Visionary Solstice Gathering!

This issue is dedicated to everyone involved with the ridiculously good time and intensely spellbinding experience we had Saturday night at The Visionary Solstice Gathering (originally scheduled during the actual solstice, but was rescheduled due to what seemed like a never ending parade of snow storms). Sonar was packed as all three rooms gave way to performances by Alex and Allyson Grey with Telesma, M80 Dubstation, C.I.A., See I, ArcheDream For Humankind and Neil Kurland, among others. The Visionary Solstice Gathering was a live art event benefitting the American Visionary Art Museum. The event was produced by Soul Mob Productions in partnership with Ecosumo.

This isn’t a testimonial for Baby Fart McGee people, this is What Weekly.

The Big Picture

In the great big picture above, a performer from ArcheDream for Humankind. (Their website is worth a serious look.) This performance troupe combines elements of European and Asian black light theater to express ubiquitous themes in humanity to promote empathy and goodwill. The masterful storytelling leads the audience along a pilgrimage rich in ancient ritual and bold expressionism. Their performance at Sonar was a unique and welcomed gift that none in attendance will soon forget. Also performing was Ellen Cherry with DJ’s Rob Paine & Lee Mayjahs, DJ Who, Lazerbitch, Uncle Jesse, Aligning Minds, Shawn Q, Agent Max and Figment.

February 24, 2010 | Issue 6

The Good Word.

We heard that the Dalai Lama is now on Twitter, but that’s not why we’re giving this foundation the good word. The Dalai Lama Foundation exists only through the kindness and generosity of others. These folks are promoting ethics and peace. Sign up, volunteer or donate.

Alex and Allyson Grey, whose work and philosophy on the mystical potential of art are the driving inspiration of the Visionary Solstice Gathering. Alex’s depictions of the human form filtered through his experience with spirituality has inspired and motivated a generation of artists from all disciplines. More than this, these two together generate a powerful positive energy that is an admirable example of how two people can achieve balance through work, creativity and a loving relationship. Their combined works are too numerous to list here, so we suggest following this link to cosm.org and taking some time exploring the body of work that spans nearly four decades. A powerful duo by any measure.

Allyson and Alex Grey painting on the main stage during Telesma’s
performance with Ian Hesford, who was exquisitely painted by Patricia Tamariz. Allyson’s work, said to represent a worldview comprised of “chaos, order and secret writing,” is an unexpected, yet riveting, juxtaposition to Alex’s ethereal, intricately coiled visions of the human form. It’s almost as though one style represents the transmission of consciousness and the other embodies the conduit. Photo by Philip Laubner.

Jason Sage of Telesma. Jason founded Telesma with Ian Hesford who have since added members Chris Mandra, Joanne Juskus, Bryan Jones and Rob Houck. Together, along with their fans, the band explores the realm of collective musical performance art. They routinely feature dancers and multimedia elements in their shows and the crowd is often filled with spontaneous performances by concert goers. Telesma is a unique and cherished component in the cultural landscape of Baltimore.

Ian Hesford and Chris Mandra of Telesma after their intense performance. Hey Chris, we heard a rumor that Great Mutant Skywheel was planning a reunion at Bourbon Street in the near future. Care to comment? Does this have anything to do with an impending Greatest Hits compilation or has the Skywheel mutated sufficiently to come full circle?

See-I, a DC-based 9-piece funk, soul and reggae band (featuring members of Thievery Corporation, All Mighty Senators and Fort Knox Five) packed the club room at Sonar and kept the dance floor aroused.

We were there at the scene and can confirm eyewitness reports that See-I was directly responsible for hundreds of people getting sweaty, shaking it and spreading the love.

Liz Kramer is helping to prove that the line between spectator and performer is becoming increasingly blurred. It’s not unthinkable that in the near future the creators might outnumber the bystanders as artists, dancers and musicians come together to create an experience that none could achieve without a collective, and often unsolicited, collaboration.

Beka Burns spinning in front of a replica of Alex Grey’s ‘Net of Being.’ This image was most prominently featured as artwork for Tool’s 2006 album ‘10,000 Days.’

Sara P. with Dan Merrill of Aligning Minds. Aligning Minds is gearing up to take their unique brand of IDM to 22 lucky cities. On this occasion, The Solstice Gathering had the privilege of kicking off with Aligning Minds on the main stage. Follow the link at the end of this sentence to listen to their newest single ‘Swollen Sovereign.’

Smiles by: Tom Swiss and Alison Chicosky. Anyone remember Tom from our very first issue?

Samantha Dana, Ilana Salk and Melissa Mosheim. More smiling people. We searched all three rooms at Sonar for somebody who wasn’t having a good time, to no avail. We decided to stick with pictures of happy people.

Kyle Blount with conga player Keith Myer who sat in with multiple performers during the night.

Clint Wyer, Gonz, Casey Jackson, Liz Hubbard and musician Alvin Risk. It seems as though Patricia Tamariz was a busy woman this evening as we discovered another example of her talent.

At one point during The Gathering we noticed the main stage was filled with seemingly ethereal beings (and we wondered if someone had slipped something into our drinks, but after some deliberation and two trips to the bathroom we discerned that we were indeed sober).

What we were witnessing was a performance by ArcheDream for Humankind. We highly recommend experiencing black light theater of these proportions before your time is up. Gorgeous. Touching. Unforgettable.

Here’s Telesma performing ‘Egyptian Sun’ while Alex and Allyson Grey paint live at Sonar from the first Visionary Solstice Gathering in 2008. Check out the video for the entire experience.

Keep an eye out for the IndieBookMan Radio Show, hosted by AuthorsBookshop.com founder Brad Grochowski (a.k.a. the IndieBookMan). Each show features an author, publisher or mover-and-shaker in the indie book world, explores their history, walks through the steps they took to success, and finds out a bit about their project.

Yeah, we gotta eat too. Check out What Weekly’s new site, by Brooke Hall Creative. Feedback is certainly welcome- speak your mind!

What Vision?

What Weekly is an interactive magazine that is focused on raising awareness for Baltimore’s creative community.

You are the subject of the magazine and the channel by which it’s transmitted. Your audience is as large as you want it to be. All you have to do is forward the email and tell your friends to sign up. As a community, working together, we can reach across the world.

We intend to distribute music, video, literature, photos and visual art from Baltimore across the entire world. It will only happen with your help. Forward the email and tell your friends to sign up.

Baltimore Worldwide and What Weekly is the movement, you are its wings.

Now fly. I mean, forward this sh$#@%.

Calendar of Events

Ongoing

The Windup Space and Mobtown Studios presents: The NOVO Festival
The NOVO Festival showcases local instrumental bands of all genres. March 2-6.

Nostalgia at Jordan Faye Contemporary

Baltimore photographer Paula Gately Tillman, Washington D.C. painter Treva Elwood, and Baltimore mixed media artist Alexander DiJulio showing until March 21.

Au Natural at Antreasian Gallery

40 artists from the Baltimore area showing over 80 amazing portrayals of the nude human form, from abstract to photorealism. Showing until Feb 26.

Trixie Little’s Burlesque Bootcamp at Load of Fun 6:30 pm
A three-class burlesque intro series, also 3/3 and 3/10.

Evolver Presents – A New Look at Love at The Yabba Pot 7 pm
Love and sexuality- based workshop on the feminine divine with discussion, music, and poetry to follow.

The English Beat, Fishbone, Outlaw Nation at Rams Head Live 7 pm.
Live music.

Mobtown Modern: All In The Game at The Metro Gallery 8 pm
Performance of John Zorn’s ‘Cobra.’

Trombone Shorty at the 8×10 8pm
New Orleans Jazz and Funk.

Art + Code at The Baltimore Node 7 pm
Artist, musicians and programmers work on media based programming.

Turbo Fruits, Sri Aurobindo, Sal Bando, Mother Nature’s Son at The Ottobar 8 pm
Live bands.

Patterson Residents Open House w/ Celebration at The Creative Alliance 7 pm
The Patterson’s 8 live-work studios are wide open. Resident artists show work in the upstairs gallery, and a gorgeous exhibit opens downstairs by Lauren Boilini and Becky Alprin. The night wraps with a free show by Celebration, opening with a special acoustic set.

Humiliated: A Night Of Confessional Comedy at The Metro Gallery 8 pm
Local comedians reveal their neuroses, which probably aren’t that different from yours.

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic at Rams Head Live 8 pm
World Class Funk.

3rd Annual Clash Tribute Night at The Sidebar 5 pm
Featuring: The Forthrights, The Mandroids, The Chariots, The Revelevns, Type 53, Young Jaguars, Station and Ryan Harvey.

Jazz Double Bill: Inside Out w/ Lafayette Gilchrist at The Creative Alliance 7 pm
A mind blowing evening featuring one of the great European improvisers, trombonist Conny Bauer, with the legendary rhythm section of Hamid Drake and William Parker. Also featured: the FIRST EVER performance of a new trio featuring Lafayette Gilchrist, Michael Formanek, and percussionist Guillermo E. Brown. Presented by Creative Differences.

27 Boogie Down: Dance party for Haiti Relief at The Metro Gallery 8 pm
Featuring: DJs Landis Expandis, Nap Space, William Hicks, and Jason Willett, and Charm City Cabaret and Boombox Show.

Baltimore Electronic Music 2010 Winterfest at The Hexagon 9 pm

Featuring: The Duc D’Angelos, Dave Vosh & Frank Vanaman, Hal Schmulowitz & Logan Mitchell Sr, Jeff Bagato with Mercury Fools the Alchemist, Joseph Meyer, ‘Jerohme Spye.’

GOLDSWEAT BMORE: Haiti Relief Dance Party at The Windup Space 9 pm

A celebration of World, Future-Club Music featuring John Kwest, Ben Abstrakt, Kosta, Uncle Jesse, Balagan.

Atomic Movie Club Screening at Atomic Books 6:30 pm
Monthly Movie Series.

Professional Soul at The Red Maple 9 pm
The best in modern hip-hop, R & B, reggae and neo soul.

No Rule: DJ BOOMAN w/Cullen Stalin & Scottie B at The Metro Gallery 10 pm

Dance Party.

Practicing as a Professional at MICA 4:30 pm
MICA alumni Rose Cromwell, Jennifer Grimsyer, and Daniel Shea present a photography panel.

Organic Soul open mic at Eden’s Lounge 7 pm

Featuring: Fertile Ground.

Bergamo Ensemble at An Die Musik 8 pm

The San Francisco Examiner has reviewed one of the Bergamo Ensemble’s recent performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire: “This is clearly not your usual cabaret entertainment … the capturing of the grotesque was probably the most salient element of the performance.

DIG Dance Party at Joe Squared 10 pm

Funk dance party featuring: Landis Expandis and DJ Napspace.

What is WHAT Weekly?
WHAT Weekly is an email magazine chronicling the real Baltimore movers and shakers- not the corporations, not the politics, WHAT Weekly spotlights the PEOPLE.  It’s one of the soon-to-be many platforms of the Baltimore Worldwide movement.

Why email? Disposable print media is wasteful and, with the advent and proliferation of the Internet, it can no longer be justified. Technology is a gift and a fun tool- let’s evolve and build things together.

If you want to be a part of the movement, you can send us your photos to publish, your events to promote and your ideas to talk about. Forward the email, start a movement. Your audience is the world, pass it on.

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One day soon you will hear a bit of news like this, “Email Magazine Reaches One Million People.” If we don’t do it, someone else will. We want to build the largest independent distribution channel in history and we’ll use it to tell the world what you’re doing. We want as many people as possible clicking on the links to your websites and ultimately taking an interest in the Baltimore Renaissance and its artists. Tell Your Friends to Join!

What is Baltimore Worldwide?
Baltimore Worldwide is a movement dedicated to uniting the creative community in and around Baltimore City and then sharing it throughout the world for the benefit of Baltimore and it’s people. The movement has already begun; we just gave it a name.

Using a multi-media platform, we want to put Baltimore on the map so it’s recognized globally for the artistic and intellectual hub that it is. We start by chronicling your amazing work.

We understand that the distribution of ideas is no longer bound by geography.  This paradigm shift allows for cultural movements to exist locally and globally simultaneously.  We can share everything, we can create anything and we can reach everyone. It’s time to do something with that power.

Baltimore Worldwide does not exist without you. You are the soul of this movement. Submit Your Idea.

What’s the Story?
From the rubble of the industrial collapse, the people of Baltimore have built a cultural bizarre. We believe Baltimore is experiencing a cultural, artistic and intellectual renaissance that coincides with the global shift in consciousness.

At the same time, technology has given us the tools to reach across oceans and to empower, respect and grow our own local community. It’s an exciting time in history.

With the convergence of world-class institutions, Johns Hopkins, Peabody and MICA for instance, blended with a do-it-yourself attitude and elbow grease of a hard knock society, Baltimore is now the stage on which you’ll see a fascinating and freakish renaissance.

We’re going to document it. And share it with the world.

What’s the Good Word?
We believe in spreading the good news, which also means spotlighting organizations that do good things. What’s the good word?