Visit Baltimore : Buzz

Aerial artist Mara Neimanis will perform her new solo show at the Creative Alliance next year.

"Naomi's Flight" tells the story of the artist's personal experience caring for her elderly parents. "This one-hour aerial performance combines text and choreography on three steel suspended apparatus sculpted by Baltimore sculptor, Tim Scofield," writes Broadway World.

You can learn more about the Feb. 2 performance here.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's most recent performance at Carnegie Hall tells the story of French heroine Joan of Arc and gets a nice review in the New York Times.

The newspaper writes that BSO Music Director Marin Alsop led a "tightly wrought performance" of "Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher," or Joan of Arc at the Stake, by Swiss composer Arthur Honegger.

Musicians from the Peabody Children’s Chorus, the Morgan State University Choir, the Peabody-Hopkins Chorus and the Concert Artists of Baltimore also took the stage. You can read the whole review here.

Getting tired of your usual Thanksgiving repertoire? Well it's too late to turn back the clock, but there's always next year.

And here to help is Sergio Vitale, co-owner of Aldo's Italian Restaurant and pizza place Chazz: A Bronx Original. The Wall Street Journal recently featured his brussel sprouts' recipe, made with sriracha and pancetta, among other ingredients.

Actor-turned-restaurant partner Chazz Palminteri, co-owner of the Harbor East pizza joint, shares the recipe with the Journal's readers.

Luxury, thy name is Baltimore.

After years of anticipation, the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore will open its doors this month. The 256-room property will feature a spa, two restaurants, café and two swimming pools. The chain's debut in Charm City has not only attracted the attention of local media, but national travel publications. Read more about the five-star hotel in Elite Traveler.

This article from Bloomberg Businessweek highlighted events in Baltimore's "Occupy" movement, and the community encampment near the Inner Harbor. The article quotes the mayor's office and Occupy Baltimore participants. Read the entire post here.

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.

Robert E. Lee park has long been a destination for dog owners, occasionally to the chagrin of non-canine inclined individuals. Recent developments should go a long way to resolving the disconnect.

From the source:

Dogs have run free — amok, some would say — in Robert E. Lee park for years. Residents complained the park had been "hijacked" by dog people. Even the county's parks director knew folks referred to the wooded, lakeside retreat as "Dog Poop Park."

The spot, hovering on the city/county line, had become the area's favorite dog park — never mind it wasn't one.

But that's all about to change.

After a $6.1 million renovation and a two-year closure, Robert E. Lee will re-opening Friday, boasting all sorts of refinements — the centerpiece being a legal, fenced dog run that people will have to pay to use. Additionally, the park will become the county's first to hire a small corps of rangers charged with ticketing people whosedogs are caught off leash anywhere else.

Here's the full story.

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.

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.

If the long range forecast from Accuweather for winter in Baltimore is right, we could see some early snow.

From WBAL:

Are you ready for some snow?

This winter, expect a "front loaded" season, with cold and snow starting in earnest in the early part of the winter, but letting up by mid- to late winter. That's the prediction from Accuweather, which offered up a picture that includes what's expected to be average or slightly above normal snow totals south and east of the mountains from Virginia to Maine.

Read the full story here.

A host of events are on tap for the 2011 edition of Baltimore Beer Week, which begins October 6.

A sample:

So what’s in store this year? When queried, founder Joe Gold said many of the events are still evolving. However, plans are underway to have the first "Star Spangled Banger" parade of sorts starting at noon on October 6th at Baltimore’s historic Fort McHenry whereupon the fabled mallet will weave its way through some of Baltimore’s storied neighborhoods, visit various landmarks and taverns and ultimately end at Rams Head Live which will be the host venue for this year’s expanded Opening Tap Celebration. The hand-crafted mallet, used to tap the ceremonial first firkin, was crafted by wood expert John Gasparine and actually uses wood from Maryland’s famous fallen Wye Oak tree.

In addition to the Opening Tap Celebration, this year promises some great events like the 10th Anniversary of the Maryland Oktoberfest at Timonium Fairgrounds on October 8th, The Chesapeake Real Ale Festival featuring over 40 one of a kind firkins on October 15th and a Women-Centric event at Max’s Taphouse on October 13th. October 9th will feature a Historic Walking Pub Tour called a “Bar on Every Corner”.

A full schedule, along with more information about the event, can be found at the Baltimore Beer Week website.

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.

Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe House remains in danger of closing.

From the source:

But the city that named its NFL team after his poem "The Raven" may soon lose a key physical connection to Poe. The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, where the writer lived for four years in the early 1800s, is in danger of closing next year, due to budget cutbacks by the city.

"Everyone is tightening their belt," said Jeff Jerome, the museum's curator and only employee, who also works for the city's planning department.

Read the whole story.

It's official: the National Pinball Museum -- previously located in DC -- will open in Baltimore.

From the source:

The National Pinball Museum, forced out of Washington after losing its lease earlier this year, will be moving into the Power Plant Live complex.

Trucks began moving owner David Silverman's vast collection of flipper-type pinball machines into a building at 608 Water St. Wednesday. Silverman, a Silver Spring-based landscape designer who has been collecting the machines for some 40 years, said he hopes to open for business by the end of November.

"We're moving in now," he said early Thursday morning as he drove into Baltimore.

Read the whole story.