Garfunkel's Given Name

Hmm, let me see, I know it’s here somewhere…let me click this thing right here…

Oh, here’s my blog!

Sorry for the utter neglect of this here blog page, I know you faithful reader have hardly been able to concentrate on even the most mundane daily tasks without the knowledge of what I have been up to the last month.

As much as I would love to get into that, we have no time! That’s right, I have about a week and half left here in Baltimore, and if you think the time has flown by, well, quite frankly, it has! The past month has brought a lot of heat, but that hasn’t stopped us from making the most of our ever-dwindling time here in Charm City.

This past weekend myself and the housemates moseyed on over to ArtScape- Baltimore’s own and the nation’s largest free arts festival. Let me pull your coat to something; it was large.

Of the many modicums of art that were on display, I managed to catch some musical acts on Saturday night. From a dead grass-covered hillside, I listened to such artists as Jackie Greene, the Cold War Kids, and Government Mule, all the while using a bendy-straw to sip some lemonade. Free music? Lemonade? Come on, you know better to wonder if I had a good time.

The following day, Sunday, I was in the mood to take in some art in a slightly cooler, less dead grass-covered environment. Enter, the Charles Theatre! The Maryland Film Festival was showing independent short films every hour on the hour in the Baltimore landmark theatre, so I figured, “Hey, this ain’t a bad way to spend a Sunday.”

I found some films hilarious, others confusing, and others weird, but I very much enjoyed all of them. Probably the best part was the air-conditioning! What a great world we live in.

So ArtScape was a hit, for me and for the thousands of Baltimoreans who attended. I’ll tell you, Phoenix has some pretty big shoes to fill in terms of cool, free things to do on weekends. I swear, it seems like Baltimore has never heard of charging admission the way it promulgates free events every weekend (which might explain why City Hall is crying broke.) Oh well.

The artists who participated in ArtScape this weekend probably don't, nor ever will, make any money. But they are doing what they want, and I think we need more festivals like ArtScape to give them their day in the sun.

And because everyone likes photos, here are some from the weekend!


This one probably didn't pass inspection.



Some festival action on Charles St.



This is me too lazy to stand up, so instead I took a photo of Jackie Greene through two handrails and in between passers-by.


Everyone likes photos of traffic signs.




Baltimore's Penn Station.


Night scene out front of the Charles Theatre.