Okay, I don't want to blame the messenger, but, dag, Baltimore really didn't fare well in their "America's Favorite Cities" readers' poll. When your best showing—out of 35 cities polled about—is coming in #18 for "Historical Sites and Monuments," that's not exactly something to boast about. (Oh, we also came in #18 as being an "Affordable Getaway." So there's that) 

Results that really stick in my craw? Number 28 for culture? We have culture up the wazoo in Baltimore (little known fact: "Culture up the Wazoo" was one of the city's rejected marketing slogans.) And we came in 34th in a vague category called "People." Hey, we have people! (Another rejected slogan.) Actually, the People category breaks down into such sub-categories as Friendliness (29), Attractiveness (34!?) and Intelligence (29—uh, there's a little world class hospital/university called Johns Hopkins I'd like to tell those readers about.)

Okay, while I wallow in bitterness, why don't you go ahead and...

It was a classic Baltimore weekend, with lots to do and lots to deconstruct, from HONfest to the Greek Folk Festival and the crummy end of an otherwise solid homestand from the O's, and more.

I, for one, am curious to hear more stories from HONfest. We missed it this year, not because of any boycott—I'm on the fence about the whole thing, maybe because I've met Denise Whiting and really liked her—but because other plans prevailed. For everything I read, the controversy was largely absent from the proceedings. I'm curious to hear from people who went and can report back...

My son Jack, 4, and I spent the bulk of yesterday at Camden Yards, watching the Orioles lose an...

Speaking of freak weather occurrences (see previous post about the heat), tonight offers an opportunity to help the victims of one of the most horrific weather disasters in recent memory. I'm speaking, of course, about the Joplin tornado, which destroyed about a third of the Missouri city on May 22. Joplin native and Baltimore-based performance artist Rebecca Nagle has partnered with the folks at Current Gallery, Holy Frijoles, and The Wine Source to host a fundraiser tonight, titled To: Joplin. From: Baltimore, with love. Details can be found on the Current Gallery website as can Rebecca's affecting testimony about the destruction, which I pasted here.  

"I was watching a video of a camera panning an area of the destruction. I though it was on the rural outskirts of town, because I didn't see any buildings. And then the camera rotated to show what was left of St Johns Hospital and I realized I was looking at where there used to be a park and homes and office buildings and this gas station...

At Everyman Theatre's groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, it occurred to me that the momentous occasion could be traced back to a philanthropic act by, of all entities, Bank of America.

The theater is wrapping up a $17 million dollar capital campaign and starting to renovate its future home, the old Town Theatre, on West Fayette Street. The new location will give the theater room to grow and provide a much-needed jolt to Westside development efforts.

And it all started, five years ago, when Bank of America sold Everyman the building for a buck. That's right, one dollar, for a property valued at nearly $2 million.

We could use more of that kind of vision in the city of Baltimore. Check out the renderings below to see what Everyman is planning for the site.

...