Paul McCartney Live

 

I guess my writer’s block has cleared up briefly due recent circumstances being sufficient inspiration, e.g. seeing Paul McCartney live for the first time.

Lots of us are Beatles fans.  My recollection is that some time after moving to Paris in January 1979, and John Lennon’s death in December 1980, I got the Red Album (1962-66) and Blue Album (1967-70), though listening to them in reverse order.  Then my parents got me the US albums – on my own insistence – rather than me being sensible and simply going down to FNAC and getting the British versions sold in Europe.  We were in the Four Seasons (lawn & garden + toy store) section of the PX in SHAPE, Belgium, in December 1980 when we heard over the PA, by AFN Radio, that John Lennon had been shot in NYC.  That conclusively ended any chance of a Beatles reunion.

Having been born in 1969, clearly I was not in a position to see the band live from 1963-1966; in fact I was born during their Let It Be sessions in January 1969.  I started seeing concerts in Paris at age 15, in October 1984.  Of the four Beatles, Paul McCartney was the only one to tour consistently from their breakup in September 1969 to the present.  Over all that time I never managed to see him in concert – until now.  Thanks to my brother Matt for taking me with him to the show at Camden Yards in Baltimore, the home of the Baltimore Orioles.

McCartney’s current band, which has been together for over 20 years, consists of Rusty Anderson (guitars), Brian Ray (bass & guitar, depending on which McCartney happens to be playing on a song), Wix Wickens (keyboards), and Abe Laboriel, Jr. (drums).  They all did their jobs competently enough – as you would expect – and none came close to stealing the limelight from McCartney himself.  Ray bears a remarkable resemblance to GNR bassist Duff McKagan. 

The entire live show, from start to finish, was approximately 3 hours, from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., including the encore.  40% of the set (15 of 37 songs), mostly in the first half of the show, was McCartney’s solo material.  I suppose we’re in awe of his talent, but it seems that without the benefit of John Lennon’s participation and feedback, his solo material falls well short of the quality of his material with the Beatles.  I never did collect his solo albums, as even the “greatest hits” (“Live and Let Die”, “Jet”, “Let Me Roll It”, “Band On the Run”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, etc.), ostensibly his strongest solo material, didn’t impress me.   The same holds for John, George and Ringo.  Even All Things Must Pass, often lauded as the best solo album by any of them, fell flat for me.  I want to like all these songs, but I can’t.   From the audience reaction during the show – mass exodus to the bathrooms and concessions during the solo songs – I can tell I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.   And it certainly didn’t escape the attention of McCartney himself.  Basically he told the audience, “whatever, I’m going to play whatever I want.”  While he doesn’t hide the fact that he was in the Beatles – he’s certainly proud of it, and rightfully so – he does want us to know that this is a Paul McCartney concert.  That being the case, however, he knows as well as I do, that if his set was 100% solo material with a few Beatles songs played in the encore, he wouldn’t be filling up Camden Yards, he’d be lucky to sell out Royal Farms Arena a few blocks away.  Sorry, Paul. 

I recall in 1988 or so, Roger Waters was on Howard Stern’s show.  His own Radio Kaos tour struggled to fill small clubs, while his erstwhile comrades in Pink Floyd were filling stadiums playing Pink Floyd material.  Stern pointed this out, much to Waters’ annoyance; certainly Waters himself was well aware of this, even if he may have been too proud to admit it.  Nowadays Waters has no trouble playing stadiums – playing Pink Floyd material.   He wouldn’t do so if he insisted on a set of predominantly solo material.  As much as he downplays the roles Gilmour, Mason and Wright played in making Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall, his solo material comes nowhere close to that level – for that matter, neither does The Final Cut, the last Pink Floyd album the four of them recorded, which Gilmour describes as a de facto Roger Waters solo album.  Likewise, the Beatles were a case of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.  Removing Lennon from the equation was bound to impact the quality of the material, as much as McCartney’s pride might demand otherwise.  Of course, the same holds true for Lennon’s solo material.  Yoko Ono isn’t nearly as capable a co-composer as Paul McCartney, is she?  Somehow I doubt Yoko herself would make that claim.

Be that was it may, McCartney is astute enough to recognize that most of the audience were too young to see the Beatles play live.  He also knows that the Beatles’ strongest material, from Sgt. Pepper through Abbey Road, was never played live by the band itself – except that rooftop rehearsal in London on January 30, 1969.  So we got material from Sgt Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, and a few older songs thrown in like “In Spite of All The Danger”, “Love Me Do”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and his homage to cannabis, “Got To Get You Into My Life”, though compared to Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf”, the connection to MJ is by no means apparent by the lyrics.   If he didn’t tell us it was about MJ I’d have no hope of guessing that on my own.  Imagine what the far more direct and in-your-face Lennon would have written if he had the same goal. 

Ringo himself is touring with his All-Star Band, so he can play his own Beatles songs himself.  John and George are no longer with us.  Naturally McCartney was going to play the Beatles songs he wrote and sang himself, but he gave us a few tributes.  For George it was “Something”, started off on ukulele, and fortunately continued on electric guitar.  For John it was “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, and then a “sing along” thanks to Peter Jackson, of “I’ve Got A Feeling”, using John’s isolated vocals from the rooftop concert.  So again, I appreciate that for all his pride in his own solo material, ultimately McCartney knows and accepts that we came here to hear the closest thing to a Beatles concert any of us are likely to experience.  And that was more than good enough.

And he played “Helter Skelter”.  And there was much rejoicing…

Setlist:  Can’t Buy Me Love; Junior’s Farm; Letting Go; Got to Get You Into My Life; Come On to Me; Let Me Roll it; Getting Better; Let ‘Em In; My Valentine; Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five; Maybe I’m Amazed; I’ve Just Seen A Face; In Spite of All the Danger; Love Me Do; Dance Tonight; Blackbird; Here Today; New; Lady Madonna; Fuh You; Jet; Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite; Something; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; You Never Give Me Your Money >> She Came In Through the Bathroom Window; Get Back; Band on the Run; Let it Be; Live and Let Die; Hey Jude;

Encore: I’ve Got A Feeling; Birthday; Helter Skelter; Golden Slumbers >> Carry That Weight >> The End.

Of these 37 songs, 15 were solo songs and 22 were Beatles songs.  I could probably name 15 John Lennon and George Harrison Beatles songs to replace them, and McCartney would be privileged to respond, “very well, make up your own playlist of the 37 Beatles songs you might want to hear in concert - and stay at home and listen to it.  This is a Paul McCartney concert, not a Beatles concert.”  Ok, fine.  So I’ll pick 15 Beatles/McCartney songs which could sub in for those solo songs:

The Long & Winding Road; Maxwell’s Silver Hammer; Back in the USSR; Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey; She’s Leaving Home; Eleanor Rigby; I Saw Her Standing There; All My Loving; And I Love Her; Yesterday; The Night Before; Michelle; Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band; Rocky Raccoon; Paperback Writer

Mind you, these aren’t all of the McCartney songs, only my favorites.  But I would put any of them against “Live And Let Die” or any other solo song.  Moreover, many of these were in fact played by him in concert on earlier tours, meaning they filled in a setlist slot which would otherwise be a solo song.  Am I fussing too much?  Do I want to see the manager?  Nope.  I enjoyed the concert – and giving me “Helter Skelter” erased any inclination to complain to McCartney himself.    

In any case McCartney will turn 80 on June 18.  So far as I could tell, he looked spry.  He could move along, play the guitar, bass, mandolin, ukulele, keyboard and piano with no trouble.  He can also still sing.  He knew who and where he was (Baltimore) and had plenty of clever, cheeky comments to make, even a story about Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton (kids in the audience: “Jimmy who?”).   I dare say if he couldn’t perform, he wouldn’t still be touring, but we’re seeing borderline cases.  Phil Collins was having issues.  I saw the Moody Blues a few years ago, and they had a second drummer in addition to Graeme Edge on stage, who was clearly doing the heavy lifting.  Charlie Watts is gone, as is Bill Wyman, leaving Mick & Keith as the only original Stones left (though Ron Wood has been with the band since the mid-70s, far longer than Brian Jones and Mick Taylor combined).  Who knows, however, how much longer McCartney has before he needs to retire for good.  So it’s good we saw him while he’s still up and running.  Amen!

Who Was Prince William?

On Wednesday morning I had a return date (status hearing at which trial date is set) in Prince William County General District Court in Manassas, Virginia.   Upon completing my actual legal business it finally occurred to me to ask, after having practiced in Northern Virginia in general and PWC itself in particular since 1994, “who was Prince William?”  And with the county itself dating back to 1731 (before even the American Revolution), it obviously cannot be named after Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the older son of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, born in 1982. 

Prince William County, Virginia.  Named after Prince William (1721-1765) (the Duke of Cumberland, buried in Westminster Abbey in London), third youngest son of King George II of England (predecessor to the more infamous King George III who reigned during our Revolution).   His own notoriety extended to the Jacobite Rebellion in England and some action in the Seven Years War – better known to us as the French & Indian War.  The Jacobite Rebellion (1745) was the last of a series of revolts which attempted to return the prior Stuart dynasty to the throne of England, Scotland, and Wales, which had been taken over by the House of Hanover, which lasted until Queen Victoria.  She was married to Prince Albert, of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and her son Edward VII took over in 1901.  He died in 1910, and George V took over.  In 1917, at war with Germany, they decided to change the name from Saxe-Coburg & Gotha to Windsor, so Edward VIII (1938), George VI (1938-1952, played by Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"), and Elizabeth II (1952 to present) are all monarchs of the House of Windsor, though tracing ancestry back to George I (1714-1727) who famously spoke more German than English.  Rumors of Queen Victoria having a German accent - though her own husband was German - are apparently not true.  However, her eldest grandchild was none other than Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.  (See my blog post on the Hohenzollerns back on 1/6/17.)    
  

The major two areas in Prince William County are Manassas and Woodbridge, the county seat and courthouse being in the former.   Downtown Manassas is actually fairly small.  The courthouse has a cafeteria in the basement, the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court (child support between unmarried parents, spousal support outside divorce, and domestic abuse cases) on the ground floor, General District Court (civil cases under $25,000, misdemeanors and traffic cases) on the first floor, and Circuit Court (civil cases over $25,000, felonies, divorces) on the second floor).  The courthouse is fairly new, but I could not ascertain when it was built.  It predates my own ascent to Virginia bar-dom in 1994, so I’m guessing sometime in the 1980s or early 1990s.  The Manassas battlefield, where the various Bull Run battles of the Civil War took place, is also here, as is Jiffy Lube Live, formerly Nissan Pavilion, a large concert venue, somewhat of a semi-outdoor pavilion similar to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.  I recognize PWC police handling security at the concerts. 

John & Lorena Bobbitt.  I’d consider these the PWC court’s most famous trials. This was the famous couple – the wife cut off her allegedly abusive husband’s “Little Brother” which was successfully re-attached.  Each was charged with crimes (A&B for her, rape for him) and each was actually acquitted. 

Fairfax (City) and County.  Named after Thomas Fairfax, 6^th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693-1781).  He actually lived in Virginia and developed those lands.  His estate at Greenway Court, Clarke County, Virginia (far west in the boondocks near West Virginia) seems to be nominal by now. 

Arlington County.  Named after Henry Bennet, the First Earl of Arlington (1618-1685).   English nobleman.  This is the Virginia county which, if you look at its dimensions, appears to be the lower southwest quadrant of the District of Columbia.   DC is split into four quadrants, divided north-south by Independence and Constitution Ave., and east-west by North and South Capital Streets, which are slightly off-center of the apex to the east by a few blocks.  “Southwest” is actually fairly small, because most of what we would think of as southwest is actually Arlington County, Virginia, ceded back to Virginia in 1846.  I lived there from 1990 (graduating from University of Maryland, College Park) until 2004 (moving to my current whereabouts, not far away in Fairfax County).   Note:  for those 14 years I was never called for jury duty in Arlington County.  Immediately upon moving to Fairfax County in October 2004 I received a jury duty summons, which I successfully evaded being a practicing attorney in Fairfax County.

Arlington County’s most famous building is the five-sided Pentagon.   Maybe you’ve heard of it.

Loudoun County.   Named after John Campbell, Fourth Earl of Loudoun (1705-1782).  A contemporary of Prince William, even served under him in the Jacobite Rebellion.  The county seat is Leesburg.  I’ve had numerous cases in the courthouse there. 

By the way.  In front of the courthouse is a Confederate statue.  We’ll see how long that lasts, but if you’re out to get rid of Confederate statues, Virginia in general and Richmond in particular will be a big task.  My own assessment is that the Confederates attempted to secede in April 1861 with the express intention, consistently maintained by all the major Confederates, of retaining their “peculiar institution” of slavery.  Any other issues of “states’ rights” are therefore irrelevancies added decades after the fact retroactively to justify a rebellion when slavery was long discredited and nowhere close to being a popular cause.  That being the case, we really have no legitimate reason to celebrate or treasure the rebellion.  Having said that, we might want to allow “these people” (as Robert E. Lee might put it) the prerogative to keep Richmond itself as the exclusive territory in which any such statues and memorials can remain out of sheer historical significance. 

Richmond (City).  The capital of Virginia and of the Confederacy (1861-65) is actually named after another city, Richmond, near London, England.  No biography here. 

Virginia (Commonwealth of).  So far was we can tell, it’s named after Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett), often referred to as the Virgin Queen. 

Now on to Maryland…

Prince George’s County.  The day after my status hearing in Manassas, I had a personal injury trial in PG County District Court, located in the county seat of Upper Marlboro, Maryland.  The county is the Maryland one bordering DC to the east.  Upper Marlboro is fairly small and is just a few blocks deep. I passed by Lower Marlboro, maybe 10-20 miles south, on my way back up from the Solomons Island area on a recent road trip. 

Named after Prince George of Denmark (1653-1708) (also Duke of Cumberland and also buried in Westminster Abbey in London).   His claim to fame was being the husband of Queen Anne of England – the sister of Mary, wife of William of Orange (as in “William & Mary University”).   Thus he was around the same time as Louis XIV of France. 

Montgomery County.  Named after Richard Montgomery (1738-1775, buried in NYC), a Revolutionary War general who died in the war.   County seat is Rockville, and it’s Maryland’s most prosperous county, bordering on DC to the west.  I lived in Montgomery Village from 1969 to 1979 – the first ten years of my life.

On a school trip as a kid we went to the District Court.  Years later I practiced there as an attorney, though a newer building has recently opened up.  I practice in the next door Circuit Court building quite often, in fact filing all my uncontested divorces there.    

Frederick (City and County).  Unclear exactly who the second largest city in Maryland (and its county) is named after, though Calvert (below) is one candidate.

 

Baltimore (City and County).   Name after Cecil Calvert, the Second Baron Baltimore (1605-1675).   He was effectively the governor of Maryland from 1632 to 1675, though unlike Lord Fairfax he stayed in England during this time.

The city itself is by far the largest city in Maryland.  The City and County are separate, with the county buildings, including the District and Circuit Court buildings, in Towson, which is just inside the Baltimore Beltway (695) off York Road.  The city court buildings can be seen now and then in “The Wire”, which not only takes place in Baltimore but is actually filmed there as well.

   

Then you’ve got Sir Lord Baltimore, a British rock band from the early 1970s.  Not sure if they ever actually toured Baltimore, Maryland.   

Maryland.  Named after Henrietta Maria of France (1625-1669), wife of King Charles I, a Stuart monarch executed in the English Civil War, and mother of King Charles II.   We pronounce the state’s name “Marilynd”, like Marilyn Monroe.  I attended the University of Maryland, College Park (main campus) from 1986 to 1990 and graduated with a B.S. in general business and a B.A. in government & politics, a double degree (156 credits) and not a double major.  With my mother’s recent move to Herndon, Virginia from Frederick, Maryland, that means no more relatives living in Maryland anymore. 

Hopefully that should satisfy our curiosity – to the extent anyone cared.  I did.  Did you?

Baltimore Riots!

Timely, não é?  Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Baltimore has had riots.

1861.   Immediately after the Civil War broke out, CSA sympathizers rioted.  Union troops coming from Pennsylvania on their way south to defend Washington, DC, had to march through downtown Baltimore from the President Street Station, west down Pratt Street to the Camden Street Station.  It was along Pratt Street that white protesters, i.e. pro-CSA crackers, attacked the Union troops.  Toll: 4 soldiers, 12 civilians dead. 

1968.  From April 6 to 14, 1968, riots swelled across the country in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.  In Baltimore, Governor Spiro Agnew had to call out the Maryland National Guard, and then ask for Federal troops from President Johnson.  The toll wound up as 6 dead, 700 wounded, and $12m ($77.5 in 2015 dollars) of property damage.

By the way….

Fairfax, Virginia.  This shooting went completely off the radar:  in August 2013, Fairfax County Police Officer Torres shot and killed John Geer, who was standing in his front door, even though all the other cops at the scene insist that Geer had his hands up and was not threatening anyone.   Geer’s family brought a lawsuit, which was recently settled.  Remarkably, as of today, there have been NO charges filed against Torres.  None.  Not only that, he’s still on Fairfax’s payroll. 

Riots in Fairfax?  ZERO.   Outcry in Fairfax?  ZERO.   I only found out about this when I read that the case had been settled.  Perhaps Geer’s race is part of the reason: he was white. 

Update on the Michael Brown case in Missouri.  My prediction in my earlier blog notwithstanding, the US Dept of Justice has declined to bring any chargers against Officer Darren Wilson.  Hmm.  If there was a single shred of evidence, any possible chance of a conviction, I cannot imagine the DOJ not bringing charges against Wilson.  Unlike DA McCulloch, the Feds have no dog in this fight, and if anything, have an incentive to step in and fix things, if they do need to be fixed.  But their decision seems to vindicate Wilson.  The Feds had the luxury of plowing through the grand jury testimony and evidence and making a decision without having to worry about a riot erupting on them, so they could be more objective than the local DA.  

            Brown’s family has filed a civil wrongful death suit against the Ferguson PD, and with a lesser standard in a civil case (a preponderance of the evidence, vs. beyond a reasonable doubt) it’s possible that either a settlement or a judgment for the family will be forthcoming.  Stay tuned. 

Baltimore.  Now we have riots in Baltimore.  Naturally I’ll give my impression of that, too:  from a nucleus of peaceful protestors who honestly believe Freddie Gray was murdered by the police while in custody – which is not a fanciful assumption or belief – the opportunistic rioters latched on and made a mess of everything.  As I noted earlier, this unfortunately discredits what might otherwise be legitimate concerns of the black community of Baltimore and reinforces the polarity between those who mistrust the police and those who fall in step behind them no matter what the circumstances. 

Fact: there are criminals.   Dangerous criminals.  We depend on the police to protect us from them.

Fact: there are bad cops.  Dangerous bad cops.  And far too often, the police community closes ranks to protect them from public retribution (due credit for the FCPD cops who supported the Geer family’s position instead of lying to protect Torres).    

Bottom line: we should be safe from criminals – without accepting an unaccountable police state.

Baltimore

I covered Baltimore before, briefly, in my Maryland blog (6/25/10), but if Hagerstown and Frederick deserve their own blogs, why not Baltimore?

It’s the biggest city in Maryland, located 30 minutes northeast of DC on 95, Route 1, and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.  On my trips to NJ/NY, Baltimore winds up being right around the 1 hour mark of a four hour drive, the quarter mark, so to speak.  It has its own beltway, 695, which I’ve been around mainly to get to Towson.  Not one but two tunnels, Harbor and Fort McHenry, provide a bypass for traffic going to or from DC to NY.

 

Most recently I saw Clutch at the Shindig Festival at Carroll Park, which is over in western Baltimore near where the Montgomery Park building is; another Clutch show, back last July, put me up Charles Street to another part of town for the free Artscape Festival.   Baltimore is a city I learn by bits and pieces, as I’ve never lived or worked there.  Mainly it’s been concerts at Hammerjacks (ages ago) and the Ram’s Head Live in the downtown area (again, thanks to Clutch), or less often legal work.   The Circuit Court building is ancient – turn of the century style – and the downtown area features in “Die Hard 4”, masquerading, highly unsuccessfully, as Washington DC.   No one who has ever been to either city, much less both, would ever mistake one for the other.  “And Justice For All…” is another legal drama in Baltimore.  The other city Baltimore reminds me of, due to the heavy dose of monuments and fancy nineteenth century buildings, is Richmond, Virginia.

History.  Founded in 1729 as a town, named after Lord Baltimore (note: the band Sir Lord Baltimore are actually from Brooklyn, New York), it became a city in 1796 and incorporated in 1851.  It’s the site of Fort McHenry, the subject of Francis Scott Key’s famous song, “The Star Bangled Banner,” which of course is our poorly-sung national anthem.  Notable B-moreans are Edgar Allen Poe and H.L. Mencken.   The city boomed after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opened in 1835.  During the Civil War a few riots persuaded the US to occupy the town.  I remember in school some of the more pedantic jerks used to snivel about George Washington not being the first President, facetiously citing several prior Presidents of the Continental Congress (or Congreff, as Woody might say), which was the provisional US government from 1773 to 1789.  Likewise, from December 1776 to February 1777, it was the capital of Bourgeois Revolutionary Soviet of America, as I like to call it. 

It suffered a fire in 1904, and riots in the Civil War, 1877, and 1968.  The Inner Harbor area, probably the nicest and most upscale neighborhood – where I’ve been on dates – was refurbished in the early 80s.  The city still has its share of crappy neighborhoods.  There’s a red light district close to Ram’s Head Live.  The harbor itself is fairly large – so much so that two tunnels have to bring traffic under it.

Which leads to my question:  why are there TWO tunnels?  The Harbor Tunnel opened in 1957; this is the tunnel I remember our family going through on trips to NYC and Long Island in the 1970s.   Apparently this wasn’t enough (though I don’t remember heavy traffic in the Harbor Tunnel), so they tied up 95 with the Fort McHenry Tunnel in 1985.  After that they renovated the Harbor Tunnel and opened it up again in 1990.  The Harbor Tunnel is fed by the 895 bypass, which hooks up to 95 at either end.  To me they’re pretty much the same, but I usually wind up taking the Harbor Tunnel by default and the Fort McHenry Tunnel just out of sheer boredom and variety.

National Bohemian is the city’s beer, although it’s not brewed in Baltimore anymore (NC and GA).  It’s now owned by, and tastes like, Pabst (which earned its Blue Ribbon at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893).  It’s called Natty Bo and has a one-eyed, mustachio’d mascot, Mr. Boh…who is rather distinctive even if the beer itself isn’t.

Sports.  The Cleveland Browns relocated in 1996 and became the Baltimore Ravens, an obvious tribute to Edgar Allen Poe.   They won the Super Bowl last year against the 49ers, and back in 2000 against the NY Giants:  Ray Lewis was on both teams.  The Colts relocated to Indianapolis in 1984, having started up in Baltimore in 1951.  The Colts beat the Cowboys in 1971, after having lost to the upstart Jets (led by Joe Namath) in 1969.  The baseball team, the Orioles, date from 1954 and won the World Series in 1967, 1970, and 1983.  I've passed by Camden Yards countless times but have never been to an Orioles game; the same with passing M&T Bank Stadium and never seeing the Ravens play.

Poe.   Seeing as they didn’t reference Mencken when renaming the Browns, I’d say Poe is more important to Baltimore then H.L.  Frank Zappa was born and grew up in Baltimore – I saw Zappa Play Zappa at a “rename a Baltimore city street after the musician” free festival – but moved to L.A. with his family in 1952 when he was 12 years old.  Poe himself had a rocky life and moved several times, living in Baltimore several times before dying there in 1849.  No other city – not Richmond, not Boston – seems to lay as much claim to him as Baltimore does.  

Maryland

Odd, I’ve done blogs on New Jersey, New York City, Colorado, Paris, Bucharest, Rio de Janeiro, but have yet to write about my home state, Maryland.  I guess watching Clutch DVDs drilled it back into my skull; time to address that oversight.  Since it’s my home state, I can ramble on quite a bit about it, so bear with me.

 Basics. The name is, oddly enough, pronounced “Marilynd”, even in official contexts.  Pronounce it as “Mary-Land” and people will look at you funny.

            The state is named after Henrietta Maria, the Queen consort to English King Charles I.  Being Catholic, she was ineligible to be Queen of England.  She was the aunt of French King Louis XIV. 

            Maryland was a slave state during the US Civil War, but did not secede from the Union.  As a border state, its loyalties were divided between pro-Union northwest and pro-CSA southeast.  A major battle, Antietam, took place in 1862 close to Frederick in northwest Maryland.  McClellan’s unique victory over Lee persuaded the British and French to pass on recognizing the Confederacy. 

            The flag is actually unique.  Most states cop out and simply put their seal on a dark blue field (e.g. Virginia).  Maryland combined the black and gold banner of the Calvert family with the red/white cross of the Crossland family.   The Crossland segment was used by Maryland secessionists during the Civil War; the combined flag dates from 1904. 

            Maryland’s highest ranking politician in US politics was Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s Vice President.

            Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, came under British fire during the War of 1812, but somehow managed to survive.  Francis Scott Key was inspired to write “The Star Spangled Banner”, which became our national anthem.  Personally, I prefer “America the Beautiful.”

 Geography.    On the East (Atlantic) coast of the United States, on the Chesapeake Bay.  To me, Maryland is as important, if not more so, for where it is as what it is – like our equivalent of Belgium, which finds itself conveniently located between two countries which hated each other (Germany and France) and had no less than three wars, of which two put Belgium in the crossfire.  Similarly, Maryland was a thoroughfare for CSA forces invading the North.  It’s surrounded by two more important states and two less important states. 

            The northern border with Pennsylvania is better known as the Mason-Dixon Line.  Pennsylvania is a big state with Philadelphia to the far east – across the river from Camden, New Jersey – and Pittsburgh in the western, mountainous section. 

            To the south, the District of Columbia (DC) is a diamond cut out of the state.  Clearly, our nation’s capital is far more important than anything in Maryland, in fact more important than most of the rest of the country with the possible exception of NYC or L.A.  Sorry, Chicago.

            Across the Potomac River is Virginia.  It’s hard to tell how important Virginia is these days; its major deal is being a relic of the Civil War, like South Carolina.  Its capital, Richmond, used to be the capital of the Confederacy.  Many of the Founding Fathers, most notably George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were from Virginia; TJ’s home, Monticello, is part of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.  And most of the top Civil War CSA generals, like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, were from Virginia, as was the CSA’s major arms works, the Tredegar factory in Richmond. 

            To the west is West Virginia.  To the east: Delaware.  West Virginia’s major distinction seems to be seceding from Virginia and giving that state a more aesthetically pleasing shape, at the expense of its own.  Delaware is forgotten except by students of corporate law (as I was) or anyone who wants to incorporate a business. 

 Roads.  Take DC as the center of Maryland’s road network, with the Beltway surrounding DC’s diamond shape and providing a useful ring from which to send forth various major highways.  

            Shoot northwest from the Beltway with 270, which passes Rockville, then Gaithersburg, then Germantown, and winds up in Frederick.  From Frederick, 70 goes east to Baltimore and west to Hagerstown.  What you thought of as 270 continues north as 15 and takes you to small-town Pennsylvania.

            Shoot northeast from the Beltway with 95, which goes up to Baltimore, up into Delaware, and eventually all the way up to Maine.  95 is the easternmost north-south highway in the US highway system which starts with 5 in California. 

            Shoot due east from the Beltway, as Route 50 which heads to Annapolis, crosses the bay, and then winds itself across the Eastern Shore to Ocean City.

            Roughly parallel to 270 is 355, which starts in DC as Wisconsin Ave. and continues all the way up to Frederick, where it ends.

 Clutch.  Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other major rock band from Maryland.  These guys are from Germantown, and fly the Maryland flag on stage quite often.  They even refer to “Montgomery Village” in one song.  The singer Neil Fallon now has a bushy beard, but short hair, making him look vaguely like Tsar Nicholas II.  The lyrics are all over the place, and the rock is groovy.  I can even hear a fair dose of Frank Zappa in the mix.

 Montgomery County.  Just as Fairfax County is Virginia’s wealthiest, most affluent (and liberal) county (Death Star or not), Monkey County – as I call it, as opposed to Pig County (Prince George’s) – is Maryland’s elite county.  The county seat is Rockville, but it also includes Gaithersburg and Germantown.

 Montgomery Village.  This is where I grew up, from 1970-79, right next to Gaithersburg.  It’s a suburban planned community which dates from the late 60s.  We had a single family home on Lake Whetstone, but there are townhouses, condos and apartments as well.  Unfortunately the Village Mall is long gone. 

 Rockville.  Take 355 southeast from Montgomery Village and you’ll wind up in Rockville.  This is where the Montgomery County District Court and Circuit Court are, and Rockville Pike is the main commercial strip going all the way down into Bethesda.  I still love driving through Rockville on my way back from court.  Unfortunately Shakey’s (the pizza place) is long gone.

 Bethesda.  Just south of Rockville.  This is the home of a large Navy center, where I was born in 1969 (my mom was in the Navy at the time).  It never occurred to me to wonder what a naval base is doing far from any river or ocean, but we went to the PX and enjoyed it anyway; it’s the Navy’s equivalent of Walter Reed.  JFK’s autopsy was performed there in 1963 – after he was shot.

 Baltimore.  Easily the biggest and most important city in Maryland.  The funny thing is, when we lived in Maryland from ’70-79 we had no reason to go to Baltimore.  I ended up going up far more often years later after graduating from law school.  A few times we went to the Inner Harbor, a few trips to Hammerjacks, and a few shows at the Otto Bar and the Side Bar; and quite a few shows, far more recently, at the Ram’s Head Live.  And every now and then I have cases in the Baltimore City court (downtown) or Baltimore County up in Towson.  I recall back when we were kids and our family would travel up to NY (NYC, Long Island, or Glens Falls) we’d go through the Harbor Tunnel.  That’s a long tunnel.  The Inner Harbor area is well built up with lots of skyscrapers, an excellent mall, and by now several large clubs.  The US District Court for Maryland is close by, as is the immigration court at 31 Hopkins Plaza. 

 Columbia.  This is another planned suburban community, midway between DC and Baltimore.  If you think of Montgomery Village as being 30 minutes northwest of DC along 270, Columbia is 30 minutes northeast of DC along 95.  Montgomery Village has Lakeforest Mall, Columbia has Columbia Mall.  But Columbia’s major attraction is Merriweather Post Pavilion, a big ampitheater type concert venue across 175 from Columbia Mall.  My friend from University of Maryland, College Park, Ken used to live in Columbia – then moved to New Jersey after graduating from UM.  Edward Norton, the actor, is from Columbia; he actually went to Ken’s high school, Wilde Lake, at the same time Ken did.

 Frederick.  Now my mom lives there.  It’s an hour northwest of DC at the end of 270.  It’s pretty small, but it’s the 2^nd largest city in Maryland after Baltimore (which tells you how small Annapolis is).  When we were kids we’d go up to Frederick Mall, which is fairly small too.  The downtown area is kind of cool – old but classy.

 Annapolis.  This is the capital of Maryland, about 15-20 minutes east of DC via Route 50, right on the Chesapeake Bay before the Bay Bridge.  It’s the home of the US Naval Academy, which of course is colloquially referred to as Annapolis.  My occasion to visit this place is rare:  a few shows at the Ram’s Head On Stage, swearing in to the Maryland State Bar in December 1993, and that’s about it.

 Eastern Shore & Ocean City.  If you take the Bay Bridge across the bay, and follow Route 50 all the way to the Ocean, you find Ocean City.  I haven’t been there since an aborted trip on Memorial Day weekend of 1990 (when it rained nonstop and we left just about as soon as we got there).  When we were kids growing up, my family would go there, and stay in some hotel – the Decatur (first trip, but long gone) and later the Carousel.  This was the “beach trip” for us before moving off to France.

 University of Maryland.  I went to the flagship campus, College Park.  Worldwide, UM-University College (UMUC) is one of the largest in the US or the world.  I know there is a 2 year campus in Munich and they offer courses across Germany at the US bases.  The College Park campus is the largest of them, very spread out, which is what I wanted.  Their sports teams, the Terps, play in Division I – we even won the NCAA basketball tournament back in 2002. 

 Edgar Allen Poe.  The famous 19^th century poet lived in different places, including Richmond, Virginia, but he’s most known and associated with Baltimore.  “The Telltale Heart”, “The Cask of Amantillado”, “The Murders on the Rue Morgue”, and “The Raven” are his most famous. 

 Sports.  Colts/Ravens.  The Colts started off in Maryland, and were in Baltimore until 1984; before Peyton Manning, there was Johnny Unitas.  For a long time they were the football team in Maryland aside from the Terps.  I never really considered them to be direct competitors to the Redskins.

            Eventually the Browns relocated to Baltimore and became the Ravens, to take the name from Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem.  With the Browns resurrected in Cleveland again, the Ravens are out of that shadow.  Plus, they’ve won the Super Bowl, which no Browns team can claim.  Now the Redskins are technically in Maryland at FedEx Field, but we still think of them as from Washington and not a Maryland team.

 Orioles.  They’ve been around for awhile.  Recall that episode of “Seinfeld” where George got them into the Yankees box and Elaine insisted on wearing an Orioles cap.  I’ve been past Camden Yards dozens of times – it’s right next to where 95 dumps you off into Baltmore, so you can’t miss it – but have never been to a game there.