Articles by Diana Beechener

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...

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

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

Bug Off

Life stinks for Marylanders

The brown marmorated stink bug has made itself Maryland’s least welcome invader of 2010. Fat from feasting on orchard and soybean crops, flocks of the Asian alien have invaded homes and gardens, causing more than a foul odor. “The populations this year have been astronomical when compared with years past,” says Dr. Joe Fiola, specialist in viticulture and small fruit for the University of Maryland Extension. “Multiple bugs per fruit, whereas with green stink bugs [the...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener; 9/30/10

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

Sucked into Battle

In the war against the vacuum, Lothian’s Juanky is declared top dog

The war between pets and vacuum cleaners is long-standing and seemingly inexplicable. Maybe it’s the noise. Maybe it’s the aggressive suction coupled with a rolling machine. Maybe pets just don’t like clean carpets. Eureka Vacuums, however, sought an armistice between their cleaners and your furry friends, inviting pet owners around the country to enter Fido’s Fight or Flight contest with videos of their pets reactions to the vacuum. The contest promoted Eureka...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener; 9/23/10

The Town

A Bah-ston robbah tries to go straight in this engaging and pulpy crime tale

In the first five minutes of The Town, a group of precision criminals, donning skeleton masks, knock over a bank. Everything is going smoothly until someone triggers the silent alarm. The slick crew devolves quickly into violence and kidnapping as they make a sloppy getaway with the loot and terrified bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall: Please Give). After releasing the woman and laundering their money, the crew meet in the neighborhood of Charlestown for a job evaluation. Crew leader...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 9/23/10

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

This Week’s Creature Feature - Two Years into a Life...

Calvert Marine Museum’s snakehead settles into life in solitary confinement

Two years ago, the Calvert Marine Museum put a new inmate in the tank, a snakehead fish, as the showpiece of the museum’s invasive species exhibit. “It was a good example because there was a lot of press on it a few years back,” says Ken Kaumeyer, the museum’s curator of estuarine biology. Though the fish hasn’t attempted a jailbreak, Kaumeyer isn’t ready to declare it a model prisoner. Originally, the snakehead was to be part of a larger exhibit,...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener; 9/24/10