Visit the AVAM “Toot Suite”
If you’ve been meaning to visit the very-cool American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, now’s the time to go. Summertime Thursday evening admissions are free from 5 to 9, followed by movies shown under the stars on a 30-foot outdoor screen.
If you have (or if you are) someone who doesn’t mind a late drive home, this is a bit of heaven: An outdoor movie watched from a nice hillside after taking in a playful and expansive display of works by self-taught artists. You can bring a picnic along or buy popcorn and hotdogs on site.
The movies this summer celebrate the theme of the museum’s biggest current exhibit, "What Makes Us Smile?" co-curated by founder Rebecca Hoffberger, artist Gary Panter, and Simpson’s creator Matt Groening. Comedic films from “Airplane!” to “Some Like it Hot” are scheduled for screening. Click here for the line-up.
The museum itself is a joy. After checking out the whimsical sculpture garden and once you’ve admired Nadya Volicer's “Smile” welcome mat made from recycled toothbrushes, follow a hallway festooned with the boxes of your most beloved childhood board games, dangling model planes and helicopters to the three-floor gallery. It's the kind of place that features a massive collection of Pez dispensers and a Whoopee Cushion bench.
The day I visited, I lingered longest in a space staged as a bedroom featuring a bed with a headboard of beads and beetle wings made into an intricate and spot-on portrait of MAD Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman by artist Patty Kuzbida.
A glass case filled to brimming with vintage toys arranged in a scene both static and busy stood nearby, including a parade of every action figurine from under your brother’s childhood bed snaking around a double-decker London bus and toy cars of all makes and models.
Steps away, a dog made from guitar parts, picks, and sequins posed under an archway of coconut heads; an enormous and elaborate candy-dotted gingerbread house filled a corner of the room; a blue Electrolux refitted into a space rocket dangled from the ceiling; and this quote from Bill Cosby was painted on the wall:
“Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home.”
If yours are back home, take them to see a free outdoor movie and the coolest art around at the AVAM in Baltimore.
Art Appreciation
Friends were staying in Baltimore for the weekend and we decided to meet for a look around The Walters Museum in the Mount Vernon Cultural District. The Walters has an exceptional collection of art objects: Paleolithic axe heads, mummies of women and cats, and child-sized suits of armor.
Roman sculpture in a sun-filled, marble-floored courtyard, Impressionist and Renaissance paintings, vases from Ancient Greece, Faberge eggs, Tiffany vases, ossuaries, and sarcophagi.
Some rooms are so crowded with ornately framed artworks, that there’s a Victorian salon feel to the place. It freed me from the need to approach each individual piece with academic intent, absorbing and retaining information from the accompanying information plaque. Instead, I stood happily immersed in the visual cacophony.
The building (actually three conjoined and each with its own architectural style) is a delight to walk through. The center, original, museum has a room you can’t miss. The name alone will make you want to grab your keys and drive north: The Chamber of Wonders.
My friend Gail describes visiting the Walters to be like rambling around in a curio cabinet and the Chamber of Wonders is the distillation of that feeling. Inside are the wonders of Nature on display in shadow boxes and glass-fronted bureaus and hung on every inch of wall space.
Cheetah skins and giant mounted butterflies; the head of a moose; shelves of seashells; enormous beetles pinned in a case; the full body of an alligator above the doorway that reads, “Through Such Variety is Nature Beautiful.”
The Egyptian Room has an entirely different feel. The space is hushed, the lighting muted, the artifacts in spare groupings.
It’s a room to whisper in. You’d have (barely) heard me say, “Look, a cat mummy,” before I tiptoed over to a set of mounted carved tablets etched and painted in 2000 BC (and still looking good!)
And when you think you can’t possibly be any more amazed, walk past the statue of George Washington atop the obelisk just outside the Charles Street exit and cross the street to The Peabody Institute.
You can walk right in to the famous library there. “The Peabody Stack Room,” according to the Institute's website, “contains five tiers of ornamental cast-iron balconies, which rise dramatically to the skylight 61 feet above the floor.” It could be an adjunct to the Chamber of Wonders: a work of art in its own right.
O’s v. Nats: It’s in the Ballpark
This summer I had the pleasure of pretending to be a baseball fan at both of our local stadiums, the relatively new Nationals Park and Camden Yards in Baltimore.
We took Metro to the Nationals game, watching the train fill with more red caps and shirts at every stop. I enjoyed the lively scene coming down the promenade on the short walk from the Navy Yard Metro stop to the front gates as people bought peanuts, met friends, and socialized before going in to root for their team. There's a great sense of arrival approaching this stadium. It feels like a party at the gates.
The new phenom, Strasburg was pitching (latest surgery news here), and people seemed giddy to be there. Luckily, in spite of the buzz, we were able to buy tickets on the spot for pretty good seats.
As someone who is only mildly and politely interested in what’s happening on the diamond, ambiance plays a big role in my baseball outing. In spite of the joyful, red-colored gaiety in and around Nationals Park, I prefer the old-timey, intimate feel imposed by the long brick warehouse wall and the sweeping city views at Camden Yards. Even the gleeful roar that sounded as Strasburg took the mound is not enough to entice me to this more concrete-feeling baseball park.
Nationals Park, designed by the same firm that created the plans for Camden Yards (and about 15 other parks since then), purposefully lacks the retro touches of the Baltimore design. But whatever makes it more modern, also gives it a generic feeling. Nor does it feel attached to its city in the same way the Orioles’ park does.
Josh Levin writes, when he compares Nationals Park to the temporary former home of the team, “If RFK Stadium was an old acquaintance who'd seen better days, then Nationals Park is the pal who's always asking you for money."
I found both excursions rather expensive and both venues filled, in a theme-park kind of way, with pricey food stalls, high-cost souvenirs, and even kiddie rides. Certainly, if you’re taking your family to a game, you’ll spend hundreds of dollars on the event. (The Team Marketing Report, a sports marketing publishing company, shares its shocking averages here.) My friend Adam looked at the children-sized Orioles jersey for his daughter and politely walked away: $79.99 seemed high, even for this ardent O’s fan and devoted dad. At least you are immersed in the historical feel and beauty of Camden Yards when you surrender your dollars there.
This photo is by Amanda Lippert, www.baseballstadiumreviews.com
For me it comes down to this: Nationals Park has Teddy's BBQ, the racing presidents and also, “Shout” by Otis Day and the Knights during the 7th inning stretch. The Orioles’ park sits amidst great pubs and restaurants, has awesome crabcakes for sale inside the gates (only $12 which is barely a mark-up compared to the $7.25 you spend for a beer!), and, curiously, “Thank God, I’m a Country Boy” as its mid-game, crowd-rousing ditty (“Life ain’t nothin' but a funny, funny riddle!")
Sadly, if you’re sitting in a seat at Camden Yards, you’ll be (one of the few fans) in one of the most beautiful parks in the country, watching the worst team in the league. Still, I’ll take the Orioles and the longer ride home.
Baltimore is Best
I knew I should have checked President Obama’s schedule before heading to Baltimore with Dani on a recent Friday. We’d planned to explore the whimsical American Visionary Art Museum and grab lunch afterward. As we neared the Inner Harbor exit off of 95, however, it was clear that something was going on – traffic was backed up all the way along the exit ramp. Being a native Baltimorean (or something akin to a native, having grown up 20 miles north of downtown), I bailed out early on Russell Street and avoided the traffic jam – for the time being.
Since we were further west than I’d expected to be, I talked Dani into a quick stop at Lexington Market, home of Faidley’s Seafood, and arguably the world’s best crabcake.
This is a delicacy I made the mistake of introducing to my father-in-law many years ago, and now I dutifully arrange for a four-pack to be shipped to him every holiday season. The one year I forgot, he called and we exchanged pleasantries for nearly 15 minutes before he arrived at the true purpose of his call: “um, I was wondering what happened to the crabcakes?” I haven’t let him down since.
We scored a parking spot right by a market entrance. Ducking inside, I managed to whisper to Dani that Lexington Market is not for the faint of heart, just seconds before a homeless man stopped us to chat. We’d arrived about an hour before the lunchtime rush, and by the looks of things the vast, inviting space that always smells like something you’d want to be eating was being used by several denizens of the streets to keep their toes warm.