Visit Baltimore : Buzz

Bookings at Baltimore hostels are up 58%, according to data from Hostelworld.com. The Associated Press sent interns to check out hostels in four cities: Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and Venice Beach in Los Angeles. The one in Baltimore definitely made the grade for young travelers, but was only recommended for parents who can do without air conditioning.

An excerpt from the article reads:

BALTIMORE HOSTEL: 17 W. Mulberry St., Baltimore, http://www.baltimorehostel.org or 410-576-8880. Rate: $25. Reviewed by Aaron Morrison, 24.

Best thing about the hostel: Free, do-it-yourself pancake breakfast.

Worst thing: The place was almost too quiet. Whether the subdued behavior was encouraged by staff or self-imposed by guests, common areas might as well have been funeral parlor chapels. Of course, low noise levels could be a plus for some travelers.

Bathroom: Bathrooms and showers smelled and looked like they had just been cleaned.

Sleeping: Dorms are gender-specific. The rooms are spacious. Other than lockers in rooms and hallway, a little room is available to place luggage so it's not a nuisance to roommates. Signs advertise ear plugs as a way to shut out other sleepers snoring. Ask for the ear plugs pre-emptively and before the front desk closes. You'll be happier in the morning.

Staff: The staff is friendly and they run the hostel like clockwork.

Amenities: The kitchen is impressive. There are two gas stoves, plenty of cookware and utensils, refrigerators for food storage and ample counter and dining space. A door in the kitchen leads to a outdoor patio, decorated with lights and lined with flower pots. There is a TV room stocked with movies and board games. Speedy WiFi connections are free. Internet reception was good in common areas and dorm rooms. There is a laundry room in the basement.

Read the entire article here.

Now that mixed martial arts has the benediction of state lawmakers, graphic design firm MOS Creative and Shogun Fights, a newly formed MMA organization based out of Baltimore, are bringing the action to downtown Baltimore. As they say: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

An excerpt from the blog posting reads:

After years of fighting the laws in the state of Maryland, Shogun Fights organizer and former MMA competitor, John Rallo, is bringing the excitement of MMA and all of its loyal fans to the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore on October 24, 2009 at 7:00pm.

In May of 2008, Governor Martin O'Malley signed a bill legalizing MMA in Maryland with the full support of the Maryland State Athletic Commission. MMA is the fastest growing sport in the country. It involves competitors using various interdisciplinary fighting styles; including jiu-jitsu, muay thai, wrestling, judo, boxing, kickboxing and karate in a highly controlled fight with the winner decided by KO, submission, judges decision or referee stoppage.

"I have been involved in MMA since 1998. It is a great sport, with great athletes," says Rallo. "Our fighters have trained hard to compete for MMA titles in front of their friends, family and thousands of fans in the ring at the 1st Mariner Arena. Finally Marylanders are able to enjoy what Shogun Fights has been working so hard to provide. It is entertainment in the purest form."

Tickets for the momentous occasion will be made available on Friday, August 28, 2009 and can be purchased through the 1st Mariner Arena box office, 410-547-SEAT, and all Ticketmaster outlets.

Read the entire posting here.

The combination of a Catholic boyhood and college summers spent window washing have given this blogger a hawk's eye for beautiful stained glass. He's put together a few spots to hit for sacred and secular stained glass-o-philes alike.

An excerpt from the blog posting reads:

If you're interested in those decorative transoms that seem to be above so many rowhouse doorways these days, there are a few places you can find them around the city. We're partial to a few, namely Daniel Herman Stained Glass (1601 Guilford

Avenue # 2S), Terraza Stained Glass (1412 Woodall Street), and Vintage Stained Glass . These are craftsmen, they can help you design what you want, even if you're not too sure yourself.

Finally, for the DIYers and crafty types who want to try their hand at making their own windows, there's The Glass Key in Jessup (8610 Washington Boulevard). They carry a full line of stained glass materials and tools, and, thankfully, offer a full line of classes for beginners like us. We appreciate that, if only because it's virtually guaranteed that our first five (or more) tries are going to come out as lumpy, disfigured pieces of glass . And also because once we get good we're not going to waste our time on anything lame like flowers or clowns, but only design super-cool stuff like stained glass rocket ships full of werewolves. That's just how we roll.

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Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon refused to let a slur against her city made by a British member of Parliament go uncontested. The Liberal Conspiracy reports on her response.

An excerpt from the blog posting reads:

The Mayor of Baltimore has hit back at Tory MP Chris Grayling over comparing parts of Britain to The Wire.

In a statement posted to her website, Sheila Dixon said Baltimore had a per capita homicide rate "a fraction of that in the popular UK television show Midsomer Murders."

The statement read:

"Fellow citizens

This week I was alerted to a speech made by a Member of the British Parliament, a Mr. Chris Grayling, who suggested his country should fear becoming like our city of Baltimore as portrayed in the HBO series, The Wire. We all watched The Wire and while it was sometimes a heart-breaking reflection of reality, it was in the main, merely entertaining fiction.

The television show failed to reflect the best we have in this city, our sense of community, our hospitality and our proud history and culture. To present a television show as the real Baltimore is to perpetuate a fiction that dishonours our city. It is as pointless as boasting that Baltimore has a per capita homicide rate a fraction of that in the popular UK television show Midsomer Murders."

Read the full blog posting here.

A Baltimore-based graphic designer who came to Baltimore from Paris bids farewell to her Bmore, reflecting on what made her stay here so wonderful and how Charm City compares to the City of Lights.

An excerpt from the blog post reads:

Dear Baltimore,

Thank you for 5 amazing years! You've taught me more than you'll ever know and introduced me to friends I'll keep for a life-time. Sometimes you get a bad rap, but that's ok. I like it that you're my little secret sometimes. Ironically, it was moving here from Paris that helped me appreciate you most.

Baltimore, like Paris, is a small "big city" - it doesn't take you forever to get from one end to the other (ahem, however you could take a queue from Paris when it comes to public transportation - for 3 years I rode the bus, and now I must thank you for lowering my standards and making public transportation easy as pie anywhere else I may go).

I learned to love distinct neighborhoods with their own personality and flair while living in Europe, and you've got that too. Besides, there really should be more Hampdens in the world. Along those lines you have great farmer's markets which are full of color and support local businesses at the same time.

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MetropolisMag.com monthly contributor Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson suggests that Baltimore art students would do well to leave campus and seek out the myriad sources of inspiration in the city.

An excerpt from the blog reads:

For as long as I can remember, designers and educators in Baltimore have invoked the name of the Rural Studio. They looked south to Hale County and wondered how to adapt Mockbee's full-immersion program for design students in an urban setting like Baltimore. The conversations were, pardon the pun, purely academic. In spite of a high number of colleges and universities in the region�with several programs in architecture, planning, and landscape design�curricula rarely called for students to venture beyond the quadrangle (save for the requisite study-abroad programs).

There were barriers in getting students off the campus, most of them perceived and not wholly accurate. The belief was that it wasn't safe "out there" and using the real world as a classroom was hazardous. I remember chatting with one frustrated professor at Johns Hopkins about this a few years back. He was politely told he should not encourage students to take public transportation for a class project lest "something should happen."

This insular stance resulted in a real deficit of academic and applied research on urban issues in this city. Other schools of architecture have successfully developed urban lab models, creating reciprocal relationships with city government and community groups. Schools like Carnegie Mellon and its Urban Studio. If it could happen in Pittsburgh, then why not here?

Read the entire article here.

An Italian blogger writes about visiting her mother's family during a recent visit to the States and checking out the museums and other cultural resources in the city.

An excerpt from the blog posting reads:

We had a great time at the National Aquarium. And a good laugh remembering the last time we went there, when Danny was 3. He threw a major tantrum at the entrance, after we had paid for our tickets, of course, and repeatedly screamed, "I don't like fish!!!" Things went a bit better this time...

I was amazed at the incredible variety of marine life they have on exhibit. There is a special exhibit on jellyfish on now, called Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance. Apparently, there are too many jellyfish floating around, and judging from their map, a lot of them are in the Mediterranean Sea around Italy. We'll have to keep our eyes open when we get back home.

A new discovery for us was the American Visionary Art Museum near Federal Hill (where the national anthem was written, just in case you didn't know!). This museum showcases works of art by self-taught, "outsider" artists. The works of each artist are accompanied by a short biography, which I often found as interesting as the work itself. I'm a biography buff, admittedly, but each of these people seems to have an amazing life story and an amazing path to the discovery of their artistic talents.

Read the entire posting here.

Labor Day will bring a feast for antique lovers in the Baltimore area as a major convention kicks off. Presentations will include lectures by local experts, such as: "Eureka! The Archimedes Palimpsest" with the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum; "American Beauty: Treasuring and Collecting Folk Art in America;" "Dining in Style with Georg Jensen Silver;" "18th & 19th Century Decorative Arts Treasures: Telling the Whole Story;" and "Meissen: 300 Years of Exceptional Porcelain."

An excerpt from the blog posting reads:

Dealers attending The Baltimore Summer Antiques Show will be offering a huge variety of first-class antiques for sale ranging in prices from under $100 to upwards of $1 million.  And with over 200,000 individual pieces, ranging from antiquities to 20th century pieces, there's something for ever antique lover.

The show hosts 60 rare book dealers, 60 silver specialists, more than 30 Asian art dealers, ceramics on sale from over 70 exhibitors and hundreds of other dealers covering virtually every period and style of antiques. 

Read the entire posting here.

A Baltimore book-lover and a moderator at the city's book festival this year declares that it drives her "crazy" that D.C. and Baltimore host their book festivals on the same weekend each year. She provides a "pro" and "con" list for each of the events to help readers make a choice between the two.

An excerpt from the blog posting reads:

Baltimore Book Festival

Pros

- it is a three day event (Sept. 25-27)
- it is not a "big crowd" event - people are definitely attending but not in overwhelming numbers
- chances for author interaction are very good - crowds are not large and authors usually hang around to chat afterward
- Baltimore has lots of historical sightseeing and museums
- if it rains, you're walking on cobblestones not mud
- parking is moderately priced and very close to the Festival
- my panel, The Book Club Toolkit, is on 9/26 @ noon
- a book blogger get-together is being planned for Friday evening (9/25) - we'll go to the YA panels and then who knows what we'll do! (Leave a comment if you'd like to be included.)

Baltimore Book Festival - Cons

- public transportation is not as extensive as in DC
- many participating authors are not very well known
- it is a much smaller scaled event than the DC one

What? You say I'm little biased toward the Baltimore event? REALLY?! I didn't think so ... :)

Read the entire posting here.

A bacon aficionado alerts Baltimoreans to a festival combining beer, bacon, and music. What could be better? And yes � there is a blog devoted to bacon.

An excerpt from the post reads:

If you 1.) love bacon and 2.) live in Baltimore - or within a reasonable driving distance, then here's an event you should check out.

On Saturday, September 19th from Noon to 4 pm, you can sample over a dozen types of bacon, drink a dozen kinds of beer, and enjoy some live music at the Heavy Seas Bacon and Beer Festival - Pyrates, Pigs and Pints.

Tickets are $40 and include all-you-can-taste beer and bacon.

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New York-based Ellen Datlow, winner of nine World Fantasy Awards, announces that she will be a eulogist when "Baltimore gives Edgar Allen Poe the funeral he should have had" on Oct. 11th. Her post gives links to information on the event (http://www.poebicentennial.com/events.html).

An excerpt from the post reads:

The following people are confirmed as speakers at Poe's Funeral:

The Reverend Rufus Griswold (literary acquaintance)
Sarah Helen Whitman (former fianc�e)
George Lippard (devoted friend from Philadelphia)
George Rex Graham (editor, Burton's Gentlemen's Magazine)
Nathanial Parker Willis (loyal friend)
Dr. John Moran (Poe physician at the time of his death)
J.T.L. Preston (childhood friend, Virginia Military College)
Charles Bauldelaire (French writer and Poe admirer)
Narrator from The Tell Tale Heart

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Two popular blogs are teaming up to create a guide by Baltimoreans for Baltimoreans. Each week they'll ask a question to discern everything from where to buy the best music to where the best neighborhoods are. They want to hear from you.

An excerpt from the post reads:

The Shank is partnering with our friends at Smile Hon to put together a Baltimore Insider's Directory. If we use your answers/submissions, you'll get a free copy when we're done. Just make sure you post your name & email if you want credit and the comp copy.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be asking these types of questions and compiling the results. Please tell your friends to answer too. The more reseponses we get, the better the guide will be.

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The Maryland Daily Record has reported that Lenny's Delicatessen will not immediately close to make room for museum but will stay in place as long as it can.

An excerpt from the article reads:

Wednesday's reports that Lenny's Delicatessen would leave its spot on East Lombard Street in three years after the sale of its space to the Jewish Museum of Maryland are only partially true.

Owner Alan Smith said Thursday that the deli, on Baltimore's famed Corned Beef Row, has signed a five-year lease with the museum, and the business will look for a new spot on the block when the time comes to move.

"Our immediate plans are we just renovated and we're going to stay there as long as we can," Smith said of the updated dining room, complete with black-and-white photos reflecting the history of that part of Lombard Street.

A year after announcing plans to expand onto the Lenny's lot, the museum said it finalized the deal Wednesday. Lenny's has at least three more years at its Lombard Street location, after which the museum can give the deli a year's notice to find a new home. The deli can leave at any time as long as it is moving and not just closing, Smith said.

Read the entire article here.

To maintain morale during the tough economy, Monitor staff comb the nation's classifieds each week to find cool work for job hunters. A favorite animal-lover destination made the list this week. (So did a freelance wig maker gig in Arizona, operating a chocolate fountain in Florida, and styling dolls' hair in Massachusetts.)

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2. Marine mammal aide:

Employer: Baltimore National Aquarium
Wages/salary: $10 an hour
Details: Prepare daily animal diets and dispense vitamins; degree in biology or zoology required; scuba certification preferred. (For more information click here.)
Location: Baltimore (pop. 651,154, median family income $35,438) was the site of the first American umbrella factory in 1828.

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For the first year, Baltimore's summer concert season has placed it on the list of the 20 Most Rockin' Cities, compiled annually by StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace. StubHub compiled its list of the markets where fans have been "the most active this summer grabbing tickets to their favorite shows" based on total market sales via StubHub for concert events only, occurring between May 15th and Sept. 15th.

An excerpt from the article reads:

Washington D.C. took the biggest leap on this year's chart, landing in the top 10 at #6, up from #18 in 2008. The live concert ticket market in the area was bolstered by performances by Bruce Springsteen in late May, Billy Joel/Elton John at Nationals Park and Paul McCartney at FedEx Field in the last month. In addition, sales from the Nissan Pavilion in nearby Bristow, Va. were more appropriately attributed to the Washington D.C. metro area after formerly being included with Richmond, Va. returns.

Newcomers to this year's chart include Milwaukee, Toronto (Canada), Baltimore and Pittsburgh. With the exception of Toronto, each newcomer to the top 20 hosted the popular jam band Phish for at least one night, one of the biggest sellers of the summer nationwide.

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