Monday, July 31, 2006
THE THIRSTY DOG & LITTLE HAVANA
We really like the Thirsty Dog in Federal Hill. It’s a relaxed place (i.e., seat yourself), has great home brews which are served two-for-one exclusively (the glasses aren’t that big, but it’s a great gimmick) and they have amazing specialty pizzas (we find a new favorite every time we go). We first started going there after our Fluid Movement practices last year, and Saturday night found us there after this year’s performance. I had my reservations about going there on a Saturday night, and sure enough it was completely packed with no available tables. We were about to make ourselves comfortable at a length of rail under the stairs when we noticed that some other friends of ours from FM were already there. It was a tight fit, but we managed to get all eight of us into a single booth. Our waitress remembered us from previous visits and took all of our orders in stride and managed our table with grace and alacrity. The great thing about the double glasses and personal pizzas is that since everyone orders something different, everyone gets to try multiple dishes and drinks every time we go.
After the final performance on Sunday, a majority of the cast descended on Little Havana on the water in Federal Hill. I’d never been there before, and it’s always a worry whether a restaurant can handle such a large group with almost no warning. Their large deck area was able to accommodate all of us, although seating got a little cramped as we continually pulled chairs around to other tables. The view of the Inner Harbor was beautiful and peaceful, although it was mostly taken up by that big apartment building with the lit up top floor seen through an unfortunately placed chain-link fence. The waitress did an admirable job and they had a good beer selection. My wife opted for a mojito, “the Mexican Mint Julep” and the chicken nachos they served were very tasty. I may have to go there sometime to try out their sandwiches and burger selections.
We really like the Thirsty Dog in Federal Hill. It’s a relaxed place (i.e., seat yourself), has great home brews which are served two-for-one exclusively (the glasses aren’t that big, but it’s a great gimmick) and they have amazing specialty pizzas (we find a new favorite every time we go). We first started going there after our Fluid Movement practices last year, and Saturday night found us there after this year’s performance. I had my reservations about going there on a Saturday night, and sure enough it was completely packed with no available tables. We were about to make ourselves comfortable at a length of rail under the stairs when we noticed that some other friends of ours from FM were already there. It was a tight fit, but we managed to get all eight of us into a single booth. Our waitress remembered us from previous visits and took all of our orders in stride and managed our table with grace and alacrity. The great thing about the double glasses and personal pizzas is that since everyone orders something different, everyone gets to try multiple dishes and drinks every time we go.
After the final performance on Sunday, a majority of the cast descended on Little Havana on the water in Federal Hill. I’d never been there before, and it’s always a worry whether a restaurant can handle such a large group with almost no warning. Their large deck area was able to accommodate all of us, although seating got a little cramped as we continually pulled chairs around to other tables. The view of the Inner Harbor was beautiful and peaceful, although it was mostly taken up by that big apartment building with the lit up top floor seen through an unfortunately placed chain-link fence. The waitress did an admirable job and they had a good beer selection. My wife opted for a mojito, “the Mexican Mint Julep” and the chicken nachos they served were very tasty. I may have to go there sometime to try out their sandwiches and burger selections.
Friday, July 28, 2006
FLUID MOVEMENT
My wife and I are performing with the Fluid Movement troupe again this year. They do incredibly fun performance art by taking a fairly straight piece of subject matter and giving it the most bizarre twist they can come up with. “It’s A Wonderful Species” is a water ballet that chronicles the story of Charles Darwin as he struggles with publishing his Origin of Species. We play Mexican wrestlers!
We performed it twice last weekend, barely beating the rain. We’ll be performing again this weekend, July 29 & 30 in Riverside Park in Federal Hill.
www.fluidmovement.org
What I love about Fluid Movement is hanging out with all the people they attracted to the troupe. This isn’t about professional acting, it’s about community involvement, and so anyone may perform regardless of ability or body type. It only takes a commitment to have fun, so you wind up with a lot of fun and interesting people. (Remind me to talk about the 48 Hour Film Project.) There are lawyers, teachers, artists, housewives, and people from all walks of life involved. One guy in our scene is a French physicist who is in this country doing his post-doctorate work. And the field he’s pursuing? Fluid Mechanics! We’re still not sure if he thinks this is just some sort of bizarre seminar…
My wife and I are performing with the Fluid Movement troupe again this year. They do incredibly fun performance art by taking a fairly straight piece of subject matter and giving it the most bizarre twist they can come up with. “It’s A Wonderful Species” is a water ballet that chronicles the story of Charles Darwin as he struggles with publishing his Origin of Species. We play Mexican wrestlers!
We performed it twice last weekend, barely beating the rain. We’ll be performing again this weekend, July 29 & 30 in Riverside Park in Federal Hill.
www.fluidmovement.org
What I love about Fluid Movement is hanging out with all the people they attracted to the troupe. This isn’t about professional acting, it’s about community involvement, and so anyone may perform regardless of ability or body type. It only takes a commitment to have fun, so you wind up with a lot of fun and interesting people. (Remind me to talk about the 48 Hour Film Project.) There are lawyers, teachers, artists, housewives, and people from all walks of life involved. One guy in our scene is a French physicist who is in this country doing his post-doctorate work. And the field he’s pursuing? Fluid Mechanics! We’re still not sure if he thinks this is just some sort of bizarre seminar…
Thursday, July 27, 2006
I made the mistake of telling my wife we were having a “date”. Not bad in and of itself, but that puts a lot of pressure on me to make sure she has a good time while I romance her. What I should have done was take her to the Charles in Baltimore to see “Wordplay” or one of the other art films showing there and then taken her to dinner someplace that was participating in “Baltimore Restaurant Week”. More on that later.
Instead, last night my wife and I went to see “Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest” at the Arundel Mills Mall. There are a lot of movies out right now that we haven’t had a chance to see, and I had a pair of free tickets (matinee only) that were burning a hole in my pocket. It was a good movie, albeit too much of a sequel and had a lack of chemistry between some of the principals. I’m notoriously hard to please when it comes to movies, but the story was consistent and there were enough good moments mixed in with the “action fluff” that I barely noticed the over-long running time.
Afterwards we went to Remomo, a local restaurant in the same mall. It’s in a primo spot and gets a lot of business, as evidenced by the much-loved plastic menus. The food, as always, was great. The service wasn’t stellar, but I don’t expect much from a restaurant in a mall near closing time on a weeknight. Besides, I read far too many waiter blogs to think the world revolves around me just because I’ve ordered a glass of wine.
Baltimore Resturant Week is a kind-of nice stab at attracting folks to come into the city to eat at a nice restaurant on a weeknight. Other cities do it with great success, apparently, so hopefully it will work as well here. Each restaurant will offer a $30 pris-fixe dinner and some a $20 pris-fixe lunch. That seems like a bargain on the surface, but my eyebrow went up when I first heard about it. $30 a person? That’s about what I usually pay, anyway, so how is this a bargain? Turns out, the pris-fixe is a three-course meal, which includes an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. There we go. I rarely order appetizers or desserts. Usually we just get entrees and several glasses of beer or wine (drinks, of course, are not included in the pris-fixe menu offerings). We might go to a participating restaurant, but I’m not sure if we’ll bother with their pris-fixe menu. One nice thing is that several parking garages are participating as well by offering “$3 discounted rates.” There’s no info posted anywhere on whether that means $3 per hour or $3 off the hourly rate or $3 off the entire parking fee, but discounted parking in Baltimore is nothing to be sneezed at.
Instead, last night my wife and I went to see “Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest” at the Arundel Mills Mall. There are a lot of movies out right now that we haven’t had a chance to see, and I had a pair of free tickets (matinee only) that were burning a hole in my pocket. It was a good movie, albeit too much of a sequel and had a lack of chemistry between some of the principals. I’m notoriously hard to please when it comes to movies, but the story was consistent and there were enough good moments mixed in with the “action fluff” that I barely noticed the over-long running time.
Afterwards we went to Remomo, a local restaurant in the same mall. It’s in a primo spot and gets a lot of business, as evidenced by the much-loved plastic menus. The food, as always, was great. The service wasn’t stellar, but I don’t expect much from a restaurant in a mall near closing time on a weeknight. Besides, I read far too many waiter blogs to think the world revolves around me just because I’ve ordered a glass of wine.
Baltimore Resturant Week is a kind-of nice stab at attracting folks to come into the city to eat at a nice restaurant on a weeknight. Other cities do it with great success, apparently, so hopefully it will work as well here. Each restaurant will offer a $30 pris-fixe dinner and some a $20 pris-fixe lunch. That seems like a bargain on the surface, but my eyebrow went up when I first heard about it. $30 a person? That’s about what I usually pay, anyway, so how is this a bargain? Turns out, the pris-fixe is a three-course meal, which includes an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. There we go. I rarely order appetizers or desserts. Usually we just get entrees and several glasses of beer or wine (drinks, of course, are not included in the pris-fixe menu offerings). We might go to a participating restaurant, but I’m not sure if we’ll bother with their pris-fixe menu. One nice thing is that several parking garages are participating as well by offering “$3 discounted rates.” There’s no info posted anywhere on whether that means $3 per hour or $3 off the hourly rate or $3 off the entire parking fee, but discounted parking in Baltimore is nothing to be sneezed at.
