Q&A: ‘Road Grays’ co-founder Austin Stahl discusses his baseball magazine’s humanistic approach

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March 14, 2019

With spring training well underway and days spent at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in warmer climes not far behind, Baltimore baseball fans are at that sweet spot of anticipation for the upcoming season.

Sure, things are really not looking good for the Orioles, owners of a ghastly 47-115 record last year, but there’s still the unknown and–dare I say it–ever-so-slight feeling of optimism that comes with a clean slate and 162 games still to play.

Adding to the build-up to baseball is Road Grays, a new magazine founded by local married couple Austin and Megan Stahl that focuses on human stories in our national pastime. Issue 1, out now, includes pieces of local interest, such as an interview the groundskeeper at Oriole Park and a feature by local luminary Rafael Alvarez on outfielder Curt Blefary, as well as a photo essay on Japanese baseball and a feature on the crews that make minor league baseball function.

To mark the start of Road Grays, the creative team is hosting a launch party at Atomic Books tonight from 7-9 p.m. Austin Stahl will discuss the magazine and Alvarez will read from his story. To find out more, I caught up with Stahl to talk about the origins of Road Grays, his vision for it going forward and what he thinks will happen with the 2019 Orioles.

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Jazz club Keystone Korner Baltimore coming to Harbor East, with food from Robert Wiedmaier

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Ethan McLeod

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March 14, 2019

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Logo via Facebook/Keystone Korner Baltimore

Thirty-six years have passed since Todd Barkan’s historic San Francisco jazz club Keystone Korner closed its doors. From 1972 to 1983, greats like Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Bobby Hutcherson, Stan Getz and Max Roach, among countless others, played there. The venue continues to live on in written history, and through a series of time-honored albums recorded live in the Vallejo Street nightclub.

In the nearly four decades since, Barkan has further cemented his legacy in jazz as a record producer and an operator of clubs in New York (and, from 1990-1993, of Keystone Korner Tokyo). Now, at 72, the newly minted Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts is ready to give Keystone Korner another go—and it’s happening here in Baltimore, right at the water’s edge.

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Culture

‘Indecent,’ a play about a play, can be thought-provoking, but also begs more questions

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Karen Nitkin

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March 13, 2019

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Paula Vogel has made a career of tackling uncomfortable topics. The Maryland playwright won a Pulitzer in 1998 for “How I Learned to Drive,” which centers on pedophilia and incest. Other works put AIDS, pornography and domestic violence on Vogel’s stage.

With “Indecent,” co-created by Rebecca Taichman, Vogel turns her attention to a controversial play from an earlier time: “The God of Vengeance,” which debuted in 1906.

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Better at Sports: One Camper at a Time

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Church of the Redeemer VOICES Series: Lynne Olson, Wednesday, March 13

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Bird in Hand applies for liquor license, plans more events and a few upgrades

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Ethan McLeod

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March 12, 2019

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Upon joining as a co-owner of Bird in Hand in 2017, Emma Snyder said she saw the then-new business “was a really terrific model of merging a bookstore with a truly social space.”

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Culture

In a twist, Mr. Trash Wheel collects a beer can featuring his likeness

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Brandon Weigel

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March 11, 2019

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The circle is complete. In a kind of funny, kind of sad bit of irony, Mr. Trash Wheel, the googly-eyed trash-collecting vessel at the mouth of the Jones Falls, gobbled up a beer can with his very own likeness on the label.

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2019 Baltimore St. Patrick Parade in photos

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J.M. Giordano

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March 11, 2019

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Baltimore’s St Patrick’s Day Parade winds down Charles Street to the Inner Harbor for the 64th year in a row.

Hundreds of spectators lined Charles Street to watch the 64th Annual Baltimore St. Patrick Parade. Mayor Catherine Pugh and Acting Police Commissioner Michael Harrison led the two-hour parade that included dozens of dancers, pipers, classic cars and dogs like Irish wolf hounds and border collies. Though the parade route led to the Inner Harbor, the grandstand outside Mick O’Shea’s Irish Pub was the choice viewing spot of most attendees.

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Culture

‘Broad City’ star Abbi Jacobson will screen penultimate episode at the Parkway

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Brandon Weigel

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March 8, 2019

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Abbi Jacobson, left, and Ilana Glazer in “Broad City.” Image via IMDB.

“Broad City,” the inventive, absurdist buddy comedy following the adventures of two New York City women, is coming to a close after this, its fifth season.

Co-creator, writer, director, executive producer and star Abbi Jacobson, who is also a MICA alum, will screen the penultimate episode, called “Along Came Molly,” at the Parkway Theatre on March 20 alongside cinematographer Ashley Connor.

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Drug City, Dundalk’s oldest pharmacy, is also a destination for whiskey lovers

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J.M. Giordano

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March 8, 2019

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Dr. George Fotis amid the whiskies at Drug City in Dundalk. Photo by J.M. Giordano.

Dundalk is known for its cheesesteak subs at Captain Harvey’s, crabs on the waterfront at Dock of the Bay and, more recently, the fine beers at Key Brewing Co. But one of the best selections of whiskey in the area?

Well, there’s a store on North Point Road with more than 200 varietals of bourbon, rye and single malt, and it just so happens to be associated with Dundalk’s oldest operating pharmacy, Drug City.

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