City Fair

When I was at the Lakefront last night you could see the rides for the City Fair had arrived. It looks like a blast. See you at the City Fair and let's have a great celebration of Columbia's 40th Birthday!

City Fair:

Friday, June 29th 6-10pm
Saturday, June 30th 11am-10pm
Sunday, July 1st 12noon-6pm

Also on Saturday from 9am to 11am is my Bagel Bin Listening Session at the Kings Contrivance Bagel Bin. Stop by on your way to the fair.

I Am Back

Sorry I have not been posting much recently. I have actually had lots of thoughts for posts when I am nowhere near my computer, but I have been so busy recenty that I never seem to get the time to write the blog post. My appologies. I will try to be better and I continue to look for guestbloggers who are able to post more often.

In the meantime, Thursday is the CA Board meeting. You can find the agenda here. Let me know what you think.

My next Bagel Bin Listening Session is this Saturday, June 30th from 9am to 11am at the Kings Contrivance Bagel Bin.

Also a reminder that this weekend it the Columbia City Fair at the Columbia Downtown Lakefront. It looks to be a great time. I will be there all weekend so feel free to stop by and say hi.

Communal Mailboxes

David Wissing has a post about communal mailboxes that is worth a read. The communal mailbox was one of the design features used by Jim Rouse to bring people together and get them to know their neighbors. (I personally think communal mailboxes were the least effective of Rouse’s design features because as I have said before they mainly brought people together when mail got mis-sorted and you had to go give your neighbor their mail that you accidentally got.) In this case maybe I am being to pessimistic about how little the mailboxes worked to change how people think about the world, because as a regular reader of David’s blog I am actually very surprised by his support for communal mailboxes. I would guess that if he didn’t have a personal experience with them growing up in Columbia he would have a very different gut reaction. It is amazing how personal experience can impact ones approach to various issues.

Proud Brother

Though sadly the Columbia Flier does not put their pictures on their website for me to link to, on page 46 of this weeks Flier is a picture of my little sister when she was working on her chalk art at the Columbia Festival of the Arts last weekend. As the caption to the picture says my sister is off to grad school next year. She will be studying scientific illustrating. She has been getting private lessons at the Smithsonian for the last year. I am very proud of her. Her art is amazing.

Oh, and here is a picture of my sister and I when we were growing up since I cannot link to the picture in this weeks Flier:

Columbia's 40th Birthday Celebration

Use this as an open thread to share information and discuss upcoming events.

Columbia 40th Birthday Website

Free Summer Movies at the Lakefront

The schedule of Columbia Association’s Summer Free Lakefront Movie Series is out. I love this film series and look forward to it every year. It is a great way to spend a summer evening under the stars. As always the selection does not disappoint by providing both recent releases and classics.

All movies start about 8:30pm or when it is dark enough and are preceded by old time movie shorts.

Friday, June 22nd Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Monday, June 25th Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Monday, July 2nd Shrek 1

Friday, July 6th Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Monday, July 9nd Shrek 2

Friday, July 13th Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Monday, July 16th Free Willy

Friday, July 20th Alford Hitchcock’s Classic: North By Northwest

Monday, July 23rd Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course

Friday, July 27th The Devil Wears Prada

Monday, July 30th Hoot

Friday, August 3rd International Film: The King of Masks

Monday, August 6th The Secret Garden (1949 version)

Friday, August 10th Worst Movie Ever Made: Plan 9 from Outer Space

Monday, August 13th The Wizard of Oz

Friday, August 10th The Sound of Music

Monday, August 20th Charlotte’s Web

Friday, August 24th Night at the Museum

Friday, August 31st The Goonies

Saturday, September 1st The Princess Bride

Friday, September 7th Jumanji

Saturday, September 8th Jumanji 2: Zathura

Friday, September 14th International Film: Life is Beautiful

Saturday, September 15th International Film: Cinema Paradiso

So bring a blanket and a picnic dinner and enjoy the Lakefront before the county tries to build a road on the top edge of the grass amphitheater.

Blood Drive

The Western Howard County Democratic Club is joining the American Red Cross in sponsoring a Blood Drive on Saturday, June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Howard County Conservancy Gudelsky Environmental Education Center. The center is located at 10520 Old Frederick Road (Rt. 99), Woodstock, Md.

Red Cross T-shirts will be given to all Donors and first-time ever WHCDC T-shirts will be given to all volunteers and high school students who volunteer or donate. Local blogging regular Jim Adams is coordinating the drive for the WHCDC.

Prospective donors are asked to schedule donation times at any 15 minute interval starting at 9:30 a.m. through 1:15 p.m. Plan to be involved for approximately one hour from the time of your appointment.

To schedule your appointment, please contact Jim Adams at 443-520-8800 with your preferred time ASAP and no later than Wednesday, June 13. Be prepared to provide your name, telephone number and e-mail address and preferred time.

Democratic Debate Open Thread

Did you watch tonight? What did you think of the candidates? Even if you didn't watch do you have a particular leaning at this point?