Episode 10- Out of the Watersian Shadows & Into The Light!

As you might have guessed from my last Blog (Episode 9--Springtime in Baltimore, Springtime at Last!), lately I had been feeling that the absurdist, "Watersian" and "Seinfeldian" elements in my life had gotten more than a bit out-of-hand.

When I left town for a very brief overnight visit in NYC two weekends ago, before staying with my folks a few days in Rockland County, NY, I saw this as my big chance to briefly escape such things.

Silly me. I should have recognized that in a place like NYC, avoiding "Seinfeldian" or "Watersian" elements would be a nearly impossible thing for a strange artsy chic like myself to do. Really, how ridiculous--who could escape Seinfeld's spirit in NYC? Plus, what with the two Waters productions running also on Broadway (both "Cry-Baby" and "Hairspray") these days, John Waters' influence is pervasive there too.

Here was my first sign: a block away from a dinner party in the Village for one of my closest friends, I practically stumbled across the set of a new Woody Allen movie-in-the-making starring Larry David (co-creator, head writer & exec producer of Seinfeld, and creator & star of the Seinfeldian HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm, for those of you who don't know).

If I really wanted to miss the Seinfeldian-inspired absurdities almost sure to follow, that would have been my cue to skip the party and head for my hotel. Or at least, cut out before the start of the comedy show I was to drop in on thereafter, at which a friend was scheduled to perform.

But I have never, in my life, deliberately skipped a friend's party; nor have I ever willingly missed a performer-friend's show. So really, I do not see what I could have done to avoid a sequence of super-"Seinfeldian" strangeness that did, thereafter, unravel before my eyes.

Even so, it has taken me a while to recover from the NYC stuff.

For a while to be honest, since returning to Baltimore, I have been laying low. Meanwhile, people all around me had been reporting "John Waters" sightings for weeks. In the last few days, these have been increasing to a fever pitch. And lately, so many folks I meet, hang out, or work on community projects with seems to be inextricably entwined not merely in my life, but also in JW's.

I have reason to be cautious. One might say that this is a sort of "Witching Hour for Watersian-inspired weirdness." This period, which started I'd say around April 22nd (John Waters' birthday), lasting at least through the end of Maryland Film Fest (which kicks off Thurs, May 1st & ends Sun, May 4th) is surely when JW's weird influence here is strongest - and when Baltimore is sure to be at its most bizarre.

Well, I have decided I must not hide from my strange Blog-life, or JW's legacy, or from "zany" Baltimore's influence generally, anymore. I could try hibernating at home, but I doubt it would do much good. Somehow, I think, Baltimorean, "Watersian"-inspired strangeness would find me, even hiding under the bed.

And no matter what, I would not miss the Maryland Film Fest for anything.

So I have decided: I will throw caution to the wind.

Rather than hiding, I will meet JW on his own turf: when he presides over his favorite film pick at The Charles Theatre on Friday for the FilmFest. It will be, appropriately enough, Story of Women, a "provocative" French film.

To mark the occasion, I will have with me a sort of posse of some of my favorite gal-pals & female Blog-Superstars. And we will meet and talk with JW, I suspect, of this strange legacy he has passed on to us, and also I would guess of many other queer and peculiar 'Watersian' happenings too.

All in all, I am quite sure the experience will be both Super-Blogworthy & Superstrange.

So please buy your tix early and stop by if you can. And definitely, keep "tuning" in for many more strange, weird, & zany 'Watersian' & 'Seinfeldian' adventures in & around 'artsy, grassrootsy, socially oriented Bmore' to come.

Copyright 2008 by Lois

The pic, as I mentioned, is one a friend took on 4/18 in NYC of Woody Allen directing his new (yet unnamed) movie starring Larry David. We celebrated & drank much wine at my friend Kal's birthday at Le Belle Vie (a really nice, & very reasonably-priced restaurant in the Village) while WA continued to direct & shoot the film about a block away.

So much is going on here in Baltimore right now. I will only try to mention a few important things coming up in the next few days.

First & foremost, there is Maryland's FilmFest. It kicks off with an opening shorts program, hosted by Bmore film legend Barry Levinson, tomorrow night (Thursday, May 1st).

Friday, May 2nd, movies run from 11 AM to 10:30 PM in three locations (Charles Theatre, UB Student Center, & MICA Brown Center) in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore. John Waters will be there to present his "film pick" at The Charles, which will be shown starting at 7 PM. I was there last year for his last pick; that film was phenomenal, and John was charming, easy-going, and incredibly funny. So I have high expectations for this Fri. Buy your tix in advance, I would be surprised if they didn't sell out. Ticket cost: $10.

More wonderful films run Sat & Sunday May 3-4th. To check shedule, view film descriptions, and order tix, go to the MD Film Fest main site. For reviews and more info, visit The City Paper's spread here.

Other big weekend things on my radar:

1) Fri, May 2nd - Sat, May 3rd (11 AM - 8 PM both days) is Flowermart, as usual at Mt. Vernon around the Washington Monument, Baltimore's 91st! For more details see the main site. Stop by & see my GreenCityBaltimore partner Doug Retzler's Paisley Green Roof display at Parks & People's Urban Forest (S of the Washington Monument).

2) Fri, May 2nd (7-10 pm)- "Bicycle/ tricycle art" & live music event at Velocipide Bike Project Opening Reception. "A Study of The Trike" at 4 Lanvale Street, Baltimore. (Exhibit runs May 2-25th.) With performances by Yeveto & Orion Rigel Dommissee. $5 Donation suggested. More info at: http://www.velocipedebikeproject.org/

3) Baltimore's 10th Kinetic Sculpture Race- Sat, May 3rd - race starts with opening ceremonies at the American Visionary Art Museum, on the shore of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in central Maryland. The eight-hour race covers 15 miles—mostly on pavement, but also including a trip into the Chesapeake Bay and through mud and sand.

4) Sat, May 3rd (10 am - 6 pm) & Sun, May 4th (10 am - 2 pm) - Rock Fight Against Lymphoma & Leukemia - 25 bands - music/ charity event at Huckas at 2324 Boston Street, MD. For more info see: http://www.myspace.com/rockfightpattersonpark (note, event venue no longer at Patterson Park anymore). Donations (I think of $10 pp) recommended.

5) Sat, May 3rd (7 pm) - Baltimore Songwriter's Association showcase of recently released juried CD "Songs from a Charmed City" - a Baltimore Live Music Meetup event at the Unitarian Unviersalists of Fallston! For more info or to sign up, click here.

**Check out our Flickr photos of Doug Retzler's "Visions of a Healthy City" Chalk-In project, one of his & GreenCityBaltimore's contributions to Baltimore's Ecofest (soon to be added to our photo sets here).

GreenCityBaltimore sponsored this to publicize Doug's "Art in Common/ Art for GreenSpaces" initiative, to build support for various eco-friendly & sustainable art projects in parks throughout Baltimore City. More info will be available in the future at www.artincommon.org . Upcoming GreenCityBaltimore events & "green" Baltimore info available at http://www.greencitybaltimore.org/ .

Ecofest on Sat, April 26th was HUGE this year BTW, thanks to all of the GreenWeek organizers, volunteers, participants & sponsors for making it such a great success! Baltimore Green Week events continue through Friday, May 2nd. More details at http://www.baltimoregreenweek.org/ .

Episode 3-Sweatin' Over My Choices at The Charles

I tend to be pretty upbeat generally. Usually I stay pretty optimistic about projects I've engineered and been involved in over the last year or so. Still, I do experience the occasional moment of self-doubt.

One such moment struck me Tuesday, while watching the film Sweeney Todd at The Charles with my cousin Lori and two of our friends. (If you've never actually seen the movie or play or heard the plot, BTW, you might want to stop reading now--I don't want to be blamed for spoiling it for you.)

We were enjoying it free courtesy of The Baltimore City Paper, which was publicizing its big "not-to-miss" bash, the Cosmic Cocktail Party, to be held March 6th at the Belvedere (tix can be purchased through Mission Tix and at The 8 x 10 Club).

About half-way through the movie I found myself sweating. This was partly because the theatre was crazy-hot, a pipe must have busted somewhere or something, causing sauna-like conditions to prevail.

But mostly it was a thought that occurred to me while watching the ghastly results of the "creative collaborative partnership" between the movie's heroine, Helena Bonham Carter 's Mrs. Lovett, and the "demonic hero" Sweeney Todd, the extremely talented, charismatic, attractive (for in spite of the chalky makeup and ghoulish hairdo, when ever is Johnny Depp not attractive? ;) ), compellingly sympathetic, and tragically eccentric barber, unfold.

What freaked me was not so much the sight of blood spurting across the screen as Depp's Todd artfully "shaved" off the heads of many a customer in his upstairs barbershop, while Bonham-Carter's Lovett served their compatriots up to ravenous customers in a tasty crust at her pie shop below.

Really it was the thought that I was in certain ways perhaps not so very different from "Mrs. Lovett," deeply enmeshed in a few all-engrossing projects with at least two Baltimorean men with many of the "brilliant-barber characteristics," including the fiercely crazed single-mindedness of purpose, along with far more than the "healthy" recommended allotment of Baltimorean eccentricity to boot. It struck me then that for all of my good intentions and faith in my projects, that faith could easily be misplaced--not only might these endeavors come to nothing, they could also in fact still turn out quite badly, could even result in a rather bloody public mess.

At the end of the movie, I asked my cousin: "What if I've got it all wrong? All the good I think I'm doing--what if I'm just deluded? What if I'm really just making cannibalistic meat pies with my life, after all?"

Well, Lori laughed it off mostly, and I tried to as well; but the "cannibalistic meat pie" question hung over us the rest of the night. It lingered over us still next morning, as we headed to Columbia to pitch some of our "creative ideas" for better promoting the aims of an organization Lori deeply cares about, to the regional office's executive director there.

Actually the meeting went well, and we had a fun and productive day browsing together at Spencer's Gifts at the Columbia Mall later and then shoe-shopping at DSW at Hunt Valley besides (shoe-shopping will after all cheer up anybody). I also did lots of fun social stuff with friends and heard lots of local music over the weekend, two of my favorite things to do.

Really I did most everything I set out to do last week and weekend and then some, except I did not make it to the opening of the "If It's Yellow" exhibit at the Load of Fun studio Friday night, in which some art of my friend Renee was included. But perhaps that was just as well. Given my recent traumatic reaction to the "creative mixing" of human remains with food at the movie, staying clear of an art show incorporating urine in its exhibit was perhaps the wisest thing to do.

Well, last week at least. The show still runs through February 8th, I may be up to it by then...if you've got a hankering to see (and smell) "urine-inspired" art, well, at least proudly displayed on the wall of an art studio (and outside of the usual venues), feel free to drop me a line and let me know... ;)

Copyright 2008 by Lois

*The photo in my episode is not from Sweeney Todd btw, though it might easily might be. It's a pic I took of a Chucky doll that was at the Spencer's store we shopped at Wednesday. I did not pick it up, I was after a rather different kind of toy. But he was so "cutely evil" and "devilishly cheerful" I just had to snap him and incorporate him somehow in my latest LoisLife Blogstory.