Entertainment : Buzz

Mario Lopez tried to coax actors to try their hand at the Ray Lewis' squirrel dance at the Screen Actors Guild awards Jan. 27 — all with varying degrees of success. 

"Big Bang Theory" actors Jim Parsons and Kunal Nayyar, along with Chris Tucker all attempted to imitate the Baltimore Ravens linebacker's famous moves before the world sees the real deal for the last time in Sunday's Super Bowl game against the San Francisco 49ers. USA Today featured a video with the stars in action.

Lewis is retiring at the end of the season, after 17 years on the field. 

Meanwhile, Perry Hall resident and Ray Lewis fan Louie Silverio, attempted his own version of No. 52's dance and posted the video on YouTube. His girfriend Ashleigh Coffelt sent BmoreMedia the link. 

Jane Austen aficionados from around the world are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the penning of "Pride and Prejudice" this month. 

Among those celebrating is Goucher College in Towson, writes the New York Times. It opened "Pride and Prejudice: A 200 Year Affair" Jan. 28.

The exhibit features what it bills as the largest Jane Austen collection in North America, including the first edition that was published and rare and illustrated editions. The exhibit runs through July 26. 

The South Baltimore Recreation Center has officially reopened as a neigborhood technology center, thanks to the efforts of the Riverside community and Digital Harbor High School supporters.

Forbes takes a look at the new venue, where Balitmore City school students can learn about web design, mobile app development and digital media production. 

"The center’s grand opening was a packed house, where excited participants got to show equally excited visitors the fruits of some of their early work, providing a taste of what’s to come from the space," the magazine writes. "Shelly Blake-Plock, the executive co-director of the Digital Harbor Foundation, delivered such an impassioned welcome speech that you could almost see where all this excitement was coming from."

You can read the rest of the story here. 

The Baltimore Ravens not only scored big on the field in their winning game against the Denver Broncos, they scored big ratings for CBS, according to USA Today. 

Even though Denver and Baltimore aren't particularly big markets, the Jan. 12 game drew the highest ratings for an AFC divisional playoff. The nail-biting game went into double overtime and ended in the Ravens' favor after Justin Tucker's 47-yard field goal. 

It could have also gotten quite a few viewers since it's the last season for No. 52 Ray Lewis, who is retiring at the end of the season after a 17-year career. 

For those of you who spend Friday nights carousing in Federal Hill bars, your efforts have not gone unnoticed. 

The Daily Beast has named Baltimore one of the top 25 Drunkest Cities of 2012. Alas it only came in at No. 13, beating out Philadelphia, but coming in behind Washington, D.C., which earned a respectable ninth place on the list.

Boston earned the top spot, followed by Norfolk, Va., and Milwaukee, Wisc.

The Daily Beast, with the help of a market research firm, examined data on the number of alcoholic drinks per month each adult consumes in each of the metro areas. It says it also pulled data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the number of folks who are classified as heavy drinkers and binge drinkers. You can see the entire list here. 

So you may have heard something about Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis retiring at the end of this season, after 17 years on the field. 

But No. 52 will likely remain in the public eye, according to Forbes. The publication speaks with the managing director of sports marketing agency Octagon First Call, who speculates that a stint with "Dancing With the Stars," speaking engagements and loads of endorsement deals are all in store for the football star. 

Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated reports that Ray Lewis is expected to join ESPN as a sports analyst, citing "multiple sources." 

 

The New Yorker has reviewed the top classical music performances of 2012, which includes a March 26 concert that involved Baltimore-bred musician Dan Deacon.

"This event with So Percussion, Matmos, and Dan Deacon stood out for its anarchic, joyous spirit," writes the New Yorker. In its original blog review, the New Yorker writer Alex Ross describes the John Cage tribute as "one of the more entertaining and fulfilling evenings I've had in recent years."

Performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Birmingham Opera were also recognized in the list. 

Electronic composer Deacon was featured in Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year. 

Denise Whiting and her restaurant Cafe Hon are once again the darlings of the Hampden neighborhood, according to a recent episode of Gordon Ramsey's "Kitchen Nightmares."

Ramsey revisits Cafe Hon a year after his first visit to find a bustling restaurant, humble owner and good food. 

"The food was better, they said, the staff seemed happier -- the first piece portrayed them as primed for a full-scale revolt -- and the community seemed ready to let bygones be bygones, especially once Whiting made good on her promise to let go of the trademark," writes Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun.

Whiting, of course, faced a public relations nightmare after trademarking the word "Hon." She then later abandoned the trademark and her decision was broadcast on MIX 106.5 and on "Kitchen Nightmares."

The New York Times has recognized 10 classical music orchestras that have made great strides in the past year and bestows upon each its own little award — without any statues or cash to go along with the honor. 

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is among them and the Times honors the arts organization with the "Chicken Droppings-into-Chicken Salad Award."

"The financially troubled Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which was looking for a way to boost revenue and occupy the players during quiet summer weeks...wins for its summer academy aimed at amateur classical musicians, who pay to spend a week rehearsing and performing alongside the orchestra’s professionals," the Times writes. 

You can see the list of recognized orchestras here. 

The owners of Hampden's Alchemy restaurant are starring in a new reality television show, according to tourism and hospitality website Citypeek.com. 

Baltimore-based RLTV is featuring the couple on a show called "What's Next," scheduled to air in the spring.

"The foodie show uses the small 75 seat venue ALCHEMY's partners Sommelier/Pastry-Bread-Sweets Debi Bell-Matassa and Executive Chef Michael Matassa to cover and tackle issues like: how do you run a business, how do you manage to work side by side your spouse," Citypeek.com writes. 

Founded by John Erickson, cable channel RLTV caters to the 50 + crowd in its programming.

The rivalry between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens is pretty intense  — to put it mildly.

But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Steelers' hometown newspaper, tells its readers to spend some of their time and money in a "city that abounds with great food and art."

The travel story tells readers to check out the Baltimore Museum of Art, Fort McHenry, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Little Italy restaurants and other venues. "Today, its most famous site is the landmark Inner Harbor, a historic seaport that was redeveloped from the late 1960s through the '80s," the Post-Gazette writes about Baltimore.

We'll ignore the little tidbit on picking a good Steelers bar. 

Cross Street Market or Eastern Market? It's a showdown between Federal Hill and Capitol Hill on the Travel Channel.

The cable network was in Baltimore Dec. 7 and filmed at the Cross Street Market, writes Kevin Lynch in SouthBMore.com. 

"Get down to the market and let people know how great the area is," SouthBMore.com writes. "And, while you are there, grab something at one of the many merchants and support local business."

We can't wait to see the show when it airs. 

Baltimore filmmaker Matthew Porterfield is debuting his latest film, "I Used to Be Darker," at Sundance next month. The movie tells the story of a runaway who goes to live with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore and confronts a family struggle afterwards. "Darker" is one of ten films in the film festival's NEXT program, which highlights innovative storytelling in film. 

You can read more about the NEXT films here on film site Indiewire or in this writeup in the New York Times. 

Porterfield garnered rave reviews for "Putty Hill" in 2010. The Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University selected the Hamilton native for its 2012-2013 Artist Residency Awards. Porterfield has also won the Sondheim Prize and was included in the Whitney Biennial. 

Timonium's Festival of Trees is one of the top 10 great places to "put a spin" on the Christmas spirit, according to USA Today and Jinglebelljunction.com's creator Monica Mays.

"It includes a fairyland forest with more than 600 decorated trees, wreaths and gingerbread houses, all for sale," USA Today writes. "There also is a Harry Potter house, a toy train garden, holiday craft shopping and entertainment."

Tickets cost $13 and sales benefit the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Other contenders on the list include a Santa pub crawl in Reno and Santa Claus, Ind., a town that celebrates Christmas all year long. 

You can see the entire list here. 

Maryland voters approved a massive expansion of gambling on Election Day. The Free State is getting a sixth casino in Prince George's County and Maryland Live at Arundel Mills and other casinos will get table games.

But Maryland isn't the only East Coast state doing this, writes the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Toronto and New York City are considering casino developments and Philadelphia is getting a downtown hotel and casino.

"There isn't an end in sight," writes the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Two gaming analysts believe there should be. In separate research reports, they said the populous Northeast and Atlantic Coast regions are close to reaching a casino saturation point."

You can read the rest of the story here.