Three Johns Hopkins University employees of ‘Sugar,’ a sex-toy/paraphernalia shop on 36th St. in Hampden, stripped down to bras and leotards at the annual HonFest last weekend.

The coeds’ actions — whose booth was decorated with a banner proclaiming Sugar’s motto: “Stirring up raw passion” — shook up the “family-friendly” festival, a sarcastic tongue-in-cheek paean to the beehive hairdos and gaudy getups of Baltimore’s blue-collar women of the 1950s.

As proclaimed on its webpage, Sugar is a “lesbian owned, women and trans operated, for profit, mission driven sex toy store” on The Avenue in Hampden.

The three Johns Hopkins students who work there were ordered by festival organizer Denise Whiting, owner of the popular Cafe Hon restaurant and boutique store HONtown, to put their clothes back on.

“We have a more conservative definition of ‘street legal,’” Whiting told the Hopkins students, whose outfits had nothing to do with the 1950s costumes seen in abundance at the festival.

Jacq Jones, a self-described “sex educator” who is — according to her Twitter feed — “the owner/princess/proprietress of Sugar, a fabulous sex toy store in Baltimore,” told Voice of Baltimore she never instructed the women to take off any clothes, nor did she know they had done so until after the fact, although she acknowledged asking them when they attended the festival to promote the store.

Which they did, attracting lots of attention, until they were shut down by Cafe Hon’s Whiting, who promotes herself and her businesses (restaurant and store) as the epitome of Hon-dom, even trademarking the word “Hon” two years ago, to the consternation and condemnation of virtually all of Baltimore.

Whiting was boycotted for more than a year and nearly went bankrupt until saved by TV’s “Kitchen Nightmares” host, Chef Gordon Ramsay, who resurrected her business in February 2012.
 
See VoB’s coverage of the Cafe Hon/
Denise Whiting controversy  (click here)
 
— VoB Staff report
 
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Is covert listening by the government to all communica- tion in America the wave of the future? Can anyone talk on the phone without fear of electronic eavesdropping?

Why do people talk so loud on cellphones,
disturbing  everyone  in  public  places?
 
By David Maril
 
It’s unnerving in our democracy when the first confirmations surface that the government, in the name of defense against terrorism, relies on expanded surveillance of us through our telephones, cellphones and Internet use.

Is Big Brother — or to avoid being labeled chauvinistic, Big Sister — watching every move all of us make?

But you know something? Now that we have all been warned eavesdropping is in and privacy is on the way out, everyone knows what to expect and it’s your own fault if you say something or text a message you don’t want repeated or filed in some type of top-security folder.

Even though we are being assured conversations are not being listened to and recorded, you’d be foolish to believe the surveillance levels won’t be increased without notice if some high-ranking bureaucrat deems it necessary.

However, if you stop and think about all the shallow, babbling and texting that is taking place so many people can avoid making personal contact, it would be a herculean task to effectively monitor our communications.

Think of all the unavoidable silly chatter of people broadcasting play-by-play of trivial details in their lives we all learn to tolerate walking through a store or even sitting in a restaurant. Even to do a thorough job of eavesdropping on just cellphones alone would require hiring millions of new security workers.

Thinking back to a recent Amtrak train trip I took from New York to Baltimore, it’s apparent to me that effectively bugging cellphone chatter is impractical and unrealistic.

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Sara Heilman was one of 12 local singers competing in the opener of this year’s ‘Voice of Baltimore’ competition Monday night at Padonia Station. She finished out of the money in 2012 but will return as a semifinalist July 1st. (VoB Photo/Debi Fowler)

TWELVE LOCAL AREA SINGERS COMPETE
AS POPULAR TIMONIUM SPORTS CLUB
KICKS OFF 2013 CONTEST IN STYLE
 
The 12th annual “Voice of Baltimore” singing competition at Padonia Station sports bar and restaurant kicked off Monday night in Timonium as 12 local area singers gave first-rate performances, thrilling a large contingent of club patrons and supporters.

MC’d by Paul Mittermeier, director of communications for the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation, which is the beneficiary of the annual event, the competition is scheduled to run for seven consecutive Monday nights beginning at 9 p.m., concluding with the final, July 15, at which this year’s male and female “Voice of Baltimore” will be named.

For the first time in its 12-year history, a male and female winner will be crowned. In the first 11 years of the contest, all the winners have been women. Six men competed Monday night.

Last year’s winner, Stephanie Bowen, returned as a celebrity judge, with New Romance keyboard player Greg Marsh, Hear’s to the Night guitarist Steve Wozniak, and Voice of Baltimore Managing Editor AL Forman completing the judges’ panel.

VoiceOfBaltimore.org, the website, is a co-sponsor of the event.

Galen Beck arranged the musical accompaniment for the 12 singers, eight of whom were selected to return in four weeks for the semifinals, which will take place July 1 and 8.

Prizes include $300 each for the male and female winners, along with a five-hour recording session provided by Sheffield Audio-Video Production. The first-place winners will also be interviewed on WNST-AM Radio-1570 on “Catch the Buzz,” a daily sports talk show co-hosted by Mittermeier and Damon “The Bulldog” Yaffe, who serves as chief of the contest judges.

Male and female runners-up will receive $150 each, with third-place winners taking home $50. There is a $5 fee to enter the contest.

The annual event is organized and produced by Debi Fowler, Padonia Station’s promotions and marketing director.
 
— VoB Staff report
 
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President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have been less than truthful about the AG’s part in govern- ment snooping into the Associated Press’s telephone records. (VoB Photo/Randy’s Roundtable)

Bachmann et al vanish from public view
as Mayor of Baltimore hypes gambling;
MLB Interleague excitement wears off

DOES DONALD TRUMP OWN A HAT?
 
By David Maril
 
While watching U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder back-pedal away from the heavily criticized attempt by President Barack Obama’s administration to intimidate the media, it’s interesting to note the following:

 Why, going back to the Watergate scandal days of John Mitchell in the Richard Nixon presidential administration, has the position of attorney general become more a political extension of the White House than a fair enforcer of the law? Mitchell was famous for surprisingly admitting he and his political cronies should be judged by what they did and not by what they said.

Certainly no Bobby Kennedy, who originally politicized the office in a positive way following his controversial appointment as his brother’s AG in 1961, Mitchell drove the politicization to new depths.

And now we have Holder, who in his nearly five years as attorney general has relied heavily on double-talk and flip-flopping while mishandling several key situations. Besides displaying uneven and weak legal judgment, he’s even proved to be incompetent as a politician.

His latest blunders include attempting to stifle media coverage by signing off on the Justice Department’s obtaining two months’ worth of phone records of a number of Associated Press reporters and targeting a Fox News reporter — and then insisting he had nothing to do with any of it.

The saddest part of this embarrassment to the Obama Administration is that instead of being forced to resign, Holder has been appointed to investigate himself.

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Stephanie Bowen was named the first ever ‘Voice of Baltimore’ last year at Padonia Station. The contest resumes next Monday, June 3rd, at the popular Timonium sports bar and restaurant. (VoB File Photo/Bill Hughes)

TIMONIUM SPORTS BAR AND RESTAURANT
WILL AGAIN SPONSOR  ANNUAL CONTEST
TO  RAISE AWARENESS OF CHILD ABUSE

Event benefits charitable Ed Block Courage Awards

LAST YEAR’S WINNER TO BE CELEBRITY JUDGE
 
By Maria Amoruso
 
Think you can sing?  Professionally?  And win a vocal competition in front of an SRO audience at a popular sports bar/restaurant in Baltimore County?

Stephanie Bowen thought she could, but she wasn’t sure; she tried and failed three times. But like they say, the fourth try can sometimes yield gold.

And for her it did.

After taking a year off from Padonia Station’s annual singing competition in 2011, Bowen registered for the inaugural “Voice of Baltimore” contest in 2012 — and won. And now, a year later, the determined songstress returns as a celebrity judge to the contest in Timonium that ignited her singing career.

Bowen attests that without the competition she probably wouldn’t be a lead singer with two bands or getting ready for her second national anthem performance at Camden Yards. The 26-year-old winner of last year’s contest and those who won in previous years got to sing at an Oriole game as one of their prizes from the competition.

Many of the previous winners and runners-up have returned to judge the contest in subsequent years as well.

Bowen encourages others with similar dreams to compete in this year’s Voice of Baltimore event that kicks off at 9 p.m. Monday, with registration beginning at 8 p.m.

The fee to register is just $5, which goes directly to the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation to raise awareness and fund prevention of child abuse. Paul Mittermeier, the foundation’s director of communications, told Voice of Baltimore — dot org, the watchdog website, which is a co-sponsor of the competition — that Padonia Station and its staff have been “supporters of ours for a long time and they are always looking for new ways to raise money for us.”

Mittermeier will host the event along with legendary local musician, guitarist Eddie DePaola, a/k/a Zack Chainj.

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