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 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 7- Rollin' in to Work with Dirty Marty

On my ride in to work via MARC train Tues morning, I met the Charm City Roller Girls' announcer, 'Dirty Marty.'

This is the name with which he introduced himself, without a touch of irony. He was easy to spot, in his 'Roller Girls' jacket actually.

He seemed genuinely puzzled when I asked for a name that was a bit less 'stagey.' Only with some reluctance did he allow that I might call him 'just Marty.'

This is something I rather love about Baltimore actually. Here it is nothing unsual for our performers and 'non-performing civilians' alike, to identify themselves both 'on' and 'off set' with names such as 'Trixie' and 'Sahffi' and 'JAR Horseman' and 'Teporah/ 'Tepi' and 'Woody' and, yes, 'Dirty Marty.'

These are not necessarily all names given at birth, but they are not quite 'stage names' either.... They are names worn as comfortably about Btown by their owners as a favorite pair of jeans, and every bit as casually.

Actually I pondered this interesting & peculiar 'Baltimorean naming' custom while at the Roller Derby two Sundays ago, at the 5th Regiment Armory with my cousin Lori. I was watching the Roller Derby gals skimming across the rink, when I felt a touch of jealousy.

Who could blame me for envying them? They were so visibly enthusiastic and carefree--plus so wonderfully absorbed in their 'body-slamming' activities.

And those names, printed in the Roller Girls' brochure and announced by 'Dirty Marty,' struck me particularly: 'Rosie the Rioter' and 'Pixie Rocket;' 'Cheeta Torpeda' and 'Harly Go Hardly.' The names said it all, they so vividly & perfectly announced the Roller Girls' identities.

"Can't I have an alter-ego?" I complained to my cousin. "Why shouldn't I have my own cool, body-slamming name, and identity?"

True to form, Lori just laughed, and rolled her eyes at me. "You don't need an alter-ego," she said. "You're already a character. There's only one Lois. ...Thank goodness."

I tried to hold on to my delusions a while longer, but it was no good. Had to admit, there's really no point--my character, I guess, is pretty well-formed already, and my name kind of 'fused' onto it too. Trying to separate them at this point would seem a rather fruitless endeavor.

I suppose, all is not lost--I do feel, these days, that special 'Bawlmorean' magic clinging to my name, as it seems to be also infecting my life and, indeed, my Blog-life-stories.

So maybe I really have no need for a more quirky, Bawlmorean-sounding moniker. Perhaps there is enough of the 'quirky Baltimorean' in me, without it--so adding on would be simply even more silly.

The woman in the pic is "Linda" in real life, "Virtual Linda" in her website & Blog. I just met her Wed but can tell she must be as fun, creative & colorful as her glasses. Linda is the 3rd person I've blogged about who has seen or met John Waters recently as he strolled through Hampden.

The pic was taken in Ryan's Daughter, this wonderful Irish restaurant/ pub which is a great live music/ performance venue. Every Wed night it has an open mic at which performers of all stripes--musicians, comedians, poets--can come. It is mc'd by a musician named David Morreale, whose 'Missing Baltimore' song can be found in my 'LoisLife Baltimore Blogshow Player' at the top-right of this Blog (being one of my favorites).

Another of my favorite Blogshow musicians, Bobby Smith, is having a CD release party Thurs March 13th, 7-11 PM at Club 347. I call him my Blogshow 'theme song' musician actually, since his 'Full Moon in Baltimore song'--a very wacky, unique song--is first in my "LoisLife player," and meant to be listened to while reading my Blog.

My friend Woody's song 'Roses' is sandwiched between David's 'Missing Baltimore' and Bobby's 'Full Moon in Baltimore' in my LL Blog Player. 'Roses' will air tomorrow, March 1st, btwn 4-5 PM on WLOY (1620 AM or TV channel 50). You can stream the radio broadcast by clicking here.

The Charm City Roller Girls will be back at the 5th Regiment Armory on March 15th. Details can be found here. To see a recent WBAL TV spot on the CCRGs, go to the YouTube feature on the right-side of my Blog or click here. 'Blow-by-blow' Charm City Roller Girl action reports can be found at their Blog here.

Not sure who to "roll in" to the event with? The Charm City Social Club, a very new (and very cool) Baltimore social networking group (for singles & couples both) has organized a Meetup around it. Lots of great people in this group with lots of great events planned already. To sign up for the event & "roll in" with the CCSC, click here.

Copyright 2008 by Lois

Episode 4- Lois Finds Love at The Ottobar with Trixie Little, The Evil Hate Monkey, & Scotty The Blue Bunny

On Sat night I brought a few friends and my cousin Lori to the Ottobar to see Trixie Little and The Evil Hate Monkey, Baltimore's long-time "beloved acrobatic burlesque superduo" of whom I had heard so much. The show was called "High Brow" - "A Night Of Intellectually Sophisticated Low Brow Entertainment."

Indeed Trixie, Monkey, and several other performers delivered all and more that was promised. While I have no true acting ability, I have a deep love for actors and for performers of all sorts, as well as the many quirky, funky art students who fill the city (no shortage of which were also there last night) and among whom I rather like to mingle and emulate and disguise.

Like Trixie, I am also on the "vertically-challenged" side of things (clocking in under five feet tall), my last name begins with "T," I tend gravitate to the vivid, the sparkly, and the outrageous, and I also enjoy (when they allow me) to vent my occasional frustrations with men in the tried-and-true "Elaine of Seinfeld" way--that is, to "whack" male friends every now & again--playfully, of course, it is I suppose a sort of special license of women who call themselves spunky and small. And so my reasons for feeling a special bond with Trixie, "the sassy burlesque superstar" known also as "Tiny T," embued not only with "super-human spanking powers" but also a special brand of Bawlmorean quirkiness to call her own, are various.

During the show, I found myself riveted, like everyone else in the crowd, also by the show's MC ("Scotty the Blue Bunny")--so named for his blue latex-clad and bunny-eared attire, whose charm, sense of humor, and taller-than-7-foot-height-in-heels impressed everyone. By the end of the night, indeed, I found myself relating ever more to Scotty, whose jokes and stories about his own Jewish Mom from New York and her angst about his chosen career and life path rather echoed my own.

Really the show was extremely witty and fun and entertaining. Although, as I stood in the crowd of overwhelmingly "goth"-inspired folk (my friends and I had really, by & large, not worn the properly dark or outrageously coordinated attire worn by the typical "Ottobarian" participant), the emotion I found myself nearly overcome by was love.

It struck me while watching Trixie and Monkey perform their final rites of acrobatics and intimacy on the swing (see pic above, more in the Flickr slideshow display on the right side), that really only in such settings as this, and those mostly in Baltimore, have I felt truly thrilled and fulfilled. While I have experienced pleasure and even wonder at times in various places in which I have lived, it is really only in Baltimore where I have felt deeply and soul-drenchingly happy, truly at home in my own skin, and comfortable and accepted by a populace which by and large not only accepts difference & individuality & full-fledged creativity but treasures these commodities far above money or material things.

And so all at once I felt all the doubts and fears and anxieties of last week dissolve (see last week's Episode 3--"Sweatin' Over My Choices at The Charles"). I understood, quite clearly then, that I have given my whole heart and soul now to Baltimore, and since that is done really my choices have been made already.

For better or worse, the only dreams possible to me now are those of a particularly Baltimorean sort, and further committing myself to Baltimore--and to the romantic notion I have of it--is the only path I can and must traverse. And so even if (as I worried last week) all I can succeed at in the end in making with my life is "cannabilistic meat pies," then so be it, I swear I will make the most delectable, most savory and most spectacular "cannibalistic meat pies" in town.

If you also love burlesque but missed Trixie last Saturday, you can take in some tonight at The Sex Workers Art Show, to be held at 7 pm at The Creative Alliance at The Patterson--more details here and in the "LoisLife Calendar" of events found at the bottom left of my Blog. Trixie and Monkey themselves will be back performing live also at The Creative Alliance on Thurs-Fri, March 28 and 29th at 8 pm.

Can't get enough Trixie? Check out her Blog, "The Adventures of Trixie Little." You'll find many stories and pics of Trixie and her friends working seriously at circus school, as well as partying it up equally hard.

Copyright 2008 by Lois

Episode 2--'The Goldbergs,' and 'That Other Real-Life Jewish TV Sitcom Family from New York'

If you happened to be in B-town this weekend and desperately tracking my Blog like the other three fervid LoisLife fans ;), you would have noticed 2 things:

1. I did not Blog on Sunday, as I'd promised to do two weeks ago, and

2. there was an especially strong, freezing wind that blew through this Martin Luther King holiday weekend, such as rarely hits Baltimore, even in January.

If you marveled at these strange events, marvel no more! Such things can be explained quite simply. My parents were in town, having "blown in" as it were from the North--from Rockland County, New York, actually--and when they came in, they brought the usual rush of frigid air in their wake.

As is our tradition, my folks came in to Baltimore over the MLK, Jr. holiday weekend and stayed with me over that time. Given that my parents (especially my Mom) are basically a whirling vortex of energy and then some, I am generally, during this time, caught--trapped, some might say--somewhere between the eye and the eye wall of a hurricane.

My Mom loves to say that she is just like anyone else's Mom--but really, there is no one quite like her, she is very much a unique sitcom-type character all unto herself. When my family gets together, it is guaranteed to be a very 'Seinfeldian sitcom-y family experience' in the nature of a Costanza family reuinion. If you've ever watched Seinfeld, you might imagine this to be a tad--well, exhausting, to say the least. And though I meant to Blog yesterday, somehow, when my 'rents left town, I didn't quite feel up to it, needing as it were the entire day just to recover.

Now really I had planned to skip mention of my own real-life New York based Jewish "sitcom type family's" visit entirely, but it occured to me that a connection might be drawn somewhat between my family's visit, this Blogshow, and a certain TV sitcom I just learned about a few days ago called "The Goldbergs." This was a show which aired some time ago, back in 1949.

It was in fact the first TV sitcom ever--the original situation comedy show "about nothing"--long before Jerry Seinfeld dreamed of his or, in fact, before he himself was even the slightest glimmer in his parents' eye. It broadcast the adventures of a fictitious Jewish family residing, at the start of the series, in a lower East side tenement in New York City. And though I am told (for I have never actually seen the show) that it incorporated various stereotypes about Jews, immigrants, and poor people living in such communities, it was nonetheless generally the first show to portray such groups in a positive light.

It was all the brainchild of one woman, Gertrude Berg, a veritable mega multi-media pioneeress who not only created the show but starred in it and carried it through and past the transition from radio to TV for a breathtaking 17-year run, plus managed to spin this off into a Broadway play besides.*

These days some might say that Gertrude had a "face and a body built for radio," but she surely must have been something--she undoubtedly must have possessed a a talent, vision, and personality bold and large enough to sweep all else aside. For Gertrude Berg's TV sitcom was both widely and wildly popular, and it surely paved the way for so much entertainment to come--from Jerry Seinfeld's "little show about nothing" to so many other situation comedies and dramas besides. Not to mention, the sort of multi-media mega-fame that other actress/writer/visionaries (like Oprah, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Rosanne Barre, etc.) since achieved.

And I suppose, in some small way, I, and my my little self-styled "Baltimore Blogshow" with its sitcom type episodes--might be said to be in Gertie's debt too.

So I just wanted to say "Thank you" to Gertie, and for her remarkable achievement in creating this new artform and for daring to use this new media to help bring people together, to accomplish much social good, and help many folks see themselves and those around them, through the combined power and magic of art, humor, and mass distribution of entertainment via new technology, in a bit of new light.

As for my particular "real life TV sitcom-style family," they did leave the greater DC-Baltimore area after taking in many of its primary cultural attractions and highlights: the Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in DC on Saturday, as well as the Sculpture Garden and ice skating rink just outside of it and a movie (The Savages) at Landmark's E Street Cinema not far away, then Cafe Hon and the Poe birthday celebration here in Baltimore on Sunday.**

And while they might have left the city itself, and some of its residents, a bit "shaken and shivering," on the whole I think they left it more or less intact. And they did arrive back safely in New York, as I am sure that my little "Blogshow's audience" will be happy to hear--leaving me, ultimately, free to recover and once again, write.

Copyright 2008 by Lois

*To learn more about Gertrude Berg and other Jewish American entertainers and notables, catch Jewish Americans: Home, airing here on Maryland Public TV at 9 PM Wed, Jan 23rd and on Maryland Public TV-Select Digital at 9 PM Sat, Jan 26th.

**The "spooky Poe headstone" photo I've posted to this Blog was actually taken at last year's Poe birthday celebration. Photos from this year's Poe birthday celebration, which took place Jan 19-20th in Westminster Hall, can be viewed at the 'Meet 4 Fun' social networking website here. To track upcoming Poe events here in Baltimore, click here. Note that 2009 is the Bicentennial of Poe's birthday. Look out for details on the City's, and the Society's, plans for a dizzying array of Poe events to celebrate this momentous occasion in 'the monumental city' as they become available.