Back-to-back Bodine!

Jennifer Bodine, daughter of legendary Baltimore Sun photographer A. Aubrey Bodine [above] and curator of his life’s work, will deliver a slideshow/lecture based on her latest book, Bodine’s City: The Photography of A. Aubrey Bodine, beginning at 11:00 a.m. this Saturday, April 14, in the Poe Room on the second floor of the main branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library on Cathedral Street in downtown Baltimore. Bodine’s City collects more than 150 Bodine prints highlighting the photographer’s artistic eye. Writer and photographer Jim Burger will introduce the program.

This free event is part of the ninth annual CityLit Festival, a daylong celebration of the region’s thriving literary scene and its heritage. For more information, visit the CityLit Festival website.

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The following week, Ms. Bodine will join the Friends of the Mencken House to discuss and sign copies of Bodine’s City from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at the Mencken House, 1524 Hollins Street, in Baltimore, Maryland. “Sage of Baltimore” H. L. Mencken and Aubrey Bodine were colleagues at the Baltimore Sunpapers, and the two men maintained a close, longstanding friendship. Attendees of the April 21 event will also be able to tour the Mencken House & Garden, which are normally closed to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, visit www.menckenhouse.org or www.aaubreybodine.com, or e-mail menckenhouse@gmail.com or jbb@aaubreybodine.com.

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SMILE, HON represents at 9th annual CityLit Festival

BALTIMORE, Md. – Count Eight-Stone Press (ESP) among the horde of local imprints represented in the Literary Marketplace at Baltimore’s ninth annual CityLit Festival, held from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. this Saturday, April 14, 2012, at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Central Branch in downtown Baltimore. Stop by the ESP table to meet William P. Tandy, editor and publisher of ESP’s long-running, critically acclaimed Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore! series, and pick up the latest issue, or peruse the back catalogue and a variety of Smile, Hon merchandise.

Hailed as “a can’t-miss event on the city’s cultural scene” by Baltimore Magazine, CityLit Festival is a collaborative effort between CityLit Project and the Pratt Library. This year’s Festival headliners include Kwame Alexander, Edward Hirsch, Thomas Lux and Benjamin Busch. Jennifer Bodine, daughter of legendary Baltimore Sun photographer A. Aubrey Bodine and curator of his work, will deliver a slideshow lecture on her latest book, Bodine’s City: The Photography of A. Aubrey Bodine, highlighting her father’s artistic eye. (Read William P. Tandy’s review of Bodine’s City in Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore! No. 15.)

For more information, visit the official CityLit Festival website.

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SMILE, HON editor on this week's KITCHEN NIGHTMARES

BALTIMORE, Md. – Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore! editor and publisher William P. Tandy joins celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay (above) and a handful of Baltimore luminaries for a forum discussion about last year’s trademark debacle surrounding Hampden’s Café Hon in this week’s episode of Ramsay’s show, Kitchen Nightmares. Also joining the program are WelcometoBaltimoreHon.com proprietor Bruce Goldfarb and Charlene Osborne, author of My Year as Baltimore’s Best Hon. The episode airs this Friday, February 24, 2012, on the Fox Network; check local listings for air time. A preview of the episode is available on the show's website.

Café Hon owner Denise Whiting invited Ramsay to profile her restaurant on the show, which focuses on ailing eateries and Ramsay’s efforts to revitalize them. For more information on the long-running “hontroversy,” pick up a copy of Hon: Past, Present & Future, available from Atomic Books, Cyclops Books & Music, or directly from the publisher.

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THE BLUEFLOWERS - "In Line with the Broken-Hearted"

Like British pop star V.V. Brown, Detroit's Blueflowers have a manifest affinity for infusing the tried-and-true chord progressions of late-'50s/early-'60s pop music with thoroughly modern soul, energy and purpose. But while Brown's style scales a Spector-esque wall of sound, the Blueflowers quietly opt for the picket fence.

With songs like "In Your Shadow" and "Hesitate", the band's sophomore album, In Line with the Broken-Hearted (2011), demonstrates an innate pop sensibility more closely aligned with The Crystals or Vogue-era Francoise Hardy than the precious navel-gazing of latter-day college radio. Just as a campfire draws faces from the surrounding darkness, so vocalist Kate Hinote provides a focal point for her band-mates, whose able instrumentation is relegated to a supporting role. And for good reason, for although Hinote’s vocals on occasion seem redundant, the woman can really sing.

Which is not to sell Tony Hamera (guitars), Erica Stephens (bass), David Johnson (acoustic guitar) and Jim Faulkner (drums) short. To be sure, their musical sense is impeccable, judiciously doling out organ signatures or clicking castanets at precisely the right moments, and to great effect.

Indeed, it all really falls into place for the album’s brightest moment, “Maybe”, a sugary tune at least as sweet as anything Phil Spector ever produced at the height of his game. The possibly sinister undertones of the lyrics render the tune that much more interesting: “Sorrow won’t protect you now / You’ve said just how you feel / If I can’t have the best of you / Then no one ever will.” Make no mistake: in a merit-based music industry there’d be no question of “Maybe” – this song would be multi-platinum.

With its clean (though not overdone) production, In Line with the Broken-Hearted shirks Detroit’s gritty urban landscape, casting the post-Aretha/Iggy/White Stripes city in a whole new musical light – one that finds melody on a prairie breeze somewhere on the darkest outskirts of town.

Seriously...

I really did staple my fingertips together last night:


And while we're on the subject:

SMILE, HON release party tomorrow night!

Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore! No. 15 is back from the printer. It's a big bastard - 72 pages worth. And so long as I don't staple my fingers together again between now and tomorrow night, the show will go on...

SMILE, HON release party this Friday!

At long last, the much-anticipated Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore! No. 15 has gone to the printer. You can pre-order the issue on the Eight-Stone Press website. Or, better yet, pick up a copy this Friday night (1/27/12) at Atomic Books, when Smile, Hon teams up with best-selling travel guide The Dark Side of Disney for a joint release party of epically uncomfortable proportions! This free event begins at 7:00 p.m.