Buzz

CNN's Lou Dobbs took on the Baltimore City School System's recently announced policy to serve meatless meals in school cafeterias each Monday.

Watch the video:

This week "L.A. Unleashed" -- the L.A. Times blog devoted to pets and wild animals -- doted on Baltimore's adorable Felix the elephant. Apparently she doesn't need tusks to mow down on this seasonal favorite � a pumpkin!

Excerpt:

"As part of the Halloween festivities at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, even the elephants are getting the chance to celebrate our ghastliest holiday in style. African elephants Felix (above, who, despite what her name suggests, is female) and her year-old son, Samson, will spend the weekend enjoying Halloween-themed enrichment activities before the zoo's visitors."

Read the entire article here

Last weekend's local Women's Film Fest encouraged film lovers of all kinds together to support the outreach/survivorship program for Hopkins's breast cancer patients.

Excerpt:

"As if a weekend full of nonstop films isn't reason enough to attend a film festival, then surely a non-profit festival held to raise breast cancer awareness and promote women's cinema can inspire a visit. That is just what the Baltimore Women's Film Festival aims to do.

The annually held festival features a wide variety of films created by or for women. And if one needs another reason to venture to the Inner Harbor, consider the fact that 50 percent of all ticket sales are donated to the outreach/survivorship program for Hopkins's breast cancer patients and breast cancer research."

Read the entire article here

Audience members can look forward to learning about � well, just about anything � at the increasingly popular "Ignite Baltimore."

Excerpt:

"The fourth session of Ignite Baltimore, held Oct. 22, drew people to The Walters Art Museum to hear about such diverse topics as history, art, organic foods, wine sales in Maryland, how to survive a zombie attack, nanobiotechnology and much more. If you are unfamiliar with the Ignite format, speakers are given five minutes and 20 slides to talk on any subject they wish, so attendees are never quite sure what they will hear.

Ignite is a worldwide movement that started in 2006 in Seattle, Washington. I could not tell you how many cities are now sponsoring these events, but they seem to be happening from Sydney, Australia to Dublin, Ireland. Science geeks, take note: the Ignite Baltimore event was named "Best Nerd's Night Out" for 2009 by the Baltimore City Paper. The first Ignite was held on Oct. 16, 2008 and its popularity has grown so rapidly, that it might not qualify as a City Secret for long."

Read the entire article here

Wanna check out one of the lovliest cities in the country? You won't have to travel far. For the second year in a row, Forbes Traveler magazine has pegged Maryland's capital city as one of the nation's 20 prettiest spots in the U.S.

Here's an expcert:

"As the sun casts its autumnal glow on thousands of picturesque U.S. cities and towns, it's the perfect time to recognize the proverbial winners of the country's civic-beauty contest. Some you may recall from last year, others are brand sparkling new. 

Like all such pageants, this is a subjective one�but we've received help from several experts with keen eyes for architecture, aesthetics, and small-town charm. This year's pretty-town pickers include Salt Lake City-based architectural photographer Alan Blakely; residential designer Erin Anderson; and painter John Vander Stelt.

We left the definition of "pretty" up to the judges themselves. Photographer Blakely said he was drawn to places that were "fairly pure, architecturally�without a lot of commissioned residential architecture, but rather, structures built by private builders or the occupants themselves."

Greg Melville, co-author of 101 Best Outdoor Towns, explains the criteria he used in making his choices: "Each of these places is among the most picturesque (in the country)�whether it's the natural surroundings, the architecture, or more likely a combination of the two."

Melville's list includes the Chesapeake Bay-side town of Annapolis, Md.

'Annapolis is somehow able to maintain ties to its historic colonial and maritime past without seeming hokey,' says Melville"

Read the full article here.

In a show of their district-wide commitment to arts education, Towson's Carver Center for Arts and Technology and Dandalk's Patapsco High and Center for the Arts both received the prestigious title of "national schools of distinction in arts education" from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Excerpt:

"Two Baltimore County high schools are among five nationwide to receive awards for arts education, school officials announced Thursday.

The Carver Center for Arts and Technology, in Towson, and Patapsco High and Center for the Arts, in Dundalk, were named "national schools of distinction in arts education" by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This is the first time multiple schools from one district have been honored the same year, said Darrell M. Ayers, the center's vice president of education.

'These schools have really created exciting and engaging learning environments,' Ayers said. 'They've wrought places where drama and literature, and math and music, and dance and visual arts and history can come together, so that the arts are part of what enlivens education and makes education better.'"

Read the entire article here

This week Charm City Tweeters were up in arms over the city's decision to take issue with the Pink Flamingo gracing the facade of the building in which Cafe Hon is located. Attached to the building for seven years, the city informed Denis Whitig, owner of Cafe Hon, she'd have to pay an $800 fine for a "minor privilege permit" or take the bird down.

@phintch RT@PetiteAbsinthe, says "Cafe Hon in Hampden took its big pink flamingo down last night! Eff you, Baltimore for requiring an $800 fine!"

@nancypub wonders "@phintch @PetiteAbsinthe Why didn't Cafe Hon simply pay the fee? (There are more important causes to be a martyr for than city permits)"

@citythatbreeds says, "if this whole giant flamingo thing doesn't get turned around quickly i'm going to get some ppl to donate to put it back."

@NicoleSchiavone chimed in  retweeting "@RyanatMGH: SAVE THE CAFE HON FLAMINGO, SAVE THE WORLD. Please RT.- tis a sad day in hamden ... cafe hon is the flamingo!"

@oneeyedcarmen answers "@citythatbreeds The $ isn't the issue. She can afford it.Problem is, if you pay the city THEY win. I'm not a big fan of "THEYs" and "THEMs"

@phintch was taken by surprise by the news,"@nancypub @PetiteAbsinthe I don't know...I thought they were going to. I would think $800 is a small price for the extra publicity."

@GarretOhm says "@nancypub I'm with you on the Flamingo. Just pay the fee. It's worth it."

@phintch offers one last look, "One of the last pictures of a Baltimore landmark RT @clairerocks: Cafe Hon in Hampden :) http://twitpic.com/m4uyn"

@cafehon gives an update on the flamingo's demise, "Not much left of the unwanted 'big pink bird'"

@RyanatMGH wonders, "What can the @BaltimoreMD Twitter community do to get the Cafe Hon flamingo back in action?"

@designbyblake notes finally that, "Usually you try to save things BEFORE they come down, I'm just saying. You're all a little late to the flamingo party."

Leaving the Hampden bird flap beyond other tweeps were looking toward the future with possible projects that have been successful in other cities wondering are they right for Baltimore?

@slantsixneal offers this as a possibility, "McSweeney's breathes life (however temporary) into the idea of a newspaper: http://bit.ly/3UJp8N. Who's up for trying this in Baltimore?"

@prattlibrary saw this and so should you, "Love this! RT @PortDiscovery Let's get one of these in Baltimore! http://bit.ly/eQdkq"

Some of the area's best bands and musicians cover each other on Splice Today's newest mixtape, uncovering a sound that's exclusively Baltimore.

Excerpt:

"From the dancy oddball weirdness of Dan Deacon and the Wham City crowd, to the gorgeous synth-pop of Beach House and the fiery wailing of Arbouretum and Pontiak, to folksters Small Sur and Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez, to the DJs tearing up the Baltimore Club scene and the noisy post-punk bands blaring from the Copycat and the H&H, Baltimore has the best and most diverse music scene in the country. And it's a close-knit community -- you'd know that from any show, the liner notes of any album. Go to Whartscape, watch Dan Higgs share the same stage as Celebration, watch Height and Double Dagger and Future Islands fill a MICA parking lot. We're a city made for musicians, for record-store junkies, for the kid who can list off every Smiths b-side. And I hope this compilation adds something to the mix."

Read the entire article and listen to the compilation here

"Music by Prudence," a documentary short subject film by Patrick Wright, chair of Maryland Instute College of Art's film and video department, has made it onto the shortlist of potential nominees for an Oscar award. Wright is among eight documentarians being considered for the nomination.

Here's an excerpt:

"The film follows the lives of eight physically disabled young Zimbabweans who play in the Afro-fusion band, Liyana.

Wright, who also was the associate editor for Music by Prudence (iThemba Productions, Inc.), obtained seed funding for the documentary through MICA's Office of Research."

Read the full article here.