WDAV, the public radio station that produces World of Opera, has issued the following statement regarding Lisa Simeone, the show's embattled host...

As host of World of Opera, Lisa Simeone is an independent contractor of WDAV Classical Public Radio. Ms. Simeone’s activities outside of this job are not in violation of any of WDAV’s employee codes and have had no effect on her job performance at WDAV. Ms. Simeone remains the host of World of Opera.

So it appears Simeone, who was abruptly fired from Soundprint over her involvement with a D.C. protest, will not lose her World of Opera gig.

The loooong overdue Brooks Robinson statue, created by Baltimore artist Joseph Sheppard, is being unveiled this Saturday at noon on the plaza between Russell Street and Washington Boulevard, just northwest of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The design for the bronze statue, which is 9-feet tall and weighs 1,500 pounds—or roughly the size that Brooks appeared to opposing batters when he was patrolling third base—has been kept under wraps.

Along with Brooks himself, Govenor Martin O'Malley, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Senator Barbara Mikulski, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Jeff Idelson, and Baltimore actor Josh Charles (The Good Wife), will all be on hand for the festivities, which are open to the public. (There will be live music and, of course, the Oriole bird for the kids.)

We're positively thrilled about this much-deserved tribute to the Human...

The passing of Patricia Modell has me thinking back to last September, when she and Art were honored at the Lyric for their $3.5 million donation to the theater’s capital campaign. That led to a convoluted new name—the Patricia & Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric—for the venue, but there was nothing convoluted about Patricia, who seemed candid, direct, and sure of the value of philanthropy. In short, she came across as someone whose priorities were straight.

After the usual speeches from a host of politicos that day, Patricia took the stage and injected some real personality into the proceedings. An actress herself—she did tons of TV work in the 1950s and 1960s—she was spirited, but unassuming, and managed to convey that giving money to the Lyric was the right thing to do, in part, because “a city without a theater is like a big party without any conversation.” 

Her life could have been one big party, yet she chose to be engaged in many civic-minded conversations and activities that assisted various non-profits and charities. “When I saw the things we could do here, with this help, I said, ‘Art, we have to do it,’” recalled Patricia, as her husband looked on. She was referring to the...

As if we didn't already know, Coastal Living magazine just released its last of America's "Top 10 Aquariums" (because "Aquaria" is too high-falutin', I guess) and the National Aquarium in Baltimore came in at number one. Here's the write-up:

1. National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland
Whale songs, fishy undersea murmurings, and atmospheric music bubble through hidden speakers. The sounds drift through pleasantly dim corridors that build anticipation by hiding what's just around the next curve. Could it be a giant multispecies tank? An intimate look at something surprising? At one of the small exhibits, a volunteer guide admits, "Sometimes you become attached to an animal here, and this is the one I'm attached to." She's referring to a giant Pacific octopus―a spectacularly ugly creature that instantly changes color and skin...