Baltimore21201.Com

Enjoy Kennedy Center Concerts from 21201. For Free.

This isn't actually happening in Baltimore. But it's just too cool to ignore. And you can enjoy it from 21201 or 21202 or 21230 or... well, fact is you can enjoy it from 10023 or 90069 or anywhere!

The Kennedy Center's Milennium Stage Summer Concert Series is in full swing with daily presentations at 6PM. Every concert is free, no ticket required. But wait, there's more: You can watch the events live on the Internet.

"The Smithsonian Festival continues to celebrate culture, NASA, and Texas with artists such as the talented Quebe Sisters Band and Texas State Accordion Champion Mark Halata. Come enjoy concerts performed by the NSO Summer Music Institute, featuring works such as Schumann's "Rhenish" and Mahler's Symphony No. 1. Hear outstanding vocal performances by The Zionaires, The Chancel Choir, and Jamie Coon— a singer/songwriter part of the NMAI Summer Music Series. Progressive poets with the Green Mic poetry slam, multicultural melodies, and sensational soloists fill the rest of July with acts you won't want to miss!", they say. And, they say it right.

I'm looking forward to Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys singing 50 Years of NASA and Big Balls in Cowtown. Check the schedule, they'll be on stage tomorrow, June 25th.

Young Mr. Oliver Meets His Boogyman. Up 26 Floors!

YMO gets really excited when he sees a ladybug, or a moth, or a mayfly on the outside of a window here. And we have lots of windows facing three directions. He'd never seen a grasshopper before this event and he simply froze in place. YMO tracked the creature with his eyes.

It's odd that such a face-to-face happened in the first place. Odder still was that the cat & bug stare-down went on for nearly 20-minutes. Hence, my having time to get the camera.

The bug moved a bit. Young Mr. Oliver didn't. Yeaaah, Oliver!

Johnny Dollar. Harry Truman. And Fashion?

About a year ago I wrote a short entry about a super-clever blog called Bags in Trees. A year later the BiT blog is as fascinating as ever. It's Charm City through and through; it's most of America through and through.

Moments after I posted the BiT entry last July, I received a comment from Baltimore's one-and-only Johnny Dollar. Surely you know him. If you read Baltimore-type blogs you must. Just in case you don't, he's a smile maker on the Baltimore blog scene. He's a Tiki Torch kind of guy. He like pies. He likes strong cocktails in hollowed out fruit. He has a finicky electrical panel. And based on this post, he has great taste in vintage Presidential shirts...

That being said, I'm all over this one. I want it. Wait! I think it's in my closet. I'm off on the search. Thanks for all of the fun, JD. And, thanks for bringing back the word DANG.

Detour Alert from Downtown Partnership

The Get Around Downtown Baltimore service from Baltimore's Downtown Partnership sent out an email press release this morning advising that Saratoga Street will be closed, between Charles and Cathedral Streets, for about a month. According to their detour directions, here's my map.

The reason for the closure was listed as Trigen Repairs. Yeah, OK. What's that?

Ah yes, Trigen is the company that supplies steam for heat (1,363,000 steam pounds per hour), chilled water for cooling (6,500 tons per hour), hot water (200,000 MBtus) and electricity (2.1 Megawatts) to a whole bunch of buildings in downtown Baltimore. I found these stats from a cached Trigen press release. Apparently Trigen was acquired by Veolia Energy some time ago.

You can find lots of interesting information on the Veolia Energy website if you're interested in infrastructure. Get lost in the data at your own peril.

Maryland Transit Administration + Google. What a Match!

I've just learned from the Baltimore Business Journal that our very own MTA has signed on to have Google Maps provide an extraordinary service: Online routes, alternates and times for local public transportation. This is big stuff. It's a really big deal.

While the program is still in a sort of testing Beta-stage, it already works and works very well.

Just go to the MTA website and enter your address and the address that you are headed for. And it will calculate the route, show you bus numbers, and show you a map...

But wait, there's more! You can plug in the actual time you want to leave your location or the actual time you want to arrive at your destination... and the program will give you options.

There are other interesting variables, some available now and others to be added.

I have to admit that I'm not a big user of public transportation in Baltimore. With this new information, that may just change. This is good for all. Please check this out and let the MTA know if this works for you.

Once in a While... You Just Have to Cry.

I can't imagine Sunday mornings without Russert.

And, I don't want to.

You Work in Downtown Baltimore? You're Appreciated. And Yes, You're Invited!

The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and the Clean, Safe & Beautiful Team (who, by the way, do a magnificent job), and a bundle of other sponsors are announcing the 2008 Downtown Employee Appreciation Week.

It's a week of fun stuff and activities and can make for an extended lunch hour. That's always a good thing.

The event this year is June 16 - 20 and is always a great hit. This just in from Downtown Partnership:

Celebrate Working Downtown

Downtown Partnership and the Clean, Safe, and Beautiful Team invite you to get out of the office to enjoy special events and giveaways.

Monday, June 16, noon–2 p.m. Kick-Off event at Hopkins Plaza with games, sampling* by Pepsi, 7-Eleven, and Pretzel Twist, and free ice cream. 

Wednesday, June 18, noon–2 p.m. Lunch Party at Center Plaza with free samples* from Downtown restaurants:

Mex
Pizzeria Speranza
Sofi’s Crepes
Taharka Brothers Ice Cream
Additional sampling by Pepsi and The Peanut Shoppe. Rain Location: BGE building in Center Plaza.

Thursday, June 19, 5:30–7:30 p.m. Networking Event at Power Plant Live! at the Blue Door Bar (Plaza Bar). Music by Nelly's Echo. Complimentary buffet from Mex. $2.50 beer, wine, sangria, and margaritas. The first 150 people who bring this email will receive 2 free drink tickets.

Stop by the Downtown Partnership booth each day to pick up giveaways and enter for your chance to win one of many prizes including tickets to the Baltimore Chefs and Wine Experience, gift certificates to Edible Arrangements and CENTERSTAGE, passes to the Aquarium, B&O Railroad Museum and the Maryland Science Center, and more.

Bring this email to MECU's table Monday and Wednesday to be entered to win a pair of tickets to the Baltimore Chefs and Wine Experience hosted by Sandra Pinckney and featuring Ted Allen.

How Our Inner Harbor Changed the World's Port Cities. No, Really! I'm Serious.

If you missed this last night, be certain to set your Tivo or DVR to record Maryland Public Television at 9PM July 22nd. (Channels 22 and 67)

Global Harbors: A Waterfront Renaissance is an outstanding piece of documentary work.

Baltimore Sun's architecture critic, Edward Gunts writes, "In many ways, Global Harbors is the Un-Wire. It doesn't deny the existence of crime and poverty and dysfunction in the city, but it starts with the premise that the glass is half-full. It shows Baltimore as a place where good things can happen when people put their minds to it. It dares to suggest that 50 years of rebuilding may be paying off."

I think Global Harbors' premise is that the glass is way, way more than half-full and that 50 years of rebuilding started paying off 50 years ago. It certainly did for the urban pioneers who, decades ago, bought their homes in Otterbein for a dollar.

In the Examiner, Michael Olesker notes, "What most of us didn’t know — but learn from the documentary — is the profound effect Harborplace has had on urban harbors around the world, with municipal leaders having taken their cues from the Baltimore model." I like Olesker's take, as I usually do, best.

Like all good documentaries should, this one has a website. And, if that Tivo crashes or Comcast goes down you can buy the DVD online. Trust me, it's a keeper. Spend the twenty-bucks.

100-degree Days; The Bear Facts

This early June heat wave is insane. The heat actually caused the Baltimore Sun's weather reporter and chief space cadet, Frank Roylance, to use the word "GAK" in his post today. I have nothing to add to that sentiment except this cooling video of a polar bear at the Baltimore Zoo. The images and the tune instantly dropped my personal heat index. Enjoy.

Juno Ya Wanna be on the Pier this Summer!

It's going to be a super summer in Baltimore if the Fells Point Development Corporation has anything to do with it. And, they do. And, in a big way.

Grab your favorite deck chair and head over to the South Broadway Pier for some fun summertime flicks.

The movie for July 9th is JUNO. [Thanks Corey for the correction!] Be there and enjoy. A whole lot of folks say that the soundtrack, the music, is more important than the actual film. Just in case you've been in a cave for the past couple of years or so...

Here's a video of the Moldy Peaches on ABC TV's the View.

Moldy Peaches call themselves Anti-Folk. I don't see it that way: Remember the two Guthries, Ella Jenkins, Mickey Bones and Cisco Houston? Moldy Peachs fit in with the very, very best of folk.

Go see. Tell me if I'm wrong. And, check out the full schedule of Films on the Pier.

While you're at it visit the Fells Point Development Corp's website. Sign up for their newsletter - it's all good.

Great Bones Found on Charles Street

If you were walking up Charles Street last weekend to visit Baltimore's 91st annual Flower Mart in Mount Vernon, I hope you took a moment to look in - and visit - Meredith Gallery in the North 800 Block of our favorite street.

Meredith's current - and impressuve - exhibition features the work of Len Dougherty.

Fur-Nature: Art Furniture Inspired by Nature. Check out the bones that I've discovered.

This amazing piece of hand-worked wood is called Jurassic Lounge. It's crafted from ash with a suede pillow. And I love it.

If only I had a roof-top deck. I'd try to commission a set of four - crafted in teak with waterproof microfiber pillows.

Have you ever seen such great lines?

Get on Track, You!

Just when I think that Amtrak may not actually be headed, full speed, toward a solid brick wall... they come up with another very expensive PR move. One that may or may not play to a new, younger rider audience, which is what they need. Especially a younger vacation & excursion rider audience.

The first annual National Train Day is Saturday. Major celebrations in the largest rail stations they service. It celebrates the day the Golden Spike was driven in Utah. Al Roker will be heading up the festivities in Washington, DC.

Their releases do make some good points: "Now, 139 years after the golden spike connected east and west, there’s never been a better time to take the train. Huge crowds and the frustrations that go with them burden our highways and airports. And at a time when we all share the same pressing concerns about ecology and energy conservation, trains are a more energy-efficient mode of travel than either autos or airplanes. Riding the rails is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. Not to mention meet interesting people and see breathtaking scenery".

Now, that's not bad copy... though, I'm not sure about that 'interesting people' business.

Also, Jacob and I were threatened with expulsion from Baltimore's Penn Station while we were waiting for our train to DC. I was taking photos of the stained glass dome in the ceiling. Apparently that was a security breach. The security guard was large... and armed. I put the lens cap on the camera and sat down.

Don't get me wrong. I love riding the train. I just wish this PR push would let me know why the Amtrak tickets from BWI to NYP are so expensive as I'm reducing my carbon footprint.   

January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

                       -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Laura Lippman on Baltimore, Crab Cakes & Her New Book

Baltimore author, resident, and gal-about-town, Laura Lippman loves the Crab Cakes at Faidley's in Lexington Market just like we all do. She writes crime novels like none of us will ever be able to. She's much prettier than most authors that we'll ever know. She holds Baltimore dear, in her heart, like we all seem to. And, she wins awards like the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Quill, and more. Her newest book, Another Thing To Fall is receiving rave reviews.

I keep up on her doings and such by way of Author Tracker: a service of Harper Collins, her publisher.

Check out this video from Lippman.

And, visit her personal website: LauraLippman.Com

Let's All Buy a Brick; Support a Home for Our Little, and Not-So-Little Ones.

A big, 24 year-old mother has given birth to a really big, healthy baby in Baltimore. The mother's name is Felix. The father is, for the time-being, unknown. Yep, it seems that Mother Felix was "sleeping around" prior to coming to Baltimore -- her new-born is, for now, unnamed also.

So what to do to support this unwed mother... I have the answer. Buy a brick. Yes, a brick.

...I first worked on a Zoomerang project for the Baltimore Zoo with some folks from Doner Advertising in 1998 (when Doner was on N Charles Street) and I've admired the Baltimore Zoo ever since. International attention to our zoo has been building with the announcement that Mother Felix was with child... er, calf.

Support for our Baltimore zoo is more important now than ever. And, I know that sometimes it's difficult to write a check to a general fund and not see anything you can hold in your hand.

You can't hold these bricks in your hand; you can walk on them, though. And, they will be engraved with your names and message. How's this for a thought: Buy a separate brick for each of your children. Once the bricks are installed take the kids for a grand field trip to find their names.

Let's make good things happen for the Baltimore Zoo. It will happen just one brick at a time.

By the way, do you know that the Baltimore Zoo operates a Penguin Cam?

Check it out during daylight hours. It couldn't be more fun.

You Think You Know Your Dictionary?

OK then... Head up to Baltimore's Calvert School at 4300 N Charles Street on Saturday, April 5th. Select your tiles and play Scrabble for a great cause.

The Greater Homewood Community Corporation is preparing for its 7th Annual Scrabble Fundraiser for Literacy. The annual event helps to fund their program to teach English as a Second Language and their Adult Literacy outreach programs.

Games will be available at the Social and the Competetive levels.

Entry is $30 ($20 for students with ID and seniors 62 and older). Great prizes from area retailers and restaurants. Food, refreshments, and free parking for all participants.

Call 410-261-3520 for more information. Meantime try joining the debate on the validity of Sesquioxidizing, if you dare. You'll either get 1674 points if played correctly or a serious poke in the eye!

Get LIT in Baltimore! - Part 2

I posted a note on Sunday about getting LIT in Baltimore by way of an email from Carole Evitts. Here's the follow-up...

Spring 2008 brings a lot of good things to the mid-Atlantic. One of the best promises to be this year's 5th Annual CityLit Festival. Rub elbows with, and learn from, some of the best in the literature scene on April 19th at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (downtown on Cathedral Street). 10AM - 5PM. Think: Laura Lippman, Manil Suri, Dan Fesperman, Carole Boston Weatherford, Michael Olesker, and dozens of others. This event is free to attendees and free to exhibitors. Put on your thinking caps, you Lit-Types!

President and CEO of the CityLIt Project, Gregg A. Wilhelm, wants us to know that: CityLit Project nurtures the culture of literature in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. Programs include free public events, registration-based writers' workshops and conferences, a rock-n-read concert that targets the 18-34 crowd (which represents the steepest rate of decline in reading), and efforts to get youth to dig reading and writing as creative, expressive arts.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! (OK, too much late night TV. Way too much.) Gregg Wilhelm is too modest. Here are just a couple of quotes from those in the know:

“CityLit Festival is one of my favorite events of the year. The energy and creativity that CityLit Project brings to it--and to each of its programs--is worthy of the library’s support, and the entire community’s support.”
Dr. Carla Hayden
Executive Director
Enoch Pratt Free Library

“We value the content CityLit Project has provided the Baltimore Book Festival over the years. In a city rich with a variety of creative arts, Baltimore is fortunate to have CityLit as a champion of the literary arts.”
Bill Gilmore
Executive Director
Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts

“After searching for a way to become involved with the local literary community, I found exactly what I was looking for— it’s the nonprofit CityLit Project. At the happy hour, it was apparent that CityLit and JMWW are achieving their mission to nurture the culture of literature.”
Corinne Levinstein
Writer

Baltimore! Get Lit! REALLY, Get LIT!

A couple of days ago I wrote about the sad state of the iffy, dicey, and generally lame media releases that arrive on my desk after January and continue to arrive until the sun warms us up a bit and Baltimore's collective community spirit brightens. I was a tad-bit blue as I wrote that last post because we haven't had a decent snow storm this winter -- and, nothing makes me happier (and nothing warms ME up) more than a Baltimore snow-day.

Just then, I received a wonderful email notice from Carole Evitts. I read it, and I smiled, and I felt much warmer and a whole lot more positive. I felt the sunshine. (But, still no decent snow for 2008 was in the forecast. Rats...)

Here's the sidebar: I consider the Evitts' family one of the smartest and most productive and giving literary families in current-day Baltimore. Here's a very condensed Evitts' snapshot: Carole's husband, author, professor, and truly nice guy, William J Evitts PhD, has been a fixture at Johns Hopkins University for a long, long time. Evitts' son, Michael, is the amazingly knowledgeable voice of Baltimore's Downtown Partnership. Their daughter, the award winning writer Elizabeth Evitts, was editor of Baltimore's slick, glossy -- and intelligently written magazine -- Urbanite. The magazine for Baltimore's Curious. I hear that Elizabeth is now setting up her own shop as most high-level, creative Baltimorians tend to do.

Oh yes, and then there's Carole A Evitts. When I was introduced to her a couple of years ago by way of a project for the Historic Charles Street Association, I knew that we'd met a decade or so before. We worked it out and sure enough... Carole and I were working on Zoomerang together way back in the late 1980s. We decided that, yes, Baltimore will always be a small town where friends live, leave, return, and reunite.

Stay tuned for the announcement from Carole that turns smart Baltimore smarter and more positive each year... and GET LIT!

Oh and by the way, if you want to learn about the Civil Rights Movement (and the Baltimore riots) in our city from folks who lived here and lived those events, click here for a PDF: Baltimore Riots. It is a must read.

After January Each Year: The Ho-Hum Press Releases Hit Baltimore

Odd, but true... Take this urgent message from the Live Baltimore Home Center:

Need a makeover? Want to be on national TV? Then head down to the Harborplace Amphitheater on Monday, February 18, where one lucky person will be "glambushed" live on TV during the CBS Early Show. [Say now, that sounds like a good time to be had by all.]

The Early Show's Dave Price will be LIVE in Baltimore on Monday morning. All Baltimoreans are invited to show their support by joining him as part of the show's audience from 5:30 - 9:00 a.m. One lucky audience member will be selected for a makeover by designer to the stars, Bradley Bayou - author of "The Science of Sexy." WJZ-TV's Ron Matz will also be broadcasting live. We want to show support for the CBS Early Show and proudly represent the city of Baltimore, so come out and don't miss your chance to be on national television. 

[They've got to be kidding, right?]

And, this just in from "The Insiders Club" at 1st Mariner Arena:

WWE PRESENTS BACKLASH - Sunday , April 27^th AT 7:45 PM

As a member of the 1st Mariner Arena Insiders Club [I'm on their mailing list, yes. But, I had no idea that I was a member of anything so very special...] you are invited to take part in an exclusive presale for WWE Presents Backlash, at 1st Mariner Arena on Sunday. Attendees must be 14 years of age.

[Oh swell, let's round up all of our young teens and head out to see this smart little package. Oh and yes, the best tickets are $175 each...]

He doesn't look like another Hanna Montana so I think I'll hold-off on this one and not stand in line.

If you've ever read this blog before, you know that I'm a rah-rah, full-on supporter of Baltimore and 21201. It just gets creepy on the PR front around this time of year. Stay tuned for some of the truly worthwhile notices of late winter.

And, if you see huge guys walking around downtown Baltimore in tights... well, consider yourself warned. It's not altogether pretty.

Would You Party With This Man?

Tomorrow is the birthday of that Baltimore son and rascal, Edgar Allen Poe. The 199th to be exact. I've never really thought about his birthday until I read the MetroMix suggestions on how to observe Poe's special day.

Metromix says, "We at MetroMix think this calls for a celebration. You could pay homage by killing your loved one and stashing her dismembered limbs in walls and under floorboards, but the police (dare we say the Poe-Poe?) wouldn't be too fond of that. Instead, pay your respects at the Poe house and his grave at Westminster Hall, then do as he did and go on a Baltimorean bender. We've staked out the spots—all you need is a glass and a penchant for thinking in rhymed couplets."

NOTE: I'm not advocating here, I'm just reporting.

MetroMix also provides a couple of pick-up lines. They begin this way:

"Let's drink a whole Cask of Amontillado and put my Pendulum in your..."

You get the idea. One final thought... Don't Try Any of This at Home.