Inspired

When it comes to towering cultural icons, the difference between Baltimore's lineup and Nashville's is like the difference between the varsity and JV. NASHVILLE Dolly Parton Overly chesty country artist whose warbling "mountain soprano" irritates again on her latest CD, Backwoods Barbie. Elvis Presley Bloated, pelvis-thrusting King of Rock 'n' Roll toppled by addiction to barbiturates and Sara Lee products. Jack Daniel Possibly unstable founder of Jack Daniel's whiskey distillery who died of massive toe infection after kicking a safe in anger when it wouldn't open.

Over the years I've attended my share of boring dance recitals at lesser venues, but Saturday's three-hour performance by the Ballet Theatre of Maryland's School of Classical and Contemporary Dance was so good that it more than made up for all those unpleasant experiences. Describing the year-end recital as "the chance to show how much the students have learned," said Dianna Cuatto, the theatre's artistic and school director. "This is the one time all of the students, older and younger, get together in one building and interact."

The generally greater sensitivity to cultural differences manifest during the 1990s has had a notable effect on the art of our time.Women artists and artists of color now look for inspiration outside the cultural "mainstream" that long was defined as exclusively Western, bourgeois and male. Even the notion of a "mainstream" has become hotly contested.Too, the increasingly articulate voices of women and minorities, nationally and globally, have moved the issue of personal identity to the forefront of aesthetic as well as political concerns.

BEHIND Martin Luther King Jr.'s eloquence and Malcolm X's fire was Curtis Mayfield's music -- inspirational, righteous and challenging.The songs he recorded with the Impressions in the 1960s were rooted in the spirituals of generations earlier. But Mr. Mayfield also drew inspiration from -- and, in turn, inspired -- the civil rights movement when it needed more than "We Shall Overcome."His 1964 "Keep on Pushing" is an example.Now maybe some dayI'll reach that higher goalI know that I can make itWith just a little bit of soul'Cause I've got my strengthAnd it don't make senseNot to keep on pushingMr.

"For many reasons, you will love 'Ripken: Cal on Cal' by Cal Ripken. First, I liked it because it has a lot of facts about Cal Ripken. Then it tells you where he lives and where he grew up. Finally, it tells you how many games he played and how many home runs he hit."-- Carleton ColesJoppa View Elementary"One of my favorite books is 'Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul' by Jack Canfield. The stories in this book uplifted, comforted and inspired me. Subjects include love, friendship, family, overcoming obstacles and achieving dreams.

Mark O'Brien,49, a poet whose determination to live a life independent of his iron-lung breathing machine inspired the Oscar-winning documentary "Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien," died Sunday at his Berkeley, Calif., home from complications of bronchitis.

GOOD THINGS can happen when we're inspired by our friends. Last month, Savage resident Elaine Johansen mentioned to friends that she wanted to decorate Carroll Baldwin Hall for the holidays.She had seen the beautiful, big wreaths that Charla Long, also of Savage, had used to decorate the 1922 community building the previous year -- and felt inspired.So the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Johansen stopped by a neighbor's yard -- the donor wishes to remain anonymous -- to cut greens to decorate the hall.

Winning tiesThis is your tie. This is your tie on drugs. The designs for the new Johns Hopkins Children's Center Miracle Collection ties are inspired by an unlikely source: the molecular structure of medicines used to treat youngsters.When translated into a tie pattern, Surfactant, for respiratory distress, resembles a series of skyscrapers (right). Pseudoephedrine, which helps relieve allergy symptoms, looks swirly and psychedelic. And Vitamin K, given to newborns with hemorrhagic disease, resembles the desert (left)

If anyone had asked me what I thought artists collected, I probably would have said, "Each other's art, I guess." And surely they do, but as the exhibit now at Goucher College's Rosenberg Gallery shows, they collect a lot of other stuff, too: picture postcards, dead leaves, old clothes, pieces of chairs, souvenir glasses, appliance parts, handkerchiefs and even broken crockery.The show, called "Artist as Collector," was inspired by the exhibit "A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum," now at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Just as the V&A has collected everything from paintings and furniture to shoes and radios, so artists are eclectic collectors, too. And what they collect often finds its way into what they create, sometimes as a means of inspiration but often literally.

The first time he was ever in a courtroom he was on trial, Robert M. Bell told a group of fifth-graders at Centennial Lane Elementary School yesterday.Now he's the highest-ranking judge in the state.The chief judge of Maryland's Court of Appeals said the experience as a teen-ager -- he was eventually convicted of participating in a sit-in at a lunch counter that barred African-Americans -- did not scare him away from the justice system. In fact, it inspired him."I did it because it was the right thing to do," Bell, 53, said of the sit-in, adding that he knew it was against the law at the time and could get him into serious trouble.

Tom Watson has won more than 60 golf tournaments around the world, including eight majors as a member of the PGA Tour. But it was a loss this summer on the Scottish coast during the British Open's final round that has touched thousands around the world. It's one reason he'll be the top attraction this week when the final major of the Champions Tour, the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, comes to Baltimore Country Club's Five Farms course in Timonium. Longtime area fans such as Sandy Clark said many of his friends who don't even play the game paid attention to what Watson did at Turnberry and will go to Five Farms to watch him play.

Of the many wishes I have for the Obama presidency, one is that the excitement, energy, hope and good will generated by his campaign and election can be harnessed and returned to the communities from which they came. On the night of his election, Barack Obama exhorted us to join him in remaking our nation. So I say: Let's get going! Mr. Obama, please call upon all of us - those who supported you as well as those who didn't - to make positive changes in our cities, towns and rural areas.

When it comes to towering cultural icons, the difference between Baltimore's lineup and Nashville's is like the difference between the varsity and JV. NASHVILLE Dolly Parton Overly chesty country artist whose warbling "mountain soprano" irritates again on her latest CD, Backwoods Barbie. Elvis Presley Bloated, pelvis-thrusting King of Rock 'n' Roll toppled by addiction to barbiturates and Sara Lee products. Jack Daniel Possibly unstable founder of Jack Daniel's whiskey distillery who died of massive toe infection after kicking a safe in anger when it wouldn't open.

Everybody, including me, has been saying how Terrell Suggs needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut to avoid the kind of controversy that erupted last week over his poorly-thought-out comments on an Atlanta sports talk show. Well, I've changed my mind. On Sunday, he looked truly inspired, which can only be the result of being truly embarrassed by all the commotion that resulted from his back-to-back attempts to swallow his own foot. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog)

FRANK ROSENTHAL, 79 Handicapper inspired movie 'Casino' Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the sports handicapper, Las Vegas gaming executive and the inspiration for the blockbuster movie Casino, died Monday of a heart attack in his Miami Beach condo. Mr. Rosenthal ran the Mob-owned Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda and Marina casinos through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s. Sports Illustrated once crowned him the greatest living expert on sports handicapping. But eventually he was listed in Nevada's "black book" of unsavory types banned from casinos.

He smashes Olympic records, he hauls home more gold than any athlete in history, he inspires adjectives. Gather 'round wordsmiths: Thanks to the stunning performance of Michael Phelps, an amazing accomplishment will now be known as a "Phelpsian Feat." Fellow swimmer Aaron Piersol coined the term, thinking "Spitzian," which used to mean the same thing, was as passe as Mark Spitz's ample '70s mustache. One could say it's all but Phelpsian, how fast the new word has slipped into the lexicon.

Forty years ago today, nine Catholic men and women - three of them priests - walked into a military draft office in Catonsville and seized the records of hundreds of young men likely to be summoned to fight in Vietnam. They burned the papers in the parking lot, using homemade napalm to start the blaze. As the flames rose, the nine solemnly recited the Lord's Prayer and stood around waiting for the police to arrest them. That day in the turbulent spring of 1968, the Catonsville Nine, as they became known, put the quiet Baltimore suburb on the map in a growing nationwide protest against the Vietnam War. The band of activists - whose dramatic trial drew hundreds of antiwar protesters to Baltimore that fall - inspired similar disruptions of draft offices around the country.

Cry-Baby, the exuberant song-and-dance spectacle inspired by Baltimore bad-boy John Waters, was nominated for four Tony Awards yesterday - including the most important prize, best musical. The nominations defy tepid critical reception and lackluster box-office receipts. The show, which is based on Waters' 1990 cult film of the same title, is a Romeo and Juliet saga set in 1954 Baltimore. "At 7:15 a.m. San Francisco time, I got the news and I was levitating from joy," Waters says. "I went up about 1 inch.

Maryland vs. Nebraska 9:30 P.M. [ESPN2] Was that less-than-impressive victory over Coppin State in Round 1 a sign of things to come for the Terps? Or did the Eagles' inspired play wake up the 2006 national champs? Either way, I'll say this: If the Maryland men's team had anyone as tough as Crystal Langhorne, it might be playing for a spot in the Sweet 16, too.

If you go The Spa of Colonial Williamsburg is at 307 S. England St., Williamsburg, Va. Call 800-688-6479 or 757-220-7720, or go to thespaofcolonialwilliamsburg.com. Century-inspired treatments run one to two hours and cost $165-$285.