On The Town

Feeling festive

A local storytelling series gets into the holiday spirit (sort of).

I’m usually a little slow on the uptake to get into the holiday spirit, but a couple things have been making me feel extra-festive as of late. This past weekend, I went to The Stoop’s “O Little Town of Baltimore” live radio show at Center Stage. I wrote about my great Stoop experience back in June, and this event was no different. There was beautiful live music performances from Ellen Cherry, Caleb Stine, and Persian classical musician Ahmad Borhani.

The Stoop stories were all holiday themed and chronicled everything from being a gift wrapper at Hecht’s to spending your holiday in a police station. One of my favorite monologues came from Simpson‘s writer Larry Doyle, who talked about his mom’s innate ability to buy the most disappointing Christmas presents imaginable. Saturday’s show was the second-to-last of its run, and boasted a sold-out crowd including City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell Jr. and restaurateur Ned Atwater.

Also, I was Christmas shopping in Hampden recently and saw maybe the most adorable party invitations (holiday or otherwise) I’ve ever seen. I was in the “party section” of Red Tree when I saw the coasters/invitations created by local company Gilah Press. The invitations come in four varieties: wine and cheese, cocktail, beer, and dinner parties. And besides being practically coaster-shaped, there are also check boxes, so the host can tell each invitee what they should bring (whether it’s a pale ale, white wine, or semi-soft cheese). Pretty clever!

Stay tuned for holiday cocktail recipes later in the week!

[Image: courtesy of The Stoop]