Buzz

Award-winning blogger Mike Hitchen reports on a Baltimore-based soccer tournament, sponsored by the International Rescue Committee, that is allowing kids who have escaped conflict-ravaged countries to play soccer free from danger. Hitchen reports that plans are underway to create a permanent refugee soccer league -- a Peace League -- in Baltimore.

An excerpt from the blog post reads:

A soccer tournament is underway on a field next to a busy street in Baltimore, an hour or so outside of Washington, DC. Four teams of teenage boys are competing for ribbons and a gold cup. They could be from anywhere, but these teens are all refugees from conflict zones - Iraqis, Burmese, Bhutanese, and Meskhetian Turks.

Marwan Saleh plays defense for the Iraqi team, the "Tigers." The 17-year-old left his homeland nine months ago. "There, there's war. We don't have a chance to play soccer," he explains. "It's my chance to play soccer. We cannot live there. We don't have jobs. We cannot study; we cannot do anything. There's war, there's shooting, there are guns, gangs, the army, fighting between people. Here's better for us - safe. We can study. We can do anything here. Here is the future."

Read the entire post here:

University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) tops the list of up-and-coming national universities compiled by U.S. News & World Reports. The magazine's annual report ranks universities across multiple categories. The 2010 ranking was the first time the magazine's editors used peer assessment surveys in its calculation of the top schools.

UMBC beat out 69 other universities for the No. spot. Here's an excerpt:

This spring, for the first time, U.S. News asked the experts who respond to its annual peer assessment survey to identify schools that fit this profile. The 70 that received the most nominations range from household names like the University of Southern California to Grand Valley State in Allendale, Mich., and Salve Regina, a 2,000-student Catholic university in Newport, R.I.

University of Maryland--Baltimore County Baltimore, MD	Rank 1
George Mason University Fairfax, VA	Rank 2
Northeastern University Boston, MA	Rank 2
Drexel University Philadelphia, PA	Rank 4
Arizona State University Tempe, AZ	Rank 5

To read more go here.

Baltimore Magazine hosted its bash honoring the winners of its 2009 Best of Baltimore survey. Winners sporting "I Won It" badges mingled with partygoers and the city's glitterati sampling tasty treats from 50 local eateries. The best offering? The Crispy Creme bread pudding - made from, yes you guessed it Krispy Kreme doughnuts - from Ale Mary's in Fell's Point was the highlight of the evening. A portion of the proceeds from the event, held at the Hippodrome, benefit The Family Tree.

Didn't pick up your August issue of the print mag? Here's a peek at a few of the winners:

Peter's Inn - Best pub food

Larry Doyle - Best humorist

Ali True, True Balance Training Studio - Best personal trainer

Lisa Ponzoli, owner of Babe boutique - Best sweet dresses

Dean Krapf, owner of Lluminaire - Best makeup artist

Leeann Burlbaw, co-owner of Mark and Buttons Chimney Sweeps - Best chimney service

Kara Hanson, owner of Funky Beehive in Federal Hill - Best kitschy home gifts

Bulle Rock Golf Course - Best golf course

Marc Steiner - Best comeback

Rupert Wondolowski, editor Shattered Wig Review - Best literary magazine

Adam Jones - Best Oriole

Panera Bread � Best Bagel

Want to check out the remaining winners of the mag's 45 categories? Read on here

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

M.I.S.S. feature "Funky Expedition," which explores the creation and development of region-specific genres of music, takes a look at Baltimore Club Music. While it sings its praises, it questions -- hopefully -- whether Bmore Club will "ever have lasting potential outside of the DMV (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia)."

An excerpt from the article reads:

It always stings a little bit when you are on top of something � whether it be a new artist, new designer, or new style � and then a year or two later, everybody's on the jock of that artist, designer, or style. You just look like a major tool mentioning that you were into it "ages ago," but then you are also a bit angry because your friends didn't like it when you told them about it. Once it was on TV, they liked it. Sound familiar?

Besides the fact that you might just be a trendsetter, or a daring human being, (or a M.I.S.S. girl), it's frustrating any which way you look at it. Such might be the case for fans of Baltimore Club AKA Bmore Club AKA Gutter music AKA the sound of Bodymore, Murderland (Baltimore, Maryland). It has only been gaining national attention in the past few years, but it has been around -- in Baltimore -- starting from as early as 1989 or 1990.

The sound of Gutter music is best described by a blend of hip-hop, house, and dance music. Some even call it hip-house. The songs are often dark, but contain an infectious, hyper energy that explodes with each short song. Unlike typical house songs, Bmore club songs alternately build and drop intensity as they play, with bridges and sections of fast-paced, loud crashes that mimic fluttering heartbeats. The songs are like the sprint of the music race: the cuts are specifically crafted by DJs for the club environment, based on a 8/4 beat structure, and include tempos as high as 130 beat per minute.

Read the entire article here:

Tweet of the Week

What was on the mind of Baltimore tweople this week?

@JasonKuipers, presumably on a visit to Charm City, couldn't contain his enthusiasm for the city, "Baltimore is awesome. I'd love to live in this city. Downtown Baltimore is Like darling harbor 2.0."

@history4theppl, another visitor says, "I return to the South tomorrow. Baltimore is def going on my top list for historical hotspots. So much to see & do. Hope to return soon!"

@Familytreemd had nothing but love for the Best of Baltimore party, "Best of Baltimore was an incredible evening! Thanks to all the restaurants, Baltimore Mag, & staff at the Hippodrome for a memorable party!"

@avimagic has something else to cheer about, "I have discovered Baltimore's most redeeming quality (other than my family, of course), and it is a radio station named Jack."

@Shesouldeep, takes issue with plans to bump up the city's parking meter rate from $1 per hour to $2 or $3 per hour, "I'm not feeling the metered parking rate doubling and tripling in some areas (Baltimore). That aint right!! Increase revenue in other ways."

Many tweeted about the premiere episode of Bravo's Top Chef:

@lisa_hoang says, "Nice! Executive chef from Abacrombie Restaurant (Baltimore) is on Top Chef. Hope she doesn't bomb like last year's Baltimore contestant."

@ bhawk988 was jazzed by the number of local contestants, "Top Chef Vegas should be called Top Chef Maryland/ Baltimore Looks like 4 chefs from this area wow."

The Inner Harbor Arts Festival is a free event that will take place Aug. 22-23 at the Power Plant.

An excerpt from the article reads:

Mayor Sheila Dixon announced the Inner Harbor Arts Festival on Monday. It will be held the weekend of Aug. 22 near Cordish's Power Plant retail center.

More than $15 million in artwork, varying from handmade jewelry to more expensive fine art pieces, will be on display. Dixon said the new festival is not intended to compete with Artscape, the city-sponsored street fair.

Download the entire article here.

Blogger Clio Bluestocking of that "Great Zoo on the Potomac" (dare we assume this is Washington?) walks the streets of Baltimore for five weeks and notices "landmarks of some very bad guys who have graced the streets of this interesting city."

An excerpt from the blog post reads reads:

Speaking of individuals willing to go to great lengths to protect systems, here we have a non-fictional bad guy memorialized in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. That is Chief Justice Roger Taney: Maryland-born, first Catholic Supreme Court Justice, and author of the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision. Sure, he was a slaveholder who freed his slaves; but really, you have a hard time making his case as a good guy. After all, he was the man who identified the central question of the case as this: "can a negro whose ancestors were imported into this country and sold as slaves become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guarantied by that instrument to the citizen, one of which rights is the privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the Constitution?" and decided not only that Dred Scott and his family should be kept in slavery because "Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and not entitled as such to sue in its courts, and consequently that the Circuit Court had no jurisdiction of the case, and that the judgment on the plea in abatement is erroneous," but also that all African Americans were not and should not be considered citizens of the U.S. So, I consider him a bad guy.

Read the entire post here.

Cities that mix together, stick together: a new original compilation features Baltimore artists covering music by Baltimore artists.

An excerpt from the blog post reads:

Baltimore hip hop artist Mickey Free has remixed "That I Do" from Wye Oak's new album, The Knot, out now on Merge Records. Wye Oak and Merge were good enough to let us premier this remix, which makes this as good a time as any to introduce Splice's second original compilation, Baltimore Does Baltimore, featuring more than twenty Baltimore bands covering their favorite songs by other Baltimore bands -- so basically one big Mobtown lovefest. Look for it in late September.

Read the entire post -- and hear the music -- here.

A surgeon at Baltimore's Sinai Hospital is turning heads for how he's using Twitter. He has said he will ask an associate to "tweet" updates of his gastrectomy surgery on a 362-pound patient.

An excerpt from the article reads:

The 40-year-old man weighs 362 pounds. His ideal weight would be 159 pounds, said Dr. Alex Gandas, head of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Sinai Hospital.

The procedure involves removing as much as 85 percent of the stomach to create a small sleeve that holds food and creates a feeling of fullness with a small meal, Gandas said. Unlike a gastric bypass, the sleeve procedure involves no rerouting of the small bowel, and no plastic devices used in stomach banding, Gandas said.

The gastric sleeve is faster and less complicated than gastric bypass and is safer for patients suffering severe heart ailments, he said.

Read the entire article here.

Roughly three-quarters of the 120 restaurants participating in Baltimore's Summer Restaurant Week have agreed to prolong their specials until Aug. 23, giving foodies an additional seven days to score amazing deals on lunches and dinners.

Excerpt from the Daily Record story:

"It's significant that the number of restaurants continuing their specials is so large," said Michael Evitts, a spokesman for Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, which organizes restaurant week with Visit Baltimore (formerly the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association). "It's more than we had total for the first time," he added, referring to the 60 restaurants that participated for Baltimore's first restaurant week.

Since the promotion started, Evitts said they have seen through monitoring Web site traffic that diners are becoming savvier about selecting their restaurants, searching out menus for the best deals. Organizers encourage restaurants to sign up early to get maximum exposure and to distinguish themselves to customers.

Read the entire article here.

Otis Rolley III, president and chief executive officer of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, admonishes readers of the Sun who object to surface portions of the Red Line along Boston Street in Canton and Edmonson Avenue to consider the infeasibility of a subterranean route there and to participate in talks with city planners about alternatives.

An excerpt from the letter reads:

The Maryland Transit Administration has stated it will study traffic mitigation and parking management plans for both Edmondson Avenue and Canton. It will examine streetscape enhancements and environmental sustainability strategies and work with residents who are impacted by the Red Line route.

That's an open invitation for critics to become part of the solution rather than remaining part of the problem. It's the way other cities with light-rail projects have proceeded: They listened to opponents' critiques and sought to find acceptable solutions. The results there have been highly positive. We must hold the Maryland Transit Administration to its stated commitment and make sure everyone is part of the process.

From my experience as a former Baltimore City planning director, the Red Line process has been the most open and inclusive of any transit project in Baltimore's history. The number of public meetings and hearings has been extensive, even before Maryland submits a plan to the Federal Transit Administration.

Read the entire letter here.

Home sales in the Baltimore area rose for the second straight month, giving residents a hopeful sign that the housing market here is strengthening.

An excerpt from the article reads:

The number of homes sold in July throughout Greater Baltimore rose 10 percent to 2,240, up from 2,038 during the same month last year. That's according to Rockville market research firm Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.

Meanwhile, the median sold price in the Baltimore area � including Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties � declined by 6.5 percent to $259,950.

Both home builders and economists have said the uptick in sales could be linked to first-time buyers taking advantage of the government's $8,000 tax credit and overall better real estate prices. Units sold in June rose nearly 2 percent, marking the first year-over-year increase in Greater Baltimore in more than two years.

Read the entire article here.

Baltimore has launched a nine-month, $300,000 energy conservation program that will have neighbors helping neighbors. Trained volunteers will go door-to-door, sharing information about how area residents can be better environmental stewards and conserve energy. The goal is to cut electricity use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Baltimore 15 percent by the year 2015.

An excerpt from the article reads:

Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., a subsidiary of Constellation, has been working to educate customers about the importance of reducing energy use, said Mayo A. Shattuck III, CEO, president and chairman of Constellation. As an example, Shattuck said running a dishwasher at midnight costs less than running it at 3 p.m., when more businesses and homeowners are using power.

Shattuck called energy efficiency the "next wave" in environmental awareness campaigns. "This is a lifelong commitment," he said of cutting energy consumption.

Through the city's pilot program, neighborhood "captains" will recruit volunteers to educate the neighborhood on how to reduce energy use. Civic Works, Baltimore's job-training section of AmeriCorps, will teach the volunteers how to reach out to their neighbors.

Read the entire article here.

The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts has confirmed that the city's beloved arts festival will take place this October. Event listings will be posted at freefallbaltimore.com this week.

An excerpt from the article reads:

More than 70 arts groups, including some of Baltimore's largest arts organizations, will put on events that are open to the public and free of charge.

As it has in the past, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will allow visitors to attend an open rehearsal for an upcoming concert. Center Stage will provide a gratis performance of "The Importance of Being Earnest," while Everyman Theatre will invite an audience to view its "Rabbit Hole."

New groups exhibiting for the first time include Mexico's famed Ballet Folklorico, and the New York-based Dance Rink, a unique collaboration in which choreographed movement is part of a larger theatrical whole.

Read the entire article here.

Baltimore people on Twitter love their city and aren't shy about telling all twitterdom in 140 characters or less. Check this space every week as we comb Twitter for the best of what they're saying. And follow Bmore on Twitter here.

@Tawilkins says she feels sorry for people outside of Baltimore who have not experienced the pleasure of a summer snowball.

@Petote, affected by her trip on the cultural side, says the visionary art museum in baltimore was so interesting, but also, disturbing, it wouldnt get out of my nightmares last night

And that leads us to our Tweet of the Week, from @Ayakobing, who just wants everyone to know that B-more rocks! RT @hollisthomases: I am very proud to say that so many Baltimore peeps "get" Twitter. Baltimore rocks!!

Feedback from Twitter on our recent launch was very supportive. Thanks for the love, and here's a sampling:

MissMktr who tweets that if @RyanatMGH Need a reason to move to Union Square?, then Read @bmoremedia's article http://bit.ly/UG9su

DanieljGross sees a future for the 'zine @BmoreMedia just checked out the site that was recently launched. I think it could definitely catch on. Can't wait to see its growth!

GBMCMedia cosigned on Erica Mechlinski's tweet, announcing both had signed up for our e-newsletter, have you? RT @EricaMechlinski New fan of @bmoremedia. Just signed up to have it delivered to my inbox weekly. http://bit.ly/YD2Ts so did I :-)