GPX riding is a general term for using a GPS device to track and record location while riding a bicycle [
previously on MetaFilter]. Combining this technology with a planned effort to create art is the premise behind
Wallygpx. Think of
the images as being akin to a giant etch-a-sketch.
posted by netbros
on Nov 9, 2011 -
8 comments
The Wire's
Felicia ("Snoop") Pearson has been arrested as part of large scale drug raids
according to the Baltimore Sun.
Life imitates art, but in this case art had closely imitated life, as Pearson was not a trained actress, but grew up in tough Baltimore neighbourhoods and has a conviction for second degree murder for an act at the age of 14. However in recent years she had been involved in anti-violence campaigns and other work with young people.
posted by philipy
on Mar 10, 2011 -
101 comments
“You know what Miami gets in their crime show? They get detectives that look like models, and they drive around in sports cars. And you know what New York gets, they get these incredibly tough prosecutors, competent cops that solve the most crazy, complicated cases. —What Baltimore gets is this reinforced notion that it's a city full of hopelessness, despair and dysfunction. There was very little effort—beyond self-serving—to highlight the great and wonderful things happening here, and to indict the whole population, the criminal justice system, the school system.” —
Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, on the effect of
The Wire on Baltimore’s reputation.
[more inside]
posted by kipmanley
on Jan 18, 2011 -
119 comments
Legend has it that Phidippedes ran 26 miles to Athens from Marathon to announce the success of the Athenian army's surprise suicide attack against the far larger Persian army, starting a grand tradition:
Dying during marathons. [more inside]
posted by minimii
on Dec 26, 2009 -
21 comments
Crime: A Tale of Two Cities. When "The Wire" gained popularity in Great Britain, we were contacted by a London-based journalist who proposed a job swap. Mark Hughes, a crime reporter with The Independent, a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, wanted to come to Baltimore to see if the city’s police officers, drug dealers, prosecutors and politicians bore any resemblance to those on show. We agreed to complete the exchange by sending our police reporter, Justin Fenton, to London to compare crime trends. [more inside]
posted by HumanComplex
on Nov 12, 2009 -
30 comments
Hacking is a Baltimore phenomenon that allows citizens to get cheap "illegal" rides across town. A hack indicates they want a ride by motioning their pointer finger towards the ground as they walk along the street. Inevitably a driver will stop, the two parties will negotiate a price and a ride will be given. It is both a
dangerous and
necessary part of the blighted Baltimore economy.
posted by cloeburner
on Nov 9, 2009 -
84 comments
John Pontolillo, a student at Johns Hopkins University, had just had laptops and a game console stolen from his house. Hours later, he heard a noise from the garage. Before he went to investigate, he
grabbed his
katana...
[more inside]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker
on Sep 18, 2009 -
317 comments
"'I am not a defendant,' Mitchell declared. 'I do not have attorneys.' The court 'lacks territorial jurisdiction over me,' he argued, to the amazement of his lawyers. To support these contentions, he cited decades-old acts of Congress involving the abandonment of the gold standard and the creation of the Federal Reserve ... Judge Davis ordered the three defendants to be removed from the court, and turned to Gardner, who had, until then, remained quiet. But Gardner, too, intoned the same strange speech. 'I am Shawn Earl Gardner, live man, flesh and blood,' he proclaimed."
Too Weird for the Wire: How black Baltimore drug dealers are using white supremacist legal theories to confound the Feds. [via]
posted by nasreddin
on Jul 15, 2008 -
75 comments
Prior to his critically acclaimed program The Wire, creator Edward Burns wrote the HBO miniseries
The Corner, which also focused on the drug trade in Baltimore.
Charles S. Dutton, an African-American Baltimore native and former convict probably best known to most as TV's "Roc," was chosen to direct the miniseries.
Who Gets To Tell a Black Story?, part of a Pulitzer-prize winning
NYT series on race in America, examines Dutton's take on how to make a TV program which portrays a mostly African-American cast of characters, the struggles and differing perspectives of Dutton and Burns, and how race is portrayed in Hollywood.
[more inside]
posted by whir
on Dec 17, 2007 -
24 comments
Public gatherings restricted? Check. Shutdown of independent businesses? Check. Lockdown on traffic and transportation in the area? You bet. Lawmakers in Baltimore trying to curb the city's homicide rate (already 108 this year) have come up with some
"desperate measures" of questionable constitutional legality, including heightening police presence in order to lockdown streets in "emergency areas." It has been called, "partial martial law" by some, and one has to wonder if the city of Baltimore may not do better to take a page from
The Wire's Hamsterdam for a solution to their inextricably linked drug and homicide issues.
posted by dead_
on May 17, 2007 -
60 comments
Baltimore House is the New Dylan? Probably not, but
Baltimore Club is an interesting sub-genre of dance music, anyway-- taking influences from Hip-Hop, House, Go-Go, Miami Bass, Detroit Ghettotech, Rave and TV theme songs(!) and merging them into a sound that's unique to Charm City's underground dance clubs. You can sample (and buy) some of the classics
here. (warning, horrible web design, IE only) or listen to a whole mix CD here
here. (lyrics NSFW)
posted by empath
on May 8, 2006 -
19 comments
Half-Life meets Matisse in a virtual reconstruction of the apartment of
Etta and Claribel Cone. During the first three decades of the twentieth century, the sisters amassed one of America's foremost collections of modern art. Today, many of the pieces can be viewed in the
Cone Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art. As part of the 50
th anniversary celebration of the museum's acquisition of the collection, the
Imaging Research Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County designed a
digital walkthrough of their apartment so that visitors could see the art in its original context.
posted by Aaaugh!
on May 4, 2003 -
5 comments
