December, Baltimore: Celebrated Summer / Hypnotic Guitar of John Ondolo
When I lived in Chicago and Milwaukee was an hour away, I rarely heard of anyone's day trip to Milwaukee. Living in the D.C. area, you find that most people have a solid sense of Baltimore (also an hour away) and can name a few favorite spots there. And I kind of get it. I can see how a Chicagoan (rightly or wrongly) would think of Milwaukee as being the same...but much less so. Baltimore, however, is an entirely different animal than D.C. Baltimore isn't the smaller version of anything. It's just big enough to be on the national stage, so to speak, and just small enough to have the chip-on-its-shoulder pride that smaller big cities have. Baltimore, I am a fan. And not just because of The Wire--a show largely shot on streets the likes of me will probably never see. (But, god damn, The Wire was something.) The neighborhood "up there" that I'm most likely to find myself in is Hampden. Once a haven of funky thrift shops, it has sense evolved into a haven of well-...