Josh Flynn

This week one of the people I follow on Twitter posted a link to this blog that has recently been writing about Lauraville and Baltimore events. It is the accompanying blog of a website for Salamander Points, a Baltimore based website that has formulated a points system for a huge variety of things you eat and use and then at the end of the day you calculate your “salamander points”.

It is actually a pretty interesting idea, and they go pretty in depth into each category to where most things that you use in an average day would be able to be converted to points. They had some good blog posts about the Tuesday Market Connection, including their most recent post entitled “Tuesday: The New Friday”. They had some nice photos from the market in one of their older posts and got some reaction from people attending the market.

They look at things from a green perspective, trying to think about the carbon footprint and the effects that our actions have on the enviroment and community. I also liked their post and pictures from Artscape, I was there on a different day then whoever wrote the post so it was nice to see a different perspective

I came across this blog called Harford Road, Hon about the neighborhood of Westfield in Baltimore, which is slightly northeast of Lauraville. It talks about a lot of things going on in the same general area and links to a lot of the businesses in Lauraville, including all of the places I did stories on and mentions of the Lauraville Tuesday Market Connection.

It has a lot of good links to relevant organizations, businesses, blogs and gardening tips, a pretty diverse range of information. It doesn’t get updated a whole lot, but it could be a good starting point for somebody that wants to learn more about the area. One of the links is for a blog called Adventures in Baltimore Restaurants which has some cool posts about good deals and free food around Baltimore. They also use a Google Map to show a lot of the restaurants that are featured in the blog.

Another link is to a blog called Bmore Tunes that has some pretty interesting posts about local artists as well as mainstream and big name acts. I particularly liked the interview with Slug from Atmosphere. I would have never seen the blog had I not visited Harford Road, Hon; definitely glad I came across it.

After my Interview with Thomas from Zeke’s, he suggested that I talk to Jeff Smith, the owner and head chef of Lauraville’s Chameleon Cafe. There isn’t really a recent article about the cafe, but they have been reviewed several times so I read through a few of them to get an idea of what Smith does at his restaurant.

Smith is a Maryland native that grew up in Parkville, and went to Baltimore International College to study culinary arts. When he opened Chameleon in 2001, he really wanted to try to represent Maryland cuisine with local meats, seafood, vegetables, fruit and recipes. The article in Baltimore Style Magaine starts out by talking about how Smith has a garden behind the restaurant in which he grows fresh herbs to use in his cooking. It is actually a really interesting article and was a good intro for me as I didn’t really know anything about Smith or Chameleon before this week. I just wish the article didn’t have a bunch of bogus random links. There are just random words highlighted throughout the article linking to unrelated advertisements; so annoying.

Anyway, it seems like Smith has quite unique ideas for dishes and really does provide his patrons with a truly Maryland dining experience. I am going to be talking to him later today and will have some more details in next week’s interview post.

This week I found the blog of John Laur, a Lauraville resident who recently started working with the Lauraville Improvement Association and recently visited the Tuesday Market Connection and wrote a blog about his experiences with some accompanying pictures. The blog itself focuses on John and his girlfriend Bobbie and their experiences in Lauraville. After reading about John’s experiences at the market, I realized how different of an experience people can have on different days and at different times.

I was unable to go to the market the Tuesday that John attended, but I wish I would have been there for the live music from the St. Veronica’s Youth Steel Orchestra, which he described as the “true highlight of the market”. I liked the details John went into, even giving a list of what he and Bobbie purchased (and enjoyed) at the market.

I also thought it was interesting that John talked to Mac of Chef Mac’s Louisiana Cuisine and that he will be opening up a Louisiana themed restaurant in the near future. When I went to the market with my girlfriend Christina, we were on our way downtown so I didn’t get any of the food at the market (did get an iced coffee from Zeke’s) but after reading this blog as well as being enticed by the smells of the freshly cooked cuisine, I think I have dinner plans for next Tuesday night.

It was nice to see another perspective articulated into a blog with external links and pictures. On a side note, I first got in touch with John through Twitter, not even knowing he was a Lauraville resident; but he has been very helpful thus far with my project and I hope I can somehow incoprorate an interview with John into my final project.

I am having a really hard time to find current articles about Lauraville. It is a very small area of Baltimore, so there is not a lot of people blogging or writing articles about it; which is actually one of the reasons that I chose to cover it. I found a post in the blog All We Can Eat from the Washington Post that is a little over the 2-week time frame for research article, but there was not much else to mention in the media.

So I found an blog post from the Washington Post about Zeke’s Coffee making a special blend for a cafe and gelato place called Pitano Gelato in Washington D.C. that serves and sells Zeke’s. According to the article, Thomas Rhodes, the owner of Zeke’s, made a special blend for Pitano Gelato and is getting attention in the D.C. area.

As I found out in my interview with Todd Brizzi, Zeke’s does not really put much into advertising, and mostly relies on word of mouth to get new customers. With this new exposure in a new market, it will help the company reach an audience outside of the Lauraville and even the Baltimore market.

The thing I found most interesting was that Rhodes made a special blend specifically for this place, and will ask him about it when I get a chance to sit down and talk with him.

So I have almost completely abandoned my idea to do the stories about the hiking areas in Baltimore. While this is interesting to me, and I think could make for a great multimedia project, I just think it is going to be a stretch to be able to get all of the necessary elements together by the end of the session; so I am shifting my focus to the Lauraville community and the local businesses and events that make it so unique.

When I first came across this blog called “Hamilton – Lauraville Main Street News”, I was immediately discouraged by how similar it looked to the kind of idea that I had for my project; but upon closer examination, I realized there was still solid material here to cover.

While the blog does a good job of giving people a general idea of what is going on in the area, as well as some advertisements and words from local businesses; it still just touches the surface of the stories about the people in the area. It is more of an overview; a community message board for events and a forum for people to get involved.

Lauraville recently kicked off its Tuesday Market Connections, a weekly event where people from the community gather to meet up with friends, buy and sell some local goods, and apparently hula-hoop! While the original post gives the audience some idea of what is going on, there is really no context or explanation about what is really going on.

This is where I come in. I think it would be a lot more effective and interesting if there were some stories and interviews from individuals attending; maybe talk to some of the vendors too. I just feel like while the pictures could be a good complementary piece, there needs to be some textual explanation and description of what is going on in the scene.

Seeing this website and the accompanying blog has helped me to realize what is out there already and identify where I could put my personal spin and journalistic skills into practice. I think with some solid interviews, video, additional pictures and audio; these stories could really flesh out into something that all Baltimoreans would like to see.

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Also on a side note – I just found out that somebody was murdered in Lauraville right down the street from my house. I guess all neighborhoods have their problems.

1:20 a.m. A car was found parked in the Garrett Heights Elementary school parking lot in Lauraville. The motor was running and the driver’s door was open. Inside, Ricardo Montgomery, a 39-year-old African-American man, had been shot in the head and was dead. There have been 22 murders in the Northeastern police district this year, more than in any other district. (source: City Paper)

Possible Sites:

•    Great Falls (Md./VA line on Potomac River; ~1 hour)
•    Sugar Loaf Mountain (Dickerson, Md.; ~1 hour)
•    Gwynn Falls Trail/Leakin Park (Baltimore, Md.)

The Peg: The Baltimore area has many recreational spots and trails that are a lot closer to the city than most people may realize. I want to try to expose people to these areas as they have great value for both exercise and relaxation; and do so in a concise and interesting way. I want to try to limit the region to places that are close to within an hour of Baltimore.

Ideas for Media: I would like to incorporate as many photos as possible of different interesting parts of the trails as well as probably some video. I also would like to have audio interviews with people either involved with the Baltimore Department of Recreations and Parks as well as volunteers and people who use the trails and areas. Finally I think that Google Maps and maybe some other trail maps would be crucial to this project’s success. I want to give people clear directions and trail recommendations so they can actually use my information to visit the places I talk about.

Who can be interviewed?:
•    Baltimore Department of Recreations and Parks
•    National Park Service
•    People who use the trails
•    Volunteers who help maintain the trails

Technical & Other Restrictions: Obviously the weather plays a huge role in the availability of these locations and doing interviews. Any event or on-scene interviews could be canceled due to inclement weather; however there are ways around it. Technology is not so much of a concern as I will be able to use the necessary tools without power or the internet.

How is this different from what is out there?: There are many sites that list hiking trails and give people ideas of where to go. I want to take a more in depth look at these sites and show people what goes into maintaining them, as well as show that even inexperienced hikers can enjoy these locations in close proximity.

Possible Sites:
•   The Brewer’s Art (Baltimore, Md.)
•    Flying Dog Brewery (Frederick, Md.)
•    DuClaw Brewing Company (Bel Air, Md.)
•    Clipper City Brewing Company (Baltimore, Md.)

The Peg: When most Americans think of beer, they think of the light lager style beers like Coors Light, Bud Light or Miller Lite. Originally beer was much more flavorful and was a craft more than a mass production. There are still craft breweries all over that produce many styles of beer, and there are many very good brews right here in Maryland.

Ideas for Media: Photos with interviewees, audio/video interviews, a page that compares some of the different beers and styles and Google Maps to show locations.

Who can be interviewed?:
•    Owners and other employees of the breweries
•    Patrons of the restaurants
•    Rob Kasper – writes a blog for the Baltimore Sun about Beer

Technical & Other Restrictions: In some cases it might be hard for me to get an interview with an owner of one of these places just for a class project. I could probably talk to alternative sources, but ideally the people who started the businesses would obviously be the best source for the story.

How is this different from what is out there?: There are a lot of craft beer websites and publications, but there are not really any that take the Maryland scene and try to get a behind the scenes look at how all of these breweries got started.

Possible Sites:
•    Lauraville Improvement Association
•    Zeke’s Coffee
•    Great Soul Wellness Studio
•    Grind On Cafe
•    Tuesday Market Connection in Lauraville (Baltimore Sun) – Starts June 2nd.

The Peg: Lauraville is a tightly knit community in northeast Baltimore that is doing many things to improve both the quality of the area and the image that it is portraying. There are many locally owned and operated businesses that are trying to be responsible business owners and provide quality services to the Lauraville community. I’m sure there are some very interesting stories behind the businesses that have never been explored from a journalistic viewpoint.

Ideas for Media: Photos of the businesses, video/audio interviews with owners of these places, Google Maps showing where Lauraville is and where the businesses can be found; a lot of possibilities.

Who can be interviewed?:
•    Members of the Lauraville Improvement Association
•    Owners/employees of the local area businesses
•    People living in the Lauraville community
•    People visiting Lauraville events or businesses

Technical & Other Restrictions: There are not very many restrictions or problems doing this topic. I should be able to schedule interviews with the people I need to speak with, it is a pretty small community with very friendly people.

How is this different from what is out there?: There are not many websites or much media coverage dealing with Lauraville. I think it could be informative to people that don’t know about all that Lauraville has to offer, and the website I would create would be unlike anything currently existing.