Baltimore21201.Com

Get LIT in Baltimore! - Part 2

I posted a note on Sunday about getting LIT in Baltimore by way of an email from Carole Evitts. Here's the follow-up...

Spring 2008 brings a lot of good things to the mid-Atlantic. One of the best promises to be this year's 5th Annual CityLit Festival. Rub elbows with, and learn from, some of the best in the literature scene on April 19th at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (downtown on Cathedral Street). 10AM - 5PM. Think: Laura Lippman, Manil Suri, Dan Fesperman, Carole Boston Weatherford, Michael Olesker, and dozens of others. This event is free to attendees and free to exhibitors. Put on your thinking caps, you Lit-Types!

President and CEO of the CityLIt Project, Gregg A. Wilhelm, wants us to know that: CityLit Project nurtures the culture of literature in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. Programs include free public events, registration-based writers' workshops and conferences, a rock-n-read concert that targets the 18-34 crowd (which represents the steepest rate of decline in reading), and efforts to get youth to dig reading and writing as creative, expressive arts.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! (OK, too much late night TV. Way too much.) Gregg Wilhelm is too modest. Here are just a couple of quotes from those in the know:

“CityLit Festival is one of my favorite events of the year. The energy and creativity that CityLit Project brings to it--and to each of its programs--is worthy of the library’s support, and the entire community’s support.”
Dr. Carla Hayden
Executive Director
Enoch Pratt Free Library

“We value the content CityLit Project has provided the Baltimore Book Festival over the years. In a city rich with a variety of creative arts, Baltimore is fortunate to have CityLit as a champion of the literary arts.”
Bill Gilmore
Executive Director
Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts

“After searching for a way to become involved with the local literary community, I found exactly what I was looking for— it’s the nonprofit CityLit Project. At the happy hour, it was apparent that CityLit and JMWW are achieving their mission to nurture the culture of literature.”
Corinne Levinstein
Writer

After January Each Year: The Ho-Hum Press Releases Hit Baltimore

Odd, but true... Take this urgent message from the Live Baltimore Home Center:

Need a makeover? Want to be on national TV? Then head down to the Harborplace Amphitheater on Monday, February 18, where one lucky person will be "glambushed" live on TV during the CBS Early Show. [Say now, that sounds like a good time to be had by all.]

The Early Show's Dave Price will be LIVE in Baltimore on Monday morning. All Baltimoreans are invited to show their support by joining him as part of the show's audience from 5:30 - 9:00 a.m. One lucky audience member will be selected for a makeover by designer to the stars, Bradley Bayou - author of "The Science of Sexy." WJZ-TV's Ron Matz will also be broadcasting live. We want to show support for the CBS Early Show and proudly represent the city of Baltimore, so come out and don't miss your chance to be on national television. 

[They've got to be kidding, right?]

And, this just in from "The Insiders Club" at 1st Mariner Arena:

WWE PRESENTS BACKLASH - Sunday , April 27^th AT 7:45 PM

As a member of the 1st Mariner Arena Insiders Club [I'm on their mailing list, yes. But, I had no idea that I was a member of anything so very special...] you are invited to take part in an exclusive presale for WWE Presents Backlash, at 1st Mariner Arena on Sunday. Attendees must be 14 years of age.

[Oh swell, let's round up all of our young teens and head out to see this smart little package. Oh and yes, the best tickets are $175 each...]

He doesn't look like another Hanna Montana so I think I'll hold-off on this one and not stand in line.

If you've ever read this blog before, you know that I'm a rah-rah, full-on supporter of Baltimore and 21201. It just gets creepy on the PR front around this time of year. Stay tuned for some of the truly worthwhile notices of late winter.

And, if you see huge guys walking around downtown Baltimore in tights... well, consider yourself warned. It's not altogether pretty.

Finally. After months, NEW SPIRITS in downtown Baltimore. And at great prices, too.

After months of anticipation and waiting - on my part - Jim Amato's Urban Cellars is finally open next door to the Peanut Shoppe's new location and just a few steps away from 21201's new SuperFresh grocery store at 222 N Charles Street, Baltimore.

I've written before about the oddness of having to go to RiteAid for a bottle of wine or scotch when friends were coming over.

No longer do we, as residents of downtown Baltimore's City Center, have to buy our Band-Aids and Brandy and Benedryl in the same store. That change is a wonderful, wonderful thing!

Here's the very best news: Jacob and I were at Urban Cellars last week shopping for our Friday cocktail party and for our private New Year's Eve celebration. Jacob had been to Urban Cellars before. I hadn't. He asked me to check the shelf prices and I expected them to be high due to the store's location.

THEY WERE NOT!

Every bottle of wine (Urban Cellars has an International Collection), every six-pack of beer (Urban Cellars offers the finest and coldest and some of the most unusual), and every bottle of liquor (their selection blew my socks off) was priced equal to or less than what you'd pay at any Maryland liquor store. And, certainly less than you'd pay at the drug store.

Stay tuned. Amato tells me that Urban Cellars is planning some extradorinary tastings and events.

21201 Snow Later in the Day

Earlier today I mentioned the new lights in the trees at Charles Center. Here are a couple of photos taken just a short while ago.

Our 7.5 million-dollar front yard is special. Who could ask for anything more? And, we don't have to mow the grass, water the trees or clean the snow on the walk ways.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, etc.

If you visited this blog last winter, then you know that we love the snow. And, this year we need it more than ever. On a practical level, with the ground water shortage on the eastern seaboard so very low, I'd be happy to see it snow all winter. On a personal level... It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas! I'll let a couple of photos say the rest.

Beautiful from inside our house.

The new Charles Center park could not look more set for the holidays.

There are tiny Christmas lights in all of the trees. Come to City Center and visit our front yard!

Charles Plaza Attracting Nuts

Almonds, peanuts, macadamias. Brazilnuts, filberts, walnuts and pistichios. Pecans, chestnuts and seeds of all kinds. And my favorite, warm salted cashews -- extra large, please!

Bonnie Scible opened her Peanut Shoppe at 101 W Lexington some years ago and was forced to move to make way for Baltimore's promised Westside redevelopment. She reopened next to the Mechanic Theatre at 13 W Baltimore Street. Now that the Mechanic is headed for redevelopment Bonnie's moving once again. She's planning to reopen at 222 N Charles Street, in Charles Plaza, by the end of November.

The Peanut Shoppe will be located next door to Jim Amato's new Urban Cellars, also opening soon. Now, that's what I call a prime location. We all can pick up some great wine and cocktail fixins and go next door to grab wasabi coverd peanuts for our next cocktail party.

Welcome to Charles Center, Bonnie. Now, warm up those cashews -- extra large, please!

Citi Logo Soars Over Baltimore

What's this? Citi Financial signage being hoisted to the top of their building at Saratoga and Saint Paul on a Sunday afternoon? Yep, and as of now it's still tightly under wraps.

I see color under that wrap (the red on the arch) and from the placement of the logo it will surely be illuminated. And if it is, that's great news.

Way too few of Baltimore's tall buildings are lit properly at night. The crown of the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel is a prime example. It's magnificent topper and is completely dark. Radisson Hotels should be ashamed!

Lights of all kinds bring energy to a city. Where there is light at night, there's attraction -- and not just for moths.

The Citi logos are going up on all sides of the building. What a welcome addition to the Vertical Neighborhood.

Is 21201 Becoming Too Pricey?

Looking at the direct mail we've been receiving from the newest downtown apartment buildings and from some of the recent classic building conversions... I'M JUST WONDERING...

Is this the wave of the future?

Reviewing the prices of of Bozzuto's newest construction, the Zenith, where prices per square-foot seem rather New-Yorkish and where the apartments seem cramped on each floor, I hope this is not where we're headed.

I'm also hoping that Baltimore's westside Super-Block project will finally come about and level the playing field by increasing inventory.

At the moment many of the new City-Center apartments rent for what would be a starting mortgage payment. I'm hoping that all of this cools down until the proposed Baltimore/DC MagLev train makes Charm City a viable suburb of our Nation's Capitol. Then, it will all be fair game.

And, yes I know, I've been doing a whole lot of looking, reviewing and hoping.

Free Movie Tonight - Charles Plaza

Living in Downtown Baltimore is a wonderful thing. Last Friday we were invited to a dinner party and we walked to it. Just four blocks. And after our fair share of great company and conversation, awesome food, and several exceptional wines we walked home. The air was cool and had that clean and earthy smell that reminded us that the true Baltimore autumn is just around the corner.

Today an email arrived from the Downtown Partnership. There's a free movie, Night at the Museum, tonight at Charles Center Plaza.

It's family fare, fun and fanciful. The cast includes Ben Stiller, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Robin Williams, Paul Rudd, and Anne Meara. Oh yes, and Brad Garrett as the voice of the Easter Island head. What's not to like?

Bring a chair or blanket, grab some food at EATS - our local food court - and enjoy what looks to be a balmy and beautiful autumn evening.

It all begins a 8PM.

The Seach for Big Meat in Baltimore

I had lunch with a client after our progress meeting last Friday. He asked what Jacob and I were doing for the weekend.

I explained that, as our first chore, we were heading out to our favorite butcher, R. A. Regan, in Lexington Market for some of Regan's custom-cut, perfectly trimmed steaks and chops.

He didn't know of R. A. Regan!

I was shocked and appalled. However, as I thought about it, many of Baltimore's carnivores may not know of this source for the finest beef and pork in the city. What to do? What to do?

Post a picture? Yep, that should be informative.

Check out our two perfectly trimmed Delmonico steaks, cut by hand. These steaks are well over 2.5 inches thick, weigh nearly 2 pounds each, and came home with us for less than $18 each. What a deal is that?

We also picked up two super-thick, bone-in, pork chops.

However, I'll save chops' image for a later time. (I have no liability insurance for readers who may explode at the images of Baltimore's best Big Meat.)