RoadTrip A Trail Full of Charm in Baltimore

SOURCE 05-20-07 DC EE M8 CMYK

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M8 Sunday, May 20, 2007 The Washington Postx

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TITLE BASIC STORY SAMPLE GRAB GRADEWHAT YOU’LL LOVE

APOCALYPTO BY ANDREW COOPER — SMPSP © ICON DISTRIBUTION INC.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA BY MERIE W. WALLACE — WARNER BROS. PICTURES

“The whistling. Then the blast, blissfully

elsewhere, followed by an expulsion of

breath and the knowledge that they had

been spared for now . . . .”

— The suffocating fear of deathand guilty relief in escaping it are

constants for Hosseini’s characters

The author’s unwavering command of his

people’s capacity for suffering and their will

to endure resonates in every

beautifully turned phrase.

The fi rst-time novelist

constructs an expansive story

exploring the inner lives of a group of

Korean Americans, including a debt-ridden

Princeton grad and her inordinately

fretful mother.

Lowe sings with the sort of raw

conviction and rough-edged romanticism

not heard since Paul Westerberg led

the Replacements.

“In this town, there is a hole / In that

hole, there is a tree / In that tree

there hangs a nail with a picture of

you and me”

— “Pictures of You and Me”

Ramesh Srivastava’s thin voice and stiff delivery

ruin the proceedings. Is dude reading his lyrics

off a teleprompter?— Chris Richards

The book’s ending feels abrupt,

and the adult characters aren’t as

subtly drawn as the teenagers.— Evan Narcisse

The fi lm depicts the horrifying

monotony of war by being itself a

little monotonous, especially once

the guns have started fi ring.— J.R.

Behind the wheel, your

character can do almost

anything, but on foot,

he’s pretty much

limited to walking or

running. — Christopher Healy

Whenever you need

a break from

hijacking missions,

you can tool around

at your own pace, racing

other drivers or simply giving

pedestrians a lift.

The beautifully shot and harrowing

fi lm is packaged with an entire disc

of extras. An introduction to the

movie’s historical fi gures really

stands out among them.

A making-of featurette is particularly

interesting in light of the fact that the

movie was fi lmed entirely in the Yucatec

Maya language.

In the fi rst title from DC Comics’

new imprint aimed at teen girls,

high school freshman Jane falls in

with a group of misfi ts after her

parents move to the suburb of

Kent Waters.

When a band’s debut album fails to meet the

infl ated Internet hype, who’s to blame?

The irritating lead singer or an indie-rock

blogosphere that gives out more disposable

crowns than Burger King?

Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-nominated

companion piece to “Flags of Our Fathers” tells

the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the

perspective of the Japanese soldiers

defending the island.

Jeff Nelson, drummer with

the legendary D.C. band

Minor Threat, returns after

a 12-year absence to play

with this Toledo quartet

led by singer-guitarist

Tony Lowe.

Adventures in Contentment Fast Piece

of Furniture

Dischord/Adult Swim

$12

Free Food for Millionaires By Min Jin Lee

Hachette

$24.99

The best-selling author of

“The Kite Runner” weaves

a haunting epic involv-

ing three generations of

Afghanis and their struggle

to survive internal and

external wars.

A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini

Riverhead

$25.95

Castellucci imparts an

infectious, punky energy to her

female leads, which Rugg renders

with humor and nuance.

“I won’t know how

much I’ve lost until

I’ve gone away /

Your sun sets when

my sun starts to shine”

— “Introduction”

Taking cues from the Kinks,

the Smiths and the Strokes,

these songs often hint at

something great.

“A great civilization is not

conquered from without until it

has destroyed itself from within.”

— William Durant’s quote begins Gibson’s tale of

a society in decline

“I am determined to serve and give my life for

my country.”

— Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, right) writes his

wife en route to the island

After a slightly shaky start, Lee

draws in the reader with likably

human, multidimensional

characters and a subtly shifting,

unpredictable plot.

In Mel Gibson’s fi lm, a young

hunter (Rudy Youngblood, right)

escapes after being captured

for use as a human sacrifi ce

during the last years of

Mayan civilization.

From bell-bottoms to Blondie, the

sights and sounds of 1970s New

York are rendered in beautifully

gritty detail.

C+

B+

A-

“Apocalypto” outstays its

welcome: Viewer fatigue sets in

even as the gratuitous deaths and

race-against-the-clock melodrama ramp up.— Justin Rude

Her male characters can be a

bit unconvincing. And at 560

pages, the book is unnecessar-

ily long, even for a story with

such ambitious scope. — Sara Cardace

This is throwback rock in the

best sense, but throwback

nonetheless. If you’re in the mood for

futuristic 21st-century sounds or irony-laden

modern indie rock, look elsewhere.— Joe Heim

History buffs and the politically uninformed may

crave even more cultural background to augment

this timely story.— Reviewed by Alexis Burling

“Her choices were always hurting her

parents, or so they said. Yet Casey was an

American, too — she had a strong desire to be

happy and to have love, and she’d never consid-

ered such wishes to be Korean ones.”

— The main character mulls over her confl icting ideals

“Mom, you’re

going to drive

me to go to cuddle

parties or something.”

— Jane reacts to her mother’s new

overprotectiveness

In between getaway gigs as a mob

wheelman, you’ll take time to romance

the girlfriend of a rival gang leader.

C-

The Plain Janes By Cecil Castellucci

and Jim Rugg

Minx/DC Comics

$9.99

Apocalypto Rated R

Buena Vista

$29.99

DVD

Voxtrot Voxtrot

Play Louder

$14.98

Letters From Iwo Jima Rated R

Warner Home Video

$34.99

WHAT YOU WON’T

MediaMix A Quick Take on New Releases

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A mural brightens Bayard Street, an on-road leg of the trail.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad erected the

Carrollton Viaduct over Gwynns Falls

Creek in 1829. It was the first masonry

railroad bridge in the United States.

Second Chance Inc., which trains displaced workersto “deconstruct” buildings, is stuffed with about 4,000salvaged doors and countless architectural treasuresrescued from demolished buildings.

Carrie Murray Nature Center, which rescuesinjured animals, is home to a menagerie that includesZool the Eurasian eagle owl, a bald eagle, a boaconstrictor and a raven whose recorded “caw”entertains Ravens football fans at halftime.

Trail

Feel the (small) splashof Gwynns Falls.

Some of the stone dwellings in the historical neighborhood ofDickeyville sheltered soldiers wounded in the War of 1812.

Paddle like a pro with a lesson from the BaltimoreRowing Club, or wait until it hosts National Learnto Row Day on June 9 (registration required).

Explore Mount Clare Museum Houseinside (18th- and 19th-century furniture,paintings, etc.) and out (Georgian architecture).

The 185-foot-tall M&T Bank Stadiumholds 70,107 (mostly Ravens) fans andtowers more than two stories over itsneighbor, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

All aboard the miniaturesteam train run by theChesapeake &Allegheny SteamPreservation Society.

Thomas DeKay Winans constructedthe Crimea Estate — including thethree-story stone mansion OriandaHouse and a wooden chapel with aRussian motif — in the early 1850s,after he helped construct a railroadfrom St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Nick’s Fish House is aquick hop over the VietnamVeterans Memorial Bridgenear the trail’s end. In warmweather, the watersiderestaurant serves brews,crabs and other fare at picnictables along the yacht basin.

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BaltimoreDetailedarea

the forest, on abandoned roadways and 10-foot-wide asphalt paths. Only a span called the Mill-race is unpaved. Walkers, cyclists and othersuse the path, which steers onto city streets af-ter Carroll Park.

“There are so many hidden treasures in thispark and along the trail,” says Michael Straw-bridge, trail manager for the Baltimore CityDepartment of Recreation and Parks.

And more could be coming. According toplans, the path will be connected to Mary-land’s popular BWI Trail within the next fiveyears, and the stretch of waterfront betweenKloman Street and the Patapsco River is slatedfor redevelopment. If that happens, the secretof Gwynns Falls Trail will certainly be out.

— Barbara J. SaffirGywnns Falls Trail. Free. 410-396-0440. www.gwynnsfallstrail.org. Open daily from dawn to dusk.

Road Trip maps are available atwww.washingtonpost.com/roadtrip,

as are addresses and hours of operation (besure to check before you go). Have an ideafor a trip? E-mail roadtrip@washpost.com.

WHERE: Gwynns Falls Trail in Baltimore.

WHY: What a hoot, architectural antiques and astadium for the birds.

HOW FAR: About 15 miles from start to finish.

S hhh, can you keep a secret? Gwynns FallsTrail.

“It’s one of those well-kept secrets,” saysAlex Pilecki, a Baltimorean who exercises his grey-hounds along the path in Leakin Park.

The nearly 15-mile trail, which was built eightyears ago by the city and its partners, begins as agreenway in Leakin Park, near Baltimore’s south-western edge. It then follows Gwynns Falls Creek,veers toward the Inner Harbor and peters out by asmall concrete fishing pier. Before its unceremoni-ous finish, however, the path meanders throughone of the largest urban woodland parks on theEast Coast, runs past more than 30 diverse neigh-borhoods and zips along miles of Baltimore water-front.

“When you’re on it, you don’t think you’re in acity for much of the time,” says Bob Moore, amember of the Gwynns Falls Trail Council, “be-cause it’s so parklike and so green.”

The western section of the trail tunnels through

WEDNESDAY IN STYLE Escapes pulls off I-95 to visit a Delaware college town.MAP BY JEROME COOKSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; PHOTOS BY BARBARA J. SAFFIR FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Proofed by: phadkep Time: 10:35 - 05-18-2007 Separation: C M Y K HIGH-RES PROOF. IMAGES ARE RIPPED. FULL PROOF INTEGRITY.Product: SOURCE LayoutDesk: SOU PubDate: 05-20-07 Zone: DC Edition: EE Page: RDTRIP