Okkervil River @ Ottobar Tonight

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A while ago we said we were fed up with going to shows all the time and we were just going to sit home and listen Jens Lekman and a bunch of other stuff that wasn’t punk rock. And we meant it. That’s practically all we’ve done since.

In fact we were so serious about it that we took the step of buying a set of 4 home entertainment speakers from a Goodwill and a used receiver from Amazon. By hooking them up to our existing Apple TV and using our existing iPhone’s Airplay feature we’ve successfully married smart tech to cheap used dumb tech to create a >$150 wireless system that can easily be heard and controlled from any room in the house or the front or back porch. It’s the first time in about 10 years that we’ve had anything better than computer speakers to listen on, and honestly we’d forgotten how much better music sounds on actual audio equipment, especially with a subwoofer and hi-range tweeter. We’ve been doing a lot more active listening lately, and have been digging into some stuff we’ve been dimly aware of but not at all into. Such as:

Iron & Wine: The kind of band that plays the same one-guy-one-guitar song over and over and gets old quickly.

My Morning Jacket: A very good band but painfully slow. Like when you’re a kid and not allowed to stop brushing your teeth until a song ends.

Bon Iver: Also painfully slow. Great choice if you want to spend a snow day reading Russian novels but not good for much else.

The Shins: Still undecided but pretty good, we think.

Magnolia Electric Co. Very impressive sad-bastard rock of the highest order.

Okkervil River: Better than all the bands on this list combined.

We had sort of been dimly aware of Okkervil River‘s existence but never really bothered with them until this Winter. Why would we? What are you going to compare them to? The National and Bright Eyes and Cursive? All those bands are pretty overwrought and kind of boring. On the surface it’s a fair comparison, but to our ears Okkervil River is light years ahead of most bands in their same vein. Their brand of advanced pop-musicianship and smart, mature lyrics puts them in the highest echelon of pop music, right up there with REM, the Talking Heads and the Pretenders.

So it’s lucky for us that they’re coming by the Ottobar tonight with Hundred Visions. We might swing by and see what the door price is. We were even tempted to buy a ticket online until we saw what the bar’s advance fees are up to now: $4.59 per ticket for this show, Turning a $15 door into $20. That’s a little steep, and will go a long way toward alienating casual music fans and getting them out to fewer shows. For example: Sunday’s show featuring Multicult and Fight Amp is billed as “only $7 in advance” but after the fee of $3.97 entry is $11. That’s a lot for a Sunday when we could be sitting at home watching Cosmos and the Walking Dead and Mad Men instead of going out.

Fees for April’s Dismemberment Plan show are $4.97 per $20 ticket, and at the top of the spectrum the fees for an upcoming Eyehategod show are $6.64 per $38 ticket, bringing the total price for that show to a whopping $45 for a club show. If the Ottobar thinks they can survive on selling $30 tickets with $5 fees for relatively obscure acts like Slint and Death in June, then good luck to them. But the rest of the week seems to be increasingly filled with Noise in the Basement, Chucklestorm, Karaoke events and other lackluster draws. Adding $5 to a ticket that’s already $15 for a mid-level weeknight show (our own opinion of the band notwithstanding) is enough of a turnoff to keep us away.

We reached out to the bar via email and received a confirmation that fees had risen recently for the first time in 13 years. The bar described the increase as unavoidable and attributed it to rising costs. They also advise that the best way to avoid fees is to buy advance tickets either at the bar or at Charmington’s Cafe, located across the street.

While poking around on the Missiontix site we also noticed that shows at similar venues like Sidebar, Gold Bar and Metro Gallery are all holding steady at either a $2 or $2.50 flat fee for what’s mostly $8-10 door prices. That’s a little more like it. On any given night it’s going to take a pretty killer bill to convince us to pay more.

If you’re like us and balk at ponying up fees you can head over to Okkervil River’s site and download Golden Opportunities for free. No fees involved.

Two Shows in Station North Tonight

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Here are the bands. One show is loud rock music. The other is slightly less loud rock music. Both bars have booze. Twelve bucks gets you into both.

The way things are going around the Chophouse lately, a double dose of rock and booze is just what the doctor ordered.

A Word About Winter Coats

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According to the Wire’s Bunk Moreland, ‘A man’s gotta have a code.’ And according to the Rules of Fashion, a man’s gotta have a coat. Seriously, men of Baltimore. We’ve seen you out there this Winter wearing two sweaters or trying to pass off a hoodie for a parka. You look like a bunch of teenagers, running out of the house without a coat to spite mom for having the temerity to remind you to wear one.

In fact, we’d argue that a man should have several coats in his closet. A proper grown up doesn’t simply own one pair of shoes and wear them every day for any occasion. Just like shoes, coats that split duty and aren’t pressed into service daily tend to last much longer than the favorite jacket that gets subjected to coffee stains and road salt every winter. That’s to say nothing of having the right coat for the right outfit. You could be dressed to the nines in your best third date ensemble but if your only coat is an old baseball jacket you’ll look and feel ridiculous all night long.

Way back in 2010 we did a three part series here explaining that we favor wool for Winter. Part one focused on pea coats. Part two was about wool bombers and part three extolled the virtues of a proper topcoat. Those three are just about enough to carry you through the rest of your life, but if pushed even we would have to admit that there are other materials in the world besides wool.

Now, we know that at this point it’s mid-March and after a brutal Winter most guys are sick to death of winter coats and the last thing anyone wants to do is buy another one. But that’s exactly why you should, like right now. Retailers need space on their racks and coats take up a lot of it. This is the time of year that they get marked down as deep as they go, with $300-400 coats sometimes going for a quarter of that. Below we’ve picked out a few styles from online retailer ASOS which represent updated versions of classic looks. If you need to step up your coat game, keep an eye out for something along these lines the next time you’re out browsing.

The Duffle Coat

The model here is a little under-dressed. There’s no question the coat is the nicest thing he’s got on by far. That’s the nice thing about most duffle coats- the toggles lend a bit of ruggedness to what is an otherwise refined style. A little outdoorsy-meets-metropolitan. Link.

duffle

The Quilted Coat

Quilted coats go back to ye olde English hunting days. Or something like that. Makes sense: most quilted coats look a bit like jackets and offer both maximum warmth and maximum flexibility. Definitely a better choice for the man who spends his winters chopping firewood than carrying his briefcase from the car to the office and back. The two-tone here is a nice touch but even the plainest coat can pop with the help of a scarf. Link.

quilt

The Parka

Chopping firewood is one thing but there’s a reason people who work outdoors wear parkas: maximum elemental protection. The main thing to remember here is to try not to look like an Eskimo. Nothing too puffy and skip the fur lining around the hood and neck. The one shown here can actually be worn two ways, with the liner zipping out to be worn as a quilted jacket- perfect for days like these where it’s sunny at noon and freezing the rest of the day. Link.

parka4

A Guide to Non-Downtown Hotels in Baltimore

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So you’re planning a trip to Baltimore and you’re wondering where to stay. For the vast majority of the city’s visitors who are coming to the convention center or the ballparks or the Inner Harbor a downtown hotel is fine. There are a ton of them to choose from and they’re all about the same. There’s not even any need to write so much as a blog post about them. We can answer all your questions right in the intro:

Should I stay downtown or in Harbor East? It makes no difference at all, it’s a 5 minute walk.

Should I stay near the stadiums, down by Russell Street? No. There’s nothing there but car traffic and gas stations.

Why are some hotels so much more expensive than the others? Because the Four Seasons is a lot nicer than the Holiday Inn. You get what you pay for.

So that settles that. But every once in a while the New York or DC media publishes one of these 36 Hours in Baltimore type pieces geared toward the culturally-minded traveler who’s more interested in the arts and dining/nightlife scene than a convention and a t-shirt with a crab on it. If you want to see the real Baltimore, the Chop’s Baltimore, you’d do well to consider staying outside of downtown.

But where? Google isn’t much help, since it lists 200+ hotels ranging from Edgewood to College Park. And most often it’s really hard to divine what the hotel’s location is actually like just by looking at Google’s maps. Plus all the reviews are just people whining about petty nonsense. As both a Baltimore native and an experienced traveler, the Chop is here to give you the low-down on uptown hotels.

1… Peabody Court Hotel This is probably your best bet. Located right on Mount Vernon Square the location is beautiful and the hotel is very large with lots of rooms. This is one of the nicest and most walkable neighborhoods in the city and is convenient to everything including the free Charm City Circulator bus. It’s also home to one of our favorite bars/restaurants.
 The decor here is fancy enough to make the ~ $150 price tag feel like a bargain.

2… Hotel Brexton The Brexton has been recently updated and is very well regarded among locals. Also centrally located in Mount Vernon it’s a historic building with modern decor and attractive specials like a room and dinner for two, and a bottle of wine for $169. With normal rates around $130, it’s a boutique experience at a bargain price.

3… The Admiral Fell Inn No visit to Charm City is complete without a visit to Fell’s Point, but for a distinctly non-touristy experience the Admiral Fell is hard to beat. Located both on the water and on the square this is the perfect jumping off point to explore East Baltimore’s nightlife and restaurants on foot, or the rest of the harbor by water taxi.

4… Celie’s Waterfront Inn Just half a block from the Admiral Fell, Celie’s provides a similar experience in a smaller building. Either of these is a great choice for a couple on an anniversary trip. These are two of the most expensive hotels on this list, but it’s possible to get into either for under $200 including taxes so both are worth considering.

5… Inn at 2920 If the Admiral Fell and Celie’s are perfect for anniversaries, the Inn at 2920 may be a better choice for a younger couple on their first romantic getaway. The rooms are individually decorated and thoroughly modern. It’s more along the lines of a luxury bed and breakfast than a proper hotel, but for about $200 a night you get to meet the owners, who are directly in charge of your customer service experience. Can’t get that at the Hilton. The Canton neighborhood is very nice, and this inn is located very near it’s square and Waterfront Park, but some may not find it entirely convenient to the rest of the city.

6… Blue Door on Baltimore [Street] Another one of your boutique/luxury Bed and breakfast options The Blue Door is in Butcher’s Hill, which can be a charming neighborhood with some great old brownstones in it. It’s got easy access to Patterson Park, but it’s pretty far removed from anything touristy or cultural or nightlife-y. But its secret weapon is parking. If you’re in a car anyway and don’t mind driving you can park on the street free and unregulated here, which you cannot do in other neighborhoods. Add to that that you’ll pay about $50 less a night than the other B&B’s on this list and Blue Door might be a good fit for your anniversary/getaway.

7… The Mount Vernon Hotel If you’ve seen this hotel in search results you may be scratching your head at the low rates and thinking it’s too good to be true. We know fellow merchant seamen who have personally stayed here when traveling through Baltimore and we can tell you that this place really is the best deal in town. It is a bit of a no-frills experience, but it’s location is very central. Being just a block or two north of Downtown proper it’s easily accessible to everything. If budgetary considerations are your primary concern, go ahead and book here for about $60 a night. We may be wrong about this, but we believe this hotel is affiliated somehow with the BIC culinary school, so perhaps staffing some positions with hospitality industry students accounts partially for the low rates.

8… Radisson at Cross Keys If you want a traditional hotel experience, this is it. It’s a Radisson and it’s about $150 a night, but it will feel suburban. Although it’s technically in the city, it’s a 15-30 minute drive from anything you’ll probably want to visit. You’re going to need a car, but there’s plenty of free parking here. It’s sort of convenient to JHU, Hampden, Pimlico, the Cylburn Arbouretum, and Druid Hill Park so if any of these is the focus of your visit stay here.

9… Inn at the Colonnade This hotel is directly adjacent to the JHU campus and convenient to Hampden and the Baltimore Museum of Art. There are a few hidden-gem type restaurants in the immediate area, and Tuscany-Canterbury is a beautiful, peaceful neighborhood that is home to the one and only John Waters. This hotel is a Doubletree by Hilton and comes in around $150 a night. It’s far enough from downtown for peace and quiet but close enough to drive straight down Saint Paul Street.

10… Abacrombie Inn This place is low-key. So low key that we walk by it regularly and usually forget it even exists. It’s right around the corner from the Hotel Brexton and about the same price but not nearly as large or well regarded. The TripAdvisor reviews are uniformly awful and the place was on Hotel Impossible, a TV show whose host was quoted in the Sun as saying it was “the dirtiest hotel I’ve ever seen.” if you’re thinking of staying here just don’t. Pick the Brexton or Peabody Court instead.

11… Rodeway Inn This place has always confused us because it’s a B&B looking brownstone, but it’s managed by a company that’s known more for roadside motels than urban properties. But its Mount Vernon location is pretty choice and if your main purpose is getting out of the room and exploring the city this is a great option for budget travelers not expecting any frills at about $65-70 a night.

12… Motel 6 Another motel anomaly in the middle of the city, this one dates to the time before the interstate system. This stretch of North Ave is technically part of US Route 1 which runs from Maine to Key West, so the place was actually built to handle motor traffic and looks like it. Today it’s in the heart of the Station North Arts District. Again, this is a no-frills, low-price option perhaps best suited to solo travelers, but anyone who stays here will get a unique urban exploration experience that even some downtown hotels are now seeking to replicate.

13… HI Baltimore This isn’t a hotel but a hostel. It’s reputedly a very well-run one too. We know a fellow seaman who stays here regularly and loves it. If you want to stay in a hostel, stay here.

A Modest Food Truck Proposal

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Food Trucks are in the news again. According to the Baltimore Sun, there is legislation under consideration by a city council committee to place new regulations/restrictions on the mobile vending industry that has continued to thrive in Charm City these last five years.

We might tell you a bit more about what’s in the legislation and even offer an opinion or two about it, except that we really have no idea what’s in the bill. Whatever it is, any part of it may be cut before it comes out of committee, and rules and provisions are likely to be added willy-nilly until the new rules governing food trucks are as slapdash and nonsensical as the current rules governing food trucks, which were the direct result of the Mayor caving into a yuppie uproar (#Yuproar) and granting food trucks carte blanche to operate wherever and whenever they please which unfortunately doesn’t seem to include late nights.

Nobody in City Hall seems to know what to do with what is by now a very large fleet of trucks. The trucks themselves don’t really know what they’re doing either, and aside from their popular Gathering events operate on a permanent basis of trial and error trying to survive an unusually harsh winter. Fortunately the Chop knows exactly what we should do with them.

In what is but shouldn’t be an unrelated story the Sun opined last year on the imminent $25M badly needed renovation of Lexington Market, saying basically that the market and the blocks around it need a (ahem) more varied clientele if the place is going to survive. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the food trucks and the Market should go together like shrimp and grits.

There exists currently a parking lot just south of the market’s main building at Lexington and Eutaw streets, shown above. It’s our opinion that a few hundred thousand in renovation funds should be set aside to transform this lot into a food truck court where operators could lease space on a semi-permanent basis. The space is easily big enough to hold roughly a dozen trucks on the third of it nearest to the market. The other 2/3 should be given over to a public garden space featuring trees and shrubs which could insulate it a bit from the harsh visual landscape to the south. Such a garden could be completed by picnic tables for use in fine weather. Even without the trucks, some liveable outdoor space akin to Center Plaza is very much necessary at the market, which abuts the street directly and features only indoor common spaces.

Such dedicated food truck spaces have worked well in other cities like Austin, Houston, LA and Atlanta, and it’s not difficult to see why. For the customer it’s a better experience from top to bottom, being able to order away from the street and out of traffic and having a place to sit and enjoy a meal rather than standing on a corner. Customers also get the benefit of knowing where to find trucks without frantically checking social media as well as the option to mix and match items from different trucks easily.

Truck corrals can be a boon for truck operators as well. Lexington Market is perfect, location wise, being walkable from all downtown offices and directly accessible by subway and light rail. Operators who lease spaces have no need of worrying about running afoul of brick-and-mortar restaurant owners and don’t need to waste time and energy circling blocks hours before lunchtime hawking their preferred parking spaces. Baltimore’s trucks have already demonstrated that they cooperate very well together, and being under the aegis of the market would benefit them further by allowing them to do things like easily dispose of garbage or rent additional storage or refrigeration space.

Additionally, the trucks would have proximity to the indoor table space at the market, making it feasible for customers to patronize them year-round and not only on sunny days in the warmer months. That space inside the market is already home to entertainment programming like live music, and we can’t help but think that with the cachet and connections of the food truck community paired to a shiny new renovation, that the market might begin to attract a more interesting slate of musicians than they currently bill, which would in turn lead to more people choosing it as a lunchtime destination. How would you rather spend your lunch hour, eat a Chipotle burrito with a bunch of tourists or grab a Kooper’s burger and see Caleb Stine play at the same time? Placing a food truck lot at the end of a pedestrianized Lexington Street with a renovated Superblock would certainly generate some more of what Sun columnist Dan Rodricks referred to last fall as ‘bag people,’ a downtown resource that’s in short supply currently.

Of course the trucks get the best of both worlds in the bargain because they are, after all, still mobile. The market’s location is central, and only minutes away from the arena and stadiums, etc. Whenever a particular operator wanted to feed people in a different location for a special event it would be as simple as turning on the engine and going.

If the city really wanted to get its act together for 100 trucks, as the Sun quoted one city official saying, then we’d like to see the market/truck corral concept expanded to other public markets, notably Northeast Market which draws from both the large staff at Hopkins and the local neighborhood, and Broadway Market, which is in dire need of any kind of revitalization it can get. Other key locations include the unit block of West Oliver St across from Penn Station, the empty lot at Key Hwy and Fort Ave, the under-utilized Memorial Stadium site, and the vacant lot in Remington at 27th and Keswick. An additional, seasonal area should be established on Camden Street during Orioles home games, when the street is closed to traffic anyway.

Done right, food truck policy will benefit the trucks, the city, and the citizens. We wish we could trust the Rawlings-Blake administration to be more forward thinking and imaginative than to slap up a few street signs and dream up some convoluted lottery process. Unfortunately, we can’t.

(Feature image via Google Earth)