A local dancer was featured in a famous ballet documentary.
A year after leaving the prestigious Washington Ballet, Rebecca Houseknecht still dances. But the symphonic sounds of ballet have been replaced by the driving beats of the 14-time national champion Towson University dance team.
The Middle River native capped off her meteoric rise as a ballet student when she competed at the 2010 Youth America Grand Prix, the world’s largest ballet competition....
How furrier Mano Swartz has defied the odds and stuck around for 123 years.
Several years ago, David Swartz stumbled across an archival story from The Baltimore Sun recounting a brawl between his great grandfather, furrier James Swartz, and a customer who had come into his store to buy a coat for his wife. “The article said there was a disagreement and then an assault,” recounts David. “It said that James Swartz was arrested and the other man was taken out in an...
Actor Clarke Peters came to Baltimore for The Corner and The Wire; he stayed for the people.
As soon as Clarke Peters steps off the porch of his North Baltimore row home, a passerby does a double take, stops in his tracks, and flashes a smile. “Hey, I know you,” the guy tells Peters. “Well, I’ve been around,” says Peters, gesturing vaguely to the neighborhood around him. “But I know you from somewhere,” the fellow persists, in a tone that suggests, “And I know you are somebody.” Peters—...
ISE breaks into computer systems in order to protect them.
When Steve Bono was young, he was great at cheating in video games. Now Bono, 32, has turned that skill into a business as the CEO of Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), a professional hacking company. “It’s always been about curiosity, never malice, for me,” he says. “I don’t like the idea of people committing crimes using computers.” ISE’s goal is to hack into systems, detect vulnerabilities...
We speak with bassist and Peabody instructor Michael Formanek.
How would you characterize the current group and how has its music has evolved? Will you continue recording/performing with them?
The quartet that is on my two ECM CD's is kind of a dream come true group on every level. They are unbelievably accomplished players, composers, and bandleaders who are always willing to give themselves up to making my music the best it can possibly be. They all have...
Jim Newell, 27, freelance political journalist for The Guardian, Salon, formerly Wonkette/sportswriter for Grantland.
You are an Annapolis native. What are your abiding memories of growing up there?I am indeed from Annapolis, born and raised. My memories are mostly of going to either the mall or to Main Street in downtown, to walk around and look at shop windows, because that’s really all there is to do in Annapolis. My family never got into sailing. We did the crabs thing, though. I used to catch crabs! Big...
We take a look back at the best games of Joe Flacco’s Ravens career.
1/10/09: 13-10 vs. Tennessee Titans
Flacco earned his place in the hearts of Ravens fans with this steady, patient win against the Titans, where he became the only rookie QB ever to win two post-season games.
12/20/09: 31-7 vs. Chicago Bears
The normally defensive-minded Bears were helpless against the Ravens’ supercharged offense and Flacco’s career high four touchdown throws.
1//9/10: 30-7 vs....
A man who was told he could never walk tackles a 5K.
When Jerry Sersen was four years old, he was hit by a car. A couple years later, he developed partial paralysis in his legs. He went through several years of testing and never received a diagnosis. Doctors told him he’d be in a wheelchair by the time he was a teenager. Well, he’s miraculously beaten the odds and, this month, will be walking in his first 5K at the Baltimore Running Festival. “By...
Thanks to the Internet, local moms can run their own businesses and stay at home with baby.
At 2 p.m. on a summer Monday, the phone rings in the Mt. Washington offices of bhealthybmore.com, a new website aimed at promoting health and wellness in Charm City. The site’s creator, Sarah Bregel, 27, answers the call and immediately drops her voice to a whisper. “I’m going to sneak out on the porch so I don’t wake the baby,” she says.
Later that week, Elizabeth Voss, 44, spends an hour of her...
A Pigtown woman outs owners of blighted properties in Baltimore’s neighborhoods.
Carol Ott had enough. “Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of bed that morning,” she says. “I don’t know exactly what pushed me over the edge.”
For years, the feisty, 5-foot-1, mother of two dutifully attended Pigtown neighborhood meetings. Each time, the same topic—the shuttered shopping center at the intersection of Washington and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevards—came up. It was bad enough that...
