Shlee Vincent

Enter 2010.

I’m not one for year end of the year surveys. Instead, I just want to reflect on 2009 and what I’ve accomplished.

In 2009, I:

• graduated from Towson University, Cum Laude, with a B.A. in Mass Communications. I was short one course of completing a creative writing minor.
• completed two small websites – one which featured a multimedia project on Baltimore.
• created ShleeVincent.com and began to create and manage a blog and online portfolio.
• got a plastic toy camera called Diana F+ and began experimenting with medium format photography and film.
• attained a full-time job at a portrait studio.
• moved in and began collaborating with Kerri O’Neill.
• documented the Whartscape Festival for DTR Webzine.
• used my passport and ventured to Montreal.
• was inducted into Lambda Pi Eta (a mass communications honor society).

It’s been an interesting year and with no concrete plans for 2010, I can only say, “Is this real life?”

(for photos scroll to the end)

Saturday was plagued with clouds overhead and winds that threatened to ruin the day. Just in case, blue tarps were hung over the stages set up at the small MICA parking lot. The fluttered about during the blustery day but the rain never did come. Food, clothing, jewelry and musicians’ merchandise lined the sides of the parking lot. The festival, though, wasn’t restricted to the parking lot. The McDonald’s a bit down North Avenue found its bathrooms victims to Whartscape, while Cyclops, a small bookstore and venue across the street, opened itself up to festival-goers, offering free drinks and food.

Some people brought blankets and chairs, others sat right on the asphalt. It was a long day, but most braved it out and stood – watching the musicians and roaming back and forth between the stages like zombies craving music rather than brains.

Wherever they were, it wouldn’t have mattered. The music permeated the air of North Avenue and the rest of the Station North Arts District. The Creepers serenaded with songs about life and relationships. Little Howlin’ Wolf had everyone sitting down in front of him, as if it were story time and calmed with the jazzy, yet somehow tribal sounds of his drums and saxophone. He continued his performance on a street corner after his time slot. Liturgy, a post-hardcore band from Brooklyn, was playing their first show outside New York.

Despite the “headliners,” Saturday’s highlights had to have been the What Cheer? Brigade marching band from Providence, R.I. and Nuclear Power Pants – whose members hailed from Baltimore and Providence.

Sexy outfits? Check. Attitude? Check. Audience interaction? Check. Drums? Check. Brass section? Hold on. That’s not really a standard when it comes to most things bad ass. It is, however, standard for a marching band and the What Cheer? Brigade marching band brings those two things together. They marched and danced through the crowd with style and soul, screaming and shouting at the crowd to get involved and move around. Everything was in constant motion. They were undeniably Saturday’s biggest and busiest act.

Nuclear Power Pants had this odd, luring stage presence about them. With black lights and bright ponchos and neon lizard heads, they caught eyes and didn’t let go. Back-up singers/dancers made them catchy. Their music had layers and hook, and despite the slower BPM, people still danced.

After Ponytail‘s energetic set, which left some bruised and everyone with an adrenaline rush, it was time to move to the final festival’s third location at the Load of Fun. The LOF/t was a black theater box, which was nice and cool and housing experimental musicians like Ed Schrader with his funny song stories which he accompanied on his tom tom, Spellcaster, who tried to channel Hendrix with his guitar feedback music, and Married in Berdichev who experimented with her voice and loops.

The front of Load of Fun was packed with people who wanted to see the more upbeat acts like Plural MC, Ear Pwr and Adventure. Halfway through the night, the floor was soaked with sweat and the mirrors which hung above the doors had fogged up.

Adventure‘s 8-bit type music splashed with Benny’s interludes on the keyboard had a large crowd dancing, which stayed for Ear Pwr‘s fun, energetic, electric six song set. Devin Booze shouting and fiddling around with electronics in a suitcase while Sarah Reynolds singing and rapping about colors and animals.

There weren’t any visible stresses to the audience. Some of the acts were moved around, others were dropped, but the day went incredibly smoothly. Props.

Photos

(for photos scroll to the end)

At the BMA on Friday, one stage was set up on either side of the BMA’s front steps. Mega Passes and merchandise – which included music, books and t-shirts (some pretty stellar Michael Jackson prints) – were located at the top.

Only 300 of the Mega Passes – which guaranteed access into every show – were available and they sold out in the first week of sales. Day passes were also sold for Saturday and Sunday but they didn’t have the ultimate power to guarantee entrance into the night time events.

In any case, Friday’s events were free. Among the familiar faces of Baltimore’s scene and the festival’s attendees, were children with book bags, locals, and students from Johns Hopkins University – which was just down the street from the museum.

Acts were scheduled back to back. Andy Abelow started things off at the A stage to the left of the stairs and Lonnie walker followed at the B stage. Between performers, everyone wandered from stage to stage and the size of the crowd grew through the day. There was plenty of room for everyone to sit comfortably on the stacks that were the BMA’s stairs or in the shade of the small, tree-covered plots by each stage.

Performances were short and changed smoothly. During the day’s only noticeable delay, Mason Ross – a comedian – provided an awkward but entertaining routine to stall.

Lonnie Walker’s pop-rock, Noble Lake’s acoustic country-blues-type songs and Wye Oak’s chilled-out, indie rock tunes were perfect for launching into festival mode.

The evening was a treat – a fancy night. As was printed on the schedule, “We recommend that you please dress and act fancy.” Plays, films, poetry and some experimental music created by community members and friends were featured inside the museum’s auditorium.

Letters, a play written and performed by Adam Endres and Connor Kizer, was a hilarious interaction – starting with a rejection letter – between the publisher of a literary journal and a deranged writer who seeks “only judgment” for his work. Films by Jimmy Joe Roche made you laugh and knocked at least one of your brain cells loose. Alexis Gideon impressed by playing guitar and keyboards to accompany his own animations.

Photos