CURVE YOUR ENTHUSIASM (16)
By:
August 16, 2023
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of reconsidered passions, reassessed hates, and reversed feelings everywhere in-between. Series edited by Adam McGovern.
BALTIMORE
I’m channeling Dorothy Gale now. And her Ruby Red slippers. I’m thinking of home. 1-2-3. For me, Baltimore is home. Now the first thing 90 percent of people will think of when they think of Baltimore is The Wire. Which doesn’t offend me one bit. In fact it gives me a giggle (having grown up with most of the younger cats on the show). I moved back here to live after a 15-year toxic relationship with New York. And I think it fair to say I’m having the biggest existential crisis of my life thus far. I turned 34 this year. My Grandmother turns 80 on Bloomsday (June 16). I want to be near family. Where did the time go? Spring’s just springing here. Had the sky here always been this blue? The cock down the street in the cage crows at dawn. Wooden fences spread round homemade communal gardens. Evening explosions fill the fresh air which are always alternately fireworks or gunshots. Baltimore is the Wild West for sure. East, West, Country, City, it’s all kind of a beautiful madness. Reminding me a lot of NYC in that way but on the tiniest scale imaginable. A city for sure, but to anyone coming from away (especially from a place like New York or LA) Baltimore will have the vibe and feel of a quaint little small town. A quaint, crazy little small town.
There was a time I was running from this place. From my home. I was 18. And would have done and said anything to get out of my Mother’s house. To get out of Baltimore altogether. To experience everything anew. To acquire knowledge. So much knowledge. And I did. There was a time I would’ve counted returning home as a kind of failure. An admission that I could not make it in the very real, wild world. Return to the nest. Return to safety. I thought I would feel ashamed. But I don’t. The second I touched home soil I felt such a rush of regeneration. I’ve dreamt of home while away every night since 18. And can/have walked the blocks in my sleep. Like some familiar spirit, roaming an old haunt. But somehow I feel content. In that naked way. In that old Buddhist way. I have an apartment that is like a temple. Pale spirit blue walls. My Grandmother lives across the street, two blocks down. I have a familiar cat called Pilate now sitting in the window. Soaking up all the sunlight. Like the plants and flowers are. Like I am.
CURVE YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Adam McGovern | Tom Nealon on PIZZA PURISM | Holly Interlandi on BOY BANDS | Heather Quinlan on THE ’86 METS | Whitney Matheson on THE SMITHS | Bishakh Som on SUMMER | Jeff Lewonczyk on WHOLE BELLY CLAMS | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER | Nikhil Singh on LOVE ISLAND UK | Adrienne Crew on CILANTRO | Adam McGovern on MISSING PERSONS | Art Wallace on UFOs | Fran Pado on LIVERWURST | Lynn Peril on ELTON JOHN’S GREATEST HITS | Marlon Stern Lopez on ADOLESCENT REBELLION | Juan Gonzalez on STAN & JACK or JACK & STAN | Christopher-Rashee Stevenson on BALTIMORE | Josh Glenn on FOOTLOOSE | Annie Nocenti on SIDEVIEW MIRROR | Mandy Keifetz on BREATHLESS | Brian Berger on HARRY CREWS | Ronald Wimberly on GAMING AND DATING | Michele Carlo on HERITAGE FOODS | Gabriela Pedranti on MADONNA | Ingrid Schorr on MAXFIELD PARRISH AND SUE LEWIN | Mariane Cara on ORANGE.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!