First Thursday with The Dirty Guv'nahs and The Bridge

Every first Thursday of the month during the summer season, there is a free concert at the park in Mount Vernon hosted by quite frankly the best radio station ever, WTMD. This is one of the things I can add to my list of reasons as to why Baltimore is such a great city. People just getting out of work pop by the park, find a spot to sit with their blankets and lawn chairs, and enjoy their picnics, food truck delicacies, or brews from The Brewer's Art stand nearby. And it is inevitable that you always bump into other people you know, setting a wonderful social atmosphere-- almost like a big summer party.

This was an especially fantastic First Thursday this month because Baltimore's The Bridge was playing. Earlier, they had announced that they were calling it quits after ten years, so we wanted to be sure not to miss any chances to see them. The progressive bluegrass/jam band, as I like to categorize them (or sometimes I call them bluegrass on steroids), certainly didn't disappoint. They were greeted by a very appreciative crowd that sang and danced the whole way through the set, appropriately saving Bury My Bones in Baltimore for their encore.

In addition to The Bridge who closed out the night, we were pleasantly surprised by the band that played before-- The Dirty Guv'nahs. Based out of Knoxville, Tennessee, "The Guvs," certainly proved worthy, and I'll soon be making a trip to The Sound Garden in search of an album. Pure rock and roll and a bit of Americana mixed in is what The Dirty Guv'nahs had to offer, and I was more than happy to listen and enjoy.

Kitten in a Sink

Found these videos from the night we brought Finn home. Don't mind Lilah panting in the background of the first clip-- don't worry it grosses me out too. Happy Friday!

(click and hit space bar to play, if you're having difficulties!)

Steely Dan at Merriweather

We kicked off our lineup of concerts with Steely Dan at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia on Tuesday night. Steely Dan has long been one of my favorite bands. My dad used to put their album Pretzel Logic on the record player for me to listen to. I have good memories with Steely Dan as well.

In high school, my parents and I took a three week long road trip out west to Seattle and down the Pacific coast to California. The album Gaucho brings back that trip every time. When we stopped at my aunt and uncle's house on Seattle's Bainbridge Island, my aunt had only recently bought a fun little blue Civic. Knowing that I had just acquired my driver's license, she let me have a little test drive. Before we left, my uncle rushed out of the house and said, "Wait! You need some driving music!" He passed a cd through the open sun roof and I asked, "What is it?" "Just put it in the stereo," he said. So I did and was greeted by Babylon Sisters, the opening song on Gaucho. That song was one of my childhood favorites, and I had not heard it for years as my parents had somehow lost their copy of the album. My uncle burned the cd for me and it was my soundtrack the whole way down the Pacific coast. While staying in Mendocino, California, we found a super cool coffeehouse. We popped in for some coffee and appropriately we were greeted by Babylon Sisters yet again.

So Tuesday night, we headed to Merriweather for a show I had long been awaiting. We met up with the same aunt and uncle that have since moved to the area. Merriweather is an amazing outdoor amphitheater famously known for its spot in the woods and its fantastic natural acoustics. Designed by architect Frank Gehry, it has hosted some of the most famous bands and musicians of our time. Some have even used it as a recording space due to it's fantastic acoustics. We packed a picnic to enjoy on the lawn before the show-- one of the bonuses of the venue-- and soon the show was underway.

Sky at Merriweather as the sun sets.

Merriweather

Yup, blurry, but one of the only photos I took during the show.

The Miles High Big Band who played with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were first class musicians. They opened with a big band style jazz intro before Becker and Fagen took to the stage. In addition, The Embassy Brats, their backup singers, had some amazing talent. I used to want to be a backup singer for Steely Dan-- I thought it would have been a fantastic gig. Both Becker and Fagen were just as amazing as I had hoped-- Becker with his smooth, seamless, and odd-timed guitar riffs and solos, and Fagen with his distinctive vocals and incredible piano playing ability. While I was shocked that the two most popular crowd favorites were My Old School and Reelin' In the Years, I got my fill of what I wanted with tunes like Aja, Hey Nineteen, and Time out of Mind. And they even played Babylon Sisters. :)

Set List:

Intro
Your Gold Teeth
Aja
Hey Nineteen
Everything Must Go
Black Friday
Time out of Mind
I Got the News
Show Biz Kids
Bodhisattva
Babylon Sisters
Godwhacker
Dirty Work
Papa Don't Take No Mess (James Brown cover)
Josie
Peg
My Old School
Reelin' in the Years

Encore

Kid Charlemagne

Punch List

1. I love August because it is usually chock full of concerts. We kicked the month off last night with a Steely Dan concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion. I grew up in front of a record player and would often be spinning Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic.



2. On Monday, I had one of the best finds ever! Rachel from RWKrafts had suggested going to Marshalls to look for paper and cardstock. Sure enough, I found four huge stacks of DCWV cardstock! Each of the stacks were $6 or less! You know my obsession with paper, so I was super excited!

3. Speaking of paper, I recently received a shipment of cardstock from the French Paper Co. I am super excited to be using this paper. I bought the 110lb smart white cardstock. I've already used it to print some greeting cards and I am really happy with the quality!

4. Summer is nearing an end (19 days until I need to report back to school) and we're still not done with the backyard. We went to another paver store last Friday morning and found something that we like that isn't nearly as expensive as what I'd originally liked from the other stone store.

5. Despite summer coming closer to an end, it seems that it is just getting into full swing for us. We finally put up our lantern lights outside on the first floor deck. Fortunately, in Baltimore the weather stays nice until November so we should be able to enjoy them for a while yet!

6. Last week was super busy-- dinner with friends on Wednesday night, ice cream on Thursday night to celebrate a friend who had just finished taking the bar exam. An impromptu night out on Friday with friends of ours that live a few blocks down. Fun, but busy! Phew!

7. After our super busy week, Saturday was a laid back day. We ended it by getting take out from Chaps Pit Beef-- a seriously awesome place you need to check out if you're ever in Baltimore. I had an open faced beef sandwich with fries, both which were drenched in gravy. Yum! We ate on the roof top deck and listened to a blues show on our favorite radio station that comes on Saturday nights. The blues got us talking and ensued in an evening adventure to Fells Point to try to find the movie Blues Brothers 2000 at The Soundgarden because Andrew had never seen it. No luck. It wasn't on Netflix streaming either, so we finally found we could rent it for three bucks on iTunes. Not the best movie in the world, but definitely entertaining and a stellar line-up of blues performers.



8. I caved. Last weekend while at Target to pick up a few things I bought some supplies for school. I knew that if I didn't get my dollar packs of Crayola markers now, there wouldn't be any left when I actually wanted to go back to school shopping. I recently saw a statistic that said that in the year 2011, teachers spent on average $631 from their own pocket on school supplies. Sad, but true. I usually spend about that much... ugh.

9. With only a few weeks left of summer break, I've been dying to get out and do some traveling. Unfortunately, we didn't plan any trips for this summer because we're saving money and Andrew is saving vacation days for two bigger trips in the next year and a half. Next summer we're planning on a road trip out west for two weeks and the following Christmas (or maybe Spring Break 2013 depending on timing) we're planning on meeting my parents in southern France for about 10 days. It's a trip we've been talking about and planning for quite some time. But I still want to get out and about, so I'm thinking of planning a few day trips for the next two weekends instead.

10. My summer indulgence has been Honest Tea. They are all organic bottle iced teas of all sorts of flavor varieties. I was first introduced to these at my mom's bakery quite some time ago-- she would sell them along with her lunches and such. Recently I discovered them at a few of the grocery stores I frequent, so they have been my little treat for the summer. My current favorite flavor is Pearfect White Tea.

What have you been indulging in this summer?

You + Me

Don't worry, I know I'm way ahead of the time. Maybe that's a sort of good thing considering usually I'm lagging behind. But I had an idea pop into my head this past weekend while I was working with a typewriter font and I just had to go with it. Sometimes I think of designs at the most inopportune moment (or in this case, inopportune time of year) and I have to get them down or they'll be lost forever. So I went with it.

Middle School Music

This one goes out to all of my 7th and 8th grade students-- the ones that think the way they dress and the music they listen to today is what they'll be wearing and listening to when they're my age. And that's pretty much most of them. It was bound to happen. I had to write a post on my middle school days music obsessions especially after my throwback to my elementary school days. And after hearing David Bowie's song Heroes on the radio in the car today I was finally motivated to write this.

When I think middle school I think 90s grunge scene. Sound familiar to any of you? My sister and I were all about the flannel, combat boots, and baggy corduroy pants or jeans with holes in the knees. We were both into the scene and my sister was pretty much obsessed with Eddie Vedder. So embarrassing in fact, that I won't post a photo of myself this time around. People like to see cute pictures of you from when you're in second grade, and they sure like to see photos of you in the awkward grunge middle school phase too-- for different reasons of course.

I also had a need to listen to classic rock bands such as Aerosmith, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Queen, David Bowie, and The Who. And if you didn't like the classic rockers I told you that your music sucked. I think I may have had a bit of a Queen obsession (ok, I had a TOTAL Queen obsession and my vintage burgandy Doc Martins were my favorite shoes because they were the color of Brian May's guitar).  David Bowie was a pretty awesome dude too. He was super androgynous-- hmmm sounds kinda familiar just like some of my own students that are obsessed with the super androgynous stars of today.

Yes. The hair and make-up look oddly familiar. How unoriginal Adam.

I also loved making mix tapes and I'd often make them for my friends with little liner notes that I wrote for each song. This is what one of those mix tapes probably would have sounded like.

New Stationery Sets

So the time has come for me to officially write a little blog post about my new stationery! I wanted to stray from the standard note cards that I'd been designing and I wanted to come up with something that was eco-friendly as well. You may have remembered when I unveiled my design inspiration for my new stationery. I used my own photography to come up with color schemes to inspire my designs.

Next, I was able to pair up with Write With Moxie and add some super neat recycled paper pencils to my sets. I was super excited to find these pencils and they are really just as cool as they look.

I paired these pencils with 100% recycled paper and some super awesome 30% post-consumer waste recycled envelopes, 100% recycled kraft postcards, a recycled stationery box, my photo design schemes-- and this is what we have! Super fun stationery that is also perfect for you environmentally conscious people out there!

Hope you like them just as much as I do!