Weekend Lineup: Jan. 22-24

Lydia Woolever — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 14:56:00 +0000

Five things to eat, drink, see, hear, and do with your wintry Charm City weekend.

EAT

Jan. 22-31: Baltimore Restaurant Week

Locations & times vary. $15-35. 410-244-1030. baltimorerestaurantweek.com.

This weekend’s weather might wreck all of your plans or any of the many events planned around the city (see you next time, Garth Brooks), but throughout the blizzard, Baltimore Restaurant Week shall prevail. Launching this Friday, you can get out of the house, avoid going all The Shining on your roommates, and grab a bargain bite at some of the city’s best restaurants. With lunch and dinner specials throughout the week, you can dine at fancy food havens like Aggio, Aromes, Cinghiale, and Petit Louis (see above), or old-school stalwarts like The Prime Rib, Tio Pepe, and Gertrude’s. Better yet, belly up to bars at hip haunts like Birroteca, Corner Charcuterie, Le Garage, and Brew House No. 16. But wherever you go, there’s a warm meal awaiting you, one likely better than any of the junk you stockpiled from the barren shelves of your apocalyptic Trader Joe’s.

DRINK

Jan. 23-24: Snow Day at Banditos

Banditos Bar & Kitchen, 1118 S. Charles St. Sat.-Sun. 10-2 a.m. $5-16. 443-835-1517. banditosbk.com.

When we were kids, snow days were the best, because we got to miss school and go sledding with all our friends all day. As adults, though, snow days are just as fun, because we get the perfect excuse to wear sweatpants and tie a few on—for “medicinal” purposes, of course. On Saturday and Sunday, grab your gang, throw on your snow boots, and make your way to Banditos, where they’ll be throwing a big snow-weekend bash in true Federal Hill fashion. Enjoy cold-weather specials like $16 beer buckets, $5 beers, and bottomless mimosas with your late-morning, Mexican street food brunch.

SEE

Jan. 24: Chesapeake Oysters: The Bay’s Foundation and Future

Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy. 2 p.m. Free with museum admission of $12. 410-727-4808. thebmi.org.

By now, you probably know that Baltimore (and Baltimore) truly loves oysters. The little bay bivalves have been a native nutriment for centuries—once more popular than even our Old-Bay-encrusted crab—and after years of pollution, over harvesting, and near decimation, they’re finally making a comeback. This Sunday, weather permitting, hear Eastern Shore native, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum director of education, and author Kate Livie as she discusses the hallowed history of our Chesapeake Bay oysters, from the Colonial era to modern day, and delves into the science that will help lead them into the future. Her new book, Chesapeake Oysters: The Bay’s Foundation and Future, is a knowledgeable, beautifully written look at our very own waters, and it will be available for sale and signing throughout the event. Update: this event has been rescheduled for Sunday, February 7, at 2 p.m.

HEAR

Jan. 23: Wildhoney, Romantic States, Halfsour, Quitter etc.

The Crown, 1910 N. Charles St.
Sat. 9 p.m. $10. 410-625-4848. thecrownbaltimore.tumblr.com.

Wildhoney became famous last fall when the local indie-pop quintet made national news for its debut album, Sleep Through It. It wasn’t simply that the record was awesome, but rather it had accidentally been pressed onto what should have been vinyls of Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die. Luckily, some surprised fans actually enjoyed the mistake, and now Wildhoney is shining in the midsts of its new EP, Your Face Sideways. This follow-up solidifies their sunny sound among the ranks of other C86-tinged bands—My Bloody Valentine, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Vivian Girls, Best Coast—with a perfect fusion of ’60s and ’80s pop. Hear the band’s lo-fi shoegaze and shimmery guitar this Saturday with other acts like local minimalist rockers Romantic States (who you might have recently caught at Windjammer or on tour with Beach House), local hardcore band Quitter, and Massachusetts’s own old-school pop-punkers Halfsour.

DO

Jan. 22-24: US Lacrosse Convention

Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Fri. 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Sat. 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-12 p.m. $10-190. 410-649-7000. uslacrosse.org.

What
can we say: Baltimore loves its lax.
Since America’s earliest days, lacrosse has been engrained across the
Mid-Atlantic, and since 2004, it has shared the “state sport” title with the ancient
equestrian activity of jousting (yes, jousting, like Medieval Times). This weekend, bros can rejoice and relish in all things lax at the US Lacrosse Convention and FanFest in downtown
Baltimore. Rivals from Maryland and Hopkins, Boys Latin and St. Paul’s,
McDonogh and Gilman, Calvert Hall and Loyola, can come together in their shared
love of this historic sport. Meet and greet some of the country’s greatest
players, nab autographs from Team USA, attend one of 150-plus educational
on-field demos and clinics, and meander through the FanFest expo hall, with
nearly 200 exhibitors, like UnderArmour and STX. Best of all, stick around for the
much-anticipated, nail-biting events of the Major League Lacrosse collegiate
draft.

If you run out of ideas, you can also try these.

Source

Book Reviews: November 2015

Jess Mayhugh — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 10:26:04 +0000

Get a Grip
Kathy Flann (Texas Review Press)

There’s something about Flann’s characters that stays with you. The protagonists in her short stories range across the spectrum of age, social class, and life experience, so it may seem puzzling to feel so connected to them. But perhaps it’s because Flann, a creative writing professor at Goucher College, expertly illustrates the yearning for change and control that we all experience. Though you don’t know exactly what it’s like to be an Estonian teenager journeying from your blighted neighborhood to a college interview with your brother, maybe, like him, you’ve also craved a future rich with opportunity. And even if you’ve never been an unmarried, 40-year-old woman devouring your birthday cake by yourself, perhaps you, too, have ached for love and a purpose in life. Most of these narratives play out in partly real, partly imagined Baltimore neighborhoods that are so authentic you’ll feel as if you could run into any of the characters at the grocery store or the airport. Best of all are Flann’s unresolved endings. With each, she takes you to the precipice, and leaves it up to you to decide which way life will turn.

Chesapeake Oysters: The Bay’s Foundation and Future
Kate Livie (The History Press)

It’s easy to forget, as we’re slurping down these delicious bivalves, how much they’re entwined in our history as a state, region, and country. The earliest English settlers wrote about how they encountered the opalescent shells over an open fire, as Native Americans prepared a meal. Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, thousands in Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore made their livings by harvesting oysters, so much so they nearly destroyed them. Oysters were in such demand that they were given the moniker “white gold” and became the frequent target of pirates, who would steal catches off boats. There was even an Oyster Navy patrolling the Chesapeake. Livie, the director of education at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, skillfully recounts this history and the science behind these fascinating creatures, weaving historical accounts with anecdotes and engaging tidbits. The information couldn’t be more timely, with oyster aquaculture booming and reminding us all how much we owe to these pearly beauts.

One Child for Another
Nancy Murray (11th Hour Press)

Memoir is both the easiest and hardest genre of literature to write. Easiest, because we are showcasing our own histories, what we know best. Hardest, because it can be difficult to face and chronicle our most miserable moments, to detail our failures and disappointments, to admit that yes, life is flawed. In her debut book, Murray, a graduate of the University of Baltimore’s MFA program, treads that ground with grace and sincerity, creating a poignant example of what memoirs can achieve. She details how she became pregnant as a teenager in the 1970s and her decision to give up her child for adoption. She relates the story with remarkable detail and candor—from her description of the outfit she wore as she journeyed to a home for unwed mothers to the excruciating, emotional pain of creating a new life she knew could not be a part of her own. Murray’s story is one of surviving abuse, sacrifice, and ultimately, resilience, told with such honesty that you’ll feel as if you are experiencing it with her. You won’t want to put it down.

Read an interview with writer Nancy Murray.