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Showing posts from September, 2004

Knit Night is Back

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sweateryarn Originally uploaded by sugarfreak . Whoops, forgot to mention that Atomic Knit Night is back! Wednesdays from 7-9pm here at the store lounge. We may change it up by going over to the new Golden West Bar one night a month to knit in public. Just check our events page to see what's going on.

Are You Going?

SPX is this weekend!

Baltimore Library Lectures

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atomic-lib Originally uploaded by sugarfreak . Benn's on the Baltimore County Library Lecture circuit in October. He'll tell your kids a thing or two about comics. Don't ask him how to draw manga, though. photo by Jackie Nickel

Banned Books Week

You won't believe the most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000. The Anarchist Cookbook I expected, but Where's Waldo? ?

America is Killing Benn!

America the Book . Benn has just been sitting in the corner with it, and giggling, for days.

Flickr

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This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing. Update: You can find me on there as Sugarfreak.

Better Late Than Never

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Here are some more pics from the premiere night of A Dirty Shame. Josh Speiser, budding paparazzi/stalker, got some great pics that night. The infamous water bottle With Mink Stole Like an Old Movie House! With Waters himself!

A Dirty Shame Opens Today

A Dirty Shame, the blog ? It opens across the country tonight! A great review of the movie on eebmore .

Best of Benn

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The City Paper's Best of Baltimore party is usually a night of drinky hijinks for winners of BOB and basically anybody else who can snag an invite. Held at the Belvedere, on the 12th and 13th floors, the line for the elevator snakes around the lobby about a dozen ways, with the wait being at least half an hour long. Every year people try to use the stairs (can't) and every year there are fights because some people don't believe in standing in line like everyone else (because they won Best of Baltimore, dammit. They're special!). This is Benn's favorite part of the party. You get to watch people, see who got dressed up, how they dressed up, and wonder what category they had won, if they had indeed won anything. So after waiting for almost an hour, and after way too many people had cut in line, the people around us were all getting pretty fed up. That's when I noticed two ladies standing right in front us who hadn't been there a minute ago. I mot

Librafest

It's that time of year when practically every day is a friend's birthday. Today is Benn's! He's ooooooold. 36! Make sure to point that out if you see him today.

You Like Us! You Really Like Us!

Readers Poll Winner 2004: Best Independent Bookstore and Best Comic Bookstore CityPaper Best of Baltimore 2004: Best Independent Bookstore

So Long and Thanks for All the Boobs

Russ Meyers passes away at 82 .

The Signal

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There's a new radio show in town, kids. It's called The Signal . Lisa Morgan came in the other day and interviewed me for this week's show. Don't listen to it for me though, because I was still pretty braindead after Hampdenfest. Listen to it for an interview with Davy Rothbart, from Found Magazine . And guess what? There's a Dirty Found coming in November!

Another Underground Fire?

No wonder it's been so quiet around here. There's a fire underground downtown . Again! An overnight fire that damaged underground electric cables and sent flames shooting from a manhole near City Hall forced several downtown street closures and knocked out traffic lights at some intersections, authorities said today.

Beautiful Day in the Neigbhorhood

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After 8 months of planning, Hampdenfest was a success, especially considering how it could have ended up. Thank you, bands, for bringing the rock, thank you, volunteers and vendors, for helping out and sticking around. I wish I had taken more pics, but once the fest got under way I was pretty much stuck in the store. Of course, today is beautiful. (Yesterdays entries will be updated in a few minutes with pics.) Update: Maggie was humping this rabbit . And the new Golden West Bar opened on Hampdenfest.

Apathy Cured Youth

A few hours ago this young woman, in what one could call punkish attire, asked for "the manager". I stepped up, and she lodged a complaint about the "preponderance of misogynist, anti-feminist" blah blah blah stuff that we carry (jesus, I wish I taped it, because then I'd know if she really used the word "preponderance" or did I just feel it?) It was cute in a way. She was all worked up. I thought she was about to crack up...so I was smiling patiently, waiting for the punchline. Lauren thought she was about to cry. She pivoted away, not waiting for a reply, so I just yelled "Thanks!" at her back. I'm glad she's fighting the good fight. Everyone knows we need to be taken out for keeping women down!

First Complaint About the Music

A woman just came in to "put in a complaint" about the music. I assume she was talking about Fascist Fascist. "I just don't think kids should have to listen to that."

Here Comes the Sun!

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Patience pays off. Update:

Babies!

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If you're a pro like Ostrowski's Famous Polish Sausages, you were set up and ready to go by 9:30am. They sat and laughed at all the whiney babies. Update:

Cats and Dogs

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Man, it's pouring now. Update:

Street Forecasters

Word on the street (since there are radio stations setting up here at the festival and they're keeping up on the weather) is that the rain is over. If you watch the loop it's all heading east and away. By the time the Festival starts at 11am things should be fine. We're getting a bit of a late start setting things up, but we've started later before. I wonder if I can keep updating every hour for the rest of the fest? I'll do updates to add pics from the day at the end.

Drizzley

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It's getting light. A little drizzle is nothing. We've had worse. You can't be in the Outdoor Festival biz if you can't take a little weather. Benn and the other co-chairs are out on the street giving everything the onceover, twice. There are already booths and tents set up. Update:

Sunday Makes Me So Mad

It's 6:30 and it's stopped raining. Of course, it'll rain some more. They're calling for rain for the morning, but hopefully merely scattered showers for the afternoon. Sunday, clear skies.

Friday Blogabout Mish Mosh

Hurricane season is an awesome thing. I've been glued to the Weather Channel and CNN when Anderson Cooper gets flung around like Mother Nature's naughty ragdoll. Just so you know, Hampdenfest is on rain or shine! Rain will make it even more festive. Sure, it won't be as muddy as Woodstock but there's going to an ADULT Moonbounce, people! Adult Moonbounce. I'd like to take this time to point you to 1 , 2 very entertaining blog entries. We've got a lot of very talented bloggers here in Baltimore. Whatever the hell that means. It's going to rain all day. Hope our deliveries don't get wet. And yeah for the Pirates of Essex .! They raised over $4000 at Bengies (and due to a matching program it's really over $8000!) this past Sunday. Fun was had by all!

Why I am Not a Photojournalist

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When I don't have my camera, I always see things I want to shoot. When I do have it, I don't feel like taking it out. "Oh yeah, people would want to see that," is a phrase that goes off in my head after the moment passes. It's a chore to get the shots that people expect, because I'd rather wait for inspiration . In other words, I'm a slacker. Thank god I don't do weddings anymore! The word for yesterday was clusterfuck. One of Waters' assistants used it to describe the Avenue when she dropped off some signed books. She used it again, later, when I saw her outside the Senator, "You better get in the theater and get seats now. It's a clusterfuck in there." And then, at the after party at the Walters, the word was used to define the scene to me by a few more people. I guess you could use the word to describe the movie as well, but in a good way. It was hilarious. There are probably things that only people from the area would find

WYPR

Waters is on right now on The Marc Steiner Show .

Misemono

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The Last Freak Show is an exquisite book of Japanese sideshow banners, which has a very different aesthetic than American sideshow banners.

Service Photo

What timing! Just when I needed a new camera Service Photo has moved to Hampden! I couldn't ask for more convenience then to just hop over to Falls Rd and pop in before work to get a decent little digital camera. Jesus, these cameras just get smaller and lighter...I wonder how long it'll be before I can just have one implanted into my brain. Just charging the batteries now and I'll be good to go for the premiere of Dirty Shame tonight.

Blindsided!

Ok...I'll just say that my digital camera has been misplaced. Like maybe permenantly. I don't want to say stolen. But it was on the counter right after I had taken some shots of a beautiful book on Japanese Sideshow Banners. Oh well. It was old, anyway. But no more pics until I get a new one. It's the saddest of all for you guys. If only you could see sideshow banners.

Something Else to Remember

Never Forget? Is that even a possibility? THE September 11th happened our first year here in our new Hampden location. This September 11th, Baby Doll meets Andrew WK at the store. Whew, that's much nicer.

The Sun Also Effs Up

Wow, if it weren't for Bookslut I would have missed this article printed in our own Baltimore Sun this past week. But then she gave it such a good reaming that you don't really have to.

Baltimore Comic Con

Hey geeks, um, I mean, kids! You like comics ? Starts tomorrow!

What's My Density?

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You know what's really weird? When you're at work and trying to blog a big long post about how you just got the high score on Centipede after trying for almost a year (not that it's my best score EVER but it's been a while since I've broken 100,000. Maggie somehow erased the high scores from last year!)...and then Crispin Glover calls for you. What was I doing again? Oh yeah. My High Score:

You Know You Want It

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photo by Scott Huffines Pirates of Essex!

Milagro

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The new Mexican imports shop has opened today here on the Avenue. Benn scored this Mexican wrestling mask.

Persepolis 2

Finally !

All Mighty Senator

The Premiere of A Dirty Shame will be on the 14th at the Senator . If there are any tickets left for the general public they should be on sale any day now. The event will be a benefit for AIDS Action Baltimore . UPDATE: Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 9am! This is the number to call: 410-837-2440

September is Love

We just got in the brand new issue of Cinema Sewer . Which oddly, has an article on Don Knotts in the Love God!! Do you have your tickets yet? And also, the last issue of Nest , with another installment of the Chris Ware comic, previous installments of which were included in McSweeney's 13 (which is sold out people! There will be a reprint though, you lucky bastards).