Bob Cullen is a writer. He covered the fall of the Soviet Union for Newsweek and the New Yorker. He covered the diplomatic beat for the Associated Press. He is the author of 16 books, including five novels featuring a reporter stationed in the Soviet Union who won’t back down from a story no matter what and no matter who is shooting at him.

The Soviets did not normally issue visas for photographers, pesky creatures who poke their lenses where authoritarian governments think they don’t belong. So when Newsweek posted Cullen to Moscow, they “gave me a camera and a half-hour lesson and said ‘you’re going to need to do this,’” he recalled.

He caught the bug. He shot hundreds of photos in Moscow—funerals in Red Square, parades, street scenes, all kinds of things. When he got back from three years in the crumbling Soviet Union, he kept shooting.

“The more I do it the more I enjoy it. It is very expressive to me,” he says.

Tonight is the first night of a show of Cullen’s photographs at Five Points Tavern, 1120 E. Fort Ave. in Locust Point. The show, called “Addresses,” features ten Baltimore buildings in neighborhoods as different as Guilford and The Block. In front of the building is someone you wouldn’t expect to see there. For instance, why is there a barefooted surgeon lounging in front of a Fells Point antique store? That’s a good question, isn’t it?

“I wanted to put people in unexpected situations and locations,” Cullen said. “I wanted a juxtaposition of expectations and environment.”

To shoot “Addresses,” Cullen used friends and friends-of-friends as models, then set them up in those unexpected situations. One of the models, a friend of his son, is pictured sitting in a lawn chair on a corner in Little Italy, right by a fire hydrant painted like the Italian flag. By the way, the model is African American. “I wanted to see what people would think seeing him sitting there,” said Cullen. “The point is to see the picture and question, why are those people of that gender and race sitting there?”

Cullen lives in Chevy Chase, but he has spent a “fair amount” of time in Baltimore, and his son went to the Maryland Institute College of Art and still lives here. Through his son, Cullen [Read more...]

It’s time to embrace the bugs.

No, not stinkbugs and bedbugs. Cute, friendly bugs. Like Harry, a Chinese praying mantis who stands ready to take kids and their families on an educational journey through the insect habitats via the Maryland Science Center. (It’s a journey sponsored by a pest control company, too, but that’s a point for another time).

“Harry’s Big Adventure: My Bug World!” opens this Saturday, Feb. 4, and runs through through the end of April.

The exhibit divvies up the world into multiple zones (including water, forest, meadow, cropland and house) to see how insects impact their surroundings, the environment and ultimately human lives.

And since this is a kid-oriented exhibit, after all, there’s a ‘bug art’ area where visitors can express their creativity by building their own bugs, making a rubbing of insects found throughout the exhibit or drawing their favorite character from Harry’s Big Adventure.

The opening weekend includes segments by trained entomologists from the Audubon Insectarium. There’s also a feature, “Under the Bug Top,” with interactive games and competitions, as well as a bug petting zoo.

Oh, and there are regularly scheduled roach races, and insect delicacies cooked up by the Bug Chef.

We’ll wait while you read that last sentence again.

The exhibit is sponsored by Terminix since, well, who knows more about bugs?

Note: Information about “Harry’s Big Adventure: My Bug World” is available through the Maryland Science Center, 410-685-2370, www.marylandsciencecenter.org.

by Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com

The Canton Branch of the Pratt Library is closing at 5 p.m. Saturday, and everyone’s excited about it.

“We can’t wait,” says Mary Jurkiewicz, president of the Friends of the Canton Branch.

Why is a woman who once picketed to protest a threat to close the library 15 years ago so pleased now?

Because it’s not permanent. The little library will be closed for a top-to-bottom, soup-to-nuts, complete renovation.

The rehab, which will begin Monday as Pratt Library staffers clear furniture, equipment, books and materials from the building, is expected to take two years, if all goes well.

“You never want to give an exact date when you are dealing with old buildings,” said the Pratt’s Chief of Neighborhood Services, Pat Costello.

It is an old building indeed. The Canton Branch was the first of the city’s libraries to open, and is the only one of the four original branches still in operation. Enoch Pratt himself cut the ribbon for the building 1n February, 1886.

The city has renovated the building several times over the years. It hasn’t always improved the building. The dropped ceilings are going to go, exposing the Canton Branch’s graceful arched windows and entries. The linoleum tile floor will be torn up.

And the library, which currently has its back end a half-story below the front-end reading room, will be brought to one level, increasing space for programs and creating [Read more...]

The money is sitting there. It’s just waiting for someone to ask it out.

Those who have been procrastinating about putting in their applications for the Southside Marketplace Grant Program have less than a week until deadline. Once January 31 rolls around, the chance to participate is going away.

It’s not just going once. It’s gone for good. This is the last year the grants will be offered.

The grant provides $10,000 a year to organizations that offer services to the South Baltimore Peninsula.

The grant’s history goes back to 1992, when the developers of the Southside Marketplace agreed that the shopping center would make payments to benefit the community for 20 years.

At the time, two decades seemed pretty far off. Now? Not so much.

“It is hard to believe that is has been 20 years,” says David Hirst, who has been involved with the program since the year 2000.

The disbursement of funds to the community is managed by a committee of representatives from six neighborhood associations: Locust Point Civic Association, Federal Hill South Neighborhood Association, Federal Hill Neighborhood Association, Riverside Action Group, Sharp-Leadenhall Planning Committee and the South Baltimore Improvement Committee.

The committee typically reviews applications in February and distributes checks in March.

Because the announcement for applications goes out just before the busy holiday season, however, and because the deadline is soon after the new year begins, Hirst is worried communities have forgotten.

“Requests have been few,” he notes. “I have received three or four applications with a few more outstanding.”

Hear that, South Baltimore? The time to apply is now, and the chances have never been stronger.

Hirst noted that the committee typically gets several dozen applications each year. The average grant award size is $500.

Among organizations that have received funds in the past are scouting groups (Brownies, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts), South Baltimore Emergency Relief (SOBER), the [Read more...]

Those who vowed 2012 would be the year they learned something new just got another opportunity to make good on their resolution.

The Rev. Oreste Pandola Adult Learning Center at St. Leo’s School, 914 Stiles Street in Little Italy, has opened registration for its 2012 spring semester.

Courses include Italian language, sports, culture, food and more. Most courses will start in March, although there are exceptions. Information on all courses, as well as registration, is available at www.pandola.baltimore.md.us or by calling 410-866-8494.

Language courses range from Italian for survival while traveling, to various levels of language courses, to advanced courses in conversations.:

Italian Cooking Classes include making mozzarella, sausages, “Cream” Limoncello, wine, Italian bread, Sweets and Biscotti, Raviola, Gnocchi, Pasta and Sauces, Italian Cookies, Anisette and cooking for children.

Italian cultural classes include instruction in palm weaving. Many Italian families grew up weaving crosses and other figures from palm during Easter. Basic [Read more...]

Learn to beat them at their own game

Summer is over. Long over.

So why is the air conditioner unit still in the window?

It shouldn’t be, says Det. Derrick Layton of the Southeastern District. At least not unless residents really want to make it easy for burglars to access their houses.

“I don’t know how many times we can say this,” says Layton, noting the recent number of burglaries where intruders accessed the house through unlocked windows where A/C units were still in place. “Just take out the air conditioner and store it, and lock the window.”

The Southeastern District Detective Unit has been cautioning people in the area to help avoid break-ins. There’s no ‘down’ season for burglaries, notes Layton, and criminals are always looking for easy ways to gain access to houses. Air conditioners are one way, but only one.

“People need to remember it’s not hard for someone to get to the second or even the third story of a house,” Layton says. “A lot of times, they don’t think about locking the slider door to their deck, or locking upstairs windows, but people get in there too.”

This past week, Southeast burglary reports contained information about an upper floor residential burglary in which the intruder had accessed a window by using a ladder that had been left in the back yard of the building.

Because ladders are unwieldy, many individuals are hesitant to try storing them in the house, and will leave them outside. Where, Layton points out, criminals find them, and put them to use. (And with all the rehab and repair work going on in these neighborhoods, it’s not unusual to see a ladder propped up on the front or rear of a house).

Broken sashes on windows are also an open invitation to burglars.

“We’ve asked people when they arrest them, what they look for when they’re breaking into a house.” says Layton. “A lot of the guys tell us, ‘If I see a stick holding up the window, I know it’s not going to be locked,’ and that’s where they’ll start trying to get in.”

While it should go without saying that all doors should be locked when residents aren’t home (from storm doors to deadbolts), not all residents are heeding this [Read more...]