Mainstream

After 20 years of making solid punk-pop albums with little mainstream recognition, the Bouncing Souls still find a way to keep the music crackling with life. And that's no easy feat. "There have been moments when I feel like we put so much energy into it, and you're not getting paid enough to make it worth it," says lead vocalist Greg Attonito. "But I don't wanna trade my life with anyone. I've traveled all over the world, and you can't put a price on people loving your music." At this point in their career, the guys of the Bouncing Souls (including Bryan Kienlen on bass, Pete Stienkopf on guitar and Michael McDermott on drums)

Mainstream newspapers may be up against dwindling circulation and shrinking advertising revenues, but college papers have become hot commodities. Spurred by research indicating that about 76 percent of the nation's 6 million full-time college undergraduates read their campus papers at least occasionally, big corporations and advertisers are latching onto student-run publications. One of the most notable examples of the trend occurred in late summer, when a subsidiary of MTV, one of the country's best-known youth brands and part of the Viacom entertainment empire, purchased College Publisher, a company that runs Web sites for about 450 college papers - nine of them in Maryland.

WASHINGTON -- To "mainstream" or not to "mainstream"? That is the question that energizes student and faculty protests at Gallaudet University. The return of protests at America's only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing-impaired has been obscured by other big stories in Washington these days. But in many ways, the complicated and emotion-charged politics of Gallaudet reveal a much larger story. It is a saga about identity, the many ways we humans see ourselves as individuals or as groups, and how far we will go to keep our groups intact.

The natural and organic products industry was for years a niche market that conjured up stereotypical images of longhaired hippies eating granola and holding up peace signs. Few traditional grocery stores carried the products and it was safe to say that most of the country's dinner tables didn't include organic food samplings. But as the industry holds its annual Natural Products Expo East trade show in Baltimore this week, the organic and natural products that once were found only in health stores and co-ops are taking up more space on major retailers' shelves.

Got ink? Sporting a tattoo or two is no longer the taboo counterculture act it once was. But it can still present employment, health and financial concerns, experts said. Once the exclusive domain of bikers, gangs and other rough riders, tattoos have gone mainstream with the help of TV programs such as Miami Ink. Today, brokers and secretaries are just as likely as bartenders and street punks to have one. Advances in tattoo-removing laser technology have driven more people to sample the trade, adding images to their legs, feet, arms, lower backs and other places, said Dr. Bruce Katz, director of the JUVA Skin and Laser Center in New York.

Forcing foundation to sell just isn't fair Lorraine Mirabella's article "Renewal project stalled in city" (May 29) describes a purported impasse between the Baltimore Development Corp. and one of Baltimore's most prestigious and philanthropic foundations, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. In 46 years of generous giving to the Baltimore community, first Harry Weinberg and later the trustees of the Weinberg Foundation have given millions of dollars in service to the most poor and most vulnerable among us. The foundation has funded a cancer center building at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and a state-of-the-art emergency department at the University of Maryland's hospital and provided funds for myriad other health-related projects.

Tom and Kate Chappell left corporate jobs in Philadelphia in 1968 to move to the woods of Kennebunk, Maine, where they made their own soap and other natural care products. Their enterprise evolved into Tom's of Maine, a natural products company the couple started in 1970 that grew into, among other things, the nation's largest producer of natural toothpaste. The company reveled in thumbing its nose at much larger competitors that used additives in their toothpaste. But this week, Tom's crossed enemy lines, so to speak, when it announced its sale to toothpaste giant Colgate-Palmolive Co. for $100 million.

BARDONECCHIA, Italy -- Hannah Teter stood at the top of the hill, reggae music from her iPod piped into her ears, snowboard strapped firmly to her feet. She danced in place, knowing that a gold medal could be waiting at the bottom. That's not all that was down there, though. When her ride was complete, there was much more than the medal, flowers and congratulatory hugs waiting for Teter, a 19-year-old from Belmont, Vt. Snowboarding success now goes hand in hand with big-dollar endorsement deals and unprecedented adoration from a generation of fans who never knew life existed before the snowboard.

When daily newspapers began including sports articles on a regular basis more than a century ago, the subject matter reflected the still largely agrarian complexion of American society. Horse racing and boxing were the mega-sports of the era and team games, most notably baseball, were only beginning to take root in the country's emerging popular culture. But as the prevailing workplace environment shifted from one that was essentially individual, such as in farming and craft trades, to the collective setting demanded by the Industrial Age, concepts of organization and teamwork took hold in leisure pursuits as well.

The first RHHStival in 1999 attracted about 90 people who listened to performances from seven high school bands. That may sound like a respectable audience, but it looked sparse in the 700-seat River Hill High School auditorium, said Steve Wampler, who organized the event as the school's music director at the time. "It looked very empty," he recalled. The annual show, scheduled Saturday at River Hill, has gotten bigger and better. This year, 30 high school musical acts auditioned for 14 spots, and the audience is expected to top 400. "The whole thing has gotten really quality," said Wampler, now music director at Elkridge Elementary School.