Avalon

BARRY LEVINSON'S latest movie, ''Avalon,'' stirs memories of the rich historical meaning of its title, ignored by the film. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, established his original colony, Avalon (1623), in easternmost Canada on the island of Newfoundland. The weather proved too severe, so the colony was abandoned. The name survives there in the Avalon Peninsula, off of whose coast Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter in 1941.Calvert asked England's King Charles I for a more temperate grant, and the result was a New Avalon -- Maryland (1634)

It takes a Big Band sound to battle the disco, punk, thrash rock, heavy metal and country-pop now dominating national soundtracks. But that's exactly what the Zim Zemarel Band has done in the greater Baltimore area for the better part of 50 years. And even though Zemarel himself died in 1999, at age 82, his former band mates Gene Bonner, 77, of Perry Hall, and Wayne Hudson, 68, of Pasadena, are still carrying the torch for the band, and for Tommy Dorsey- and Benny Goodman-style 1940s Big Band music itself.

In Thursday's Accent Plus, columnist Michael Hill tempted readers with a quiz on some specific Baltimore-area locations from the film "Avalon." As promised, here are the answers,provided by the Maryland Film Commission.1. The community where the Krichinsky brothers first lived, welcoming Sam to America.ANSWER: Corner of West Madison and Mount Vernon Place in Mount Vernon.2. The locale of the dance where the Krichinsky brothers ar playing their violins when Sam sees his future bride.ANSWER: Clarence Mitchell Court House.

Leading up to the big Diner reunion on Dec. 10, The Charles is showing a retrospective of Barry Levinson's "Baltimore films. " The screenings begin on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, with "Avalon "(1990).  Ask 10 people what their favorite moment from the movie is, and all 10 will say it's Lou Jacobi's Thanksgiving Day tantrum. Late again for dinner, Jacobi's Uncle Gabe is stunned to discoverer that his family, this time, didn't wait for him. Roger Ebert called "You cut the turkey without me?

Citing the continued recession and losses in its printing sector, Monarch Avalon Inc. reported a loss in its third fiscal quarter which ended Jan. 31.Monarch Avalon, the parent company of Monarch Services, a commercial printer and envelope manufacturer and of The Avalon Hill Game Co., a game designer and manufacturer, lost $9,000, or 1 cent a share, in the past three months in contrast to earnings of $96,000, or 6 cents a share, in the same quarter a...

Barry Levinson blew it.That's the view of Bernard Fishman, the director of the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, writing recently in the society's publication, Generations.Fishman says the Baltimore-born Levinson goofed by excluding nearly all signs of Jewishness from his 1990 film "Avalon," the tale of the experiences of an immigrant Jewish family much like Levinson's.The filmmaker has said he sought to depict not so much a Jewish immigrant experience as a generic immigrant experience thus the downplaying of the family's Jewishness.

HOW OFTEN I've heard the phrase, "Art imitates life"! Yet, no movie or painting ever mirrored my life -- until now. Barry Levinson's film, "Avalon," hit me where I lived, both literally and figuratively.Although my parents and I made our home in Frederick, my most cherished memories are in Baltimore, the setting of Levinson's autobiographical movie. (It is also the milieu for his previous works, "Diner" and "Tin Men.") It is there that I spent countless weekends and summers with my grandmother, Sarah; where I played with my best friend, Sylvia, who lived down the street; where my cousins, Neil and Gary, and I shared a myriad of childhood experiences, and where I treasured the family gatherings on the farm of my great uncle, Sam (the same name as Levinson's grandfather)

To see Barry Levinson's "Avalon" is to take a sentimental journey through an old family photo album, where you catch yourself declaring, "There's sweet Aunt . . . gee, what was her name?"I walked out of the Senator Theater on York Road and bumped into a cousin whom I happen to love and see about two times a year, since it takes as much as 15 minutes to get into my car and drive to her house."Wasn't the movie wonderful?" she said."Wonderful," I said.Then we looked at each other for a heartbeat and realized an uncomfortable fact: The movie could have been about us.In America, we have the strange notion that we haven't arrived until we've spread out a little.

SPEAKING OF MOVIES: You're too late if you waited until the last minute to get tickets to Barry Levinson's "Avalon" premiere and party to benefit the Mildred Mindell Cancer Foundation Sunday at the Senator. It's sold out.The movie should be of special interest to WJZ-TV anchorman, Richard Sher and wife, Annabelle. Their 21-year-old son, Brian, an aspiring actor in Los Angeles who just graduated from University of Southern California, has a bit part as a waiter in the movie.Ironically, Brian's dad Richard made his acting debut on the soap opera "General Hospital" as -- what else?

AVALON," BARRY Levinson's valentine to Baltimore families and tradition, opened over the weekend, and Baltimore responded with sellout crowds at the Senator Theatre.More than 6,500 tickets were sold over the weekend at the 50-year-old theater on York Road, where the film had a benefit showing a week ago.Tom Kiefaber, owner of the Senator, said "Avalon" opened "on the level of an 'Indiana Jones' or a 'Hunt for Red October.' We have been very busy." "Avalon" chronicles the experiences of an immigrant family, the Krichinskys, in Baltimore.

Programming for open-air festivals is like programming for neighborhood theaters: You've got to know your audience. The Little Italy Outdoor Film Festival almost started a mini-riot one year when organizers decided not to open with "Moonstruck. " Never making that mistake again, they keep their surprises to the middle of the schedule. (They always close with "Cinema Paradiso. ") Here's what draws fans to some of Baltimore's other open-air series: Eclectic AVAM crowds flip for everything from 'E.T' to 'Avalon' According to the American Visionary Art Museum 's Pete Hilsee, the Flicks from the Hill audience has responded to everything from musical comedy to sci-fi fantasy and broad comedy.

On September 12, 2008, DR. HERBERT M. JOSEPH, beloved husband of Avalon Joseph. Funeral Services will be held on Friday in the Howell Funeral Home Chapel, 10220 Guilford Road, Jessup, MD. Wake 10 to 11 am. Service will follow. Interment Lincoln Memorial Cemetery. Inquires 301-604-0101.

For some, the desire to return to one's roots is a strong pull. Wendy Adams acted on that urge in the fall of 2002. "We were living in a renovated home downtown when I asked [my husband] if he'd like to take a Sunday drive and see where I grew up," she remembered. The couple drove to the Patapsco River Valley in Baltimore County, not far from Adams' girlhood home in Relay. Their exploration ended that day at the end of a steep, narrow incline that led to a compound serenely resting on 4 acres, also in Relay.

Maryland: Taxes U.S. holding refunds of $2.2 billion from '03 The federal government is holding more than $2.2 billion for 1.8 million people who failed to file a tax return in 2003 and didn't get their refund. They have until April 17 to file a return with the Internal Revenue Service, otherwise the U.S. Treasury will keep the cash. About 41,300 of these non-filers are Marylanders who are due a total of $55.1 million. Get the forms to file previous years' returns at www.irs.gov or call 800-829-3676.

A dozen milk and soda bottles from the Old Oak Dairy are lined up on top of the kitchen cabinets. A trivet bearing the old Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad logo is on a shelf. Handmade puppets made by a local man sit, slightly slumped, on top of a stand in the living room. The eclectic display of Linthicum memorabilia shows just how much Oscar "Skip" Booth adores his hometown. Just as the mementos punctuate his living space, so do the homespun stories that Booth writes about the town, which celebrates its 100th anniversary next year.

A 16-year-old Halethorpe boy apparently drowned in the Patapsco River yesterday afternoon in the Avalon area of Patapsco Valley State Park during an outing with his family - the second death in as many days in Baltimore County waters where swimming is prohibited, authorities said. The boy's mother, who was in the area with her two other children, saw him go toward the river about 4:30 p.m. and shouted for help when she noticed he had not returned, according to Lt. Vernon Adamson, a Baltimore County police spokesman.

It is as if "Avalon" and the Senator Theater were made for each other. In fact, as anyone who has seen director Barry Levinson's Baltimore family epic knows, an uproarious scene from "Avalon" was actually filmed in the wonderful art deco cinema on the 5900 block of York Road.Since it opened in Oct. 5, more than 75,000 people have seen the film at the Senator. "We have the highest gross in the country," says the theater's owner, Thomas A. Kiefaber. The only other film that comes close to the success of "Avalon" at the Senator is "The Hunt for Red October," which attracted 65,000 viewers over the same amount of time, Kiefaber says.

Monarch Avalon Inc. reported one of its biggest quarterly losses ever yesterday, saying that the increased expense of selling games, rising paper costs and the start-up of a new girls' magazine were a drain on the company.The Baltimore-based maker of board and computer games such as Diplomacy, Kingmaker and Gettysburg said it lost $616,000 in the three months that ended April 30, more than 10 times its $61,000 loss in the same period of 1994.At the same time, booming sales of recently introduced computer games pushed revenues for the quarter up $200,000 to $1.7 million.

A three-alarm fire in the Avalon Symphony Glen apartments in Columbia displaced 18 families before dawn yesterday, leaving many out in the cold in their pajamas with no identification or possessions. No injuries were reported. Avalon Bay Communities and the Red Cross said they are assisting victims with food, clothing and shelter. "We didn't hear anything," said Gautam Puranik, 30, who moved into the 18-year-old complex less than two weeks ago. "Then we heard police sirens, but we thought it was a robbery until an officer banged on the door and shouted `Fire!

There is no secret why Patapsco Valley State Park is so attractive to residents of western Baltimore County: It offers a bucolic setting within easy reach of the suburban landscape. That goes for residents of Catonsville and Relay, many of whom live within walking distance of the park. But it also goes for residents of Woodlawn, Randallstown, Owings Mills and Pikesville, who are no more than a 10-mile drive from one of five entrances to the park. What might be a secret is the diversity of recreational activities the park offers, including camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking, picnicking and tubing.