Photo by Carly Waito

Hey gang,

Someone recorded Rebecca and I playing “Bumble Bee” at the Toronto Island show last month and posted it on his blog, Mechanical Forest Sound. It sounds like a soundboard recording. A little bit shabby, and Rebecca’s cello is thin and almost inaudible, but it’s an interesting document of this intimate show. Check it out. You can also check out his review of the show.

There’s also a video floating around that someone shot of us playing at Pop Montreal last October. It depicts us gleefully butchering a brand-new song from the new record called “I’m a Medium.” It’s pretty dark but luckily there are a lot of camera flashes. Here it is:

Also, we might be playing a pretty cool show here in Montreal in early December. I’ll let you know once it’s confirmed.

I have to say, I was surprised this weekend with just how enjoyable and whimsical the ALL CAPS! Island Show was. Rebecca and I had a good set. The crowd was receptive and pleasant and there were a number of Thunder Bay ex-pats in the crowd which made it special for me.

The rest of the day was also really great. This was my first time on Toronto Island, and I didn’t realize how lovely the place was. We took a walk on the beach and I found a number of treasures, including bones, feathers, rocks, a bottle cap, shells, and fragments of old dishes.

The most exciting finds were the two shards of old ceramic plates that had been worn over time like smooth beach rocks, but still had their stamps on them. The one with the cross printed on it was from the children’s hospital. Click here to see my excavated loot up close.

The show itself took place inside the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, a 100-year-old natural sciences school that had been rescued from demolition by an urban development organization called Artscape and turned into artist residences and studios (this was a fundraiser for them). As a side note, my friend Yuula Benivolski was doing some rad stuff there up until just recently. Check out her site to see footage of her crazy fire rituals on the beach and other artful endeavors. To get a sense of how beautiful the island is, check out Yuula’s Flickr page.

The atmosphere was very summer-campy, which I loved. There was a big warm fireplace in the big cafeteria-like room in which we performed. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos, so you’ll have to take my word for it. My sister was there and took some, so I’ll try to post them when I get my hands on them.

One highlight was seeing Snowblink perform. I had never heard them before and they were quite enjoyable. We picked up their record “Long Live,” and it’s quite nice.

Near the old school was a lighthouse. Here’s a video I took of noisy art band Ghostlight playing there.

Twas an all-around great event. Ryan, Jonny, and co. who put on this show should be very proud!

xo a

“There is no way to teach entreprenuership. It is a lifestyle. The only way to learn it is by experience; by going out there and getting your hands dirty.”
-My Entreprenuership Professor

The last two weeks, besides working on music, I’ve been thinking of ways to expand and reach more people. I like to watch Youtube and find videos of people performing with their MPC live. I’ve been catching a lot of beat battles too.

Where am I going with this?

For a while (a year or two) I’ve been trying to get a beat battle started down here. I figure if I could find a place to host it at least bi-monthly, it’d be an easy way to attract artist. Once I’m able to hold down a venue(s), I can take care of catering no problem.

I do not want rap battles though. Unless they are only rap battles and not freestyle battles.

But I want it to be more of a showcase than anything else. I want it to give artist a chance to show their art off, period. I plan on getting a gallery for people to sell paintings, sculptures, photography, and etc.

Its probably not the brightest idea for me to reveal all of my plans in broad day like that. I have a lot more where that came from but you guys get my drift, right? The idea of Millionaire Radio is to help artist make money from their art.

So while the artist in me has still been doing the art. When I’m away from the studio, I go into the Maximillion persona and try to figure a lot of this business shit out.

I’ll blog more about as developments occurs. Until then be on the lookout for some new shit from me soon!

This is my friend Sojin while working on a Stop-Animation Project for an upcoming coming Exhibit.  Machine has a video camera suspended at the center and shoots directly over a lighted based.

I’m curious to know how the Film Camera operates with computers. The machine is hooked up to a Mac G5 (I think).

There was another artist working the day I arrived at Artscapes. He too was working on his own Stop Animation but instead of photographs, he was painting directly onto glass films. When he let me see a preview of the clips I was amazed to see that the blobs of paint would swirl and dance in circles. It reminded me of schools of orange and yellow fish swimming in circles. I got nostalgic watching the preview of great chartoons like Fantasia, Dumbo, and Alice in Wonderland.

Artscape is held each year in Baltimore and is one of the largest free arts festivals in the nation. If you’ve never gone you should ABSOLUTELY make the pilgrimage one year–it is well worth it! Not only are there fantastic works of art in all the traditional mediums, there are also great ‘unconventional’ works of art. This year I saw tons of items made from recycled goods; bottle-cap necklaces (of which my daughters fell in love with), t-shirts made from other t-shirts, watch bands and bracelets made from old belts (got one and I love it!), broken tile jewelry and so much more.

My favorite thing to see every year is the art cars. Fantastically decorated by insanely talented individuals, these art cars really are moblie masterpieces. This year featured the ‘Handy Van’, a beach car, Yellow Submarine car, Music car, a van with metal things attached and, my personal favorite, a van covered entirely in PLASTIC CAMERAS!

It was UNREAL! Covering this old van were Polaroids, Brownies, a Diana clone and even a Hassy! On the driver’s side was an enourmous circular lens-looking object made of lenses that had been removed from various cameras. The passenger’s side included three monitors which may or may not be fuctional. They weren’t on for this exhibit.

Everyone there must have thought I had lost my mind because I couldn’t stop snapping pictures of this crazy thing. I specifically brought my Holga loaded with Ilford and my Vivitar UWS filled with none other than Fuji Velvia that I planned to cross-process. I couldn’t find the owner of this magnificent vehicle but when I do, oh boy look out!

Here are a couple of my black and white shots. Check out my Flickr site for the Vivitar UWS cross-processed pictures. Plastic Rules!!

Overdue thank you and update.

The Wilma Martinez Exhibit was a HUGE success. I had hundreds of delighted, confused and entertained people come through the booth at Artscape. I was also singled out by Vince Peranio who mentioned me and Wilma on NPR, and had a photo and mention in the City Paper (below).

A fews after the Wilma Martinez Exhibit at Artscape, I posted this note on Facebook:

I want to thank everyone who stopped by to see the Wilma booth at Artscape and to give an especially big thanks to everyone who participated in this fun project. I also want to thank Vince Peranio for all of his support and appreciation of this project, Lania D’Agostino and Andy Gore for his amazing work printing the Wilma Warhol shirt!

For the past few months I have been wondering how people would react to this exhibit and the responses did not disappoint. There was a great diversity in reaction to the booth and an incredible amount of positive feedback. Some of the things people said on exiting included:
“Genius!”, “Brilliant!”, “Outstanding!”, “Awesome!”, “Awe-inspiring!”, “Hilarious!”, “Miraculous!” and on and on…it was fantastic.

These reactions came from people who gave the exhibit more than a passing glance and actually took a little time to digest what I was doing. They were the ones who got the most out of it and understood it.

Other reactions were typical, “What’s wrong with her lips?”, “Weird.”, “Scary.” and multitudes of sour-looking faces from girls between the ages of 13-23…they hated it!

My favorite reaction came from a woman who thought Wilma was a disfigured freak who I was helping. She thought I was doing such a good deed helping this poor, unfortunate creature get work and gain recognition for her efforts. “This is so wonderful what you are doing.” she said, shaking her head in sincere sadnes.

Vince Peranio and Delores Deluxe

I also want to give a huge thank you to Lawrence Snelly, who designed the Wilma Make-Up Doll and Dave Erlich whose copywriting talents on the “mail in coupon” entertained many visitors to the Wilma Exhibit.  I was so preoccupied with meeting and greeting the throngs of people coming through the Midway that I did not get a decent photo of Larry’s awesome creation which stood under a bell jar on a rotating mirrored platform…it was a real  crowd pleaser.  If anyone has a good photo of the doll in the booth, please let me know.

Thanks again everyone.

As to Wilma, she is still busy and I will update her next little project in the following entry.

City Paper clipping.

>>This is the first post of the website, and I wanted to bring it in with a huge event that recently went on in Baltimore. Artscape is the nation’s largest free arts festival, and this year was my first time ever going to it. It took place in the Mt.Vernon section of downtown to the south, and the Charles Village area to the north. The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)\University of Baltimore Campuses served as the epicenter of the action. Live bands, A-List acts, and awesome food was out and all around. The great weather made it more perfect!

>>Alot was going on. They had plenty of venues and shops  to buy things from, and they also had public exhibits going on. At the Amtrak [Penn] Station, they had art cars. Cars that are still drivable but were made into works of art. Some were beautiful, and some were questionable, but it was all a great sight to see!

>>Since I had to work for the rest of the weekend, I missed out on the performances from Robin Thicke, Dionne Warwick and few other great artists who rocked the stage. Hopefully next year it will be as wonderful as this one. It was just a huge 3 day party!

Brass Van

This Van weighed over 2 tons and it has been featured in numorous music videos

Piet Mondrian's Ride

Camera Van

NIkon!!!

We all live in the _________ _________

Banana Sculpture?

Dionne!!!!!!!

I attended artscape this summer and it was a quaint collection of artist and designers. I’m not doggin’ the people apart of the event, there were some amazing pieces there. However, in comparison to other cities art/design festivals it was lacking.ut in the city’s defense it is a small city. And the art scene is proportional. But the Music portion was on key with guest appearences from Dionne Warwick and Robin Thicke. I was only able to attend Dionne’s performance but it was amazing. Heres some photos form the event. I just realized that i didnt take pictures of the art but hope you enjoy these anyway.

With only two weeks left in our summer program, I am counting down to the hour when I will be able to sleep again.

In other news, Artscape was great! Last Wednesday, Zoe and I introduced Tanabata banners to our students and asked them to consider the following questions before constructing their own banners:

1. What skills/talents do you have? What skills/talents do you wish you had?

2. How could your skill/talent be useful for the greater Baltimore community?

3. What is your wish for the city of Baltimore?

We also asked our students to consider these questions at Artscape as they would be leading the studio activity that day. If I had any reservations about their commitment to the activity, they were quickly diffused by their energy and enthusiasm for the craft.  I’m not sure how many participants we served that day, but I think it was close to 53 – in an hour no less!

Pictures soon to follow, but first – CRIT!

“America’s Largest Free Art Festival” in Baltimore was a no go this year, because with headliners like Dionne Warwick and Jordan Knight, the fact that it was free lost all appeal. Nevertheless, I had a rad-filled weekend in Philly with classy, non-electro music at the Arts Garage and sightings of boobies etc. etc. late night at the Republican.

Maybe with the recession rearing its ugly head into everyones agenda, Baltimore could only afford talents that would perform for free or crack. I just don’t understand and haven’t seriously gone too far into it to try, but it feels as though after the one year they booked Common and Goapele(boy would I ever), the organizers were pleased for eternity with their efforts and decided to follow up with pissy arts n crafts as the main attraction. And Whartscape, the indie has nothing to do with the government version of Artscape:

Like a prostitute, you never know what you’re going to get with it, and wasn’t worth the risk this time around. So I guess this post could really be titled Whartscape/Artscape 2008: Philly, Titties & Beats 2009:

chilling in front of some ovaries in the 08

my favorite shitty band of 08

love at first sight it was.

So, this past weekend I attended Artscape in Baltimore, which is the biggest free art festival in the country (so I’m told). The festival itself was fun, packed, exciting, and made me realize how great Baltimore really is, albeit very strange. While I could go on and on about how terrible the Baltimore Ballet company was (I literally cringed throughout the performance and could see the cellulite on some of the porky dancers), probably the most exhiliarating moment of the day was towards the end of my visit.

I had heard that there were some vegetarian/vegan vendors near the exit of the festival and decided to hit them up before I attempted to catch the bus back home (don’t even get me started on the eventual walk 2+ mile walk when the bus didn’t show up). Well to my dismay, the vegan ice cream that I had heard about was not there, but there was a vegetarian cuisine vendor named Land of Kush. Well, having attended Jew school, immediately I recognized Kush as being the biblical Hebrew term for Africa, or Ethiopia. I told the woman serving me that I loved the company name and she was taken aback that I got the reference and directed me to the founder of the company, saying that he had an interest in Torah, which of course struck me a peculiar since all those involved were black. Now, I obviously know a fair number of Ethiopian Jews but you don’t come across them every day in America. Anyway, his name was Greg and was thrilled that I got the Kush reference (I told him that I was Jewish and that I had lived with Ethiopians). He also asked for my contact information/fill out a survey–they are currently looking for a location to open up. I explained to him that Baltimore definitely didn’t have enough vegetarian restaurants and he asked if I would be into doing vegetarian/Ethiopian potlucks. Hell yeah!

I find it so fascinating how something like Torah can really connect you to so many people, despite their backgrounds, religions, races, etc. I don’t mean to get all preachy but as I walked away from the stall, I smiled because once again I was united by my experiences with a stranger.

Here’s wishing that the Land of Kush has the best of luck…

My non-view of Cake...not so sweet...

For those of you who went to Artscape late Saturday afternoon hoping to catch a glimpse of the band Cake, as they performed at 6:30….I hope you got there a whole lot earlier than I did. By the time we found a parking space (got a $27 ticket…thanks Baltimore City), and wiggled through the crowd…the amphitheatre was totally packed…seriously, not a place to sit, or even stand where you could see them. So, we heard a few songs(though no Short Skirt, Long Jacket)…briefly considered a looooooong line for food, and peaced out for home and leftovers and Beyond Rangoon on Netflix. The leftovers were good, the movie …not so much.

Owl cake made from split oreo cookies, icing, and m&m's....

Sunday afternoon  my daughter and I went to a gathering of …wow, I’m not sure how to put this…ex-sorority girls? No that’s not right, because once a sister always a sister…so, umm…mature sorority girls maybe? Oh, I don’t know, but we all used to belong to the same college sorority from schools all over the nation, and now live in Baltimore and occasionally have a little meet and greet. It’s usually people you don’t know at all…which is a little nerve wracking for almost anyone. Add to that you don’t know what the ages of the group will be for the most part….it can be girls who are just out of college and recently moved to town….to those in their 30s and 40 with a couple of kids… to women who have retired. Let me say that yesterday, I was the oldest sorority girl there…and I would not have attended this gathering( I suspected it was a pretty young group) except that I was my daughter’s security blanket.  It was a potluck…and she made this really cute owl cake that she saw online…me…pulled pork barbecue.

But the whole gathering made me think about how it almost felt like rush…going into a room full of girls you do not know…who are all there, to judge you and your worthiness. Not fun. So there is an element of this still present when you go to a party where you don’t know people. Will they like me? What should I wear? Am I overdressed? Underdressed? OMG!!! It takes you right back to the days when you wanted to be the popular girl. And indeed, there is still that wannabe in most of us. Even at my Mom’s retirement home, there are cliques and the cool people…”Oh, she has lots of money and she doesn’t mind you knowing it!”, she will say about a seemingly nice lady who is dripping with jewelry. So my Mom would never dream of sitting with her…she’s a popular  girl. I was talking about this very thing with a “sister” who is a math professor at a local college….(math whiz?)…about how insecure going to a gathering where you don’t know anyone can make you? She commented, “It’s interesting that with you being on tv and doing what you do, you still think about what to wear…”, but I’m no different than her.  I believe that people are all the same on the inside….even those you see as self-possessed and confident… they still worry just as much as anyone else about who likes them. Maybe more. Anyway, it ended up being  a fun couple of hours…nice young women, a couple of husbands, two kids and one dog. And how was your weekend?

This weekend marked the 28th annual Artscape festival. Artscape is America’s largest free arts festival showcasing artist, craftsmen, designers, and hundreds of exhibitions. Held annually in Baltimore City, Artscape is a free public event and great fun for the family.

I have some pieces that I have worked on over the past week that are in progress and I thought I’d share.

If you can’t tell from other posts, I like buildings.  Despite my often poor attention to detail, I love all the intricacies that are present in older architecture. I am working on some buildings for a larger piece.  Somewhat time consuming, but a lot of fun to make.  Houses have great shapes.

This is from my sketchbook.  I found these old illustrations I had ripped out a couple of years ago from a Spanish textbook and cut out parts of them to appropiate them into a page.  Just goofin’ off!

Often at work I find myself doodling on pieces of paper I should be recycling.  Last week I had a good couple of doodles going, so I just used the paper for the rest of the week.

This weekend I attended Artscape in Baltimore.  The festival was practically on my street (and in the rest of the neighborhood).  I was originally going to only go to the Charles Theatre to view a film screening of documentary shorts, but ended up wandering through the whole thing in about 3 hours.  Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the festival, put I did find one area of it interesting. It was a  “carnival” of sorts that was set up on the Charles Street – a little off the main path little.  I say “carnival”, but there were no rides or prizes… just different booths that all required audience participation.  Some of them were funny, some weird, and all, I’d suspect, a little bit subversive.  Personally, my favorite booth was a human Foosball table.  People were strapped to these PVC pipes and were literally characters on a large Foosball field, complete with running commentary and sound effects.  It was originally found at Baltimore’ s Transmodern Festival in the early spring.

After I turned off of the Charles Street bridge, I entered the part of the festival that did not impress me – a mash of advertisements from Honey Bunches of Oats, Sensodyne Toothpaste, BP Gasoline, among others.  The booths that held the arts were rather kitschy for my taste and caused me to glaze over the rest of the festival from that point on.

I get that it’s America’s largest arts festival, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best.  I went to Hampden’s Hon Fest in June, and while a much smaller event, was infinitely more fun and didn’t shut down the entire neighborhood in the process.  The whole event, while still a festival, had more of an intimate feel and identity.  It was quirky, and I like quirk.

Look at me, bitter.  I did accomplish one thing on Saturday though – I successfully parallel parked in the tightest spot I have ever attempted.  I had about 3 inches of space to spare between the two cars.

Wow what a nice day!!!  Sun was shining, 80, no humidity and a slight breeze.  Perfect day to be outside.  I however do not have many pictures of food because I had crackers and granola for most of the day, which I really didn’t feel needed their own photo.

First stop of the day was Kristin’s suprise wedding shower!

I don’t think she was actually suprised, she is cleaver like that  Here is one of the started spreads that I could not enjoy.  Tons of goat cheese…so upsetting!

Randolph-Macon ladies!

The one thing I could not help eating was this piece of cinnamon struddle…It was delicious and my tummy handled it! woohoo…real food starting tomorrow, but slowly.

After the shower we hit up artscape and “saw” CAKE there were so many people we could hardley see or hear them.  Oh well there were lots of local artists and tons of people watching, but I was so beat due to lack of food it was hard.  I came home and am crashing watchin a movie.  Sorry my post is so boring.  I am excited to starting eating real food again!

Tomorrow is finally Friday…this week has dragged on forever and ever!  I am in serious need of a weekend and napping.  Some of my friends are coming into town and we are planning on hitting up artscape on Sat if time permits.  It is one of the biggest FREE  festival of the arts in the country and this will be my first year going.  CAKE is playing on Sat. night so I hope to make it down by then.

My day was again uneventful as I wait for the board of public works to pass the first stimulus project…I am just waiting to be swamped with work!

Lunchie was so uninspired…I am disappointed in myself.

Wrap with lettuce, yellow maters, lentil and black beans.

It was actually better then I thought it would be thanks to the buttery crisp CT lettuce.  I also had some cantaloupe and greek yogi with blueberries.

Lots of loupe!  A little water heavy and I needed some savory flavors, but alas I had to do without.

3:30 rolled around and I wanted my PB&Co Cinnamon Raisin Swirl oat bar!

• 1 Cup oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1.25 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tbs vanilla
• lots of cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 1/4 cup PB&Co Cinnamon Raisin Swirl
• 1 mini bow of sunmaid raisins

I usually put banana in these but because there is cane sugar in the PB I removed it.  I think the only way it could be better could be with a couple more tbs of regular PB and a bit more cinnamon.  It was still good, but I am perfecting these!

GYMBO:

30min stepmill level 11/12 speed intervals. BODY PUMP!!  I added weight to my bar today so tomorrow might be hard in the walking department.  I love how solid I feel after the class; I wish I could take it more then once a week, but the other class is at 7pm and that eats into dinner time! No bueno.

Speaking of dinner…I was totally out of ideas but I had some golden beets from the CT farmers market.  I googled golden beets and found golden beet and goat cheese pizza, perfect!  I also added some sauteed onions and sweet potatoes.  My sauce was a little bit of tomato sauce, herb goat cheese and some ricotta cheese all mashed together.

I also had a salad with yellow tomatoes, a bit of leftover black beans and lentils, spinach artichoke hummus and the leftover pizza toppings.

All together now!

I love the zest plates my mom got me!  can you tell? I try to use them at every meal, but there are only 4!  I really enjoyed the golden beets!  The are less intense then the regular beets and I have some leftovers for tomorrows lunch!

I still had a sweet together after all of this food so I went straight for the Meringues and nutella!  I might have also licked the knife once or twice

I am going to read Julie and Julia.  I didn’t realize when my mom sent it to me that the movie was coming out so soon!  I better get to it!

Good Night Moon!  I am going to miss sir Nicholas tonight

Don’t they know who I am?

Yes, apparently they do. At least, they know my truck.

Which means there’s no place to hide.

Look if I was truly putting somebody out, I’d address that. “Parking for PK” painted on the wall? I’d never park there. Paulina, a treasured lifetime employee of Fox Industries, gets a pass. Besides, she’s mostly nice.

In fact, Shop Boy so hates inconveniencing people that wherever the truck must travel, you should look for it in the space that’s least ideal and least convenient. Which is how I got crossways with the Hedgehog. This is what Mary started calling her because of her amazingly high, spiky hair. Mary and spiked hair … you should see the big dude at the hardware store. She has got to pat his head every time we go in there. It’s obscene. So “Hedgie” isn’t necessarily an insult. Unless you smoke messily on the loading dock, act surly … and jump on Shop Boy for accidentally parking in your spot.

I didn’t notice the “Parking for Hedgehog” sign. And why did she want to park there everyday? Major bird poop zone. But after I’d used the spot for a few days, word got around that whoever the hell owns that black truck better move it out of my spot.

Shop Boy can take a hint. But she could have been a bit nicer. Mary, of course, thinks she’s too cool for school. Harrumph.

One reason I leave my truck at the shop so often is that we’re there so late many nights that either I’m too tired to drive home or Mary’s too tired. So we take one car. And we take a really sketchy back way home from the Hampden neighborhood. Along the river. Right by the old mills. Murderville at that hour. I mean, we left the studio at 3:30 a.m. the other day and bicycling past us was a pretty young woman on a bicycle. “Oh, honey …,” Mary and Shop Boy said at the exact same time. Bet she never forgets to arrange a ride home from the bars again.

Anyway, my Ford Ranger has been a huge boon to Typecast Press, which wasn’t even a twinkle in Mary’s eye when Shop Boy talked her into letting me buy it brand new. But we just don’t drive very much, period. So it sits a bit, which hasn’t been much of an issue with most of the Fox Industries building’s occupants.

Yet the parking issue has come to a head again recently because our studio’s neighbors, the furniture people, have been importing tons of pieces — and some scary insects — from some factory or another in Indonesia or Malaysia.

OK, enough with the bugs, Shop Boy. But this one flying dragon Mary found dead by the studio door was unimaginably terrifying. I was worried for the local rat population. Between the creepy crawlies inside the factory and the ones waiting outside the door each night … ugh.  Shop Boy made Mary promise the other night that, no matter how much I beg, do not buy me a flamethrower. It won’t end well for the vermin, or most of the surrounding neighborhood.

With their apparent success, the furniture folks now take up way more room inside and outside the building than they had. Parking is thus at more of a premium. And last night, Mary started fretting that my little old pickup truck was beginning to get more notice. Sigh. Time to take it to our Bolton Hil neighborhood and park it on the street, where the residents are always complaining about … the parking shortage. (Maybe if they were a little better at it? Hmm?)

So the lone, proud sentinel of the wee hours at Fox Industries — Shop Boy’s cute little truck — has to call it a night.

And it’s too bad.

The vandals are really going to miss it.

Maybe Shop Boy will sneak a “Graffiti Artists Suck” or “Hampden is for Hillbillies” bumper sticker on Hedgie’s ride.

***

Letterpress List No. 79

Yes, I had to look up what number we’re on. It’s been a while. Just this once, Shop Boy will spare you the details. Anyhow, here’s about an hour’s of music to celebrate one of Mary’s favorite times of the year: Baltimore’s Artscape weekend, this time featuring one of Shop Boy’s favorite bands (in case you haven’t yet guessed): Cake. Oh, there’ll be tons of other bands of all shapes, sizes and styles on three stages — and all within footsteps of our front door. You think the Bolton Hill residents complain about parking in normal times? Invite a million or so guests over a three-day period. Whee!

(And did I mention it’s always the steamiest weekend of the Baltimore summer? Oh, yes, there will be sweat.)

Alpha Beta Parking Lot – Cake (The lines are there for a reason, pal.)
Are You Bad — Glitter Mini 9 (Totally rocks. Mary’s over the moon about this song. I just hope Courtney Love doesn’t hear it and go beat up the whole band — and its management, and its fans …)
Dancing in the Street — Martha & the Vandellas (You betcha.)
Better – Regina Spektor (OK, Shop Boy’s late to the party on this singer. The first time I heard her music, I wrote her off as a weirdo. Now, she has eaten my brain.)
Re: Your Brains – Jonathan Coulton ( )
Smoke Detector – Rilo Kiley (Tobacco kills, folks.)
The Blues Are Brewin’ – Billie Holiday (Baltimore’s own. Artscape has a singing competition in her name each year.)
Never There — Cake (Shop Boy’s favorite from the band. Hey!)
Sunshine in the Shade – the Fixx (Oh, boy. One of those MTV moments we’d all like to forget.)
Mr. Blue Sky — ELO (But don’t forget the sunscreen.)
Summertime Girls – Y&T (Total cheese, street vendor style. Hot peppers with that? Why not? It’s Artscape.)
Smartbomb — BT (Make that gut bomb.)
Please Don’t Bury Me — John Prine (“Give my stomach to Milwaukee if they run out of beer …”)
(Love Is Like a) Heatwave — Martha & the Vandellas (Again, why not? Check out the dogged reporting by the emcee. Dude, let it drop. I half expected him to scream: Tell me what “Vandellas” means or you’re not going on stage!)
Satan Is My Motor — Cake (For Chub — hope he makes it with his crazy car and heaven-and-hell art this year.)

Baltimore School for the Arts Graduate Natan Lawson is peddling smoothies to Baltimore Farmers Market goers -Literally!

At my visit to the Waverly Farmers Market this weekend I discovered Natan Lawson’s Wheely Good Smoothies stand and had to wade through eager Baltimorians just to get a peek.  At Wheely Good Smoothies customers select ingredients Natan has collected from locally grown farmers and peddle blend their concoction to perfection.  The process is fun and the result is very tasty.  Way to go Natan!

Natan Lawson will be operating Wheely Good Smoothies at a stand at Artscape this weekend and then throughout the summer at the Waverly Farmers Market on Saturday’s.

Artscape, described as the nation’s largest free arts festival, begins tomorrow.  What does that mean for us? No more parking.  As Artscape takes place a few blocks from our front door, the neighborhood is jammed – but I love it.  I hear complaints in the neighborhood – no parking, a lot of trash, too much noise – I love the hustle and bustle of Artscape.  Granted, no parking is a problem, but it’s a nice trade for music and people.  And there’s something about hundreds of people walking the streets which even makes the neighborhood feel safer…though that is certainly only perception as I saw my share of drunken fights last year.

So I am looking forward to Artscape this weekend.  I and a few fellow Garden folks will be out mingling with folks and handing out some Garden info cards and maybe bottles of water – though I don’t want to make the water-people angry.  Come find us.