Rupert Wondolowski's Blog, page 23

House Buys

In the arcane and eldritch profession of book and record buying, the art of "doing a house buy" is both a staple of fueling the stock with treasures and a psychological immersion ceremony. People, some who have maybe never seen you before in their lives, admit you into their homes to peruse their valued possessions. Often these people are at crossroads or turning points in their lives. A loved one has died, they're moving, they're splitting up a home due to divorce, or maybe they are convi...

Matt Bovie & David Fair "Cut-Ups" Show

(Over David Fair's left shoulder you can see the Mr. Peanut in the oval frame that will soon be ours!)
Traveling to the "Cut-Ups" show of Matt Bovie and David Fair at Gallery 1448 on Baltimore St. was my first trip knowingly to Baltimore's Middle East. I'd never heard of this region like I'd never heard of Harbour East until a few years ago when it appeared from a developer's cash register mind's eye. But I guess Middle East isn't a construct, just a geographical designation I'd never heard o...

Chris Mason Reads at In Your Ear

Chris Mason of The Tinklers, whose book The Elements was published on Shattered Wig Press, will one day be held aloft in an eco friendly wicker chair by the People of Earth and worshiped as he deserves. Here is a video of him reading for the "In Your Ear" series at DC/AC. Buck Downs does the intro.

City Sages: Baltimore Reading At Normal's - Wednesday August 25th

City Sages: Baltimore, the first publication from CityLit, edited by hard working Jen Michalski, has won "Best Anthology" from this year's Baltimore Magazine's Best Of issue. The anthology collects pieces from dead and legendary Baltimore authors like Mencken, Poe and Gertrude Stein, the living and famous like Anne Tyler, Laura Lippman and Madison Smart Bell and the young and young(ish) turks like Michael Kimball and Adam Robinson.


To celebrate and publicize the release various bookstores...

The People of Shakemore, Latvian-Venutian in origin, thrive in 130 degree temps with occasional felafel intakes & a large water tub for immersion

I have known Commander Chris Toll, he of the Vladimir Lenin countenance, for long fabric yards of forever. Starting with our lean salad days of dancing together with Bob Fosse - it took poets to come up with "Jazz Hands!", no mere dancer could - through our fat cat corporate years of working on the space station cooling system and up to now, our gray aged years of being mocked by the new slick networking generation of strong young poets. But in all our years of friendship (and the one year he...

Glistening At the Shop

The Waffle House waiter took a seat to the side of our table and began explaining the various styles of fried eggs to The Bow-Legged Gorilla like a young gentle priest who still has a touch of teenage goofiness.



"Where do you have the egg types on the menu?" the Gorilla asked.



"They aren't on there, how do you like your eggs? You like dippin' in the yolk?"



"Not real sloppy, no."



It was around 11:30 on a Sunday in Frederick and we had gotten a later start for Pittsburgh than I'd planned, but I tri...

Reading in Pittsburgh This Sunday, 7/18

I'm going to take a maiden voyage into Pittsburgh to do a reading and hopefully check out their native thrift fauna of vinyl and boards and wraps. I confess I don't know anything about this venue or performance other than it's put together by a fine gent who has been asking me and Blaster Al to come up for a few years and it comes highly recommended by Sir Ian Nagoski of Canary Records.

Honeymoon

Pictured at left is our little Vortex grill transported to Chincoteague Island so that Lady Rio could whip up on some steaks. And indeed she did. This was on Monday night, our second night there, and soon after these roaring charcoal flames got going storm clouds brewed and in about an hour the overbearing 100 degree days collapsed into the gentle mid-'80s and stayed there.


On the night of July 3rd when the Island was celebrating the 4th, we walked a few blocks from our cottage to a nearly...

Wedding Eve

Rio landed yesterday and brought with her an all pervading sense of calm despite the continued searing heat. She and Everly worked for eight hours straight today on the house transforming it to a new level of cozy funk and folk grandeur. My beloved kidney shaped art deco table was lost in the groovy makeover, but in light of two endless wars and the death of the ocean I can buck up and take it.


As Charles Dickens said: "It was a time of windy squeaky hospital corridors, a time of villagers...

Daniel Higgs Book On Shattered Wig Update

I had the good fortune to see Daniel Higgs yesterday, shortly after he pulled into Baltimore in his Bible School Van. He's here for a few weeks or so and says he should be able to hand off the manuscript for his new book to me before he heads back out to Lemuria. Insh'allah!