Episode 11--Summer-Hons, Film Stars & Artists Attack!!!

Summer's rolled around, and again I've gotten really behind in blogging (2 months behind, I'm ashamed to say).

Aaargh....Sorry. Wish I were better at keeping up. Like everyone else here in Bmore, I'm constantly juggling. ...Not half as successfully as many of the local artists, musicians, leaders & activists I admire, unfortunately.

I've had some cool experiences in 'indie, artsy Bmore,' though I don't know I'd call them 'sitcom-inspired adventures' per se.

Met John Waters briefly at the MD Film Fest in early May, and "snapped" him with one of my Blogstars, Alex (Episode 6). Hung out at Honfest with a couple of friends recently, though Waters himself was boycotting.

And I dropped in on a couple of local poetry and music events, and met some new poets and musicians along the way. ...All in all, I'd describe this time as pretty peaceful. A little break from all the weird drama I've faced earlier this year which, no doubt, will do me a world of good.

Still, this is Bmore--the place where mischief and strange occurrences reign supreme--so I will not get too used to the lull.

They just started filming the big Zellwegger movie, "My One and Only," here in Btown two weeks ago. While I haven't yet run into the film's cast [Sex & the City's heart-throb "Mr. Big" (Chris Noth) among them, and I heard Kevin Bacon just signed up too] or crew, filming runs through July so there's still plenty of time for that.

Plus, there's bound to be tons of locals and out-of-towners, far more intriguing and strangely seductive than any Hollywood filmstars or crew, showing up at our world-renowned summer arts events, of that I'm sure.

Artscape, "America's largest free public arts festival," fast approaching on July 18-20th, is sure to draw plenty; and the "Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival" (July 1-31st) at The Load of Fun Gallerie is sure to attract more such folk, too.

I'll keep my eyes and ears open, and report back more frequently, now that summer's on. If you're a veteran of Bawlmorean artsy-inspired summer strangeness, you'll stay wary & alert, too!

Copyright 2008 by Lois

The lovely "Hons" in this episode's pic (exhibiting their won'erful sense of kitchy "Hon-style" on the Avenue June 15th during Honfest, of course) are Jeannie, Kathy, and Cheryl (clockwise from left).

To view more cool pics incl the one I snapped of John Waters and my friend and Blogstar Alex (Episode 6) at the May 2nd airing of his FilmFest pick at The Charles, visit my LoisLife photosets on Flickr.

Alex, a wonderful local actress, performs next in Nonstop Realism. The play, part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival & billed as "an evening on nonsense no-nonsense humor," shows at the Strand Theatre, 1823 N. Charles Street, from July 17th-Aug 3rd. The BPF runs now through Aug 31 at various local theatres. It showcases plays by Maryland and Washington, DC playwrights (NR is by Bmore playwright Tim Paggi).

This wkend Bmore hosts the African American Heritage Festival, and about a zillion other things. To keep up with it all this summer, follow the LL Fun Tips on the right side of my blog. Check the "Favorite Bmore Social, Networking, & Event-Planning Groups/ websites" links a bit farther down, too.

Tomorrow night (Fri, June 27th) at 9 PM, I'll be at El Rancho Grande, a coffeehouse in Hampden (3608 Falls Road, Baltimore), for a live music event with wonderfully gifted Bmore musician (and LL friend/ Blogstar) Ellen Cherry. Ellen will be performing with two terrific out-of-town musicians she discovered at a songwriting event in Wisconsin, Chris Simmons (UK) and Danielle Gasparro (NYC). To learn more, go to the Baltimore Live Music Meetup site.

On Sunday, June 29th, from 4-6 pm, I'll be at Joe Squared Pizza and Bar, 133 W. North Avenue (across from The Load of Fun) for a musical tribute to Jonathan Gorrie. He was the Bobwhites' guitarist, and only 38 when he died recently and quite unexpectedly of what appears to have been a heart attack.

Jonathan was much loved, and will be deeply missed. To learn more about Jon, view the Friends of Jonathan Gorrie Blog set up in his memory; his bio; and the obit in the Baltimore Sun.

Sadly, John Waters (Jr.)'s father passed away recently, too. John Waters, Sr. was 91 when he died.

"He made us always feel safe," John Waters, Jr., said of his Dad, who founded a commercial fire-extinguisher business, and won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Fire Equipment Distributors, a group he helped found. "Is that not the most important thing a parent could do for his children?" To view the full obit, click here.

Episode 9- Springtime in Bmore, Springtime at Last! ;)

If you're one of my five fervid "LoisLife" fans, you may have noticed I've gotten a bit off-track in my Blogging of late.

Won't go into it much. ...Let's just say that a few weeks ago one of my earliest considered LL Blog characters told me something that surprised me, and for a while I was reeling a bit.

Actually the circumstances of my peculiar little melodramatic, romantic detour struck me as being (yup, you guessed it!) of a particularly "Seinfeldian-Meets-John Watersian" sort. Since I value the curiosity of my 5 loyal LL fans above anything, I did try to capture all this in a Blog.

But I'm afraid there are times when even my (seemingly) cleverly crafted LL stories do not quite meet with a potential Blog-character's approval, and this was simply one of those times. So for now we will simply have to call this one of my lost LL episodes--to be released, perhaps, at a later date.

Quite honestly, for the last few weeks, it has been a bit of "touch-and-go" situation for me, a bit "heavy" to tell the truth. Thankfully, though, 2 things have conspired to lighten the load.

The first is my discovery of the wonderful songs of Parkville's (a Bmore suburb) Ellen Cherry. She has this wonderful song called "Superhero" especially which I have quickly grown to love.

Another is the realization that it is Springtime in Baltimore--Springtime, at last!

Always during this time, many "green" and new things spring up which make my eyes water, my nose run, and my throat itch.

Still it is a pleasure to see all of these wonderful things growing and sprouting, even in formerly barren and dark places in Baltimore, & in the too-long abandoned recesses of the heart.

Now I could be cynical and self-mocking, in the grand old Bawlmorean tradition, a tradition I understand.

After too many years of waiting, hard to "buy into" all the city-sponsored promises and sloganeering: at words ("Believe") and phrases suspended in cyberspace, on billboards, on buildings, even the sometimes rickety or collapsing city bench.

Yet for all that we Bawlmoreans (the old residents and the new) may be tempted to view each new promise of improvement with the old accustomed cynicism, I will say this: Baltimore is not merely "green" in experience. She is also, relatively speaking, a very young city yet.

Truly she has had many stumbles and halts. In her recent past--and still today--she has borne, and continues to bear, more than her share of scars and indignities, suffering and wounds.

But always she is brilliantly creative, and above all surprisingly resillient, no matter what.

And just now I see her, as I see myself, emerging as if after a long sleep prepared for a new beginning, and indeed, in the full strength and creative flowering of her youth.

There are two videos I seem unable to stop playing, both because they make me laugh and because they lighten my heart.

...And also because they whisper that so many of us regular Baltimoreans are only just now charting for ourselves--and for our city too--a strange and magical and wonderful new course.

The first video is from John Waters' Hairspray, it kicks off to the tune "Good Morning Baltimore." The one I've linked is from the Hairspray production currently running on Broadway.

You'll find it right now also on my LL MySpace. Come "friend" me if you haven't already! If you visit now, you'll also hear my friend Woody's "Save the World" song there too. ...This is a cool tune which Woody's also started performing recently at his concerts at various locations about town.

The second video is of Sonny and Cher singing their big break-out hit "I Got You Babe" at the start of their career. This pair was, from the start, as unlikely & eccentric as any characters Waters cast in any of his movies. And where their careers went later [Sonny's to big-time national politics shortly before his tragic skiing accident, Cher's to super-stardom on a global scale] neither they, nor Waters himself, could possibly have predicted, much less dreamed up.

And actually, Sonny was cast in Waters' first Hairspray movie. So he can properly be called a 'Watersian' LL Baltimore Blogstar too.

But mostly this second video leads me to think of one or another peculiar Bmore pairing of talented eccentric visionaries, the kinds of strange, fortuitous and friendly partnerships upon which the joy and redemption and hope of a city like ours is built.

Copyright 2008 by Lois

Soon it will be Ecofest, in Druid Hill Park (April 26th) & Baltimore Green Week (April 25th-May 2nd)! To learn about exciting upcoming Ecofest & BGW events go to www.greencitybaltimore.org & www.baltimoregreenweek.org. I will be looking for volunteers for our GreenCityBaltimore table. Email me at Lois@Loislife.com if you'd like to help out!

The photo was taken not in Bmore, but in nearby Washington, DC. The truck-borne quote is by Itzah C. Kret, otherwise known as "The Phantom Planter," a Washington, DC artist, children's poet, environmental activist & dreamer, who has lived a life as varied & fascinating as any of the fantastical visionary artists showcased now or ever at the American Visionary Art Museum ("AVAM").

AVAM is simply my all-time favorite museum in the world. Its next big event is the Kinetic Sculpture Race to be held Sat, 5/3. Volunteers needed now. Contact jamie@avam.org or call 410.244.1900 to sign up.

Plenty of events in Bmore to celebrate April as National Poetry Month. Check out esp the 3rd yr Anniversary Party at Load of Fun on Fri 4/18; Minas Gallery's Poetry Month Celebration Sun, 4/20 at 4 PM; & Zelda's Inferno's next Open Mic night Tues, 4/29 at 2640 St. Paul. For more poetry info, visit the Poetry in Baltimore site, MD Open Mic site, Baltimore Fun Guide, and Baltimore-Localist.

On Sat, April 12th, from approx 8 PM & thereafter I will be at the Women Rock! concert at Load of Fun (this is a LadyFest Baltimore event; see the CityPaper article about LadyFest Baltimore here). Ellen Cherry is one of the wonderful "lady" musicians featured. Same night, same location is the Doll Project Fundraiser for the MD House of Ruth. Stop by on the 1st floor btwn 6-10 pm to catch it.

On Sun, April 13th, I will be at the Women's K.I.S.S. Event at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson (also as a Bmore Live Music Meetup) at 3 PM. Sahffi, whom I've blogged about before, will be among the musicians performing.

If you are a woman looking to fulfill your wildest business dreams in our wonderfully woman-dominated city, join me at the "Today's Business Woman III Conference" on Fri, April 25th at The Radisson Cross Keys. More conference details at the "Bmore4Her Online Resource" site.

Exciting news for Baltimore & for LoisLife: On April 14th, a new Bmore focused publication of the Baltimore Sun Media Group called 'b' and its online counterpart 'bthesite' kicks off! Among other things, the new publications will work with WTMD--and us--to further promote local music. Look to find 'LoisLife' content, photos & links on http://www.bthesite.com/ in the future.

Final plug: WHAM CITY, a Bmore artist, music & production "collective" phenom which started as a bunch of dreamy eyed kids from SUNY-Purchase, recently moved to a new location. Check out their MySpace for upcoming event info. Also see the Baltimore City Paper article & the Wikipedia piece to learn more about what these dreamers have created.

Episode 6- Baltimore Barbies, Alcohol, & MLA Launch Parties Don't Mix!

Woke up exhausted this morning after the big (and very well-attended) "Maryland Lawyers for the Arts"- Arts Brief Launch party at Lemongrass and Tsunami (hosted by Smalltimore Events) last night.

Not that I'd had all that much to drink really, but I'd been running myself ragged for 2 weeks straight so I guess 2 'orange crushes' on too little sleep was just enough to do the trick.

I was feeling just a wee bit 'off' when I first arrived at the party actually. Under most circumstances I am really not shy, but occasionally I feel a bit lost when surrounded by too many 'towering' fashionably-dressed people in strange settings (it can be easy to see people as 'towering' when you yourself are not quite 5 feet).

This effect tends to be heightened by sleep deprivation and hunger, so it took me a while to get my bearings last night. Then I found the free buffet, and this helped to improve my mood to a wonderful extent.

After a decent period of scavenging I felt much less cranky & started talking to people, and then I found a few I recognized and some who, for that matter, recognized me.

Among these were Annette, an artist, wife, and publicity agent of one of the Bobwhites (a cool 'art rock' & swing Baltimore band); Jonathan, a MICA student who dreamed up and is directing this fabulous 'Baltimore Sweep Action Parade' March 29th, as well as his Assistant Director, Anna Page; and Natalya, a law student I met at City Paper's 2007 Valentine's masqueRED Ball at Sonar, a cool party with lots of great people, fun music & many interesting 'party favors' of the 'public health' variety (it was to benefit Chase Brexton Health).

Then I met up with Alex, this really positive, energetic & wonderfully imaginative psychotherapist/ teacher/ actress, and we got to talking for a while till we both decided it was time to leave.

When I got home I jumped into bed almost immediately looking forward to a good night's sleep.

I guess all this running around must have affected me strangely, for I had these very peculiar, 'larger-than-life Barbie-filled' dreams. I can't relate too much about these noctural wanderings other than that they were filled with many statuesque, impressively-clad, adult human-size yet also doll-like Barbies, clinking glasses of what I presumed to be alcohol in darkly green-filtered surroundings, speaking to one another in high flute-like voices throughout the night.

When morning broke I struggled but was unable to remember much else, though the source of such dreams is really not hard to place.

When I first saw Alex she was playing the role of a Barbie doll-come-to-life in this truly bizarre, but very emotionally-engaging play at the Fells Point Corner Theatre as part of last year's Baltimore Playwrights Festival. In it Alex, one of two featured 'Barbies,' narrated tales of many child-inflicted tortures suffered, alongside her male counterpart (the similarly-abused 'Ken'), over the years in a really compelling and rather gut-wrenching way. YouTube video of Alex in her 'Barbie' role can be viewed here & on the right side of this Blog.

As a child I never subjected my own 'Barbies' to such abuses. I bought many of them after all with my own money, and treasured them very much in my way. Still I admit that I cast them, at least mentally, in some rather sketchy adult-type 'creative fantasy role-play' scenarios of which Mattell would simply never have approved.

I will say that my Barbies seem to have survived it all in relatively healthy good spirits, as you can see from the photo of one I've included with this Episode.

Normally I don't keep my Barbies in my apartment--not that I don't have my eccentricities, but my apartment is already cluttered enough with miscellaneous 'artsy' ecclectic stuff. For the last 3 decades or so they lived in my parents' basement in Rockland County, NY but lately they (my parents, not the Barbies) have talked of moving so they insisted I keep the Barbies here, in my own storage space.

But as you might observe, 'Golden Dream Barbie' (my childhood favorite) seems to have found a comfortable niche by my window just now hanging out with my jade plant (which is not at all menacing or even fashion-threatening like the ficus I wrote about in Episode 1--the Man Eating Plant, or commented on in Episode 4--Lois Finds Love at The Ottobar with Trixie Little, The Evil Hate Monkey and Scotty The Blue Bunny). She is also hanging out near the 'green Lois' bottle which my cousin Lori found for me a few weeks back. So I might just let her hang out here a while longer, so long as she doesn't see fit to keep 'haunting' my mental meanderings at night.

The 'Bobwhites' will be performing, and some of the band will also be reading poetry (along with some other well-known poets) at a spoken-word CD release event called 'Words on War' Friday, March 7th from 7 pm- 12 am at the Load of Fun Studio (120 W. North Ave). More details at Load of Fun's event calendar here.

Other events of note to take place March 7th include a 'Girls' Night Out' concert, sponsored by the recently-turned-two years' old Maryland indie music community networking organization Static Chain, featuring wonderful Baltimore-based female folk artists (Sahffi, Teporah, Clarissa and Toni Sicola) at Tyson's Tavern from 8 pm- 12 am. For more info, click here.

And two of my condo building-mates are putting on a Choreographer's Showcase event that same night (March 7th) from 8-10 pm at the Constance R. Caplan Dance Studio, Room 163, Mattin Cultural Arts Center at Johns Hopkins (North Charles Street at 33rd Street), it is completely free and all are invited.

More details about the Baltimore Sweep Action Parade to take place March 29th (4 teams 'sweeping' debris from 4 separate Bmore neighborhoods to converge on Mount Vernon Place 3/29, resulting in a public sculpture display to remain in Mt. Vernon Park until 5/20 as part of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance's Festival of Maps exhibition) will be found at http://www.baltimoresweepaction.org/ and will soon be posted to GreenCityBaltimore's Blogsite (http://www.greencitybaltimore.org/) and yahoo group space ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greencitybaltimore/ ).

Copyright 2008 by Lois

Episode 5--Hangin' with the Artrats in Hampden

Now of course it will soon be Valentine's Day and for many people this means exchanging with their beloveds a lot of sweet and gooey and quite frankly crassly commercial things, all in the name of romance and that unassailable brand of American consumerism of which we're all so fond.

But I live in Baltimore now and these days run with an "artsier" crowd, and so going to a "love/ relationship-themed" art reception like the one I went to this past Saturday at the Art Under Ground studio in Hampden was a bit more my speed. The reception promoted a new exhibit there called "Friends with Benefits, or How 143 Means I Love You."

My friend Renee Tantillo, whose art in the "If It's Yellow" exhibit at the Load of Fun Studio I never did get over to see (see Episode 3, "Sweatin' Over My Choices at The Charles"), had invited me and was showing some pieces. You can see one in this episode's photo, it is the "thorny" metal heart which Renee has titled "Miss You/ Love Hurts/ Fetish 1."

Another metal heart Renee created is called "Gearheart," it has been sodered as if re-sewn clumsily after breaking, and features also an exposed place through which its insides are gaping through.

Now admittedly I've never been all that "crafty" at the art of love really. If pressed to describe my 'romantic skills,' I suppose I could cite my wonderful ability to botch things up always in fresh, creative and interesting ways; or to 'artfully' squander perhaps the most potentially promising romantic opportunities. So it should come as no surprise that I've surely had my share of fun heartbreak opportunities as Renee's work expresses (indeed who has not, really?), and greatly look forward to many more exciting ones in the future. Though at the moment I am (thankfully) feeling generally quite mellow and happy, and more than content to re-live such "thorny" feelings mostly in the past tense.

Actually I spent a good part of my uniquely 'artsy Hampdenish pre-Valentine's' Sat night in the quite tranquil and really pleasurable company of not just Renee and my good friend Kirsten, but also my physicist-cum-artist friend Ramesh and a number of his and Renee's art-world friends.

After the reception Ramesh and friends Matt (an artist), Robin (a poet) and Gavin (an artist and playwright) and I strolled along Chestnut Ave. heading for something to eat. During this stroll, Matt mentioned coming across John Waters in Hampden just the week before. For many Baltimoreans the mere mention of 'Hampden' quite logically conjures up thoughts of John Waters anyway, it was after all the neighborhood in which he lived for many years and which he loved to film.

But Ramesh and I have both gotten pretty deep in the 'quirky artsy eccentric world' of Bmore in a relatively short space of time and have formed certain associations of our own. And so as Ramesh and I hung out and snacked on tofu burgers and fried pickles at Rocket to Venus we talked and speculated not so much about John Waters but our friend Woody Lissauer.

Woody is this really wonderfully talented and gifted songwriter/ musician who lives in Hampden and has for several years now and who in fact composed and performs a rather quirky song about his 'hood called 'Hampden in the Rain.' In this song Woody details some of Hampden's less desirable qualities, including the 'streetrats' that come out after barflies and partiers and 'artrats' (my word, not Woody's) have left and gone home, often leaving lots of nice trash and detritus behind in their wake. (YouTube video of Woody's 'Hampden' is viewable a bit lower down on the right side of this Blog or by clicking here.)

Really my friends and I find Woody to be every bit as unique, colorful and startlingly extraordinary as any of the characters John Waters created or at least 'projected' in his films, and also as Hampden or John Waters or for that matter Baltimore itself. So it has become a great pastime of ours after our latest 'Woody-encounter' to get together and recount the always-memorable, and quite frequently wholly unexpected, things that Woody has lately done and said.

So of course Ramesh and I spoke about Woody for some time, and also about my New Year's Day party where for Ramesh he last appeared, and at which certain other very strange and mostly inexplicable things happened too. Then we moved on to other subjects and I got very tired suddenly, and asked Ramesh if he could drop me home before taking his friends out on the next leg of their 'art-show-hopping' escapades.

On the way to Ramesh's car, I stopped in the street for a moment, lost in my thoughts and the pulsing red glow of a rather 'typical-for-Hampden' Christmas-style Valentine's electric-light display of a house across the way. To me it seemed that the light was symbolic, warning but also beckoning of many more inexplicable, eccentric, but always uniquely 'Bawlmorean' adventures to come.

Woody will perform live w/ full band along w/ a number of other great local Bmore & Maryland bands at a Static Chain concert at Sonar, 401 E. Saratoga St., on Fri, Feb 22nd (tix $12, doors open 7:30 pm, concert at 8). He also performs regularly wkends at Harvest Table, & at various venues in MD & beyond throughout the year. For more on Woody's music, concerts & videos see http://www.woodylissauer.com/ .

Matt's art and Robin's poetry will both be featured in a show called Sensarium to be held Sat Feb 23rd from 8 pm- 1 am at the Whole Gallery at 405 W. Franklin Street (3rd Floor). The cost is $7 but only $5 if you bring art materials for the collaborative project on the agenda, or if you wear red. More details are at http://MayhemOnward.com/RED.

I understand that Gavin also has an upcoming play through Theatre Project, but I don't have details on that yet. I have learned however that Cosmic Cocktail tix (the upcoming March 6th City Paper-sponsored party at The Belvedere) are now available for purchase, you can get them in person at The 8 x 10 Club and also online through Mission Tix here.

The final "shameless plug" I will give is for an upcoming party (open to the public) to be hosted by Smalltimore Events on behalf of Maryland Lawyers for the Arts on Thursday, February 21st, between 6-9 pm. The MLA is really a terrific nonprofit organization which helps income-eligible artists and art organizations with legal issues, and it is celebrating the launch of its new "MLA Arts Brief" publication. The party is free ($10 donation suggested for non-VIPs), it is being sponsored by two great chic restaurants (Tsunami and Lemongrass), and all for a really great cause.

Also there is space in one room for local artists to exhibit their work for the party. If you are interested in going please RSVP to smalltimoreevents@gmail.com, and also please contact this same address if you an artist interested in exhibiting opportunities for the event.

Copyright 2008 by Lois

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.