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The Feel Good: Five Great Things That Happened in Our Area This Month
Waste Not: Baltimore Receives Federal Grant for City-Run Compost Facility. Don’t throw out that banana peel, Baltimore. Soon, city residents will have a local, city-operated compost facility ready to turn kitchen scraps into deep, rich humus— the soil created when organic matter is broken down through the process of composting. This month, Baltimore received $4 million of federal funding to build a composting facility at the city’s Eastern Sanitation Yard. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant is partly funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Photos: Artscape After Dark
Station North lit up with Artscape after parties following a killer set by Anderson .Paak—aka DJ Pee Wee—on the festival’s main stage last Friday night. To celebrate the return of the city’s beloved arts and culture festival after three years off, Metro Gallery fittingly held a Disco Tropico party with DJs Emily Rabbit and James Nasty. Just around the corner, The Royal Blue hosted DJ Uncle Quincy to another packed house, while post-Artscape staples like Mount Royal Tavern, Club Charles, and The Depot hosted rain refugees. Even those who chose not to enter the clubs danced in the streets.
Nearly 50 Years After Its World Premiere in Baltimore, ‘The Wiz’ Heads to the Hippodrome
One day before The Wiz—producer Ken Harper’s theatric, Afro-futurist retelling of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz—was set to make its world premiere at Baltimore’s Morris A. Mechanic Theatre on October 21, 1974, things were not going well. According to a 1975 Playbill...
How to Plan Your Artscape Weekend
Before Ernest Shaw was a regular vendor at Artscape—the city’s massive celebration of the arts and culture scene that began in 1982 and grew to become one of the largest free arts festivals in the country—the local painter, muralist, and educator worked the event as a stagehand in the ’80s, rubbing elbows with musical greats like Ray Charles and Baltimore jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz.
John Waters Gets His Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Baltimore writer and filmmaker John Waters got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, the capstone to a week of West Coast parties and tributes that he called “the ultimate Dreamland reunion.”. Hundreds crowded onto the narrow sidewalk in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood...
How Should We Feel About the O’s Bandwagon Fans?
If you’re a true Orioles fan, there is one adjective that best describes you: long-suffering. To put it mildly, it’s been hard to be an O’s fan these last 20-or-so years. Since the year 2000, the Orioles have had exactly five winning seasons and two trips to the post-season (three, if you count the 2016 Wild-Card play-in game that we lost to the Blue Jays).
Fall Food and Drink Festivals Happening Around Baltimore
Cool, crisp air and the changing color of the leaves are right around the corner as fall approaches. For food lovers, this means it’s not only almost time to savor soups and stews, but also oysters and seasonal craft beer and wine. From September through November, Baltimore and its surrounding counties are hosting a slew of festivals celebrating everything from pickles to pit beef. Below, we round up 20 fall food and drink events that may interest you.
Open & Shut: La Calle; Sagamore Spirit; Jerk at Nite
La Calle: The globally influenced cantina is back. At the end of 2022, La Calle shuttered its downtown location near City Hall, but last month, it reopened in a new space at 623 S. Broadway in Fells Point. In honor of its new home, the restaurant—known for its ceviches, salads, tostadas, and chef-driven entrees—has expanded its list of tequilas and mezcals, as well as added more dishes to the menu. Co-owner Luis Sandoval says bestsellers so far include the pollo con mole, a pan-roasted half-chicken covered in mole. The flavorful sauce is made with “25 to 30 ingredients,” he says. “The taste is sweet and spicy, and people are loving it.” There’s also brunch service, with offerings ranging from classic steak con huevos to sweet mini churros with vanilla mascarpone.
Forty Years Ago, a Dozen Neighbors Became the Keepers of Wyman Park Dell
With Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore Museum of Art as its neighbors, Wyman Park Dell—Central Baltimore’s own 16-acre oasis—has become known as a convenient location for city dwellers to relax outdoors. But 40 years ago, the tree-lined greenspace was an unattended eyesore, recalls Sandy Sparks, a resident of Charles Village.
Then & Now: How Do the 2023 Orioles Compare to the ’83 Championship Team?
It’s been 40 years since our beloved Orioles last played in the World Series. But unless you’re a Baltimorean solidly into middle age, you wouldn’t really remember the ’83 club—a mix of veterans and some young stars, namely a couple of fellows named Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray—or the massive championship parade that followed the five-game Series win in Philadelphia.
Bishme Cromartie Opens Up About His Bittersweet ‘Project Runway’ Win
Shortly after losing his older sister, Chimere Faye Didley, to cancer, East Baltimore native fashion designer Bishme Cromartie found himself back on the set of Bravo’s Project Runway, this time competing as an All-Star. (He had come in fourth in Season 17, just missing the chance to showcase his collection in the finale.)
Flock Together for These Ravens Food and Drink Specials
Say it with us, Ravens fans: football is back. If you’re looking for somewhere to prepare for the game or celebrate a victory afterward, the local sports bar scene has got you covered (as always). From game-day spreads to bottomless beers, these spots bring the purple spirit in full force.
Key Takeaways From Baltimore City’s Overdose Awareness Day
Purple and white balloon arrangements—the colors used to amplify the mission of overdose prevention—filled the cafe of Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse in Waverly on Thursday, August 31, when the Baltimore City Health Department hosted its eighth-annual Overdose Awareness Day. From 12-5 p.m. the free event to raise...
Open & Shut: Locals Only; Heavy Seas’ BOHdacious Blonde; Bar 1801
Locals Only: Starting tomorrow, Federal Hill will be home to a new pizza joint. From Andrew Wheeler, partner at neighborhood standby The Charles, Locals Only will offer a fun, playful vibe that’s apparent right from a look at the menu—which is divided down the middle between “pizza” and “not pizza.” Expect witty pie names like the “Street Corn Named Desire” (corn, jalapeño, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos) and “Star Crust Lovers” topped with basil pesto, house sausage, and red peppers. On the other side, patrons will find comfort food like “mac-o-rella” sticks, crispy wings, house-baked feta, and a play on a charcuterie board dubbed “The Lunchable.” Beverages have the same fun ethos, from limoncello shots—as an homage to a traditional Neapolitan pizza joint—to espresso martinis.
Where to Walk With Little Amal During Her Baltimore Visit
So far, she’s logged about 6,000 miles and passed through 15 countries searching for her mother. An ironically 12-foot-tall puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child, Little Amal was created in 2021 by The Walk Productions—a nonprofit organization known for its large-scale public art—to raise awareness of the hardships faced by migrants, immigrants, and refugee children.
The Feel Good: Five Great Things That Happened in Our Area This Month
Aw Shucks: National Oyster Week Marks Start of New Shell Recycling Program. Did you slurp a bivalve this month? With August 1-6 being National Oyster Week, it was the perfect time. Whether fried or served on the half shell with mignonette or cocktail sauce, the week was a delicious way to educate oyster lovers about the importance of oysters to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Many of the consumed oysters ended up right back where they came from—in the Bay, serving as hosts for baby oysters thanks to the efforts of the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP). Not only does ORP consistently work with restaurants to recycle the shells (more than 260,000 bushels, to be exact), but, since 1994, it has also planted more than 10 billion oysters on 3,000 acres of reef. But you no longer need to support an ORP partner restaurant to help with the recycling effort. For those who enjoy a good shuck at home, there’s good news—Baltimore County recently opened a residential oyster shell collection site at the Eastern Sanitary Landfill in White Marsh. For those who believe the old adage “Only eat oysters in months containing an ‘r’,” you can spend September (mark your calendar for ORP’s The World is Your Oyster Festival at the B&O Railroad Museum on September 28) slurping with a clear conscious.
Hampden’s Common Ground Bakery Cafe is Reopening as a Worker-Owned Co-Op
On the morning of July 2, a group of confused Hampden locals gathered around the locked doors and cleared patio of Common Ground Bakery Cafe on Chestnut Avenue. Among the crowd were some perplexed employees and delivery workers, who stood with nothing to greet them but a note taped to the front door. Overnight, the cafe’s owners had ceased operations “effective immediately,” leaving the breakfast rush unfed, and dozens of people abruptly unemployed.
What to Eat at the Maryland State Fair This Year
From competitively hilarious lumberjack shows to rides on the famous Riptide rollercoaster, the Maryland State Fair is full of fun thrills to make the end of summer a little less sad. But perhaps the best part of the annual Timonium event, which returns for three weekends August 24 through September 10, is stopping at stands along the Midway to sample classic fair foods.
Movie review: Passages
There’s been a lot of talk about sex in cinema these day. It seems that Gen Z and young millennials are not fans of mixing sex with their movies (they’d rather watch porn on their computers, I guess). This is patently ridiculous, of course, as sex is essential to films, arguably one of the raisons d’etre of moviemaking. The camera often sets out to seduce and be seduced. When we refer to the “male gaze” or the “female gaze,” we’re not talking about landscapes, people.
‘The Body Politic’ Follows Brandon Scott as He Tackles Baltimore’s Gun Violence Epidemic
No one needs a reminder that gun violence in Baltimore has been at epidemic levels for decades. The homicide rate, which quadrupled the national average some 40 years ago, has only spiraled from there—spiking in the 1990s, and again 2015—and remains at or near the highest rate in the U.S. ever since. And none of the crime reduction initiatives, not the so-called War on Drugs, not former Mayor Martin O’Malley’s mass incarceration policies, and not even the greatest per capita police spending in the country, managed to yield lasting results. In fact, the case can be made those policies and practices did more harm than good.
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