Mobtown Shank

Tracking: The Mantles

by Brian Dubin

THE MANTLES by THE MANTLES
I'm not sure if this album came out this year or last year, but either way it's great.

The Mantles are somewhat reminiscent of the Velvet Underground and I think it's the lo-fi sound, simple song structures and mid-tempo paced songs. Though a few songs are a bit more upbeat. However, the songs are quite catchy and very well written. I don't really know how to categorize this album, but if you like the Velvet Underground at all, you will probably enjoy this record.

All in all, this is a great lo-fi pop record. There are a lot of bands that attempt to play this kind of music and it just doesn't sound right, or is too contrived. The Mantles have done a great job of making a sound that could be boring and contrived, unique and of their own.

Said What?: Clarity

overheard by Benn Ray
drawn by Jordan Jeffries

 
(click on strip to see larger version)
Look for a brand new Said What? comic in Wednesday's B: The Paper. Available free around town.
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Overhear something amazing? Post them in the comments section (with your email address) or email your Overheards (using this format) to: MobtownshankATatomicbooksDOTcom. It could end up as a comic strip.

Order a copy of The Shank's book I Keee You!!: A Collection Of Overheards.

Rape Town

In Baltimore, the number of reported rapes is down. Way down. In fact, in 1995, there were 684 reported rapes. That number fell to 158 in 2009.

That 80% decease is 10 times the national average. Unfortunately, this appears to have more to do with police handling of rapes than it does with a legitimate indication of declining incidents.

The Baltimore Police Department has for the past four years recorded the highest percentage of rape cases that officers conclude are false or baseless of any city in the country, according to The Baltimore Sun's review of FBI  data.

More than 30 percent of the cases investigated by detectives each year are deemed unfounded, five times the national average. Only Louisville and Pittsburgh have reported similar numbers in the recent past, and the number of unfounded rape cases in those cities dropped after police implemented new classification procedures.

The problem in Baltimore may go deeper.

In 4 of 10 emergency calls to police involving allegations of rape, officers conclude that there is no need for a further review, so the case never makes it to detectives — a proportion that experts say is disturbingly high.

Source.
More.

Baltimore Housing Prices Fall 11%

Baltimore - where if we can't beat your price, we'll eat a bug! Everything must go!

It's hard to believe just a couple years ago the Baltimore real estate market was booming. Now - well, now Baltimore is just one of the top 10 American cities where home prices are falling.

Maybe, just maybe, Baltimore's housing market will become affordable again.

Total Amount of Reductions: $43,472,985
Average Individual House Price Reduction: 11%

Source.

Tonight! - Miki Scholtes Benefit

Saturday, June 26
MIKI SCHOLTES BENEFIT CONCERT
$10. The Windup Space. Station North, Baltimore.
12 W. North Ave.

Featuring:
Arbouretum
Il Culo
Phi

Miki was injured in a hit-and-run incident and faces a long recovery. All proceeds from ticket sales go to Miki Scholtes Benefit Fund.

Donations can be made here.

Remington Blocks Another Small Restaurant

For years, folks have looked at Remington as quite possibly the next up-and-coming Baltimore city neighborhood. The only problem was, as rumor has it in business circles, Remington won't let anything happen in Remington thanks largely to the efforts of a "community" organization that manages to block any restaurant, bar, etc. from opening. Unfortunately, it now appears places like The Dizz and The Paper Moon are more Remington anomalies than they are entrepreneurial pioneers heralding a new era in locally owned, independent businesses in the neighborhood.

If one wants to clearly understand why Remington never quite took off (and is now facing developer obliteration at the hands of a Wal-Mart/Lowes that will not only doom the area to a strip mall quality of life but will also wreak havoc on the surrounding communities), one need look no further than this new example.

Sweet Sin (the already-acclaimed and much-buzzed about gluten free bakery/dessert shop on 123 W. 27th St.) was denied an attempt to get a liquor license for a restaurant next door because of opposition by the Remington Neighborhood Alliance (RNA) and the Charles Village Civic Association (CVCA). Both groups  expressed concerns over noise and bringing too many unwanted people into the area. [READ MORE]

Yet neither of these groups have opposed the 11-acre 25th Street Station development that will bring 129x more people to the area and will generate a helluva lot more noise.

So, the RNA and the CVCA are okay with a ginormous strip mall campus that will permanently change the face of their respective communities and bring thousands of people and vehicles through their neighborhood every day and destroy scores of local businesses, but an acclaimed young bakery who wants to expand into a restaurant - they say "no."

Does this rationale seem strangely inconsistent to anyone else?

Remember - Baltimore City didn't do this to Sweet Sin - it was the result of the actions of 2 community associations that represent a small number of their respective communities - The RNA and the CVCA.

If you are unhappy with what happened here, you MUST get involved.

(Psst... Sweet Sin, next time try Hampden.)

Wal-Mart Has Cheap Babies

Sometimes you really can't beat Wal-Mart's prices.

Guess how much a 6-month old baby goes for at Wal-Mart. Only $25!!!

A California couple faces child endangerment charges after police say they tried to sell their 6-month-old baby for $25 outside a Walmart store.

Salinas police spokesman, Officer Lalo Villegas, said Thursday that Patrick Fousek, 38, and Samantha Tomasini, 20, were arrested early Wednesday, hours after Fousek allegedly approached two women outside Walmart and asked if they'd like to purchase his child.

There's no word yet if the proposed 25th St. Station Wal-Mart in Remington will have a parking lot baby kiosk or if baby sellers are supposed to simply approach folks in the unmonitored parking lot like Fousek and Tomasini did.

Source.

Republicans Think The Unemployed Are Lazy, Drug Addict Hobos

Right now, there are, statistically, 6 job seekers for every job in America.

We are facing the worst unemployment rate since The Great Depression (when unemployment insurance was created as a safety net).

Yesterday, every Republican in the Senate (along with "Democrat" Ben Nelson) blocked a vote to extend unemployment. So the minority Republican Party in the Senate managed to cut off unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans.

Why? Well 2 reasons. One is ideological and non-pragmatic. The other is cynically political.

Reason #1 is because Republicans don't like unemployment insurance. We know this because of the things they say about it. For example:

Unemployment spoils people:
"...we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry and said you don't want the jobs that are available." - Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle

Unemployment makes people not want to work:
"...if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work." - Republican Senator John Kyl

Unemployment makes people lazy:
"We shouldn't turn the 'safety net' into a hammock. It should actually be a 'safety net.'" - Republican Rep. Steve King

Unemployment will turn people into hobos:
Republican Rep. Dean Heller said the current economic downturn and policies may bring back the hobos of the Great Depression - people who wandered the country taking odd jobs... "I believe there should be a federal safety net," but he questioned the wisdom of extending unemployment benefits yet again to a total of 24 months, which Congress is doing. "Is the government now creating hobos?" he asked. -Elko Daily Free Press

People who collect unemployment are drug addicts:
"We should not be giving be giving cash to people who... who basically are just going to blow it on drugs." - Republican Senator Orrin Hatch

People who collect unemployment are like animals:
"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better." -Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer South Carolina

Know this. Look at what they say and know this.

Republicans do not like the unemployed or unemployment insurance (why would they, it's a social safety net program - and Republicans don't believe in them despite them being proven to work). Republicans do not like people who collect unemployment insurance. Look at what they say. And vote accordingly in the upcoming election.

Which brings us to reason #2 as to why Senate Republicans unanimously blocked the  unemployment benefits extension during an historic economic crisis.

Blocking these benefits will not only profoundly hurt 1.2 million Americans, it will also help squelch any progress that has been made for economic recovery.

Right now, the Republicans best shots at gaining seats in the House and the Senate in this Fall's elections is if the voting public is still angry and frustrated over a lack of economic recovery. So they are not going to vote for anything that isn't going to help them politically. Even at the expense of the American people.

RadioShank: Atomic Books On WYPR's The Signal Today

Friday,  April 9
12PM/7PM. 88.1FM. The Signal. WYPR. Baltimore.

Today, I will be on local NPR affiliate, WYPR discussing spring reading suggestions on the arts show The Signal.

Wilson by Dan Clowes
The first new graphic novel from one of the masters of the form. Wilson is a series of one page “gag” strips that serves to tell a larger story. The character of Wilson feels sort of what it might be like if Charlie Brown grew up into a sociopath.

Wednesday Comics by Mark Chiarello
This gorgeous, oversize hardcover collects this interesting experiment DC Comics tried last year. For 12 consecutive Wednesdays, they released a comic newspaper. Each issue told a one page story. This book collects that. What makes this so special is not only the size – which feels just like if you opened the newspaper Sunday comics, but the talent that contributed to this. Including Neil Gaiman, Paul Pope, Michael Allred, Kyle Baker, etc. Wednesday Comics really injects fun and wonderment into comics again.

Role Models by John Waters
This memoir by John Waters takes a look at the iconic director’s heroes. At once fascinating and charming and shocking, this book is quintessential Waters.

Henry & Glenn by Igloo Tornado
Kool Aid Gets Fired by Tim Piotowski
So these are two ingenious and fun little mini comics.

Henry & Glenn is a series of gags based on the concept of punk icon Henry Rollins and metal icon Glenn Danzig living together as a “very good friends”. Their next door neighbors are the surprisingly considerate Satanist couple, Hall & Oates.

Kool Aid Gets Fired takes a look at what happens to a corporate mascot when the parent corporation decides it’s cheaper to have a CGI mascot than a real one and cuts Kool Aid loose. It’s a funny and astute commentary on the current corporate climate as well as celebrity.

Old Man Drinks by Robert Schnakenberg
Everyone needs a summer project: cleaning out the garage, finally finishing the landscaping, etc. My project this summer is to drink my way through this book. Each of the recipes comes with a picture of a real old man dispensing real words of wisdom.

The Hard Case Crime series
Nobody’s Angel by Jack Clark
Hard Case Crime revives the thrill of old pulp crime paperbacks. Each one comes as an inexpensive mass market paperback that can fit in your back pocket. The series includes local writer Madison Smart Bell, as well as favorites like Robert Bloch, Lawrence Block, Stephen King, Donald Hamilton, Mickey Spillane, Donald Westlake, Jason Starr, and many more.

These are new works or unpublished older works. And to complete the package, Hard Case Crime commissions new artwork from famed pulp cover artists. It’s like it’s the ’50s/’60s all over again.

Nobody’s Angel by Jack Clark is the newest installment in the series.

Listen live.

Or listen to an mp3 of the show.

Today: Baltimore Meets Its Corporate Lobbyists

Meeting on Thursday to Take on Corporate Lobbyists

Thursday, June 24. 7PM.
Church of the Incarnation. Baltimore.
4 E. University Pkwy (Charles Street and University Pkwy)
Host: Wendy S. and your local MoveOn Council

It's a kickoff for a massive effort to make democracy work for the 98% of us who don't have corporate lobbyists in Washington, D.C. This is the launch of  a campaign in the Baltimore area to make sure all candidates for Congress support concrete changes to fix our democracy.

Big Insurance, Wall Street, and Big Oil have expensive lobbyists working everyday to kill progressive reforms. We've had enough. We're going to meet up to plan how we will put a stop to corporate corruption and elect leaders who will work for us here in Maryland.