February 2009 Issue by Urbanite LLC

grading the city’s green Blueprint • stars and Bars: the Banner’s Back

february 2009 issue no. 56

going places the traVel issue w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Let us h your i elp you fin d ns visit u piration, s follow at the ing sh ows.

Your face matters. Trust it to a specialist. Dr. Kofi Boahene specializes

exclusively in cosmetic surgery and nonsurgical facial rejuvenation. His expertise includes nose reshaping, neck lifts, wrinkle treatments, eyelid surgery, ethnic skin care, Botox, injectable fillers, microdermabrasion and laser treatments.

Kofi Boahene, m.d., f.a.c.s

Board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon Trained at premier international institutions, Dr. Boahene brings a unique perspective and personal approach to his patients. He always strives to achieve a natural-looking result with the least invasive treatment.

hopkinsfacialplastics.com

Convenient locations at Hunt Valley 410-527-1197 Green Spring Station or Baltimore 410-502-2145 w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

The nature of passion:

You truly love Baltimore, but…

GIVE HER A GIFT SHE’LL LOVE. Gift Certificates are available over the phone, in-store and at AboutFacesDaySpa.com. Experience the love.

you just need to run away sometimes to remember how much.

AboutFacesDaySpa.com

On pavement, on earth, come hell or high water, the BMW R1200GS is like unconditional love on wheels. Ride it at Bob’s BMW today.

CANTON | TOWSON | TIMONIUM PIKESVILLE | SALISBURY

BMW Motorrad USA

Authorized Dealer

ABF004808_Urbanite Magazine.indd 1

bobsbmw.com

877-RIDE BMW 10720 Guilford Road Columbia-Jessup, MD

12/24/08 1:10 PM

Some call it a buyer’s market. We call it your market. We have super deals on our Get Movin© homes in every community in MD & PA. Our new homes are amazingly affordable and all are FHA approved with fantastic financing options. There is a‘ reason we’re the Baltimore areas number one seller of condos. There’s never been an opportunity like this so get movin’ and visit us today!

MD (410) 612-6762 • PA (888) 734-4538 Sales by Regents Realty, LLC

Beautiful Harford County & York County Communities from the Mid $100’s!

RegentsRealtyGroup.com/GetMovin 4

urbanite february 09

If your life’s adventure says pavement optional, the BMW R1200GS is your best friend on wheels. It’s true love, c hell or high water.

contents

february 2009 issue no. 56

the travel issue 30

revolutionary road

looking for the america that nearly wasn’t in colonial williamsburg by andrew reiner

west side story

garrett county’s mountaintop dream by greg hanscom

the daytripper

ﬁve ways to get out of town by marianne k. amoss

stranger in a strange land

on the trail of baltimore’s african american heritage by lionel foster

buggytown revisited

another side of amish country by rebecca messner

departments

editor’s note

what you’re saying

what you’re writing

corkboard

the goods

let’s get out of here forgive them, mozart

migration: heading home, roughing it, and a garden in the desert this month: literature, confections, and the nobel prize too many emu eggs? plus: adult treats, the luxe life, and stylish bling

baltimore observed a blueprint for green grading the city’s new environmental plan

by greg hanscom

a better tomorrow ﬁghting back and ﬁnding community in better waverly by lionel foster

eat/drink the chef’s table: salt’s jason ambrose cooks lamb stroganoff plus: sauté and rocket to venus, domestic wine values, and this month’s dining calendar

art/culture the ﬂag waver the smithsonian’s controversial history museum gets a makeover

by david dudley

plus: an elusive master, a look under the big top, and this month’s cultural calendar

on the cover: art by cornel rubino

eye to eye: urbanite’s creative director, alex castro, on david hess

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Issue 56: February 2009 Publisher Tracy Ward Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com Creative Director Alex Castro General Manager Jean Meconi Jean@urbanitebaltimore.com Editor-in-Chief David Dudley David@urbanitebaltimore.com Managing Editor Marianne K. Amoss Marianne@urbanitebaltimore.com Senior Editor Greg Hanscom Greg@urbanitebaltimore.com Staff Writer Lionel Foster Lionel@urbanitebaltimore.com Literary Editor Susan McCallum-Smith literaryeditor@urbanitebaltimore.com Proofreader Robin T. Reid Contributing Writers Michael Anft, Scott Carlson, Charles Cohen, Mat Edelson, Clinton Macsherry, Richard Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Mara, Martha Thomas, Sharon Tregaskis, Mary K. Zajac Editorial Interns Anne-Marie Robinson, Andrew Zaleski Design/Production Manager Lisa Van Horn Lisa@urbanitebaltimore.com Traffic/Production Coordinator Belle Gossett Belle@urbanitebaltimore.com Photography Interns Shelby Silvernell, Tasha Treadwell Senior Account Executives Catherine Bowen Catherine@urbanitebaltimore.com Susan R . Levy Susan@urbanitebaltimore.com Lois Windsor Lois@urbanitebaltimore.com Advertising Sales Assistant Erin Albright Erin@urbanitebaltimore.com Bookkeeping/Marketing Assistant Iris Goldstein Iris@urbanitebaltimore.com Founder Laurel Harris Durenberger Advertising/Editorial/Business Offices P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 Phone: 410-243-2050; Fax: 410-243-2115 www.urbanitebaltimore.com Editorial inquiries: Send queries to editor@urbanitebaltimore.com (no phone calls, please). The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Urbanite does not necessarily support the opinions of its authors. To subscribe or obtain assistance with a current subscription, call 410-243-2050. Subscription price: $18 per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission by Urbanite is prohibited. Copyright 2009, Urbanite LLC. All rights reserved. Urbanite (ISSN 1556-8105) is a free publication distributed widely in the Baltimore metropolitan area. To suggest a drop location for the magazine, please contact us at 410-243-2050. Postmaster: Send address changes to Urbanite Subscriptions, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211.

urbanite february 09

photo by Rob Minch

courtesy of Dennis Drenner

contributors Baltimore photojournalist Dennis Drenner has shot in more than twenty countries, capturing subjects from the indigenous peoples of Colombia to the residents of postwar Bosnia. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and other national publications. In this month’s Urbanite, Drenner’s images for “Stranger in a Strange Land” (p. 40), which surveys black cultural tourism in Baltimore, showed the globetrotting photographer a part of his hometown he’d never seen. “I had no idea that Baltimore had been such an important part of African American history,” he says.

Andrew Reiner ’s writing has appeared in the Baltimore Sun and City Paper, among other publications. Last January, his essay on “The American Idea” appeared in the online version of The Atlantic Monthly magazine. He teaches writing at Towson University and in the Johns Hopkins University’s Odyssey program. For this issue’s feature “Revolutionary Road” (p. 30), Reiner took his fifteenth trip to Colonial Williamsburg, where he found that his favorite living history attraction still possesses the capacity to surprise. “They are doing things there that are perfect metaphors for stuff that’s going on in contemporary American life,” he says.

editor’s note

Good news: 2009 will be a great year to get away. So sayeth the folks in the travel business, at least. The euro has retreated a bit against the U.S. dollar, gas is cheap again—thanks, global economic crisis!—and the intrepid traveler who ventures out into a recessed world will find a buyer’s market for hotel rooms. Of course, you still need to have the funds to get out of town in the first place, which is another way of saying that 2009, like so many years, promises to be a good time to have money. Perhaps there are better reasons to hit the road. In a 1998 article about the American explorer John Lloyd Stephens, who stumbled upon the ruins of the Mayan civilization in the 1830s, frequent Urbanite contributor Richard O’Mara (himself something of a rambler, thanks to his background as a foreign correspondent) described how Stephens was first sent abroad at the urging of his doctor, travel at that time being “a routine prescription for burntout members of the gentry.” It remains so today: Twee aphorisms touting the healing properties of travel take up a whole wing of the Internet’s inspirational-quotation factory. (Here’s a better-than-average one: “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” —Kurt Vonnegut) Read enough of these words of wisdom, and you too will be convinced that the cure for everything from bigotry to ennui lies at the end of Concourse D, Gate 64. But there’s a very 21st-century twist to this otherwise sunny travel forecast: our growing understanding of the external costs incurred by recreational human mobility, particularly the airborne kind. Jetting about the country isn’t just a dehumanizing hassle (“There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.”—Orson Welles), it’s a good way to inject a load of greenhouse gases directly into the upper atmosphere, where they can do the maximum climatological mischief. The eco-cops want you to stay home, in other words, even if St. Augustine says otherwise. (“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”) If the Year of the Staycation seems too grim to contemplate, here’s a compromise: Go, but not too far. This month, we prescribe a grand tour of close-to-home destinations, each reachable within a few hours of driving. (Better yet, take a train or bus.) Call it Voyages of Moderation—the idea is to put just enough distance between you and your job (you do still have a job, right?) to restore mental health without draining the family coffers or overstepping your carbon footprint. Thus, we flung correspondents to the far corners of the Mid-Atlantic. Senior editor Greg Hanscom, a native of the powder-happy mountains of Utah, was dispatched to the peaks of Western Maryland to sample the schuss at the state’s lone ski resort (“West Side Story,” p. 34). Rebecca Messner took a northern journey into the mysterious outlet-laden hinterlands of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she discovered an uncanny enclave of hipsters amid the shoofly pie (“Buggytown Revisited,” p. 45). Andrew Reiner drove south, retracing a well-worn route to Colonial Williamsburg to ask why this wiggy town-turnedmuseum has him in such thrall (“Revolutionary Road,” p. 30). And staff writer Lionel Foster turned tourist in his own backyard, taking another kind of trip into the past along Baltimore’s African American cultural heritage trail (“Stranger in a Strange Land,” p. 40). What did we learn on these journeys? We discovered that Samuel Johnson was right (“He who expects much will be often disappointed”), but so was Charles Dickens (“One always begins to forgive a place as soon as it’s left behind”). We figured that Lao Tzu (“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving”) probably wouldn’t have made it past the notorious Springfield Interchange off I-95 south of D.C. And we decided that there really is, to coin a phrase, no place like home. —David Dudley

What’s the big idea? Coming Next Month: The Urbanite Project, our annual experiment in the power of collaboration. www.urbanitebaltimore.com w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Batlas Batlas Hapney

Hapney

the Best Move you Can Make...

Jocelyn Batlas

Lisa Hapney

Green. We’re Making it Real.

MaRylanD’s FIRst CeRtIFIeD GReen HOMes NOW AVAILABLE.....BUILDERSOne presents a Luxury Enclave of Gated Carriage Homes in Timonium.

1st and 2nd Floor Master Suites, approximately 3000+ square feet, designer kitchen, generous room sizes, 2 car garage. Numerous selections including outdoor fireplace, wine cellar, smart home features. Style and Convenience. AND, IT’S CERTIFIED GREEN - energy saving guarantees and tax credits! ONLY 8 LEFT!

Presented By

sMaRteR • CleaneR • GReeneR

Overlook

Spectacular and Stately-home boasts expansive 1st floor, reception foyer w/fp, stunning vaulted fam room, fin LL, outdoor haven w/3+park like acres -heated pool and cabana - gated community.

Stonewall

Timberpark Gorgeous estate in prestigious Timber-park, 4 bedrooms, 5700+ square feet, lavishly appointed, deluxe master suite, finished lower level, chef’s kitchen, 3-car garage. “Smart Home.”

Stoneleigh Area

One-of-a-kind custom residence. This majestic home’s expansive floorplan boasts 8000+ square feet. Two master suites, a chef’s dream kitchen, a freeform pool, a pavilion and amazing finishes create a resort-like feel.

Fantastic 3 bed 2 1/2 bath colonial -huge updated kitchen w/stainless appliances,1st floor office/den, finished LL rec room, new floors, Custom master closet, deck leads to private backyard oasis -wonderful location in great school district!

The Quarry at Greenspring

Gorgeous brand new 2 bdr. spacious condo with all the bells and whistles! Gourmet kitchen, luxurious master suite, balconies, sunroom, garage parking. Amenities galore with fantastic location in desirable community.

Jocelyn Batlas ∙ 410-925-7817 Jocelyn.Batlas@longandFoster.com

lisa Hapney ∙ 443-506-7796 lisa.Hapney@longandFoster.com

towson Office

u r b a n i t e f e b r u a r y 410-583-9400 09

Amy Lovellette 410-925-6411

Lisa Carroll 443-985-9189

what you’re saying

photo by Chris Rebbert

selected to develop the school—Daniel Coit Gilman, the president of the University of California—wanted to create the country’s first research university. At the time, there was no true university in the United States; if you wanted a Ph.D., you studied in Europe. When Gilman opened Hopkins in 1876, it was housed near Howard and Monument streets. The university moved to the Homewood Plantation in 1915. —Gary F. Suggars is a real estate agent specializing in historic properties.

Classical Gas David Dudley begins his article “Youth Movement” (January) with the question, “Can the kids save classical music?” The reality is that classical music has no need to be saved; it is cultural sophistication in Baltimore that is in dire need of rescue. As a devoted fan of classical music, I am pleased to see the expansion of this great art among Asian peoples living in the United States and in their homelands. World-class conservatories in Asia are crammed with talented students. Classical music is expanding around the globe, as is opera. Cheapening the programs of American symphony orchestras will not solve their financial woes. In the case of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, presenting fewer formal programs or less important music will not generate sufficient revenues to maintain solvency. Rather, the orchestra should concentrate on high-caliber performances of time-honored music while seeking association with a community (like Rockville) where greater comprehension and support are available. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra does not really need the city of Baltimore. It is the city of Baltimore that really needs the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. —Clifton Bunin lives in Mount Vernon. Bad Math After reading about Stephen Walters’ tax plan for Baltimore (“The One-Percenter,” January), I had the nagging feeling that the libertarian economist’s sums don’t add up. Back in the ’70s, when I took Introduction to Economics, I was presented with the concept that money is fungible—each dollar costs and spends the same without regard to its source. Presuming a Baltimore resident is deciding how much to pay for real estate based

entirely on his cost of living, property taxes would be a significant, but not all-important, part of the process. For example: A taxpayer with a $200,000 30-year mortgage at 6 percent on a house assessed at $200,000 would have a total mortgage payment of a little more than $1,600 per month. The same $1,600 would pay the mortgage on a $230,000 house assessed at $230,000 if the property tax rate were 1 percent. The city’s tax take would decline by about 50 percent, or $2,240. It is quite possible that a dedicated libertarian would argue that tax payment dollars impose a burden on taxpayers that is many times more than any other dollars spent on anything else, but the article didn’t mention any research that proves taxes are an exception to the basic rule of fungibility. Perhaps I would have unlearned all that introductory stuff if I had moved on to more advanced courses. Also, surely economics has advanced in the last thirty years. But based on what I learned back then, I would say that Mr. Walters’ plan is a libertarian fantasy. —Peter Duvall lives in Charles Village. What Hopkins Really Wanted In his article “Disorder in the House” (December), Greg Hanscom writes that Johns Hopkins wanted his university built on the grounds of what is now Clifton Park, but its trustees selected a site in the Homewood area. It is true that Hopkins wanted his school to be located at Clifton, but he did not want a university. Nor was the Homewood campus initially considered by trustees. Although Hopkins’ will was not too specific, many believe he intended to create an agricultural school for orphan boys. He left the final execution of his will to John Work Garrett, a close friend, the creator of the B&O Railroad, and the man responsible for creating Hopkins’ great wealth. The man Garrett

James Stimpert, Johns Hopkins University Archivist, responds: There is some truth in what Mr. Suggars writes. The university did begin in a two-city-block area bounded by Centre Street, Monument Street, Howard Street, and Eutaw Street. The trustees assumed that the campus eventually would relocate to Clifton, once sufficient capital had been accumulated to allow the building of a new campus. The trustees had to sell Clifton to the city in 1894, however, to raise money for immediate operating expenses. So by the time the original campus was “full,” they no longer owned the land where they’d intended to move. The first two major buildings at Homewood, Maryland Hall and Gilman Hall, were completed in 1915. As space became available at Homewood, additional functions moved up, chemistry being the last to leave the old site when Remsen Hall was completed in 1924. Mr. Suggars’ statement that “Hopkins did not want a university” is demonstrably false. It would be accurate to say that Hopkins had no idea his university would become the first true (i.e., research-based) university in the United States. However, he did use the term “university” repeatedly in his will. In addition to the university and the hospital, he did make provision for a “Colored Orphans’ Asylum” and other institutions, but the bulk of his estate was divided equally between the university and the hospital. Correction We misidentified the Maryland Athletic Club (MAC) in the January “Goods” department. Urbanite regrets the error. We want to hear what you’re saying. E-mail us at mail@urbanitebaltimore.com or send your letter to Mail, Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211. Please include your name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. You can also comment on our website (www.urbanitebaltimore.com/forum).

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

photo by Andrew Laumann

what you’re writing

migration My mother’s first attempt at a des-

ert garden was, quite literally, a bit rocky. Having decided on a spot for her greens, she had to heave a pickaxe just to break the hard surface of the desert floor. When tender shoots finally poked their heads through the soil, jackrabbits and wild boars grazed them to the ground. Only a chicken-wire fence kept the animals at bay. Sprouts that managed to escape the critters withered in the dry air if my mother forgot, even for one day, to water them. Still my mother persevered. She scraped and fertilized, watered and watched for hungry herbivores until her garden thrived at last, a fragrant and luscious anomaly in the Arizona desert. When I still lived at home, I couldn’t fathom why she put all this effort into growing a few green things. But my mother had more than vegetables in mind. Born in Baltimore, raised in Virginia, and the daughter of a gardening father, she grew up surrounded by the humid smell of soil, the lushness of trees and grass and daffodils, the sweetness of freshly picked cucumbers. Although my mother marvels at Arizona’s towering cacti, its sometimes scruffy yet fascinating flora, she holds her native landscape dear. Her small garden in the desert is as much a memory of home, of her father calling her into the garden, as it is a produce patch: a memory worth pickaxes, gallons of water, and chicken-wire fortresses. —Marienka Sokol Vanlandingham is a longtime Arizonan who moved to Baltimore five years ago. She likes the green but misses cacti

and still hasn’t gotten used to this mowing-thelawn thing.

Nine years after I packed my car,

mapped out my route, and drove for five long days from California to Maryland, I’m still here. I left sunny expanses and beaches littered with nearly naked bodies for vapidly gray skies, skeletal trees, and fickle snow. I told myself I’d go back; now, the philosopher in me laughs, remembering the proclamation that one can never really go home again. I suppose I always knew that, even as I promised to return when I was done with school. Technically, I haven’t lied—my education continues, every day. And if you’re really parsing words, I’m a teacher, so I truly am still in school. Convenient turns of phrase, I know. For years I still called SoCal “home.” I don’t remember the day exactly when the references shifted in my own speech, but I cannot forget the feeling I had returning from the Left Coast recently. As my plane touched down at BWI, the little truth-teller that sits in the recesses of my mind blurted out: “Ahh, it’s good to be home.” And there it was, simple as that. I drove to Maryland in only five days, but it took nine years for me to migrate. —Andrew Ranson loves living in Baltimore and teaching high school freshmen.

An 8-foot-high pile of stones rests at the crest of the hill that overlooks the graveyard near my house. A brisk walk will

take me there in five minutes, and in the crisp autumn air my cheeks are cold and rouged by the time I hit the top. A sign nearby notes the stones’ existence. A local minister came to this site every day to pray. Each day he brought a stone, and each day this pile grew larger. By the time he died, his prayers towered above his head. The stones are not the only ones in this place migrating to a new life. Two cypresses also mark the site of the minister’s prayers, and I see a trail of caterpillars climbing toward them, their small, furred bodies blurred among the tufts of grass and fleabane. As they reach the trees they climb out on the limbs and cocoon themselves in small, black capsules. The cypresses have held their ancestors, and the branches bear the scars of each stage of metamorphosis—the silky wrappings, the hardened chrysalises, the open pods, some still fresh, some that will never crack. Delicate gray moths hover, awakened, scared to fly too far, scared to fall. Eventually they sail away to sunlight, to the lamp that lights the hammock on my front porch, to the star-shaped lanterns in my windows. When I catch one in a beam of flashlight on my midnight stroll through the woods, I realize how far it has come. And as the icy fall air strips the cypresses bare, and I leave my family and fireplace, I wonder if I will find my cypress in my new college life. I pray that I will leave my childhood behind, contemplate myself into a cocoon, and emerge anew. —Ariel Whitworth is a writer and editor in Washington, D.C.

By the time I dropped out of a pres-

tigious New England private college and left Maryland in 1995, I had already let my waistlength blonde hair knot up, beginning the start of seven years of dreadlocks and U.S. travel. I decided to migrate out west, to see what life was like anywhere but here. My time was spent at temporary intentional communities called Rainbow Gatherings in Florida, Arizona, and Montana, living with hippies named “That Guy” and “Christopher Robin.” I moved from couch to couch with new friends that I met as I went. I suffered from dysentery at a Rainbow Gathering in Florida and tetanus in Olympia, Washington, and fell in with some questionable Rastafarians in California. The San Juan Islands in Washington swept me in. Home for a while was 35-foot school bus with two Volkswagen buses attached to the roof that acted as bedrooms. I gave birth to a son in Washington and then moved to Eugene, Oregon. We lived in a cabin in the woods with only a woodstove for heat; the refrigerator was a box outside of the window

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

find all the quality green products, and related design services you need, in a convenient, by-appointment, mt. washington showroom. � � � � �

Furniture Kitchens Flooring & Carpet Air Purifiers Rugs & Pillows

� � � � �

Fireplaces Tableware Bedding & Bath Window Treatments Accessories & more…

(can't decide? ask about our gift cards!)

410.828.0113

workingwondersUS.com

Is your

Join our community of great thinkers.

liberal arts

home green home

The Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) Program at Johns Hopkins University thrives on the curiosity, passion, and diversity of its students and faculty. The MLA curriculum is rooted in the classics with an eye toward the contemporary. Students can explore mythology, art, literature, politics, sustainability, film, music, and much more. Our program offers a flexible, part-time format with courses in the evenings and on Saturdays. Take advantage of rolling admissions and apply online anytime.

company

a model of trust and IntegrIty?

Learn more and apply online today.

advanced.jhu.edu apply today for BBB’s Torch Awards and put your company in the headlines.

Cuddle up this winter with the ultimate in silk nightwear.

Go to www.greatermd.bbb.org/torch-awards. Nominations accepted through Feb. 27

Perfect for your Valentine... Contact Dianne Harvard at 410-347-3990 ext. 3012 or dharvard@greatermd.bbb.org for more information.

Ruxton Station (near Graul’s market) 410•825•1736 Mon-Fri 10-5 • Sat 10-4

urbanite february 09

(on the north side of the house), and there was no proper bathroom. The faucet only provided cold water that we had to boil to bathe my son in a basin by the fire. Today, I have migrated back to Maryland, the place I was so eager to leave. I now have a career and a home with central heating, running water (including hot water), and several bathrooms with plumbing. I have resided in six states, been to eight countries, and migrated back to the place that I now call home, all by the time I was 28. With the naiveté that I had as a young traveler, I was able to see and do things that now I am much too wise to ever attempt again. My 3-foot-long dreadlocks are kept in a bag in the back of my closet, but my travels are kept in the front of my heart. ■ —Casey Starshine is a hospice RN in Baltimore. She has been vegetarian for twenty years and vegan for two, and is also a beekeeping hobbyist.

“What You’re Writing” is the place for creative nonfiction from our readers. Each month, we pick a topic. Use the topic as a springboard into your own life and send us a true story inspired by that month’s theme. Only nonfiction submissions that include contact information can be considered. We reserve the right to edit heavily for space and clarity, but we will give you the opportunity to review the edits. You may submit under “name withheld” to keep your essay anonymous, but you do need to let us know how to contact you. If you’ve already changed the names of the people involved, please let us know. Submissions should be typed (and if you cannot type, please print clearly). Only one submission per topic, please. Send your essay to Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 or e-mail it to WhatYoureWriting@urbanitebaltimore. com. Submissions should be shorter than four hundred words. Because of the number of essays we receive, we cannot respond individually to each writer. Please do not send originals; submissions cannot be returned.

Topic

Deadline

Safe Classified Getting There

Feb 10, 2009 Apr 2009 Mar 11, 2009 May 2009 Apr 7, 2009 June 2009

Dear Old Car, I am sorry to have to say this to you but this relationship must end. I have found someone new at Antwerpen Automotive. It’s not you it’s me. My new car has shiny new paint, smooth leather interior, a sunroof, and even plays my iPod. I know this is not fair to you, but it is best for both of us in the long run. You will find someone new. Please forgive me. Sorry, Me

Publication

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

r winne d r a BIE Aw Play! O 5 0 0 2 st New e B r o f

Dear New Car,

I love you. I can’t imagine my life without you. You are so beautiful, easy to drive, have so many exciting features, and I found you at such a great price. I am looking forward to picking you up at Antwerpen Automotive, and spending my life with you. You make me so happy. Love, Me XOXOX

Fabulation

or, The Re-education of Undine By Lynn Nottage Directed by Jackson Gay The Head Theater

Jan 28th–Mar 8th Award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage upends stereotypes of class and color in this fierce and funny look at downward-mobility.

Tickets: $10–$60 www.centerstage.org 410.332.0033

Sponsored by

urbanite february 09

corkboard

The Civil Rights Century: The NAACP at 100

Feb 6–7

Headquartered in Baltimore, the NAACP has been a driving force behind movements for equality in education, criminal justice, politics, and employment since its founding in February 1909. The speeches and discussions during this two-day retrospective are part of a series of events celebrating the NAACP’s 100th anniversary. (Go to www.naacp.org for full list of events.)

Johns Hopkins University 3400 N. Charles St. Free; RSVP to naacp100@jhu.edu for Feb 6 opening reception 410-516-6385 www.jhu.edu/africana

Booklovers’ Breakfast

Feb 7, 8:30 a.m.

Spend the morning with two nationally renowned authors. Poet and professor Nikki Giovanni, most recently the author of Bicycles: Love Poems, and James McBride, whose second book, The Miracle of St. Anna, was adapted into a movie by Spike Lee, are scheduled to speak and sign copies of their work.

Baltimore Marriott Waterfront 700 Aliceanna St. $40; register by Feb 2 410-396-5494 www.prattlibrary.org

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai Lecture

Feb 9, 8 p.m.

In 2004, Kenya’s Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1977 her organization, the Green Belt Movement, has planted more than 30 million trees throughout Africa. On February 9, she speaks about linking the environment, democracy, and peace at Goucher College.

Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College 1021 Dulaney Valley Rd. Reserve free ticket by calling 410337-6333 www.goucher.edu

Architectural Confectionaries Competition

Feb 14

Unleash your inner Willy Wonka at the Baltimore Museum of Industry’s second annual Architectural Confectionaries competition. A mound of local treats with which to erect a scale model of your favorite building in Baltimore: $8. Getting to eat your winning entry: priceless.

Baltimore Museum of Industry 1415 Key Hwy. $5 to build at home, $8 to build onsite; spectators pay regular museum admission 410-727-4808 ext. 132 www.thebmi.org

Indoor Triathlon

Feb 21

Swim, bike, and run your way to fitness and a cure for epilepsy during the Stroup Kid for Kids Epilepsy Foundation’s Tri to Help indoor minitriathlon. Competitors are ranked by the distance they cover during short sessions in the lap pool and on the stationary bike and treadmill. Proceeds benefit the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Epilepsy Center.

Brick Bodies, 2 Chartley Park Dr., Reisterstown; and Merritt Athletic Club, 8757 Mylander Ln., Towson $50 registration www.tritohelp.org

African American Family Festival

Feb 28, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

The Walters Art Museum’s African American Family Festival celebrates Black History Month with dance, theater, and art activities. You and the kids can take in live performances, make clay portraits and giant collages, and tour the museum throughout the morning and afternoon.

The Walters Art Museum 600 N. Charles St. Free 410-547-9000 www.thewalters.org

Photo credits from top to bottom: from NAACP: Celebrating a Century, 100 Years in Pictures, reprinted with permission from Gibbs Smith; no credit; courtesy of the Green Belt Movement International; courtesy of the Baltimore Museum of Industry; photos courtesy of www.dreamstime.com and www.istockphoto.com; courtesy of the Walters Art Museum

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Live, Work & Play Downtown! The Townes at Harris Landing - Canton - 410.522.1535

The Townes at Locust Point - 410.605.0222

R uppert H omes www.RuppertHomesInc.com

Local Builder - Two great communities in the city. From the low $400’s! - Great New Incentives - Beautifully appointed 2 & 3 bedroom townhomes with ROOFTOP DECKS - 5 year tax credit incentive for new construction

- 2 car garages & 2 car private parking pads - Model Home at both sites - 30-Day Move-Ins available

-Three finished levels - Walking distance to shopping, restaurants & waterfront

EQUAL HOUSING

OPPORTUNITY

MHBR#296

Service Photo Has YOUR Nikon!

With guaranteed low prices & plenty of honest, intelligent, & friendly customer service!

• 10 Megapixels - for stunning prints • 5X Optical Zoom Nikkor Glass Lens • Electronic VR Image Stabilization • 2.5” Hi Res LCD Screen • Stylish body w/choice of colors

We’ve got Baltimore’s largest inventory of quality Nikon digital cameras, lenses, & accessories - and we enjoy spending time with each customer to help them choose the best item for their individual needs. Get YOUR best Nikon at a guaranteed low price, in Baltimore, at Service Photo! And, ask us about great instant rebates from Nikon!

service

IMAGING

SUPPLIES

3838 FALLS ROAD • BALTIMORE, MD 21211 410-235-6200 • 410-467-9455 FAX • 800-344-3776 ORDERS WWW.SERVICEPHOTO.COM

Check out the complete lineup of stylish Nikon Coolpix Digital Cameras - In Stock!

Nikon Inc. limited warranty included

photo

PROFESSIONAL

GOT Shabbat?

TOT Shabbat Celebrate Shabbat with other families at both JCCs or the Enoch Pratt Library on Light Street.

For more information, visit www.jcc.org/parenting or call Cindy Neuman 410.356.5200, x344.

• 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor • Low noise ISO sensitivity • 24 fps HD Movie mode • 3” Super Density LCD Screen • Plus, MUCH more!

Top Dollar Paid for your trade-ins & used camera gear!

Shabbat

Celebrate Shabbat dinner with other families in featured synagogues & private homes around Baltimore.

urbanite february 09

• 10.1 Megapixels • 18x Optical Zoom

Baltimore’s Locally Owned Professional Camera Store for over 50 years!

we‘ve got

• 10 Megapixels • 3.5” Hi Res LCD • 5x Zoom Nikkor Lens

COMPiLed BY LiOneL FOSter

A Face in the Crowd Artist Tom Chalkley’s distinctive cartoons, maps, and caricatures have graced publications around town for decades. He’s now produced what might be called his Sistine Chapel: “The Ultimate Cartoon Map of Baltimore,” an ambitious rendering of the city populated by 175 caricatures of prominent Baltimoreans, living and dead. The cast of characters includes the usual suspects—there’s Francis Scott Key afloat off the Fort while a medalled Michael Phelps takes a dip up in Mount Washington—and plenty of long-gone notables, historical obscurities, and semi-natives. (Quick, who’s Hans Schuler? Harry Peterman? Sisqo?) “My own idiosyncratic selection, which will be universally secondguessed over watercoolers, no doubt,” Chalkley proclaims. The handsomely printed poster retails for $30 and can be found at Hometown Girl, the Ivy Bookshop, Red Canoe Bookstore and Café, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Fells Point Frame and Design, and other outlets. —David Dudley

Rapped in Luxury

courtesy of Robert Graham

It wasn’t long ago that the idea of asking a rapper to design your clothes was a lot like having a clown redo your kitchen: Fun for a while, but would you really want to live with the results? Fortunately, conventional wisdom changes. Local clothier Hyatt & Co. (8180 Maple Lawn Blvd., Fulton; 1-888-7FASHION; www.hyattclothing.com) stocks singular and sophisticated business, casual, and formalwear by adventurous brands such as Sean John (rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ line), Psycho Bunny, and Robert Graham, plus more established names—Joseph Abboud, Tombolini, and Peerless Couture. You’ll find elegant black tone-on-tone tuxedos and neckwear within spitting distance of a trickedout Calvin Klein “spy blazer” (complete with loops to hold a hidden wire), impossibly soft leather shoes by Donald J Pliner, and seamless single-cloth shirts by XMI. Suits $395 to $1195; shirts $60 to $245. Ask about formalwear rental. Check out their other location in Owings Mills Mall (10300 Mill Run Circle). —Lionel Foster

For those worried that the standard Hallmark card/chocolates/champagne routine won’t cut it this Valentine’s Day, a visit to Sugar (927 W. 36th St.; 410-467-2632; www.sugartheshop.com) is sure to put some pep in your romance step. Open since April 2007, Sugar is Hampden’s one-stop-shop for sexual accoutrement that would make even Cupid blush. Dedicated to “providing education and toys in a shame-free, sex-positive, fun environment,” Sugar’s assortment of sexy gifts, massage lotions, books, and supplies is sure to add that extra spice to your February 14 activities. (Goodbye, Valentine’s Day. Hello, Valentine’s Week!) The shop is offering a $20 class on February 22 on how to maintain the sizzle in long-term relationships. —Andrew Zaleski

photo by La Kaye Mbah

The Sweet Stuff

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

UrbaniteFINAL.qxd:Layout 1

8/29/08

8:42 PM

Page 1

Downtown and Around Town...

Dial a Downtown Doctor Dr. Teresa Hoffman, Dr. Kathryn Abello, Dr. Carol Anne Phillips, and Dr. Erika Lynn Nichelson

Specializing in OB/GYN Conveniently located at: • Mercy Medical Center Professional Office Building Suite 818 301 St. Paul Place Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Now accepting new patients. Call today for an appointment

410-633-6300

• 6610 Tributary Street Suite 206 Baltimore, Maryland 21224 • 7001 Johnnycake Road Suite 105 Windsor Mill, Maryland 21244

(l-r) Drs. Phillips, Hoffman, Nichelson, and Abello

www.mdmercy.com

How can something so little make such a big difference? Let us show you how touch screens and smartphones can simplify your life. Come in today to check out these and other touch screen phones Samsung Saga™

Motorola Krave™

• Camera 2.0 Megapixel • Bluetooth® Headset Capable • QWERTY Keyboard • Touch Screen • Windows Mobile OS • Global Quad Band GSM

• Touch Screen with Interactive Clear Flip • Visual Voicemail • V CAST Music with Rhapsody® • V CAST Mobile TV • Bluetooth® Headset Capable • Camera 2.0 Megapixel

We are locally owned & support our communities! Hampden

Highlandtown

Bel Air

Clarksville

Urbana

Reisterstown

Ellicott City

Middle River

915 W. 36th Street (410) 662-4090

8925 Fingerboard Rd (240) 699-0161

3520 Eastern Ave (410) 522-1555

17708 Suite C Reisterstown Rd (410) 833-3345

699 Baltimore Pike (410) 420-7370

9050 Baltimore National Pike (410) 480-2280

12345 Wake Forest Rd (410) 531-3005

105C Carroll Island Rd (410) 344-0008

Get the Wireless Home Advantage: * Free loaner phones * Lifetime warranties on accessories * Automatic discounts and gift certificates for future purchases * Fast, professional service

www.wirelesshome.bz Activation fee/line: $35 ($25 for secondary Family SharePlan lines w/ 2 yr Agmts) IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Subject to Customer Agmt, Calling Plan, rebate form & credit approval. Up to $175 early termination fee & other charges. Add’l $20 device initiation fee may apply. Device capabilities: Add’l charges & conditions apply. Offers & coverage, varying by service, not available everywhere. While supplies last. Shipping charges may apply. Limited time offer. Rebate debit card takes up to 6 wks & expires in 12 months. © 2009 Verizon Wireless

urbanite february 09

To Market

In the market for citrus trees, alpaca wool, or frozen lamb? Have too many emu eggs to eat by yourself? Buy and sell what you need on Maryland’s online farmers’ market, foodtrader.org . A project of the University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center, the website connects consumers with farmers and producers across the Free State. Simply click on “Available,” and a list of goods and edibles pops up. If you have a specific need, post it under “Wanted,” or make a taxdeductible donation of extra food to a charitable organization. All sales and pickup arrangements are made between the buyer and the seller; the website acts only as a forum to connect the two. Traffic has slowed down some in the colder months, but bountiful spring’s not far off. —Marianne K. Amoss

Welcome Home

courtesy of Stony Run Home

Visitors to the new Stony Run Home store in Roland Park (318 Wyndhurst Ave.; 410-435-4663; www.stonyrunhome.com) often remark to owners Lauri and Patrick FitzGerald—a designer and renovation contractor, respectively—that if the place had a kitchen and a shower, they could move right in. The freshly remodeled corner of the old Wyndhurst Station feels like someone’s tastefully decorated, lightfilled home. The shop offers an array of new and antique furniture, as well as unique lamps, original artwork, and accessories, many with a lighthearted beach-house theme: Oars, seascapes, and vases of shells play prominently. While the furniture is classy, there’s a range of prices here—you can find a new $2,425 Vanguard sofa, a cozy living room chair for $350, or an antique painted side table for $60. There’s even a pair of old wooden Rossignol racing skis for those who steer to the high country for reprieve. —Greg Hanscom

tes

ww .br

it f

h io

n .c

Shop Talk Towson Town Center (825 Dulaney Valley Rd.; www.towsontowncenter.com) recently expanded to a whopping million-plus square feet with the addition of a new luxury wing populated by high-end stores Burberry and BCBG Max Azria (Lacoste and Louis Vuitton are promised this summer). Crate and Barrel relocated from its original cramped spot near Nordstrom and expanded into two floors that hold its complete housewares and furniture collections, and there’s also a spacious Pottery Barn (where among the sleek kitchen trappings you can find a faux-fur wine carrier/gift bag). The mall’s food options have been upgraded, with a new P.F. Chang’s China Bistro—just look for the gigantic horse statues at the front door—and a Cheesecake Factory. The new luxe addition is contiguous with the original mall. Although it feels slightly out of step with the general belt-tightening (especially considering that the mall’s owner, General Growth Properties, is currently trying to sell off some other local properties, including Harborplace and the Gallery, to offset its nearly $3.1 billion debt), the wing’s design and décor aren’t over-the-top: shiny cream floor tiles and black light fixtures, with a not-too-high ceiling. Even if you can’t afford to buy anything, those Burberry salespeople sure are charming. —M.K.A. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Growing Healthy AS OBESITY RATES RISE, HOW DOES OWINGS MILLS-BASED MEDIFAST SIZE UP? BY CA RRIE OLEYNIK

mericans are growing, in all the wrong ways: according to a recent report by the maryland Department of Health and mental Hygiene, 63 percent of maryland adults are considered overweight or obese. Based on current trends, one 2008 study by a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg school of Public Health extrapolated that 100 percent of U.s. adults would be overweight or obese by 2048. so it’s no wonder that many of us have made resolutions to drop a few pounds. the question becomes: how? For medifast, a passion for wellness and a strong background in sound medical science is the recipe. Based in owings mills since 1980, medifast provides a wide variety of low-fat, lowcalorie meal plans for anyone ready for a life change, including those with conditions such as type 2 diabetes and those with special dietary concerns. among the company’s product research and development and nutrition support staff are food scientists, certiﬁed nutrition specialists, registered dietitians, certiﬁed personal trainers, and former Johns Hopkins clinical coordinators and researchers. “our location provides us access to major university teaching hospitals and the ability to collaborate and do research,” says Lisa Davis, Ph.D., Pa-c, cns, LDn, vice president of research and development. “We are right down the road from organizations located in and around both Baltimore and Washington, D.c.” medifast’s research and development arm has maintained a close relationship with the Johns Hopkins Weight management center and the Bloomberg school of Public Health through clini-

s P e c i a L

cal trials and the release of multiple journal articles and studies. Davis partnered with Lawrence cheskin, m.D., FacP, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight management center, and other local researchers for a controlled clinical trial that compared the medifast plan to the american Diabetes association (aDa) diet. the results, published in The Diabetes Educator in February 2008, showed that medifast outperformed the aDa diet. in addition, Davis and cheskin have worked with other researchers on studies relating to health and diet that have been published in such peer-reviewed journals as The Open Nutrition Journal and Appetite. as an extension of research and development, the company recently established a scientific advisory Board consisting of six medical professionals from around the country that represent a range of specializations, including heart disease, breast cancer, and nutrition. the medifast plan offers more than seventy nutritious, clinically proven weight-loss meals and snacks, from maryland crab soup to savory ranch-flavored soy crisps. the medifast 5 & 1 Plan is designed for six meals a day—five medifast meals plus one “Lean & Green” meal, which includes five to seven ounces of beef, poultry, or fish, plus three servings from a list of approved vegetables—that can be eaten every two to three hours. average weight loss on the medifast 5 & 1 Plan is two to five pounds per week, and each meal consists of a nutritionally balanced combination of carbohydrates, fiber, and protein, so users can lose weight while maintaining lean muscle mass. Unlike other weight-loss products, medifast meals are scientifically calculated so that each meal has the highest “fullness index,” which is based on fiber, protein, and calorie content. in addition, each medifast meal is packed with 24 essential vitamins and minerals. more than one million people around the country have safely used medifast products, and the company exceeded $100 million in sales for 2008, a growth of nearly tenfold in the last five years. the number of medifast employees has grown at the same rate, increasing from about thirty to three hundred during the last five years.

s P o n s o r e D

s e c t i o n

at the heart of this success is medifast ceo mike mcDevitt, who also uses his company’s products every day. “i wake up and have a medifast shake around 8 a.m., a bar at 11 a.m., a regular lunch, and then another shake at 3 p.m., before a regular dinner,” he says. “i don’t really even use medifast for weight loss. But that’s what’s great about our program--it’s also perfect for those looking to maintain weight and improve overall health.” a resident of Federal Hill, mcDevitt, 30, joined the company in 2002 after working in new york city with a private equity firm. He says he fell in love with what medifast has to offer. “We’re selling something that’s actually helping people take their life back and improve their family and work situations,” he says. “Because we’re not sold on a retail shelf, we have the ability to touch our consumers daily. simple words from a customer phoning into our call center thanking us for what we have helped them achieve … it is a fulfilling industry to be in, and a very cool company to work for.” Dr. Wayne andersen, an annapolis resident and critical care physician, started using medifast with his wife, Lori, after spending multiple days a week with a personal trainer. “When we got the medifast products, our trainer was skeptical,” says Lori andersen, rn and support nurse coordinator and certified Health coach of medifast. “Wayne and i told him that we’d be back in three weeks ready to test our body fat, and that’s what we did. [our trainer], now a [medifast] Health coach too, was totally shocked that we lost less than one percent of our muscle, tons of body fat, and about fifteen pounds in three weeks. that’s when Wayne realized that the average american out there needed to become aware of this well-kept secret.” since taking the products with his wife in 2001, Dr. andersen has become the medical Director of medifast and co-founded the take shape For Life Health coach division, one of medifast’s four distribution channels. (customers can also access the company’s products through a physician or at a health care center, order online at www.choosemedifast.com, or call toll-free at 1-800-209-0878.) take shape For Life, which has increased from approximately 2,200 to 3,500 Health coaches within the past

s P e c i a L

s P o n s o r e D

s e c t i o n

Medifast by the Numbers: year founded: 1980 number of facilities: 3 (two buildings in owings mills and a distribution center on the eastern shore in ridgely, mD) estimated sales this year: number of employees:

$100 million

about 300

number of physicians who have recommended medifast products: 15,000 number of Health coaches:

year, provides a mentorship and support network for those who have successfully gone through the medifast Program. Dr. andersen has also been involved with research and development at medifast, creating the support in motion online community and touring the country to discuss his recently published book, Dr. A’s Habits for Health, a handbook to help individuals make the daily changes necessary for healthy living. “We’re helping people to redirect their energy in creating what they want rather than reacting to being overweight,” Dr. andersen says. “With our chaotic lifestyles, people don’t have the time to develop all parts of a healthy lifestyle, including healthy exercise, sleep, and eating habits. medifast products are effective, work well, and are a very safe way to lose weight. once a person experiences this success, they have reached a teachable mo-

3,500

rate of weight loss compared to other products:

Twice as fast

number of meals to choose from: More

than 70

estimated daily cost of food for the average american:

$16

estimated daily cost of food ordered from medifast:

$11

typical amount of protein found in most medifast meals and snacks: 11–14 g number of vitamins and minerals found in most medifast meals and snacks: 24–25 Percent daily value of vitamins and minerals found in most medifast meals and snacks: 25–60 Local afﬁliations: 7

(american Heart association, american Diabetes association, Johns Hopkins, national institutes of Health, toys for tots Foundation, mercantile Bank [part of Pnc], and stevenson University)

number of times listed as one of SmartCEO magazine’s Future 50 companies: 2 (both in the last

two years)

rank given by Baltimore Business Journal in its list of the fastest-growing public companies in the Baltimore area: 9 number of users on mymedifast online support community: 8,500 per month year the company went to the new york stock exchange:2006 year the scientific advisory Board formed: 2008 number of scientific advisory Board members: 6* *medifast scientific advisory Board: Lawrence J. cheskin, m.D. FacP, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight management center and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg school of Public Health and medical institutes miriam cohen, m.D., Heart associates cardiologist and assistant professor of cardiology of the University of maryland medical school alison Duncan, Ph.D., rD, associate professor of the Department of Human Health and natural sciences at the University of Guelph in ontario, canada scott Kahan, m.D., mPH, attending physician of the George Washington University Weight management center and instructor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg school of Public Health Debra miller, Ph.D., director of nutrition, the Hershey company Varsha Vaidya, m.D., director of the obesity Psychiatry Program of the Johns Hopkins Bayview medical center and assistant professor of psychiatry and general internal medicine of the Johns Hopkins University and school of medicine

ment when they are receptive to creating a new lifestyle which will help them sustain optimal health. i lost twenty-seven pounds seven years ago and i have maintained a healthy weight. the medifast meals are a critical part of my daily routine.” as the coaching division expands, mcDevitt is looking forward to more growth in the future. “to me, revenue growth at medifast represents something very different than it does for companies that are selling something such as clothing items or household trinkets. revenue growth at medifast represents individuals successfully losing weight, improving their health, and potentially creating a new outlook on their life. that can be a very powerful transformation for someone, and their success is what leads to additional growth for our business.” —Carrie Oleynik is a freelance writer in Baltimore. To learn more about Medifast, visit www.medifastbaltimore.com.

e oD

$1,150,000 - $1,649,900 t! ef ! 3 l ow ly l n on Cal

m D e at pen 3 pm R Co o , 1e 9 D /0 8 2/

DISCoVeR tHRee new Custom Designed wateRfRont townhomes all situated with commanding Eastern Long Views of the Baltimore Harbor and enjoy the Luxurious Lifestyle living at The CRESCENT Community in Fells Point. The expansive picture windows on all levels as well as the two balconies and roof terrace complete the excitement and relaxation of living on the waterfront. These sophisticated homes have 3 Bedrooms, 3 Full Baths and 2 Half Baths, a Chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kitchen with Island and Breakfast room, a Bonus room, and 2 car Garages-plus additional guest parking spaces. A 52- Boat slip Marina finishes the ambiance.

Carolynne Shumate Associate Broker, CRS, CRB (410) 235-4100 (o) | (410) 336-3441 (c) cshumate@cbmove.com

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Baltimore City: Welcome to the Neighborhoods

Friendly neighbors. Unbelievable entertainment venues. Enlightening arts and culture. Unique architecture and style.

Ready to discover Baltimore City? Visit the Live Baltimore Home Center

Our expert staff can give you the details on neighborhoods, homebuying incentives, renting and more! Live Baltimore 343 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21201 410-637-3750 www.LiveBaltimore.com Monday - Saturday, 9am - 5pm

eXperience the soUL.

savor our unique cuisine, indulge in our libations & soak in the atmosphere.

casual dining • live music • cocktails • djs • dancing • ambiance 1/2 priced appetizers • 2-4-1 drinks mon-sat 6-9pm • 1/2 priced ethiopian entrees wed-sat 5-7pm

ExcEllEnt for birthday partiEs and spEcial EvEnts! Excellent for Group Dining and Parties 15 w. eager street • edenslounge.com • info@edenslounge.com • 410.244.0405

MONDAY . TUESDAY . SkI dAY . SpA dAY . Friday FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY! Enjoy a Premier Midweek Ski & Stay Package—just $295* • Lodging for one night at The Inn • Preferred seating at The Grille (double occupancy) • Complimentary dessert at The Grille • One 30-minute massage at The Spa • Welcome gift upon arrival • Lift tickets for two for the evening • $50 towards on-mountain dining of arrival and the following day Get away without going away. Located in Macungie, Pennsylvania. Bear Creek is only 2.5 hours from Baltimore! SkI & STay PaCkaGeS STarT aT $169.95. CaLL TOday! • 888.310.4962 • For more info, visit bcmountainresort.com

urbanite february 09

baltimore observed

aLSO in B a Lt i M O r e OBServed: 29 A Better Tomorrow A Better Waverly resident stays true to her neighborhood

S U S ta i n a B L e C i t Y

A Blueprint for Green

• Clean up city streets, parks, and vacant lots. • Make all bodies of water clean enough for swimming and fishing by, among other

Seeds of change: Beth Strommen, manager of the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability, says the city’s new Sustainability Plan is both aggressive and inclusive.

photo by Lindsay MacDonald

“I have rusty blood,” says Beth Strommen, the planner and environmental scientist who manages the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability. Strommen has spent much of her life in old industrial cities such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. She cut her teeth as a planner in the Hackensack Meadowlands of New Jersey, the site of long-running development battles on the outskirts of New York City. Today, the Meadowlands remain a swamp of half-baked development schemes, but they have also seen a remarkable rebirth. The marshes that interlace the area, long a dumping ground for garbage and industrial waste (and, legend goes, organized-crime hits; Jimmy Hoffa is said to rest there), are bouncing back. Strommen says that when she first arrived in Baltimore in 1991, she looked at the city’s grim inventory of industrial brownfields and saw “nothing but opportunity. I saw the hidden gem underneath.” Eighteen years after her arrival, Strommen thinks she has the recipe for such a green revival here—the recently released Sustainability Plan, which, if all goes as anticipated, will be approved by the Planning Commission early this month and sent to the City Council for final adoption as ordinance. The plan is the product of eight months of work by the twenty-one-member mayor-appointed Commission on Sustainability, Strommen, one other Sustainability Office staffer, and dozens of volunteers. “I’ve worked on a lot of plans. I think this is the best,” Strommen says. “I think we perfected it with this one.” Among the plan’s recommendations:

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper AlexOur Cooper expertsAlex will Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alexprovide Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper complete Alexand Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper steady guidance AlexinCooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper helping you dispose AlexorCooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper acquire antiques Alexand Cooper works ofAlex art. Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper AlexWeCooper Alex invite you to Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alexcome Cooper Alex and visit ourCooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alexspacious Cooper andAlex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alexmodern Cooper Alex. . .Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper gallery person orAlex online. AlexinCooper Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper AlexNext Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Auction March 8th & 9th Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper 908 York Rd. Towson, MD 21204 410.828.4838 Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper Alex Cooper antiques.alexcooper.com

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the masters at handling antiques and works of art

baltimore observed

• • • • • • •

things, reducing impervious surfaces (read: asphalt and concrete) by 25 percent. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2015. Eliminate the use of pesticides and other chemicals on city lands. Cut energy use by mandating efficiency upgrades to homes at the time of sale. Promote urban farming. Give buses and trains priority at stoplights. Create a team of “youth ambassadors” to spread the word about eco-friendly living. Make Baltimore a center for green technology and business.

It’s an agenda long on ambition but, at times, short on specifics about how the city can make the leap into the wild green yonder. Still, the very existence of the plan puts Baltimore in the company of larger cities such as Chicago and New York. The planning process helped land Charm City a spot on the 2008 list of the ten most sustainable cities in the United States, compiled by the green website SustainLane. (Baltimore was number ten. Topping the list—no great surprise—were San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon.) The plan’s recommendations were the products, first, of dozens of meetings held in conference rooms, community centers, and church basements last summer. Next, the planners enlisted a team of ambassadors who took the show on the road, soliciting input at meetings of business organizations, community associations, and senior citizens groups. They enlisted young people, who organized an event called Greenscape at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, where kids could learn about sustainability. “Then we locked ourselves in our offices for two weeks,” says Sustainability Coordinator Sarah Zaleski. The process was not without acrimony. Some who were involved with the process say Strommen and her crew left out some of the bolder proposals in an effort to make the plan more pragmatic. Others wonder whether the economic downturn will render many recommendations impractical, or whether issues such as the recent uptick in violent crime puts eco-friendliness back on the back burner. Julie Gabrielli, a green-certified architect (and occasional Urbanite contributor) who served on the Built Environment working group, says the Sustainability Commission, headed by Cheryl Casciani of the Baltimore Community Foundation, did “everything

right in terms of process. The commission is a bunch of rock stars. It’s diverse. There’s a lot of brain power and community power.” Gabrielli says the final draft is a hybrid of trying to be visionary and trying to be realistic. Casciani says the commission tried to “be realistic, but with an aggressive tone,” and to find those projects that could show results early. “You could do the John Kennedy approach and say, ‘Put a man on the moon,’ without any idea how you’re going to do that,” she says. “We didn’t go that route.” She says none of the ideas that were floated during the planning process have been lost, but that the commission felt strongly that it needed a “structure that will enable us to make it bigger,” not a “laundry list.” And others, such as Morning Sunday Hettleman, an environmental reporter for WEAA 88.9 FM and the president of the Maryland Environmental Justice Coalition, are concerned that the plan is too lofty to

Much can be done without convincing people that they ought to be doing better by the planet, says Morgan Grove, a social ecologist with the baltimore ecosystem study. “buckminster Fuller famously said, ‘Don’t try to change people. change the environment in which they live.’” speak to most residents’ concerns. “It’s a wonderful plan, but wrong tools, wrong language,” she says. “The plan is designed for people with a college education. The average person [in Baltimore] is dropping out of high school in ninth grade.” She estimates it will take a decade or more just to bring city residents up to speed on current environmental thinking. (A good starting place, she says, would be a citywide rat eradication strategy.) Of the people behind the plan, she says, “They’re prophets, and they climb out of the wilderness. You need to be sure you get more on the ground.” Still, much can be done without convincing people that they ought to be doing better by the planet, says Morgan Grove, a social ecologist with the Baltimore Ecosystem

Study. “Buckminster Fuller famously said, ‘Don’t try to change people. Change the environment in which they live,’” he says. “Look at the infrastructural things: zoning, public transportation, roads,” he says, and use “selective levers” such as tax breaks and zoning requirements to encourage businesses to be more green. Grove points to New York City, where, in 2007, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled an aggressive sustainability strategy called PLANYC. Baltimore’s sustainability office sits within the planning department and can offer only recommendations on city projects. But New York actually wrote sustainability into its charter, giving the office a cabinet-level position and control over funding. To truly succeed, however, any plan as sweeping as Baltimore’s needs to capture the imagination of the city, not just a handful of its green-minded true believers. Such buy-in is not unattainable, says Jennifer Wolch, director of the Center for Sustainable Cities at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Wolch tells the story of the Los Angeles River, which was turned into a concrete-lined ditch in the 1950s. “Twenty years ago, people wanted to pave it, make it a truck lane,” she says. “Then activists started talking about it as a river.” It took time for the idea to take root, Wolch says, but “it got to be something that is simply accepted.” In 2007, the city unveiled a multi-billion-dollar plan to restore the river, replacing old factories and industrial sites along its edges with parks, houses, and office buildings. “It won’t be a naturalized river—it can’t be with urban development right up to its banks,” Wolch says. “But it will be a symbol of eco-restoration.” Wolch calls this the power of the “geographical imagination”—changing people’s perception of the place they live, which in turn can lead them to change the place itself. Could such symbolic transformation happen in Baltimore? Could we tear out the Jones Falls Expressway and restore the river it was named for, or turn Druid Hill Park into an urban farm? Someday, perhaps, but for now, Strommen says she expects more incremental change, the kind that spreads one vacant lot and green-home makeover at a time. “We want to pick short-term projects that have the capacity to multiply,” she says. “We’re going to hand them off to very capable groups, then go off and plant the next seed.” ■ —Greg Hanscom

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

fine dining

local denizens

Tempted? the most spacious new apartment homes on the water.

To be human is to be creative, to be creative is to be an artist— therefore, everyone an artist? Art on Purpose is presenting 9 exhibitions in 2009 featuring art by Denise Tassin alongside works by hundreds of students from 13 Baltimore area colleges and universities. Join us in exploring the innate creativity that comes with being human! On view now:

Gormley Gallery at College of Notre Dame of MD

The Art of Collecting

Loyola/Notre Dame Library

I Remember Mama Coming next:

rooftop pool overlooking the baltimore harbor.

Stevenson University Art Gallery

They’re P laying My Tune Johns Hopkins University

We’re Not Alone

tempted yet?

866.596.9405 EdenApts.com

Maryland Institute College of Art

An Everything Installation

luxury apartment living that’s fells point to the core.

University of MD Baltimore County

Art from Art

Coppin State University

More Than One

Towson University

Best Drawing

The Gallery at CCBC Catonsville

Sandbox

For details, visit us at www.artonpurpose.org Everyone an Artist? is made possible by funding from lead sponsor Towson University, and partnering sponsors the Baltimore Collegetown Network, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Stevenson University, and the University of Baltimore. Additional support from the Community College of Baltimore County, Coppin State University, Loyola College in Maryland, Loyola/Notre Dame Library, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. In-kind support from BSO, First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and Shriver Hall Concert Series. In-kind support from the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. This advertisement made possible by:

Managed by Legend Management Group

urbanite february 09

photo b by LaKaye Mbah

“[My husband] was afraid for our two small children. I said, ‘no, Leif, we’re not running. this is our home now. We’re staying put.’”

Community leader: Better Waverly resident Debra Evans has been a force for change in her adopted hometown.

tranSFOrMerS

A Better Tomorow Before she’d even finished unpacking, Debra Evans decided she hated Baltimore City. This was in 1991, when the murder rate routinely topped three hundred. It felt like death was circling the neat three-bedroom cottage in Better Waverly, just south of Memorial Stadium, where Evans had moved from her home in rural Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Police helicopters circled the house at night, and the evening news was full of stories about crime and violence on nearby streets. Better Waverly had a lot to recommend it: historic Victorian homes with handsome peaked roofs and real front yards, die-hard hippies who stayed put during waves of white flight, streets full of kids. And soon Evans got to know her neighbors, joining the Better Waverly Community Organization and meeting “people who were doing their best to keep it together,” she says. But as the body count climbed, the community’s future seemed uncertain. In October 1995, a 70-year-old man named John Charles was murdered four doors down from Evans’ home. “Mr. Charles,” as everyone called him, was killed, it seemed, for his collection of gold coins. This time, it was Evans’ husband, Leif, who wanted to move. “He’d lived here for more than thirty years,” says Evans, “but he was afraid for our two small chil-

the rain to their slain neighbor’s house, sang spirituals, and talked. “I was preaching to the people,” Evans says, telling them they couldn’t be scared into silence. Shortly afterwards, someone did speak up, and the police arrested Mr. Charles’ killer. Evans’ new passion became an occupation in 1996, when Better Waverly and the Waverly Improvement Association won a grant for a full-time community organizer, a position she held for four years. Block by block, she coordinated landscaping projects and community meetings—any excuse to encourage neighbors to interact. Even after the funding ended, she continued organizing to build the 14,000-square-foot playground at Stadium Place, force the city to address neighborhood concerns over commercial development, and establish an arts center that now serves dozens of neighborhood kids. When vandals destroyed the playground in a fire last September, it took less than two hours for the community to decide to rebuild; construction is scheduled to begin this May. “We’re going to put it back the way it was,” Evans says. “Nobody can stop us.” (See Urbanite, September 2008.) The proud country girl says she found herself in Baltimore. Working with her neighbors to combat violence and create safe havens for the neighborhood’s children gave them opportunities to talk about their shared beliefs, aspirations, what they wanted for their families. Today she holds nothing against those who leave the city. But if you stay, Evans insists, don’t complain. Get to work. ■ —Lionel Foster Each month, Urbanite profiles people and programs that are transforming the city, one block at a time. To nominate a transformer, e-mail editor@urbanitebaltimore.com.

baltimore observed Strike Up The Band New Year’s Eve 2008 marked more than the end of one year and the start of another—it was also the ﬁ rst night that Blob’s Park was open since the Jessup German dance hall closed, to the dismay of many, in early 2008. (See Urbanite, January ’08.) The Eggerl family had sold their landmark polka palace to Classic Group LLC to form part of a large-scale mixed-use development. Then the economy tanked. Max Eggerl, the only member of his family still involved in the business, says the developer decided to defer the part of the project that involved Blob’s Park and the surrounding forty acres. Eggerl leased back the building and the acreage for the next three years and hopes to extend the lease to ten years. Five hundred revelers showed up to eat, drink, and polka on New Year’s Eve, Eggerl says, and another five hundred piled in for the grand re-opening on January 10. He’s hired mostly new staff, renovated the interior, and brought back the house band, the Rheinlanders (although he plans to bring other musical acts in to play on Saturday nights). On February 14, there’s a Valentine’s Day blowout scheduled from 6 p.m. to midnight, with music by the twenty-two-piece swing band Shades of Blue. “It’s off to a flying start,” Eggerl says.

U P d at e

dren. I said, ‘No, Leif, we’re not running. This is our home now. We’re staying put.’” After three years, Evans had seen more than enough silent candlelight vigils honoring the newly dead. “I wanted to talk, stir up juices, let people get angry,” she remembers. So she invited police to watch as she and other residents held a rally. They marched through

Final Confession On December 28, parishioners of St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church in Little Italy received word that their popular pastor, Father Michael Salerno, admitted to sexually abusing a boy in the 1970s. Salerno was working as a brother, not yet a priest, at All Saints Church in Brooklyn, New York, when the abuse occurred. (See Urbanite, August ’08.) Salerno served as pastor of St. Leo’s for ten years and was well known in the Little Italy community for his charisma and for greatly increasing the size of the church’s congregation. He left St. Leo’s in 2007, when the charges were levied, and will never be allowed to serve as a priest again, says Sean Caine, spokesperson for the archdiocese of Baltimore. He’s now in the care of the Pallottines, the order to which he belongs; criminal charges may be pending. ■

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

photo courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Revolutionary Road

history lives, sometimes uneasily, at colonial williamsburg By

anDre W

re ine r

Watching a scene performed by costumed actors during a recent visit to Colonial Williamsburg, I found myself in a familiar position. Behind the unfinished timber frame of Richard Charlton’s Coffeehouse—a 1760s Starbucks ancestor that is currently being reconstructed on its original site—a troupe of African American historical interpreters portraying slaves were agonizing over whether or not to follow Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation of 1775, which promised freedom in exchange for military service to the Crown. On the one hand, I was trying to sink into the moment and imagine that I was eavesdropping on actual slaves poised to cross the ultimate threshold of servitude. On the other hand, I wanted to stop the interpreters mid-sentence and put down a more threatening insurrection brewing nearby among a pack of adolescent onlookers, who were busily firing their own shots heard ’round in the world in the form of licked, airborne gummy bears.

urbanite february 09

I approached a girl, perhaps 13. “Hey, kid,” I said, invoking the hushed-yet-stern voice that came from the dark recesses of my time as a middle school English teacher. “Is this appropriate behavior in a place such as this?” It’s odd. When I find myself anywhere near Duke of Gloucester Street, the tree-lined main drag of Colonial Williamsburg (or CW, to its fans), an unfamiliar impulse arises deep within me, the kind that makes me wish I carried around kid gloves that I could suddenly produce and slap across the face of anyone who challenges the virtue of this world-renowned epicenter for the study and interpretation of Colonial Tidewater America. It’s not as if the world’s largest outdoor living history museum needs the likes of me to champion it (attendance has been climbing again of late—780,000 tickets were sold in 2007), and it’s not as if I buy wholesale into all that CW represents. Some sensibilities of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF), the private nonprofit body that governs all that occurs in the town’s historic area, smack of such patrician ethos as big business, and, at times, jingoistic patriotism. And yet. For the longest time I wondered, as did past girlfriends, what drew me to Virginia’s recreated colonial capital fifteen times and counting—more often than not, without them. “What the hell is it about that place, anyway?” one girlfriend asked when I packed for yet another weekend jaunt. It’s a difficult question to answer. But when I turn off Route 64 onto verdant, billboard-free Colonial Parkway—which connects Colonial Williamsburg with the other two points on Virginia’s “Historic Triangle,” Jamestown and Yorktown— I feel as if I’m going home, even though I’ve never lived in Tidewater Virginia or, of course, during the 18th century. Over the years, CW has evolved for me into a sort of band camp for history geeks, a place where you can blast fiddle-and-fife music on your car stereo and trade knuckle-bumps for “Huzzahs!” Other living history destinations are nice enough, but they don’t have quite the same effect. Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts does a masterful job of capturing life in rural New England on the eve of the Industrial Revolution, but the interpretation sometimes lacks teeth. After all, the 1830s and 1840s were a time of considerable political and religious tension. Plimoth Plantation? The reproduction village and the costumed Pilgrims are exceptional in research and presentation, but the interpreters’ habit of

stubbornly remaining in early 17th-century character at all costs can unnerve even history buffs. At CW, though, the balance is just right. Interpreters address visitors in their 18th-century character, but step out if anyone seems confused. During a tour a few years ago, a guide drew blank stares when she asked if anyone needed to “go out to pluck a rose.” Seeing this, she smiled and added, “You know, go out back to use the necessary.” That parenthetical explanation is precisely what CW’s former program development director, Mark Howell, means when he describes the delicate tightrope that interpreters walk when dealing with the public. “If interpreters become too clever, they can be intimidating,” Howell said in a 2001 article in the Colonial Williamsburg journal. “Visitors won’t talk to characters if they feel intimidated. They want to be ‘back there’ and have entry into the eighteenth century as escapist fare—but with integrity.” That’s a slippery phrase, “escapist fare,” when talking about historical interpretation. It’s what interpreters at all living history museums strive for: the ability to help visitors immerse themselves in the past as much as possible. But too much escapism can lead to the most dreaded adjectives in all of historical interpretation: “quaint” and “charming.” Colonial Williamsburg tries, with some success, to be both—at once a lighthearted family getaway and a serious-minded history seminar, a place to both flee from and engage with the knotty contradictions of American life. As my most recent visit reminded me, CW struggles gamely to balance this seeming paradox while remaining true to an activist mission every bit as complex and precarious as the idea of democracy it tries so hard to get visitors to take part in. Some fellow CW devotees tell me that it’s the clopping sound of horses that pull tourists through the streets in ornate carriages, or the aroma of wood smoke from the cressets holding burning logs that feels most welcoming to them. For me, it’s the architecture. I have tried, Lord I have tried, to feel connected in large cities where the flights of human achievement scrape the heavens, but nothing grounds me back onto the sidewalk, back down into my body, like human-scaled old buildings. This happens especially along Duke of Gloucester Street, which is lined with trees and coiffed topiary that surely didn’t exist in the 18th century. I’m neither an architect nor a historian,

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

but this much I do know: There’s Rarely has historical demolition a reason people enjoy being suroccurred on such a wholescale rounded by the Georgian and level: It was an example of cutFederalist styles that populate Coting off the patient’s body to lonial Williamsburg. It’s the same save the leg. Some locals were reason we want to hear Vivaldi or enraged when Goodwin and Mozart. As I pass the homes and Rockefeller decided to relocate a shops of clapboard and brick, the Confederate war memorial that order and symmetry encourage an stood on the green in front of intimacy that I rarely find in the the Governor’s Palace. The pair discord and detachment of modpurchased the rest of the period ern design. structures from the locals, and One dilettante’s intimacy, the good Reverend convinced however, is an expert’s disgust. Of Rockefeller to keep their plans a the nearly 600 structures standing secret so that they could cut the in the 301-acre restored historic best deals. area, only 88 are actually original Unscrupulous as their siMaking history: The Governor’s Palace under reconstruction in 1933 to the 18th century. The rest— lence may have been, Goodwin including CW’s iconic structures, and Rockefeller succeeded in the Capitol and the Governor’s creating the most effective force Palace—are cunning fakes, a fact that has long troubled preservafor the conservation of colonial history in the country. A mission of tionists and purists. Back in 1965, architectural critic Ada Louise paradox was born. Huxtable wrote that such contrivances “denigrate the genuine heriThe success of this mission has been undeniable. Attendance tage of less picturesque periods.” peaked in 1985, with 1.1 million ticketed visitors. By the 1990s, This mix of the real and re-created—what Huxtable called “hishowever, the combination of decreased ticket sales and the ongoing tory as themed artifact”—has contributed, no doubt, to complaints shift in scholarship to reflect social history and the lives of everyabout CW’s ardent embrace of commercial opportunities. Stroll day people moved CW’s curators to take an activist turn in their the historic area and the adjacent Merchants Square commercial interpretive approach. (CWF works hand-in-hand with historians at district and you’ll find dozens of shops and stands selling officially College of William & Mary up the street, along with other academic branded products, including an exclusive museum-reproduction institutions and museums.) In 1994, the living history museum furniture line. CW itself now offers some distinctly contemporary drew national media attention—and vociferous criticism from the amenities, including a spa, a brace of resort hotels, and golf courses. NAACP—when it staged a slave auction. In 1999, CW introduced It’s no wonder that some dismiss the entire enterprise as little more “Enslaving Virginia,” a program of skits dramatizing slave patrols than a history-lite theme park, a shopping mall in a tricorn hat. breaking up illegal meetings of slaves. At times, costumed interpretI’m not sure if CW’s founder and visionary, W.A.R. Goodwin, ers playing the parts of slave owners had to interrupt the scene after and his benefactor, John D. Rockefeller Jr., would feel contrite about incensed visitors tried to stop them from walking off with their any of this. When the pair joined forces and founded the Colonial chattel; at other times, they found themselves playing the parts of Williamsburg Foundation in 1926, they envisioned a town-turnedschool counselors as they tried to calm crying children. history-museum that would edify the masses about the importance Curators don’t flinch at this outpouring of emotion; if anythat Williamsburg had played in the great American Experiment, thing, it seems to validate their hunches about their new path. a vision that was motivated by a measure of WASP fear. Just as the “We want visitors to understand that the ideals of the American Colonial Revival aesthetic of the 1920s romanticized an era when Revolution still matter in our modern democracy,” says James the people running the country were soundly white and Protestant, Horn, vice president of Research and Historical Interpretation Rockefeller, a self-described “patriot,” saw Williamsburg as a means for CWF and the O’Neill Director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Liof Americanizing the recent wave of immigrants. brary. “Which is why we’re passionate about trying to get people At that time, Williamsburg looked little like it does today. Most to involve themselves. Democracies cannot sustain themselves if of the town’s standing structures were built long after the capital people don’t participate.” had moved to Richmond in 1780. Early 20th-century photographs reveal a sleepy college town long past its prime; the few colonialDuring a visit in late November, I came upon a skit in front of era buildings that had survived were in danger of toppling over. the Raleigh Tavern. A beefy actor dressed in Continental Army blues Goodwin, the rector of Willamsburg’s oldest church, Bruton Parish, paced atop a scaffold. As a crowd of tourists gathered to watch, two feared losing what little remained of his adopted hometown’s glory bedraggled men in civilian clothing—Continental soldiers, it turned days, and he found a benefactor in the heir to the Standard Oil forout—burst out of the tavern, leading a tall, thin man up the scaffold tune and his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. with his hands tied behind his back. This was no small feat, but Goodwin turned out to be no small “Joshua Hardcastle, you are accused of treason against the priest. Like Patrick Henry, who had preached his own radical viUnited States of America for speaking out on behalf of King George sion in the Capitol down the street 150 years earlier, Goodwin saw III,” the officer said, facing the accused. “How do you plead?” After the drawing on the blueprint, so to speak, and determined that a few minutes of interrogation and demands to renounce his “unthey would have to raze 720 structures that were built after 1790. patriotic” words, the Loyalist character, Hardcastle, grew outraged

urbanite february 09

and blurted out, “I am a free Englishman! Since when is it a crime to speak my mind?” This street theater was part of CW’s newest incarnation of its activist vision. “Revolutionary City” is a program of scenes that occur within a two-hour period, twice a week. It began three years ago as a way of marrying three, at times conflicting, goals: conveying the idea that the struggle for independence very nearly failed; shedding light on the emotionally devastating sacrifices that average Virginians faced at the outset of war; and placating a pedagogue’s nagging conviction that students connect the past with the present. CWF has extended its role as civic missionary by taking its message into American elementary and middle schools. In addition to sponsoring electronic “field trips” and podcasts, the foundation has evolved into one of the country’s leading sources for educational resources pertaining to early American history, reaching more than six million students each year. Over the past two years it has unveiled new additions to its Education for Citizenship curriculum, including an Internet gaming format that simulates a virtual republic and the website iCitizenForum that, among other features, enables users to blog and hold interactive discussions. As I followed the trademark fife-and-drum procession out of the historic area late that afternoon, Hardcastle’s impassioned cry for freedom of speech reverberated in my mind. For the first time in all of my trips to Colonial Williamsburg, my stomach had tightened as I watched this drama. It reminded me of the atmosphere following 9/11, when those who wondered aloud about the role of U.S. foreign policy in the attacks risked being summarily branded unpatriotic. Not one of us onlookers had intervened on Hardcastle’s behalf; in fact, we cheered when the Continental officer deemed the suspect guilty and sentenced Hardcastle to tar-and-feathering—a punishment that in real life left horrifying burns and sometimes killed its victims. As I neared my car, I recognized the actor who portrayed Hardcastle, still in costume. I stopped him and asked if anyone ever came to his rescue during the skit. He shook his head. “Once someone said that I shouldn’t be tarred and feathered, but no one has ever said that I have a right to speak my mind,” he told me. Sobered by this admission, and by the silence I too had observed, I stopped by the Barnes & Noble in Merchants Square for a dopamine-lifting jolt. As I waited, a boy who looked to be about 8 or 9 sat at a table near the counter with his mother. “So, do you still want to find a Chuck E. Cheese tonight?” she asked. “I wanna go to the witch trial,” he said, referring to an evening program where the audience voted on the fate of Grace Sherwood, an actual Virginian accused of witchcraft. “I want to hang the witch!” Mom looked less than ecstatic at her son’s itchy noose finger, and I felt the familiar tug to say or do something, the tempered equivalent of pulling out my kid glove. But I kept my hands in my pockets and my mouth closed. If I learned one thing from the day, it was that democracy didn’t come easily or with force. The framers of Colonial Williamsburg’s mission taught me as much. ■ —Andrew Reiner wrote about scrambled eggs and salami in the December Urbanite.

Flip Your Wig A Colonial Williamsburg Sampler Where to Stay Colonial Williamsburg (www.history.org) offers lodgings ranging from a five-star inn to historic homes with reproduction period furniture. The cost includes breakfast and, if you cash in on a package deal, admission to the historic area, a $35 value. Go off-season for cheaper rates, smaller crowds, and less-punishing humidity. One favorite: the 300-room Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel & Suites (105 Visitor Center Dr.; 757-253-2277), which features an outdoor pool, a fitness and business center, and such family amenities as miniature golf and bike rentals. A standard room with two double beds can run from $69 per night on January weekdays to $99 per night during a May weekend; suites range from $119 to $199 per night. Where to Eat The four historic taverns that serve period-inspired fare tend to be overpriced and underwhelming. To score a relatively inexpensive meal, go outside the historic area to Aromas CoffeeHouse and Bakeshop (431 Prince George St.; 757-221-6676) on Merchants Square. You’ll find students and faculty from nearby William & Mary here, as well as CW’s costumed interpreters stopping for a latte or light meal—shrimp and grits, sautéed scallops, or ahi tuna served over greens are all under $12. To get a sugar rush on, 18th-century style, try the Raleigh Tavern bakery (easternmost end near the Capitol; 757229-1000). Their ﬂour-dusted gingerbread cakes and Queen Anne’s cake wash down nicely with a bottle of official Colonial Williamsburg root beer (brewed locally by Old Dominion Brewery). Where to Huzzah Williamsburg was quite the party town back when the gentry treated the capital like their own private Daytona Beach, but things tend to be quiet after dark now. So three huzzahs for Josiah Chowning’s (109 E. Duke of Gloucester St.; 757-229-2141), which has the most laid-back atmosphere of CW’s public houses. Its nightly program, Gambols, gives guests a chance to sing along with costumed minstrels, play dice for peanuts, and swill rum in hand-thrown ceramic mugs. What to See Great Hopes Plantation, on the outskirts of the restored area, recreates life on an often-overlooked “middling” or smaller rural plantation, where slaves were often granted more responsibility and freedoms than their counterparts on larger plantations. Great Hopes features some of the most in-depth interpretations of slave life in CW. When it first opened in 1773, the Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds on Francis Street was the first of its kind in North America to treat the mentally ill. Visitors can discover how the use of physical restraints, narcotics, “plunge” baths, and shock treatments were considered cutting-edge therapies and how far, or how little, we have come since then. Night Programs can be more engaging and intimate than daytime programs. In addition to going on the popular ghost tours, visitors can sit in on candlelit court proceedings and have a say in the fate of those accused of piracy and witchcraft, as well as discover how criminals were treated in the public gaol. Call 1-800-HISTORY for reservations. —A.R.

West Side Story By

G r eg

H ansco m

Looking for a different kind of Maryland? Bundle up and head west to Garrett County

By the time we cross the Garrett County line, night has fallen and the rain has turned all but the last scraps of snow into a viscous mist. My 4-year-old daughter, Lucia, squints into the darkness from the backseat and asks if we’ll see the snowy mountains in the morning. “Oh yeah,” I say, trying to sound confident. My wife, Tara, raises an eyebrow and offers her favorite bit of parenting wisdom: “You know, expectation is the source of all suffering.” I quickly add, “And if the snow is all gone, we’re going to play in the mud.” Lucia seems content with that, but Tara makes a wondering sort of noise. That’s when I make the mistake of dropping the “w” bomb. “I. Am not. A wimp,” Tara declares. She reminds me of some of our more notable misadventures. There was the famous crossing of the glacial ice floe in a tandem sea kayak on our anniversary trip to Alaska. And how about the fifty-year storm event on the Green River in Utah, which we rode out in canoes with Lucia, who was 2 at the time? I remit, but I can tell the comment has stuck in her craw. It’s my first visit to Deep Creek, Western Maryland’s all-season resort area, and from what I can make out in the lights along the main road, it is a land of tourist ticky-tack: mini-golf courses, gokart tracks, ice cream shops. The regional cuisine seems to be pizza. The theme park atmosphere is appropriate, I suppose, as the area’s main attraction is a grand fabrication: Deep Creek Lake didn’t ex-

urbanite february 09

ist until 1923, when the Youghiogheny Hydro-Electric Corporation dammed a tributary of its namesake river, flooding almost 4,000 acres. The tourist traps and summer cabins have been popping up ever since, drawing visitors from Pittsburgh, just an hour and a half drive to the north, and Baltimore, three hours to the east. But I’ve been assured that, behind the kitsch, Garrett County is where you can still find a touch of the state’s long-ago plundered wilderness. The far-western county’s 657 square miles are home to just 30,000 people. In the summer, there’s hiking and mountain biking. The lake is a great place for sailing and sea kayaking, and the Yough and Savage rivers serve up trout fishing and riotous whitewater. In the winter, the hills, which climb up more than 3,000 feet in spots, collect upwards of 100 inches of snowfall in an average year. It’s this bounty that inspired Maryland’s only full-blown ski resort, Wisp, which sits on 3,115-foot Marsh Mountain above Deep Creek Lake. The mist is congealing into a light drizzle when we haul our belongings into our room at the Wisp Resort Hotel. There’s new tile in the bathroom and a comfy-enough couch, but the artwork is classic Super 8: brown and orange autumn forest scenes. Tara holds our 9-month-old, Chloe, as Lucia jumps from one bed to the other. “It’s heaven,” Tara says. Given the drizzle, we’re a little surprised the next morning to pull back the curtains and see a thick blanket of white covering the

photos courtesy of Wisp Resort

hill above the hotel. It turns out that Wisp has long been a pioneer in faux snow: The resort boasts that it can dump a foot of fresh stuff on the slopes in twenty-four hours. Cold weather in December, combined with a bit of real snowfall, allowed Wisp to build a two- to three-foot base early this season. After breakfast, Lucia and I pile on our ski pants and jackets and head for the hill. It’s a friendly and unpretentious scene. One run up the Magic Carpet (a ground-level conveyer belt that takes you up the bunny slope) and Lucia’s ready for the lift. We take two runs from the top on a meandering run called “Possum,” she skiing between my legs. It’s only 700 vertical feet, but it’s all we need—and frankly, it’s all my desk-surfing legs can handle while skiing in a linebacker’s crouch, doing my best to follow the orders from a budding Picabo Street: “Faster, Daddy, go faster!” It’s a nice reminder that you don’t need a Colorado mountain peak and a foot of fresh powder to have a good time on skis. After a bowl of soup in the food court, I head out in search of the man who started all this: Helmuth “Ace” Heise. I find him in the corner of a large, shared office at the top of Marsh Mountain. Heise, a former physical training instructor in the military (he earned his nickname playing handball), gave up skiing only last year. He’s 81. After being released from the service, Heise, a native of Pittsburgh, moved to McHenry, Maryland, to run a motel on Deep Creek Lake. His father bought the property from an old man who rented vacation cabins, calling the place Will O’ the Wisp after the ghostly lights he saw from a train window while passing through the Louisiana bayou. Summertime business was fine, Heise recalls, but when the weather turned cold, the tourists vanished; someone suggested that he start a ski area. Heise had never set foot on a pair of skis, but in 1955, he hauled an old rope tow down from Stowe, Vermont, and put it up on the foot of Marsh Mountain in what he calls “a glorified cow pasture.” Wisp Resort was born. In the early days, skiers from Baltimore could ride the B&O railroad to Oakland, where Heise and his crew picked them up in a bus and hauled them twelve miles up-valley for some fun in the snow. Lift tickets were $3.50, and for a couple of bucks you could rent a pair of skis, which were distributed out of the back of a pickup truck. The après-ski scene consisted mainly of huddling around a

pot-bellied stove in a Masonite-walled warming shack and eating chili Heise’s wife cooked at home. Heise built the place up slowly, adding a Poma lift in 1958 and crude early snowmaking equipment around 1960. Chairlifts, more runs, and a scrappy hotel and base lodge followed. “The one thing we lacked was a deep pocket,” Heise says. “Everything we did, we had to make it.” In 2001 Heise sold Wisp to three investors— longtime realtor Karen Myers, whose family is in the timber business in Garrett County and nearby West Virginia, and her partners, Gary Daum and Steve Richards. The three have poured more than $30 million into snowmaking, chairlifts, a cavernous new base lodge, and a slope expansion called North Camp, plus millions more outside of the ski area. Heise seems a little dumbfounded by the magnitude of the change. “I had a powerful imagination, but not to this extent,” he says. “This is almost too much for me to imagine.” By “this,” he means the mini-mansions and gated communities spreading across Marsh Mountain. His office overlooks what area marketers hail as “the world’s most adjustable whitewater course”— an artificial river that runs in a circle. Nearby are the muddy beginnings of a private golf club and 2,500 vacation homes and condos that could sprawl across the mountaintop in ten or fifteen years. At the real estate office at the base of the mountain, sales consultant Mark Russell gives me the stats. Slope-side lots run between $400,000 and $700,000. “Improved lots”—that is, lots with houses on them—start at $300,000 off-slope, and run “up to whatever,” Russell says; the most expensive house to sell on the mountain thus far went for $1.75 million. It’s peanuts compared to Vail and Beaver Creek, the Colorado resorts Wisp seeks to emulate, but the business model is the same: Chairlifts and ski runs create what Russell calls “real estate opportunities.” Those who can afford to buy in win the opportunity to drop another $37,500, plus $5,000 a year, for a club membership that comes with ski and golf privileges and access to a lakeside clubhouse. The recession has slowed sales, says Russell, but he’s optimistic that things will pick up. “There are only so many ski-in, ski-out home sites on the East Coast,” he says. “They’re not building a lot of new ski areas.”

King of the hill: Wisp, Maryland’s only ski resort, was founded in 1955 by Helmuth “Ace” Heise (right). In the early days, Baltimore skiiers arrived via B&O train, and lift tickets cost $3.50.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Let the Eyre Team Put Together Your Perfect Vacation Package!

EYRE EXCELLENCE I N T R AV E L

Romantic Maryland Mountain Getaways.

Vacation Packages

WHATEVER YOU DREAM, WE CAN MAKE

IT HAPPEN!

Some Upcoming Daytrips & Overnight Tours:

Just two hours west of the Beltway. Photo: www.merlavageimages.com

VALENTINES WEEKEND Two nights for only $300 with 3rd night free at Rocky Gap Resort!

Cruise Packages

March Philadelphia Flower Show - Mar. 5 & 7 American Girl Store in New York City - Mar. 21 Mt. Airy Casino Resort, Poconos - Mar. 26 - 27 All the Presidents Homes - Mar. 27 - 29 Charleston and Savannah - Mar. 29 - Apr.. 2 QVC Studio Tour - Mar. 28

April

Foxwoods Casino - Apr. 1 - 3 Odyssey Cherry Blossom Cruise - Apr. 2 NYC Broadway: Billy Elliott - Apr. 4 NYC Broadway: South Pacific - Apr. 4 Historic Gettysburg - Apr. 25 NYC Broadway: Jersey Boys - Apr. 25 NYC Broadway: Shrek - Apr. 25 The Homestead - Apr. 26 - 28 Overnight Tours

Make the most of the long President’s Day weekend at Maryland’s only AAA Four Diamond mountain resort in beautiful Rocky Gap State Park.

Call 1-800-724-0828 or visit www.rockygapresort.com

MOUNTAIN MARYLAND GETAWAY DEALS at mdmountainside.com Just half a tank of gas west on I-70 to I-68, the Mountain Side of Maryland is one of the MidAtlantic’s most affordable and relaxing getaway destinations.

Visit us on-line at www. mdmountainside.com and you’ll quickly discover why!

Overseas Adventures

Broadway Shows

Day Trips

w w w. e y r e . c o m • 1 - 8 0 0 - 3 2 1 - E Y R E 36

www.mdmountainside.com

urbanite february 09 11776 ACT RG Urbanite Ad.indd 1

1/7/09 2:17:19 PM

I am roused the next morning by Chloe, the baby, wide awake and ready to party at 5:30. We let the others sleep and head down to the hotel lobby/common room, where the Weather Channel newscasters are agog over a blizzard blowing in from the Midwest, threatening to dump a foot of snow on the streets of Boston and New York. If we could be so lucky. By the time gray morning dawns over Marsh Mountain, rain is falling by the bucket-load, drenching the poor lift ops who have been ordered to open the slopes, weather be damned. Former Olympic downhiller A.J. Kitt is coming to Wisp today to set the pace for NASTAR races held around the country. It’s not ideal weather for this PR opportunity, and the resort staff is surly. A manager downstairs at the ski shop calls the weather “disgusting.” Today is not a ski day for my crew. We load our bags into the car and head out in search of something more fitting of the weather. I’ve promised a little wilderness puddle-stomping, and I have a good lead on where we might find some: a bog about a half hour south on the Maryland-West Virginia line, said to be a remnant of the last Ice Age. As we drive south, Lucia asks if I can see the road through the wall of rain and fog, and Tara starts muttering about her “motherly eject button.” “Listen, I’m not a wimp,” she says, “but I have been told—by a number of people—that I am a good mother.” Dragging two young children out in a 38-degree downpour apparently does not fit her definition of good parenting. I get the same assessment from a couple of gray-haired ladies when I poke my head into the Garrett County Historical Society Museum in Oakland and ask for directions. Their descriptor for the bog: “spooky.” I press on. Chloe is asleep in her car seat as we pull into the parking area twenty minutes later. Tara announces her intention to stay in the car with the sleeping baby, telling Lucia and me: “You have twenty minutes to explore. Then we’re going back to town to find some hot chocolate and a grilled cheese sandwich.” With that, Chloe wakes up. Tara takes a deep breath, straps the baby to her belly, and wraps the both of them in her raincoat. I hand her an umbrella and we march down the trail, coaxing Lucia along with promises of everbigger puddles to stomp farther on. About a half hour into our hike, we break out into an open area where a boardwalk leads across a lumpy landscape of peat moss hummocks. It’s like a patch of Labrador plopped in the Maryland woods. Lucia, who a minute ago was ready to go in search of the promised hot chocolate, suddenly wants to explore farther. Tara marvels at the luminous wine-red of the sphagnum moss—a color that isn’t matched anyplace else on Earth. A bit of a bog connoisseur, I’m laughing and whooping and poking at the spongy moss. Here, at last, is the experience we came looking for: A chance to meet nature on its own terms, to find a little fun in weather that most folks would rather hide from. Back in Oakland, we huddle into a booth in Dottie’s, a greasy spoon tucked into the back of an antiques and knickknack shop. The whole town seems to have gathered here for lunch and coffee. American flags and Steelers jackets are in abundance. The waitress is all business. The hamburger is patted into shape by hand. And Lucia and Tara decide to skip the hot chocolate, opting instead for a giant milk shake—a brimming cup of ice cream on a frigid Western Maryland day. ■ —Urbanite senior editor Greg Hanscom grew up in Park City, Utah. His parents had him on skis as soon as he could stand up.

Peak Rewards Microbrews, meat markets, and plenty of mountains await the intrepid Western Maryland traveler Wisp Resort It will never be Vail, and thank goodness. Co-owner Karen Myers says that the state’s lone ski facility will always be a family resort, where you can gather with kids and grandkids and skip the long rides to New England or Colorado. The skiing is not difficult—it’s all wellgroomed, and the few black diamonds amount to little more than a steep pitch in the middle of a blue square. For non-skiers, there’s a tubing park, and snowboarders and freestylers get a decent terrain park. Weekday lift passes are $39; weekends go for $59. The hotel at the base of the mountains offers two-day “Slide and Ride” weekend packages starting at $169 per person per night, including lodging and a ski pass. Go mid-week and pay $59 per person per night. (296 Marsh Hill Rd., McHenry; 301-387-4911; www.wispresort.com) Mountain State Brewing Co. OK, the Mountain State is West Virginia, where this microbrewery got its start in the small town of Thomas, but this new McHenry brewpub up the road from the ski area offers a taste of wood-smoky Appalachian culture, replete with log construction and sawhorses that stand in for bar stools. They also serve up fine ﬂatbreads and craft brews. Try Cold Trail Ale, an American blonde with lots of character. The waitress apologized profusely that the place wasn’t more kid-friendly, then produced a game of Connect Four and held our baby while we ate. (6690 Sang Run Rd., McHenry; 310-387-3360; www.mountainstate brewing.com) Garrett Country Market Bring a cooler and load up on frozen meats on your way home. This country store processes local Black Angus beef and bison, produces their own smokehouse bacon and jerky, and offers all manner of organic fruits and vegetables, cheeses, and an olive bar. (418 S. Main St., Accident; 301-746-6328; www.garrettcountrymarket.com) The Cranesville Swamp If you have a thing for rare plants or a passion for the north country, this 1,774-acre Nature Conservancy preserve will turn your crank. It’s in a “frost pocket”—a low spot nested in the hills—that has served as a haven for plants and wildlife that lived here during the last Ice Age. Winter visitors will find hemlock and black spruce, and if there’s open ground, cranberries, princess pine, and peat moss. In the summer, you’ll find bug-eating sundew plants. (Cranesville and Lake Ford rds.; www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/maryland/ preserves/art135.html) Dottie’s Fountain and Grill This “old-fashioned fountain and grill” tucked into the back of Englander’s Antique Mall in downtown Oakland is a good place to rub elbows with the locals. Leave your Ravens paraphernalia at home— this is Steelers country—and make time to peruse the antiques. (205 East Alder St., Oakland; 301-553-0000) —G.H.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

The Daytripper Compiled by Marianne K. Amoss

VA ah Valley,

Shenando

Blue s by car part of the e: 2–3 hour the northern to d e an m , Travel tim ho Park is rs, fishermen h National mpers, hike ends its e Shenandoa lar with ca pu ve, which w po ri its along th D is Explore: e d lin an ky e S ng e (but has ex ra is sh n ru y ni C ai fi ra . nt n) Lu to ou t he in m ar /s ” st Ridge ipe Organ w.nps.gov urs from riders (ww ical “Stalacp kes three ho ta us d m e an th rk horseback d pa lumns an through the all golden co .com). scenic way . Gay e 10-story-t ns th er at av l n 56 (56 W yc ve ra ar way). M rk. Downtow Rd.; www.lu pa e e ill th H th es e to rv l av C se urg.com) runs paralle Caverns (101 6harrisonb petition. I-81, which n5 m on ow co s f nt on he ti ow C op own Iron n; 00; www.d are eating risonburg’s d., Staunto 540-438-56 Eat: There (74 Rowe R inner of Har risonburg; w ar 47 H e d 19 m 7, an ti e 10 onc od urced fo St., Suite cookin’ si eb Noel, tw ith locally so ed up home of Chef Cal hip factor w e’s has dish e upscale fare ow th R s . rs up M a ). wned ). Zynodo odoa.com The family-o s rsrowes.com 0-885-7775; www.zyn rglass figure 33; www.m 54 18 n; 6to 88 un 0es huge fibe ta 54 S ur , at t. te S fe hi , y ry le W , Bever son Hwy. to prehisto wine (115 E. adside ode newall Jack oah s (3848 Sto nd, a lo-fi ro ti s in Shenand La an r er m nt au g ce os in in rs ay D to : pr si t s vi in is an d e gi m an us a Playho Don’t pgrounds Kong and e Blackfriars by d.com). Cam s, plus King ov/shen). Th both written of dinosaur .g .dinosaurlan s w ps ay w .n pl w w ; ts w 22 en (w 22 es e ch 9pr ar ar , 86 pe -M on 0es id nd Post; 54 ening in m ericanshak eatre in Lo rk begin op pers (www.am e Globe Th Pa th ic ce l of on an na m ph io on or m ti at rf N oduc nd, and sy atinee pe faithful repr folk, big-ba h Sunday m Staunton, a speare, wit ival features ke st ha Fe S ic by us ). yM icfest.org and inspired ndoah Valle s (www.mus ). The Shena mer month m su center.com ng ri outdoors du formances

Philadelp

hia, PA

Travel ti m tickets be e: 2 hours by car. Greyhoun gin at $80 d will get , but the trip is half you there Explore in 2 hours as long. : Once yo for aroun u’ve exha Hall, the d $40; Am usted the Betsy Ross trak o b li H g atory histo ouse), che trian trail s of the a ck ri ca o l u si t th te djoining Fa e s 8100; ww irmount P Philadelphia Muse (the Liberty Bell, In w.p ark (26th um of Art dependen 215-923-9 hilamuseum.org). S ce and the b t. a n B d the Ben 525; head rowse ind ike and p jamin Fra houseboo ependent site (532 edesnklin Pkw ks.com), b bookselle N. 7th St. y.; u r Head Ho ; 215-597 rival in a use Books 215-763-7130; ww t don’t tell anyone Poe-claim at the Edg w.nps.gov/ (619 S. 2n ing conte collection a d St.; r e A dal/) you’r st. The So llan Poe n of oddball e from Ba uth Stree ational his shops, re t lt toric st im ri o p st re b a , Philadelp etween Fr urants, an Eat: See h ont and 1 d gallerie if Iron Che s (www.s 0th streets ia’s bitter f star Ma rant (723 outhstree boasts a saharu M Che t.com). orimoto’s longstand stnut St.; 215-413-9 cuisine re ing Le Be 0 7 0 ig ; www.mo c-Fin (152 cheeseste rimotorest ns supreme at his 3 Wa ak in your eponymo aurant.co face at Ca lnut St.; 215-567-1 us restau seek out 000; www m), or splurge on m what Phil the excell ly food blo po’s (214 Market .l e b Philadelp e cfi n.com). S ent, St.; 215-9 gger Holl hia” at th tuff an au 23-1000; y Moore (w e truck on thentic www.phil ww.hollye the south lyhoagie.c Don’t m ats.com) side of Pa om), or iss: The calls “the ss a yu n re k b Avenue, b to get up cently reo est hot do close and etween 2 pened Ple g in 3rd and 2 personal ase Touch pleasetou 4th streets with the M chmuseu u se u m a . rt e m n (4 co .o 2 phillycraft 31 Avenu rg). Get yo urages ch e of the R beerfest.c ildren and ur drink o epublic; 2 om). Take n at the P a Show, M d u lt s 15-581-3 h in the acr arch 1–8; 18 es of gard illy Craft Beer Fest get there The Phila ens and p ival on M 1; www. and back delphia Fl arch 7 (w la o n n ts at the yers wha a ch a ww. rt e 2009 Phil red bus fo ck the pu adelphia ck around r Flower until mid-A $72 per person (w ww.eyre.c pril (flyers om). .nhl.com).

Photo credits from top left to right, bottom left to right: courtesy of the National Park Service, courtesy of the Tourism Council of Frederick County, © Matt Antonino | Dreamstime.com, © Savone | Dreamstime.com, courtesy of Talbot County Tourism

Need to get out of town? try these close-to-home getaways.

, MD

Frederick

Assateagu

e and Chin

Travel tim

e: 3 hours by

coteague is

car

lands, MD

and VA

Explore: Get there be fore the sum famed wild mer beach cr ponies in th owds descen eir natural ha www.wildlif d: Observe th bitat on foot expeditions e islands’ or from a se .com). Explor (www.nps.g a kayak (866 e the Assat ov/asis/). Fo -CKAYAKS; ea gu r a modest fe e Island Nat of the 142-fe ional Seasho e ($4 for ad et-high, still ults, $2 for re park -active Assat ter weekend children), cl eague Lighth (www.assat imb to the to ou eagueisland. se, open wee p com/lightho kends startin Eat: Slurp use/lightho g EasChincoteague us e_ in fo .htm). oysters at th Blvd.; 757-33 e bar in the 6-5120) or at Village Rest A.J.’s on the chincoteague au ra Cr nt ee (6576 Maddo .com/rest/A k (6585 Mad JS.html). Sa x dox Blvd.; 75 well-regarde igon Village 7-336-5888 d outpost fo (4069 Main ; www. r Vietnames boardwalk at St.; 757-336e eats. And tractions ar 7299) is a Ocean City’s e just a few beachy rest miles north aurants and Don’t mis of the island s: The hoof s. prints of Mis are imprinte ty, the famed d in the side horse of Mis walk in fron Main St.). Lo ty of Chinc t of Chincote cal ministers oteague, ague’s Island bless the w boat parade Roxy Theatr atermen on . The 84th an e (4074 May 24 at 4: nual voluntee ends, leadin 30 p.m., follo r fireman’s ca g up wed by a rnival takes chincoteague to the famous Chincote place on Ju ague Pony Pe chamber.com ly weeknning on Ju ). ly 29 and 30 (www.

8. , sts $14–$1 storic area reyhound co fifty-block hi ’s rds rg ya bu ne d ty’s six vi al Marylan of the coun Travel ti wing Centr es ro on ar -g s w st er e fa th be is ugh th brewed teries. Sip Wander thro mple locally goose ues, and ea Explore: ops, boutiq il.com), or sa 1-694-7899; www.wild ra sh et es in qu w ti ck ri an Civil 30 de of ; of re ll d. .f lv fu m w B keu w d choc ine Trail (w ational Mus Wedgewoo W N 7 k e 60 ic th (4 il War er y iv at C ed er on the Fr raphernalia oose Brew her historic medical pa the Wild G .org) and ot s at ed 60 m ys 18 ar da c ti ur ilw Sat authen ; www.civ m). Gape at 1-695-1864 brewery.co trick St.; 30 Pa E. 8 historic (4 e in isine in the .org). g War Medic American cu ricktourism n acy Crossin de er oc re .f od on w m M , w sites (w ; urant.com). up seasonal 04 ta es 42 es rv tr 6se ol 84 .v lt 1ed Vo LT; www Pike; 30 cently open 301-696-VO 4 A Urbana ew Design Eat: The re ine list (442 . Market St; w N gs (5330 N in ng 28 lo (2 pp a To on h t si it in w an jo M ng bs ni ck su di ou dH fine e pizza-an comfortable e locals lik is hailed as a ing.com). Th ss ). ro yc om .c ac bor Park on za at Mount Ta www.monoc 40; www.toppingspiz ver e Fe id sl in n ab de C 8-20 t-high woo the indoor oo at -f s Rd.; 301-66 25 ue fere bl of r th the winte bottom of Sample the ). Stave off tival.com). Race to the ck. ge : ri es id s rf R de is ve re ky m fe nf oc in ’t Don (www.cab w.downtow (MD 76 in R w 15 ck (w d sa an 24 ap ry 14 rl on Februa 5 (www. towel or bu on February ive Dinner April 4 and ts and crafts the Progress chiming on at lls am, open s te festival of ar be nt ll of ra ba d au erick rest eague base to the soun -l or en in op m s ks (www. a m or ings of Fred s, erick Key erick museu -game firew ed ed st Fr Fr e po y h Th it an ). w M m org). /play.ht on April 17 rederick.org ve Stadium downtownf l Harry Gro fu ty, MD ti au be org/ at ot Coun urtalbot. b l a their season T (www.to ). ts m ood ic co w tr r g s. a is o c ey d utes by frederickk opping fleet in D an skipjack ll have sh e: 90 min m a g h in g im rd il t rk fo T o x e n O w Driv e last n, and House o Chesals, Easto eck out th n’s Chesapeake nt (21551 ride t. Michae ghman Island, ch o S ra is u : rr e a ta r s H re lo m a Exp tiny Til boat fro d in their ids with .asp). On Charter a ome local seafoo ain the k rt ). and te rg n ls .o E e k shopping c a ). s h m ww.skipja n dig into sapeakehouse.co r between St. Mic Harbor (w ay of fishing, the e e h iv .c R w n rad ed Avo 21; ww Island fo 0-886-21 ses the Tr classe Dr.; 41 ferry, which cros u rry.com). o fe H e u e v k rveyor of e a pe xfordbell on’s, a pu -Bellevue s .o 204; a rd w -3 M fo 2 w t x 2 a O (w on the March e porch ton; 410-8 d th in s a n g E o in , t n t. u o S in eg spread arrison es—an Oxford b place or s (22 S. H food dish ww. nd the fire hes since the ’60 n offers local sea u 6-2141; w 6 ro a -8 r 0 0 te s -8 is In lu 1 d d C r .; n e : d d n t la n R a a in Is E an nd d rtown icken, h lunch a t.com). The Tilghm ht (21384 Coope a fried ch 33 sic Frenc , Delmarv rme ernig s u rch (Route v b o a o g ra y M s c n ta e in o s s lu n u a b o o s y d .m a n if w e , s la s w e w view tic Mary s for th ith water et authen aels, which open rooms w h n.com). G ic ). in d m M n o t. ruary la .c S is n ce on Feb crabclaw tilghman b Claw o Conferen www.the ; t the Cra rs 0 wn a 0 o r te 9 e ri ’s e -2 re b W 5 cold Ocean 410-74 s Baltimo Wine vy Point; the Bay to ublishers such a d t n a a s d d o n West/Na o r geru and p 43haels F rk on you , editors, meliers (4 e St. Mic iss: Wo y authors .com). Th ith chefs and som n a e c o Don’t m workshops led b to w.bay ngs w ring fame (ww trations and tasti 21, featu of CityLit ns o lm m e ). e h d m il s o c e d Gregg W festival. 26, inclu andwine April 24– aelsfood h Festival, ic tm .s ; www 205-2185 by car. G me: 1 hour

Stranger in a Strange Land What’s wrong with Baltimore’s black history? By

Lion el

P h o t o g r a ph s

A confession: I don’t know where I come from, not like some people do. One white friend of mine, for example, swears that his great-great-great-great-grandfather or thereabouts fought in the Revolutionary War. Go to his house and Steve can dust off the battered colonial-era drum to prove it. This kind of connection to the distant past is completely foreign to me. Slavery and segregation completely ignored so many of my ancestors’ contributions to history that today I have no idea what my great-great-great-great-grandfather was doing while Steve’s was beating that drum. February is Black History Month, which is supposed to fill this historical vacuum with a four-week-long litany of cultural events and memorials—a public Mass in honor of our great black saints.

urbanite february 09

Foster

De nnis

Dre nne r

Come March, I’ll vaguely recall that a black man patented at least three of the technologies that make my daily routine possible. But if you put them all in a lineup, I’d have a lot less trouble pointing out the bench players on the 1993 Chicago Bulls. It just doesn’t stick. This disconnect with my heritage seems especially egregious because I grew up in the city that historian Leroy Graham dubbed “The Nineteenth Century Black Capital.” So many of the people our country will rediscover this month—Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday—walked the streets of Baltimore that the teachers in my predominantly black middle school didn’t have to redecorate in February. Peeling, laminated images of great African Americans were a constant presence on my classroom walls. Still, many of these characters have yet

to become flesh-and-blood human beings to me. As saints, they are Finally, I ventured down North Avenue to the National Great venerated, but not thoroughly understood. Blacks in Wax Museum. The first wax museum dedicated to African This is why I embarked on a pilgrimage of sorts, a tour of muAmerican history was just as I remembered it from a middle-school seums and important landmarks in Baltimore’s African American field trip—a pushy, preachy house of house of historically inspired history. The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association horrors. A disemboweled lynching victim dangled from a tree limb; (BACVA) assembled a self-guided, thirteen-stop itinerary as part of nearby, a back-alley drug addict shot up beneath the title “Now its African American Heritage and Attractions Guide. In December We Lynch Ourselves.” In the basement slave ship exhibit, I was I set off on a quest to become a tourist in my own hometown, and, confronted by disfigured limbs and scenes of torture. As I left, the hopefully, see myself and my surroundings with a new set of eyes. ghosts of the victims of the Middle Passage—ostensibly, my ancesI rearranged the itinerary so that I could work my way outwards tors—stage-whispered over speakers: “Remember us. We did not from downtown. First stop: the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers endure bondage for you to become a slave to drugs and alcohol.” Maritime Park in Fells Point. The abolitionist author once worked My journey into my black heritage was shaping up to be more as a caulker on dry docks in Fells Point, and Isaac Myers, although sobering than inspiring. I began to appreciate the potentially paraless famous than Douglass, was a trailblazer in his own right: In doxical state of black cultural tourism decades after official desegre1866, the Baltimore native co-founded the Chesapeake Railway and gation. Black Baltimoreans have a lot to be proud of, but so much of Drydock Marina, the first shipyard owned and operated by African what I had looked for was crumbling, missing, or poorly presented. Americans. The Maritime Park facility is a handsome, three-story Then I called Orchard Street Church, current home of the complex in a restored 1840s warehouse on Thames Street. One hour Baltimore Urban League and another stop on the tour. An Urban after opening on the Saturday before Christmas, I was the only visiLeague staffer suggested I contact Tom Saunders of Renaissance tor, which, by default, entitled me to a personal tour. Productions and Tours, which offers guided tours of local black It’s a great space, with weathered wooden beams and tall winheritage sites. Saunders promised to pick me up and show me what dows letting in sunlight and harbor views. Along with the roped-off I’d missed on my own. exhibits and artifacts behind glass, there are interactive stations Within minutes of stepping into his van, I realized that Saunwhere visitors can touch and smell the materials used for buildders, a 51-year-old civil servant with a graveled, inquisitive voice, ing and waterproofing ships. My tour guide pointed outside to a was a walking, talking encyclopedia of African American history. covered ship being repaired on the commercial dry dock. After As we motored around town, he pointed out how Druid Hill Park reading about both men’s lives, touching the tools they knew, and had once been a plantation, which means that the park is home to seeing people carrying on their work, Douglass’ and Myers’ legacies a slave burial ground, yet unfound. He told me about “Little Willie” seemed very much present, tangible, and continuous. It was like Adams, the numbers-runner-turned-entertainment-tycoon who grabbing history with both hands. became one of the city’s wealthiest businessmen in the 1950s. HeadBut the rest of my journey was a mixed bag. I followed BACVA’s ing down Liberty Heights Avenue, we passed Douglass High School, instructions to the nearby Frederick Douglass Marker on Aliceanwhich until 1937 was the only public high school for blacks in the na Street, near South Durham Street, where Douglass lived and entire city. After about an hour I was convinced that, if you paraworked. That marker turned out to be a sign about fourteen inches chuted Saunders at random into any corner of the city, he’d inevitasquare affixed to a lamppost; after searching the area for twenty bly be within three blocks of something he’d studied. minutes, I couldn’t find anything to indicate “F.D. lived here.” Our first stop was Hampton, a Revolutionary War-era plantaAt the B&O Railroad Museum, another stop on the tour, BACVA tion in Towson. Saunders recalled how the tours there had changed notes that exhibits “vary seasonally and highlight the contributions of African Americans to the railroad industry.” But when I went, I couldn’t find any indication that non-whites or women worked on America’s first railroad. This February, the museum is co-sponsoring an exhibit on African Americans, but should these contributions be invisible the rest of the year? By contrast, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum tells these stories year-round, and the East Coast’s largest museum devoted to African American history is beautifully conspicuous, rising up out of East Pratt Street like some wondrous black monolith. But inside, all of the placards, props, audio stations, and video displays competed for my attention; I couldn’t absorb much. Following the tour uptown to Pennsylvania Avenue, once a black entertainment mecca, I was confronted instead by a dreadful absence: The murals of entertainers and political leaders only called attention to the vacant lots and On the trail: Tom Saunders offers tours of black heritage attractions such as the National Great Blacks in crumbling buildings that once housed some of Wax Museum. the best nightclubs in the country. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Make Baltimore the Gateway to your Getaway Cruise from Baltimore 2009–2010

Year Round 6, 7, & 8 Days Bahamas & Port Canaveral Exotic Eastern Caribbean

•

7-Night Bermuda

12-Night Caribbean 9-Night Bahamas

for

ON e Gr e aT pr ice •

5-Night Bermuda 9-Night Caribbean 9-Night New England/ Canada

Photo: Stromberg Gunther

For Dates, Rates and Reservations Call:

be enchanted. be delighted. be inspired. Be our guest at these grand du Pont gardens, nestled in the historic Brandywine Valley.

Special Offer $20

•

MarcH M 1–april 30, 2009

For more information, visit winterthur.org or longwoodgardens.org 42

u08236 r b a- nUrbanite i t e f Magazine e b r u a February r y 0 9 2009.indd

12/22/08 10:51:36 AM

410-342-0100 Located in Historic Canton 3041 O’Donnell Street • Baltimore, MD 21224 www.thecruiselady.com

Highway to History The Baltimore African American Heritage Itinerary The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association offers a self-guided tour of major African American historical attractions. Call the ticketed venues before you head out to confirm hours. Go to www.baltimore.org/africanamerican/itinerary.htm for more info. Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture 830 E. Pratt St.; 443-263-1800; www.africanamericanculture.org Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards 301 W. Camden St.; 410-727-1539; www.sportslegendsatcamden yards.com Orchard Street Church, a stop on Baltimore’s African American history tour, was built in 1839 by former slave Truman Pratt.

over the past few years. “When I first started coming to Hampton,” he said, “the park rangers used to be shy about talking about slavery. Now it’s a hot thing, and they have opened up the slave cabins.” We walked with a National Park Service guide through the mansion, and Saunders showed me the quarters that housed a portion of the estate’s 350 slaves. “Slavery is a touchy thing for people,” he said, “but that’s our history. You can’t talk about black history without it.” Then he corrected himself. “We call it ‘African American history,’ but there’s no such thing. It’s Baltimore history.” Our next stop was Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, a continuation of Sharp Street Church, the first African American Methodist congregation in Baltimore City. Reverend Dellyne Hinton, the congregation’s first female pastor, talked us through her church’s 221-year history from the front pew of a sanctuary built by former slaves. As we drove east through the city, the streets came alive with two centuries’ worth of history. We passed a park named after the fiery black abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet, who, in 1843, tried to incite a universal slave uprising. We drove by Ideal Federal Savings Bank, the oldest African American-owned financial institution in Maryland, and the Baltimore home of the Prince Hall Masons, a black order of Freemasons founded in 1784. For Saunders, the entire city was a great big book, tattered and smudged and missing a few pages, but still decipherable, and he was showing me how to read it. Saunders likes to end his guided tours at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. “That’s most people’s favorite part,” he said. I decided to keep an open mind and take another look. This time, with Saunders walking me through each room, I barely noticed the gory oddities that stood out so much during my previous visits. I’d spent the better part of the day seeing where many of these wax figures lived, studied, and worshiped. Now it looked like some of the greatest people the city had ever produced were assembled under one roof. As we left the museum, I told Saunders about my change of heart. He’d been talking nonstop for about five hours at this point, but now he didn’t say anything. He just smiled. ■ —Lionel Foster is Urbanite’s staff writer.

Eubie Blake National Jazz Museum and Cultural Center 847 N. Howard St.; 410-225-3130; www.eubieblake.org Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum 901 W. Pratt St.; 410-752-2490; www.borail.org Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park 1417 Thames St.; 410-685-0295 ext. 252; www.douglassmyers.org Frederick Douglass Marker Aliceanna St. near S. Durham St. NAACP National Headquarters 4805 Mt. Hope Dr.; 410-580-5777; www.naacp.org Old entertainment district on Pennsylvania Ave. between Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and North Ave. St. Francis Academy 501 E. Chase St.; 410-539-5794; www.sfacademy.org National Great Blacks In Wax Museum 1601–1603 E. North Ave.; 410-563-3404; www.ngbiwm.com Baltimore’s Wall of Pride Carey and Cumberland streets Orchard Street Church 516 Orchard St.; 410-523-8150; www.bul.org Arena Players 801 McCulloh St.; theater is under renovation; call 410-728-6500 for information on company show times at alternate venues. Finding a black history tour guide RenaissanceProductionsandTours(410-728-3837;www.renaissance productions.biz) offers thematic itineraries covering civil rights, jazz, women’s history, and more, and will customize a tour to suit your group’s needs. Information about other local black history tour companies is available on the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association’s website at www.baltimore.org/africanamerican/tours.htm. —L.F.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Dunlop Syndrome, also known as “Belly Over Belt” or “The Muffin Top,” affects more than 63% of Marylanders. The MAC is leading the fight against Dunlop Syndrome with customized weight-loss programs, state-of-the-art equipment, certified personal training, and hundreds of group exercise classes. Dunlop Syndrome may be a laughing matter, but your health isn’t. Get active now.

Join Now and Pay No Enrollment Fee.* Offer expires February 28, 2009.

MAC Timonium:

MAC Harbor East:

MAC Express:

110 West Timonium Rd. 410.453.9111

655 President St. 410.625.5000

11212 McCormick Rd. 410.584.7888

urbanite february 09

Some restrictions apply.

macwellness.com

photo by Russell G. Frost | frostimaging.com

Buggytown Revisited Is there more to Lancaster than apple butter? By

Re be cca

It’s a cold Saturday in Lancaster, and the mayor of this smallish Pennsylania city, Rick Gray, is giving me some insights into his town in the living room of his 1820s home on North Prince Street. I had just walked around Lancaster’s well-kept commercial district, full of quaint shopfronts and spacious sidewalks. On my stroll, I counted a Rite Aid, a CVS, a Dunkin’ Donuts, and a McDonald’s. The rest were places I’d never heard of. Did I miss something, or is this really a city without a Starbucks? “What the [heck] do we need a Starbucks for?” Gray says. (The mayor actually substituted a more colorful interjection.) “We have Prince Street Café, Square One Coffee …” He reels off a list of locally owned coffee emporiums, and his wife nods in agreement. “Who needs Starbucks?” This is unexpected. For the better part of the eighteen miles from York on Route 30, Greater Lancaster looks like it’s been hit with a strip-mall epidemic. This area’s shopping is as well known as its picturesque horse-and-buggy traffic. Lancaster’s reputation, according to Marshall Snively, vice president of the downtown-booster James Street Improvement District, is “Amish and outlets.” People come here looking for cheap Coach purses and apple butter, and they aren’t likely to be disappointed. But one of Snively’s goals is to get people to realize that the town in

Me s s ne r

the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country is a worthy destination unto itself. “There’s a city here,” he says. Lancaster, a middling manufacturing burg of 55,000 struggling with typical rust-belt post-industrial ills, has long been overshadowed by its surrounding county. The city’s motto (“America’s oldest inland city”) and reputation are less than cutting edge. To me, it’s always been the fading town my mother recalled from her days growing up in nearby Lititz. When we visited her relatives, my brothers and I would marvel at the Amish buggies in the countryside, staring wide-eyed at kids in funny hats sitting in back. The city didn’t seem worth a visit. But Lancaster has been busily reinventing itself as a hip, walkable, and affordable place, one that’s bursting with galleries and trendy hangouts and promising much more in the way of cultural attractions than scrapple and cheap polo shirts. And, yes, there’s still apple butter aplenty: Eating and shopping remain key attractions for visitor and resident alike. When I stopped by the Lancaster County visitors center, a woman behind the desk explained why her late husband decided to move here in the middle of the Great Depression, and why she’s stayed ever since: “Lancaster’s a town that probably won’t make you rich, but you’re probably not gonna starve to death here, either.” w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Recession Special A Sweetheart of a deal: Join Meadow Mill and get February free with no joining fee.* *certain restrictions apply

G E T

F I T

T H I S

Y E A R

URBANITE_AD_sq:emptybowls_urbanite_

3600 Clipper Mill Road www.meadowmill.com 410.235.7000

A T

12/23/08

4:24 PM

Page 1

Tickets are $15 per person (children 5 and under are free). 10 tickets is $125. For tickets, visit www.vincentbaltimore.org and click on the Empty Bowls link under Events, or call 410-662-0500, ext. 216.

Enjoy soups supplied by local restaurants, live music, silent auction, family-friendly activities, and choose a hand-crafted ceramic bowl. Saturday, March 7, 2009 come anytime from 3:00 – 7:00 p.m. College of Notre Dame, Doyle Hall 4701 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210

urbanite february 09

Soups supplied by: Ale Mary’s, Atwaters, Neopole Savory Smokery, One World Café, Soup’s On, Whiskey Island Pirate Shop and many more! Sponsored by: MECU, Northeast Foods, M&T Bank, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, WBFF Fox 45 TV, Urbanite Magazine, Baltimore’s Child and WYPR 88.1 FM.

Benefiting the programs of

Going Dutch Where to Stay:

photo by Russell G. Frost | frostimaging.com

Move over, TriBeCa: Humble Lancaster has its own boutique hotel, the sixty-three-room Lancaster Arts Hotel. Located in an 1881 tobacco warehouse, the hotel boasts industrial-chic décor and local art for sale. Winter rates range from $169 for a studio with a queen-sized bed to $279 for a two-room “arts suite.” (300 Harrisburg Ave.; 1-866-720-ARTS; www.lancasterartshotel.com) Where to Eat: John J. Jeffries The farm-to-table restaurant in the lobby of the Lancaster Arts Hotel promises locally raised everything. (300 Harrisburg Ave.; 717-431-3307; www.johnjjeffries.com) Night life: Downtown Lancaster’s restored Fulton Theatre anchors a thriving arts and gallery scene.

The city’s marquee happening is First Fridays, when thousands flock downtown on the first Friday of the month because the city’s art galleries and shops stay open late with food, drink, and music. I missed First Friday by a week, but my weekend visit still shattered my old notion that Lancaster was lame. My parents and I waited forty minutes for a table at the Belvedere Inn, a New American restaurant housed in an 1876 manse. While we waited, we went across the street for drinks and appetizers—goat cheese salad and seared scallops—at the Mediterranean restaurant Gusto, which was only slightly less packed. Once we were finally seated, the Belvedere Inn fare proved unexpectedly ornate—risotto with autumn vegetables, pan-roasted salmon with cabbage-leek confit and maple sage cream. The highlight was the place’s old wooden bar, full of locals who called out “See you at market!” as they left. They were referring to Lancaster Central Market. Housed in a two-towered brick Romanesque Revival building from 1889, it’s billed as America’s oldest farmers’ market and has been on the same site since the 1730s. When I showed on Saturday morning, the place was humming: Young families with toddlers in backpacks sifted through produce and quilted crafts while weathered old men in flannel shirts ate sandwiches in the corner. One vendor sold two regional specialties: whoopee pie—fluffy cream between two cake-like chocolate cookies—and shoofly pie, a dense molasses confection. Another Amish Country specialty might be called Things in Jars, a culinary niche well represented at the market—pickled pig’s feet, chow-chow, and, yes, the inevitable apple butter. At one stall, Dan Stoltzfus stood behind his baked goods. Tall, dressed in a blue collared shirt and black pants, he toted a straw hat and wore a long gray beard, sans moustache—a married Amish man’s tag. He tensed a bit when he saw my camera and notebook— many members of the Amish community are wary of camera-toting tourists and reporters looking for colorful features—then pointed to a large jar full of pickled vegetables. “Chow-chow,” he said. “It’s our best seller, won a blue ribbon. Take a picture of it,” he added. “Just leave me out of it.” Not far away is Rafiki’s Deli, owned by Roger Godfrey. He came to America from Uganda about ten years ago; his wife, who is Kenyan, found that Lancaster County’s rolling countryside and

The Belvedere Inn Elegant fare in a lavishly restored Victorian home. Fridays and Saturdays bring live jazz and big crowds to the second-ﬂoor piano bar. (402 N. Queen St.; 717-394-2422; http://belvedereinn.biz/) Lancaster Central Market The nation’s oldest farmers’ market is the place to pick up shooﬂy pie, chow-chow, and other Pennsylvania Dutch treats. Try Dan Stoltzfus’ cinnamon bear claws. (On N. Market St. between W. Orange and W. King sts.; 717-735-6890)

What to See: City Folk Antiques, garden art, and Pennsylvania folk art. Find anything from a 19th-century bicycle to painted barn shutters. (146 N. Prince St.; 717393-8807; www.cityfolkonprince.com) Square One Coffee Capitalizing on the Fair Trade coffee/free Wi-Fi/local art trifecta, Square One takes its coffee so seriously that its employees Twitter updates on which beans they’re roasting each morning. (145 N. Duke St.; 717-392-3354; www.squareonecoffee.com) Lancaster Museum of Art Housed in the beautiful 1846 Grubb Mansion, the museum’s two ﬂoors house a collection of contemporary regional art. Admission is donation-only, and nearby Musser Park, the mansion’s backyard, makes a fine picnic spot. (135 N. Lime St.; 717-394-3497; www.lmapa.org) Metropolis Gallery Part home décor store, part art gallery, Metropolis has an edgy popart sensibility and a serious thing for mid-century-modern furniture. (154 N. Prince St.; 717-572-9961; www.metropolis-store.com) —R.M.

continued on page 71 w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR DESIGN MASTER PLANNING HISTORIC ARCHITECTURE

1104 Kenilworth Drive, Suite 500 Towson, MD 21204 p: 410-337-2886 f: 410-337-2974 135 West Patrick Street, Suite 200 Frederick, MD 21701 p: 301-668-8677 f: 301-668-8664 www.rubeling.com Career Opportunities Available

INTEGRITY. CREATIVITY. RELIABILITY. INNOVATION.

2009 Speaker Series: Greening Your Home Fee: $6.00 per lecture ($10.00 for non-members)

Members Only: Pre-register for the entire series for $18.00, and enjoy four programs for the price of three.

www.ExploreNature.org

urbanite february 09

April 16, 7p.m. Sustainable Design February 19, 7p.m. Green Home Remodeling From A Builderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Point of View in your Garden, Zolna Russell, Hord Coplan Macht Polly Bart, Ph.D., Greenbuilders, Inc.

March 19, 7p.m. What We Are Finding in Maryland Homes, Frank Lee, TerraLogos Green Home Services, Inc.

May 21, 7p.m. Practical Steps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint, Jeff Blankman, Sunnyside Solar

11201 Garrison Forest Rd. Owings Mills, MD 21117

Please register by calling 443-738-9200.

Westminster,

maryland

s ens e t h e

di f f e r e n c e

engage yo u r s e n s e s .

At McDaniel College you will develop new t a s t e s , both in and out of the classroom. You will learn to s m e l l the difference between fact and fiction, and to form opinions in grounded logic. You will f e e l the challenge of academic rigor, as well as the comfort of belonging to an authentic community where students come first. You will begin to h e a r your inner voiceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and trust it. At McDaniel College you will discover your future through numerous research, travel, and internship opportunities. Come s e e for yourself.

http://admissions.mcdaniel.edu/ T wo College Hill wesTMinsTer, MD 21157 800-638-5005 w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

884861A01_Bombay_BSAD218_Urbanite_R.indd

Enjoy the Sapphire Ultimate Martini cocktail anywhere. 3 parts BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Gin ®

Dash NOILLY PRAT Original French Dry Vermouth ®

Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice, stir thoroughly and strain into a chilled martini cocktail glass. Garnish with green olives or a twist of lemon, if desired. Make a SAPPHIRE® Dirty Martini Cocktail by increasing the vermouth and adding olive brine.

Bombay Sapphire. Explore Responsibly.

5 1/4" wide X 4 7/8 deep

Mangia Mondays!

Where can you pick up Urbanite for free?

BACARDI BOMBAY SAPPHIRE BSAD 213 TRIM: 8” X 4.875” LIVE: 7.5” X 4.375” PUB: Urbanite Mag.

Mangia…means “eat” in Italian! On Monday eat more for less:

Mondays pastas $10. Catonsville, Columbia, Downtown, Dundalk, Ellicott City, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Harbor East, Mount Vernon, Pikesville, Towson

wines $5. tiramisu $5. Try our Saturday night chef’s tasting

Visit our website for a complete list of locations. www.urbanitebaltimore.com

menu $30. Reservations accepted. Cross Keys 410 532 7611 ~ Charles Village 410 889 3410 ~ Mt Vernon 410 385 0180 Columbia 410 465 2399 www.donnas.com

urbanite february 09

eat/dr ink

photo by La Kaye Mbah

Also in Eat/Drink:

Reviewed Rocket to Venus and Sauté

Wine & Spirits For good deals, look northwest

The Feed This month in eating

Braised Lamb Stroganoff 2 tbs vegetable oil 2 large lamb shanks 2 medium carrots, medium dice 1 large white onion, medium dice 2 ribs of celery, medium dice 1 cup chopped tomatoes ¾ cup red wine 2 quarts chicken stock 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped 1 cup raw baby spinach 1 cup wild mushrooms, sliced 1 lb cooked wide-noodle pasta 2 tbs grated Parmesan Salt and pepper to taste 2 tbs butter Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Salt and pepper lamb shanks and sear until browned on all sides. Remove lamb, pour out half the oil, then place pot back on medium heat and add carrots, onion, and celery. Lightly sauté vegetables until softened. Return lamb and deglaze with red wine. Add tomatoes, chicken stock, and fresh herbs. Cover pot tightly and simmer over medium-low heat until meat is tender (1½ to 2 hours). Remove meat from bone. In a large sauté pan, cook mushrooms until tender. Add cooked lamb meat and braising liquid. Reduce liquid by ¼, then stir in butter. Once butter is incorporated, add baby spinach and toss with pasta. Top with grated Parmesan and serve.

t H e C H e F ’ S ta B L e

Russian Revolution

hef Jason Ambrose of Salt has made a career out of re-casting comfort food with deluxe ingredients; the Butcher’s Hill bar/restaurant’s signature dishes include Kobe beef sliders topped with foie gras, duck-fat French fries, and, during the summer, a lobster BLT. “I’m often trying to evoke memories of food that people know from their past,” he says. His lamb stroganoff, a winter-menu stalwart since the tavern opened in 2006, is a liberally reimagined take on the sour-cream-laden egg-noodle concoction that his grandmother cooked. Ambrose swaps braised lamb shanks for beef, skips the sour cream entirely, and wilts baby spinach into the butter-finished sauce. “I’ve had people tell me, ‘You know, that’s not really a stroganoff,’” he says. “I mean, there’s meat, and there’s noodles, but this is more of a bright, lighter dish. There’s some artistic license taken here.” —David Dudley

—Recipe by Jason Ambrose w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

architecture

urban design

landscape

interiors

committed to building and rebuilding landmark projects in the city of baltimore

Th eVoice

e u l a V of Imagine...

The

Brunch Sundays (11am -4pm) Lunch Tuesday-Friday Dinner 7 days a week

Now featuring a casual fare menu from $6-$18.

e u l a V f o Voice

Voted “Best Restaurants’ 2006, 2007, 2008 - Baltimore Magazine.

921 East Fort Ave., Baltimore, MD 21230 at the Foundry on Fort Phone: 410.244.6166 www.the-wine-market.com

an old fashioned neighborhood grocery store, organic farmers market, gourmet specialty shop, European bakery, & supermarket all rolled in one. We are Whole Foods Market™ the leading natural foods grocer in the country & we are right in your neighborhood! harbor east 1001 fleet st. 410.528.1640

mt. washington 1330 smith ave. 410.532.6700

Feature of of the the Month! Month! Feature Don’t forget

your Valentine!

We have delicious all natural chocolates, decadent desserts, beautiful fresh flowers, thoughtful gifts and everything you need to make a romantic dinner for two or the family at home from seafood, to meat to prepared meals. Stop by and check us out!

urbanite february 09

eat/drink

photo by La Kaye Mbah

Space oddity: Vietnamese bánh mì at Rocket to Venus

Now two years old, Hampden’s Rocket to Venus remains a polarizing force, equally loved and loathed as the embodiment of its neighborhood’s transformation from working-class to artsy-chic. The former Showalter’s Saloon was given a flying-saucer makeover, a mythic backstory, and a freaky world-music mashup of a menu, but it still serves Hampdenites much as its predecessor did: as a place to get dinner and a few beers within staggering distance of your front door. Part of its success is that the Rocket’s retro-futurist aesthetic (the custom-made exposed-rivet jukebox looks like it was built for Captain Nemo’s Nautilus) didn’t destroy the functionality of the space as a community watering hole. The sea-green room is dominated a generous and convivial U-shaped bar, with cozy booths lining the walls. Be forewarned: The music is indeed loud, and the black-clad server corps will never invite Applebee’s comparisons. But the place’s rep as a sullen hipster-doofus clubhouse is only partially earned. Early in the evening, the crowd is as likely to include snowy-haired older couples and gamboling toddlers as tattooed scenesters; after 8 p.m. or so, the kids clear out, the bar fills up, and volume rises accordingly. The playful menu is reliably interesting, if occasionally confounding. The kitchen offers a sort of zany world-is-flat vision of postglobalization cuisine—one older menu item

stuffed (Polish) pierogies with (Italian) Asiago cheese and (Korean) kimchi, for example; a current dish of falafel patties on little burger buns achieves a Middle-East-meets-MiddleAmerica effect. “Jambalaya” is enjoyable but almost unrecognizable: There’s the rice and seafood and andouille all right, but they’re tossed in a sweet and spicy “sambuca marinara,” with chunks of fennel, apples, and— hello!—ginger. Is it a rice-laden bouillabaisse, or a curry that ran into a Shrimp Fra Diavolo on the way to New Orleans? More fennel turns up in the shrimp and grits, a less fevered interpretation, and simpler still are some of the popular small plates: rich and earthy rotini and cheese, roasted Brussels sprouts glazed in balsamic vinegar. Ever fearless, Rocket even undertakes bánh mì, the iconic Vietnamese sandwich born of France’s colonial adventures in Indochina. This version substitutes chewy grilled bread for the light rice-flour baguette of the real thing, but the fundamentals are there—a slab of pâté topped with crunchy pickled daikon, cilantro, and vegetables. It’s a multicultural mouthful, not exactly rigorously authentic. If that’s your expectation, you may be better off elsewhere; if you don’t mind playing with your food, strap in and blast off. (Dinner Mon–Sat, brunch Sun. 3360 Chestnut Ave.; 410-235-7887; www.rockettovenus.com.)

reviewed

Rocket to Venus

—David Dudley

Sauté fennel and chunks of green apple, creating a nice balance of sweet with the salty. Saffron risotto—a paella in all but name—is piled with mussels and little neck clams, shrimp and slices of smoky chorizo. More casual bar-goers might opt for the pulled-duck nachos or the assortment of pizzas (one topped with Buffalo chicken and blue cheese, another with Serrano ham, pesto, and arugula), washed down with any of the twelve beers on draft or twenty-five by the bottle. Desserts arrive with swirls of caramel and splatters of strawberry, but the fussy presentation belies an un-fabulous fried banana cheesecake—a creamy concoction in a crispy phyllo wrapper—or a decadent peanut butter mousse pie with a shortbread crust. It may be that Sauté’s owners didn’t have enough faith in the appeal of a quietly cosmopolitan little place a block or so off Canton Square, where flat TVs are presumably a bigger draw. (Dinner daily, lunch Thurs and Fri, brunch Sat and Sun. 2844 Hudson St.; 410-327-2883.) —Martha Thomas

photo by La Kaye Mbah

This disarmingly elegant Canton drinkery may be the most sophisticated sports bar in Baltimore. On game nights and weekend afternoons, the place can quickly fill with a crowd of beer-drinking fans glued to the ten flat-screens—folks who may not even notice the artful drizzle of aioli on their chili-dusted calamari. Sauté’s wood-paneled dining room has a clubby early-1960s feel, with brown leather chairs, a long gold fabric banquette, and dark tile accents shimmering in light from mod glass candleholders. Subtract the televisions and add some cigarettes and one could easily picture Mad Men’s Don Draper entertaining a female client here over a discreet early dinner. Chefs Mark Suliga and Brian Mathias seem to have fun with the thoughtful menu. Their “ultimate” meatloaf, wrapped in bacon and served with five-cheese macaroni, is as comforting as the scallops dusted with porcini mushroom powder are refined. A succulent chicken breast is stuffed with Serrano ham and goat cheese, its jus shot through with Pernod and strewn with crunchy slices of

Three men and a bar: Sauté’s Paul Crist, Brian Mathias, and Mark Suliga w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

urbanite_1_09

NOW PLAYING

12/23/08

5:49 PM

Page 1

OPENING FEB. 18

TOBY’S DINNER THEATRE OF COLUMBIA 5900 Symphony Woods Road

CALL 410-730-8311

NOW PLAYING

OPENING MARCH 21

TOBY’S DINNER THEATRE OF BALTIMORE 5625 O’Donnell Street

CALL 410-649-1660

TobysDinnerTheatre.com RESERVE YOUR SEATS TODAY!

1+ 1=

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED www.urbaniteproject.com

‘09 PROUD SPONSORS:

urbanite february 09

eat/drink

Looking for high-value domestic wines? Look northwest. By Clinton Macsherry

Irish Pub

& Restaurant

Monday

$10 Fish & Chips, $3 Domestic Drafts Happy Hour from 3 p.m. until close!

Tuesday

$2 Tacos, $3 Coronas

Wednesday 1/2 Price Wine, $5 Small Plates

Thursday Burger Night $7 for a 9 oz. Burger and a 16 oz. Beer

Friday

Live Music, $2 Domestic Bottles

Sunday Brunch 11 am - 2 pm $16.95 includes a delightful buffet and bottomless mimosas, bellinis and bloody marys

21 N. Eutaw St. Baltimore MD, 21201 410.837.2100 www.lucysirishrestaurant.com Opposite the main entrance of the Hippodrome Theatre

n the 1776 capitalist manifesto The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith championed free markets. These days, he’s commonly seen as a hard-nosed Scottish rationalist. Yet Smith, with a whiff of spiritual kookiness, described laissez-faire economics as the workings of an “invisible hand.” He was the quintessential nutty professor, famous for stumbling into things during conversational strolls. Lost in thought one early morning, he wandered 15 miles in his nightshirt. If our economy is partly Smith’s brainchild, it appears to be following suit. Smith and others posited that the value of goods in primitive societies was determined by the labor required to produce them. In modern times, this “labor theory of value” has been supplanted by what we might call the “sucker theory of value”: A product is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. This latter notion seems to underlie (among many other things) the pricing of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Last November, the Wine Spectator ranked the current crop of Napa Cabs. All but six of the thirty top scorers weighed in at more than $100 per bottle, with cult favorite Screaming Eagle leading the charge at $750. Even the Cabs deemed Napa’s top bargains averaged more than $20 a pop. This isn’t exactly to say that Napa vintners are all making out like robber barons. The best way to make a small fortune in the wine business, the saying goes, is to start with a large one. Indeed, many of the people who transformed Napa from an agrarian backwater into an ultra-luxe “wine country” destination in recent years initially made tons of money doing something else. And producing top-quality wine comes at an expense. It takes 2½ pounds of grapes to make a bottle of wine, whether that bottle sells for $7 or $70, but the variable costs of those grapes, the land on which they’re grown, the barrels in which their juice is aged, and even the corks that seal the bottles all factor into the price of the finished product. Limited production encourages quality control, but it also keeps supply scarce and makes profit dependent on markup rather than volume. By these standards, are Napa Valley Cabs overpriced? Hard to say without analyzing the wineries’ books. But that’s somewhat beside the point. Price is one thing; value another. Value wines punch above their weight, delivering a lot more than comparably priced bottles in their category. There are surely excomposite photo by Lisa Van Horn

ceptions, but I’ve given up trolling for values in California, especially under for those less than $15. For my money (the only kind I get to spend), the best bargains in American wine come from Washington State. Soggy Seattle may seem an unlikely locale for grape cultivation—and it is. Although most of the state’s major wineries are headquartered nearby, the bulk of the vineyard areas lie east of the Cascade Mountains, in the desert-like Yakima, Columbia, and Walla Walla valleys. Vines love the soil there, although growing grapes would be impossible without irrigation. Washington’s wine trade touts the fact that this region lies along the same latitude as the storied vineyards of Burgundy and Bordeaux, and that it sees 17.4 hours of sunlight daily in the summer growing season—two hours more than California. (Cool northern nights balance the grapes’ ripeness with structure and acidity.) Another comparison matters more to value hunters: Vineyard land in Washington tops out at around $50,000 per acre; in prime Napa Valley districts, the cost is more than $300,000. Since the emergence of Washington’s wine industry in the 1970s, Merlot has been its star. The French might fuss, but the state produces arguably the finest Merlots in the world. The waxing and waning of the grape’s popularity may have something to do with Washington’s relative obscurity as a wine region. Values exist up and down the price scale. I’ve enjoyed Columbia Crest “Grand Estates” Merlot since the 2000 vintage. This year’s model (from 2006) shows a shadowy ruby. The smoky cherry nose offers hints of holiday spice. Medium- to full-bodied, its fresh plum and black cherry flavors fill out with dark chocolate and pipe tobacco, finishing with an undercurrent of coffee grounds. I paid $12, but some shops charge less than $10, which almost restores my faith in the market. Columbia Crest’s Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are well worth a try, too. Look for other inexpensive wines from Hogue and Chateau Ste. Michelle, or upper tier values from L’Ecole No. 41. ■

wine & SPiritS

The Grape Depression, Part II

Party of 4...?

welcome to an evening of fine dining for under $100 plenty of parking (free after 6pm)

Zagat Rated, 2008-2009

Baltimore Pho serves traditional Vietnamese and fusion cuisine in a fully renovated space complete with a welcoming bar and friendly staff

Happy Hour ~ Tuesdayâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Friday 4-7pm., All Day Sunday $2.00 off cocktails, $1.00 off all beers and wine (Complimentary Appetizers - Chef's Choice) Tuesday Night ~ Meet Your Neighbor Night - 1/2 priced pho for those in the community Wednesday Night ~ Scheduled Guest Bartender Night. *Inquire* (Help support your favorite charitable organization, 10% of proceeds during your shift donated) Thursday Night ~ 1/2 Price Wine Night. (Glass or Bottle) Saturday Night ~ $3 Mimosas & Bloody Mary's $5 Pitchers & $5 Wings for football

Best of Baltimore 2008: Ethnic Restaurant Baltimore Magazine

"Baltimore Pho is a bright oasis."

Elizabeth Large, Sun Restaurant Critic

Best of Baltimore 2008: Best Vietnamese Restaurant. City Paper

1116 hollins street baltimore, md 21223 410.752.4746 (Reservations Accepted) across the street from historic hollins market former location of the cultured pearl

www.baltimorepho.com 56

urbanite february 09

Call for new hours

tHe Feed

eat/drink

This Month in Eating Compiled by Martha Thomas A CHOCOLATE AFFAIR M&T Bank Stadium’s South Club Lounge will once again ooze chocolate for a cause. The eighteenth annual Chocolate Affair gathers dozens of vendors, from CakeLove to Greg’s Bagels to Pitango Gelato, to proffer sweet and savory treats, demonstrations, and auction items—all in the name of Baltimore-based nonprofit Health Care for the Homeless. 6 p.m.–9:30 p.m. $75–$150.

FEB 5 M&T Bank Stadium, South Club Lounge 1101 Russell St. www.chocolateaffair.org

COOKING COUPLES Desire will be on the menu at The Oz’s Cooking Couples class. Executive chef Timothy Jones (who has worked at the Four Seasons Palm Beach and the Wall Street Regent) will demonstrate and oversee the preparation of a four-course meal centered on foods known for their aphrodisiac attributes. Couples will work in individual workstations in the restaurant’s demonstration kitchen, accompanied by the sensual sounds of the late, great Barry White. $50 per person. 2 p.m.–5 p.m.

FEB 7 The Oz, Doubletree Hotel Bethesda 8120 Wisconsin Ave. 301-664-7343

RA-BERRY ROMANCE The hip Harbor East sushi palace will celebrate Valentine’s Day with a “RA-berry Romance” cocktail, with raspberry vodka, sake, and triple sec, garnished with raspberries and served—yikes—in a fishbowl-sized goblet. It’s designed for two, but may be just the ticket if the day leaves you in need of drowning your sorrows. $12.

FEB 14 RA Sushi 1390 Lancaster St. 410-522-3200 www.rasushi.com

FOOD OF POWER: THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE AMONG THE ANCIENT MAYA In the Mayan Empire’s Classic Period (250–900 C.E.), chocolate was imbued with far more importance that it is today; Walters curator Hetty Lipscomb says the elixir was “used as a way to get closer to the gods.” Visiting curator Dorie Reents-Budet, a scholar of Mayan art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will discuss chocolate drinking rituals in Mayan culture, using images from ceramics created for nobility during the period. (Unfortunately, no samples will be offered.) 2 p.m. Free.

FEB 21 The Walters Art Museum 600 N. Charles St. 410-547-9000 ext. 238 www.thewalters.org

HOWARD LIVE! What started four years ago as a home show has “exploded” into an event equally focused on luxe food and drink, says event organizer Stacy Pesacov. Restaurants (including the Elkridge Furnace Inn, Kali’s Court, and Linwoods), wine and artisanal beer distributors, and specialty food purveyors will mingle with the vignettes and exhibits of interior designers, furniture manufacturers, architects, and the like. Sat 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sun 11 a.m.–5 p.m. $12–$25.

FEB 21 AND 22 Turf Valley Resort, Ellicott City 2700 Turf Valley Rd. 410-612-9330 www.howardlivehomeshow.com

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

American Idol’s TAYLOR HICKS to play Feb. 3 - 8 Performances!

ON SALE NOW!

February 3-15, 2009 Hippodrome Theatre

BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com • 410.547.SEAT • Box Office (Mon-Sat 10a-5p) • Groups (20+) call 866.577.7469 To learn more visit myspace.com/BaltimoreHippodrome Due to the nature of live entertainment; times, dates and performers are subject to change without notice. All patrons, regardless of age, must have a ticket. No refunds or exchanges. Tickets subject to service charges and handling fees.

art/culture

63 THEATER

Martha Thomas on The Country Wife

65 ART

Violet Glaze on The Circus Family

65 MUSIC

Steve Wigler on pianist Radu Lupu

67 THE SCENE

This month’s cultural highlights

The Flag Waver The reburbished National Museum of American History tries to make history make sense BY DAVID DUDLEY

I National treasure, the sequel: The restored Star-Spangled Banner flag rests at the heart of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which has reopened after two years of renovation.

f you were among the millions of school kids who trooped through the National Museum of American History (and odds are you were: until 2001, it was the third-most visited museum in the world), you probably remember the pendulum. This was called the Foucault pendulum, and it swung upon a 52-foot steel wire in the center of the building. Every few minutes, the big brass bob knocked down one of the little pegs that were arranged in a circle on the museum’s bottom floor. The French physicist Jean Foucault devised this apparatus in 1851 to demonstrate the Earth’s rotation; as the planet revolved beneath it, the pendulum’s line of swing changed. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

Zero toxins.

*10% off

with this coupon *Consumer: Good only at locations listed below, 1 discount per consumer, you pay sales tax. Cash value 1/100 cent.

infinite beauty.

now available at

1214 Light St. Baltimore, MD 21230 (410) 244-5910

The world’s only high performance, non-toxic paint is waiting for you at:

WEAA 88.9 FM@5

Mythic and the Mythic logo are registered trademarks of Southern Diversified Products, LLC

PS-2008 Urbanite 12-4.qxd

12/8/08

STEINER’S

Now you can hear the Marc Steiner Show during drive time.

BACK

Open House

10:53 AM

•

Tune in to WEAA 88.9 FM Monday-Thursday 5-6 pm Join the conversation at www.steinershow.org

Page 1

Saturday, March 28 at Park School

•

11am-1pm

REFRESHMENTS • ENTERTAINMENT • TOURS

ParkCamps

June 15 -August 7 for ages 3 1/2 to 17 (410) 339-4120 • www.parkcamps.com The Park School 2425 Old Court Road Baltimore, MD 21208

• Explorer and Pioneer Camps for Young Children • Visual and Performing Arts Camps • 5th Wall/Steve Yeager Young Filmmakers’ Workshop

• Science Camps • Park/API Sports Camp • Beyond Park Day Trips Plus swimming, sports, canoeing, and more.

CELEBRATION OF EVERYTHING FEDERAL HILL

SATURDAY, MARCH 14 7 PM TO 11 PM

Baltimore Museum of Industry

Tickets $60 in advance, $75 at the door

urbanite february 09

Opening the attic: Once criticized as dark and cluttered, the Museum of American History’s interior has been extensively renovated by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. A glass staircase connects the first and second floors (top left), and the building makes extensive use of natural light, with large windows overlooking the National Mall (top right) and fifth-floor skylights. The exterior of the building, which opened in 1964, is unchanged.

Only slightly less prominent on a nearby wall was the museum’s other star attraction, the Star-Spangled Banner. The tattered garrison flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen his famous verses when he spied it flying over Fort McHenry, first loaned to the Smithsonian in 1907, hung in the NMAH’s central Flag Hall since the museum opened in 1964. You might have wondered, as you either gaped at Old Glory or waited at the railing for the pendulum to bop down another little pin, what these two large hanging objects had to do with each other. The answer—not much— went to the heart of the mystery of one of the Smithsonian’s marquee institutions. Was this place supposed to be about stuff that happened, or just stuff? This dilemma was engineered into NMAH, which until 1980 was called the Museum of History and Technology. Lashing those two concepts together proved unwieldy, and history finally won out. The Foucault pendulum, which did not even demonstrate American physics know-how, was finally consigned to some dusty corner of America’s attic in 1998, but visitors still look for it. This is a good time to refresh one’s adolescent memories of the biggest history museum in the country, which re-opened after an $85 million renovation in late November, just in time to catch an updraft in the national mood following the Obama election. If you’re ready to start feeling good about America again, here’s the place to do it. Like many of us, the NMAH is keenly ready to put the recent past behind it. The museum, and the Smithsonian itself, has spent much of the last decade enmeshed in controversies, some which were perhaps inevitable: Supported in part by public money and tasked with the daunting chore of turning the unruly behavior of the United States into a family-friendly attraction, it’s been a frequent target of fulminations from the right and left. Conservative critics targeted NMAH curators for focusing excessively on bummer social history—labor strife, ethnic discrimination, and the hardscrabble lives

renderings provided by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

art/culture

of everyday people—at the expense of presidents, generals, and heroic American deeddoers. Academics and other progressive types squirmed as the Smithsonian cozied up to corporate and private donors who bankrolled boosterish exhibits. Most notoriously, a public dust-up over a private donor’s efforts to sponsor a celebrity-heavy salute to American “achievers” at the museum led to a curatorial revolt and the withdrawal of tens of millions of dollars in support. But the museum has also managed to be its own worst enemy. Warehoused in a big, chilly modernist box, the NMAH is hard to love; the building looks like a limestone-clad Sam’s Club. Its labyrinthine layout and peculiar inventory are the stuff of legend: Here, Lincoln’s top hat; there, an old lawnmower. In 2001, a blue-ribbon panel of historians, journalists, and museum professionals convened to spank the NMAH for a multitude of sins, from lack of balance and dark Victorian clutter to chronic incoherence. “Visitors often expect that a history museum should have a clear chronological structure,” the report stated. “They cannot find this at the NMAH. It does not exist.” The renovation doesn’t really address that fundamental concern—there’s still no overall chronological structure, and a promised introductory exhibit that would offer a broad overview of American history is still some years away. But it’s a dramatic trans-

formation nevertheless. The architects of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) opened up the building’s central core, now a sleek skylit atrium that soars five stories. If anything, this space feels too empty, with acres of marble and glass and steel to traverse. The only bric-a-brac to be seen is locked behind sheets of glass on 275-footlong “artifact walls” on the first and second floors—huge display cases jam-packed with objects plucked from the Smithsonian’s vast collections. The doodads are arranged with some wit (computer mice next to an assortment of vintage mousetraps), and there are items of compelling individual interest (I spent a good five minutes getting a close-up eyeful of Star Wars’ C-3P0). But the overall effect is more window dressing than history lesson; it’s as if curators surveyed the immensity of the museum’s three-million-plus objects and threw up their hands in defeat. Amid this trove, the Star-Spangled Banner, fresh from a painstaking eightyear-long preservation procedure, gets undisputed top billing. The flag lives in a new gallery that resembles the enclosure for some sort of exotic deep-sea creature. Too delicate to support its own weight, the fabric reclines behind huge floor-to-ceiling glass walls on a platform tipped at a 10degree angle, faintly lit by an unearthly bluish light to prevent fading. Inside the

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

The Residences at Oella Mill—Unique Apartment Homes on the Patapsco River.

The Genuine Article. Within walking distance of historic Ellicott City.

Incredible views of the wooded hillsides are framed by huge, factory-style windows. Classic exposed-brick walls complement state-of-the-art appliances. At Oella Mill, the beautifully preserved historic industrial structure stands in sharp contrast to run-of-the-mill apartment buildings. And it’s your one-of-a-kind opportunity to live in modern luxury with genuine historic ambiance. Studios, 1- & 2-bedroom apartments & lofts and 2-level apartment homes from $1,369.

chamber, oxygen levels are so low that a match struck within won’t ignite—an extra measure of fire protection. It’s a cushy hightech suite for a flag that’s led a hard-knock life. The events of the Battle of Baltimore itself get a brief but effective treatment on the way into the gallery; as you walk down a progressively darkened entry corridor, exhibits dramatize the British bombardment, complete with sound effects. On the way out, another exhibit chronicles the flag’s post-1814 career as a national icon. After soaking in this red, white, and blue spectacle, it’s hard to imagine how the NMAH could still draw fire for insufficient patriotism. But the plot thickens once you leave the rehabbed zone and begin roving the museum’s exhibition wings, now reorganized around six basic themes but still serving up the same odd smorgasbord of curios. There’s a room full of antique violins, a reconstruction of Julia Child’s home kitchen (she donated it in 2001), and a new exhibit called “Thanks for the Memories” that unloads a rummage-sale’s worth of pop-culture artifacts, some truly significant (Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz), others more worthy of a Planet Hollywood (a pair of boxing gloves from Rocky II). Two major recent exhibitions reflect the Smithsonian’s funding controversies. “America on the Move,” a sprawling multimedia chronicle of domestic transportation history that opened in 2003, was largely underwritten by General Motors (this was back when they had $10 million to spare); “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War,” from 2004, is a personal project of the NMAH’s new private benefactor, developer Kenneth Behring, who pledged a total of $80 million to the museum, $16 million of which was sunk into this sweeping tour of America’s military adventures. Both exhibits adhere to strict timelines—an explicit response to the blueribbon commission’s grumping about the dearth of chronology—and they’re loaded up with all the interactive bells and whistles of current museum exhibition design. They’re also both mash notes to American hardware. “On the Move” tells the story of how Americans get around by rolling out a veritable fleet of vintage vehicles (some riding on a transplanted slab of Route 66), plus a 199-ton steam locomotive and a Chicago “El” car. But it’s not exactly a car ad, and the curators can’t resist sending a mixed message about our ebbing romance with the automobile: The exhibit dead-ends with a minivan gridlocked in traffic on an all-too-real mock freeway. Similarly, “The Price of Freedom” bristles with enough flintlocks, carbines,

and semi-automatics to arm a stubborn insurgency. But it’s hardly the rousing salute to American militarism many anticipated from the exhibit title (which reportedly came attached to Behring’s $16 million check). The Indian wars of the 1800s are correctly revealed as exercises in ethnic cleansing, the Mexican War as a naked land-grab. Vietnam gets a knockout video exhibit called “A Television War”: You sit on a couch in a Brady Bunch-like period living room and watch our Southeast Asian misadventure unravel in a mesmerizing collage of news coverage on a stack of sixteen old television sets, then walk out knowing the fresh quagmire that awaits around the corner. “The Price of Freedom” sputters uneasily to that conclusion, an awkward little annex dubbed “New American Roles.” Dominated by a twisted steel column from the World Trade Center, the exhibit makes only a halfhearted attempt to interpret the hostilities in which the nation has entangled itself since 1989. The current Iraq war—now among the longest and costliest in American history— merits only a carefully phrased summary and a handful of anodyne artifacts. The unspoken message: history museums are no place for unfinished wars. Check back with us in a few years, curators seem to say, when we can hang a Humvee from the ceiling and find a more artful way to explain whatever historians end up calling this conflict. So let’s give them a pass for now and head back downstairs to check out Edison’s light bulb on the way out. The museum’s firstfloor Electricity Hall appears untouched since grade school, as does its low-tech neighbor, the sepulchral Hall of Power Machinery. The contrast is stark: It’s dark and empty and quiet as a cathedral in this forgotten corner of the building. The exhibits are little more than stark arrangements of industrial-sized devices parked in silent rows: huge 19th-century steam engines and turbines and compressors, the machines that build the modern world. This glimpse of the museum’s own past serves as a reminder that the NMAH remains, at least in part, a museum of technology, a place to contemplate the widgets and artifacts and half-baked ideas turned out by what the founding fathers liked to call the American experiment. Our stuff often speaks more clearly about who we are and where we came from than presidents and generals do, which may be why curators so love these collections of useless old toys. Here in the great recession of 2009, a graveyard of idled machines can still tell a profoundly topical story. ■

photo by Teresa Castracane Photography

art/culture

t H e at e r

Risqué Business The Country Wife at the Howard County Center for the Arts, Feb 5–March 1

Nothing makes Lesley Malin cringe more than actors in Restoration comedies sauntering across the stage and slouching as they deliver lines. The form—named for the period after 1660, when Charles II was restored to the English throne—was influenced by the foppish styles and powdered hairpieces of the French court, where Charles spent his exile hanging out with his cousin Louis XIV. It also incorporated elements of the nascent dance form of ballet: highly stylized and characterized by formal mannerisms. In other words, kitchen-sink naturalism won’t do. Malin, the managing director of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, was anxious to mount a production from the period but was committed to getting the details right. So to prepare for William Wycherley’s bawdy farce The Country Wife, actors participated in a four-month Baroque workshop led by Malin and company member Rebecca Ellis, both of whom had trained in the style, along with Danielle Liccardo, Malin’s teacher at the Actors Movement Studio in New York. The workshop culminated in a Baroque Salon, an evening last November in which audience members could observe actors in heels, wigs, and corsets walking in turn-out, curtsying, and gesturing with fans. Modern audiences will appreciate the play’s combination of French formality and English ribaldry—it’s considered one of the raciest plays of the period. “What makes this production so rich,” Malin notes, “is the opportunity to recreate fully another world, not just through costuming and sets, but through behavior, mannerisms, and movement.” —Martha Thomas

For tickets, call 866-811-4111 or go to www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com.

—David Dudley is Urbanite’s editor-in-chief. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

THAT MAKES SENSE

In times of uncertainty, high-quality design with a clear message is more important than ever. Urbanite is now offering custom design services to help you make your next project a success. Contact Lisa Van Horn at 410-243-2050 ext. 1015 for more information.

www.urbanitebaltimore.com

Feb 2009 half page:Urbanite Jan 2008

12/23/2008

2:13 PM

Page 1

•Baltimore Metro 410.583.0400 • Bel Air 410.420.6778 • Federal Hill 410.727.0606 • Canton 410.732.3030 YWGCrealty.com FEDERAL HILL � 123 E.CHURCHILL ST.

CANTON COVE �2901BOSTON ST. #410 One of Baltimore's most spectacular waterfront homes! Stunning “double” Canton Cove condominium offers 3500 square feet of elegant living space, with fabulous water & city views from windows & expansive wrap-around terrace. All on one level, this magnificent home has it all: location, security, quality, waterfront views, ample storage and parking. $1,750,000 CINDY CONKLIN 443.629.0152

Bright, charming 2BR, 2BA THS in historic Federal Hill. Exposed brick, orig wide-plank pine floors, spacious kitchen, adorable brick patio. Master BR opens to balcony overlooking patio. 2nd BR w/FP may be used as cozy library/den. 3rd floor room leads to fantastic roof deck w/views across downtown. $249,000 JAMES BALDWIN 443.255.2502

BREWER’S PEAK AT 1016 SOUTH CONKLING Canton -New 20' wide luxury townhomes with four finished levels and 2 car side by side garage. Three bedrooms, two and a half baths, two balconies, granite, stainless steel appliances, marble foyer, wood floors, 10' ceilings and huge 5th level roof decks with unmatched water views. $495,000 www.BrewersPeak.com KIM KING 443.223.8363 Only 2 left - Builder closeout special incentives!

urbanite february 09

MONTHLY HOMEBUYERS HAPPY HOUR

LIBERATORE’S COSMOPOLITAN BAR & GRILL

2nd WEDNESDAY OF EVERY MONTH • 6-9PM LOCATED ON THE SECOND FLOOR

THE

M ARK S IMONE 410.952.1352 CANTON

• 2933 O ’ DONNELL

• 410.732.3030

STREET

•

BALTIMORE , MD

21224

art/culture

Balancing act: The BMA celebrates the circus life as portrayed by Fernand Léger.

viSUaL art

Send in the Clowns

The Circus Family: Picasso to Léger at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Feb 22–May 17

International man of mystery: Romanian virtuoso Radu Lupu makes a rare visit to Shriver Hall.

MUSiC

Keyboard Visionary

Radu Lupu performs Beethoven’s Sonatas in E Major (Op. 14/1), G Major (Op. 14/2), and C Minor (Op. 13, “Pathétique”), and Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major at Shriver Hall, Feb 8

Which profession has more dignity, belle époque circus performer or reality show contestant? Tough call, but the truth is they’ve provided the same quick, fun, and sensational entertainment to the audiences of their time. A century ago, being a circus performer meant long hours and punishing work on the fringes of what was considered “acceptable” theater—which is exactly why artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec made these unconventional, dynamic, and slightly risqué artistes the subjects of their work. Now the Baltimore Museum of Art, under the guidance of Oliver Shell, associate curator of European painting and sculpture, has collected more than eighty circus-themed works (several from the Cone Collection) for The Circus Family: Picasso to Léger. If you’ve visited the BMA before, you’ll be familiar with some of the Picasso paintings, drawings, and prints of saltimbanques (troupes of wandering acrobats), but what

you may not have seen are the prints by Picasso’s German contemporaries Max Beckmann and Otto Dix. Where Picasso was romantic about the vagabond circus life and the familial bonds between the performers, Beckmann and Dix rendered the grotesquerie of the often-seedy profession in their trademark ragged lines and flattened space. Prints such as Beckmann’s Behind The Scenes and Dix’s The Disdainers Of Death reveal the unglamorous underbelly of circus life that’s hidden from the public view. But just when things get too heavy, Henri Matisse’s frolicsome circusthemed collages from his book Jazz bring back the calliope music and cotton candy. If that pesky clown phobia is preventing you from enjoying Ringling Bros.’ annual trip to Baltimore next month (March 25–April 5), consider this show as a way to get a taste of the big top instead.

Pianist Radu Lupu is among the most elusive of the world’s great pianists. A string of first prizes in international competitions in the late 1960s made the Russian-trained, Romanianborn virtuoso famous in his youth; now 63, he makes relatively few appearances, records rarely, and avoids publicity. Lupu hasn’t performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a decade, and his last Shriver Hall recital took place in 1974. “A musician should not have to be sold as if he were toothpaste,” Lupu told me in a rare interview nearly twenty years ago. “I would rather have three hundred people come to hear the music than have a crowd of three thousand, who have been seduced by publicity, come to hear a stage personality. “There’s no mystery about me,” Lupu added. “I don’t like to be interviewed simply because I don’t like to talk about myself.” But few pianists generate more mystery onstage. With his charismatic eyes and unruly hair and beard, he looks like a cross between a medieval Talmudist and the mad monk Rasputin. His playing frequently rises

to the visionary. There’s his tone—lushly beautiful and without the slightest hint of percussiveness, even at the loudest dynamic levels—and then there’s his interpretive intensity. His performances of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with the BSO in 1997 made Beethoven sound as if he had been reinvented by Franz Kafka. I remember a Toronto performance in the 1970s of Schubert’s tragic, posthumous A-Major Sonata that left some listeners almost too saddened to leave their seats. No one alive plays better Beethoven or Schubert—the two composers entirely comprising his program at Shriver—and this recital should be considered this season’s most eagerly anticipated classical-music event.

—Violet Glaze

—Steve Wigler

For tickets, go to www.shriverconcerts. org or call 410-516-7164.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

• Every Friday Night before a performance! • Happy Hour drink prices • Restaurant samplings • LIVE entertainment featuring local talents Pre-show entertainment starts @ 7 pm!

for complete band listings + info visit

live.centerstage.org

Save Energy. Save Money. Let BGE HOME find the right heating and air conditioning solution for you. A new high-efficiency heating and air conditioning system installed by the certified professionals at BGE HOME will help you reduce your energy usage by up to 30% – that adds up to big savings in energy costs.

1-888-BGE-HOME www.bgehome.com

BGE HOME is not the same company as BGE, a regulated utility.

MD HVAC #01-7302, MD Master Electrician #7070, MD Master Plumber/Gas Fitter #02-6739, WSSC #70751

urbanite february 09

th e sc en e: Feb ruary JAZZ

Space Sounds

Marshall Allen led the reed section of Sun Ra ‘s avant-garde Arkestra for more than forty years; on Feb 19, he performs with a small ensemble at the Windup Space. (12 W. North Ave.; www. thewindupspace.com) ROCK

Headbangers Ball

Day performance that may or may not have anything to do with Valentine’s Day— depending on the audience’s suggestions. Feb 13 at the Creative Alliance. (3134 Eastern Ave.; 410-276-1651; www.creative alliance.org)

MUSIC/DANCE

Honestly Abe

In Formation

Break out the flannel, Gen X-ers. The Sounds of Seattle tour stops in Baltimore to resurrect the ’90s grunge-rock sounds of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden, performed by tribute bands Ten, Nevermind, and Badmotorfinger. Feb 6 at Rams Head Live (20 Market Pl.; 410-244-1131; www. ramsheadlive.com). INDIE

THEATER

The Birthday Party

Poe Days

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL

Long Distance

It’s the International Year of the Organ— and what better way to celebrate than to drop in for part of Diane Luchese’s fifteen-hour recorded performance of John Cage’s 1987 work Organ2/ASLSP, which stands for “As slow as possible.” Feb 5, 8:45 a.m.–11:41 p.m. Free. (Towson University Center for Arts and Culture, Harold

courtesy of Laure Drogoul

J. Kaplan Concert Hall. 8000 York Rd.; 410704-ARTS; www.towson.edu/artscalendar/ music.asp). Or you can travel to Germany, where St. Burchardi Church has taken the title very seriously. The piece was begun in 2001 and will not be completed until the year 2640; weights hold down the pedals.

The international tour of DRUMLine Live brings to Baltimore a staged musical showcase of the marching band model developed at historically black colleges and universities. Expect precise, highenergy rhythms and choreography. Feb 17 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. (1212 Cathedral St.; 410-783-8000; www. bsomusic.org)

Late-night Hampden coffeeshop El Rancho Grande is throwing a party/benefit at the Metro Gallery to celebrate its first anniversary, with musical performances by locals Caleb Stine, ellen cherry, Wye Oak, and more. Feb 7. (1700 N. Charles St.; www.myspace.com/metrogallery).

art/culture

As part of the yearlong celebration of Edgar Allan Poe, Maryland Institute College of Art stages a one-act experimental play inspired by Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher. Written and directed by Obie Award-winning playwright David Drake and with artwork and sets by MICA students, the one-act drama is to go up in the school’s new black box theater, the BBOX, Feb 27 and 28. Free. (1601 Mt. Royal Ave., in the Gateway building; 410-225-2300; www.mica.edu) IMPROV

Love Stories

A troupe from the Phildelphia Improv Theater group joins members of the Baltimore Improv Group for a Valentine’s

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

Renowned Lincoln actor and historian James Getty brings the revered 16th president to life in his award-winning one-man show, followed by a “press conference” and photo ops. Feb 6 at Johns Hopkins University; free admission, but RSVP to 410-516-4842. (3400 N. Charles St.; www.greatthinkers.jhu.edu/lincoln). FILM

Home Again

The Creative Alliance screens Black to Our Roots, a 2008 documentary about a group of African American teenagers searcing for their ancestral origins. The night includes music from an Afrobeat DJ, a discussion with director Ras Tre Subira, and food. Feb 27. (3134 Eastern Ave.; 410-276-1651; www. creativealliance.org) PHOTOGRAPHY

Soul Searchers

Russ Moss’ black-and-white photographs capture Maryland African American musicians in their musical milieu. The portraits, on display in Lift Every Voice: Photographs of African American Musicians, include singer Ruby Glover, bassist Charles Harris, and more. At the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture

through March 8. (830 E. Pratt St.; 443263-1800; www.africanamericanculture.org) EXHIBIT

Love Through the Ages

At the Walters is a collection of gorgeously illustrated manuscripts of the 13th-century The Romance of the Rose, a book-length love poem containing sometimes-racy advice about love and ruminations on astronomy. Free. Through April 19. (600 N. Charles St.; 410-547-9000; www.thewalters.org) WRITING WORKSHOP

Picture Books

Work on your wordsmithing with William Henry Lewis, a PEN/Faulkner Prize finalist who teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park. Lewis leads a workshop at the Baltimore Museum of Art on creating written pieces inspired by works of African American artists. Runs five Saturdays between Feb 28 and April 4. $75 for BMA members; $120 for nonmembers. Call 443573-1832 or e-mail programs@artbma.org to register. READING

Irish Eye

The guest of honor at the Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, hosted by the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo), is Pultizer Prize-winner Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes and ’Tis. McCourt will read and discuss his work, followed by performances of traditional Irish music and stepdancing. Feb 20 at the Jim Rouse Theater, 5460 Trumpeter Rd. (410-7724568; www.hocopolitso.org)

Local interdisciplinary artist Laure Drogoul’s first major retrospective opened Jan 30 at Maryland Institute College of Art, where she earned her master’s degree in sculpture in 1981. The exhibit—Follies, Predicaments, and Other Conundrums: The Works of Laure Drogoul—includes participatory installations, sculpture, Web-based pieces, and documentation of performances, such as Writing Device: Séance for Alice Warder Garrett (1877–1952), at left) Through March 15 in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of the Fox Building, 1303 Mt. Royal Ave. Go to www.mica.edu/drogoul for details on performances and participatory events. Compiled by Marianne K. Amoss

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

One of the Nation’s Top Art Colleges Within Your Reach

MICA offers programs for adults, teens, and children…painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, jewelry-making, ceramics, design, illustration, new media, and more. Stretch your creativity with Contemplate…Create!, a collaboration of MICA, the BMA, and the Walters — or through Interpreting Nature: MICA at Ladew Gardens. Hone your business skills with the MICA/UB Certificate in Creative Entrepreneurship.

DISCOVER WHAT MICA HAS FOR YOU | CALL 410. 225. 2219 OR VISIT WWW.MICA.EDU.

Staging my own wardrobe malfunction at the office holiday party? That’s when I knew pop had taken control of my life.

If you or someone you know is dealing with a pop addiction, there is hope. For more information, visit www.WTMD.org. STOP THE POP INSANITY.

urbanite february 09

WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR CLOSET IS OUR BUSINESS $

400 OFF

Your Installed Closet Factory Purchase Includes FREE In-home Consultation and FREE Installation! Minimum $3,000 purchased required. Prior purchases excluded. Cer tificate must be presented at time of consultation. Cannot be combined with other offers.

OFFER EXPIRES FEBRUARY 28, 2009

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

SUMMERTIME AT ROLAND PARK COUNTY SCHOOL

Music and Dance for Infants to Adults

June 15 - August 28, 2009 Day Camp, Creative Drama and Arts Camps, Doll Camp, Circus Camp and more! For information or to receive a catalog call: 410.323.5500 x3091

June 19 - August 1, 2009, Registration begins March 30

5204 Roland Ave., Baltimore, MD 21210 www.rpcs.org

Summer camps in voice, strings and dance. Private and group classes in music and dance for children and adults, beginner to advanced. Downtown, Towson and Annapolis campuses. 21 E. Mount Vernon Place, 1st floor, Baltimore, MD 21202 410-659-8100, ext. 1130 or prep@peabody.jhu.edu www.peabody.jhu.edu/prep

TOWSON CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL Girls/Boys Basketball Ages 7 - 14 June 22 - 26 June 29 - July 3 $185.00 or $150.00 (2) 410-427-4971 Featuring expert speakers

Boys Baseball Ages 7 - 13 June 22 - 25 $150.00 410-427-4972

www.towsoncatholic.org 114 Ware Ave., Towson MD 21204

Explore nature. Swim like a fish. Create a masterpiece. Connect to Israel. Choose your favorite activity daily! Add a nurturing staff and breathtaking grounds for one amazing summer. Bus service included. Camp Milldale runs from June 22-August 14, 2009 5425 Mt. Gilead Rd., Reisterstown, MD (Summer) 3506 Gwynnbrook Ave., Owings Mills, MD 21117 410.356.5200, x340 www.campmilldale.org

'09 GILMAN SUMMER SESSION

June 22 - July 31, 2009 The Gilman Summer Session provides academic enrichment and skill building for students from grades 3-12. Courses include SAT prep, Driver's Education, U.S. History, Creative Writing, and Foreign Language tutorials.

Various camps for boys and girls ages four to fourteen. Day camps, Technology programs, Drama, Music, and much more! Full-day camps including swimming, lunch and snack. Extended hours available 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Contact Bryan Powell, 410-323-3800 ext. 459.

June 15 – August 7, 2009

Gilman Summer Session 5407 Roland Avenue Baltimore, MD 21210

5114 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210 410-649-3218 or 410-649-3209 www.fscamp.org summercamp@friendsbalt.org

An unforgettable summer for kids 3 1/2 - 17. Programs for preschoolers, American Doll Camp, Park/API Sports Camp, science camps, and more. Open House is Saturday, March 28 from 11am-1pm. June 15 – August 7, 2009 2425 Old Court Road, Baltimore, MD 21208 410-339-4120 www.parkcamps.com

Programs for children ages 2 to 13 include recreational sports, nature, music, arts, science, Toddler Preschool & Summer Montessori. Session 1: June 15–26; Session 2: June 29–July 10; Session 3: July 13–24. Falls Rd. & Greenspring Valley Rd., Lutherville, MD 21093 410.321.8555 www.montessorischool.net

Buggytown Revisited continued from page 47

communities of farmers reminded her of home. They sell curries sparked with fiery African flavors, but the Lancaster palate, Roger said, can’t quite handle all the spice he has to offer. I asked him to characterize traditional Lancaster food. “Bland,” he said. Lancaster’s more diverse than you might think; nearly 40 percent of the city’s residents are Hispanic, and Mayor Gray credits the region’s live-and-let-live ethos to the presence of the Amish. “Because of the Amish, everyone’s grown up around different people,” Gray says. “I mean, you don’t get any more different than the Amish.” After I’d bought my fill of whoopee pies, I made my way to North Prince Street to check out some of the city’s forty-plus art galleries—from Metropolis, which specializes in a pop-cartoon art and rock photography, to Gallery 2, filled with paintings of red umbrellas by artist and owner Liz Hess. City Folk on Gallery Row was full of deliciously eclectic antiques, such as an inviting pair of distressed chocolate French leather club chairs from the 1930s and a mid-20th-century wrought-iron bass fiddle sculpture. A hip young couple straight out of Brooklyn—he in a corduroy blazer, sneakers, and Buddy Holly glasses, she in a pom-pom’d knit cap—pieced daintily through birch-bark centerpieces, holding hands. The factories and industrial spaces that remain from the days when Lancaster boasted a thriving iron-foundry industry are now filled with small businesses that use history to their advantage. Zap Home Collective, a furniture-focused spin-off of the vintage “retro department store” Zap and Co. (a Lancaster institution since 1973), sells 60s-era coffee tables and Bettie Page Zippo lighters. It is worth visiting just to see how owner Elizabeth Hine has converted the

Increases volume.

space, which is part of a huge feed mill complex famously depicted in Lancaster-born artist Charles Demuth’s 1927 painting My Egypt. Late in life, Demuth painted a series of hauntingly precise renderings of his native city’s industrial landscape; his home on King Street is now a museum, and Lancaster’s strong arts community has moved in to reclaim some of the buildings he painted. The Lancaster Arts Hotel, a boutique inn, lies on the north edge of the city in a beautifully restored tobacco warehouse that boasts exposed brick and original wood beams. The hotel itself acts as a gallery, rotating works from local artists. Every piece—from the sculptures in the lobby to the paintings in each of the rooms—is for sale. The hotel is also the home to John J. Jefferies, a farm-to-table restaurant named after the building’s old tobacco inspector. At the bar—dimly lit and cleanly industrial—I had a glass of biodynamic Seidelberg Pinotage from South Africa and a fresh baby-beet salad with black beluga lentils and a goat cheese vinagrette. It’s the kind of high-concept locavore-friendly eatery that’s drawing crowds in American cities these days and just about the last dining experience I’d expected to find in Pennsylvania Dutch country. On a last stroll around the city on Sunday afternoon, I stopped by the fiercely local Lancaster Art Museum, which focuses on contemporary art by regional artists, and ordered a latte to go at Square One Coffee, which was on Mayor Gray’s short list of mom-and-pop coffee spots. A bit skeptically, I asked the barista if he had soymilk. He nearly laughed—of course he did—and presented me with an artfully made latte that cost 75 cents less than it would have at Starbucks. ■ —Rebecca Messner proﬁled city school lunch chief Tony Geraci in the November Urbanite.

Increases intelligence. Listen. And learn.

88.1 (Baltimore/Frederick) 106.9 (Ocean City/Salisbury) WYPR.org (streaming online 24/7)

68_WY_Ad_8x2.3125_v1.indd 1

6/13/08 11:45:41 AM

solar EnErgy systEms • EnErgy saving products • cErtifiEd EnErgy audits

Loo

ur ener gy bills? king to reduce yo

bills and get a guaranteed return on investment? Looking to reduce your utility GreensprinG enerGy LLC GreensprinG enerGy LLC Towson, MD Towson, MD 443-322-7000

www.greenspringenergy.com

443-322-7000

www.greenspringenergy.com Solar Energy Industries Association • American Solar Energy Society • Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) • Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce Authorized Retailer for: Authorized Retailer for:

Solar Energy Industries Association • American Solar Energy Society • Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) • Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce

Call about neW MD solar rebates! Callstate About neW Federal Tax Credits! w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m f e b r u a r y 0 9

M A R K E T P L A C E

Tide Point Early Childhood Education Center

Your Antique Auction Source

Serving children 6 wks to 5 yrs. MSDE approved Creative Curriculum used, supplemented by frequent field trips and enrichment programs. A service of the

Next Auction March 8th & 9th Visit our website for more details of upcoming auctions 908 York Road, Towson 410.828.4838

1030 Hull Street, Suite 100 Baltimore, MD 21230 410-234-0471

David’s Restaurant & Deli

If these walls could talk, we’d listen to them too. Inside Out Designs, Inc.

Comcast Call Center

is committed to providing quality design for commercial spaces at affordable prices for projects of all sizes and budgets. 3446 chestnut avenue baltimore, md 21211 410.662.4414

Think you can’t have a fire place? Think again.

(no flue, chimney, gas lines or electricity required!)

The best in modern green kitchens too! Call our by-appointment showroom in Mt. Washington 410.828.0113 workingwondersUS.com

Brazilian Straightening Treatment and Extensions

Roland Park Victorian Canton waterfront condo Mount Vernon brownstone Bolton Hill townhome Mount Washington modern

Men’s & Women’s haircuts and color.

BECAUSE CITY LIFE IS A WONDERFUL LIFE

Student Discounts Available

Avendui Lacovara 410-583-0400 443-326-8674 (direct) alacovara@ywgcrealty.com

Specializing in

Tues 9-6 | Weds-Fri 9-7 | Sat 9-3 3401 Keswick Rd. Hampden 410.243.1717

Open Tuesday thru Sunday

410.261.3200 lakayem@gmail.com www.lakayembah.com

Sandwiches, salads and soups Daily Specials Now serving beer & wine for lunch & dinner Open for breakfast, lunch & dinner Mon. - Sun. 8 AM- 8 PM

410-662-7779

3626 Falls Road in Hampden Also available, catering for small & large parties

Baltimore Chop Books, Music & Coffee House Downtown’s ONLY General Independent Bookstore • 20% Off NYT Best-sellers • Patisserie Poupon Pastries • Baltimore’s only full line of Marie Belle of NY truffles • Amazing organic espresso

625 Washington Blvd next to Camden Yards (410) 752-HITS(4487)

www.myspace.com/BaltimoreChop

Roastery & Retail Shop

photographs that capture your true spirit

antiques.alexcooper.com

Fresh, locally roasted coffee, loose leaf teas and brewing accessories. 3003 Montebello Terrace Baltimore, MD 21214 443-992-4388 www.zekescoffee.com

NEOPOL Baltimore’s ONLY smokery, specializing in smoked seafood and meats, savory cheese pies, gourmet foods, smoked seasoning salts and chef’s supplies. Belvedere Square Marketplace Baltimore, Maryland 21212 Tel: 410-433-7700

TURN A NEW PAGE WITH THE PRATT CONTEMPORARIES The Pratt Contemporaries is a new group of young and dynamic cosmopolitans who support and seek awareness of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Members receive exclusive access to Baltimore’s lively literary and social scene.

COME CHECK US OUT!

For more information about membership and events contact Sharon Connell at (443) 984-3850 or sconnell@prattlibrary.org www.prattcontemporaries.org

urbanite february 09

2009 Above L to R: Lamp by David D’Imperio, Teapot by Jon Route; Bottom: Necklace by Cheryl Rydmark

THE AMERICAN CRAFT COUNCIL SHOW BALTIMORE CONVENTION CENTER

FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 1 CRAFTCOUNCIL.ORG/BALTIMORE

photo by Eric Salsbery

eye to ey e

In the guise of a toy, this sculpture by Baltimore artist David Hess works its way into our consciousness on many levels. It brings back memories of our own past toys, certainly, and that warmly engages us. And this feeling mixes with the absurdist situation that the work implies. Its title, Powers, seems to be a key to what the artist intends. There is potential energy in the situation. If the truck starts moving upward, it will ultimately go downward. From experience, we understand this situation, even though the work itself never achieves motion. The sculpture projects a latent power waiting to be released, but to what end? Hessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work, whether of the monumental scale of many of his public sculptures or of the intimate scale of a piece such as Powers, is concerned with balance and stress, tension and compression. And so, this little truck. Can it, will it, make it over the hump? It might be that it thinks it can. We think it can. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Alex Castro

urbanite february 09

David Hess Powers 2009 21 x 8 x 32 inches Steel, rubber, sugar pine, oil paint

N O W

L E A S I N G

P E T - F R I E N D L Y

C O M M U N I T Y

LUXU RY T HIS G R A N D I S N ’ T

F O R

E V E R Y O N E

A complimentary chauffeur-driven limousine. A dramatic skylounge. 24-hour concierge services to make your busy life easier. Are you ready for a life of unparalleled convenience and cosmopolitan services? At 39 West Lexington, your expectations will be exceeded. You’ll know you’ve arrived— from the moment you enter the grand lobby. Visit us today to be among the select few who will be able to call this Baltimore landmark home.

39 WEST LEXINGTON STREET, BALTIMORE, MD 21201 FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT, CALL 888.761.3055. 39WESTLEX.COM

tell your interior designer to breathe no subwoofer, no rear speakers SurroundBarÂŽ360Â° DVD Theater, complete surround sound home theater from a single speaker. Hear it for yourself at your nearest authorized Polk Audio dealer. More at www.roomfillingsurround.com

Polk Audio is a Directed Electronics company which trades on NASDAQ under the symbol DEIX. Investor information can be found at http://investor.directed.com. Polk Audio & SurroundBar are registered trademarks of Polk Audio used under license by Britannia Investment Corporation. Sorry, TV not included.

room filling surround sound without filling the room