Baltimore City Paper

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

SPECIAL

The Year in DVDs: 1) Deadly Sweet (Cult Epics) Italian writer/director Tinto Brass' loose 1967 adaptation of a Sergio Donati novel almost plays out as an irreverent send-up of Michaelangelo Antonioni's late ’60s output—especially Blow-Up—but it's too visually fantastic to be mistaken for something so purely derivative. | Top Ten by Lee Gardner and Bret McCabe

The Year In Tracks: . . . just in the case the album really is dead. | Music by Michael Byrne and Lee Gardner

The Year in News: Our mayor was indicted and convicted of embezzlement this year. | Top Ten by Edward Ericson Jr., Van Smith, and Erin Sullivan

The Year in Movies: No, you're not hallucinating. | Top Ten

The Year in Television: Raise your hand if you still have cable. | Top Ten

The Year in Music: We do this because, between the 15 or so of us, we listen to a lot of music, we think a lot about music--like, all of the goddamn time--and like to imagine we know not what makes something trend-setting or hip, but simply what makes a song or composition great. | Top Ten

The Year in Local Music: The thing that unites Baltimore music is Baltimore the city, a geographic place with a good number of rough street corners, cheap rent, unhealthy food, a toxic harbor, and bad public transportation that contains an immensely creative population. | Top Ten

The Year in Books: No idea why there's such a strong turnout of speculative/sci-fi-ish titles in this year's Top 10. | Top Ten

The Year on Stage: Local stage talent might be the last untapped well of local greatness. | Top Ten

The Year in Visual Art: The past 12 months really delivered a blow to the arts--you know, the stuff and ideas that comes from that creative part of the mammalian brain that, in part, is what makes us human--hitting them squarely on the chin. | Top Ten

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NEWS

Premature Death?: Political club's closing prompts last-ditch revival effort | Mobtown Beat by Van Smith

Murder Ink | The Mail

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COLUMNS

98 Percent Top Ten: Yeah! This week is "Top Ten," right here in the pages and pixels of City Paper, Baltimore's Free Alternative Weekly with my column in it, which already makes that my first "Top Ten," which is where people think of things from the present Year of Our Lord and type out the ones that are "Top," you get it? | Mr. Wrong by Joe MacLeod

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