Blog Baltimore

Baltimore City’s new Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, was tweeting all through the blizzard that just struck Baltimore. Her twitter account shows activity starting as early as Feb. 3rd and right after that, a huge increase, with a significant amount of updates and information regarding how the city crews are operating and how the city was faring.

Twitter was very alive through the entire storm. Many of the local news tweeters were spreading information around about the quality of the roads and the openings of places for food and groceries. InsideCharmCity, http://twitter.com/insidecharmcity, was making a huge effort to coordinate between individuals to keep everyone updated, tweeting and retweeting.

There was a drastic difference in the level of news quality between that of twitter and the local news stations. The feeds on twitter were locally oriented. There was coverage about local restaurant and bar openings where city residents could walk to. There was discussions and tweets about snow ball fights, accidents, school closings, local gatherings.

With the Mayor’s continued feeds from twitter, it makes it much easier to follow a lot of the goings on in the city. Hopefully this isn’t just a trend and that the city will start to provide a easier way for its officials to feed information to the communities.

I should also add a thank you to insanebaltimore.com for spreading the news about mayorsrb being on twitter.

I declare tomorrow, Feb 6th 2010, national east coast blizzard snow fight day! If you see a friend or a neighbor, Baltimore, put down your guns and throw a snowball instead! Show your support by throwing snow balls in fun! Bloods, crypts, food coloring can be effective in marking snow balls.*

*this post is simply suggestion and in no way shape or a call to harm or hurt anyone.

I have to give it to Accuweather.com. this is by far the greatest weather report I’ve ever seen. This is Jim Kosek giving Baltimore’s weather cast right before the storm hits.

The video used to be linked on the site but due to the nature of their video hosting, I think it rotated. Now they’ve got another video by Jim Kosek up here http://www.accuweather.com/video-on-demand.asp?video=1671939093.

The Business Insider has an article on Jim Kosek and they seem to echo my sentiments that we need more people like this guy,

OK, let me preface this post by saying: I’ve never done an official music review and only consider my knowledge of music based on what I’ve listened to and bought.

With that said, I’ll continue.

Treadmill Trackstar is a band I was asked to review recently. I’ve not heard of them before so I figured I’d give it a shot, gives me something to write about. The band, to me, posses a strong potential to do great things. The use of a cello is a definite bonus as I love classical string instruments in a modern rock atmosphere. See Blue October as a prime example. Treadmill Trackstar’s latest album, I Belong To Me, consists of an interesting mix of tracks. The overall atmosphere of the album strikes me as spiral of emotion, never really staying to one side or another. It starts off strong with songs Call to Prayer and I Belong To You that emphasize the strength of the cello and the vocals of the band. The use of instruments in the beginning complement each other, giving and building up the atmosphere and emotion of the songs. Once you get through the first few songs the album turns towards a dark somber feeling, starting with Euphoric and Check My Reaction. This might have been their purpose, my life experiences don’t tend to lean towards this style of song at this time so I’ve no preference for them, too sad for my liking. Not that these songs aren’t good, it’s just that I can’t focus on their strengths because they try to tug at the darker side of life.

In comes Hands Off , one of the stronger songs on the album overall. The instrumentals are very ethereal, and the cello carries the melody very well. It brings you back from the hole that the previous few songs dig and picks you up. From then on the album just kind of carries itself to the finish line. The rest of the songs comprise of a various mix of mild emotion and a good mix of string and vocals.

What I truly enjoy about the band the most would be the vocal and the cello. Not that the drums aren’t good, its just that the style of vocals and cello give a good mix of folk and grunge. The raspy growl of the lead singer fills a sort of angst that’s been missing from the music scene and the cello lends a feeling of calm and serene. With the two mixing in the songs it feels like a constant tug between angst and flow. It’s nice to see a refreshing twist on the music scene.

This being the only album I’ve listened to by Treadmill Trackstar, I truly can’t compare it to their others. I feel its a good album though. A bit wordy with the micro songs in between, which feel like they should be kept in the notepad until they grow in to full songs. I’ll continue to listen to Call To Prayer, I Belong To You, and Hands Off on my mp3 player. Otherwise the rest would fit perfectly for a rainy day.

I’d like to add some additional suggestions to Insane Baltimore’s post on things to do while being snowed in.

11. Trek through feet of snow to your friends house

12. Bury your friends in mounds of snow

13. Bar crawl

14. Watch people do stupid things during stupid times