This is unreal. The Metro West Building at 300 N. Greene St. near downtown Baltimore was opened in late 1980 and closed in early 2014. I worked there for all but about six months of the time it was open. Originally, there were about 5,200 employees but there were only about 1,200-1,400 by the time it was emptied. The clerical work done there had mostly been replaced by electronic processes. It’s a huge building that takes up two city blocks.
The common perception was that the federal government would sell the building to the University of Maryland which has professional schools and a large hospital nearby. I was surprised when it was sold to a private company. As far as I know, only the indoor garage and parking lot have ever been used before this. The article linked to at the top says the garage has room for 452 vehicles.
GSA on the sale of the building
With ‘plenty of space,’ Caves Valley considers plans for Metro West
Developer plans large garage at Metro West site
This new (2/17) article doesn’t even mention the building!
This was an amazing event. The Beatles, who most of us didn’t know about a few months earlier, were on the Ed Sullivan Show, a TV variety show that also included plate twirlers and Topo Gigio. The show was watched by a record 73 million people. The Beatles were very young and handled their sudden fame with incredible grace and humor.
With hindsight, the Beatles deserve even more credit than they got when they were around. They could have played it safe and kept doing simple rock and roll based on R&B but they took lots of chances. It’s a long way from “She Loves You” to “Strawberry Fields Forever” but it was only four years in actual time. All kinds of musicians followed the path blazed by the Beatles.
Initially, they paved the way for other British groups, known as the British Invasion. As I recall, the second most popular British group when the Beatles first became popular was the Dave Clark Five. Their popularity only lasted a few years and they were eclipsed by bands like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who who have created enduring music.
Near the end, they got back to their roots with songs like “Get Back”, “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and “Don’t Let Me Down”. These are some of their finest records.
One great film discussed in the video is The Exterminating Angel (1961) directed by Luis Bunuel. It’s available from the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD.
I posted about Mexican horror films here:
The Window is a recent Warner Archive Blu-ray release. As usual for the Archive, the video quality is great. The film is a fine film noir about a boy who tells lies but can’t convince his parents that he really saw a murder. I couldn’t find a trailer online.
I oppose gerrymandering but…
Republicans did aggressive gerrymandering after the 2010 census and got a big advantage from it. Now, Democrats are fighting back and Republicans are whining about it.
Democrats didn’t have a choice. They had to gerrymander since Republicans were going to keep doing it. Most Democrats (but not Republicans) support ending gerrymandering. Maybe some Republicans will change their mind now that they see Democrats will do it too.
One thing I haven’t seen addressed. Even if Democrats pick up seats this time, aren’t they still probably net behind Republicans in gerrymandering if you consider both 2010 and 2020?
Sad! 