Round The Mountain 2010

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Andy Friedman, The Honey Dewdrops, Caleb Stine, and Ken Kolodner

Thank you Neal Golden for the photos.

6 Foot Beard

Photobucket

Ram Jam Photos

Photobucket

Photobucket

Nashville Zip Line

My good friends, The Barnes, showed me how it’s done on their Zip Line.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Upperville Virginia

Had a great weekend of small house concerts, and was it ever lovely. Sunday found me in Upperville Virginia on the most gorgeous day of the year. Fiddles, guitars, accordion, camp fire, chocolate cake, a dog named ‘Townes’. . . does it get any better?

Photobucket

Baltimore Easter Parade

Photobucket

Spurred on by a City Paper posting, a friend suggested on Sunday that we head over to the Easter Parade on Pennsylvania Avenue. According to the article, the parade was on a hiatus for over 20 years, and has been resurrected by the churches of the neighborhood as “[a]n opportunity for people who are leaving church to extend their Sunday finery by taking part in a tradition.”

Photobucket

And what a joyous tradition! The enthusiastic drumming of an all-woman Brazilian percussion group, Batala, lured us over to an elementary school playground where they warmed up and set the tone for the parade. The Baltimore Arrabers were well represented with their horses and buggies, and I felt a special kinship with the lone rider who had on the same cowboy hat as me. Several cheerleading troops and dance squads kept spirits high. And a slow rolling display of beautifully kept cars made me eye up a ride other than my Honda Accord for the first time in years.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

It reminded me of so much that I love about Baltimore. The joy of life. The mix of traditions. Rhythmic, from-the-gut music. Vibrant crowds. Dance. Neighborhood pride. The elders and the young tussling in the same circles. A constant re-invention of the city in ways that brings out our own best strengths. Seeing people you know every where you go.

It was a beautiful Sunday, and I was so glad that my friend had pulled me out to a parade. Not having heard about it, I would have missed it otherwise.

Also, having just spent time in Toronto, the idea of ‘city’ is very much on my mind. I’ve been on heightened Baltimore-awareness-mode the past week. (Which is always one of my favorite parts about traveling: the perspective it gives you on your arrival home, seeing your everyday life as something that could be just as magical as the place you just left).

Here’s what I love about Baltimore — it’s American in all the best and worst ways possible, but it’s alive and fighting and struggling, and the stakes are high. People from so many diverse fields are attracted to this city because of the fight and the vibrancy, and the life-or-death stakes.

Hopkins; Baltimore Club; dealing drugs: political scrappiness; old-school corruption; hard hitting football players; television shows about The War On Drugs; “a long-time powerhouse in the world of college chess”; Wham City; men selling fruit and vegetables out of a horse-drawn buggy because it’s tradition and, hey, why not?!, let’s slow down to horse-and-buggy-speed every so often; Wye Oak; Healthcare For The Homeless; 2640 Space; still-standing warehouses and factories to remind us of the not-too-distant past when everything from complex machines (my newly acquired upright piano) to the clothes you wore (and they probably fit better) were made within 20 miles of where you slept; friends, friends, and always a new friend to be made around the corner; violence, threats of violence and allegations of violence hovering in the air; a history-making, visionary symphony orchestra director; good water; fox, cardinals, and squirrels all seen a few blocks from my row-house; John Waters; Billie Holiday; Tupac . . .

Risk. Passion. Uncertainty. Heart. Challenge. Baltimore has it.

And on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the beginning of April, Baltimore was just boiled down to a fun neighborhood parade, laughing with a friend, and soaking the perfect feeling of the air into my skin (knowing that the humidity is coming, so I better enjoy every semi-non-sticky day while I have it!).

Photobucket

Photobucket

Toronto

I just spent a wonderful few days in Toronto with a lot of great new friends. My best bud Gabriel and I were treated like kings by our hosts Marco and Nancy, a musician and poet who have a wonderfully vibrant and connected life in Toronto.

Photobucket

(Gabriel at the Hamilton Pier)

Marco has recently released a solo album of soulful ambient music. Here is the fantastical, hand-drawn animated video to one of his songs:

Our first night we ended up at the Dakota Tavern, an inviting Country themed venue. The act who was playing, Andrew Penner, created an immense sound blanket covering the whole room with passion and warmth. With only an acoustic guitar, one foot on a bass drum, and one on a pedal keyboard, he sounded like an orchestra. His band, The Sunparlour Players has just released an album called Wave North. It’s lovely. I’m sitting here listening to it on my record player right now. Perfect combination of the Canadian sense of wide-open space, and his own very personal fire in the belly.

Photobucket

(Andrew Penner at the Dakota Tavern)

We also spent an evening bopping around and caught a Punk revival act (I haven’t seen it pulled off this well before, and these guys brought such joy and energy to the songs that it really felt like a barn dance or a real deal folk show) called The Screwed. Leather-clad, Middle-aged women were dancing like they were 19 again. All of us dudes bopped our heads and played air guitar along with the best riffs. The drummer looked like he was having more fun than anyone in the room, and when he broke a stick mid song and kept on going, you could feel the energy in the place shoot through the ceiling.

That night we also caught J. J. Ipsen, a writer of intricate, baroque-pop who was accompanied by a tasteful piano player. And Ray from Pink Moth, who was the nicest guy, and played his own take on indie melancholia. I felt bad when we slipped out after a couple songs to get to a party that had been set up for us, but if was great to catch what we could. Ray recorded his last ep in a church, which resonates with me because of the recording of ‘October 29th’.

Photobucket

(Hugh Oliver)

The last night we had an all out beatnick hang with the 80 year old poet/songwriter/literary scholar Hugh Oliver. He’s a good friend of Nancy and Marco’s, and we spent the evening playing old folk songs (Marco, giving us Italian pearls from his childhood and Hugh offering aching British love-lorn ballads and uproarious Wine/Women cautionary tales), riffing on Shakespeare, downing red wine, learning about Greece from Nancy, discussing the nuances of documentary film with Gabriel, and generally having the kind of night I dreamed my adult life would look like when I was 12.

Like the whole trip, and Toronto itself, that night was filled with the traditions of various cultures, bonded and celebrated by music and friendship and love and humor and acceptance. We did it. No one can erase it. That’s life. Toronto style.

Photobucket

(A Toronto mural)

Photos of ‘Baltimore’ Mural

Photobucket

On March 4, a mural based on the song ‘Baltimore’ by Caleb Stine and Saleem Heggins was put on display at Penn Station. Painted by students from UB and MICA, the mural offers funky and philosophical interpretations of the city and song. It’s on wheels, and is designed to show up in other city locales for the rest of the year. More information is here in a Baltimore Sun article.

Photobucket

Four panels wide, the mural greets travelers as they enter the train station.

Photobucket

Jazz notes embedded in the pavement, come to life.

Photobucket

Caleb and Saleem as old men.

Photobucket

Remington Avenue represent!

Photobucket

At the dedication ceremony.

Piano

Photobucket

Photobucket

Thanks to Frances on Craig’s List and the strong backs of Kyle, Daniel, and Mike.

Natasha Tylea

Photos






Photobucket







Photobucket







Photobucket







More beautiful photos by Natasha found here:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/eskimodane/