Renaissance

When Evangelin Pesci started at Renaissance Hair Studio & Day Spa in Cockeysville 10 years ago, she told salon owner Sharon Rose that one day she would do hair on television and show the world what it's really like to be a hairstylist. If creating a praise-winning style using a scary pair of hedge clippers is what a hairstylist's life is like, then it's safe to say she's achieved her goal. ON TV Bravo's Shear Genius airs at 10 tonight.

Kamaal the Abstract, one of my favorite albums of 2002 that I still jam today, has never seen the light of CD shops. And it's a shame because the record is a sterling effort from Q-Tip, one of hip-hop's more progressive MCs with musical talent to spare. It was supposed to be the follow-up to Amplified, the New York rapper's 1999 solo debut that sold gold but was slightly conventional for Tip. I received a press copy of Kamaal about a month before it was scheduled to drop that April. I even published a review praising Tip's insightful raps, loose vocalizing and spacious arrangements that braided Beatles-style pop-rock with rap and jazz.

Columbia network security company Sourcefire Inc. is expected to go public later this week, hoping to raise as much as $77.3 million to fund growth. Sourcefire plans to offer 5.77 million shares for between $12 and $14 per share, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. Of those, 450,000 shares are being offered by stockholders and 5.32 million are for new shares of the company's common stock. The company's stock will trade on the Nasdaq stock market under the ticker symbol FIRE.

PLANNERS know that stimulating residential development is a way to revitalize declining urban centers. Witness Baltimore's recent proposal to turn the fanciful Bromo-Seltzer Tower near Camden Yards into apartments. Indeed, at many locations, city developers are responding enthusiastically to the call for residential conversions.But officials haven't had much success coaxing a similar housing revival in Towson.Towson, a so-called "edge city" by virtue of its concentrated office space and major retail, is not in decline, but county officials have long-range concerns.

Sunday was one of those special days when an afternoon in Annapolis seemed the very soul of gracious living.It was cool -- by this summer's standards, anyway -- and the ambience was perfect for exploring the 12th Annual Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival on the rolling lawns of St. John's College.Kudos to Thomas E. "Tea" Arthur, the board of directors' chair, and to event chairwomen Jean Jackson and Dorothy Medley, who created a bright, attractive festival.One delight was the performance of "Myklar the Ordinary," a magician whose tricks and affirming commentary directed at the youngsters were anything but run-of-the-mill.

School cafeteria would be an eyesore in Roland ParkKathy Hudson's Opinion Commentary article citing Roland Park's renaissance as a result of "careful development, preservation and community vigilance" ("Roland Park's renaissance a lesson for city," June 8) seems prescient given community concerns over the proposed 42,000-square-foot, glass-walled science center and cafeteria building proposed by the Roland Park Country School.The architect has proposed a hulking design and factory-like cladding singularly inappropriate to one of America's oldest and most historic planned communities.

I was surprised to learn that there are people in Miami who practice swordfighting. I never thought of Miami as a sword kind of town. Down here, we like to brandish our weapons at other motorists from inside our cars, which would be risky with a sword:First motorist (honking): Watch where you're going!Second motorist: Oh yeah? (He brandishes his sword.)First motorist (fleeing): Yikes!Second motorist: I showed him! (To his children in the back seat:) Kids, could you look on the floor and see if you can find Daddy's ear?

They were the first self-made millionaires in modern history: a group of Italian merchant princes whose quest for human self-sufficiency would become the defining energy of their age.The Renaissance, as their era would be called to reflect their interest in the rebirth of classical antiquity, would trigger perhaps the most breathtaking explosion of art the world has known.In burgeoning urban centers like Florence, they prayed, plotted, ran municipal affairs and held court in a style grand enough to inspire envy among the kings and popes who were their contemporaries.

BACK IN town for the Maryland Film Festival, Baltimorean Dan Rosen relaxed for a few minutes in Louie's Bookstore Cafe the other day and related the fantastical and other-worldly view of those who wish to make movies and those who sometimes stand in the way.Rosen lives in Los Angeles now. He's 35, a former stand-up comic, writer of one film, "The Last Supper," and now director of "The Curve," which was shot around Baltimore and closed the film festival here...

Stanley G. Mortimer Jr.,86, an advertising executive and member of an illustrious American family, died Wednesday at his home in Harriman, N.Y., after a long illness. He was a descendant of John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.Philip Klutznick,92, a millionaire Chicago real estate developer who built housing for the poor and for defense workers during World War II, and raised millions for Israel, died Saturday, his friends said.

Balto. Co. breaks ground for center 2 Baltimore County broke ground Friday on the $4.5 million Jacksonville Community Center in Phoenix. The 14,400-square-foot facility will include the Jacksonville Senior Center, serving more than 700 seniors, as well as a gymnasium, meeting rooms, and exercise and activity areas. Plans for the 32-acre property on Sweet Air Road also call for two athletic fields, a playground and a walking trail through Sweet Air Park. The center is expected to open in August.

SATURDAY MARYLAND RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL: Hear ye, hear ye, it's time once again to drink mead, feast on food on sticks and flaunt your best chain mail. Surely, we joust on the festival grounds in Crownsville Saturdays, Sundays and Labor Day Monday through Oct. 25, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Go to rennfest.com. BEAT THE HEAT: The Summer Massive dance party helps you chill out with cranking A.C., free snowballs and some other cool surprises at Paradox Nightclub, 1310 Russell St., from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Spinning the chill tunes are Charles Feelgood, DJ Dara, Tittsworth, Benny Page, Swarm, ODI, Cannon Boys, DJ 2Rip and others.

If you want to see paintings by Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso, you don't have to visit the Baltimore Museum of Art. You can view works by those artists and many others at the new home of Renaissance Fine Arts in Pikesville. A "Masters" section is one of the many features of the gallery, which opened this fall at 1848 Reisterstown Road. There are also areas with contemporary art, sculpture, vintage posters and custom framing, and a separate boutique featuring jewel-encrusted frames and other art objects by Jay Strongwater.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Where:: 500 17th St. N.W., Washington When:: Through Jan. 25 What:: Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power. Exhibit shows the artist's work on the subjects of politics and power. Composed of more than 200 images of government, media, business and labor officials, along with photographs of artists, activists and ordinary citizens caught up in national debates. How much: : Tickets are $14, $12 for seniors and military members, $10 for students with ID. Free for museum members and children ages 6 and younger.

Police investigate death of pedestrian in Bel Air State police continue to investigate a fatal pedestrian accident that occurred Saturday night in Bel Air. About 11 p.m., Feng Zhu Yang, 24, of New York City was crossing Route 924 north of Bel Air South Parkway when she was struck by a green Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicle driven by Latia Shawniece Baker, whose age and address were not available. Police said Yang sustained severe head injuries and was taken by a county ambulance to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Fallston, where she was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance By Gavin Menzies William Morrow / 368 pages / $26.95 Between 1421 and 1423, according to Gavin Menzies, a former submarine commander in Great Britain's Royal Navy, four Chinese fleets organized by the great eunuch-admiral Zheng He circumnavigated the globe. Seventy years later, Menzies maintains, Christopher Columbus used the maps the Chinese voyagers prepared to "discover" America. Despite the skepticism and scorn of professional historians, Menzies' 1421 became a best-seller in 2002.

Long before Baltimore had its Harborplace pavilions, or the National Aquarium, or Oriole Park, there was Charles Center. The 33-acre district in the heart of downtown might not be as well known as some of the newer spots, and tourists don't typically seek it out. But it is as significant as any other development associated with modern-day Baltimore because, in many ways, it was the catalyst for all that followed, including the even more ambitious effort...

Kamaal the Abstract, one of my favorite albums of 2002 that I still jam today, has never seen the light of CD shops. And it's a shame because the record is a sterling effort from Q-Tip, one of hip-hop's more progressive MCs with musical talent to spare. It was supposed to be the follow-up to Amplified, the New York rapper's 1999 solo debut that sold gold but was slightly conventional for Tip. I received a press copy of Kamaal about a month before it was scheduled to drop that April. I even published a review praising Tip's insightful raps, loose vocalizing and spacious arrangements that braided Beatles-style pop-rock with rap and jazz.

International band -- World Artists Experiences will present Musica Ficta at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, 801 Chase St., Annapolis. This Colombian band will perform music from the early Renaissance and Baroque periods. Free. 410-647-4482 or www.worldartists.org.

When Evangelin Pesci started at Renaissance Hair Studio & Day Spa in Cockeysville 10 years ago, she told salon owner Sharon Rose that one day she would do hair on television and show the world what it's really like to be a hairstylist. If creating a praise-winning style using a scary pair of hedge clippers is what a hairstylist's life is like, then it's safe to say she's achieved her goal. ON TV Bravo's Shear Genius airs at 10 tonight.