Harp

The National Symphony Orchestra wrapped up its 2006-2007 season with a concert that found both the ensemble and its music director, Leonard Slatkin, at the top of their game. As usual, Slatkin came up with a deft mix of repertoire - symphonies by Haydn (we could never get too much Haydn around here) and Mahler surrounded a premiere by American composer Mark Adamo. The latter's Four Angels, a concerto for harp and orchestra, was commissioned by the NSO for its longtime harpist, Dotian Levalier.

Deborah Henson-Conant plays the harp, but she's no angel.When she walked out on stage at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall yesterday afternoon for the first of several pops concerts with the Baltimore Symphony, conductor Marvin Hamlisch took a deep breath, wiped his brow, loosened his tie and asked about her dress -- which began at considerably less-than-shoulder altitude and ended in the middle of her black-stockinged thighs."

The Harford Road Partnership, known as HARP, has appointed a new executive director, Brent Flickinger, who started the full-time post last week.Flickinger, 47, previously worked as a Baltimore County community planner, concentrating on the Northeast section. He also has worked as director of research and planning for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and as a community organizer in the Park Heights section of Northwest Baltimore.He succeeds Marian Gillis as HARP's executive director, responsible for overseeing community and economic development in the stretch of Harford Road that begins at Argonne Drive and continues north for a mile and a half through Lauraville and Beverly Hills in Northeast Baltimore.

Heather Metzger always knew her father wouldn't die an old man. He drank too much, did too many drugs, drove too often under the influence.But Metzger, who is from Millersville in Anne Arundel County, was shocked when her father died Oct. 16, 1994, after driving drunk and high on drugs on the way home from a bar in Baltimore County. Metzger was 17. Her two brothers, Justin and Jordan, were 13 and 10.Metzger, now 21 and a junior at the University of Maryland,College Park could have let grief consume her. Instead, soon after her father's death, she designed a program for younger children called "Drug Free Me" and began to tell her story in schools.

Laurel Dukehart's plucking of the giant brown harp resting on her 12-year-old shoulder created the musical equivalent of a cascading waterfall.Moments later, two dozen fellow harpists performing at the Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville yesterday joined Laurel in pulling, grabbing and tweaking the towering instruments to create the musical equivalent of Niagara Falls."

LOS ANGELES -- Tom Hayden hates it when people harp on his past. However, harp we must, because his candidacy for mayor here is interesting as a lagging cultural indicator. The last 30 years have not dealt gently with those who, like Mr. Hayden, thought they were surfing on the wave of the future.In 1967 he was 27 and the New Left personified, a paladin of ''participatory politics.'' The theory of romantic leftism was that the building of a New Jerusalem would be a majoritarian operation, with ''the people'' storming the ramparts of ''the establishment'' in order to defeat ''the system.

Joseph Moody Harp Sr., retired executive editor of the Herald-Mail Co. in Hagerstown whose newspaper career spanned an era from the days of "The Front Page" to the computer age, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at Washington County Hospital. He was 89.Mr. Harp, who had lived the last few years at Homewood of Williamsport retirement community near Hagerstown, was born in Cavetown, Washington County, and graduated from Smithsburg High School in 1925.After digging ditches, picking peaches and doing other odd jobs for 15 cents an hour, he learned of a job opening at the Herald-Mail in Hagerstown in 1926.

How can Tom ever be happy in Heaven?That dapper and dignified manwould not sing a note at a party.Imagine him, then, if you can,holding a Harp -- when his usual drink was a Guinness --reciting yard after yard of grand poesy'til even St. Peter cries, ''Finis!''How can Tom ever be happy in Heaven?Whenever the man was aboutagain and again we would hear it:''If you need me, just give me a shout!''A message in the village, good deeds discreetly done,service to an ailing friend with not a word to anyone.

Andy Todaro jokes that his tiny Montebello Delicatessen on Harford Road is an "oasis in the desert."In a deteriorated business strip a few blocks north of Herring Run Park in Northeast Baltimore, he has two sidewalk tables framed by lush magenta petunias and a Pepsi sign that has misspelled his deli's name for more than 15 years.It's hardly Harborplace. But Todaro and his neighbors hope his little sidewalk cafe is a sign of the rejuvenation of the Harford Road commercial corridor -- from Parkside Drive to Echodale Avenue.

I've always thought it ridiculous that some people actually spend money to buy those little laminated cards that feature a table showing how much various tipping percentages will cost them.These otherwise-sophisticated folks pull out such cards when paying the check in a restaurant. I mean, is 10, 15 or 20 percent really all that difficult to compute?Even grade-schoolers counting on their fingers should be able to work out 15 cents on the dollar (the average amount tipped these days for good service)

FRIDAY LEGO MASTER BUILD: Kids can get into the holiday spirit by helping to construct a 12-foot-tall LEGO Christmas tree complete with presents as part of the LEGO store grand opening at Arundel Mills mall, 7000 Arundel Mills Circle in Hanover. The event takes place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday in the Pinball Court. Participation is free. Call 410-540-5100 or go to arundelmills.com. HOS, HOOKERS, CALLGIRLS AND RENT BOYS: David Henry Sterry and Shawna Kenney read from their anthology about sex workers at 7 p.m. at Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Road.

The demise of the Baltimore Opera Company last season left a sizable void at the venue where the organization had long made its home. But losing a valued tenant hasn't taken the opera out of the Lyric Opera House. The theater has lined up its own operatic activity for the 2009-2010 season. Although modest in terms of quantity - just three performances - the series has the potential of delivering on the quality end, and of laying the groundwork for more extensive seasons in the future. "The Lyric is thoroughly committed to having opera here," says Jim Harp, former artistic administrator and education coordinator of the Baltimore Opera.

Solomon Harp III, the retired chief of operations at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and a decorated Air Force colonel, died Monday of Alzheimer's disease at Manor Care nursing home in Silver Spring. The Columbia resident was 78. Born in Pottsville, Pa., he moved to Baltimore as a child with his parents. He attended Booker T. Washington Junior High School and was a 1948 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. He earned a biology degree from Lincoln University.

On July 28, 2008 SOLOMON HARP, III; beloved husband of Carolyn Harp. The family will receive friends on Friday, August 1, 2008 at the family owned Howell Funeral Home, 10220 Guilford Rd., Jessup, MD from 3 to 8 P.M. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday in the funeral home chapel. Wake 11 A.M. to 12 noon, service will follow. Interment Arlington National Cemetery. Inquiries to (301) 604-0101.

The National Symphony Orchestra wrapped up its 2006-2007 season with a concert that found both the ensemble and its music director, Leonard Slatkin, at the top of their game. As usual, Slatkin came up with a deft mix of repertoire - symphonies by Haydn (we could never get too much Haydn around here) and Mahler surrounded a premiere by American composer Mark Adamo. The latter's Four Angels, a concerto for harp and orchestra, was commissioned by the NSO for its longtime harpist, Dotian Levalier.

Rudolph Valentino was riding across an Arabian sand dune as silent movie organist James Harp concluded a frantic version of the William Tell Overture. The pews at the St. Mark Lutheran Church, built in 1898, vibrated from the dizzying peal of what sounded like 1,000 throbbing pipes. The audience erupted into spontaneous applause as the brass cascade bounced off the stained-glass windows and bejeweled Louis C. Tiffany Studios interior. "You have to use that trumpet sparingly," Harp said in a musical understatement at the conclusion of his bravura performance yesterday afternoon.

On October 25, 2006 FLOYD L. SR. beloved son of Lucille and James M. Harp, Sr., father of Vashita, Ashley, Nicole and Bobby Harp; devoted brother of Larry (Carolyn), James, Jr. (Glenda), Veronica, Roger, Matthew and Michelle Harp; six grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends Friends may call at the family owned MARCH FUNERAL HOME WEST, INC., 4300 Wabash Ave. on Thursday after 8:30 a.m. Family will receive friends on Friday at Huber Memorial Church, 5701 York Road at 10 a.m. followed by funeral service at 10:30.

The Wreckers Michelle Branch (left) and Jessica Harp met when they were trying to get their feet in the music business. The two would later tour together and realize that their playing styles were similar. They come together as The Wreckers to play singer/songwriter-style country at the 9:30 Club in Washington on Saturday evening. The 9:30 Club is at 815 V St. N.W. Tickets are $25. Doors open at 6 p.m. Call 202-265-0930 or visit 930.com.

What's next, polar bears in Ocean City? Harp seals, members of an Arctic species that breed on floating ice in Canada, have been swimming ashore in relatively balmy Maryland and elsewhere along the Atlantic coast. Six of the famously furry mammals have been sighted on Maryland beaches from Ocean City to the Assateague National Seashore over the past 18 months, according to a rescue squad led by the National Aquarium in Baltimore. A polar invasion might be mounting. Federal researchers say 297 harp seals were reported on beaches from Virginia to Maine last year, almost double the 152 reported in 1995.

On March 1, 2006, KENNETH RAY, retired Chief Warrant Officer 3 U.S. Army of Westminster devoted husband of Joyce "Jo" Harp (nee Fridinger), father of Michael Chrest, Mark Chrest and wife Dori, Bernadette C. Harp and Holly R. Limerick and husband Dwayne, brother of Sandra Knowles and husband Frank, Dianne Hill and husband Robert, Dan B. Harp, Jr., brother-in-law of Judy and Henry Dodrer and Jean and Ron Jones, grandfather of Ashlie Warner, Meagan, Kirsten,...