arts and culture : Buzz

Sure, you might own every episode on DVD. But if you ever meet David Simon, don't go waxing poetic about "the Wire."

That's according the New York Times ArtsBeat blog. Writer Jeremy Egner explains:

"Before Mr. Simon went Hollywood, creating the endlessly exalted “Wire” and the current HBO series “Treme,” he was a longtime crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun, and he often evinces that breed’s hard-bitten outlook and allergy to cheap sentimentality."

Simon also tells the Times that he wrote the series for the city of Baltimore. You can read the Q&A with David Simon here.

Baltimore's favorite famous and quirky film director John Waters is featured in the April 1 issue of the Wall Street Journal Magazine.

No it's not an April Fool's Joke.

The director, 65, talks about a lot of things -- why he doesn't lie about his age, his childhood in suburban Baltimore where stood out from the other kids (you don't say?) and that he's mellow now because it's not cool to be his age and be angry. 

He also says he likes rap music. 

"I like rap music. But bragging about being rich to poor people is really offensive," Waters says. "I want to hear a gangsta rap song about buying a Cy Twombly painting or dating a museum curator. I want to hear about that kind of rich." 

Read the entire article here. 

"Maria. I once knew a girl named Maria."

Oh wait, wrong West Side Story.

Hutzlers. I once knew a store named Hutzlers. 

A new play that tells the story of Baltimore's west side retail history premiered March 25 at the Hippodrome. 

"The performers, part of Fluid Movement, a Baltimore group best known for its elaborate and creative water ballets, staged a play on skates commemorating the area's history as "The Hub," the center of city shopping in the era before malls," writes the Baltimore Sun in its review. 

The performances for "HOWARD & LEX: The Way We Roll!" continue March 31 and April 1. Westside Renaissance Development, PNC Bank, the Weinberg Foundation, and the office of Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake are sponsoring the show.

The Washington Post has called the Evergreen Museum & Library a "Gilded Age beauty" in a recent review. 

"The cozy warmth of the reading room didn’t prepare us for the jaw-dropping elegance of the Great Library, a stunning room with floor-to-ceiling walnut bookshelves, reading areas and statuary," the Post writes. "I half-expected to see Lord Grantham from “Downtown Abbey” reading his newspaper there."

Children's museums are increasingly focusing on social outreach, and not just playful activities, writes the New York Times. 

The newspaper cites several children's museums that are using exhibits to target everything from childhood obesity to homeless students. Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore has adapted exhibits to accommodate kids with special needs, the Times writes. 

You can read the story here. 

There was a lot of buzz this month about U.S. News & World Report's ranking Johns Hopkins University ranking No. 2 on its list of top medical schools. 

But another Baltimore school has also made the grade. In its list of top fine arts schools in the nation, U.S. News ranks the Maryland Institute College of Art No. 7. It tied with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. for the No. 7 spot. 

Yale University took the No. 1 spot. You can see the rest of the ranking here. 

Broadway World has previewed an upcoming play at Pumpkin Theatre titled "Clever Rachel." The play by Towson children's theater company's is based on a children's book by Debby Waldman. 

"Rachel is smart, maybe the smartest child in the entire village, and she loves to solve riddle," Broadway World writes. "But Jacob, the smartest boy in the boys school, shows up to challenge Rachel. Will they fight each other and become enemies or find a way to work together to make their village a better place?"

The play debuts March 24.

You can read the rest of the preview here. 

HBO has released two new trailers of its comedy about a female vice president starring Julia Louis Dreyfus. "Veep" was shot in Maryland and was one of the beneficiaries of the state's expanded film incentive budget. 

"Julia Louis-Dreyfus is returning to TV in HBO's "Veep," writes the Huffington Post. "And she's doing it with style and power as Selina Meyer, the new vice president of the United States."

You can read the rest of the review here. 

HBO aired the movie "Game Change" -- the shot-in-Maryland movie starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson -- and it was a hit for several reviewers, including Variety. 

The movie tells the story behind the 2008 election, focusing on Sarah Palin teaming up with John McCain.

"'Game Change; is a home run: a big, smart, entertaining and extremely promotable showcase for marquee stars, generating tons of attention (flattering and otherwise) from political and media strongholds in D.C. and New York," Variety writes. You can read the rest of the review here. 

Like HBO's "Veep," "Game Change" received tax incentives to shoot in Maryland. 

The American Visionary Art Museum has gotten plenty of national attention for being one of Baltimore's cool, quirky and offbeat attractions. 

But the Washington Post has also declared the Federal Hill site a great museum for kids, citing pieces like a dinosaur made of trash, carved plastic foam cups and a sculpture made of 100,000 toothpicks. 

"The American Visionary Art Museum has a sense of humor," the Post writes. "Kids wouldn’t want to miss some of the non-art elements at the museum, such as the flatulence machine by the restrooms downstairs, the fun-house mirrors upstairs near the restaurant and the wacky and inexpensive gift shop where someone is almost always walking around doing magic tricks."

You can read the rest here. 

Construction began this month on the nation's largest museum devoted to African American history. 

And the $500 million Smithsonian museum will feature a number of Maryland artifacts, writes the Baltimore Sun. This includes a Harriet Tubman's silk shawl and a long house built by freed slaves from Montgomery County. 

"These are among 20,000 objects collected by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which will open on the National Mall in 2015 as the 19th Smithsonian Institution museum," the Sun writes.

"Local experts on African-American history say it's appropriate that Maryland will be featured prominently, since many key figures come from the state."

You can read more about the museum here. 

Tina Fey's "30 Rock" is known for featuring A-list celebrities, quirky characters, and absurd humor. 

And now, it's also known for taking a stab at Baltimore.

In an episode this month, Mary Steenburgen is walking along a New York City sidewalk with son-in-law Jack Donaghy, played by Alec Baldwin. She tells him that she contributes to the "Baltimore Philharmonic," a non-existent orchestra. 

"Of course lately it's just a Boombox and a guy in a crab suit," Steenburgen's Diana Jessup says. "He gets shot out of a cannon at Ravens' games. The city may not be thriving."

Getting airtime on a national, primetime comedy show is no small feat for Charm City. And at least one local blogger, who goes by the name Baltimore Boy, could not be more pleased.

"I don’t mind a dig at my beloved hometown when it’s both a low-blow AND clever," he writes. You can read the rest of his analysis here. 

Even Baltimore's real classical music group, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, enjoyed the attention. Check out their Facebook page. 

Port Discovery, a children's museum in downtown Baltimore, has gotten national recognition from Forbes magazine. 

Forbes named it one of the 12 best kids' museum in the nation. 

"This 80,000 square foot facility resides in a renovated fish market and is one of the anchors of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor," Forbes writes. "Both the permanent and temporary exhibitions are heavily thematic, so when kids enter Adventure Expeditions, they travel back in time to 1920’s Egypt and search for a Pharaoh’s lost tomb, decoding hieroglyphics along the way in an educational detective puzzle of sorts."

Children's museums in Indianapolis, Boston and Brooklyn also made the cut. 

It is really just Diddy now? P Diddy? Sean Puffy Combs? Sean Diddy Combs?

For Baltimore rapper Los, it's ka-ching!

Diddy's Bad Boy Records has signed up Baltimore rapper Los, writes MTV News in its RapFix blog. 

"We're trying to put that young, youthful energy out in the air and do it the only way that Bad Boy can do it," Diddy tells MTV. 

Esquire contributor John Mariani has featured Baltimore in a new section of his website that highlights good day-trip destinations.

He focuses on restaurants in Mount Vernon, Harbor East and Little Italy, including Tio Pepe, Charleston, Aldo's Italian Restaurant and Chazz: A Bronx Original. 

"A good deal of the charm of the surrounding neighborhoods are its townhouses, built along British lines, with their identifying marble stoops, and there is a thriving Little Italy, adjacent to the Inner Harbor," Mariani writes. 

You can read the rest of his description of Charm City here.