It's Baltimore Artscape weekend again, and I'm helping my friend Shobha in her jewelry booth, as well as just hanging out and enjoying the scenery.
I love it. I love Baltimore in general, and watching the people, and seeing the crafts and hearing the music. It's so much fun. Today, it poured rain off and on for several hours, but it really didn't slow the traffic down too much. I had the chance to take several photos and that was good...I've been slacking in that area. Several photographers were exhibiting and selling their work for sort of ridiculous prices (although I know the price of paper and chemicals, plus travel and labor, so when it comes down to it, it's not so high...) It got me thinking again about whether or not I could actually swing the commerce side of photography, but I'm so. very. bad. at that part. I was looking at some huge landscape prints that were just beautiful, and I thought, "Wow, I have some stuff that I could make THIS GOOD if I just had the right prints and mats." I don't know how well these people do at these shows, or if it's worth the effort, but I did pick up several of their cards and I'm going to check out their sites and see what's up.
Meanwhile, Artscape is just a good time. I missed my baby daddy who played there last night, but I got over it. People are chill and fairly chatty, so it's easy to meet and talk to them. I did see one guy getting picked up by an ambulance by the DJ Culture stage (audience comprised primarily of lots of kids rolling and smoking pot...the music was good, of course.) I saw him on the sidewalk. The event emergency people were already there, and I thought he was dead at first, but by the time the ambulance got there his eyes were open and he was alert. Drugs, I'm sure...he reminded me of some people I'd seen before in similar situations...mostly long ago, and it made me sad. I'm so thankful I was spared from that because I'm sure I would have died. I never had an interest in drugs beyond smoking and thank GOD because I'm sure that crazy train would have ended very, very badly. I doubt I could have handled it as a young person, and I do get all maternal when I see these young people out in the crazy heat, pounding down alcohol and who knows what else...I know it's so alluring and they think they can handle it, and that they need it to have a good time, but the bottom line is that our bodies aren't designed to handle that kind of abuse, especially when it's so hot. Anyway, he made me sad, and I was standing on the curb, feeling like a freak voyeur watching an accident, but really I only wanted to know if he lived or died. The ambulance took forever to come. I wanted to call my uncle who's an EMT in Frederick and ask him how long it should take, because he's all over his cases. He moves in fast forward. And I felt kind of crazy standing there worrying about a stranger and how fast the initial emergency people were operating (which seemed slow to me...watching them, it was kind of like they were at a yard sale or a family picnic. No rush) but it occurred to me that if my kid (or me, because remember I don't have kids. Duh.) were on the sidewalk it would make me feel better if a nice stranger was keeping tabs, so that made me feel less freakish.
Shobha and I had a ton of time to talk - about life and work and boys and all that stuff that I really need to see people in person to talk about for real. She's one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, one of my oldest and best friends, and I'm so happy that we get to hang out, and sell her stuff, and catch up.
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