Fine Arts

Michael William Kirby, a world-renowned street painter, created a soft pastel mural for Saturday's second annual Harbor East Fine Arts & Music Festival. The project, which measured roughly 12 feet by 15 feet, took Kirby five days to finish. He says he's more concerned about the problems of finishing a piece than the impermanence of his work.

The phone rang Monday and the caller ID screen said "Unknown Caller, Unknown Number," which suggests that somebody with a headset in a cubicle wants to know if I would like to send them some money, but I picked up anyway and it was a reporter in Australia wanting to know how Americans observe the Fourth of July. This happens if you have eyebrows as big as mine and are able to furrow them - foreign writers will take you for an authority on American culture. "We have enormous parades on the Fourth," I said.

JAZZED ABOUT MUSIC Jazz pianist Larry Willis will perform at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday. Willis has performed with many jazz greats, including Dizzy Gillespie and Lee Morgan, playing on more than 300 records in his career. His versatile music style will please fans of rock and pop music as well as those interested in more worldly styles, such as African and Brazilian music. .................... The concert will take place at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, 91 Key St. in Hagerstown.

Susan Kroiz Krieger set a plastic foam square on a work table in the basement of her Baltimore home, picked up the frame of an old clock and squished it down into the foam. "I use items like this that I find all over the place to create my art," said the 63-year-old Baltimore native, picking up some beads to add to her creation. "When I find something I can use, I call it a happy accident." Krieger was creating a relief piece similar to items she is showing in an exhibit that opens today at the Liriodendron Mansion in Bel Air. She is one of four artists who created an exhibit when the scheduled artist -- Carole Jean Bertsch -- had to cancel her show after losing her home in a fire at the end of March.

MOSCOW -- Vladimir Rakovsky glides around dressed in black with the air of a guru -- albeit a self-appointed one -- as he holds forth before a group of admiring students on the virtues of womanly wiles. This softly lit room on the second floor of a Moscow theater is as appropriate a place as any to stage a master class for women on how to act -- literally -- to get men, and what they want from men. This, according to the name of Rakovsky's class, is known as stervologiya, or the art of being a sterva,which in Russian means, literally, "bitch."

A new face will join the dais where the Carroll County Board of Education sits for public meetings Wednesday. For the first time, Barbara Shreeve, the board's newest member, will vote on budget adjustments and contracts, construction policies and bid awards. Shreeve may be sitting in a more prominent seat, but she said she's not nervous about her role. "Because I've been so involved, I don't feel like a new person," said Shreeve, who substitute teaches, volunteers and has served as the PTA president.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans last year, floodwaters swirled through the city's breached levees, shearing off the branches of hundreds of ancient oak trees and leaving them stranded on porches and lawns or atop the roofs of collapsed buildings. WILLIE BIRCH: EXODUS, REVELATION AND REALITY; CELEBRATING FREEDOM: THE ART OF WILLIE BIRCH / / Thursday through Dec. 17, Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of the Fox Building, Maryland Institute College of Art, 1303 Mount Royal Ave. / / 410-225-2300 or www.mica.

Deadline for writing, arts programs near The deadline is Wednesday to register for the St. John's College Continuing Education & Fine Arts Program. Writing, painting, drawing and pottery courses are held on weekday evenings or weekend mornings on the Annapolis campus. Tuition is $175 for fine arts workshops; some also have a materials or a model fee. Information: 410-626-2881 or www.stjohnscollege.edu. Web safety sessions at parenting center The Parenting Center at Anne Arundel Community College has scheduled three Internet Safety Nights for county parents and educators.

You may know that Philadelphia is filled with history, fine dining and plenty of culture. But you may not be aware of the city's many outdoor opportunities - among them hiking, biking, rowing, fishing, sailing, running, horseback riding and even dog walking. To acquaint visitors with the possibilities, the city has launched a $1.7 million campaign called Boundless Philadelphia, with the details at gophila.com/outdoors. Such fresh-air fun adds one more reason to visit this nearby destination, where deals are easy to come by. Here are a few: You might want to lock in a low price for the Bed, Breakfast and Prison package at the Best Western Center City Hotel.