Cell and even your friendly neighborhood folk-punk with a synth, Patrik Fitzgerald.

And I also really dug the boys'FELL FROM THE SUN, which gathers the best of the 98bpm records that sound-tracked the summer of 1990. As the authors explain, "1990 and '91 brought a host of records that were made to accompany the sunrise; they slowed the pace on the dancefloor itself, right down to 98bpm. Woozy and hypnotic, this was the perfect post-club soundtrack." Well, I never was a raver, so this is an introduction to me of what I missed. It's pretty chill, the note-perfect soothing accompaniment for my nerve-wracking commutes to work on the Jones Falls Expressway. Highlights include Primal Scream's "Higher Than the Sun," Q-Tee & History's "Africa" (Ya-Ya!), The Grid's "Floating," and  The Aloof's "Never Get Out of the Boat" (Flying Mix) with its Martin Sheen/Apocalypse Now sample, which goes all the way (absolutely goddamn right!).

But wait, there's more! I'm looking forward in the new year to Bob Stanley's' latest playlist, Fantastic Voyage New Sounds For The European Canon 1977-1981 - this time collaborating with the BFI's Jason Wood - which drops January 26 (this is definitely an early birthday present to myself!). And Stanley's newest book, The Story of the Bee Gees: Children of the World, crosses the pond to our shores on February 6, 2024!

But wait, there's STILL more! I'd be remiss not to mention my wunnerful Christmas gift from Amy, which is a hybrid of text, images and sounds: 

The Art of Punk & New-Wave Covers: It's a flip calendar that lets you scan Spotify codes to play each album displayed! My birthday is the first, self-titled Psychedelic Furs album, and Amy's is the Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food. 

Radio:

Our favorite jock, the legendary Weasel, was canned, so we tuned out WTMD (though we still like old-timer Bob the Paper Guy and Don "Donzo" Gold's playlists) and turned in mourning to internet radio for salvation: 

1. Robbie White’s “Forbidden Alliance” Sunday mornings 9 am-12pm on WOWD (94.3 FM) features the best shout-outs to the heritage of local heroes from the Balto-Washington area, especially The Slickee Boys and their spin-off bands. Robbie's special guests are equally outstanding, like his interview with Jeff Krulik about old music venues like Adam Morgan's Ambassador Theater (Jimi Hendrix played there in 1967!) and DC's heralded lineage of guitar greats like Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan and Roy Clark. And, as always, his year-end Christmas Special with Chick Veditz (and sometimes LesLee Anderson!) is something we Marble Bar alumni always look forward to.
   
   

   Robbie White (middle) flanked by Slickee Kim Kane, Chick Veditz, LesLee Anderson and Weasel!

   
   
2. Skizz Cyzyk’s “Point Me At the Sky” every other Tuesday morning 9-12 on Radio Plastique (download the app now!). Skizz has heard it all, owns it all, and plays it all. I discovered he was a Neil Young fan thanks to one of his eclectic playlists (I never knew!). And, naturally, he already knew all about The Routes and played the heck outta 'em on his show!
   
   

Thrift Store: