Entertainment : Buzz

Looks like Baltimore illusionist Spencer Horsman might make it back to “America’s Got Talent”, according to the Baltimore Sun. Co-host Howard Stern chose Spencer Horsman as one of his wild-card picks. His competitors will include Ben Blaque, who uses crossbows and Todd Oliver whose dog doubles as a ventriloquist doll.

Read more here. 

For his upcoming album, electronic composer Dan Deacon drew inspiration from his hometown of Baltimore, according to an interview with Deacon that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.
 
“The aptly titled America, due out Aug. 28 on Domino Records, is Deacon's tribute to the country he has come to love, from the deserts of New Mexico to the Guilford Avenue Bridge in his hometown of Baltimore,” the magazine writes.

Deacon hopes to ignite citizen pride through America, which presents “the beautiful deserts, the mountains, the forests, the coasts. But also the beautiful cities that are rapidly decaying in front of our eyes," he tells Rolling Stone.

Deacon also channels the pop beats of Wham City and recalls visits to Baltimore County’s Pretty Box to spark creativity. He also presents a chamber ensemble mixed with the Peabody Institute and the city’s music scene.

Rachael Ray says Baltimore has one of the nine best Little Italys. In the September issue of Everyday With Rachael Ray, which comes out Aug. 14, Ray mentions Germano's Trattoria and calls the area “a pocket of cozy brick buildings” that “feels like home," writes Richard Gorelick in the Baltimore Sun. 

Last month, local food blogger Dara Bunjon wrote an extremely popular story that highlighted dining destinations on the Charm City Circulator Banner Route.

Mary Beth Marsden of 1090 AM WBAL Radio asked Bunjon how she got the idea for the story and to name some of the highlights of her culinary tour on wheels. The journey took her from Locust Point to the Inner Harbor. You can listen to the interview here. 

Bunjon authors the Dining Dish blog and is the Baltimore Dining Examiner for Examiner.com 

Baltimore is one of the nation's coolest cities, according to Forbes. 

The magazine ranked 65 largest cities according to their "coolness," using seven measures. Cities were graded on the number of recreational activities, entertainment options, restaurants and bars per capita, as well as cultural composition, median age, unemployment rate and net migration. It used the help of Sperling's Best Places to assess the entertainment options. 
 
“Baltimore is in transition because it has been down and out for a long time but it’s beginning to come back because it’s affordable,” says Sperling’s Best Places in Forbes.
 
Houston, Texas took the top honor because it enjoyed a 2.6 percent job growth last year, which drew plenty of young professionals to the sprawling metropolis. Really. 

Our neighbor to the South, Washington, D.C., took the No. 2 spot. 

You can read the entire story and a slideshow here. 

It has gotten off to a rocky start, to say the least. 

But now there's some good news for the Baltimore Grand Prix. Organizers of the Baltimore Grand Prix announced that they have landed several new sponsors for this year’s race, including Sunoco, Dr. Pepper and Giant Food, CBS News reports. 

The city terminated its contract with Baltimore Racing Development, the group that put on last year’s event, and dissolved its contract with Downtown Racing. Now, could it be that the third time is the charm with Race On LLC?

We'll find out Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, when the second Baltimore Grand Prix is slated to run. 
 

The National Park Service has given tourists another reason to visit Maryland.

On Monday, July 31, it launched the Star-Spangled National Historic Trail, kicking off the event in Fells Point. The 560-mile route traverses land and water in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., and takes visitors to important marks in the War of 1812. 

"By land or water, by bike or on foot, in a car or on a boat, visitors can follow the routes taken by the British during the 1813 and 1814 invasions of the Chesapeake, which resulted in the burning of the White House and Capitol, the capture of Alexandria and the battle for Baltimore, culminated in the writing of 'The Star-Spangled Banner,'" writes the Washington Post.

You can read the Post's entire story here. 

While the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation filmed scenes in Washington D.C. last week, the Netflix movie House of Cards recreated the nation’s capital right here in Baltimore, reports the Washington Post.
 
House of Cards shot overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning at the Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute, which was “transformed into the fictitious ‘Hotel Cotesworth,’ a supposedly historic D.C. institution where the presidents have slept,” writes the Post.
 
The political thriller has also used the offices of the Baltimore Sun as the set for the show’s fictional newspaper, the Washington Herald.
 
House of Cards stars Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and Kate Mara and is directed by David Fincher, director of Fight Club, The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

The New York Times recently interviewed actress and comedienne Rain Pryor, who has many ties to Charm City.

The 43-year-old daughter of Richard Pryor, she became artistic director of the Strand Theater Co. and moved to Baltimore several years ago.

You can read more of the interview with Pryor and Kelly Carlin, daughter of George Carlin, here. 

Last month the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gave 104 amateur musicians a taste of what it's like to be a part of a professional orchestra. These individuals participated in BSO Academy, a weeklong camp of lessons, rehearsals, master classes and, finally,  a concert at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
 
The New York Times profiled many members of the BSO Academy, including a cold-war-era Navy pilot; a judge’s assistant who took up the viola just three and a half years ago; and a French horn player who was able to make it through the vigorous preparation and performance despite a tremor from her Parkinson’s disease.
 
“It was a musically enthusiastic, even obsessive, bunch. Most spend countless hours a week practicing and playing in wind bands or community orchestras or chamber groups, in many cases more than one,” writes the New York Times. “It’s an older group. Many returned to music with fervor in retirement or in homes recently emptied of growing children. For some, music-making is the backbone of their social ties or an escape from the pressures of work.”

You can read the entire story here. 

A Baltimore social media and advertising campaign has caught the attention of Ad Week. 

WTMD and Urbanite magazine have partnered on a Foursquare promotion that involves giving away prizes to folks who have the most check-ins at participating shops and restaurants. 

"This is really the pivot point of where traditional and new media can exist together to enhance a station and magazine's stature in the community, sell more ads and sponsorships," WTMD General Manager Steve Yasko tells Ad Week. The station is preparing to move to a larger space in the winter. 

You can read the entire Ad Week story here. 

The Washington Post has given a shout out to the fast-growing Howard County theater troupe Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. 

The theater made headlines recently when it announced that it is moving from the county to downtown Baltimore's Mercantile Trust Building in 2014. The move will make it the city's third largest theater company, after Center Stage and Everyman Theatre.

The Mercantile building is currently a nightclub, featuring liquor, a disco ball and a basement bar called the Bedroom.  The renovation to turn this nightclub into a theater fit for Shakespeare will take $4 million.
 
"The expansion into Baltimore is a major development for a $540,000-budget troupe that has grown steadily since it opened a decade ago with a Twelfth Night" that drew 100 people, the Post writes. 

You can read the entire story here. 

Top Haunts, which bills itself as a "magazine for haunt industry professionals," has recognized Jessup's Bennett's Curse as one of the top attractions for people who like to be spooked. 

The Howard County attraction is one of 23 scary spots featured in its haunted attractions' poll. Bennett's Curse shares the honor with The Bates Motel & Haunted Hayride in Glen Mills, Pa., and Disturbia Haunted House in Huntsville, Ala. 

You can check out the magazine and poll here. 

Baltimore came out on top in more than one Battle of the Beltways. 

Not only did the Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Nationals but the city bested its rival at A Taste of Two Cities, a food truck competition held Saturday at the Westport Waterfront. It was organized by food truck owner Damian Bohager. 
 
First place went to Baltimore’s Gypsy Queen food truck, followed by the Red Hook Lobster truck of D.C. in second and Baltimore’s Miss Shirley’s truck in third.
 
A panel of six judges, three from each city, determined the winner. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a big supporter of Baltimore’s food trucks, presented the Mayor’s Cup to Gypsy Queen.
 
The People’s Choice awards, which were decided by competition visitors via text, went to D.C.’s the Cajunator and Baltimore’s Souper Freak. 

Read more about it in the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post. 

The Maryland Racing Commission has decided that thoroughbred racehorse Secretariat holds the all-time record race time for the Triple Crown.

This was after looking at new evidence presented that showed the horse ran the Preakness Stakes on May 19, 1973 in 1:53.

"The evidence was 'totally convincing,' said one commissioner, John McDaniel," the New York Times writes. “ 'Injustice was done, and we needed to correct it.' Secretariat finally holds the record for all three Triple Crown races."

You can read the entire story here.