The Current Gallery is an artist-run gallery and studio space located in downtown Baltimore. Current's a great space for seeing contemporary art from the studios of young Baltimore based artists and likeminded artists from around the world.

Run by artists Seth Adelsberger and Alex Ebstien, Nudashank is one the best places in the city to see and purchase art from some of the most exciting young artists from Baltimore and up and down the east coast.

At the top of a hill on Cathedral street downtown, we find the central branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore's public library system. Always open to the public, even without a library pass, it is like a great and beautiful sanctuary. Some of my best thinking has taken place in the humanities wing reading room. It is, after all, one of the few places in the city devoted exclusively, and uninhibitedly, to thinking.

An die Musik is an incredible place. It is a smaller venue--the general admission seats are cushioned and seem like ones you might find in a family friend's living room. They specialize in jazz (especially local jazz, from younger Baltimore folk), contemporary classical, and avant-garde formats. The tickets are inexpensive--especially for students, of which there are many in the surrounding area (Peabody, Baltimore School for the Arts, etc.). The impression one gets as an audience member is that some kind of secret is being uncovered, or that a quiet experiment is underway, and the findings are immediate, spontaneous, and elusive. Always interesting music, a small crowd, low-volume, familiar faces, etc.

Keystone Korner is Baltimore's preeminent jazz venue. Always hosting a rotation of jazz greats, the Korner is a special place. The Kenny Garrett show I went to this summer may very well have been the best I've ever seen. It is like an open laboratory, conducting experiments in sound, rhythm, harmony, and meaning. And you are just feet away from the scientists when they make their discoveries.