…from the mind (and sewing machine) of Cotton Monster crafter Jennifer Strunge. We hear from Jennifer and her colleagues at The Charm City Craft Mafia this week on The Signal.
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- Joanne Margolius heads up a theater troupe called The Magical Experiences Arts Company, and she works with a tough crowd. Her audiences are blind, deaf, autistic, and physically disabled, but she unlocks their emotions and imaginations without saying a word. We’ll sit in on a performance and find out how it’s done.
- Literary guru Benn Ray of Atomic Books stops by with a few suggestions for summer reading, including works by some of Baltimore’s most colorful characters and a few “projects” to keep you busy all season.
- And The Sopranos have got nothing on this mob when it comes to a sewing machine or a screen-printing press – The Charm City Craft Mafia has its hands in just about every DIY racket in town: Apparel, jewelry, ceramics, and more… Artistic offers you can’t refuse.
HELPFUL LINKS:
You can reach Joanne Margolius and the Magical Experiences Arts Company at: experiences@verizon.net
Check out The Charm City Craft Mafia at: www.charmcitycraftmafia.com
BENN RAY’S BOOK PICKS THIS WEEK:
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.
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.
