Books show prodigies’ paths to prominence
There is no companion like a good book, and these recent titles are worth your time. They enlighten and entertain, impart knowledge and reveal new insights. Books that keep our attention focused and our minds engaged are to be treasured. June grads will soon realize that learning is a lifelong endeavor. But choosing your own material makes reading a truly joyful and life-enhancing... READ MORE
Experiencing life inside another’s head
The Father begins abruptly, right in the middle of an intense conversation. One moment you’re in your own world, a theatergoer out for an evening of entertainment, just settled into your seat at Studio Theatre’s Metheney Theatre.Boom! You’re in someone’s…no several peoples’… nightmare, even if it’s not immediately apparent... READ MORE
Shades of gray keeps it rockin’
Ken Hunter got hooked on playing guitar back in the fourth grade, when he and a classmate went on their first “tour” — to other classrooms to play and sing in Everly Brothers-type harmony. By age 10, they played on Falls Church-based WFAX radio. And even though as a kid Hunter was rejected from “Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour,” the Woodbridge, Va. resident is still playing... READ MORE
Sally Field returns to Broadway in drama
Sally Field had a chance to cross The Glass Menagerie off her bucket list 13 years ago. It didn’t take.The Emmy- and Oscar-winner is once again playing Amanda Wingfield, the fearsome Southern belle at the heart of the Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece. Field may have played her at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 2004, and yet, here she is, playing her again on... READ MORE
The stars come out for Merriweather’s 50th
“Oddly enough, the older you get, the happier you get.” Paul Simon, who will be appearing at Merriweather Post Pavilion on June 9, uttered those words, not yet set to music, during a recent interview with the BBC as he was entering his 75th year. A couple of years earlier, in his album You’re the One, he had this to sing about aging: The human race has walked the earth for... READ MORE
Insider: Days and nights at the museum
If you live in Baltimore, you know the Walters Art Museum. But just how well do you know it?Thanks to Gary Vikan’s recently published memoir, Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director, the next time you visit the Walters, you’ll have a greater appreciation of just what goes on behind the scenes of an internationally renowned museum — one Baltimoreans are... READ MORE
Come get your fresh fruit and vegetables!
The Last of the Mohicans is how Donald Savoy III described the remaining handful of arabbers left in Baltimore on a sunny Wednesday, while watching a fellow horse-drawn cart vendor load up with fresh fruit and vegetables.Almost every day, fresh produce sellers known as arabbers, all African-American, take to the streets of Baltimore with a horse and a cart to sell to residents around the... READ MORE
First-time author at 90 dreams of Oscars
Seven years ago, Frances Chavarria of Rockville, Md., wrote her first novel, inspired by the 35 years she lived in Costa Rica. But discouraged after an editor criticized it, she put the manuscript away until a friend convinced her to dust if off and self-publish the book.This spring, Chavarria became a published author — at the age of 90.Chavarria’s novel, Let Us Dream of... READ MORE
Beauty and the Beast enchants at Toby’s
The tale may be “old as time,” but Beauty and the Beast has seen plenty of new life lately. With the new Disney live-action film setting box office records in movie theaters, fans can get a similar, but more fleshed-out, experience of the musical from the stage version currently at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia.It features all the beloved original songs from the... READ MORE
Little-known Fire Museum is a real gem
Thanks to the late Stephen G. Heaver’s fascination with firefighting apparatus (the term fire fighters use for their customized vehicles), Baltimore has the distinction of housing the third largest fire museum in the United States. Located in Lutherville, the Fire Museum of Maryland, founded in 1971, is a leader in preserving, restoring and interpreting the history of the urban fire... READ MORE