...I just got back to B-town last Wed after being away on a biz trip to Toledo, OH for over a month.
'Sitcom-style' bloggers aren't supposed to succumb to the blues, I know. Fact is, though, I really HATED being so long away from home & the city I love.
When I got back, I spent 3 days just running to music events, and visiting with friends. Then on Mon I sort of collapsed for a while and cried...After all that time away, I guess I was feeling a bit displaced, dispirited, and generally run-down.
But this very 'musically-inspired,' California-based artist/ writer friend of mine, Wayne Wolfson, just made me this lovely 'LoisBlueCity' pastel (featured above left), and it really has helped cheer me up. The city is supposed to be Seattle, not Bmore, according to Wayne, but the green 'L' on the door really does stand for 'Lois' (or so he claims)...
....It also cheers me to think that though I have been away a while from both Bmore & blogging, this Blog, and some of my Blogstars, are starting to become better known...In July, for example, this Blog and one of its 'LL Blogstars,' Alex, were featured on a pretty noteworthy--and wickedly funny--celebrity gossip blog out of the UK ("Madame Arcati").
So while my Blogstars may not yet be cultural icons of 'Michael Phelpsian' proportions quite, we are starting to get some out-of-town (and even international) press...
I did catch a couple of super-cool, super-artsy 'Bawlmorean' events right before I left town BTW, at the very end of July.
At Artscape, several good friends & I enjoyed Joan Jett's live Saturn Stage concert, and also the Paul Taylor Dance Company's performance, immensely. Check out this really great up-close shot of Joan I found on Flickr (my own camera doesn't zoom like this!), and the cool YouTube vid someone uploaded of her singing "Crimson & Clover."
I especially loved the Cab Calloway / Billie Holiday Vocal Competition, at which the lovely Tia Dae (1st place winner- B.H. Competition) and my friend, Baltimore's own Sujay Pathak, truly stole the show (I thought so, anyway, though Sujay placed 2nd in the C.C. competition for the 2nd yr in a row). If you're a Bmore local, Sujay performs live regularly Sat nights at Joe Squared Pizza (7-9 PM) in its Station North District, check his schedule out here.
Most of my Artscape pics sucked, but this very talented artist/ photographer I met, Dorret Oosterhoff, took some really great ones, esp of a few of the Cab Calloway & Billie Holiday vocalists. (Dorret's also a pretty accomplished quiltmaker & teacher...you can learn some more about Dorret & visit her wonderful quilts here.)
Just before I left for Ohio, I ALSO caught the live WTMD taping of Caleb Stine's (country/ folk artist) and Salim's (hip hop artist) awesome collaborative performance at the 8 x 10 on 7/26. The show was part of WTMD's "Baltimore Music Project," the remarkable brainchild of Baltimore Unsigned's host Sam Sessa...visit these links to learn more.
From that time on (7/28-just recently) I was mostly away in Toledo, OH, getting by as well as I could...I don't want to be too "down" on Toledo: the city really has the most beautiful "riverfront view" (some Bmore architects were hired to help create this), and it retains many cool features of the magnificent, artsy city it once was (& hopefully will soon be again).
Still, its downtown can feel pretty deserted & dreary often enough, esp to an exiled, homesick Bawlmorean...so I could kinda relate to this dreary downtown-Toledo inspired tune which John Denver penned & recorded some time ago.
I did return briefly over 8/23-8/24 wkend, long enough to mellow out at the Baltimore Songwriters Association's summer showcase at the beautiful Lurman Woodland Theatre in Catonsville, hearing some of my favorite local musicians, Kate Maguire, Sahffi, Sarah Pinsker & The Stalking Horses sing as evening settled in among the trees...
And I arrived home for good mid-last week, just in time for my friend Ed Neenan's ("e.joseph" of the "e.joseph and the Phantom Heart" band) fabulous "All The Medicine in the World" CD release party at Sonar last Fri (8/29), and the awesome line-up of bands he put together too...David Daniel, FFHH, & Red This Ever.
Visit these bands' sites & check 'em out, they're all quite cool...I'm givin' out free "LoisLife" points too if you can guess which band's lead singer incorporates balloon tricks (helium sucking included) into the show. Redeemable of course at a "LoisLife" rest stop near you... ;)
Copyright 2008 by Lois
Actually I'm super-excited about some pretty huge local music events coming up in the next few days/ wks:
This Fri night (9/5) at 7 PM at the 8 x 10, is a benefit concert for Susie Mudd (much-beloved editor of the 20-yr old publication 'Music Monthly', and a great supporter of local music)...Susie recently weathered a triple-bypass and is recovering well. A couple of local bands/musicians, incl a friend of mine, Clarissa, will be performing. Tix $15.
Also upcoming is Fools & Horses' "I Am the Ghost" CD release party, 9/13 at the Recher Theatre, in Towson (a Bmore 'burb)...F & H is a really phenomenal band, a National Starbucks CD Winner, winner of 3 WAMMIES, a regular on WTMD and a really good "LoisLife" friend...Tix $10 pp can be purchased here.
Fast-approaching is the Baltimore Music Conference (9/17-9/20), Bmore's huge music event at which over 100 bands and DJs will be showcased at venues across the city. All-access badges, passes & showcase tix can be purchased in advance here...
The BMC includes many"LoisLife"-friendly musicians & bands (Artherius Johnson, e.joseph and the Phantom Heart, Ellen Cherry, Gary B & the Notions, Michele McTierney, The Bad Influence Band, to name a few), & many more who will become such, I daresay. For full line-up, visit here, & visit their MySpace for more info & updates.
July_10_2010_vlog.mp4
1 week ago
