Baltimore ... The wrong end of town

One of the last thing Preston and I did on Sunday, before I feel asleep for about an hour, was to take a tour of a very very poor neighborhood. It was kinda scary since we were the only white people there and people kept on looking at us.

But the houses were terribly dilapidated. For blocks and blocks there are houses like these in the pictures that are boarded up, burned out, littered with rubbish, you name it. We drove past a street with people running down the road, and we were not sure what from or for what reason. So Preston put the foot on the gas and we got away.

This is only on the outside of the main city area. It only took us 10 minutes to drive back past Preston's appartment in Mt Vernon, which looks like this.

This is Mt Vernon, one of the nicest areas in the Baltimore City Limits.

So yeah, now I can say I've been in the hood....

I'm a gig whore

YAY! I FINALLY MET ANOTHER CANADIAN!!!! This weekend Preston played for Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in Philidelphia, about 1 hour and 40 minutes north of Baltimore. It was a cute town, with lots of art and stuff. The Orchestra is pretty good for a small town, but not as good as some of the others Preston has played for. They played John Williams, some crap local composer's work (which Peterson and I laughted at, big time), and The Planets, by Holt. It was great to hang with Peterson. We laughed at all the funny locals and had a few beers. We danced for a few hours at a seedy Mt. Vernon gay bar, and passed out cold, rushing around to get to Peterson to the airport and get back up to Lancaster. We got totally stuck in a rainstorm. See video on the next post.
This is Peterson trying to get Preston to love him, but not really ... is that bad? doodooodooooodo?

Peterson, trying to play it straight. HAHAHAHAHA!

Our little Asian!

Today we took our IB classes to Black Friar's theatre in a little town west of Richmond called Staunton. We saw King Lear.

It was amazing in that the actual theatre was modeled after the style of the Globe Theatre in London. We sat on benches as you can see and the stage was simple and they relied mostly on the text without major sets or anything. Only a few props and some increadible costuming set the scene.

The acting was supurb and for the first time, I think I like King Lear. It was very funny and rather than seeing it as purely a tragedy, they portrayal highlighed the satirical nuances that push it into the realm of comedy. Perhaps a tragic-comedy ... but fricken hilarious.

I've got lots to post about, but haven't had a lot of time.

Life is great, and I've taken some pictures of the fall leaves that I will be posting really soon.

This weekend I'm going to Baltimore again. Preston has gigs, and we are hanging out with Peterson and I can't wait.

Elcetion Day! History in the making?

Check out Jimmy and David's YouTube "Obama Switch" there are five and it's freaking hilarious.

We are praying and crossing fingers that the outcome today with be Obama! At 6am when Polls opened at our school, there were cars parked everywhere and lines for miles. Well this is the rumour - I was asleep and managed to get to school by 9am. What an effort. But by then there were few cars, which also goes to show just how many staff were here on time.


Tonight we are having Reyes, Katie and Vodka are going to throw a party to watch the election count down. We intend to be so blind drunk that we don't even remember who the President is the next morning, and have to get online etc. Who knows who will hold the future of the USA in their hands for the next session. People say if McCain gets in, there may be riots. Some students are paranoid that if Obama get's in he will be assassinated. Well that is how the Americans do away with anyone who is forward thinking and challenging 'the norm'. What a time in history!

So Australia, even if you can't vote - pray! do what ever you know to do to get this man elected.

Our gym where it's all happening.

Goodmorning Baltimore!

So before the Fire-drama -

I scooted up to Baltimore to see My Love - My Life. I thought I was getting good at freeways, but unfortunately I took a wrong turn that cost me an extra 25 minutes. But getting there made it all worthwhile. I got to sit in on his quartet practice and grade papers to beautiful music. Then we got some dinner and cooked it up at the apartment.

We went of a few drinks at Balvedeare, which is this cool Gothic style building around the corner from his apartment. It was Halloween night and everyone was partying. The band was dressed as the Wizard of Oz, the lead singer was Dorothy and he looked as though he enjoyed every minute of it. Some costumes were lame, others, like the Star Wars crew were amazing, as they entered the bar with light sabers ablaze.

On the street we saw some hidious drags, but my favorite (to laugh at) were some real GAYshas. HAHAHAHA! I won't tell (brag) about the rest of that evening.

We got to New Hope church in Fulton and it was really cool (but we got there 15 minutes before the end) ... But it was really cool .. ummm.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing with Jimmy David and Joy. Haystacks and eventually Cupcakes at some cool boutiquey shop.

Preston played a concert in a Synagogue for Baltimore Chamber Orchestra which went well. The best part was that they played the work of some contemporary composers, Matthew Quayle and Jonathon Leshnoff. The Quayle was nice but as Preston said - it was a bit too much of a quote of Barber's Adagio for Stings, but the interesting thing was that this guy "Mr. Smith" from the Fauxharmonic Orchestra has this wii that he was using to conduct a computerised orchestra.

Ok well.. it wasn't interesting, after about a minute it was dead set borning. There was no vibrato and it was clear that even if he really can conduct (and I wouldn't know) the orchestra lacked any kind of warmth, depth ... dare I say soul. Well it was a computer so of course it didn't have a soul, so case in point - thumbs down.

BCO came out and performed the same Adagio and it was immeasurably better.

Anyway here's another cool pic of My Love, My Life - it's from the weekend before but it's real cute. And he is so talented, my chest is all puffed up and proud.

Burned Apartment

Last night while I was unpacking from my blissful weekend with Pres, sirens were whining and I thought to myself "Shut up!!!" I was also checking facebook and was about to call Marcella to hear about her opening night performance in Beauty and the Beast. I all of a sudden snapped out of my own little world to hear someone shouting "FIRE! FIRE!" I opened my bedroom door to find my apartment was filling with thick black smoke. I grabbed my computer and ran to the front door wearing only jeans, a singlet and my socks. I flew down the stairs as Firemen rushed toward me, one of them carrying some kind of steel bar. Everyone was yelling and the sirens were flashing. 5 fire trucks and 30 Fire-Fighters.


I went out into the car park and looked back, the apartment complex billowing with smoke, most of it coming from 1B. The fire-fighters were trying to break open the door and the pumps were started. I was shaking, wondering if everything I owned, all my important papers and things were about to be destroyed. I ran to Katie and Reyes' house but they were out, so I ran over the road to Leonor.

When we returned the fire was out, and Amanda, from 1B was sitting on the curb crying. The fire had started in the laundry cupboard and spread through the most of the apartment. It was so hot in there that it melted all of their appliances including their TV and their Computer monitor. The fire was mostly contained in their apartment but had burned upstairs into 2B and causing some extensive smoke damage in 3B. The smoke in my apartment had come through the Ventelation system. and up the interior wall (the one we share for our laundry facilities).

Amanda was watching football, and at half time, decided to shower for the second half. As she took her attention from the TV she saw smoke coming through the cracks in her bedroom door. When she opened it, the apartment was full of black smoke. She grabbed her dog and evacuated through the rear sliding door in the lounge room. A man helped her get the dog out and they called the Fire Department.

We were stuck outside for about 2 hours, and today they have been in to try and chemically remove the sickening smell. It's even in the suit I'm wearing that was hanging in my closet.

So drama in the Lane! But we are all safe.

Halloween (What the?)

I haven't had a chance to update in a week because of School stuff, and I felt a bit sad at the beginning of the week. I was fine by Wednesday, but it was all just a bit overwhelming.

Preston and I stayed the weekend at Chesapeake Beach and walked the beach and stuff. Preston did the most amazing thing and came all the way from Maryland to Richmond to help me register my car and then we both drove all the way back again. He had to play in church today.



Preston's recital was supposed to go ahead this month, but he has been able to put it into the next semester since he has so many other performance commitments this month.



It was the weekend before Halloween and the locals were out in full spirit. There were children happily digging graves and their parents constructing giant puppetry; Bats and Ghouls and Spiders ... and shit. Aparently the most freakish of all the exhibits, even more freaky than the video below were the two men in love walking along the boardwalk. Yes folks, my first public "shame" as an out gay. three 10 year old kids laughted and kind of screamed, one had some kind of fit on the side of the boardwalk as we returned from the end of the pier. But the best of it was the 'parting of the red sea' on the 8 metre wide boardwalk. Some actually got off the boardwalk because they were so afraid of the creatures. And then a "sick queers" shout out from an african american youth, who was obviously trying to get the girl he was with to sleep with him. So we instantly remembered that we must have been in McCain territory and are crossing EVERYTHING that he doesn't get into the White House tomorrow.

I was a little shocked and Preston was quietly outraged. Everyone else was out for a walk, holding hands and enjoying the sun, but it's clear what kind of world we live in. Perhaps that's why I felt a bit low at the beginning of the week. But I'm well over it now.

Check out this video to see who our competition was for most freakiest creature of the day.




But we made our own fun!