Baltimore Bustle

Since returning to Baltimore from nearly a year living in Palestine, it seems as though my darling wife and I have been racing to catch up on every conceivable benefit of living in Charm City.  The last few weeks have been especially busy and fun and this blog posting will quickly chronicle the highlights.

Roller derby!

The Charm City Roller Girls compete monthly on a flat track in Baltimore’s DuBurns Arena.  We enjoyed their first match of the season a few weeks ago with some friends.  It’s a fast-paced game—not as violent as the movies portray—but much quicker and more complex than I expected.  Above all, though, it is fun.  The competitors are serious on the track, but the overall scene is campy, quirky, and lively, with a lot of tongue-in-cheek entertainment.  Team names include: Junkyard Dolls, Night Terrors, and Fresh Meat.  The players use intimidating names such as I.M. Pain, Trixy Von Doom, Ellie Vation, Slambellina, and Holden Grudges.  And the numbers they use only add to the quirkiness: 415, .45, 1964, 3E, and 1on1.  Announcers provide play-by-play, analysis, commentary, and observation over the blasting music.  See below for a blurred photo and some video from the match we saw.  All in all, it was a fun way to spend a Saturday night.

Charm City Roller Girls do battle!

Skiing

Within two hours of Baltimore are at least three ski hills.  Although we’ve had stretches this year of very un-winterlike conditions, it is still possible to ski thanks to the miracles of snow machines and low standards.  Loyal readers of this blog will recall that in December I hit the slopes for the first time in nearly 15 years while in Kyrgyzstan for a business trip.  Eager to show off my skills to my darling wife and to share the joy of skiing with her, we joined friends on Super Bowl Sunday for a day trip to Liberty Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania.  The buildings at Liberty Mountain were drastically more impressive than those at Karakol in Kyrgyzstan, but the skiing conditions were far less impressive.  The crew at Liberty Mountain is probably doing everything in their power to provide decent conditions, but as seen in the photos below, Mother Nature has not been a willing partner in the efforts to create prime skiing conditions.  Nevertheless, we conquered the slopes and had fun doing it. 

Just a 'chance of snow' on this stretch of Liberty Mountain

Showing off skills on the bunny hill

The Arts

Twice last week and twice this week, we’ve enjoyed the arts in various forms—live theater, live music, and documentary film.

Last week Thursday, we joined friends for dinner and a show, namely, Single Carrot Theater’s production of “MilkMilkLemonade.”  The show was lively, fun, and well crafted to present issues of gender identity, societal norms, commercial agriculture, and urbanization.  It didn’t hurt that a talking chicken performed awkward stand-up comedy half-way through the show and that my darling wife’s verbal show of support for the chicken in face of overwhelming disapproval gave a slightly new dimension to that part of the performance. 

The next night, we saw Baltimore’s Lea Gilmore perform an eclectic show featuring blues, soul, reggae, rock-n-roll, and gospel music and several special guests.  Lea artfully weaved in her viewpoints on a range of social justice issues, making compelling and humanitarian arguments after winning over fans with her entertaining style and beautiful voice.

This week, we have been educated and entertained at two documentary screenings.  On Thursday, we saw a documentary called, “We are Egypt,” which was filmed in the months leading up to last year’s revolution.  The documentarian finished filming and departed Egypt two months before the events of January 25, 2011 that are considered the official start of the revolution.  But her film demonstrates that the roots of the revolution were widely established well before January, although it still took a ‘perfect storm’ of events and efforts for the revolution to find the momentum necessary to unseat Mubarak. 

On Friday night we saw the excellent home grown documentary, “Cafeteria Man.”  The documentary follows Tony Geraci for nearly two years as he fights to bring change to Baltimore City School’s food program in his role as chief of food and nutrition for the city school system that includes nearly 200 schools and 85,000 students.  His frustrations with bureaucracy and his successes bringing urban youth into contact with fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables are presented with humor and thoughtfulness.  In my opinion, the scenes featuring school students—especially hearing them talk about their relationship with food and seeing them interact with food—were the most enlightening and the most fun. 

House hunting

Another thing that Baltimore offers is a large housing stock at a reasonable price.  With interest rates historically low and our house currently being rented out, we decided to take the opportunity to see whether it makes sense to purchase another home.  The search has taken us into new neighborhoods—new to me, at least—and has resulted in some compelling options that require further consideration.  We’re still in ‘hunting’ mode, but things are becoming clearer—at least from the perspective of our priorities and preferences—and it’s not inconceivable that we might make a move in the near future.

One of many houses that we won't be buying...

Although this weekend is starting at a much slower pace, I have a feeling that we will find a way to fill the hours with some collection of fun and fulfilling activities.  Until then, I’m content to watch snow fall lightly outside, enjoy the aroma of pork shoulder simmering in the slow cooker, and blog about life in Charm City in 2012.