Roar

Great music has been happening at the Parkville Senior Center. On April 3, members were treated to a wonderful concert when tenor Rodrigo Garciarroyo and pianist Richard Dowling presented well-known opera and stage musical selections in the center's dining room This hourlong program, sponsored by the Baltimore County Department of Aging, was made possible by the Piatigorsky Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is...

The Baltimore sports scene is blessed with a bunch of talented bloggers who bring their unique perspective to the conversation. Each week, I hope to chat with one of them in a regular feature called Blogger on Blogger. This week, I exchanged emails with Matt Taylor, who blogs about the Orioles for Roar From 34 . MV: You recently wrote that last year you were waiting for the bottom to fall out with this team, but that isn't the case this season. What makes you believe that this Orioles team has staying power?

Sitting at the kitchen counter, playing a game on his mother's cellphone, Nick Brooks looked like any other 13-year-old, except for an occasional hand clap and the burbles that his brothers affectionately call "Nicky noises. " Soon, he got bored with the cellphone and motioned for the laptop on his mother's lap. Jean Brooks was willing to give it to him, but with one caveat. "I'd like a sentence from you," she said. "Mom's computer, please," Nick said. That's a long sentence for the Roland Park youth.

Sitting at the kitchen counter, playing a game on his mother's cellphone, Nick Brooks looked like any other 13-year-old, except for an occasional hand clap and the burbles that his brothers affectionately call "Nicky noises. " Soon, he got bored with the cellphone and motioned for the laptop on his mother's lap. Jean Brooks was willing to give it to him, but with one caveat. "I'd like a sentence from you," she said. "Mom's computer, please," Nick said. That's a long sentence for the Roland Park youth.

It was the Ravens against the Chargers and my first pro football game to cover for The Sun. I couldn't believe my eyes when Ray Lewis came out on to the field before the game began. There was music playing and he began to dance and roar. As I watched Lewis put on his show, the nervousness I felt at first went away. I realized that this was an entertainment, a big fun event. I took some shots and caught this image of Lewis giving his all, the fans and the smoke in the background. It seemed to catch the spirit of the moment.

WASHINGTON -- The concept of momentum is one that politicians cherish. They are convinced that campaigns ebb and flow as a result of the way candidates conduct themselves and sometimes because of outside events -- even one such as a hurricane.The phenomenon was never clearer than in the past seven days. A week ago President Bush came "roaring out of Houston" -- in the favored phrase then -- on the wave of a convention that had been the focus of political news. There were new opinion polls showing Bush had cut sharply into the pre-convention lead held by Democratic nominee Bill Clinton.

Three hundred thousand bikers spent Memorial Day weekend roaring around Washington in tribute to our war dead, and I stood on Constitution Avenue on Sunday afternoon watching a river of them go by, waiting for a gap in the procession so I could cross over to the Mall and look at pictures. The street had been closed off for them and they motored on by, some flying the Stars and Stripes and the black MIA-POW flag, honking, revving their engines, an endless celebration of internal combustion.

Letters, calls and the roar of the crowd:John O. Herrmann, attorney at law, Baltimore: For a long time I have been annoyed and agitated at the repetitious use -- or misuse -- of the trendy phrase "could care less" when the person making such a statement meant exactly the opposite of the correct meaning of those words.On a number of occasions, I have taken the opportunity to attempt to point out the absurdity of this statement by sending the illiterati who pronounce them the enclosed analysis:"Could care less.

PHILADELPHIANS called him the Lion of Zion. The Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, who died Tuesday at age 78, earned that title. His voice against injustice roared in his adopted city's downtown office buildings. His roar shook South Africa's apartheid establishment. Mr. Sullivan served as pastor of the large and politically active Zion Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, where the 6-foot-5-inch preacher delivered booming sermons. But it was his work away from the pulpit that moved America and the world.

The glory days of the roller coaster are back.This summer, 34 new roller coasters are opening across North America, the most in a single year since the Great Depression. One in particular is grabbing attention: a classic wooden roller coaster at Adventure World in Largo.Called ROAR, the ride incorporates elements from the most popular and scary roller coasters of the 1920s, considered the golden age of coasters.More to the point, ROAR careens over Southern yellow pine trees at 50 mph, crosses over itself 20 times, plunges into a 133-degree right turn, makes six reversals and rockets through a roofed section of track, all in 50 seconds.

Great music has been happening at the Parkville Senior Center. On April 3, members were treated to a wonderful concert when tenor Rodrigo Garciarroyo and pianist Richard Dowling presented well-known opera and stage musical selections in the center's dining room This hourlong program, sponsored by the Baltimore County Department of Aging, was made possible by the Piatigorsky Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is...

The Blast was held scoreless in an opening half for the first time all season in Saturday night's second game of the Major Indoor Soccer League semifinals against the Chicago Soul. The only goal the Blast allowed in that span was a close-range shot that deflected off defender Stephen DeRoux. Chicago's game plan was clearly to pack players around the penalty area, escape with a low-scoring victory and force a 15-minute mini-game to determine the series winner. The Blast, however, is a seasoned playoff team and began to break down the Soul defense with sharper passes around the goal.

It has been a familiar scene the past two days at UMBC: lacrosse sticks flying everywhere, a mass celebration, then the traditional team photo with the state championship plaque proudly displayed. When it was the South River boys' turn, after a stunning, 10-8 comeback win over Westminster in the Class 4A-3A final, the sticks flew a bit higher, the celebratory pile came together quicker and the smiles were broader. The No. 8 Seahawks had more to enjoy than bringing home the program's second state championship Wednesday at rainy UMBC Stadium.

Spring is often associated with a sense of rebirth and resurgence and in Carroll County, no sports program has seen that come to life like Liberty High School. Liberty's softball team, which won just one game in 2008, completed its resurgence with a county championship and the best season in school history — and is still playing, beating Catoctin High on Friday, 7-1, at home to advance to the state semifinals for the first time since 1983. The softball team will play Lansdowne in the Class 2A state semifinals on Tuesday, May 22, at 4 p.m., at Bachman Park in Glen Burnie.

Republican lawmakers opened Monday's special session with a roar of protest, denouncing Gov. Martin O'Malley as a liar and vowing to fight the majority Democrats' plans to raise income taxes and shift part of the cost of teacher pensions to the counties. Several dozen GOP senators and delegates held a news conference on the first floor of the State House and directed much of their fire at the occupant of the office on the floor above. House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell, a Calvert County Republican, told of hearing on the radio on the way  to Annapolis that lawmakers were coming into session to cut an additional $600 million in spending -- an interpretation he said had come from the governor's office.

In opening the season with nine consecutive victories, No. 8 Loyola had accomplished many things, but had avoided trailing in the fourth quarter. That changed Saturday when No. 19 Fairfield embarked on a five-goal spurt to assume a 6-4 advantage 3:01 into the final period. But the Greyhounds answered eight seconds later with a Davis Butts-to-J.P. Dalton goal off the faceoff, and that kick-started a four-goal run to propel them to their first 10-0 season since 1999. While preferring to avoid falling behind in the final 15 minutes of regulation, coach Charley Toomey appreciated the determination that the players showed against the Stags.

God knows, I'm not perfect," the character called Sir says repeatedly in the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd. And, heaven knows, this 1965 musical by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley isn't perfect, either. Although it has a score packed with such catchy songs as "Who Can I Turn To?" and "A Wonderful Day Like Today," its plot is a heavy-handed allegory about the game of life, which is played out on stage - literally, on a giant gameboard. Neither this show nor Bricusse and Newley's previous allegorical musical, Stop the World - I Want to Get Off, gets produced much anymore.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - With an uncharacteristic roar of approval from more than 1,300 people packed into every cranny of the gleaming, white-columned Philharmonia Hall, the Morgan State University Choir made its Russian debut last night at the fifth annual International Winter Festival, Arts Square. The choir set its warmly blended, disciplined tones on George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess, the finale of a program devoted to that composer, a favorite of festival founder and artistic director Yuri Temirkanov.

Even in the throes of the worst scandal in the university's history, fans of the Penn State Nittany Lions are capable of rising up in defense of their school's name. Suzanne Collins, chief of staff for state Sen. Nancy Jacobs, got a taste of the power of organized alumni after she sent out a news release inviting the media to cover a rally in favor of what she called Jacobs' "Penn State bill" providing criminal penalties for people who are required to report information about known or suspected child abuse but who do not. The bill was inspired by the case of former Penn State footbal defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who was charged last year with multiple sex offenses against boys and whose case led to the firing of the late Joe Paterno as Penn State coach.

With the broad appeal of a fast-food chain — 54 million people served in 14 countries on five continents — "The Lion King" enjoys a mighty status on Broadway, where it's the seventh-longest-running musical and has packed them in since 1997. The show isn't likely to lose its appeal on tour any time soon, either. When it first played the Hippodrome in 2005, it was a 14-week smash, raking in $15 million. It's back at the theater for a monthlong engagement that is bound to be just as fruitful, nicely timed as it is for the holidays, when families with kids need diversions even more.