View From a Hotel Window, 5/26/23: Baltimore
Posted on May 26, 2023 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
This hotel window shot has it all: A parking lot, yes, but also an impressive building in the federal style, and a pleasant downtown view in general. It’s a lovely day in Baltimore, and the part of the downtown I’m in is nicely walkable. Charm City, indeed!
Balticon starts this evening and I’m here all weekend doing panels and events. If you’re here, I’ll see you, and if you’re not here, a question: How are you planning to spend your Memorial Day weekend?
— JS
Wrangling literary genre definitions.
But … it’s still Baltimore.
The equivalent in England would be a hotel looking out over the Bullring in Birmingham.
Oh, I have fond memories of Balticon, having grown up in Maryland. One weekend I hobbled around it on a walker, as I had snapped my upper thigh bone in an accident in Canada.
I’m mostly planning on relaxing and recovering from a stressful month.
It’s also a holiday on Monday here in England. Weather looks nice for a change (a holiday weekend normally means rain) so I might be doing some stuff in the garden if it stays dry. Otherwise just relaxing.
Great now I’m humming…
Good Morning Baltimore By Nikki Blonsky
At least it’s not
Raining In Baltimore By Counting Crows
Enjoy the weekend.
If you get a chance, check out the Visionary Art Museum. One of my favorite. I think you’d like it
I’m spending most of my Memorial Day weekend working on LienZine, a sampler of Denny Lien’s writing that we’ll distribute at his memorial in Minneapolis (well, St. Paul, actually) next Friday. There will be a PDF version as well as printed copies.
On Monday, friends here in Massachusetts are hosting the first BBQ of the season, so I’ll enjoy taking a break from LienZine layout and proofing to hang out with the folks there, admire everything that’s in bloom (they’re excellent gardeners), and eat yummy food.
I was at Balticon 6 years ago (yikes! time flies!) and had a splendid time. It looks like all is shaping up for you to have an equally good time yourself this year. Congratulations and yay on the Heinlein Award! And if you get a chance to make music with Adam Stemple, you won’t regret it. (Though if you don’t already know, he is eternally the winner of the last note contest.)
Last week I started re-reading “The Culture” novels of Iain Banks, so I’ll continue with that this Memorial Day weekend. (Parenthetically, I write in parentheses, I’m one of those retired folks for whom things like long weekends don’t generally mean much. However, for this day, I do, indeed, give some thought to what the holiday means for us Americans.) What else? I’ll be listening to some new LPs – I kind of built up a backlog of unlistened-to new vinyl purchases while I debated purchasing a new turntable and phono amp, which I did just in the last couple of weeks. And I’ll be enjoying the unusually mild temperatures here in Central California, with daily highs forecast to be in the mid to high 70s.
Don’t forget to see Pride of Baltimore 2, Baltimore’s Tall sailing clipper ship. Sailed on her as guest crew a couple of years ago.
https://pride2.org/
Spending Memorial Day weekend with my grandkids. I plan to be thankful that both of my sons (who are in the military) do not need to be memorialized this weekend.
Have a great time at the con. For myself, well I’m retired, though I do try and treat my weekdays as time to be useful and get things done. Then weekends (and holidays) I give myself more latitude to relax and downshift on tackling my todo list.
So short story I already made long, going to relax this weekend. Finished the wonderful “Under Alien Skies” by Phil Plait Ph.D. Going to pick my next book to tackle which for me is fun. I have 2.5 bookcases of TBR material. Like having my own bookstore at home.
Hope you and everyone here has a great weekend!
I plan to attend some of the virtual programming from the comfort of home. Happy Balticon to everyone attending, in person or otherwise! And congrats again to John on his Heinlein Award win.
We have just this minute arrived in NJ after a cross-country drive in our electric car, to spend the summer visiting our grandchildren (and their parents). The municipal pool opens for the summer tomorrow!
Normal transmission has resumed – a view of a car park.
My 34th wedding anniversary is on Saturday. We’ll likely celebrate by having dinner delivered. Saturday morning I’m heading to the MA Sheep and Wool show, which should be fun. Also reading Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. I like it a lot.
We’ll be in Maryland just for our friend’s annual Memorial Day geeknic (you know a picnic for geeks). Also going for a hike. And enjoying a couple of days without the kids.
I hope you enjoy the event, good sir!
I’m up on the on-call rotation this weekend so I’m staying pretty close to my home computer. Which is fine, it means that the rest of the team can go do fun-in-the-sun stuff without worry. (I’m not being snotty here, I’m serious. I wouldn’t normally go out and about this weekend anyway so this works out best for all involved.)
More time for reading books? Yes indeed.
If you’ve never been to the Inner Harbor, check out the frigate Constellation – a museum ship that used to hunt slave ships – and incorporated timbers from the older Constellation, who served in the War of 1812.