Photos and story by David Warfield
Only five more weeks to go before we start shooting ROWS. We’re still rounding up cast and crew, so if you’re an actor check out the website for a breakdown rowsmovie.com, and if you’re a sound person, art director, or resourceful caterer email us at info@rowsmovie.com.
In all the frenzy of film pre-production, my mother-in law came to visit, which allowed my wife and I time to experience another kind of frenzy. We got a room at the Inn at The Black Olive, an organic geothermal minimalist boutique hotel on Caroline at the edge of Fells Point. The Inn at The Black Olive has been open for only two months, so it was like we had our own private hotel. They have great beds and bathtubs. We checked in at 2 PM and had a snack in the gleaming first floor gourmet market (the Agora), where Alicia & staff were super-nice and treated us like the first customers to ever walk in the door, which is how it felt. Then we went up to our sixth floor room, took a bath and immediately passed out on the organic California King.
Later we went to the top floor Olive Room (an extension of The Black Olive Restaurant) and had dinner. This is a very attractive room with indoor and outdoor seating and an excellent view to the west of the harbor, Federal Hill, and various investment banking buildings.
After that we took a cab to Rams Head to see the Michael Franti and Spearhead show. I honestly knew nothing about this artist, but I was soon happily engaged. Franti and his crew deliver great songwriting, action, and craft, with upbeat multi-culti emotional content that doesn’t shy away from the real shit our world is in. The result is a hip world-sound that crosses generational lines – near midnight Franti called a dozen audience kids (from six to twelve years old) to run up on stage and get down with their bad selves, and all that without a whiff of Sesame Street. Franti also laid out his important charity work for Haiti and other causes. The tour logo, which can be translated as “Listen to your Heart,” says it all.
Afterwards we went back stage and met the man. Franti is six-foot-five, with a muscular aura. He shared his very compelling life story (San Francisco, adopted, musical Finnish mom furiously principled on matters of equality) and pretty soon was out the door. The tour goes on, North America, Europe… After a nice chat with Cyclops/ 31 Tigers impresario Andy Rubin, we cabbed back to the Inn. No one was there but the dude at the desk. He went into Agora and made me a pizza. We hit the organic California King like a ton of bricks.
Photos and story by David Warfield
