Buzz

Whoever thought that a neighborhood in Baltimore would be featured alongside Williamsburg, New York City, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, and Chicago's tony Wicker Park?

Forbes has done the favor to Hampden, ranking it No. 15 on its list of hippest hoods. 

"Bars, restaurants and independent coffee houses co-mingle with two-story rowhouses harking back to the neighborhood's days of mills and factories," Forbes writes of this "retro cool" neighborhood. 

Silver Lake took the top spot, followed by San Francisco's Mission District and Brooklyn's Williamsburg. 

San Francisco's Nextdoor.com helped Forbes compile the data, assessing each neighborhoods walkability, number of food trucks, locally owned eateries, art galleries and other hipness factors. You can see the entire list here. 

The reviews are in and, according to the Washington Post, Rain Pryor has boosted the profile of the Strand Theater Co.

"The person who just took over leadership of the Strand might ring a bell, though. Rain Pryor, Richard’s 43-year-old daughter, is now running the ship," the Post writes.

"And while Pryor is candid about volunteering “to pimp my name” to get the shoestring troupe a little more visibility, her theater bona fides are strong. Pryor is currently enjoying off-Broadway success with her solo show “Fried Chicken and Latkes,” an autobiographical monologue with jazz music featuring Pryor’s takes on her famous father, her Jewish mother, showbiz and more."

Pryor has been living in Baltimore since 2006, the Post writes. The New York Times also recently featured Pryor.

Founded by Jayme Kilburn, the Strand is located in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and operates on a shoestring budget of $30,000. 

Pennsylvania has its groundhog Punxsutawney Phil to predict whether spring will come early. 

Now Baltimore has its own critter that can forsee future weather. Spice maker McCormick & Co. Inc. will rely on a crab to determine if we'll get an early winter, writes the News Journal of Wilmington, Del. On Sept. 26, the makers of Old Bay seasoning and other spices will make a crab walk the plank into the Inner Harbor, the paper writes.

"If he goes off the right side it will be an early winter. And if he goes off the left side it will be a warm fall," writes the News Journal. 

McCormick recently opened a Harborplace retail location, near which the event will take place. 

IdeaMensch is a community that shows people how to bring their ideas to life and it is helping the fine folks in the Free State. 

"Whether your idea is an app, a nonprofit, a book, a website or an invention – what matters is how you bring it to life. Who matter are the people who bring those ideas to life," the IdeaMensch site says. The Los Angeles-based organization is going on a four-month road trip and is hitting every state. 

It makes its stop in Maryland Sept. 25 at the Loyola Columbia Graduate Campus, starting at 6 p.m. Speakers include Social Toaster CEO Brian Razzaque and PointClickSwitch CEO Phil Crowskey. Read more about the Baltimore event here. 

A Baltimore vocalist has caught the attention of Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera and other stars of NBC's "The Voice."

Nelson Emokpae, who goes by the band and stage name Nelly’s Echo, was a hit on last week’s episode, according to a recap in the Baltimore Sun. Nigerian born Emokpae fled to Baltimore 16 years ago after his father was wrongfully imprisoned but has since been reunited with the family in Charm City.

Levine and Aguilera both vied for Emokpae to join their teams after hearing the singer’s rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine”, but Emokpae ended up choosing team Aguilera.

Read more here.

Reality TV star and baker Duff Goldman ecently became a gastronomic diplomat, according to a CNN post. 

The U.S. State Department and James Beard Foundation teamed up to establish the Diplomatic Culinary Program which debuted last week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asks chefs to create American dishes fused with the cuisines of other nations to be served for foreign dignitaries and serve as a culinary ambassador at kitchens around the world.

Goldman will travel to Colombia this fall to lead a cake decorating demonstration for more than 6,000. "When you're cooking with somebody even if they don't speak your language you're still cooking with them," Goldman tells CNN. “We've shared experiences in our careers, in our lives, in our passion of the things that we really believe in." 

Goldman is the former star of the Food Network's Ace of Cakes and recently expanded his bakery to the West Coast with a location in Los Angeles. 

Baltimore Magazine also lists Top Chef runner up and co-owner of Frederick’s Volt Restaurant Bryan Voltaggio as one of the 80 ambassadors.

You might recall that Travel + Leisure recently named Baltimore the 3rd worst dressed city. 

Another travel magazine says not so, and features a rather dapper Baltimore dandy dressed in duds from area retailers. GO: AirTran Inflight Magazine enlisted "fashion-savvy stylist" Ella Pritsker, director of the Maryland Center of Fashion Design; "talented designer" Christopher Schafer and "hip photographer" Sean Scheidt to create the fashionable look for its September issue. 

"We'll be one of America's best dressed cities in no time," Pritsker tells the magazine. 

Berger cookies' expansion into Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia can only be a good thing, right? 

Not according to a Baltimorean who says the cookie is so linked with Baltimore, it can't possibly be truly appreciated by non-natives. 

"Can a city like DC boasting so many five-star restaurants really value this simple cookie?" Andrew Reiner asks in the September issue of GO:AirTran Inflight Magazine. 

"First, there's the look of the Berger, as it's often called, with its leviathan mound of hand-dipped fudge icing atop a cakey wafer. 'A chocolate delivery vehicle,' is how one cyberspace foodie refers to it. The fudge icing is just that ponderous— and inconsistent."

Read the rest here. 

The Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore has one of the top 12 “head-turning” infinity pools, according to Conde Nast Traveler. From the complimentary sunscreen, private cabanas and sounds from the nearby Pier 6 Pavilion summer concerts, swimming is only one of the reasons guests should check out the pool, says the magazine.
 
Some of the other hotel pools on the list are located in Tanzania, Africa, Toronto, Turks & Caicos and Bali, Indonesia. 

BloombergBusinessweek recognizes the expansion of Baltimarket, a virtual grocery shopping solution for the one out of five Baltimore residents who live in food deserts.
 
Baltimarket originally took food orders in public libraries when it opened in March 2010 but now targets the 16 public housing developments located in food deserts, especially senior centers, BloombergBusinessweek says.

The project allows residents with low incomes and no vehicles, to order groceries, including healthy meal options, without paying a hefty taxi fee to travel to grocery stores across the city.
 
Read more here.

The crew of The CW’s “The Next: Fame Is At Your Doorstep” searched for Charm City singers with potential, according to an episode recap in Baltimore City Paper. The episode highlighted four singers performing at the Hippodrome: country singer Jenny Leigh, choir director Shannon Ramsey, pop singer Jordan Baird and teenager Chris Bivins.
 
Baird’s charismatic rendition of Gavin Degraw’s “Not Over You” won over audience members, who voted for him to be the winner of the night who gets sent to semi-finals in Los Angeles.
 
Read how the other Baltimoreans fared here.

Complaining about your commute? Rodgers Forge native Gabe Acheson puts you to shame.
 
The Park School of Baltimore graduate traveled roughly 400 miles on foot to Yale University where he was accepted, in order to follow through the promise he made in his admissions essay, according to the Baltimore Sun. "As I was writing essays, I thought about how I'd always wanted to do something like this," Acheson says.

"I figured if I put it in an essay, that would force me to follow through on my plan.” Acheson took on the Appalachian Trail, propelled by carbohydrate snacks and Google Maps.
 
Read more about his journey here.

Bryan Voltaggio paired up with his brother Michael Voltaggio of Los Angeles’ Ink to present “Hungover with the Voltaggios” to the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival.
 
The crowd enjoyed the two brothers for both their culinary skills and comedic relief, according to a recap in Los Angeles Magazine.
 
The Voltaggios exuded the same personality and cooking style as fans saw on Season Six of Top Chef when Michael won and Bryan, owner of Frederick's Volt restaurant, was second runner-up. “Bryan seems happy to play it straight while Michael engages in all manner of wild and eccentric experimentation. Hence, the coffee cake," LA Magazine writes. 
 
The best part about Bryan’ cinnamon swirl coffee cake and dollop of bay leaf ice cream and Michael’s egg yolk gnocchi and bacon is that they’re things you can replicate at home, Bryan tells the magazine.

That is of course, if you have superb culinary skills and liquid nitrogen.

The Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania will be hosting an exhibit of art inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, who lived for a time in Baltimore.

Antiques and Arts Online describes how Poe inspired abstract expressionist artists after his death.

“Poe's popularity soared in France shortly after his death, especially with avant-garde French writers and artists who appreciated his emphasis on the psychologically dark, perverse and strange.” The article also highlights two works from the Baltimore Museum of Art: Antonio Frasconi’s “The Raven IV” and Horst Janssen’s “Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe”.
 
Edouard Manet, Gustave Doré, Paul Gauguin, James Ensor, Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, Harry Clarke, Barry Moser and Robert Motherwell are among the artists featured in "Picturing Poe: Illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's Stories and Poems,"   which runs Sept. 8 to Nov. 15. Read more about the exhibit and Poe’s take on illustrations here. 

We knew Michael Phelps would land a few more high-profile sponsorships after the London Olympics. First, the Rodgers Forge swimmer landed on the Wheaties box.

Now, the most decorated Olympian has wound up in the water again. No, not a swimming pool but a bathtub. Phelps joins Muhammad Ali and Angelina Jolie by becoming the latest face to grace ads for the French luxury line Louis Vuitton. 

"In a new ad for Louis Vuitton, Phelps can be seen partially submersed in a tub while wearing a suit and a pair of goggles with a duffle bag from the French fashion house sits conveniently beside him on a towel," E online writes. "The campaign was reportedly shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz."

The ad could get Phelps in hot water with the International Olympic Committee, which has a new rule that prohibits Olympic athletes from appearing in ads that aren't promoted by official sponsors, NBCNews.com writes.