Howard County arts venues present a wide variety
If you live in Howard County, there’s no need to drive to Baltimore or Washington, D.C. to hear top-quality classical music or see a play that ran on Broadway. For more than four decades, Howard County has been building a robust arts scene that rivals big-city venues. One mark of its progress will be the county’s new cultural arts center, whose construction is set to begin in the... READ MORE
Dracula offers dark humor with its gore
Theatrical productions of Dracula are a sure sign that autumn and Halloween are upon us. The famed vampire tale is playing now through Nov. 2 at the downtown Baltimore location of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC). The production, adapted by Steven Dietz, mingles the bloody Bram Stoker novel of 1897 with its 1927 adaptation for Broadway, which starred Bela Lugosi. It has its... READ MORE
Jazz promoter opens new club
Baltimore’s new jazz club, tucked between Fell’s Point and Harborplace, has been hopping since it opened last April. In its first week, Keystone Korner Baltimore featured legendary bassist Ron Carter. During the summer, lines snaked around the block as people waited to hear smooth-jazz-neosoul Godfather and vibraphonist Roy Ayers. The iconic Blood, Sweat and Tears keyboardist Larry... READ MORE
All about homegrown pumpkins
Nothing says October better than pumpkins, gourds and jack-o’-lanterns. Add a few to your doorstep, front porch or even a planter. Shocks of corn stalks and baskets of mums or asters can complete an attractive autumnal display. If you’re shopping for a pumpkin, select one that is blemish-free and firm all over. If you’re going to carve a jack-o’-lantern, look for a pumpkin that... READ MORE
Dance club channels Elizabethan era
When Linda Macdonald was an undergraduate more than 40 years ago, she became enamored with Scottish dancing. Fast-forward to 1980: Macdonald had moved to Scotland, married a Scotsman, returned to Virginia and had a child. Hoping to dance again but looking for a less vigorous form, she joined the Colonial Dance Club of Richmond. The club, dedicated to the preservation and promotion of... READ MORE
No memories are better than HS football
Open a can of memories and old guys will rush in to say they were there. Business. War. Politics. Travel. But perhaps more poignantly than most, football. As the calendar flips to the fall months, a young man’s fancy often turns to his gridiron glories of yesteryear. As the saying goes, they get more glorious with each passing decade. It can be very hard for younger people to... READ MORE
Building bridges between generations
Want to live forever? Marc Freedman can help. No, he’s not one of the Silicon Valley “immortalists” seeking to prolong human life spans. He’s the chief executive officer of Encore.org, an organization that aims to help older Americans make meaningful social contributions and find purpose in later life. In his new book, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of... READ MORE
Women finally get their own monument
Clementina Rind, mother of five, probably never heard of “breaking the glass ceiling,” “women’s liberation” or feminism, but in 1774 she became the Virginia colony’s public printer, elected by the Virginia General Assembly on a two-to-one vote. Rind, who had taken over the Virginia Gazette newspaper after her husband died, never missed putting out an issue. And she didn’t... READ MORE
Books to enhance your D.C. sightseeing
The Bibliophile Fall is the time of year to enjoy the comparative solitude from the hordes of summer tourists. Take a respite from the crowds to do some sightseeing on your own home turf. 111 Places in Washington That You Must Not Miss, by Andrea Seiger, photographs by John Dean, 240 pages, Emons Publishers paperback, 2018 For those of us who have visited all the familiar tourist... READ MORE
These flawed, funny cabbies have character
August Wilson’s play Jitney takes Arena Stage audiences on a hilarious, heartfelt, soul-searing, tragic and deeply human ride through life, as lived by the drivers, and other frequenters, of an unlicensed cab station in the African-American Pittsburgh Hill District in 1977. Jitney is the eighth play in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wilson’s cycle of 10 plays about the lives of African... READ MORE
