Taj Mahal

"Graceland: Going Home with Elvis," by Karal Ann Marling. Harvard University Press. 258 pages. $24.95.Everybody knows that the most-visited private residence in the U.S. is the White House, but the second most-visited may be a surprise to many.It's Graceland, former home of Elvis Presley and now the top tourist attraction of Memphis, Tenn. It's always in the news at this time of year because of the crowds that gather to mark his death at 42 on Aug. 16, 1977.Graceland is also the subject of an entertaining book by Karal Ann Marling, professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota and a keen observer of contemporary culture.

Matters of faith continue to divide people in dreadful ways, but there has always been at least one thing that religions have in common - the urge to express belief through art. That's a point driven home in a sumptuous 90-minute documentary by Baltimore filmmaker Robert Gardner airing this week on PBS. "Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World," narrated by Susan Sarandon, provides a welcome look into a cultural legacy little known and little...

For almost four decades Taj Mahal has parlayed a mastery of African-American music into an internationally celebrated career.An arsenal that includes banjo, bass, dulcimer, guitar, piano, kalimba, mandolin, vibes, fife and cello has enabled him to portray such styles as blues, ragtime, reggae and R&B much as an abstract painter might approach a still life.Although the musician balks at the term "eclectic," his presentation of the panorama of black music has made him a unique presence on the concert stage -- years before it was made fashionable by such pop stars as Paul Simon.

With a vide variety of shops and restaurants, the Trump Taj Mahal is a large, luxurious resort with plenty of options for fun. Casino hours: 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Games to play: There are more than 200 table games, including blackjack, craps and a Baccarat Pit. The United States Poker Championship is hosted in the Trump Taj Mahal's smoke-free poker room. There are more than 3,500 slot machines on the Taj's floor. Entertainment: Concerts and shows range from the Commodores (July 7)

Upscale regional malls are the dinosaurs of the retailing industry. In an age when wallet-friendly Wal-Mart is the nation's No. 1 retailer and even yuppies are discovering the joys of discount shopping at the Price Club, any developer would be taking a risk to open another mammoth mall full of mostly high-end specialty retailers.Given that trend, the $150 million expansion of Towson Town Center that made its debut earlier this month may well be the last large retail center or expansion to open in the Baltimore area this century -- the last of the mall-hicans.

There are a few shortsighted travelers left who do not know what they are doing on New Year's Eve in 1999. David Banford is not one of them. When the odometer of our spinning orb ticks over for the year 2000, Banford, a British investor in small businesses, will be floating off Barbados aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, with 99 other members of his club.He will toast the New Year and the new millennium with champagne that has been awaiting the occasion since 1982, the year that he and a group of old school friends put down a $10,000 deposit to reserve 50 double cabins and lay down some serious Bordeaux, ports and champagnes.

Etta Baker, 93, an influential blues guitarist who recorded with Taj Mahal and won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, died Sept. 23 in Fairfax, Va., while visiting a daughter. She had toured well into her 80s.

MY FRIEND George Myers Jr., book critic at the Columbus Dispatch, is about to have his first name interdicted by John Kennedy Jr. It seems that George Jr.'s on-line publication, georgejr.com, is rubbing John John the wrong way, because he fears losing money on his own web site, george.com.The trouble is that, as George Jr. charmingly puts it, his 'zine georgejr.com is worth ''a dozen Barney videos, an array of socks and a portable CD player that burps when my car hits a twig,'' while JFK Jr.'s 'zine george.

The second pull of a slot machine handle proved to be a lucky one for a Howard County man who won $2.1 million yesterday at a casino in Atlantic City, N.J.The man, a Columbia resident who wishes to remain anonymous, had been playing a dollar slot machine called Jeopardy! in the Trump Taj Mahal casino for less than half a minute when he hit the jackpot.He took home a $106,983 check, and will receive a check for the same amount for the next 19 years."I put in three coins and pulled the handle," said the man, who is an ultrasound machine salesman for General Electric Medical Systems.

Q: My husband has read that a solar eclipse will be visible over part of southern Asia in late October. What companies offer tours to the region then?A: Several U.S. tour companies are arranging for the viewing of the total solar eclipse you refer to. It will occur over India, Cambodia and other countries in the region on Oct. 24.Because visibility of the eclipse -- in which the moon will completely block the sun for a brief period -- is dependent on weather, most tours are emphasizing sites that are historically clear and dry in late October.

MUMBAI, India - Security forces assaulted a Jewish center in Mumbai where Muslim militants were believed holed up with possible hostages today, with black-clad commandos dropping from an Indian helicopter as sharpshooters opened fire on the five-story building. The attack came as Indian commandos scoured two luxury hotels room-by-room for survivors and holed-up militants, more than a day after a chain of attacks across India's financial center by suspected Muslim militants left at least 119 people dead.

SIKANDARA, India - Sitting in the middle of a highway under baking hot sun is not Mansingh Burja's idea of a good time. But it's the best way, he says, for him and hundreds of fellow protesters to vent their anger over being classified by the government as a "backward" class near the bottom of India's social ladder. They want to be lower. Members of an ethnic group known as Gujjars, the demonstrators have blocked traffic for the past two weeks here on the road leading to the famed Taj Mahal, ever since dozens from their ranks were killed in a hail of bullets during clashes with state police.

Just announced Panic at the Disco -- DAR Constitution Hall in Washington on April 30. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster .com. Virginia Coalition -- Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis on March 20. 410-244-1131 or ramsheadlive .com. Gaelic Storm -- Recher Theatre in Towson on April 5. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com. Bob Mould -- The 9:30 Club in Washington on March 15. 800-955-5566 or tickets.com. Mr. Greengenes -- Rams Head Live on April 11. 410-244-1131 or ramsheadlive.com. Still available Maura O'Connell -- The Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., on Feb. 16. 703-549-7500 or birchmere.

Maybe an economist can make us feel less guilty about shopping. "Retail shopping powers two-thirds of our economy," says Anirban Basu, quickly settling the issue. "If you've got it, then you can spend it." A father of two young daughters, Basu seems aware that mall hopping is in his future. "We don't have enough upscale shopping. ... If you really want haute couture, you have to go someplace like Tysons Corner," he says. "A lot of the retailers look at the Baltimore-Washington area and see it as one."

Seven years after New Jersey legalized gambling in 1977, state lawmakers created an agency called the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to redirect some casino revenue to blighted areas in Atlantic City and across the state. But the agency, contending that the gambling industry's success is a critical component of the state's economic health, has handed about $400 million back to the casinos, a sum that accounts for more than 20 percent of the money it has committed since its inception.

Etta Baker, 93, an influential blues guitarist who recorded with Taj Mahal and won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, died Sept. 23 in Fairfax, Va., while visiting a daughter. She had toured well into her 80s.

Just announced Panic at the Disco -- DAR Constitution Hall in Washington on April 30. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster .com. Virginia Coalition -- Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis on March 20. 410-244-1131 or ramsheadlive .com. Gaelic Storm -- Recher Theatre in Towson on April 5. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com. Bob Mould -- The 9:30 Club in Washington on March 15. 800-955-5566 or tickets.com. Mr. Greengenes -- Rams Head Live on April 11. 410-244-1131 or ramsheadlive.com. Still available Maura O'Connell -- The Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., on Feb. 16. 703-549-7500 or birchmere.

Among the headlining talent this year at the sixth annual Columbia Festival of the Arts are homespun storyteller Garrison Keillor, jazz drummer Max Roach, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, cellist Fred Sherry, African-American "roots" musician Taj Mahal, and the Columbia Pro Cantore performing with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Besides appearing separately, Mr. Jones and Mr. Roach are collaborating on a new dance piece. Here's a schedule:* "Free at Last: Images of Emancipation," a documentary theater piece at Slayton House, Wilde Lake Village Green, today and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Audience discussions follow each performance.

The state Board of Public Works voted yesterday to have prisoners make some tables and chairs for the House of Delegates' new offices, but a private company will still provide most of the furniture. The board, made up of the governor, comptroller and state treasurer, decided to pay State Use Industries $283,572 for 276 hearing-room chairs, 192 stacked chairs and 48 round tables. The bulk of the contract, $1.8 million for other furniture, will be filled by Maryland Office Interiors of Baltimore.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- If you've ever wanted to live like royalty, here's your chance: Berkeley Castle is going on the auction block. No, not THE Berkeley Castle. This pile of West Virginia sandstone is a scaled-down knockoff of the famed English fortress where King Edward II was murdered in the 14th century. But the 12-room, turreted mansion overlooking one of America's first resorts has a colorful, if slightly shorter, history of its own. Built more than a century ago by a wealthy Maryland businessman to woo a young bride, Berkeley Castle has been one of this picturesque town's top tourist attractions, next to the warm springs where George Washington and his gentrified peers once bathed.