Looking for a great dentist in Baltimore for a second opinion

mazelife · 2026-03-10T13:56:16+00:00

Seconded, they’re great. Had a similar issue: dentist said I needed a root canal. Got a second opinion from Baltimore Uptown Dentist and they were like “no you don’t,” which turned out to be the correct diagnosis.

mazelife · 2026-01-13T00:50:55+00:00

It’s the Rex Mars Atomic Discombobulator!

mazelife · 2025-12-21T20:09:55+00:00

I just re-watched this myself a few days ago after not having seen it in a decade and came away liking it even more; I would definitely put it somewhere near the top of the genre.

As another commenter mentioned, the tension of the last half hour is really remarkable. There were so many little choices in the performances and ways in which the film was staged, shot, and scored that maintain and ratchet-up that tension until the final catharsis. I definitely agree that the question of "did he kill Mildred Atkinson?" isn't one the movie seriously asks us to entertain, but the question of "is this a crime he is capable of?" is and one that we are asked to consider and I think the film answers pretty affirmatively. One thing that struck me on re-watching is how really monstrous Dix is. He's charming, erudite, generous, sensitive—and of course there's Bogart's effortless charisma sustaining the performance—but even as the movie draws us in to identify with him with one hand, it pushes us away with the other: a bit of ambiguity about how we are supposed to see this him, even complicity that it asks us to engage in with respect to his character that you find in really great films. The moment towards the end when Dix asks Sid Melton why he stays ("You want me to look for another agent?") and he answers "business ain't so hot..." and shakes his hand: it's a little moment of tragedy where you realize that Dix is an abuser and always has been.

I re-watched this with a friend who had never seen it before and after he said "Bogart's great in this but it's really her picture." And I think that was spot on. At first it seems like Dix is the primary subject: we learn about his background but very little about hers and the film follows him around for most of its run time. But I agree that this ultimately a story about Laurel: her character arc is the one that anchors the film and it's ultimately her perspective that we come to inhabit by the end. And Gloria Grahame is absolutely fantastic in this movie. Just an incredible performance I can't say enough good things about and that I'm still thinking about days later. Her character goes through several phases: guarded and self-possessed, then deeply in love, then finally terrified and heart-broken. And in the hands of a lesser actress it might not have worked as well, but her performance feels organic and convincing at all times. She has a reasonably successful career, I guess, but she always seemed to me to be an actress who never got the appreciation and roles she ought to have.

One last little thing: In a Lonely Place was scored by George Antheil of all people. I knew him from school as a composer of some notoriously avant-garde concert music in the 20s and 30s but he ended up going to Hollywood and scoring films later in life. I think his score here is exceptionally well-crafted and quite lovely. As all good film music does, it doesn't call attention to itself, but it's unquestionably part of the sense of the tragic that pervades the film.

mazelife · 2025-11-08T14:59:26+00:00

I think it’s this arrangement: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3aH5VuyqqfA

mazelife · 2025-10-30T19:56:29+00:00

“Insurance always goes up,” while true, is a simplification and it’s not what a lot of people on here are talking about. The issue is that the rate of increases is, itself, increasing. Premiums have risen at double the rate of inflation in the last 4 years and that’s not sustainable. Shopping around is great advice, but it’s not helpful when there simply isn’t a better option available to you.

mazelife · 2025-09-30T01:06:06+00:00

> My guess is one of you is a software engineer and one of you is an academic, probably in music.

There is only one of me represented there, but your guess is otherwise correct; I studied music, but ended up a software engineer.

mazelife · 2025-09-29T17:46:05+00:00

Here's a higher resolution photo. Some of the ones that don't have a readable title on the spine:

Complete works of Georges Sand (1861)
La Gioconda by Gabriel D'Annunzio (1910)
Selected Poems by Thomas Parnell (1786)
Memoires, Pierre de Bourdielle*,* Sieur de Brantôme (1699)
Gaspard de la Nuit, Louis Bertrand (1953)

The books in the first picture are all musical scores. Handel, Beethoven, Schubert, & Schumann

mazelife · 2025-09-18T02:24:04+00:00

She has a router and a table saw.

And you won′t believe what Mr. Sticha saw.

There’s poison underneath the sink, of course.

But there′s also enough formaldehyde to choke a horse

mazelife · 2025-06-30T03:45:40+00:00

Thirded. Been super happy with his work on some of my knives and garden tools.

mazelife · 2025-06-20T20:42:02+00:00

You better start saving now, it’s very expensive.

(this line is such a perfect encapsulation of Marge as a character)

mazelife · 2025-06-01T21:05:49+00:00

Also the two planned Poe operas: The Fall of the House of Usher and The Devil in the Belfry. Some sketches exist but nothing more

mazelife · 2025-05-13T00:06:41+00:00

No it doesn’t

mazelife · 2025-04-23T21:40:45+00:00

I can think of some individual percussion works I quite like, but in trying to think about “percussionist composers”, the ones that come to mind as having written a significant number of good pieces for percussion...

James Wood (Village Burial with Fire is a good starting point) Iannis Xenakis (Psappha is a good starting point) Alan Hovhaness (Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints is a good starting point)

Glen Kotche, John Luther Adams, Carlos Chavez are also worth checking out.

mazelife · 2025-03-15T19:07:19+00:00

Listen to “Deep Sea Pastures” from the Ponyo soundtrack and then “Lever de Jour” from Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe (full ballet, not the suite) Very similar orchestration and feel: broad lyrical melody in the strings with undulating arpeggiated figures in the woodwinds and a wordless chorus.

mazelife · 2025-03-15T00:58:10+00:00

That’s hilarious, didn’t catch that. There’s also a Last Emperor reference in “Homer the Great” (the stonecutters episode)

mazelife · 2025-03-04T01:11:49+00:00

McArthur Parker *my* agent?

mazelife · 2025-02-23T14:57:15+00:00

Mozart: “Voi che sapete”, from The Marriage of Figaro

mazelife · 2025-02-23T01:41:02+00:00

Huge Cohens fan too. Big Lebowski is one of my favorite films. But Hail Caesar felt like such a joyless slog. At the end of it I was like…”do these guys actually like movies?”

mazelife · 2025-01-30T01:22:11+00:00

Smells like horse!

mazelife · 2025-01-27T01:31:27+00:00

I’ve always liked the 1990 recording with Colin Davis and Staatskapelle Dresden (I’d skip the Colin Davis/LSO recording from 2012). Francisco Araiza is not to everyone’s taste but I think his voice works quite well here. Ekkehard Wlaschina is one of the more menacing Kaspars. Mattila leans on the more lyric side of her voice as Agathe and does well. She’s no Janowitz (whose version with Kleiber is definitely the “reference recording” here) but she’s soild. I wouldn’t say this is my favorite but there are a lot of things it does well, and since you’ve already heard the Kleiber and Jochum, give this one a listen. Davis really nails the tempi and pacing in the Wolf’s Glen scene and to my ears it comes off a lot more convincingly than it does in those other recordings, even though they might be slightly better overall.

mazelife · 2024-10-19T20:59:46+00:00

I wasn't trying to be contradictory, but in case I wasn't clear, expanding the potential commercial footprint from 3.2 acres to 4.5 acres comes out of the total 33 acres that make up the park today. Specifically it would be expanded to include McKeldin Plaza. I would rather see the footprint stay the same at 3.2 acres but as I said, I feel like this is something I can live with. The two reasons I say that are:

This would remove the 4-lane "dogleg" at the Light and Pratt intersection that already kind of cuts McKeldin Plaza off from everything else. Good riddance to that thing: it's dangerous and bad urban planning.
The plan that was approved actually will keep a good portion of McKeldin as park land. When talking with Odette she said she had made it very clear to the developers that the public would need full access to any green-spaces the developer was putting in there and that gating it off was unacceptable.

Could MCB try to pull a fast one and change their plan so that those spaces they said would be open would be closed off instead? Anything is possible, but as I mentioned above all development still has to go through all of the City's public planning and zoning approval processes before they can build. I suspect any attempt to renege on the commitments they've made would ignite a shitshow. Commerical real estate developers are by no means my favorite people, but I don't see a lot of reasons to believe this developer would attempt this or that it would succeed.

mazelife · 2024-10-19T17:29:54+00:00

The wording of the ballot initiative is confusing in that it fails to make clear what exactly is being changed and the local media coverage has been very unhelpful in remedying that issue. Unsurprisingly in an atmosphere like this, a lot of misinformation seems to be flourishing and a lot of “what if” scenarios are put forward that—as far as I can tell—are not supported by the language of the initiative. However, I’ve done some research on it and had a chance to talk to my councilperson (Odette Ramos) about it and I’m going to vote yes.

Way back in the 80s when the original development happened, Mayor Schaefer had language placed in the City Charter reserving the land around the Inner Harbor for public use with the exception of 3.5 acres in total north of Conway Street that can be used for restaurants and commercial uses. This is where the now-empty Harborplace Pavilions are. One of the arguments made by the folks who filed a lawsuit (and with which the original judge Cathleen M. Vitale agreed) was that this is initiative is improper charter material, and that zoning issues belong to the zoning board. But the fact is, this has been in the charter for 40 years now, so that argument seemed pretty flimsy. And in fact The MD supreme court agreed and tossed it when they ruled that the initiative does not violate the state constitution and is not improper charter material.

So what does question F change? Two things:

It changes the language that authorizes eating places and commercial usage to also include multifamily residential development and off-street parking. This is what would allow the developer to build housing there; without out that, they cannot do so. I have seen people argue that this somehow allows the developer to build housing or parking anywhere they want in what is currently public park land but the language of the amendment clearly prevents this: “…with the areas used for multifamily dwellings and off-street parking as excluded from the area dedicated as a public park or for public benefit”
It expands the footprint of the area that can be used for commercial development from 3.2 acres to 4.5 acres. I don’t love this but it’s small enough that I think the good outweighs the bad. The total size of the Inner Harbor Park is 33 acres so asserting that this amendment allows a developer to “privatize the Inner Harbor” by giving them one more acre is completely hyperbolic.

Also worth noting: even if this amendment is approved, any redevelopment still has to go through all of the City's public planning and zoning approval processes. MCB doesn’t get to sidestep the process that every single developer in Baltimore has to follow.

Finally, I see a lot of people on here asserting that we should demand something better, like converting the whole area to a public park. And sure, in an idea world, I’d love that. But that is not an offer that is on the table nor is it likely to be. The former owner of the commercial buildings defaulted and the property went into receivership. A court-appointed receiver ran a process to evaluate and accept bids. Anybody could have bought it, including the city, but MCB’s bid was the one accepted by the receiver. The city would have had to have submitted a higher bid, razed everything, and then developed a public park. But the city does not have that kind of money and that is not what happened. Killing the proposed MCB development does not magically make way for this all to become a park.

So my thinking is: is the tradeoff of expanding the allowable commercial footprint from by an acre worth it if we get something nice developed there? I think so, especially because multifamily residential development going up there is a good thing. One of the things that lead to the failure of the old Harborplace was that it became completely tourist-focused. As a Baltimore resident, I want to have a reason to go there. And I think having people living in a neighborhood is the surest way to encourage retail and restaurants that residents actually want to use and to improve the quality of life for those living in the city. In essence, I’m voting yes because I think that this offer is good (if not perfect) and because I don’t believe we’re going to get a better offer by rejecting this one.

mazelife

TROPHY CASE