MetaFilter posts tagged with Baltimore

A Tale of Two Cities

HumanComplex — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:54:09 -0800

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. Articles from The Independent: Mark Hughes in Baltimore: Just minutes after I arrived, I was at the scene of a shooting ... 189 homicides this year – this is The Wire, only real The trials of 'Baltimore's Boris'' Wire' star joins real fight against crime Justin Fenton in London: The sound of fireworks reminds me of home 'Disputes are pettier than in Baltimore' Britain's use of DNA is light years ahead Keeping children out of the gangs' clutches Readers from both sides of the pond react to the story.

Hacking the System

cloeburner — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:10:38 -0800

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.

The end of mystery meat?

minimii — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:20:38 -0800

Mobtown beats the meat while vegetarians bet Ghent.

Swords are sharp

ChurchHatesTucker — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:17:42 -0800

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... Inside the garage, Pontolillo was confronted by Donald D. Rice, who was release from jail three days prior. In the ensuing altercation, Rice died from blood loss due to a sword cut. Police have determined that the event was not a homicide, although prosecutors not ruled out the possibility of a trial. There is already a fan site. Interestingly, sword attacks have a history in Baltimore.

Mencken Speaks

readery — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:02:30 -0800

Donald H. Kirkey, Jr., The Baltimore Sun theater critic interviews H. L. Mencken, part 1 of 8. Part 2,Part 3 , Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. This recording was made a few months before Mencken's stroke in 1948 that ended his public life.

A world in which knowledge is always a double edged sword

Electric Dragon — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:15:23 -0800

The Wire - David Simon's original pitch and series bible. "At the end of thirteen episodes, the viewer - who has been lured all this way by a well-constructed police show - is not the simple gratification of hearing handcuffs click. Instead the conclusion is something Euripides or O'Neill might recognize: an America at every level at war with itself." [Previously.] (via)

Quoth the Raven, Baltimore!?!

Artw — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:12:01 -0800

Today marks the 200th birthday of Edgar Alan Poe, and as happens every year the mysterious Poe Toaster marked the date by placing three red roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac at his Baltimore grave. The identity of the toaster isn't the only question surrounding Poe - his presence in Baltimore and the circumstances of his death remain a mystery. Some speculate that he may have had rabies, others that he may have been a victim of cooping. And while Baltimore embarks on a year long celebration of Poe some argue that his body shouldn't be there at all.

If You Walk Through the Garden, Better Watch Your Back

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:23:18 -0800

Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon has been indicted with 12 counts of felony theft, perjury, fraud and misconduct in office, becoming the city's first sitting mayor to be criminally indicted. Included in the charges against her is the accusation that she accepted illegal gifts during her time as mayor and City Council president, including travel, fur coats and gift cards intended for the poor that she allegedly used instead for a holiday shopping spree. One city housing official has already been convicted of stealing those donations. Her legal defense claims that there has been no conflict of interest, as the list of companies said to have done business with the city fails to meet technical requirements laid out in city ethics laws. The Baltimore Sun's editorial staff weighs in with the accusations.

Flesh and Blood

nasreddin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:13:02 -0800

"'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]

Amazing map exhibition

LobsterMitten — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:48:27 -0800

Maps: Finding our place in the world is an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, and it runs until this Sunday June 8. That page contains images of a few of the maps. One of the many great things included is an animated map of the US Civil War in 4 minutes (one week per second, timeline noted at bottom, casualty counter rolling in bottom right corner - info about this animation) The exhibition book was previously linked here; that site includes higher-resolution versions of some more of the maps. I was floored by all the stuff they have; in terms of the rarity of the stuff in it, and the geek-delight factor, I think it's probably the best gallery show I've ever seen. The show includes: maps made by Davinci, Geo Washington, Thos Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Cortes, and others; the first geologic map; the 1982 first map of ARPAnet, a map of the distribution of whales in the Atlantic in the late 1700s commissioned by Ben Franklin; a Marshall islands stick map; a carved nubbly chunk of wood carved into a map of the coast of Greenland; maps sewn onto silk by medieval Mediterranean sailors; Japanese, Indian, medieval European pilgrimage maps; maps made by indigenous people on every inhabited continent; the first relief map; the chart Charles Lindbergh used on his transAtlantic flight; the map that settled the boundary of the US at the surrender at Yorktown; Lewis and Clark's map; the map that historians think is the oldest city map, on a clay tablet from Sumeria; demographic and experimental maps from the social consciousness movements of the late 19th c; the Minard map of Napoleon's Russian campaign (so praised by Edward Tufte); the first Mercator projection map; maps of fictional places made by Tolkien, Frank Baum, and others; and on and on. The show includes images from the Hubble telescope and local artists' alternative mappings of Baltimore, too. If you are interested in maps, history, or information design at all you should try to see this show; it is just breathtaking. The exhibit was organized by the Field Museum in Chicago, and was shown there first. I don't know if it's going to visit other cities; I believe I read something suggesting it wasn't, but I can't find confirmation of that now.

The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904

dhammond — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:31:29 -0800

"To suppose that the spirit of our people will not rise to the occasion is to suppose that our people are not genuine Americans. We shall make the fire of 1904 a landmark not of decline but of progress."

The Wire's over. Sheeeeit.

kirkaracha — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:59:14 -0800

One Last Long, Boozy Irish Wake for David Simon’s Accidental Masterpiece. New York magazine calls the finale of The Wire "an almost absurdly exhaustive festival of closure," has shot-by-shot commentary on the final montage, and lists ten questions left unanswered [spoilers a go-go] Ptolemy Slocum, who played the Business Card Killer, recounts shooting the last scene. Dominic West's diary of the last week of shooting (about halfway down the page). The Washington Post recap has behind-the-scenes interviews and footage of filming the last scene. The Baltimore Sun hated it. Salon interview with David Simon (who had a cameo):

If you're saying that there needed to be scenes of the Internet interacting with journalism and bringing down journalism, I will now write you a scene: Interior, garden apartment anywhere. A white male, mid-30s, sits at a laptop computer in his underwear, linking to a Baltimore Sun story. He then scratches his left testicle until satisfied and continues to type commentary about that story onto his blog. Cut to drug corner, and on to the next scene.

-30-

Exploration Baltimore

schroedinger — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:15:26 -0800

The yearly Best of Baltimore awards released by Baltimore City Paper have been providing a guide to Charm City for over a decade. You can find the best independent bookstores, theater, nachos, and plumbers. Or perhaps your tastes run more exotic--do you need the best constant reminder that Peter Angelos is the anti-Christ? The best place to get run over by bicyclists while hiking? Or the best place to make fun of stressed-out PreMeds? And there are always surprising picks; for example, check out the 2006 winner for best cheap entertainment. So when you're planning your next Baltimore visit browse the archives and find somewhere to enjoy yourself.

Death Map of Baltimore

tkolar — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:08:59 -0800

Google mashup: Last year's homicides in Baltimore. Depressed yet? Try looking at it in Black and White. [Previous FPP on Baltimore's crime issue]

playing with the tuning knobs when the back of the appliance is in flames

gerryblog — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:45:17 -0800

The Wire is dissent; it argues that our systems are no longer viable for the greater good of the most, that America is no longer operating as a utilitarian and democratic experiment. An already-quite-good discussion about The Wire, originating in Mark Bowden's Atlantic article ('The Angriest Man in Television') and continuing through Mark Bowden's post on the show's nihilistic bleakness gets even more interesting on Matt Yglesias's blog, where the creator of the show stops by to give his opinion on what it's all supposed to mean.

Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?

whir — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:02:50 -0800

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. The Wire junkies looking for a pre-season five re-up may be able to stomp some life out of the following package of previous MeFi links, which everybody already posted while I was trying to craft an awesome, meticulous post about The Wire: HBO prequel videos, an outstanding profile of Burns from the New Yorker, the marriage of the real-life people who formed the basis of The Wire's Omar and The Corner's Fran (this article itself is mentioned towards the end of the Burns profile), an examination of the legal principles in Burns's book Homicide, an interview with the actress who plays Snoop.

How To Turn Red Into Black

dhammond — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:06:21 -0800

"A detective does his job in the only possible way. He follows the requirements of the law to the letter -- or close enough so as not to jeopardize his case. Just as carefully, he ignores that law's spirit and intent. He becomes a salesman, a huckster as thieving and silver-tongued as any man who ever moved used cars or aluminum siding -- more so, in fact, when you consider that he's selling long prison terms to customers who have no genuine need for the product." A legal examination of the creative circumvention of Miranda rights in Baltimore as presented by David Simon in Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Previously.

Poe Rose Bro Shows

XQUZYPHYR — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 06:33:55 -0800

Shedding light on one of Baltimore's most famous modern-day mysteries, 92-year-old Sam Porpora is claiming to be the man who first visited Edgar Alan Poe's grave every year on his birthday.

Omar lives

Airhen — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:42:28 -0800

Apparently, in real life, Omar makes it.

3 Young Baltimore Figurative Painters

Kattullus — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:25:14 -0800

3 young Baltimore figurative painters Lillian Bayley (toyworld alienation) Rachel Bone (a saner, calmer Darger) Alyssa Dennis (bleak figures in a bleak world) [via New American Paintings]

Martial law on-demand in Baltimore

dead_ — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:37:54 -0800

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.

What is Philadelphia's trajectory in 2007?

jacobw — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 13:54:33 -0800

What is Philadelphia's trajectory in 2007? Seven cities are compared: Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Murder

stammer — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 06:31:17 -0800

Murders in Baltimore City/Washington D.C., displayed on Google's map of the area: 2005, 2006, 2007.

Home of Challenge Pissing

dhammond — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:50:05 -0800

Fuck You Baltimore! (NSFW) If you're a jackass in Baltimore who wants to buy a car, then Big Bill Hell is the guy who's gonna screw you.

The arabbers of Baltimore.

OmieWise — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:19:00 -0800

"Holler, holler, holler, till my throat get sore.
If it wasn't for the pretty girls, I wouldn't have to holler no more.
I say, Watermelon! Watermelon! [Also see the other pic links to the left.]
Got em red to the rind, lady." - Earl Dorsey, Arabber
Descriptions and pictures of Baltimore's disappearing horse and cart arable goods vendors.