Charles Village

Labor Day: What's open

labor day schedule

Labor Day: What's open?

This schedule will be in effect Monday:

Scene and heard: House of Ruth 'Crabaret'

Were those soft summer breezes blowing through the Baltimore Museum of Art's Sculpture Garden? Or were they, perhaps, a collective sigh of relief from members of the House of Ruth board? This was the sixth year they had planned their outdoor "Crabaret" party and the second year in a row in which Mother Nature had complied.

'Body Worlds' draws a record attendance

A lively display of dead bodies that ends its seven-month run at the Maryland Science Center on Monday has smashed local museum attendance records to become the most popular traveling exhibit in Baltimore history, drawing more than 300,000 visitors, including a few who were so impressed they've offered to donate their bodies for use in the show.

Labor Day schedule in area counties

This schedule will be in effect Monday.

Books in Brief: Local

There's no one right way to write a life story. You can arrange it in chapters or as a series of vignettes. You can present it with or without illustrations. You can approach it from the outside looking in, as found in most biographies. Or you can tell it from an interior perspective, as in most memoirs. But whatever you decide, you must make the people, who are the subjects, come alive. To do that, you must provide a sense of place. In the case of these three books, that place is, to a large or small extent, Baltimore.

Annual Meeting and Reception

If you think a museum is always a place of quiet contemplation, you weren't at the Baltimore Museum of Art's Annual Meeting and Reception. The decibel level (and the excitement level) in the BMA's Atrium Court resembled something more along the lines of a high-school pep rally. The reason wasn't just the official kickoff of the museum's $65 million philanthropic campaign, but the announcement that $40 million has already been raised.

Local Screenings

Last chance for First Thursday

The Baltimore Museum of Art's First Thursday film series, lovingly shepherded for the past two years by Maryland Film Festival programmer Eric Allen Hatch, offers its last hidden gem next week: Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's 2000 Together, the story of a houseful of counterculture types searching for common ground through which they can relate to one another - or at least keep living together under the same roof. This last offering from the free film series screens at 8 p.m. Thursday at the BMA, 10 Art Museum Drive. Information (and a chance to lobby BMA officials to reconsider ending the series): artb ma.org or 443-573-1700.

Addict befriends goats after owners befriend him

At night, when Stephen Elliott can't sleep - a consequence of years of shooting heroin - he leaves his mattress in the barn and walks to the pen where five spindly-legged goat kids live. They crowd around him, jostling for a scratch behind the ears, and sometimes Princess and Jasmine settle into his lap. He strokes their heads and thinks about the unlikely journey that brought him here.

Tim Smith: Keystrokes aplenty

A few years ago, when the University of Baltimore unveiled its intimate Performing Arts Theater at the Student Center, a handsome new Steinway concert grand, selected by eminent pianist Yefim Bronfman, was part of the package. That piano will soon get a significant workout.

The Walters shares its wealth

The Coming Storm is going away for awhile. So is The Goose Girl. And one of Alfred Sisley's Impressionist paintings.

Gregory Kane: History captured in glory, shame

The nickname for athletic teams at Iowa State University is "the Cyclones." The nickname for athletic teams at the University of Iowa is "the Hawkeyes."

Sondheim Prize gala

People may come to the Baltimore Museum of Art to see the work of many internationally renowned artists, but a recent gathering there was to celebrate local talent.

Fleisher celebrates 80 years of music

Leon Fleisher will celebrate his 80th birthday this week doing two of his favorite things - playing the piano and conducting. Joining him onstage for an all-Mozart program will be the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which shares with Fleisher a long, strong history.

Artscape prize winner finds his sea legs in the art world

Geoff Grace has been a marine scientist on the Pacific Ocean, a museum educator in Florida, a high school teacher in Overlea and a guitarist in his own band, the Tall Grass.

The week that was

10-hour shifts a hit with officers

Teacher wins annual Artscape Prize

Amid warm applause in a packed auditorium, a Baltimore County teacher and multimedia artist accepted the $25,000 Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize yesterday at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

City to offer refunds

Nearly 2,000 residents in Charles Village and Bolton Hill could receive small property tax refunds because of a city error that inflated their tax bills, Mayor Sheila Dixon said yesterday.

Independence Day

This schedule will be in effect today for the Fourth of July holiday.

Independence Day

This schedule will be in effect tomorrow for the July Fourth holiday.

Independence Day closings announced

This schedule will be in effect Friday for the July 4 holiday.

Nonprofits add jobs

Nonprofits - especially big ones - are continuing to drive employment growth in Maryland, a new report suggests.

Sondheim finalists' works reflect changing world

Paper or plastic?

Local Screenings

Gonzo documentary at the Charles

The Spring 2008 Cinema Sundays series wraps this weekend with documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney's Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Former Cinema Sundays programmer Gabe Wardell, now executive director of Independent Media Artists of Georgia, Etc. (IMAGE), and organizers of the annual Atlanta Film Festival will be on hand for the introduction and post-film discussion. Showtime at the Charles, 1711 N. Charles St., is 10:35 a.m. Sunday, preceded by 50 minutes of no-additional-charge coffee and bagels. Tickets are $15. Information: 410-727-3456 or cinemasundays.com.

City streets close over weekend

It's going to be a challenging weekend for getting around Baltimore.

State raids mayor's home

Maryland state prosecutors raided the home of Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday as part of an investigation into past spending practices at City Hall, the most aggressive move so far in the years-long probe.

No place like home for vacation in 2008

So you've all but given up on the idea of going on vacation this summer.

Shots defended, and yet regretted

The phone in Harry Goodman's tiny Charles Village dry cleaners kept ringing yesterday.

Despite protests, WYPR says Steiner won't be rehired

The board of directors of WYPR yesterday said its removal of talk-show host Marc Steiner from the Baltimore public radio station in February "will not be undone," in spite of a room full of protesters and a recommendation that it do so from its hand-picked community advisory board.

Steiner fans sound off to panel from WYPR

Ellen from Baltimore, Tim from Waverly and Jo-Ann from Annapolis joined more than 300 fellow callers, listeners and fans of WYPR's freshly canceled The Marc Steiner Show last night to display their anger in hopes that station managers would reverse their decision.

Engineering their futures

In a cramped engineering classroom at the Johns Hopkins University yesterday morning, 40 students set out to solve problems.

Music Column

Tim Smith: Hear 'Messiah,' watch 'Messiah' or sing it yourself

It's Messiah time again, when choral groups large and small tackle Handel's stirring oratorio. Looking around at this year's many performances, some offer extra points of interest.

A high-tech look at the art of Matisse

A mechanical engineer by training, Jeff Mechlinksi used to spend his days poring over 3-D images of helicopter parts and other industrial gizmos on the glowing screen of his high-tech computer work station.

Transgender man allowed to remain as church pastor

The highest judicial body of the United Methodist Church announced yesterday that a transgender man can remain pastor of a congregation in Charles Village.

Glimpsed

Emily Vollherbst

Wearing a work uniform often seems to me like it would be a great gift. At the very least it would eliminate 20 or 30 minutes of closet-scouring every morning. And at best, it would save you money to buy the clothes you really want to wear in the rest of your life.

John Shields, chef and public TV host

John Shields chef-author-public TV host, is a busy guy. When he's not overseeing the kitchen at Gertrude's restaurant and scouting for local food sources for the restaurant, he's out and about searching for new locations for his Maryland Public Television series, Coastal Cooking. Lately he's been planning new menus to coincide with the Baltimore Museum of Art's new Matisse exhibit, which opens this month. And to top it all off, he's working on a new Chesapeake cookbook. Shields lives in Roland Park with his dog, Babo, and partner and Gertrude's co-owner John Gilligan.

Police Blotter

Man fatally stabbed in West Baltimore

An man whose name was not released died yesterday morning at a hospital after he was stabbed on a West Baltimore street by an unknown assailant.

City is fighting battle against violence - and hopelessness

Dondrea Ross' backyard is no longer her own. It belongs to the drug dealers who stalk the playground behind her house.

A sage collection

At a celebration of H.L. Mencken's life and works in 2003, a guest speaker from Ohio stood before a crowd of admirers of the "Sage of Baltimore" at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. George Thompson, an accountant and book collector, detailed 44 years of collecting books, letters, photographs, even T-shirts associated with Mencken, some 6,000 items in all.

St. John's and its pastor are reborn

The pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church wasn't worried about the congregation's reaction to his transition from Ann Gordon to Drew Phoenix.