Articles by DIana Beechener

Article - News; by Diana Beechener - 7/22/10

Extreme Makeover

Grants from Maryland Heritage Areas Authority makes two groups flush (with cash)

It’s surprising the difference a bathroom makes. As Maryland Heritage Areas Authority divided its $2,617,146 of grant money between 55 projects, at least two projects in Anne Arundel and Calvert County got cash for bathroom upgrades. At Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, executive director Linnell Bowen has long hoped to update the old Annapolis high school’s facilities. “We have the volume of people,” she said, “and we need to keep up.” The hard part...

Article - News; by Diana Beechener - 7/22/10

Extreme Makeovers

Grants from Maryland Heritage Areas Authority
makes two groups flush (with cash)

Article - News; by Diana Beechener - 7/15/10

Hearing Hope in the Melody

Musicians Carolyn Surrick, Ginger Hildebrand
and Sue Richards perform to soothe wounded warriors

Before we go inside, viola da gamba player Carolyn Surrick touches my arm. With serious eyes and concern in her voice, she lays out the facts: Most of the people I’m about to see have been injured horribly. On some, the scars will be invisible; on others, all too visible. Her message is implicit: Don’t freak out. She tells me this not for my benefit but for the benefit of her audience, the residents of Walter Reed’s Mologne House, where she and sister Ensemble...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 7/8/10

This Week’s Creature Feature Taking Wing Against...

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a person in a chicken suit

Chesapeake Bay is full of crap — literally. An EPA study found that 17 percent of nitrogen pollution and 26 percent of pollution in the Bay comes from animal manure. Environment Maryland wants you to hold the biggest polluters responsible — even if motivating you takes dressing up like a chicken to do it. To educate you about the damage your chicken dinner can cause, the people at Environment Maryland meet you at the point of contact: grocery stores. “We wanted to make...

Article - News; by Diana Beechener - 6/17/10

Saving the Bay One Festival at a Time

The Chesapeake Green Living Festival producers hope their event leaves you seeing green

Save the Bay. Everyone wants to do it. But every year, Maryland seems to miss the mark. Amidst overwhelming reports on oil spills and global warming, rain barrels and natural landscaping can seem small beans. Yet they’re effective weapons in the war on environmental pollutants. As Jim Barthold and Elvia Thompson see it, people have been too busy thinking globally to act locally. To help Anne Arundel Countians find a greener way of life, Barthold and Thompson organized this weekend...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener - 6/10/10

Music to Soothe Wounded Warriors

Ensemble Galilei’s June 13 concert promotes their Walter Reed music

--Every Friday, Carolyn Surrick, Ginger Hildebrand and Sue Richards drive from near Annapolis into Washington, D.C., to practice their music. For a year and a half, the Ensemble Galilei performers make the trek every week to Mologne House, an outpatient hotel for Walter Reed soldiers who manage without round-the-clock care. These practice sessions were the brainchild of viola da gamba player Surrick, who thought she could get more out of her practice time. “As musicians, you...

Article - Things; by Diana Beechener - 6/10/10

Treat Our Flag Right

It’s Alive, U.S. Code Says

On Monday June 14, our nation celebrates Flag Day, a national holiday that honors the Continental Congress’ adoption of the official American flag. With 13 bars and 50 stars, the American flag is one of the most recognizable symbols of our union. Here’s how to treat it with the care it deserves. • Don’t wear the flag. Resist the temptation to buy apparel imprinted with the American flag. The United States Code forbids the flag to be used as “wearing apparel,...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 5/27/10

Furry Fido can help save the Gulf Coast

Look around your home. Do you see fine feline or canine hairs coating the couch, the floor or your clothes? Before you break out the lint roller, consider that all that excess animal hair in your living room could be floating on the Gulf of Mexico, absorbing harmful oil. Hair — from humans and animals — is woven or stuffed into sponge-like mats and booms that are flung onto the oil spill. The hairy barriers are laid near shores and marshes, helping to protect these fragile...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener - 5/20/10

If Trouble Was Money ...

After nine years, Don Hooker compiles the Bay Blues Festival’s greatest hits and biggest catastrophes

If there ain’t pain, there ain’t the blues. Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival CEO Don Hooker knows this fact intimately. It took a painful lot of work and more than a little suffering on the side for Hooker to turn his charitable idea into a juggernaut fundraiser. Looking back at nine years of festivals, Hooker talks about the logistics, lunacy and love of music that have sustained him and the festival for nearly a decade. Track 1: History Repeating Since founding the...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Diana Beechener - 5/20/10

First Date Blues

How the Bay Blues Festival helped me ditch the blues

Some girls view a first date with excitement. I view first dates with dread. What if he’s a poor conversationalist? What if I have nothing to say? What if he collects the skulls of all the women he’s dated? Admittedly, I need to stop watching Silence of the Lambs. I drove to the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium parking lot to meet Jack for our first date, 2009’s Bay Blues Festival, my stomach was churning and I was considering exit strategies. In a blind panic, I called...