The Acela Express: Amtrak’s fastest train is often not the quietest.

PEACE IS OFTEN AT STAKE
FOR A TRANQUIL TRAIN RIDE

For rude passengers
who refuse to chill out,
silence is not golden

GONG SOUND MANDATES QUIET
 
By David Maril
 
The sign in the front identifies this section of the Acela Express, near the end of the train, as the “quiet car.”

Passengers in the quiet car are prohibited from using cellphones or noisy headphones.

Those sitting in the quiet car are warned to talk as little as possible and, when they do speak, to keep their voices down.

For many who choose train travel to Washington or New York because of a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere, the concept of the “quiet car” is a welcome addition to the Amtrak travel menu.

Often when 50-60 people are crammed into a train car, the sound of voices babbling back and forth and hollering into cellphones becomes annoying.

Mix in the irritating jingles of cellphone rings every couple of minutes and it’s impossible to take a nap, read or let your mind wander while watching the shoreline and countryside fly by.

The “quiet car” concept was instituted several years ago.

However, a recent trip on a train headed for New York reveals it will always remain a work in progress.

Seconds before this particular train pulled out of Penn Station in Baltimore, the quiet car was filled with relaxed, satisfied looking passengers.

Some, just settling into their well padded and comfortable Acela Express seats, were unpacking books to read. Others were pulling documents and folders out of briefcases to get work done as the train headed north.

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Donald Trump (center, flanked by Scott Walker, left, and Jeb Bush) garnered the lion’s share of media at- tention at last week’s initial Republican debate of the 2016 presidential sweepstakes in Cleveland. The top 10 GOP hopefuls participated, with the remaining seven squaring off in an earlier forum the same evening.

JEB BUSH PLAYING ‘NOT TO LOSE’:
AN UNCONVENTIONAL STRATEGY
WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE THE LEAD

GOP should utilize positive, unifying
presidential message delivered
by Ohio Gov. John Kasich

BABBLING BLOWHARDS STEEPED IN NEGATIVITY
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering if Donald Trump is trying to prove a Super Pac doesn’t need to support a candidate when it can run for office itself, we can note the following:

 I couldn’t help but wonder if Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan had his way, would he give the City of Baltimore the same treatment he’s applying to the Baltimore detention center he’s closing down?

Surely if he could make an executive decision without consulting Democrats and local officials, to shut down the city and make all the issues and problems he would prefer not to consider, disappear, it would make his day.

Hogan is making it clear the improving living conditions in Baltimore — where he doesn’t have much voter support — is not high on his agenda. If it wasn’t bad enough that he killed the plan for the much-needed Red Line Light Rail system, he insultingly used the leftover funds for road and bridge work outside of the city.

Closing the controversial jail is the right thing to do. But it should have been handled in a classier, more bipartisan way, which would have allowed city officials to publicly participate in the process.

 Speaking of transportation, there’s nothing wrong with expanding taxicab service options so there will be more competition, thereby helping consumers. However, Uber and other new modes of service should have to meet the same type of regulations and requirements with licensing and safety standards so everyone will be competing on a level driving field.

 Presidential behavior was in short supply throughout the telecast of the first Republican primetime showcase hosted by Fox News and Facebook in conjunction with the Ohio Republican Party.

The “amateur hour” unprofessional tone was established early on by two of the three moderators.

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Bryan Cranston as meth cooker Walter White, clandestinely named “Heisenberg” of the highly acclaimed AMC TV series “Breaking Bad.”  White has hired on as a commentator for Voice of Baltimore.

‘BREAKING BAD’ PROTAGONIST
OFFERS NEW TAKE ON A CLASSIC;
‘WALTER WHITE, HISTORIAN’

‘Heisenberg’ surveys an uncertain field

THE ‘PERRY WHITE’ OF THE PUNDITS
 
By Jay Liner
 
One of the all-time greatest works of political writing and reporting was Theodore H. White’s revolutionary The Making of the President 1960, a classic of presidential punditry which launched an entire genre of successors that to this day are copycatted every four years during the election cycle.

Winner of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the book is still considered the bible for telling the inside story of John F. Kennedy’s narrow victory over Richard Nixon.

White, a Harvard-educated journalist/historian and grandson of a Hasidic rabbi from Belarus, told the story in great detail with access to the candidates, and wove a tale that kept readers turning the pages à la a mystery thriller.

The self-described “storyteller of elections” went on to write about the 1964, ’68, ’72, ’76, and ‘80 elections utilizing the same format, but his initial effort was a masterpiece and propelled him into superstar status.

White is long gone to the filibuster in the sky and a “new White” has emerged as the man with the plan to put all the pieces together into a coherent narrative that will tell us the story of our next president.

The new White is Theodore’s long-lost “cousin” twice removed, “Walter White” (a/k/a “Heisenberg”) of “Breaking Bad,” played to perfection by the wonderful Bryan Cranston.

For those of you who didn’t watch the show, now off the air, you missed one of the most acclaimed series of the current “Golden Age of Television,” listed by Guinness World Records as the highest- rated TV show of all time, having won 16 Primetime Emmy Awards during its six-year run (from 2008 through ’13).

Star Bryan Cranston won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times over six years for his phenomenal performance in the role of a lifetime, and the show garnered a total of 262 industry-award nominations, winning 110 of them.

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Excursion boat full of whale-watchers off the coast of Province- town, Mass., near Long Point Light Station on Cape Cod Bay.

MD. MISSES OUT ON LATEST CRAZE,
SETTLING FOR ‘FRANKENFISH’
AND SHARK SIGHTINGS

Seasickness is unwelcome part of the excursion
as tourists get more than they bargained for

A HEIGHTENED APPRECIATION FOR DRY LAND
 
By David Maril
 
Most of the summer crowd squeezing across the Bay Bridge in stifling traffic to hit the beach or spend hours in boats on the Eastern Shore don’t know what they’re missing.

Maryland, with warm, swimmer-friendly ocean water, will never offer whale-watching, one of the biggest and fastest-growing attractions in New England.

Oh, occasionally it will be big news when a dead whale washes up on a beach at Ocean City.

Most of the big fish headlines, however, relate to occasional shark-sightings.

Perhaps if the threat of the snakefish, or “Frankenfish,” as they are more affectionately called, spreads, there will be boats hauling tourists around on fishing safaris to hunt down these mini- monsters of the sea.

In the meantime, the Maryland beach/tourist industry is missing out on the profitable whale-watching phenomenon.

If you spend more than a day or two on Cape Cod, it is a certainty you will consider paying to spend several hours on a boat, with 100 or so other tourists, staring at whales.

For those visitors who don’t own boats in New England, whale-watching has become one of the most popular tourist attractions. It’s become so big, in fact, that many commercial owners have converted their ships from sport-fishing to whale-watching boats.

It sounds very appealing, providing a chance to spend several hours at sea on a safe, well-equipped, comfortable charter boat and absorb an education on nature and whales.

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The Maryland Minority Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place Aug. 19th at the Creative Alliance in Highland- town, will feature “Implied Warranty,” a 30-minute futuris- tic film-short produced by Quiet Mountain Films and direct- ed by local filmmaker Robert G. Christie. It stars an ensem- ble Baltimore cast, including 2 Hotmedia Film Fest winners.

CREATIVE ALLIANCE VENUE ON EASTERN AVENUE
IN HIGHLANDTOWN IS SITE FOR ANNUAL EVENT
BILLED AS ‘MINORITY FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE’

The medium of the moment for everyone
 
By Jill Yesko
 
These days it seems that everybody with an iPhone is making a movie.

Which makes Sharin Nelson, founder and director of Reel Independent Women, an organization devoted to showcasing films by women and minority filmmakers, a very happy person.

“For the longest time, making movies was something people could only dream of,” says the Owings Mills resident.

“Today technology has evolved so that you don’t need thousands of dollars or sophisticated equipment to make interesting, quality movies.”

Nelson should know. She has her own IMDb (Internet Movie Database) page and numerous film credits both as a producer and actor.

Nelson has worked with local area filmmakers such as Dundalk’s Jimmy Traynor and Baltimore’s Marlene Zechman of Zany Zone Productions.

But she isn’t satisfied with just making movies: “I want to give back to the community of local filmmakers,” she says.

To that end, Nelson is the driving force behind the Second Annual Maryland Minority Film Festival, which will take place at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore on Wednesday, August 19th at 7 p.m.

The event, which was well received in its first year, includes an expanded genre of films, from anime to horror and documentary.

Among this year’s highlighted filmmakers are:  Phoenix Tremayne, a former Baltimore City fire fighter turned writer, producer, and photographer; feature film producer Ashleigh Coffelt, founder of Miss Ash Productions; Jasmine Jones, director of Living Natural, a documentary about Jenise Wamble’s natural hair story and her role as president of Towson University’s natural hair club, the Naturalistas; and James Bowman’s short animated movie “Kassi.”

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