Baltimore21201.Com

Get on Track, You!

Just when I think that Amtrak may not actually be headed, full speed, toward a solid brick wall... they come up with another very expensive PR move. One that may or may not play to a new, younger rider audience, which is what they need. Especially a younger vacation & excursion rider audience.

The first annual National Train Day is Saturday. Major celebrations in the largest rail stations they service. It celebrates the day the Golden Spike was driven in Utah. Al Roker will be heading up the festivities in Washington, DC.

Their releases do make some good points: "Now, 139 years after the golden spike connected east and west, there’s never been a better time to take the train. Huge crowds and the frustrations that go with them burden our highways and airports. And at a time when we all share the same pressing concerns about ecology and energy conservation, trains are a more energy-efficient mode of travel than either autos or airplanes. Riding the rails is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. Not to mention meet interesting people and see breathtaking scenery".

Now, that's not bad copy... though, I'm not sure about that 'interesting people' business.

Also, Jacob and I were threatened with expulsion from Baltimore's Penn Station while we were waiting for our train to DC. I was taking photos of the stained glass dome in the ceiling. Apparently that was a security breach. The security guard was large... and armed. I put the lens cap on the camera and sat down.

Don't get me wrong. I love riding the train. I just wish this PR push would let me know why the Amtrak tickets from BWI to NYP are so expensive as I'm reducing my carbon footprint.   

Laura Lippman on Baltimore, Crab Cakes & Her New Book

Baltimore author, resident, and gal-about-town, Laura Lippman loves the Crab Cakes at Faidley's in Lexington Market just like we all do. She writes crime novels like none of us will ever be able to. She's much prettier than most authors that we'll ever know. She holds Baltimore dear, in her heart, like we all seem to. And, she wins awards like the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Quill, and more. Her newest book, Another Thing To Fall is receiving rave reviews.

I keep up on her doings and such by way of Author Tracker: a service of Harper Collins, her publisher.

Check out this video from Lippman.

And, visit her personal website: LauraLippman.Com

Let's All Buy a Brick; Support a Home for Our Little, and Not-So-Little Ones.

A big, 24 year-old mother has given birth to a really big, healthy baby in Baltimore. The mother's name is Felix. The father is, for the time-being, unknown. Yep, it seems that Mother Felix was "sleeping around" prior to coming to Baltimore -- her new-born is, for now, unnamed also.

So what to do to support this unwed mother... I have the answer. Buy a brick. Yes, a brick.

...I first worked on a Zoomerang project for the Baltimore Zoo with some folks from Doner Advertising in 1998 (when Doner was on N Charles Street) and I've admired the Baltimore Zoo ever since. International attention to our zoo has been building with the announcement that Mother Felix was with child... er, calf.

Support for our Baltimore zoo is more important now than ever. And, I know that sometimes it's difficult to write a check to a general fund and not see anything you can hold in your hand.

You can't hold these bricks in your hand; you can walk on them, though. And, they will be engraved with your names and message. How's this for a thought: Buy a separate brick for each of your children. Once the bricks are installed take the kids for a grand field trip to find their names.

Let's make good things happen for the Baltimore Zoo. It will happen just one brick at a time.

By the way, do you know that the Baltimore Zoo operates a Penguin Cam?

Check it out during daylight hours. It couldn't be more fun.

You Think You Know Your Dictionary?

OK then... Head up to Baltimore's Calvert School at 4300 N Charles Street on Saturday, April 5th. Select your tiles and play Scrabble for a great cause.

The Greater Homewood Community Corporation is preparing for its 7th Annual Scrabble Fundraiser for Literacy. The annual event helps to fund their program to teach English as a Second Language and their Adult Literacy outreach programs.

Games will be available at the Social and the Competetive levels.

Entry is $30 ($20 for students with ID and seniors 62 and older). Great prizes from area retailers and restaurants. Food, refreshments, and free parking for all participants.

Call 410-261-3520 for more information. Meantime try joining the debate on the validity of Sesquioxidizing, if you dare. You'll either get 1674 points if played correctly or a serious poke in the eye!

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.

Would You Party With This Man?

Tomorrow is the birthday of that Baltimore son and rascal, Edgar Allen Poe. The 199th to be exact. I've never really thought about his birthday until I read the MetroMix suggestions on how to observe Poe's special day.

Metromix says, "We at MetroMix think this calls for a celebration. You could pay homage by killing your loved one and stashing her dismembered limbs in walls and under floorboards, but the police (dare we say the Poe-Poe?) wouldn't be too fond of that. Instead, pay your respects at the Poe house and his grave at Westminster Hall, then do as he did and go on a Baltimorean bender. We've staked out the spots—all you need is a glass and a penchant for thinking in rhymed couplets."

NOTE: I'm not advocating here, I'm just reporting.

MetroMix also provides a couple of pick-up lines. They begin this way:

"Let's drink a whole Cask of Amontillado and put my Pendulum in your..."

You get the idea. One final thought... Don't Try Any of This at Home.

These Architecture-Types Know How to Party

And suddenly Groundhog Day is something to look forward to. Get your tickets today.

BAF's Executive Director, Adam Blumenthal will answer any questions. Give him a call at 410-539-7772. The theme is Light and Shadow so get your black and white cocktail attire to the cleaners and prepare to party.

Catering is by the new Woodberry Kitchen so we're sure to be in for some special treats.
I'm sort of hoping for Woodberry's little lamb meatballs with red pepper sauce and fried sage! And maybe their brick oven clams. Or griddled scallops...

Avenue Q - Quintessentially Quotable

After over twenty years of being a regular theatre-goer, something strange and wonderful happened Saturday night.

I expect to walk home, after seeing a musical, humming the two or three most memorable tunes. And as an utterly and completly tone-deaf singer, it's a torment - if not a true torture - for my friends.

Saturday Jacob and I saw Avenue Q at Baltimore's Hippodrome and we walked home reciting the hysterically funny, rude, politically incorrect, and downright nasty lines. We were laughing like the show was still going on. For us, it was. We both agreed that you haven't really lived until you've been given the finger by a puppet. Or, watched puppets DOING IT complete with dramatic lighting and sound effects and well placed gasps.

You haven't lived until you've watched a gay puppet come out of the closet to his friends and immediately go back in his apartment for a three-way. Avenue Q is heady stuff. (I'm not giving anything away here. The plot is not complex.)

So, what exactly were we and most of the audience laughing at that evening? Here are a couple of G-Rated samples (for the really good quotes - R-Rated and X, get tickets):

[On a Missed Teaching Assignment]
Kate Monster: Hello?
Mrs. Thistletwat: Good afternoon, Katherine. If you may recall, you were supposed to teach my class this morning while I got my heart replaced. You left the children unattended for three hours! They created their own tribal society and were about to sacrifice poor little Brittany! Where were you?
Kate Monster: I overslept! I'm so sorry!
Mrs. Thistletwat: I should never have hired a monster.
Kate Monster: What?
Mrs. Thistletwat: Your race is notoriously lazy!
Kate Monster: Well, better a monster than a crabby old bitch!
Mrs. Thistletwat: Crabby old bitches are the backbone of this nation!

[On Schadenfreude]
Nicky: How 'bout straight A students getting B's?
Gary: Exes getting STDs!
Nicky: Waking doormen from their naps!
Gary: Watching tourists reading maps!
Nicky: Football players getting tackled!
Gary: CEOs getting shackled!
Nicky: Watching actors never reach
Both: The ending of their Oscar speech!

[On Gift-giving & Investments]
Trekkie Monster: Me give you ten million dollars!
Princeton: Trekkie! Where did you get all that money?!?
Trekkie Monster: In volatile market, only stable investment is porn!

NOTICE: As advertised, the Tony award winning, Avenue Q is "Not Fur the Kiddies"... It's apparently not FUR most grandparents either. The ladies on either side of us looked Queasier and Queasier with each drop of the F-Bomb. But hey, they should have known that they - for about two fun hours - were going to live on Avenue Q!

Mo'Nique Coming Back to Baltimore - At Least for a Performance

I adore this woman. She can outrage an audience with her stand-up. She can charm the pants off of a conservertive -- and partially blue-haired audience -- as when she's on Martha Stewart TV. And, she can inspire all, as in the YouTube.com clip below.

December 1st Mo'Nique is appearing at the Meyerhoff in her hometown, Baltimore.

While her performances aren't for the kiddies, they are for everyone else. Get a ticket even if you have to sit in the nose-bleed section. Welcome this Charm City native back home.

"Visit My Baltimore" is Gaining Steam - And, in a Good Way with Videos

When Baltimore's GET IN ON IT campanign launched last year I was dubious. And on national television, so was Jay Leno (he laughed at the concept and the $500,000 paid to San Francisco-based Landor & Associates), Regis Philbin (he was so puzzled and confused by the concept he couldn't even say the phase), David Letterman was even less kind. Even Baltimore's very own William Donald Schafer, former Mayor and Maryland Govenour, rang in through his spoksperson saying, "I've seen some dumb ones in the past, but this is the dumbest." Was he thinking of an earlier attempt to brand Baltimore as: THE CITY THAT READS?

So when the GET IN ON IT people announced that they were opening up a section of their site so regular folks could upload videos about what makes Baltimore special to them, I was even more dubious. What would the citizens of Charm City post that the rest of the country could make fun of?

Apparently I shouldn't have been concerned at all. Here's just one example of the clever videos that have been posted.

Take a look at some of these little gems. Many are so delightful that they could take us back to the Charm City days.

And then, wonder along with me if all of Baltimore wouldn't have been better served by calling on locals to produce these kinds of things and offering a purse of $50,000 to each of the ten best rather than sending off half-a-million bucks to a company based out west.

I'm betting that even John Waters would have entered. And, wouldn't that have been a wonderful thing?

Oh yes, if you haven't seen this tribute to William Donald Schafer you should. Yep, it's biased in his favor just as Schafer's support and promotion of Baltimore is biased to the Nth degree in our favor.