Well, fuck. The Brewer’s Art, a mainstay of Mt. Vernon, and host of one of the best basement bars in all of Baltimore (RIP Wroten’s), abruptly announced its closure on Monday, citing over $150K in debt. I don’t know what would have happened there—it was always busy—but this is a loss for Baltimore’s nightlife scene. I spent many an evening tucked away in a corner of the basement nursing an OZZY or four (Fuck you Sharon, it’ll always be OZZY to me), and have a special place in my heart for it.
Five years ago I read The Rook, an excellent science-fiction-fantasy-comedy-thriller by Daniel O’Malley, and I was captivated. Starz has made it into a series, and I think it looks pretty good. But I can’t watch the whole thing unless I sign up for a 30-day trial or buy a yearly Starz account. I think I miss the days of overpriced cable TV…
I’ve been away from my computer for most of this week; as mentioned elsewhere I’ve been outside until dark every day putting serious restoration time in on the Travelall. I’m always plugged in to podcasts when I’m working outside, but by Monday morning I was current with all of my subscriptions. Luckily, I’d checked a bunch of books out of the library when we went to Puerto Rico and put them on my iPad for the plane ride and poolside. I checked out the audiobook of Stiletto, by Daniel O’Malley, which is the follow-up to The Rook, a book I thoroughly enjoyed on a couple of train rides to DC back in 2014. I’m enjoying it so far, even though the author has doubled down on his world building at the cost of pacing. He wrote a third book last year that I’m going to check out next.