I'm taking yet another trip up to good old Charm City tomorrow. That place is becoming my second home; it's everything DC is not (i.e. fun and unpretentious). Baltimore is the like the cool uncle who just likes to hang out and rap with the kids and has a bunch of cool shit in his house, whereas DC is the rest of the shitty family——too self-absorbed to notice how lonely you are and not loose enough to have any fun or hold a real conversation.
Travis has the day off for once because he was fired/quit his job today, so we're making a day of it. Jonathan says he will join us, too. Aside from the usual stops at Sound Garden and Atomic Books, I hope to visit Normal's (after several failed attempts in the past), the museum of outsider art (don't know the official name) and by Travis' request, Poe's grave.
I've added a few additional photos, including that curiously painted truck I see downtown. I finally got a lens cloth so I can clean my camera lens, which must have gotten smudged (don't let a six year-old hold your camera!), though I doubt my photography will improve too much. I also added what is sometimes called a "tagboard" to the sidebar on the page. Give it a try——what have you got to lose?
6 comments:
Normal's is great. I've been here in Baltimore ten years and only got to visiting it this year, the day after the election. It returned my sanity. And I got some books on on Kubrick for my brother for Christmas.
Awesome. I really liked it, and I barely even had a chance to look through the books. I honestly could've spent another couple of hours just browsing. Oh well, guess that means I'll have to go back sometime!
I wish I didn't always get lost in Baltimore, but I do. Hopefully I can get past my little neurosis of it. There's a lot of neat stuff in Baltimore.
As for the whole DC/Baltimore thing, a friend of mine described it thus: When people in DC ask, "What do you do?" they're asking about what you do for a job, because that's all that matters (and I think, there's a pretentious bent to the question, of course). In Baltimore, the same question means, what do you do -- as in, for fun, in your spare time, as your cool hobby, what do you enjoy.
Don't know how much that still applies as this comment was probably made seven years ago but I do think Baltimore seems to be a pretty cool place.
Oh, I know the fun of getting lost in Baltimore. Fortunately, I had a navigator with me this time, so the trip went off without a hitch. We had a map and everything!
Wise words on the DC/Baltimore comparison. One of my housemates, a blue collar kind of guy, has noticed this about DC since moving here from Norfolk, VA. For instance, he once struck up a conversation with a girl on the Metro one night; nearly the first thing she asked him was what did he do for a living. She became quite aloof when he replied that he was a delivery driver and told him the she worked “on the hill.” Pfft. So impressive.
Don't give up on going to Baltimore. There is a lot of neat stuff there. It's worth getting lost in.
PS: I'm glad that one of us got to see the Pixies. I didn't see them this time, but I got to see them back in '92—before they broke up. [I make it a point to repeat that over and over lately. Mmm...sour grapes.]
Exactly -- that's precisely what's wrong with DC, people who say they work "on the hill." Yuck.
Actually, I saw Pixies back in the day too, maybe '92, it was the Trompe Le Monde tour. Do you remember where you saw them? One of my favorite stories seeing them this time around was when I saw them back then, I was so drunk I don't remember the show. At all. (I no longer drink, but was a, uh, big drinker back then. Ha.) However, I heard that they were bad for our show -- Frank Black kept restarting songs like 3 times. My friend I went with said it was like watching a band practice in their garage. Luckily, this time around was great! I'm glad I spent the insane amount of money to see them. ;)
Let's see...a little google search reveals:
04/16/92, The Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Yes, that was it. I remember it as being completely awesome. I was also 14 years old (so no drinking), but it was...how you say? bad-ass?
I would've seen them recently if I could. I just didn't try hard enough.
Where did you see them back then?
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