Guide to Baltimore iPhone Apps, Part I

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[Click here for part two of this post.]

One of the most popular ad taglines in recent memory has been ‘Don’t leave home without it.’ It applied to the American Express card initially, but since the phrase first hit the airwaves it’s burrowed itself deep into the public consciousness and been applied to anything and everything that might be considered essential.

These days there is practically nothing more essential than a smartphone. Forgot your wallet? Pay with your phone. Locked out of your house? Ask Siri for a locksmith. Forgot your tickets to the big event? Just reach up and download them from the cloud.

But a quiver is useless until it’s filled with arrows. To get your iPhone working for you you need apps that relate directly to your life. And if you’re reading this, odds are your life is all tangled up with the city of Baltimore. And much like Our Fair City, sometimes you have to look below the surface to discover the charm. It’s easy enough to find the apps from a local TV or radio station, but we’ve had to dig a little deeper to discover some of our favorites.

Here’s the first half of our top 20 choices in no particular order. All of them are free to download unless otherwise noted.

WYPR This is the one essential app from traditional media. You can listen live to WYPR or the BBC World Service, and access on-demand content for any NPR or YPR program (Cellar Notes!). You can also read content as articles if you prefer. It even comes with a few neat features like a sleep timer and alarm clock, and of course you can donate to the station from the app. Highly recommended.

City Paper As much as we like City Paper, we don’t care much for their iPhone app. When we had it installed it felt like orphaned technology so much so that even the content didn’t update. You’re much better reading it in print or simply bookmarking their mobile site on your home screen, which is what we do. Not recommended.

Bmore 311 The 311 app works surprisingly well. In fact, it works better than the city website or the city government itself for that matter. We’ve used this app several times to open new 311 requests and the process is simple and fast, although the city misleadingly labels many requests as ‘closed’ when they are not actually resolved. It’s also strangely addictive to scroll through the requests of others complete with photos and commentary, and you can tweet right from the app as well. Highly recommended.

Artscape An iPhone app is a new addition to the festival for 2013. Because Artscape is still more than a month away it might be a little premature to judge this, but it does look very promising. The app includes the full program and is sortable by time or location and fully searchable, as well as other nifty features like maps and updates as well as the ability to plan your own itinerary. Recommended.

Wham City Lights This app, and a similar one specifically for Dan Deacon turn your phone into a mini light-show and synthesizer. You can read more about the tech and development of the app in last week’s B cover story. We predict it’ll be a sleeper. As more and more artists embrace it and further updates reinvent it it will become even more fun to play with. Recommended.

Mission Tix We’ve been carrying this app for a long time now and find it extremely useful for local shows. You can browse a list of all upcoming events or search by name. Buying tickets for multiple shows in one checkout is convenient, and any tickets bought from your computer on missiontix.com automatically show up on the app, eliminating the need for printing. You can even transfer tickets to friends via email, which is great if you can’t make it at the last minute. Highly recommended.

The Ravens As it happened we were not near a TV or radio during the Super Bowl this year, but luckily for us the Ravens’ iPhone app allowed us to follow every play in real time and look back over the full game play-by-play. We like it so much we’re going to keep it, at least during football season. Whether you want full info straight out of the playbook or just a quick check of the score, the Ravens’ app has something for die hard fans and casual observers alike. We’d love it if the MLB would allow clubs to create apps like this instead of trying to get us to pay $15 for MLB at Bat every year. Highly recommended.


Maryland Travel Traffic NOAA All-In-1 Since we haven’t got a car or a commute to be bothered with, we’re going to skip this 99 cent download, but if you struggle with traffic even semi-regularly this looks like a great bet. You can see a live feed of any traffic camera in the region and get travel times instantly for wherever you’re going. The app also includes weather from NOAA, directions and a whole lot more, and all without the annoying jabber of local news commercials and helicopters. Recommended.

Visit Baltimore Likewise this is another app that we don’t carry personally. If you’re a Baltimore resident you’re probably not going to find this app very helpful since you already know your way around pretty well. For outsiders though it’s a good idea to download and carry this at least through the duration of your trip. If you’re sticking around downtown on a first time visit you’ll find it especially useful. Not recommended.

Best Small Grills for Urban Dwellers

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Now that June is here Summer is in full swing in Baltimore. Long gone are the days of spending whole Sundays in the kitchen, boiling soups and sauces and baking and generally trying to make the kitchen as cozy as possible. Our kitchen is no longer cozy: it’s hotter than Satan’s nutsack. We’d like to spend as little time in there as possible this Summer.

But how do we do that without subsisting until September on a diet of Papa John’s and bar food? Simple- it’s time to buy a grill.

We probably should have sucked it up and purchased a grill years ago. We’ve always made the same excuses time and again: it’s a bitch to clean, you’ve got to buy charcoal, it takes too long to heat up, hell- we don’t even eat meat. But no more. This Summer we’re in the market for a grill, and like most inner-city residents our space for grilling is severely limited. Being pretty much confined to decks and porches, we haven’t even got space to keep a grill at all. Anything we buy is going to have to go into the basement for storage, but as a bonus it can go to the beach or the tailgate just as easily.

Here are some of the models we’re looking at, one of which will probably be on our deck firing up asparagus and veggie kebabs by this weekend.


Weber’s Smokey Joe

The Smokey Joe is the scaled down version of Weber’s One-Touch series, which is the classic American grill. Hell, it’s the grill we grew up with. Weber is pretty much the Nascar of grills in that its all bells, no whistles standardization highlights the skill of a cook over the technical specs of the grill. If you can’t cook a good burger on a Weber, it’s your own fault.

Lodge Sportsman’s Grill

Priced at around $150 the Sportsman’s Grill is several times more expensive than the Weber, but one gets the feeling you probably get what you pay for here. Weighing in at almost 30 pounds, the whole thing is cast iron and will probably be around the house long enough to cook for our grand kids. With a fold-out door for additional coals, this thing is just as comfortable handling burgers and dogs as it is doing duty as a hibachi on stir-Fridays. But as one reviewer points out on their website it doesn’t have a lid, which means that when the grill is cool it’s a buffet for cats and birds and other urban fauna.

Firesense Notebook

All things considered this is probably the grill we’re going to end up with. At around $35 it folds completely flat with the grill grates inside for portability and storage. While it’s big enough to do six burgers and as many dogs at once, it’s also small and light enough to fit on an old TV tray. It’s even available in your choice of black or stainless steel finish.

Bodum FYRKAT

If the Weber Smokey Joe is your father’s Oldsmobile, Bodum’s FYRKAT is a Scion TC. It’s the same basic grill type but with stylish design updates and brighter colors. The low-profile lid takes up less space, as well as clamping down to the grill itself for grab-and-go convenience.

Char-Broil CB500X

Even bigger and badder (and heavier) than the Lodge grill listed above, The CB500X probably isn’t destined for the Chophouse, but if you’re a serious cook with limited room it’s going to be hard to beat. With two separate grates, a coal door, and an integrated thermometer this thing is basically a scaled down version of a world-champion barbecue grill. Forget entertaining friends, with an included smoker box inside it’ll enable you to go out and win barbecue competitions, or put it in the back of your pickup and open your own cutesy gourmet food truck.

The Chop Approves of the Friendly Wager

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We’ve got a case of the Mondays today. We don’t really feel like going anywhere and or doing anything the least bit trying or even writing this blog post. And the Mondays are especially bad this week, since this past weekend was probably one of the best we’ve ever spent, at least in recent memory.

Saturday we were lucky enough to attend the wedding of a great friend, which we don’t mind saying was the most elegant and perfectly planned party we’ve ever been to, and was exactly like stepping into the pages of Garden and Gun. Such a great Saturday was followed up with two brunches and a round of golf on Sunday, and through it all your Chop was driving a fancy German car and had a pretty girl on our arm. So, you know, it’s fair to say we’ve made some right life decisions somewhere along the way.

Secretary of State John Kerry collects a case of beer from the Canadian foreign minister after a hockey bet.

And since we’re feeling pretty lucky right about now, this is as good a time as any to go ahead and publicly declare our affinity for the good old-fashioned friendly wager.

You see, our round of golf was complimentary yesterday; taken care of by another good friend who lost a wager to us back in November. We predicted on this blog that president Obama would end up with 323 electoral votes. Our friend didn’t believe it. On election day Nate Silver was giving the president around 308 electoral votes in his predictive model, so we placed an over/under bet at that number and the rest is history. Obama won pretty much every swing state and ended up with 332 electoral votes in a crushing and humiliating landslide over Mittens Romney and we wound up with a free round of golf.

But it got us thinking; why should this be an uncommon occurrence? We ought to be collecting free shit all the time on the power of our prognostications. Once upon a time when men were men and cash was king friendly wagers were made with regularity. Not only do they make something mildly interesting a lot more interesting, but there’s satisfaction on both sides in that one end collects, the other has the fulfillment of keeping his word.

So we’re resolved to wager more from here on out, and it’s in that spirit that we present the solemn rules of wagering. If any of you would like to lay a wager according to these rules, go ahead and make us an offer. We just might take you up on it.

  • Bet on something significant, but not crucial, like a sporting event.
  • The stakes should be low, but high enough to matter: $20-50.
  • If possible, avoid betting cash. Dinner or a bottle of wine is good stakes.
  • Due diligence is in order to make sure the bet is fair.
  • If it’s not fair, agreeable odds should be laid.
  • Double or nothing should always be offered, but only once.
  • Collections and payments should be prompt. Your honor as a man depends on it.

    • Tomorrow: South Carey Retirement Show @ CCAS

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    The Chop made our first-ever trip to SoWeBo fest last weekend. As we’ve mentioned before, crossing MLK is to us like hopping over the Berlin Wall into an entirely different city. Being From East Baltimore and eventually settling in North Baltimore, we’ve hardly ever had any reason to go into west side neighborhoods, and even less since the demise of spaces like the Loft and the Sushi Cafe.

    But when we got over there the festival itself was pretty much exactly what we expected it to be, namely some music, some food, some beer, and a whole hell of a lot of Baltimoreana. In our estimation more than half of all the vendors were carrying some sort of Balto-centric wares. There was the typical proliferation of Mr. Boh and Oriole Bird t-shirts and no shortage of paintings and photographs representing the best and worst of city life. There’s absolutely no doubt about it- over the last several years people around here have gone absolutely nuts with seeking out Baltimore ‘authenticity’ and expressing local pride.

    But take it from the Chop: there is nothing but nothing more Baltimore than South Carey.

    Listening to South Carey (yes, named after the street they grew up on) is like Baltimore to the Nth power. It’s like eating a heroin laced crab cake on top of the Orioles’ dugout with Barbara Mikulski while John Waters films it. And tomorrow at the Charm City Art Space they’re going to do the most Baltimore thing it’s possible to do: retire, and spend the rest of their days sitting out on the stoop.

    It’s the end of an era in an era of ends of eras. South Carey represents one of the last remaining bands from the early days of the Charm City Art Space. First it was farewell to Farewell Hope, then the Spark flamed out, followed by the Ruin of Ruiner and the demise of Double Dagger. The New Flesh got old, Never Enough had enough, and Downside Risk went down too. South Carey going South is more than just a local band playing its last show. For a lot of us, it means recognizing a new time and a new generation of creative talent in Baltimore as we nod approvingly from our place in the Old Punks’ Home.

    But that’s not to say that South Carey isn’t going out with a bang. They’ve lined up a killer bill to send themselves off featuring longtime CCAS denizen and honorary Baltimorean Erik Petersen, along with Pure Junk and Adults, who are two of this blog’s current favorites and local screamo-throwback outfit Night Moves.

    We’re not going to be able to make it to the show tomorrow, and more’s the pity for it. If you can’t make it either (or even if you can) we suggest you click over to South Carey’s Bandcamp site, where they’ve got a few new tracks up. In addition to September’s Good at Doin’, Not Good at Doin’ Well and their Record Store Day release Pure Vanity, They’ve also just released the 2-track, name-your-own-price Retirement Gift. Smart money says download all three and call it an even ten bucks. After all, these guys could use the bread. Tomorrow they claim their gold watches, and there’s no 401k’s in punk rock.

    Oriole Park at Camden Yards: Best Seats in the House

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    UPDATE: If you found this post while looking for tickets to 2014 Orioles Opening Day, we have some for sale. Please see This Post.

    After more than twenty years of ballgames in downtown Baltimore it’s been pretty well established that when it comes to Oriole Park at Camden Yards there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Being stuck in the upper rows of the 380’s on a Student Night is about as bad as it gets, and even then you’ve got a full view of the field, an eye-line to the scoreboard, and a five-senses fill of the best atmosphere in all of baseball, and all for around $10.

    Being a native Baltimorean and a fan who’s stuck with the team through the lean years (and done our fair share of seat-jumping) we’ve been seated in just about every section in Oriole Park, and we’ve got a few favorites we’d like to share with the ticket-buying public.

    The Orioles have a complete guide to the park with a price chart and photo visualizations for every section at their site. It’s a handy tool for picking seats, but it can also be a little overwhelming with so many choices available. So we present here for your baseballing pleasure our top five seating sections at the Yard.

    These choices don’t necessarily represent the actual ‘best seats in the house’ which are of course the luxury skyboxes and the front row behind the dugouts and similar high profile, high dollar locations. Our picks are meant to represent the best bet for the casual fan who visits the park a few times a year, and wants to realize a good value for the dollar, particularly at crowded or sold-out games.


    Section 8 Sections 8 and 6 are unique in the park because of the way that they’re angled toward the infield. Comparable seats in sections 10-14 and 60-64 may be a bit closer, but they squarely face the outfield and keep fans’ necks turned toward the plate for the entire game. Section 8 is also triangular, getting smaller as you get closer to the field. But perhaps its best feature is its easy access to Eutaw Street. Fans who want to stretch their legs have Boog’s, Dempsey’s, the Flag Court, and the new center field rooftop bar just a few steps away. Be careful though: during a day game you’re staring into the sun and feeling the heat all day.

    Section 280 Section 280 is another anomaly on the seating chart. With a view straight down the 3B foul line, it’s the only left field club section that isn’t completely set aside for the left field picnic perch package but also faces the infield directly. At $30, seats in sections 272-280 are the least expensive option on the club level, and frankly any seat in those sections is a bargain. Getting access to the club level with its own separate bars and foodservice and bathrooms is worth every penny of whatever premium you pay over comparable tickets, and as a bonus you can scoop up as many free peanuts as you want from the barrel on the 280’s concourse.

    Section 308 If funds are tight and the game is going to be crowded, section 308 is a great bet. The Right Field nosebleeds are a lot closer to the diamond than the left field nosebleeds, and 308 is a small and almost intimate section which is bounded by the walkway at the back, the rail in front, and the face of the warehouse on one side. at $20 it’s a Flite Deck view without a Flite Deck price.

    Section 55, back rows. If you like sitting in the lower bowl, the upper rows of sections 55-65 and 7-17 are the cheapest way to do it. These seats are only $17 and offer a full close up view of the action. You may not be able to see the scoreboard, but you’ll almost certainly be able to catch replays and television angles on one of the many flatscreen monitors in the lower reserve sections. These are also the absolute best seats to have on a possible rain delay date, or on a mid-Summer day game when the heat is out of control.

    Section 35 If you’re going to splurge a little on ticket prices, Sections 33-39 are a great choice and will be worth the money. These are small, less crowded sections directly in front of the press box. They’ve got the same sight line as the seats right behind the plate, but we would say even a better view as being up a little higher keeps you in better perspective looking at the outfield. As a bonus you’re also likely to be sitting right next to major league wives and guests, as these are the sections where their comped tickets are usually located. (section view photos via orioles.com.)