NewsTrust - Baltimore Culture - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Charitably Chic: Shop to Give

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By Anne Calvert - Oct. 15 (Opinion) - The retail industry has taken a hit in today’s fledgling economy. Our pockets are more shallow, we’ve tightened our belts, and it’s hard to justify accessorizing this new look without cause. The industry has met this challenge by aligning with charitable causes to incentivize shoppers and assuage their retail guilt. This month, the fashionable philanthropy is all over Baltimore, with local retailers offering shoppers a number of ways to contribute to the community. From now until October 23rd, the shops at The Village of Cross Keys are offering a number of charitable incentives through the shopping center’s semi-annual Cross Keys Cares event. The Pied Piper, for instance, is collecting cash contributions and donating a percentage of sales for the Children’s Cancer Foundation. Ruth Shaw, J. Jill, and The Store Ltd. are collecting gently warn clothing and cash donations for The House of Ruth, which helps lead the victims of domestic violence to safety and shelter. (Ruth Shaw gives a...

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Last Drive-In

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Urbanite - By Anne Haddad - Jul. 28 (Opinion) - The Bengies Drive-In Theatre, about a forty-minute drive east of Baltimore, is in a category all its own: It's like a local diner with a peculiar but irresistible menu where we put up with a little abuse from the owner and come back for more because nostalgia is a strong and irrational force.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Poe House Schmoe House: Lit Prof Says Let Doors Lock

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By Mikita Brottman - Jul. 11 (Opinion) - Baltimore Fishbowl readers may recently have learned that the Poe House at 203 Amity Street can expect no further financial support from the city. In certain quarters, this revelation will no doubt cause much brow-beating and hand-wringing, but I have always seen the Poe House as something of a “purloined letter”—that uncanny object which, as Poe aficionados well know, cannot be properly seen because it is lying right in plain view.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Donate Your Pennies: Poe House in Poorhouse

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By B. Boyd - Jul. 05 (Opinion) - The historic Poe House at 203 Amity Street lost $85,000 in city funding last year--they’ve been told to expect no further support--and is temporarily closed while EAP-loving local volunteers scramble to assemble funds to reopen the museum building to the public.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Getting it Straight

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Urbanite - By Marc Steiner - Jun. 30 (Interview) - Tona Brown and Rahne Alexander are both musicians and singers. They share something else, too: Both were born male. by Marc Steiner Tona Brown and Rahne Alexander met for the first time when Marc Steiner invited them to take part in an interview for his namesake talk radio program and for Urbanite, but these women have much in common. They share something else, too: Both were born male.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

An ode to meat eaters everywhere

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Retriever Weekly - By Josh Palmer - Jun. 25 (Opinion) - This is an ode to the underappreciated majority. The majority that helps support the ecosystem and its delicate state.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Big Fish Q & A With Collector, Designer and BMA Trustee Stiles Colwill

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By Michael Yockel - Jun. 24 (Interview) - If you subscribe to the concept of predestination – a phenomenon immune to scientific scrutiny – then, perhaps, you could make the argument that Stiles Colwill’s given name ordained him to a career in design and connoisseurship, and to an avocation as an art collector. (Of course, you’d need to fudge his name’s spelling a trifle.)

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

U2 Claws Its Way to the Top at M&T Bank Stadium

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

City Paper - By Al Shipley - Jun. 23 (Review) - U2 playing anywhere is a big deal, but in Baltimore it was such a big deal that when the band’s show at M&T Bank Stadium was booked last year, the mayor made the announcement.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Inside Out at 2640

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

What Weekly - By Philip Laubner - Jun. 23 (Review) - The ferocity of the band’s rhythmic attack induced a similar state of insanity in members of the audience.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Anti-Corporate Queer Activists Crash Pride Parade

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Indypendent Reader - By Daniel Staples - Jun. 20 (Opinion) - s this year’s Pride parade marched by at its usual leisurely pace, an astute observer might have noticed a small group of inconspicuous protesters slip into the middle of the parade...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Baltimore Gay Pride 2011

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By Kristin Hughes - Jun. 17 (Opinion) - Baltimore City, one of the campiest and simultaneously least pretentious on the globe, knows the importance of being honest with yourself and celebrating who you are. You should, too.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Kwame Kwei-Armah Takes Centerstage

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By B. Boyd - Jun. 16 (Interview) - Quadruple-threat Kwame Kwei-Armah is the new artistic director at Centerstage. We talked to the UK-born writer-actor-singer-director about his early expectations for the theatrical year ahead.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A Paean To the Peabody

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Lame Excuses - By Joe Challmes - Jun. 15 (Opinion) - With the passing of Burke’s Café and the closing of Werner’s on Redwood Street earlier this spring, nostalgia for a long lost Baltimore has been fodder for Baltimore’s older writers. The uniquely “Bawlamore” institutions of our youth are gone. In their place chains, franchises and Royal Farm Stores sprout.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

What downtown Baltimore needs: to be the center of something

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Brew - By Gerald Neily - Jun. 14 (Opinion) - Downtown’s current identity crisis – overabundance of vacant office space, morbid retailing, gaping “dead zones” of delayed redevelopment – is greatly intensified by the fact that the metropolitan region doesn’t revolve around it anymore.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ask Ralphie –- A Gertrude Stein Questionnaire

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Urbanite - By Cara Ober - Jun. 14 (Interview) - Lifelong Baltimorean Rafael Alvarez shares his favorite people, places, and things —including his new Pennies for Poe campaign to save the Poe House.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ready to Break Up, Hon?

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By B. Boyd - Jun. 09 (Opinion) - Last week, you probably know by heart, Hon controversy turned red-hot again as much despised Hon-trademark-owner Denise Whiting’s worker bees issued local Hampden merchants a long list of restricted items they may not sell at next week’s Honfest, including anything bearing the sacred Honfest logo, but also stock merchandise which connotes the iconic Hon look, like cat’s eye sunglasses and aerosol cans.Without question, we agree with Whiting’s critics: That honey is one piece of work. But another question emerges, as we once again review the wacky Hon aesthetic to which Baltimore has hugged tightly for decades now. What is so appealing about this hackneyed persona, beehive-topped, burly, bespectacled, and beaded?

NewsTrust Rating: 2.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Really? Fantasia to Headline Artscape

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By B. Boyd - May. 31 (Opinion) - We’re rather astonished to report that Fantasia, “American Idol” winner from way back in season three, has been named Artscape’s opening night headliner, slated to perform at the Wells Fargo Main Stage, July 15—at 8 p.m., in case you want to attend...or avoid.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A Community of Writers Celebrates Five Years

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By B. Boyd - May. 31 (Opinion) - Launched in spring of 2006 by the ebullient Lucy Bucknell, who teaches in the film and media program at Hopkins, Writing Outside the Fence began as a course populated mainly by former prisoners but quickly morphed into a diverse community writing workshop and salon, for anyone who likes to write.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A Rare Breed

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Urbanite - By Michelle Gienow - May. 31 (Opinion) - Like Crack the Sky and peppermint-stick lemons—shad and shad roe are one of those uniquely Baltimorean enthusiasms that are ubiquitous here yet unknown pretty much everywhere else. I grew up eating it with my grandparents; Pop particularly enjoyed breakfasting on roe fried with bacon and runny-yolked eggs. Once my grandparents were gone, though, I simply never sought shad on my own.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The A Liste

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Charm City Current - By Doreen Bolger - May. 26 (Review) - Baltimore Liste is a series of three four-day exhibitions at the Contemporary Museum. Executive Director Sue Spaid asked several local galleries—Area 405, Current Space, Gallery 4, Jordan Faye Block, Nudashank, Open Space, and Sub Basement Artist Studios—to recommend artists for shows at the Museum.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

New Brotopia

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

What Weekly - By Justin Allen - May. 26 (Review) - Darkness had befallen a previously vibrant theater situated on the west end of 25th Street. The once mighty venue had been left to patiently decay as it was overrun by all manner of vermin and derelict.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Acclaimed author Beverly Lowry falls for Baltimore

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By B. Boyd - May. 26 (Interview) - We talked to Austin-based writer Beverly Lowry about her visiting professorship at Goucher, what she's writing now, and why she's decided to return to Baltimore next spring semester.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

"Uh..Line?" A N00b Dips His Toes in Acting

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Unsung Baltimore - By Kevin Griffin Moreno - May. 25 (Opinion) - Sometime back in late 2009, when I was newly divorced and adjusting to unfamiliar bachelorhood, I was whining to my friend Carly about my need to find something to do with my free time that didn't involve: a) drinking myself into a stupor; or b) re-watching the entire series run of Battlestar Galactica in my underwear while eating baked beans directly out of the saucepan.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Dish & the Spoon

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

What Weekly - By David Warfield - May. 25 (Review) - Have you ever experienced the temporary psychosis that results from a major betrayal in a love/sex relationship? I know I have. And though I said “temporary,” I suspect some betrayals leave permanent pathogens in our relationship DNA.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

10 years? of D4Y

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Gutter - By Holden - May. 15 (Review) - I got the call two days before it all went down can i show a film … we need content.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer