(Originally posted June 28, 2005)
Zenchick's comment that she knows someone involved with the Grifter's Ball got me to thinking yet again on why people both love and hate this town. The story of how I found out about the shindig on the 15th is illustrative.
Meerkat and I were at the Golden West Cafe for dinner yesterday evening when she spotted someone she knows through the Honcraft network, which was founded by our friend Amy, whom we met nearly ten years ago when the three of us worked in Columbia. The craft group is affiliated with Atomic Books, which is run by Benn and Rachel, whom I met six years ago when I began participating in the online community Cafe Utne.
Meerkat's crafting acquaintance belongs to an artists' collective known as the Jive Social Club. One of JSC's principal members is my friend Luci, whom I first met in 2003 when my .org contracted her to do some design work. Luci does a lot of event planning for the Creative Alliance, which was founded in part by Margaret, who used to own a restaurant in Fells Point that served the best huevos rancheros in Baltimore. Meerkat and I started hanging out at Margaret's when we first began dating some 12 years back. Later, Margaret and I were classmates in the same grad program.
What it's like to live in Baltimore. Image credit: Oneposter.com
Still with me? Now, when we saw Meerkat's crafting pal and Luci in Hampden last night, they were working on publicity for the Grifter's Ball, which, as I mentioned in my last post, is being co-sponsored by Atomic Books and hosted by the Creative Alliance. Thus the spinning circles of acquaintance came together in, if you will permit the multiple mixed metaphors, a perfect storm of relationship ties.
And that's the thing about living in this town. If you stick around for long enough, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone you know. That's wonderful in terms of community bonds and a sense of rootedness in the place where you live. But it can also be frustrating. If you want to steal away for a quick bite to eat without running into someone you've worked with, knit with, partied with, sung with, slept with, swung dead cats with, or heard all sorts of awkward rumors about, you're better off just driving up into Pennsylvania for a few hours.
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