Baltimore Museums, overall rating: 7/10

American Visionary Arts Museum (AVAM): Interesting but smallish.  Steep entrance fee IMO (first weekend of the month, having a BofA card is helpful).  Black Icarus is quite nice.  Many mechanical devices in the sculpture building were broken (probably from all the use), but those that did work were fascinating.  A crafts fair had popped up there. Right next to a good view of Inner Harbor from Federal Hill.  Rating: 6/10

Walters: Some nice paintings and fine (well proportioned) greek sculptures.  Bonus: it's free.  Rating: 8/10

Baltimore Museum of Art: More nice paintings than Walters including Impressionists. Matisse's Blue Nude was out on loan, but this place is also free.  Rating: 8/10

Fort McHenry: A museum/historical site about war of 1812 and origins of the Key's Star-Spangled Banner anthem. I'm sorry to say, I didn't get the fever. Despite being on the water, the site isn't picturesque. Getting there and back was easy enough by bus. But I didn't find seeing inside the ramparts worth the time and $7 NPS entrance fee.  Rating: 5/10

Baltimore has a free purple line 'Charm' bus service which goes up and down Charles Street from Inner Harbor all the way up to Penn Station (as well as lines in other directions), and the visitor center at Inner Harbor is spacious and welcoming.

The Adventures of Tintin (2011) rating: 8/10

I would think Spielberg decided to do a Tintin film after quite a lot of research into whether author Hergé was truly an anti-Semite. Or at least an conscious and overt one. Since it appears not to be the case, we get to enjoy a nice movie in a style of a comic book.

Stars of this film are beautifully rendered computer imaginations of Tintin and dog Snowy. I found Snowy particularly adorable while being amazingly dog-like. Tintin is too baby-faced to be handsome, but the character is brave enough and too surprisingly familiar with violence (guns and punching) to be an innocent boy.

Wikipedia says Tintin follows a scouting ethic. Further research.. it seems only 4 countries allow scout promises without reference to 'God': France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Israel. Hergé's Belgium now notably absent from this list.  Well, at least there are four rather than zero.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) rating: 7/10

Complex movie and plot wasn't fully explained I don't think. I was confused by the end. I guess I should have read the book. The online spoiler explained it to me, but by then it was anti-climatic.

I think I would have liked a little more hand-holding and hints in development of the 4-5 suspect characters which might have given away the ending, but at least I would have been more invested in it. I suppose the screenplay might have been constrained in attempting to follow the book and author who is still alive. Too bad.

There is a very very tiny gay interest subplot.

The Avengers (2012) rating: 6/10

The story is about the quality of say a Transformers film which I would say contains 0-1 obvious groaners (groaner: a time where I would say: "I can't believe they put that in the script"), but also close to zero true novelty or interesting plot devices.

A fair amount of eye candy of these forms: explosions, fights, high speed flying/chasing.  But none of the male leads are particularly attractive.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) rating: 8/10

The actors are more attractive in this Hollywood version of the Swedish film. I liked Plummer, Craig and Mara. Craig is notably better looking than his Swedish counterpart who had a fat face and wasn't in terribly good shape. This also lends significant realism (in my mind anyway) to the nominally lesbian Lisbeth's sexual pursuit of his character which didn't exist in the original.

While there is a certain lack of authenticity about

Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer, rating: 7/10

The most valuable part of the book is the description of elements of improving creativity.

Having a more dominant right hemisphere of the brain is one thing that might not be altered (does a lefty automatically have an advantage here?). Being in a good mood could also be difficult to contrive.

But working in a blue room is condition which could be effected. So is having an environment encouraging lack of inhibition, yet allowing criticism of others, and featuring interaction with experts in various other fields. Just pretending oneself not to be an expert in a field is an interesting trick (prevents rejecting ideas out of hand).

Meanwhile the reader is treated to the secrets of the creative successes of Pixar, 3M and even Shakespeare.

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August 2012: It appears Lehrer made up Bob Dylan quotes in the book.  I wonder why he would do that.  To spice it up, I guess.  How did he think it would get away with it?

Drive (2011) rating: 8/10

I have not previously been inclined to like Ryan Gosling, but he's great and surprisingly (!) not unattractive here as the talented but directionless protagonist named 'Driver'. The dvd extras invoke Hitchcock, but I think rather Kurosawa. Driver is the quiet tough guy that does right in an unfriendly world. The driving scenes are mesmerizing and the soundtrack inspired. There is a great stylishness to the scenes. One of few films that I think I'll want to see again in a short time.

The Danish director, Nicholas Refn, gives a charming interview in the dvd extras. He seems a little more strange, yet interesting here.

J. Edgar (2011) rating: 8/10

I confuse J. Edgar Hoover a bit with Joseph McCarthy who was sort of his contemporary and also is currently seen as gay. But in my view McCarthy is observed as a greater hypocrite in that he actually attacked homosexuals while being gay himself. On the other hand, Hoover's discreet acquisition of secrets about Presidents is presented here as political self-defense of his position and his new bureau. In this movie, his motivations are shown as attempts to protect the country against communism, and his racism is shown out of context, such that we're not sure whether to fully believe them true of the man.

So the movie does a fairly effective salvage job with Hoover, meanwhile in his personal life showing him having an intimate, but non-physical relationship with Clyde Tolson. I agree with other reviewers that DiCaprio's accent is a bit intrusive. In their old makeup, DiCaprio and Armie Hammer are at times convincing and at others not really with DiCaprio moving his arms and long fingers far too fast for a fat old guy.