Orb may not have won the Preakness yesterday, but he did win over the crowd at Pimlico and revived local interest in horse racing (yay, Maryland economy!). Check out some of the scenes our photographer Tyler Merbler snapped at the races. It looks like a loss by the hometown favorite and threatening rain did little to dampen the mood. – The Eds.

All photos by Tyler Merbler.

Sagamore Farm. All photos by Krista Smith.

Tomorrow, the 138th Preakness Stakes, or the “Freakness” as it is sometimes affectionately known in Baltimore, will run at the Pimlico Race Course.

Whether you find yourself at the race sipping Black-Eyed Susans and wearing a pink taffeta dress that matches the flower on your hat, or funneling malt liquor and wearing black denim shorts that match the tattoo on your abdomen, you will be participating in the long Maryland tradition of thoroughbred horse racing. It’s a tradition that owes much of its rich history, and maybe even a bit of its optimistic future, to the pragmatism of Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt.

Margaret’s first son, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, was born in 1912. Mrs. Vanderbilt was hopeful that her boy would grow up to be a businessman and she had good reason to be bullish. Men on both sides of Alfred’s family had built huge companies (Bromo-Seltzer on her side and the New York Central Railroad on her husband’s side). Now widowed, Margaret was one of the wealthiest people in America…and this was “Gatsby” America, which we all now know (thanks, Baz) was the real deal.

Alfred, as it turned out, had other interests (such a thankless job, the parenting). “Since the first time I went to the races at Pimlico at the age of 9,” Mr. Vanderbilt once said, ”I have had this wonderful feeling about racing. I don’t go to the races because I just love horses. It’s like the person who goes to the circus and falls in love with the whole show, not just the elephants.”

Vanderbilt’s racing silk design on the stalls in the original stable.

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In the fight against obesity, many cities and states have begun asking restaurants to prominently post the calorie count of each menu item. The idea is that once you know how many calories are in that order super-size fries, you’ll think twice about scarfing them down. But, according to two Johns Hopkins public health researchers, calorie-posting doesn’t actually do that much — and so they’ve come up with a better way.
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Kwame Kwei-Armah’s ambitious new play, Beneatha’s Place, premiered Wednesday night at Centerstage to a packed house awash in anticipation – the show will run through June 16 as part of “The Raisin Cycle,” which rotates performances with Bruce Norris’s 2011 Pulitzer-winning Clybourne Park. Each pays creative homage to Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 theater classic, A Raisin in the Sun. Read More →

If You Can Get to Buffalo, the latest offering by Station North theater company The Acme Corporation, premieres tonight (more info here), and takes as its subject the weird world of early Internet culture:  The world’s first social network premiered in 1993 on the newly minted World Wide Web as a virtual mansion comprised entirely of text. It was called LambdaMOO.  If You Can Get to Buffalo explores the rise and fall of this new utopia and the attempt of its creators to deal with the sinister puppet master that brought it crashing down during a wild party of virtual revelry.

Baltimore Fishbowl spoke with New York playwright Trish Harnetiaux about 1990s cyberculture, Baltimore’s theater scene, and what a play can do that television can’t:

The play is based on a 1993 Village Voice article about the first reported cyber rape. How did you first come across the article, and what about it made you think the subject matter could be transformed into a piece of theater?

Truth is I totally forget how I came across the article but I do know I was interested in the early days of the Internet – the language people used when it was new, the impact of never-before-encountered social situations, and the opportunity it offered to individuals. Something that we’re continually aware of is that we essentially know how the story of the Internet “ends,” now that it’s 20 years after the incident we’re exploring – and that’s definitely had an impact on how we’re telling it. Read More →

So, it’s National Health and Fitness Month. Maybe you’re already so on top of it that you’re reading this post on your iPhone while on mile five of your morning 10K. Or maybe this information makes you squirm a bit with the vague memory of that New Year’s resolution that somehow fell to the wayside somewhere along the line. But no matter. It’s never to late to start getting fit– and there are so many ways and reasons to do so, that there’s no need to panic. In fact, National Health and Fitness Month makes it easier than ever– not only because the weather is finally the kind you want to enjoy outside– but also because fitness centers such as the Maryland Athletic Club are offering great opportunities this month to use the facilities, take classes, and start getting healthy. We checked in with Sharon Nevins, Vice President of Marketing at the MAC to find out how they’re celebrating National Health and Fitness Month and how we can, too.

Baltimore Fishbowl: So May is National Health and Wellness Month. What does that mean? And what is the MAC doing to help celebrate it?

Sharon Nevins: National Health & Fitness Month was created to help shine a spotlight on the importance of exercise to be healthy. Our industry, along with the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” Campaign joined together to encourage everyone to lead an active, healthy lifestyle. MAC helps celebrate by opening its doors to the entire community to enjoy the MAC and get moving for 7 days. We also have designated community wide classes where non-members can try us out with others just like them.

BFB: That’s great! What an awesome opportunity for those of us who are interested in trying out a new gym. Now that the nice weather is finally here, what are some of the best outdoor exercises we can do to supplement our time at the gym? Baltimore has so many great outdoor spaces and activities. Any top picks or workout ideas?

SN: Just getting outside and walking is always nice. Baltimore also has some incredible trails for hiking. From the NCR trail to Loch Raven to Soldiers Delight and the B&A trail for biking. Whatever is fun and easy for you, you should do. The idea is to enjoy it (most of the time) so you keep up the habit. Read More →

The NCAA is changing the way it chooses host cities for its championships. Instead of selecting sites year by year, it will determine locations for “almost every one of its championships from fall 2014 to spring 2018” in December. And that puts the pressure on Baltimore to make a bid to be the four-year home of the lacrosse championship, something that the head of Maryland’s sports office Terry Hasseltine thinks we deserve. Read More →

The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that states drop the drunken-driving threshold from a .08 blood-alcohol content to a .05 in an effort to reduce the number of deaths caused by drunken driving by 10 percent. For some perspective, if the recommendation were adopted, a 100-pound adult would risk exceeding the limit after a single drink and 200-pound adult after two (drunk in quick succession). Read More →

Students graduating from college face an uncertain future, a shaky economic climate, and an average of $26,500 in debt. So Washington College senior Tim Marcin, who graduates from the small Eastern Shore college this spring, is probably pretty happy that his school just wrote him a check for $61,192, his winnings from one of the largest college-awarded prizes in the country.
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