Photos From Orioles Spring Training

Posted on March 12, 2015 by The Chop

With all the snow and rain and cold that Baltimore has seen recently can you blame us for wanting to light out to Florida and start the Summer early? You can’t. So we did. A trip to Spring Training is always something we thought we’d do ‘one of these days’ and one of these days finally came.

We’re not really sure what we were expecting but the whole thing was… not what we were expecting? It really felt an awful lot like going to a major league ballgame, just in a place with fewer seats. Each team’s home fans make a very good showing, so home games are really homey, and the whole thing works just like a regular season game, from batting practice to the hot dog race to singing Country Boy at the 7th inning stretch. And while the stadium might look bush league, rest assured the price of a Bud Heavy is big league all the way.

Anyway, here are some photos we took along the way. Enjoy…

The first game of the Spring was a road game. The O’s lost 15-2.

Ibis birds pack around in left on the Tigers’ alternate field.

Sitting in the grass is the best way to watch. If you ever go down there for games, bring a blanket!

The training camp is an actual camp, more or less. bunks and mess halls and all.

The stereotype is that Florida is full of old people in trailer parks. And that is true.

Some O’s fans tailgating in the shade outside Ed Smith Stadium.

Someone cruised in from the beach in style.

The stadium feels reminiscent of Camden Yards. Even has some of Oriole Park’s old seats.

The road to Camden Yards is a long one.

The Jays take BP in the sun while snow falls in Baltimore.

Here too there’s a left field picnic area.

The bullpens see a lot of action in the Spring.

Starting lineups are announced with a little bit of pomp.

This may be Birdland but a faithful plastic owl keeps the pigeons away in the Winter months.

There’s not a bad seat in the house.

It’s possible to follow the O’s on any part of their circuit and still make it back to your hotel at a decent hour.

Baltimore Drinking Liberally in Search of New Hosts

Posted on December 2, 2014 by The Chop

Once upon a time in Baltimore the Democratic clubs were a big thing. As a recent episode of WYPR’s Your Maryland explained, the earliest versions of them were largely responsible for the nickname “Mobtown” which still persists today. The Bloody Eights, Plug Uglies and the like in their saloons were eventually supplanted by more legitimate neighborhood based concerns with their own dedicated meeting spots. The clubs carried considerable political clout in their day, but more than anything they were a social organization. Instead of drinking beer and playing bocce ball Baltimoreans used to drink beer and decide who they wanted in the city council.

Those clubs are largely a thing of the past now, with just a few hanging on to a couple of aging members. When the Mount Royal Democratic Club closed up shop five years ago it was a sure sign of the shape of things to come.

For the last ten years or so The Chop has regularly taken part in Baltimore’s Chapter of Drinking Liberally. The group, which we’ve written about here plenty, has been something of a spiritual successor to the old time clubs. Much more loosely organized and informal than an actual club, DL has always welcomed views from all throughout the Big Tent of Progressive thinking. Although there’s no dues to pay or membership cards to stamp, we once had a very large group of attendees who came together regularly for Pints and Politics. There was even one DL marriage a couple of years ago.

But that was then. Now we’re sad to report that Baltimore’s Drinking Liberally chapter is effectively dead. Many members, including our group’s hosts, have lives that have carried them well beyond downtown Baltimore and after a period of waning attendance our chapter hasn’t had a meeting in some months now.

It’s time for Baltimore’s DL to start again from scratch. The national DL organization is actively seeking new hosts for Drinking Liberally Baltimore. The job is as simple as getting together half a dozen friends over pitchers. Below is the message from the National DL office with all the details. We hope that you’ll all read it, share it, and consider coming out for a beer or two when the new DL is eventually formed.

Dear Baltimore Liberal Drinkers,

We’re looking for new hosts for your local Drinking Liberally.

Hosting Drinking Liberally is EASY! All you have to do is decide on a location and time and send out reminders. We set you up with a mailing list and alias email and it’s simple. You will receive regular emails from us and participate in discussions with chapter leaders throughout the network.

Overall, it’s no more difficult than getting some friends together. It works best if people team up. So whether you have a friend you would like to work with or not, just let me know if you’re interested and I’ll link you with another interested leader.

For more information, read here: http://livingliberally.org/drinking/start

In order to get you started, we’ll schedule a 30 minute phone call to go over the logistics and then you’ll be ready to host.

Keep Baltimore connected to the network of 200+ other Drinking Liberally groups nationwide.

Any questions, feel free to send me an email at katrina@livingliberally.org

Best,
Katrina

Mitski, Us and Us Only @ Metro Gallery Sunday

Posted on November 28, 2014 by The Chop

Today is Black Friday in America. Everywhere you turn we’re sure you’re seeing ads within ads on top of ads telling you what makes the perfect holiday gift. Everyone from the lowliest list-post blogger to the Sunday Styles section at the New York Times is coming out with unsolicited advice about the most coldly efficient way to warm the hearts of friends and family- and no doubt the thinkpiece circlejerk on the true nature of giving and receiving is well nigh upon us.

Of course we’ve got our own scorching hot take on Christmas gifts, and here it is: The best gifts are the ones that people will like and use often, but won’t ever buy for themselves. Sometimes you’ve got to give your friends exactly what they want, even if they don’t know they want it.

With that sentiment in mind, you should go to the Metro Gallery on Sunday and buy records from each band playing as gifts for all your friends who like records. Trust us on this. It’ll save you a trip to the mall and your friends will thank you later.

As the Chop’s own special holiday gift to you, dear Readers, we’re pleased to present you now with a gift most rare and pleasing. The Chop is at this hour in possession of of a few brand new, unmastered and unreleased tracks from one of the city’s best local bands, Us and Us Only. How did we get them? Did we bumble around the Motel 6 on North Avenue with flashlights and Lucky Strikes, Nixon Style? Did we don our best Guy Fawkes mask and hack the iCloud, Snowden style? Did Kinsey go back in time a hundred years and plant them in the Mount Vernon time capsule Marty McFly style?

Santy Claus brought ’em. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Check it out:

Even being as raw as they are it’s clear that these tracks are a little deeper, a touch heavier and more deliberate than most of UaUO’s previous work and is another good step forward for Charm City’s erstwhile folk favorites.

They play alongside Portland’s Johanna Warren and Philly’s Square Peg Round Hole, who are each worth coming out for in their own right. But we’re going to make a bold prediction here: Mitski is going to steal this show.

We know it’s terribly lazy music writing to just compare a new artist to a large established act but nobody’s giving us a Pulitzer anytime soon so we’re just going to say it: Mitski reminds us of PJ Harvey. That’s high praise not only because of how amazing an artist PJ Harvey is, but because Mitski manages to call her to mind without being at all imitative or derivative. Her sound is her own brand-new thing in the world.

As soon as one drops the needle on her new record Bury Me at Make Out Creek the natural and only acceptable reaction is: “Welp, the rest of the day is shot- going to have to listen to this non-stop. Grace, be a doll and clear my calendar…”

Keep that in mind before you click play below.

Holiday Happenings in Baltimore

Posted on November 26, 2014 by The Chop

As the end of the year approaches rapidly it’s looking increasingly like we might find ourselves home for the holidays, as it were. Inasmuch as Thanksgiving is tomorrow and it is one of the days that is a holi- we’re at least around for that, and the Holiday Season writ large begins this week. So what does one do when one is home for the Holidays? Anymore for most city residents it means either climbing into the car to drive to the suburbs or getting on a plane to go back to wherever you’re from for the actual holidays.

But at some point between now and Christmas if you’re home for the holidays we’d recommend doing any or all of the following to take full advantage of what it means to be home for the holidays.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE AT CENTERSTAGE. Running now through December 21, Centerstage has brought Bedford Falls to Baltimore. In this adaptation of Frank Capra’s Christmas Classic we open on the studios of WBAL radio in 1946. The ‘ON AIR’ sign flashes and the evening’s programming is a radio play of the life of George Bailey.

As is often true with radio, the audience starts out very much aware of the artifice. In this production though it’s not long before the mics melt away and we start to picture the characters fully. This is accomplished on stage by the cast of five making a subtle transition from radio voice overs to the characters themselves- although throughout each is adept at pulling double or triple duty into small roles as radio players so often do.

This skillful cast takes the best of the film and transforms it into something that, if we’re being entirely honest, is even more enjoyable than the film, which feels a bit longer every Christmas. See it yourself, and maybe slip a pair of tickets into someone’s Christmas card.

ICE SKATING One of the best dates we ever had was at an ice rink. It was with someone we loved. She looked gorgeous in a fur cap and mittens. They’d set up the rink in Fell’s Point, at the site that’s about to become Harbor Point and there was Christmas music playing with just the slightest dusting of snowflakes coming down. They sold hot chocolate that we sipped while we watched little bundled up children fall and slide across the ice during kids’ skate, and we held hands and held each other up a little during adult skate. It was an incredible evening that we wished could last forever.

One of the worst dates we’ve ever been on was at an ice rink. It was with someone with whom we’d soon break up. There were no snowflakes, just an ugly steel roof overhead. No Christmas music- only vapid top 40 hits over a static riddled PA. No adorable cherubic children, just a lot of snotty teenagers. We couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.

That’s the difference between an outdoor rink and an indoor rink. We were totally excited to see the return of an outdoor rink to downtown, but that excitement is tempered a bit by the rink’s size and location at the soon-to-be-demolished McKeldin Fountain. Baltimore is in great need of a permanent location for a large seasonal outdoor rink. We favor Rash Field as a location. Rash is due for a renovation anyway, and there’s no reason they can’t carve out rink space which can be enjoyed by a wide cross section of city residents. Beach Volleyball has a very narrow appeal and more parking is the last thing needed on that site.

In the meantime information on this season’s rink can be found here, and we hope a critical mass of people will turn out to skate and prove the demand for better and more consistent outdoor rinks downtown.

GERMAN MARKET. Back for a second season this year is the German Christmas Village in West Shore Park at the Inner Harbor. The city bills this event as authentic and after having spent some time in Germany during the holiday season we’re glad to report that Baltimore’s version of a German holiday village is about 8/10 on the authenticity scale. Ours is a little more commercial than the ones we saw over there, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Everyone’s got shopping to do and doing it here followed by gingerbread and mulled wine in the beer garden is a can’t-miss holiday plan.

BAZAART. We wrote a post four years ago about how the AVAM’s Sideshow gift shop is one of the best places in the city to do your Christmas shopping, and not much has changed since then. This year the Sideshow goes it one better with their free Bazaart event this Saturday, November 29 from 10-5.

In addition to the packed-to-the gills gift shop the museum welcomes more than 50 local artists and crafters including perennial favorites like Baltimore Papercuts, Red Prairie Press and Bugs of Baltimore. While you’re there tour the whole Rouse Visionary Center for free, or make a day of it and splurge for admission to the full museum.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST. We’ve said before that memberships make great gifts. A gift membership to the BMA, the Creative Alliance, Friends of the Maryland Film Festival or any other cultural institution is a gift any Baltimorean should be proud to receive. But this year perhaps the ultimate Christmas gift is a membership to Hampden’s Charmery.

The shop announced last week that it will be offering memberships beginning in January. Members will receive two pints a month for either the first quarter or the entire year. It’s a little expensive when you do the math, even as premium ice cream goes, but it’s a solid gold guarantee that whoever you’re giving it to has never received an ice cream subscription before. What’s more, with the Charmery’s unique limited flavors it’s a guarantee that this gift is above and beyond a few pints of rum raisin.

With two pints a month, this is definitely the sort of gift that’s for-you-but-really-for-me-too and we think the potential for a latter-day Gift of the Magi scenario is high. He traded in his iPhone and bought her an ice cream membership- she quit the gym and gave up desserts to get him an Apple Watch. You’ll never believe what happened next…

Barbarellesque @ Creative Alliance Tomorrow

Posted on November 21, 2014 by The Chop

The Holidays are upon us in Baltimore. It’s the time of year when we can all come together as one. No, we don’t mean uncle Louie and and grandma and the twins all fighting over the drumstick… This Thanksgiving we’re grateful for the eternal gifts of Providence that money just can’t buy: namely T & A.

Nothing brings people together more than the world of Neo-Burlesque. It’s the one creative pursuit that’s got something for everyone: underground cachet for hipsters, obscure pop culture touchstones for nerds, a heavy dose of Feminism and sex positivity for women, and pasties for everybody!

For the last several years one of the key driving forces in the burlesque scene in Baltimore has been producer and performer Kay Sera, who leads the recently formed troupe Bawdy Shop Burlesque and who, along with a few other Bawdies is starring in a burlesque adaptation of the cult classic Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy at the Creative Alliance tomorrow. We caught up with Kay recently to chat a bit about how she got started in Burlesque, the medium’s increasing popularity, and tomorrow’s show.

Hi Kay! So, burlesque has become fairly popular in recent years, especially among a certain younger, urban cultural/performing arts minded audience. Could you talk a bit about the background of modern burlesque and its increase in popularity?

The resurgence of burlesque—the “Neo-Burlesque” movement and style we see today, began in the 90’s and evolved in part out of the fetish and party scenes of NY and LA. Billy Madley and Tony Marando launched Dutch Weismann’s, an underground cabaret, which included performer Angie Pontani, who will be in Baltimore at The Ottobar with her tour, Burlesque-a-Pades.

In 1991, Dixie Evans, “The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque” opened Exotic World in Helendale, CA to display the collection her friend Jennie Lee had amassed and in that same year, founded the Miss Exotic World pageant to attract visitors and attention to the fledgling museum.

In 2006 the collection relocated to Las Vegas as the Burlesque Hall of Fame and that same year, Baltimore’s neo-burlesque parents, Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey, win Best Duo at the Miss Exotic World/Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend event. From that point through today, burlesque has continued to thrive, to grow and to evolve as a performance art.

Part of its popularity is due to its inclusiveness. There is no “perfect body” in burlesque, no “look” that is right or wrong. There are performers in their 20s and legends from the Golden Era still performing in their 80’s. Boylesque performers are welcomed, as are drag performers as well. Race, gender identity, sexual preference…there is no “norm.” It is a gender-positive, person-positive, sex-positive art form with a core consistent element: Transformation. Neo-Burlesque features dance styles from ballet to twerking. It showcases acting approaches from spoken word to mime. Some costumes harken back to glamorous showgirl styles, others foster a DIY spirit of creation.

Can you tell us a little about how you got started as a performer?

After seeing Trixie Little and The Evil Hate Monkey perform in 2006 at the Mobtown Theater, I was hooked as a fan. I loved the way they combined a playful approach with obvious performance and physical (dance and acrobatic) skill. But it was seeing the world renowned burlesque performer Dirty Martini that galvanized my interest in performing in burlesque. She defied my notion of what was “acceptable.” At that point in my life, I was still very body-conscious and had fallen prey to the media’s ideals of what I should look like. Dirty is, in the vernacular, a “big girl.” And she goes on pointe. She mesmerizes with her theatricality, her grace, her power. It was a revelation.

After taking a number of classes with local and visiting performers, including, of course, Trixie Little but also Indigo Blue (headmistress of BurlyCon) and Dr. Lucky (international performer and professor at NYU), I debuted at Washington DC’s now-defunct Palace of Wonders in 2009. My act was a fairly common transformation trope—I was a mummy, unwrapping myself. I have since seen many new performers call upon familiar archetypes at first. Mummy, mermaid, librarian, Little Red Riding Hood… and many successfully make these characters their own. But it can be challenging to bring something truly new to these stories of transformation. Wanting to tell better stories through my performance is what keeps me interested and continues to inform and drive my acts.

What made you decide to start your own troupe? How has that experience been? How did you connect with or recruit the rest of the Bawdies?

Each of us comes from a theater background, so that common experience coupled with our love of burlesque drew us together. Sunny Sighed recruited us when her former troupe StickyBuns Burlesque disbanded amicably as its founder Paco Fish left Baltimore in March of 2013 to embark on his Burlesque Vanguard Tour. The troupe comprises her, myself, Ruby Rockafella, Cherie Nuit and, as our stage manager/kitten, Giddy GoGo.

Together, we created the mission and values that would shape our work as Bawdy Shop, but each of us still performs as individuals with other troupes, other shows and other partners. That freedom helps keep us vibrant and actively supports our desire to build awareness of and expand audiences for burlesque as well as for the live arts overall.

Bawdy Shop Burlesque is unique in that we are focused on creating original scripted shows. Burlesque shows are typically in a variety format, which is a wonderful way to showcase different performers and styles. Sometimes, burlesque shows have a theme; whether that is a pop culture reference like a specific TV show, or an evocative tone like dustbowl carnival. An emcee helps carry that concept through the performances.

Bawdy Shop Burlesque’s first show, Goin’ Downee Oshun! debuted at the Ottobar in August of this year and used the culture and stories of Charm City as its foundation. It was written as a play first, with burlesque routines then crafted to fit and further the narrative.

The recent October show at the Ottobar was a little more risqué than other Baltimore Burlesque shows we’ve seen. Is pushing the envelope a conscious part of bawdy shop’s strategy?

It is actually part of the Bawdy Shop Burlesque mission statement. “With the unique culture of Charm City as our muse, our shows strive to entertain and to engage, to challenge and to celebrate, to titillate and to tease, to push boundaries and to promote belonging.”

The acts that show something different, that do something other than was expected, those are the acts I want to see, those are the acts I want to be part of and certainly those I aspire to create. I believe that art is obliged to challenge—not just audiences but itself—in order to evolve. Otherwise, we’d all still be doing classic bump-and-grind, strolling across the stage in gowns, languorously removing opera-length gloves and peeling off Cuban-heel stockings.

Is burlesque a full time commitment for you at this point? Would you like it to be? What are your goals for the future?

Although I am absolutely committed to it, it is a passion, not a position. It is a joy, not a job. The moment burlesque feels like “work” to me is the moment I’ll stop doing it.

My goal for the future is to bring new audiences to burlesque. It means to world to me to see fans’ familiar faces in the crowd. And it means even more when they bring someone new to the scene with them. Supporting live performance is important. Stepping outside of one’s home, outside of one’s comfort zone, outside of one’s own control, to experience new things is important. I’m honored to be part of that. It’s fun for me, and so most of all, I want to make it fun for you!

Are you focused exclusively on Bawdy Shop right now or are you participating in other burlesque activities as well?

I am fortunate enough to be part of a number of upcoming shows: Twisted Knickers’ Calendar Girls plays the Yellow Sign Theater [next to Club Charles] on Saturday December 6.

I’m also part of Angie Pontani’s Burlesque-a-Pades at The Ottobar December 21 and at Ram’s Head Annapolis the next day.

Tomorrow’s performances of Barbarallesque is particularly exciting. It’s essentially a live-action version of the sci-fi camp classic Barbarella. Although it features 3/5 of our troupe and I acted as producer it was created prior to Bawdy Shop’s inception and is distinct from Bawdy Shop.

The CompoundProductions5050 team took the script from the film—which is already so delightfully ridiculous that it required few changes— and put it on-stage with striptease, song and dance acts highlighting the movie’s most iconic moments. The zero-G striptease from the original opener is part of our show of course. So are the chomping dolls, Barbarella’s seduction of Pygar, the bird attack and more!

This is the show’s only performance in Baltimore this year, and we’re particularly pleased that the 2014 Burlesque Hall of Fame King of Boylesque, Baltimore’s own Mr. Gorgeous, will debut a new act in his role as Pygar, the blind angel.

Tickets available at www.Barbarellesque.com. There are two shows tomorrow, November 22: 7:30 and 10 (doors at 7 and 9:30). $22 For Creative Alliance members, $25 for the general public.

Advance ticket purchasers will be automatically entered into a raffle to win one of only 1,200 limited edition copies of Jean-Claude Forest’s original erotic sci-fi comic series, Barbarella, newly released in English and generously contributed by Atomic Books.

Limited parking on East Avenue can be reserved; otherwise, there is ample street parking.