I will pick up and read pretty much anything that is ink and paper. For example, I can't not peruse the weekly circular when I walk into Super Fresh. When I eat my breakfast, I read the back of the cereal box. And all those piles of free leaflets, pamphlets, flyers, neighborhood news rags, independent lit mags, event opening postcards and even automotive and real estate classifieds that can be found stacked near the doors of local places like Eddie's grocery, distributed through the halls of campus buildings and heaped in the automatic newsstands on 31st and St. Paul are a compulsion for me. I always rescue one from each pile. I have to. I'm powerless to the temptation of the printed word.
Sometimes I even go out of my way to pick up free literature. I walk to the corner for the local alternative weekly, City Paper, every Wednesday. I've been known to take a detour to Wolman on my way to campus to pick up a copy of the Baltimore Sun from the stack outside the dining hall door even though I haven't lived in the dorms for two years. And more recently, I've found myself looking out for the pint-sized, glossy covered editions of local magazine, Radar.
A few months shy of two years old, Radar, a publication with its finger on the pulse of Baltimore arts and culture, has become the sweetheart of people who care about such things. Published bi-monthly, it packs about 30 reviews of current arts events, interviews with local arts personalities and essays on the arts in Baltimore into its 60 or so pages.
In a chat over coffee, Radar's General Editor David Crandall sat down with me and told me about what makes Radar great.
The idea for the magazine came at a meeting of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance back in 2001 when local painter Jack Livingston, a transplant from Houston frustrated with the dearth of media attention given to the vibrant arts community in Baltimore, found himself volunteering to print reviews himself. With $500 seed money put up by alliance head Nancy Haragan, Radar was on its way.
According to Crandall, Radar's success has a lot to do with its format. He and Livingston wanted it to be cheap and portable: "Something you can put in your pocket," he says. At its petite four-by-five inch size, it's the perfect fit for the back pocket of any pair of jeans, making it a sort of reference book that is effortless to consult and easily available for spontaneous dog-earing.
The short length of the reviews, only one per page, helps to make Radar even more user-friendly. "There's enough in 250 words to get a good idea across without being too long. We want to be pithy and get right to the point. There's not a lot of fat," says Crandall.
And although the general format is unchanging, every Radar is different not only in subject matter but in aesthetic. There is no set Radar logo, and each cover, chosen by Art Director Todd Harvey, is always something different. "Each cover is like a little piece of artwork," explains Crandall. This flexibility allows the magazine to be eye-catching without getting stale. With each and every new edition of the adorable little guy, it's like falling in love all over again.
Of course, the subjects Radar tackles are just as important as the visually pleasing design and the lean format in which its reviews are executed. In this current issue, Radar covers everything from an all-male ballet troupe parody called, "Les Ballets Trockaderos," to the latest exhibit at -- who knew there was one? -- the National Museum of Dentistry found right here in Baltimore.
Yet Radar's reviews cover more than the obscure and sensational. Although the publication generally leaves the exhibits of heavy hitters like the BMA and the Walters to the pens of the mainstream press, it has established itself as the all-important voice of Baltimore's avant garde and secured its place as a tastemaker in local arts and culture.
After all, Radar's writers should know. They are all members of the local arts culture themselves.
"These are artists and writers commenting on their colleagues," says Crandall. "They are embedded in the community." Boasting this serious collection of peer-to-peer reviews lends a sincerity and credibility to Radar's pages that only helps it to impact and even define the arts in Baltimore.
You would never guess it from the extremely polished and professional look of the magazine, but there is no official Radar headquarters bustling with reporters, phones ringing off the hook, a secretary smiling calmly in the lobby.
For now, the Radar newsroom is housed firmly in Livingston's Pikesville residence. The magazine exists as a completely electronic endeavor.
The first few issues were produced on a strictly volunteer basis. But now that Radar has hit its stride, Crandall and Livingston have been able to hire a full time staff and pay writers a $25 honorarium for each review. Since the for-profit venture with a non-profit mission became an LLC earlier this year, Radar has grown in leaps and bounds. The caliber, diversity and sheer number of the magazine's advertisers is impressively strong. Entities from private artists announcing a new show to large corporate sponsors, like Struever Bros. real estate developers, compete for ad space. As a result, ad revenues have increased five-fold since the first issue nearly two years ago.
With such encouraging numbers, Radar has big dreams for the future. It currently distributes 15,000 copies to 200 locations, but its long-term goal is to double the current number of printed copies and to eventually spread their distribution outward to the suburbs and beyond to Washington D.C. and even Philadelphia. Crandall says they're even starting to consider taking on interns, a sure sign that any business has made it.
And it's only getting bigger. Earlier this week Radar held a launch party for the number nine edition, and on Feb. 28, Radar will present, "The Cerebral Truth," a progressive hip hop event in conjunction with the Creative Alliance, featuring local wordsmiths Labtekwon, Jahiti, Skiz Fernando and the Educated Consumers.
Such events are the sort of thing that Crandall likes best about working on Radar; or rather, the people who show up at such events are his favorite thing about working on Radar.
"For me, personally," he says. "Whether it's artists, writers or advertisers, it's just a feeling of being connected. I feel like I'm giving them something they need, and they're giving me something I need. ...When everyone gets together there is a tangible sense of community."
That is undoubtedly the best part of Radar for the rest of us too. Even if you don't make it to the next big show or launch party, you can always have your own little tangible piece of the community in your back pocket when you pick up a copy of Radar.
Visit Radar online at http://radarreview.net/front.cfm or check out Charles Village businesses that stock the latest edition of Radar, including: Eddie's, Video Americain, Record and Tape Traders, Normal's Books and Records, Donna's and One World Caf??.
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