Entertainment : Buzz

It's been five years since the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in two season games.

And it's not just folks in Charm City and the 'Burgh who have noticed.

The 23-20 Nov. 6 victory drew interest from national media, including the New York Times and Huffington Post. The New York Times notes that the game dominated the ratings.

The Huffington Post notes that Joe Flacco's 26-yard pass allowed the Ravens to come from behind to win the game.

Apparently -- at least if you believe the gurus at Men's Health magazine -- Baltimore is America's second-luckiest city. Defined according to the source:

Wondering how Vegas didn't hit this jackpot? Here's our definition of good luck: the most winners of Powerball, Mega Millions, and Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes; most hole-in-ones (PGA); fewest lightning strikes (including the fatal kind) and deaths from falling objects (Vaisala Inc., National Climatic Data Center, CDC); and least money lost on lottery tickets and race betting (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Here's the full post at Men's Health.

Work being done at the Walters Museum on "The Archimedes Palimpsest" has drawn the attention of the New York Times.

From the source:

The Archimedes Palimpsest has precisely this history. It really does begin with a 10th-century copy of Archimedes’ third-century B.C. writings. Three centuries later they were scraped off the parchment, which was reused — creating a “palimpsest.” And while there aren’t enough dead bodies or secret cabals to support a full-fledged thriller, there really is a sense of excitement in the account of the book’s history, restoration and meanings, at an exhibition at the Walters Art Museum here: “Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes.”

Almost nothing about the tale is banal or ordinary. In a companion book, “The Archimedes Codex” (Da Capo), William Noel, the museum’s curator of manuscripts, describes how the saga was brought to its conclusion. In 1998, after reading about the Palimpsest’s sale at a Christie’s auction to an anonymous purchaser for $2 million, the museum’s director, Gary Vikan, suggested to Mr. Noel that he discover who bought it and whether it might be exhibited at the Walters.

Read the full story here.

The Baltimore Sun's paywall is officially up.

From paidContent:

The Baltimore Sun is the latest newspaper to add a metered paywall, for both print and non-print subscribers. A digital subscription will cost $2.49 per week or $49.99 for 26 weeks (which works out to $99.84 per year) for non-print subscribers, and $0.75 per week or $29.99 per year for print subscribers. An introductory rate of $0.99 per week for four weeks is available now for a “limited time.”

Read the rest here.

VEEP, the new HBO series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, has begun filming here in Maryland.

From the source:

VEEP, a new HBO series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is starting production in Maryland this week, according to the governor’s office.

Local production of the show — a political satire about a fictional former senator, played by Louis-Dreyfus, who becomes vice president — began Monday in the Baltimore area, Gov. Martin O’Malley said in a statement.

Read more here.

Following the recently-announced lead of the Baltimore Sun, the Carroll County Times will soon join the ranks of paywall-protected newspapers.

From the site:

Starting this week, the Carroll County Times will begin charging frequent users of our website a subscription. The Times is following in the footsteps of several other media organizations around the region and nation.

Readers will be allowed 15 free article views in a 30-day period. After that they will be asked to subscribe. A 30-day subscription and a year-long subscription will be offered. Print subscribers will receive a discounted rate, but will need their subscription account number when they sign up. Customers who don't know their account number should call circulation customer service at 410-857-9413 or 410-875-0731.

Read the full story here.

Periodically Duff Goldman's name pops back up in the news and -- surprise! -- it's never for a story on how he's slowing down.

From the source:

Duff Goldman is sitting in a corner of the semi-secret Melrose Avenue location of his Charm City Cakes West bakery, checking the calendar on his iPhone. On the September schedule are meetings with his agent, magazine publisher Conde Nast and craft store Michael's; appearances and demos in Toronto, Buffalo, N.Y., Napa, Calif., and Beverly Hills; then it's back to New York to present a scholarship at the Culinary Institute of America. In between he's touring with his band to the National Buffalo Wing Festival, traveling to Le Mars, Iowa, to taste flavors for his namesake line of Blue Bunny Ice Cream and working on a giant cake in the shape of a sandwich for the opening of a Chick-fil-A.

"I can't believe I'm one of those people," Goldman says, "someone who flies in and then turns around the same day and flies out." He's like the James Brown of bakers - the hardest-working man in the cake business.

Read the whole story.

With Halloween just around the corner now is the time when even otherwise staid personalities start seeking frights in earnest. Baltimore Mag is here to help, as writer Justin Snow has compiled a list of the region's creepiest spots.

From the source:

Baltimore can be a pretty creepy town.

Neighborhoods like Fells Point and Mt. Vernon have hundreds of years of colorful history ripe for ghosts and other apparitions. Edgar Allan Poe gathered inspiration for his morbid tales from these streets. And the remnants of the city's once-bustling industrial core have been left to decay and descend into eeriness.

With Halloween just around the corner, we profile eight of the spookiest places in our spooky town. Explore them . . . if you dare.

Read the whole feature here.

In a bold bet on its future, the Baltimore Sun will soon put up a paywall and begin offering digital subscriptions.

From the source:

The Sun tells readers that the paywall goes up October 10. “To encourage readers to sign up at launch, we will offer a special introductory rate of 99 cents for the first 4 weeks,” says publisher Tim Ryan. “After that, digital-only subscribers will have a cost of $2.49 a week or $49.99 for 26 weeks. Print subscribers will receive a special reduced rate of 75 cents a week or $29.99 a year. Non-subscribers will have free access to 15 web pages a month. The Sun is the first Tribune paper to announce digital subscriptions.

Read the whole story here.

Barry Levinson's Baltimore-based 'Diner' will soon be headed to Broadway courtesy of Levinson and Sheryl Crow.

From the source:

A singing, dancing version of “Diner,” Barry Levinson’s 1982 coming-of-age comedy about a group of friends growing up in Baltimore in 1959, is headed to Broadway next year, its press representatives said on Tuesday. Mr. Levinson, who directed the original film and earned an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay, will write the book of the “Diner” musical, and Sheryl Crow will write the music and lyrics; Kathleen Marshall, a recent Tony Award-winner for her choreography of “Anything Goes,” will direct and choreograph this production.

Read the full story here.

If Easton real estate agent Tim Miller can pull it off, National Premium beer will soon make a return to area coolers.

From Erik Maza at the Sun:

For decades, National Premium has been a hazy, distant memory. Stored-away memorabilia and faded beer ads were all that remained of its once-storied legacy.

That may change next year. Tim Miller, an Easton real estate agent, has acquired the trademark and has ambitious plans to bring the beer back to the Baltimore market by next baseball season. He has secured the formula and announced a new, spiffy logo. Capital investment and brewing are next.

Read the full story.

The Maryland Terrapins' new uniforms generated a ton of national conversation last week, largely due to their outlandish nature. The Baltimore Sun takes a look at a less-reported aspect of the story: how much the new helmets resemble those worn by Baltimore's Charm City Roller Girls.

From the source:

When the Terps’ revealed a new uniform and helmets before Monday’s game, there was much oohhing and ahhing over the all-white look with the Maryland state flag motif.

But at least one corner of Baltimore reacted with a dismayed pang of recognition: for the Charm City Roller Girls All-Stars team, the Terps’ new helmet looks much like the one they’ve been using for the past three years.

“They’re not identical, but they’re shockingly similar,” said Hillary “Rosie the Rioter” Rosensteel, the roller derby team’s captain.

Read more here.

Baltimore will soon be among the first nine markets to see the debut of a new live streaming TV service from EW Scripps.

From the source:

The E.W. Scripps Co. said Thursday that it will become the first TV station group in the nation to deliver live video programming to mobile devices.

The launch will occur in nine markets: Detroit, Phoenix, Tampa, Fla., Cleveland, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cincinnati, West Palm Beach, Fla., and Tulsa, Okla.

Users who download the mobile application for their local Scripps station will be prompted at certain times — such as during breaking news events or occurrences of severe weather — to view streaming content. Clicking on the prompt will open a media player that will show either a simulcast of the station's on-air content or special coverage tailored to small screens.

Read the full story here.

A team of basketball players from the Baltimore area, led by Carmelo Anthony, will travel to Philly later this month to play an exhibition match at the famed Palestra.

From the source:

There may or may not be an NBA season this year, but that won’t stop the NBA from coming to Philadelphia.

Team Philly, a team made up of basketball stars from the Philly area, will take on Team Melo, a team led by Carmelo Anthony, on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. at The Palestra.

Read the whole story here.

Longtime Baltimore area institution Gino's Burgers & Chicken -- absent from the state since 1991 -- has returned with a new location in Towson.

Gino's Burgers & Chicken, a new millennium version of the fast-food chain founded in Baltimore in 1957 by Colts football greats Alan Ameche and Gino Marchetti, opened its doors Wednesday morning in Towson.

More than 100 people lined up waiting for as long as four hours for the restaurant to open, which occurred shortly after 11 a.m.

Investigative Voice has the whole story here.