Studio

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Don't be intimidated by the bikini-clad posterior in the poster in the window of Pop Physique, a new fitness studio in downtown Baltimore. You don't need to wear American Apparel-esque leotards and hot shorts for this class - yoga pants and a tank top will work just fine. Created in California by former ballet and Pilates instructor Jennifer Williams, Pop Physique is a one-hour full-body workout that incorporates ballet barre, Pilates and isometric movements with core strengthening.

LOS ANGELES -- Mark Canton, a 42-year-old film executive who once worked as a clerk in a Hollywood mailroom, was named president of Columbia Pictures yesterday and said that he would seek to accelerate the number of projects at the studio and make films that will be, he hoped, "socially relevant."After weeks of turmoil, confusion, legal wrangling and embarrassment among officials of Sony Corp., which owns Columbia, the film company announced Mr. Canton's appointment to replace Frank Price, 61, an experienced film executive who took over in March 1990.

Epic Games Inc., a North Carolina-based video game manufacturer, closed its office in Baltimore County last month, laying off 40 employees, Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said Thursday. Epic announced in August it was opening Impossible Studios in Hunt Valley, hiring 36 employees, some of whom had lost their jobs months earlier at Big Huge Games of Timonium. Big Huge closed in May after its parent company, 38 Studios, abruptly shut down because of financial problems.

As the thunderous sound of Irish hard shoes dancing filled the room, Teresa Eade sat on a stool in the corner, watching intently. The 15-year-old sophomore at South Carroll High School was recovering from a concussion she received over the weekend playing dodge ball, but that didn't prevent her from participating in the first half of the rehearsal at Teelin School for Irish Dancing. And it also wasn't going to keep her from performing with Teelin on Sunday, March 11, when the Columbia-based studio - and several of its Carroll County members - were scheduled to perform in Baltimore's annualSt.

Baltimore schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland announced last night that the city school system will replace Studio Course as the primary language arts curriculum used in its 23 traditional middle schools. The system will continue to use some of the books, generally written by minority authors and considered by teachers and experts to be high quality, that it purchased under Studio, Copeland said. However, it will make sure children are selecting books appropriate to their reading level.

Grace Hartigan had just skirted disaster -- a fire that might have destroyed an estimated $1 million-plus of her art and works by friends such as Willem de Kooning. But as usual she was looking forward, not back. "The first thing an artist wants is to get the studio together and get back to work," she said yesterday.The internationally recognized artist and Maryland Institute instructor was speaking in the wake of a fire Sunday that had temporarily driven her out of her studio at Broadway and Eastern Avenue.

Lordy, I never thought I'd be writing this. Baltimore schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland has been on the hot seat the past two weeks. Copeland's taking the heat for the implementation of a new middle school reading curriculum called Studio Course. Many people have a problem with Studio Course, especially that one lesson plan where a noun was defined as "stuff" and a verb as "what stuff does." There are other problems. According to an article by Sun writer Sara Neufeld, the curriculum uses magazines to encourage reading.

LOS ANGELES -- Four months ago a handful of studio chiefs complained that movies cost too much and promised to institute cost-containment.Warner Bros.' Robert Daly said that his studio would play hardball in negotiations with directors and lesser-known stars.Then-Paramount Pictures Chairman Frank Mancuso indicated that he would put fewer scripts into development.And Walt Disney's Jeffrey Katzenberg issued a 28-page memo that called for the studio to return to basics -- "a good story, well-executed."

WOULD YOU LIKE to spend a quiet day driving through the rolling hills of Carroll County, visiting the studios of crafts people?Seven Carroll County studios will reveal hidden treasures produced by 15 juried artisans during the annual Studio Tour, which takes place Sept. 7-8. The event is sponsored by Carroll County Crafts Guild.At Whye Clay Works in Finksburg, the students of Terry Whye will be on hand to demonstrate hand building in clay. Whye's pottery and sculpture are inspired by her observations of the natural world and the study of recent feminist reinterpretations of prehistoric artifacts.

Charles Luck, an architectural stone supplier based in Richmond, Va., has opened a new design studio in Baltimore. The 1,250-square-foot ground-floor space is in the Park Plaza Professional Building. In addition to providing design consultants and homeowners with stone products for exteriors, countertops, tile and landscaping, the company is the sole U.S. distributor of Kreoo tile, an Italian line of marble furniture and decor. The design studio plans a grand opening for April 25. Find the Charles Luck Design Studio at 800 N. Charles St., Suite 100M.

Zynga, the video game maker best known for FarmVille and Words With Friends, has closed its Timonium office as part of a broader corporate consolidation, company officials said Monday. The company also made changes at three other offices, closing and consolidating some in Texas and New York. The company did not say how many jobs were being cut, but said that the moves affected about 1 percent of its work force of more than 3,000. About half of those in the Timonium office were relocated.

Call it another pitiful ending for Sarah Palin. In what looks like a Friday afternoon leak-dump, RealClearPolitics first reported that Fox News had not renewed Palin's contract to be an analyst. That report was based on an unnamed source. Brian Stelter, of the New York Times, later confirmed it on Twitter. And so ends most of what's left of Palin's fling with fame since 2008, when she was named the GOP vice presidential candidate in a craven act John McCain should never be able to fully live down.

Tonight a former South Baltimore rec center is re-born as a tech center. Work - paid work for clients whose fees will help send students to college - will happen there. But there will still be plenty of play. Focused on after-school programming and workforce training for city public school students, The Digital Harbor Tech Center, was built, and its programming designed, for "exploration and discovery," organizers say. It's why the tables are on wheels and, even after months of planning, the precise activities done on them, tech director Rose Burt said, are "going to depend on what the kids are interested in. " The public - and, with finishing touches, including the sign , completed only yesterday, many participants - will get their first look at the retrofitted South Baltimore Recreation Center at 6 this evening.

The music swelled, the big ballroom - lined on one side by a mirror - looked beautiful, and my 16-year-old daughter and I were waltzing. She led; I followed. We'd come to the Towson Dance Studio to take a lesson in ballroom and see just what it might take to learn some of the basics of social dancing. In just one class, we learned steps for the waltz, swing and fox trot. We took a group lesson with two other couples, and, sure, at first it was a little awkward. We went to the left a time or two when we should have gone right, but we caught on pretty quickly.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Tom Rothman, the Mount Washington native and Hollywood player, is out of his post at Fox studios. According to an email blast from the newspaper: Fox Filmed Entertainment co-Chairman Tom Rothman, who has led the film studio since 2000 with partner Jim Gianopulos, is leaving his post, according to a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly. Rothman , 57, attended Park School, Brown University and Columbia University Law School.

Walt Disney Pictures, the most outspoken Hollywood studio on the threats of Internet piracy, for the first time will distribute its movies online. The studio will make about 50 of its titles, including Miramax releases Chicago and Gangs of New York, available next month through Movielink, an online film-rental service started through a joint venture of five movie studios. The deal represents a milestone for Movielink, which has increased its online movie catalog from 175 titles eight months ago to more than 400 films from six major studios.

Striving to blend education, entertainment and tourism while boosting viewership, Maryland Public Television plans to open a 150-seat studio for live programs at Port Discovery, the downtown children's museum being designed by Walt Disney Co.Leaders of MPT and the nonprofit museum said yesterday that live shows from the studio would focus on everything from political debates and educational programs about the Chesapeake Bay to New Year's Eve on the harbor...

Bikram Yoga Baltimore has opened its third location in Locust Point and is offering free yoga Saturday to introduce people to the new studio. The 90-minute class will start at noon at the studio in the McHenry Row development. It will be held on the patio outside of the studio. Bikram Yoga Baltimore also has studios in the Tack Factory Building in the Harbor East/Little Italy community and on Cranbook Road in Cockeysville.      

Not long after they began living their dream of owning a dance studio in their new hometown of Columbia 25 years ago, two sisters from Michigan watched that dream go up in flames - the seven-alarm kind. Six years before tragedy struck, Diane Andrews and Mary Harper had decided to combine their artistic and entrepreneurial skills and become studio owners and artistic directors. Ready to take that leap of faith in June 1987, they rented a space and hustled to spread the word. “No one knew who we were,” recalls Harper, who had followed her older sister from Michigan, where they had cultivated reputations as performers and teachers.