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Room/Mates

Throughout the month of February I’ll be hosting Room/Mates, a series of salon-style two-person shows in my apartment at City Arts, artist housing in Station North. Room/Mates presents new queer binaries outside the box of “couple” in the context of the bedroom. In the shadow of Valentine’s Day and Black History Month, Baltimore artists spanning different gender identities, sexual orientations, races, backgrounds, and creative practices will present alongside each other or collaborate. It’s all about encouraging an alternative dialogue in an informal, welcoming space.

Beth Hart arrived on the music scene at the tail end of the ’90s female singer/songwriter craze that gave us artists as diverse as Alanis Morissette, Cat Power and P.J. Harvey. It was Atlantic Records who made some of the biggest waves during period, releasing essential recordings by Tori Amos, Jewel and Julianna Hatfield, as well as queer women including Jill Sobule and Melissa Ferrick. The label was also responsible for a host of one-hit wonders (no offense intended) such as Toby Lightman, Donna Lewis, Kacey Crowley, Poe, Bif Naked, Mary Karlzen, and Hart herself.

Listening to people talk about the new movie version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American literature classic, I feel like I may be the only person who has never read the book. I somehow managed to get through high school and college without ever once cracking open the pages of that novel. And on top of that, I’ve never seen the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, so I really am coming to the story cold. And perhaps for Baz Lurhmann’s new epic extravaganza, I’m all the better for it.

Qué espectáculo! There are 96,000 reasons to love In the Heightsnow playing at Toby’s the Dinner Theatre in Columbia through July 21. But space constraints permit me to go over just a few. Toby Orenstein and Lawrence B. Munsey ably co-directed this production and took it to new heights with outstanding orchestration, a talented likeable cast, and a superb set.

An Interview with Drew Daniel of Matmos

Queer duo Matmos (Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt) has been at the forefront of the electronic music scene since the mid-1990s. But it was their groundbreaking 2001 release A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Curethat earned them their elevated profile. Incorporating the sounds of surgery into their sonic landscape, Matmos offered a cure for the occasional monotony of electro. In a way, they return to the body, the mind this time, with their latest disc The Marriage of True Minds(Thrill Jockey). A thought-provoking concept recording that utilizes telepathic experimentation, it’s a logical addition to the Matmos canon. had the pleasure of speaking with Drew Daniel of Matmos at the time of the release of the disc.