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Photograph by Brooke Hall
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Transmodern Festival
Greetings from the land of pleasant living, also the former umbrella capital of the world and birthplace of the six-pack. It’s hard to believe that right here in our fair city that someone had the foresight to package six beers as one compact unit and start a marketing revolution that would sweep the world. My civic pride can hardly stand to swell much more.
This week we continue our investigation into the rituals and habits of the modern Baltimorean in their natural habitat. We’ll catch up with Animal Collective upon their triumphant return home at the screening of their new “visual album,” ODDSAC, at The Senator Theater. (Oddsac indeed). We also caught up with some of Baltimore’s favorite authors and publishers at the CityLit Festival where we learned it’s sometimes considered rude to dangle your participle in public. Speaking of odd sacs and participles, did I mention Transmodern? Well, if you didn’t already know, let me tell you all about it.
This isn’t me using Mercury in retrograde as an excuse for my bad behavior, people. This is What Weekly.
The Big Picture
I have found that during occasions of great introspect that nothing truly connects me to the divine within quite like a 40 oz. of Natty Boh. Tommy Barse agrees.
In the big picture above, one of our favorite installations from The Transmodern Festival, entitled ‘Inner Space / Outer Space’ by Jen Kirby.
The lines on either side are actually strings with one end attached to the back wall and the other end to the side walls. For reasons still unknown to me, mirrors reside at the focal point.
Transmodern Festival
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The Good Word.
The Virtual Supermarket Project seeks to bring healthier foods to inner city neighborhoods through innovation in partnership with grocery stores that offer delivery services within Baltimore City.
Through a partnership with Santoni’s Supermarket, consumers select foods they plan to purchase via the Santoni’s Web site at a central community location.They accept cash, credit, checks and food stamps for orders.
Order your groceries at your library. Easy ordering, free delivery and pick up at the library.
What Weekly Magazine
Justin Allen
Brooke Hall
Contributor
Philip Laubner
www.whatweekly.com
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
Kinetic Sculpture pilot Todd Noletto and painter, photographer and Baltimore’s favorite mixologist Jeremy Crawford were spotted looking quite suspect at the Whole Gallery Friday night. What was Jeremy drinking? What was Todd hiding beneath his hat? Who is that guy to their right and why are they all wearing black? Check back here for updates as more information becomes available.
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Books, Live Music, Art Gallery and more!
Same block as Windup Space, across from Joe Squared. Plenty of room inside for your bike; FREE street parking for your car (we’ll plug your meter before 6, after that it’s free anyway) – come on over…
30 West North Ave.
Baltimore, MD, 21201
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
This weekend the much-anticipated 7th Annual Transmodern Festival opened up across the city drawing large enough crowds that dozens of people had to be turned away Friday night at the H&H Building. For those of you who didn’t get to go here are some of the highlights from that evening.
This is an installation entitled ‘Pink and Blue Dilemma’ conceived by Scott Pennington and constructed with help from several friends.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
The work represents the perceived insignificance associated in what appears to be menial tasks that may indeed serve a greater purpose, even if difficult to ascertain from the outside.
If you missed the Pink and Blue Dilemma you can catch it with a few modifications on the Midway at Artscape later this summer.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
April Daniell Lewis and Issa Lambson were at Transmodern showcasing local vegetation with medicinal properties. Imagine that, someone actually decided to promote the idea of taking charge of one’s own health with domestic weeds found right in your backyard. What will they think of next, healthy school lunches for children? That’s just crazy.
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Uvumi is a music discovery and promotion platform. Fans can find and listen to new music, artists can gain exposure and use free promotional tools. Check out their free Press Kit Tool.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
We either caught Alex Ebstein at Nudashank Gallery in the midst of a ritual incantation that allowed her to levitate this metallic sphere or she’s merely arranging a sculpture called ‘Eternal Floatsp’ by New York based artist Benjamin Phelan that creates an electromagnetic field to cause the same effect. You decide.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
The ‘Fantastic Planet Play’ performed by The Annex Theater was the must-see event of the evening. Would-be spectators filled the fifth floor and lined the stairwell of the H&H Building in hopes of seeing the highly anticipated performance. This is where we ran into Michael Benevento, Andrew Liang, Anna Ricklin and Will Doane.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
We obtained a picture of this guy as he was leaving the first performance of the ‘Fantastic Planet Play.’ As you can see, the side effects of having witnessed the production may include pupil dilation, euphoria, lucid dreaming, and mania. Unfortunately, we would never experience the sensation for ourselves.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
The hype for the play was so successful that we were never given the opportunity to see it. The mass of people kept filling the stairwells until festival organizers were compelled to clear the way. “This is a fire hazard! Everyone out!” It is no surprise, then, that we were compelled to leave the building. Outside the line of people waiting to get in stretched down the block. The lesson here is, if you’re going to the next Transmodern Festival, get there early. The annual event is fast becoming one of the most anticipated happenings of the year.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
On our way out we stopped in at Nudashank one more time to admire the creepy eyes being projected on the wall as a part of the Horror Vacui exhibition, when we ran into Justine Seidenfeld and Russ Montgomery. Russ is the winner of this week’s prestigious and highly coveted ‘Hey Did Anybody Ever Tell You That You Look Like a Young Liam Neeson?’ award. Also, we added this picture because we like to say Nudashank. Say it out loud a few times. Nu-da-shank. Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
Dillon DeGive had grand plans of collecting corks at the Transmodern Festival in order to make a boat. With this boat, he intended to sail down the Chesapeake and begin his career as a pirate. He would like to think of himself as a swashbuckling scallywag with a heart of gold who didn’t rape and pillage as much as made sweet love and borrowed with the intention of returning his booty.
Seriously, after the vodka and lemonade I’m having a little trouble remembering anything past the boat part. Let’s just say I might be imagining the pirate part, though I think we need more pirates these days and I think Dillon would make a fine candidate for the job.
Anyway, we’d love to see the finished cork boat. Maybe take us for sail around the harbor? Let us know.
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CityLit Festival at Enoch Pratt Free Library
Photograph by Brooke Hall
We went to the CityLit Festival mostly because of our curiousity about City Sages: Baltimore. The book is an ambitious undertaking by editor Jen Michalski (and Gregg Wilhelm, publisher of CityLit Press) to create an anthology of stories penned by some of Baltimore’s most gifted writers. The collection includes classic Baltimore writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald as well as contemporary writers Michael Downs, Ron Tanner, Maud Casey, Jane Shepard, Rafael Alvarez and Rosalia Scalia.
We’ve been watching Jen for many, many moons… it all started with an innocent assignment from The City Paper. Her efforts to expose the rich literary talent in Baltimore have since been on our radar. If you’ve been hiding your prose in the bottom of a Vans shoebox that’s filled with old, crinkled receipts and memorabilia from your last European backpacking trip somewhere in the depths of your closet, it’s time to break out and contribute to a reading.
Check out the 510 Readings, a fiction reading series, at Minas Gallery in Hampden at 5pm every 3rd Saturday of the month– “for the rest of your life.”
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
Rafael Alvarez with moderators Nancy Knight and Dave Rosenthal from the Baltimore Sun. Rafael Alvarez is an author, journalist, and television writer and producer. You may have come across some of his work in a lil’ ol’ t.v. show you may of heard called ‘The Wire’ or ‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ and you can learn more about his work as a journalist in two anthologies of his stories written while working for The Baltimore Sun entitled ‘Hometown Boy’ and ‘Storyteller.’
Rafael is involved in a project dubbed “The Daily Camden.” If you can point and shoot, you’re in.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
How fortuitous is it to ask for directions only to be pointed towards the Executive Director and Founder of CityLit as well as the publisher of the CityLit Press Gregg Wilhelm and Founding Board Chair Charles Dambach? Photo op anyone? Here’s Gregg holding up CityLit Press’ first offering, City Sages: Baltimore.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
Devlon Waddell and the ‘Indie Book Man’ himself, Brad Grochowski, were at the CityLit Festival representing Authors Bookshop, an online outlet for independent writers to release their work. Devlon recently published Syrup Sandwich while Brad was selling his children’s book ‘The Secret Weakness of Dragons.’
Author Bookshop carries dozens of titles by independent authors. If you love to read, bookmark the website and tell your friends. The folks at Authors Bookshop understand the changing dynamics in the publishing world. They’re making their mark and we’re cheering them on. You can also check out Brad’s blog and online radio show indiebookman.com.
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Animal Collective “ODDSAC” Premier at The Senator
Photograph by Brooke Hall
Absurd Melodic Horrific Beautiful Freakish Surreal Awesome Revolting Inspirational Trippy Disgusting Jarring Odd Powerful Creepy Lush Dreamy
Harmonious Heavy Hellish Progressive Polarizing Violent Bizarre Dynamic
Grotesque Guttural Mysterious Provocative Stimulating Unusual
Experimental Abstract Indulgent Colorful Wild Fantastic Disturbing
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
Deakin and Geologist from Animal Collective with ODDSAC director Danny Perez at the Senator Theater for the Baltimore premier of what they’ve dubbed a “visual record.”
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
Nearly every seat was full at the historic Senator Theater as fans of Animal Collective filed in for a chance to see ODDSAC and to take part in Q & A session post viewing. And, as if that wasn’t enough, your friendly neighborhood party people in the place to be Fortune5Fifty put on another great show in the Senator that you should have been at.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
Bo Lozoff, pictured here with Jessica Dibb. Bo and Sita Lozoff founded The Human Kindness Foundation.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
This is what the fans looked like before seeing the movie…
Michael Gold, Ken Greller and Jasper Chisolm.
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Photograph by Brooke Hall
…and this is after.
Here’s John Butler and Laura Slater.
For once, the crew at What Weekly have a split opinion about the movie. Some of us feel as though this was a disturbing though amazing “visual record” that has the potential to change how artists produce film and music.
Some of us feel, although we acknowldge video records as the next evolution of music videos and definitely the way of the future, this particular music record, however innovative, unleashed demons that are stalking human kind as we speak. Come on, it was friggin’ scary.
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Babysitting Gallery 788
Photograph by Philip Laubner
I know what you’re thinking but no, you didn’t catch Patricia Tamariz checking out photographer Lauren Barnhart‘s backside; she’s actually just putting the finishing touches on another brilliant piece of body art. Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.
Curator Eduardo Rodriguez opened Gallery 788 in August of 2009, the gallery, a co-op, has given new and established local artists an affordable and professional
venue to show their work. The easy going and friendly Eduardo is a transplant from the hectic and expensive DC gallery scene, where it’s not unusual for artists to pay exorbitant fees to show their work.
One artist requirement for showing work at the gallery is a scheduled shift during the month of the show where the artist is present during gallery hours. Eduardo let’s the artists do what they want during their scheduled shift. On Saturday, artists Erica Hinson Denny and Renee Weber choose to team up for a multimedia show they affectionately called: Artfisch and REN babysit Gallery 788.
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Photograph by Philip Laubner
Meet painter Renee Weber a.k.a REN. Here we see her creating art while babysitting Gallery 788 simultaneously, a wondrous display of multi-tasking to be sure. But more than this it was the evidence of her x-ray vision shown here in her painting that first lead me to believe that I too might have super powers. Think about it.
The night featured DJ’s MARMOSET, and SOOHAN; body painting/black light painting by Patricia Tamariz and Toby Verhines, Divine Gypsy Designs; Live model black light canvas painting by Renee, REN and conscience creative photography by artfisch. Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.
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Photograph by Philip Laubner
Who’s that behind the mask? For those of you that don’t know, here’s a clue… it’s written on her right wrist next to the flash. Erica Hinson Denny a.k.a. Artfisch is a photography phenomenon; one part shear energy, one part creative maelstrom, and a genius to be sure. Here Erica wears one of the props she provided to transform the revelers into multi-headed pieces of art.
Gallery 788, is located at 788 Washington Blvd. Baltimore, in Pigtown. If you’d like to inquire about the Gallery contact Eduardo through his Facebook page. Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.
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Featured Artist: Brian Baker
Painting by Brian Baker
It is often said that Brian’s work is worthy of being in museum collections, for public access, so that the transcendental world, depicted with its various denizens, may be explored in their universal context of creativity, outside of religious cultures and political society.
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KRSNA (Krishna)
by Brian Baker
8 ft by 6 ft
http://soulforms.com
The painting KRSNA (Krishna) is 8ft tall; the larger-than-life scale portraits of divinities are meant to serve as a mirror-like window to the unseen soul, literally offering a mystical image of God.
Brian is attempting to recreate the encounters with spiritual entities he has experienced in dreams and waking visions. It is to this end that he employs various painting techniques as a kind of visionary photography.
In this work, he has specifically included aliens, God the Father, and the Hindu trinity (Lord Krishna Dattatreya) as a Vishnu Deity holding Jesus Christ in the form of a Pieta.
Contact for Inquiries:
Jim Kuhlman
(410) 887-7645
Former Instructor
Current Art Dept Chair, Dulaney High School
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Video: Brian Baker, child prodigy, featured on Baltimore News Channel 13.
“While at MICA I was turned off by some of the misleading instructors in art school, though I took my own art work seriously,” explains Brian Baker, artist.
“Near the end of my final senior semester, my rebellion climaxed in quitting school with a fellow painter. Our realization was that art school was not feeding our true art, but stifling it, and that there is a universal school beyond institutions that we were accessing. We sensed that there must be more to life; a transcendental world of visionary mysticism, which we had seen and experienced in a unique way, particularly with the initial boost from entheogens (psychedelics). I have been experiencing my higher selves, and have had similar encounters with spiritual beings since then.”
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Videos
Sweet Sixteen by Think About Life
Here’s a great video from the headliners at the Station North Spring Music Festival this coming Saturday – it’s Think About Life from Montreal – better bring your dancing shoes and costumes!
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ODDSAC Trailer
A Visual Album by Danny Perez and Animal Collective
With special guests director Danny Perez and members of Animal Collective.
What the . . . ?
THANK YOU to everyone who responded to this last week! We’re building a stellar team of people. The Meeting of the Minds will be happening soon, get in touch if you want to be involved.
What is What Weekly?
It’s an online magazine documenting Baltimore’s artistic Renaissance. We also handpick the most compelling upcoming events, live shows, exhibitions and performances each week. We have an awesome mission.
Want To Be a Part of What Weekly?
1. Share What Weekly with your friends. Forward it, link to it, spread the love.
2. Send us events you’d like us to cover.
3. Send us photos you’ve taken of events and we might publish them (we’ll also credit you and link back to you, of course).
4. Help us shoot or edit our video content.
5. Intern with us and we’ll teach you things. We need people who like HTML, programming, photography, writing, socializing, music, art and/or doing something meaningful. Get in touch.
Does What Weekly Advertise?
Why, yes. Yes we do. We have really affordable ad rates if you need to get the word out to young, enthusiastic and active Baltimoreans. Contact us if you’re interested. We gotta eat too.
Want To Use One Of Our Photos?
That’s cool. And flattering. And since we’re all friends, we ask that you please credit WhatWeekly.com if you use our photos elsewhere. (Even if it’s just Facebook.) Thanks!
Giving Link Love
What Weekly is building an online collection of Baltimore artists, musicians, venues, restaurants and galleries that we love. We’re giving out some link love to other websites. If you’d like to be added to our Directory of Cool Things, please contact us.
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Saturday, April 24
Asian Spring Family Festival at The Walters Art Museum 10 am
Come celebrate the colors, sights, and sounds of Asia. Connect with China, India, and Japan through costumes, music, dance, and storytelling from these far-away lands! Create artwork inspired by ancient traditions and learn amazing techniques from local artists.
2010 Station North Spring Music Festival 3 pm
Come join us for amazing music, food and art on a beautiful spring afternoon. We’ll have music from national, regional and local acts, plus local restaurants and craftspeople. The festival runs from 3 pm-9 pm, and then all the venues in the neighborhood will have even more fun for you.
16MM Film Series: Spoofs Night at The Hexagon 5:30 pm
Help! My Snowman’s Burning Down is a poetic spoof of Modern Man features an impeccably dressed man in a set-like bathroom, on a barge surrounded by water, who fishes through the bathtub drain and opens the door of the medicine cabinet, only to confront himself.
Marquee Ball & Preview Dinner: Moulin Rouge Dinner 7 pm, Party 9 pm
Creative Alliance’s annual gala bash is one of the great parties of the year!
Owen Pallett (formerly Final Fantasy) w/ Special Guest Snowblink at The Metro Gallery 8 pm
Live Indie / Pop / Soul.
All Mighty Senators at The 8×10 8 pm
Live Funk / Rock / Soul. Special guests Midnight Hike.
The Oranges Band Ten Year Anniversary at The Ottobar 9 pm
Featuring Doug Gillard Electric, Slow Jets and High Rise.
Live Indie/Rock/Pop/Psychadelic/Americana.
For more details, directions and events click here.
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Sunday, April 25
The John Abercrombie and Jerry Bergonzi Quartet at The Baltimore Museum of Art 5 pm
The Baltimore Jazz Society presents John Abercrombie on guitar, Jerry Bergonzi on tenor sax, Gary Versace on organ, and Adam Nussbaum on drums.
Last Sunday, Last Rites at the Baltimore Hostel
Live readings from Rahne Alexander, Merrill Feitell, Jessica McHugh and Megan McShea.
El Supremo Records 7th Brithday Party at The Ottobar 9 pm
Featuring: Jack Chick, Sri Arubindo & DJ Woman. Free show!
Professional Soul at The Red Maple 9 pm
The best in modern hip-hop, R & B, reggae and neo soul.
For more details, directions and events click here.
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Ongoing
The Cyclical Nature of Obsolescence at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus, Commons building
An investigation of the sculptural possibilities of vinyl records and their content: An installation by Patrick Rife. From April 28 to May 17.
Horror Vacui at Nudashank
A group exhibition featuring Laura Brothers (NY), Harrison Haynes (NC), Benjamin Phelan (NY), Dan Gluibizzi Jr (NY), and Charles Broskoski (NY). This multimedia exhibition will include painting, sculpture, photography, video and digital prints. The title Horror Vacui refers to a fear of empty spaces, each of the works use retro sci-fi aesthetics to examine the fear of the emptiness of a contemporary existence so heavily enmeshed with technology. Ends May 7th.
Baker Artist Awards 2010 at The Baltimore Museum of Art
The BMA celebrates the Baker Artist Awards with an exhibition of sculpture, film, photography, drawings, music, and performance videos. Ends June 27.
The Holocaust Survivors of Baltimore, photography by Lisa Shifren at The Norman and Sara Brown Art Gallery
April 12 through May 28. Opening Reception: Sunday, April 18, 4:00-6:00 pm. Meet the artist and the survivors.
Fragile: Recent work by Jo Brown at Gallery 1448
Brown’s new, small, three-dimensional works, made of paper and found materials, recall her start as a sculptor and are meant to be held and enjoyed as everyday objects. Ends April 25.
Domestic Insecurities, Necessary Delights: a solo exhibition of work by Lori Larusso at Jordan Faye Contemporary
This exhibition encompasses two bodies of Ms. Larusso’s current work: a series of shaped paintings in the first, and the second which includes her Hot Beverage Series, It’s Not My Birthday, That’s Not My Cake, and Olives. Opening reception March 27. Ends April 25
For more details, directions and events click here.
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Call for Submissions – Gallery Four
Deadline for Submissions: Sunday, April 25, 2010 midnight
Slideshow + Potluck = Slideluck Potshow.
Baltimore will host its first Slideluck Potshow (SLPS) on Saturday, May 22, 2010 in partnership with Gallery Four at the H & H Building. Here’s how it works: Everyone brings an inspired, preferably homemade appetizer, light-fare entree or dessert to share while exploring the eclectic galleries of the H&H Building and mingling with old and new friends during the relaxed pre-show potluck dinner. Then we dim the lights and present a vibrant, diverse, curated multimedia slideshow of original works by Baltimore-area and internationally acclaimed and emerging photographers, photojournalists and artists. Each presentation is a maximum of 5 minutes, most are shorter.
http://network.slideluckpotshow.com/group/slpsbaltimore
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2010 Station North Spring Music Festival
Saturday, APRIL 24 (3pm -9pm)
Come to Station North on April 24 for amazing music, food and art on a beautiful spring afternoon. We’ll have music from national, regional and local acts, plus local restaurants and craftspeople.
The festival runs from 3 pm-9 pm, and then all the venues in the neighborhood will have even more fun for you.
CALL TO ARTISTS AND VENDORS:
If you’re interested in a booth at the festival, please send an e-mail to Andy@CyclopsBooks.com. Food booths cost $200; art/craft/non-profit booths cost $50. Space is limited. You’ll be promoting your own work, and you’ll be supporting Station North, a non-profit group that helps create cool events like this in the best neighborhood in Baltimore!
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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.
What’s the Goal?
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.
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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.
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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?
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