Baltimore’s Book Thing
Every weekend, the Book Thing opens its doors and people from all over Baltimore flood in to rummage through its vast and perpetually replenished selection of free books. The non-profit establishment accepts donations of unwanted books from the community and redistributes them to those that want them. Surprisingly, there is never a shortage of good stuff. I’ve found amazing children’s books, a good cross-section of classic literature, science fiction, contemporary novels, photography books, science books, and even a book on making wine at home. It’s a great public resource, especially during these tough times when many people don’t have extra cash to spend on things to read.
Tagged: Baltimore, Book Thing, childrens books
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Lately I’ve been inspired by a lot of artists that use a lot of different textures in their work. I got a book about insect physiology from the Book Thing in Baltimore, and I’ve been using it to get ideas for various biological forms and patterns. The first one here was from an electron microscope photograph of a corn moth’s antennae. The second one was just a freeform thing that was playing with. Read more
Anointed Best New Band of 2009 by Baltimore’s City Paper, Sick Weapons embody basically what’s so great about this town — trash, and good times. They spit out sloppy, warbling, ear-piercing punk that’s more giddy than it is snarling, with frontwoman Ellie Beziat channeling Poly Styrene without being overly conscious of it. With songs like If You Love Me Take Me to the Hospital, The Prettiest Racist in Town, and Orgy on the China Train, it’s apparent these guys have their heads in a lot of unseemly places, but not up their own butts.
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Beach House are certainly different. The dream pop/indie rock duo from Baltimore create music bursting with atmospheric rhythms, pretty organs and poignant lyrics. I’m loving Norway, the twosome’s debut single from their upcoming album, Teen Dream. If the vocals sound familiar, that’s because lead singer Victoria Legrand shared backing vocals on Grizzly Bear’s Two Weeks. Now how’s that for trivia?
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Also by GERRY MAK
Bill Fick’s linocuts, silkscreens, and tempera painting
Chapel Hill-based printmaker Bill Fick makes awesomely grotesque faces and creatures with linocuts, silkscreens, and tempera paint. They have a vintage feel to them, as if the rotted remains ’50s advertising images have risen from the dead. Read more
Sarah Appleboum makes a neon felt and yarn explosion in your face and everywhere, the epicenter of which is in San Francisco. While you’re unconscious from the impact, you will dream of rainbow yetis, shamans, and soft revolvers.
Anointed Best New Band of 2009 by Baltimore’s City Paper, Sick Weapons embody basically what’s so great about this town — trash, and good times. They spit out sloppy, warbling, ear-piercing punk that’s more giddy than it is snarling, with frontwoman Ellie Beziat channeling Poly Styrene without being overly conscious of it. With songs like If You Love Me Take Me to the Hospital, The Prettiest Racist in Town, and Orgy on the China Train, it’s apparent these guys have their heads in a lot of unseemly places, but not up their own butts.
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I love the male-female Lab Partners art and design team out of San Francisco. I have two of their pieces at home, which I purchased from the Outre Gallery in Melbourne. They are responsible for some of the most heart-warming, 50s styled, Gocco prints I’ve seen. Read more
Jason Hackenwerth must get invited to a lot of parties with his amazing balloon-animal-making skills. I’d like to see an average clown or magician make elephant-sized plankton and protozoa. Read more
The Magazineer is ‘a blog about magazine design and print culture, written by people who love, and make, magazines’. Read more
I got to check out Extra Golden the other night at the Floristree in the H & H Building in downtown Baltimore. Despite a bill of heady, contemplative, experimental music that preceded the DC-based band, the crowd was chomping at the bit to see them when they finally hit the stage well past 1am. It’s still cold and rainy here in Charm City, but these guys made it feel like summer with their sunny blend of Kenyan benga music and guitar-driven psych rock.
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Installed in downtown Helsinki, CityWall is a multi-touch display featuring digital media arranged into themes and events. Read more
In my next life, I want to sing like Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison. Oh, and grow a lush beard, so I can play in their band. Better start cracking.
Created in 2003 as a skateboard footwear brand in Los Angeles, Cipher is now an international urban lifestyle brand offering designer products for an emerging group of global hipsters. Now based in Hong Kong, where metropolitan living manifests the dynamic fusion of East and West culture, Cipher is an expression of life in the brave new world. Cipher shoes launched with three different styles, in a range of colours, each with its own story and attitude: Seditionary, Subterranean and Libertine.
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Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.
There is not a medium that UK illustrator Lizzy Stewart cannot wrap around her little finger to make the most beautiful, whimsical images. Read more
German painter Armin Rohr’s works look like stills from Stan Brakhage films, all acid-washed, scratched out, and ethereal like a sudden flood of memories. Read more
Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
These resin necklaces are the result of a collaboration between the artist Gaella Gottwald and local artisans in Indonesia. They are a mix of traditional craft with modern design, and use the natural sustainable material of resin. Read more
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