Putting the Cap on the Recap

As promised yesterday (and to the three people who might be even a little bit interested), today I wanted to finish off my little Baltimore trip recap.

While most of my weekend trip to Baltimore revolved around watching the Yankees play (and beat!) the Orioles and eating seafood, I did manage to squeeze in some geeky endeavors, as well. And I figured it would make sense to report back on some such endeavors.

I made my way to two of Baltimore's several comics shops, and I was impressed with both places. The first store I hit was Alliance Comics, a pretty good-sized store with an exceptional selection of trades and hardcovers to go along with a comprehensive new books shipment. The owner was friendly and helpful, and the variety of trades available was eclectic and wonderful.
Located a few blocks over from the tourist-heavy Inner Harbor, Alliance is situated on a quaint street littered with nice brownstone buildings and shops. After about half an hour of browsing, I picked up a few Warren Ellis trades that I'd been looking for, so I walked away very happy.

The second store I visited was in nearby Fells Point, and it was not a store that was on my radar before visiting one of its neighbors a couple of streets down. The Graphic Novelty is a small, hip store in the heart of the trendy Fells Point area of Baltimore.

They have a great selection of new books and trades, and it warmed my heart to see so many Indy titles for sale. I didn't buy anything, mostly because I was in for a long day of walking and didn't want to carry too much stuff around with me. TGN is another top-notch store, though, with a friendly staff.

The biggest surprise of the trip, however, came in the guise of an honest-to-goodness record store, a few blocks down from The Graphic Novelty. The Sound Garden is a huge store filled to capacity with vinyl, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, video games, posters, and plenty more.


For an old record hound like myself, entering the store left me speechless.

The amount of quality stuff--at low prices--was astounding. This store put Amazon's stock to shame.

To. Shame.

Actually, it was just named by Rolling Stone as one of the 25 best record stores in the United States.

I'll vouch for this assessment.

While there, I picked up a few things , most notably a very cheap collection of Blu-Rays (Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Pale Rider, Dog Day Afternoon (!!), and the first two Underworld films) all for under a hundred bucks.

If you're ever in Baltimore, be sure to check this place out.

And, finally today, a couple of photos from breakfast/lunch at a place I saw on television a little while back. The Blue Moon Cafe is a very classic, tiny restaurant with only eight tables or so and a constant line out the door.

After walking up the set of stairs that leads to the front door, I gave my name and then nodded when I was told the wait would be around an hour. When we finally sat down, the wait was absolutely worth it.
The eggs, the omelettes, the Cinnamon buns--everything--were great. But the coup de grâce was the restaurant's specialty, the Cap'n Crunch French Toast.

I'll leave you with the following.