David R. Crews' Ramblings + Photos: Baltimore

Showing posts with label Baltimore. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Photos Of Bands And Musicians Mostly Performing In Dundalk And Southeastern Baltimore City

This is the link to a photo set of bands and musicians mostly performing in Dundalk and in Southeastern Baltimore City.

You'll see photographs taken at the Dundalk Heritage Fair, the Village Coffee & Tea Company, Earth Day Festival 2010, Frank Zappa Day - Zappa Plays Zappa - in Highlandtown, and more.

And here is a slideshow of those photographs:

Photography by David Robert Crews
a.k.a ursusdave

Saturday, January 01, 2011

Baltimore, Md.'s Fireworks Grand Finale On New Years Eve 2010 - 2011

Here is the final 55 seconds of Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor fireworks display held on New Year's Eve 2010 - 2011. I shot the video at about 4 miles from the barges the fireworks were shot off from. I was just inside southeastern Balto. City, about 200 yards from the western edge of Dundalk, Md..

Photography by David Robert Crews
a.k.a. ursusdave

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Rafael Alvarez's Fourth Annual Highlandtown Literary Extravaganza

On my Facebook profile, I just posted some photographs of Rafael Alvarez's Fourth Annual Highlandtown Literary Extravaganza, which was held at the Southeast Anchor Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library- in Baltimore, Maryland - on December 18, 2010. Rafael is a long-time, well known and respected Baltimore journalist, author and television producer and writer.

Here is the public link to that photo album on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2089863&id=1053787981&l=f67b798ca3

Photography by David Robert Crews
a.k.a.ursusdave

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Best Photographs of Zappa Plays Zappa on Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore

On Sunday, September 19, 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland, at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Conkling Street, in the Highlandtown neighborhood, in front of the Southeast Anchor Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, a sculptured bust of Frank Zappa was unveiled and dedicated. It was officially Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore, and the celebration took place on - newly named - Frank Zappa Way.

The statue is a replica of an original one that is located in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was created by artist Konstantinas Bogdanas. And was donated to Baltimore City by ZAPPART, a Lithuanian nonprofit organization - which includes Salius Paukstys, Saulius Pilikus and Arturas Baublys.

Frank Zappa was born on December 21, 1940, and passed on - to the other side - on December 4, 1993. He lived in Baltimore for his first five years.

After the dedication ceremony, Dweezil gave a free, two-hour concert of Zappa Plays Zappa - to all in attendance. And the man and his band play the music well.

Sunday, September 19, 2010 was a great day in Highlandtown. I was there, and I photographed as many others in the audience of Zappa Plays Zappa as I could. I took shots of every cool lookin' t-shirt in sight. And I got great shots of Dweezil and his band - as they Rocked and Rolled to their little ol' hearts' content; and us audience members were completely contented, in a solid Rockin' way.

Here is the link to my 4 pages of over 200 photos of:

Zappa Plays Zappa on Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore

Photography by David Robert Crews
a.k.a. ursusdave

Fantastic Bits of Baltimore in Photographs

Photography by David Robert Crews
a.k.a. ursusdave

I have a set of photographs on Flickr dot com titled - Fantastic Bits of Baltimore. And that is exactly what they are. Check 'um out - here's the link to fantastic photographs of Baltimore:

Fantastic Bits of Baltimore

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Rafael Alvarez on A Tuesday Morning in Baltimore's Former Chinatown

The first photo below is of Rafael Alvarez driving down a Baltimore City street. He is freakily adept at driving in city traffic; and the man easily gets away with making moves behind-the-wheel that would get most of us beeped at, bleeped at and angrily gestured at, by other drivers and their passengers. When he spotted that brown and tan colored, classic station wagon in great shape, which you can see the front right corner of next to him in the photo, he stopped his small pickup truck three car lengths back from the next vehicle up there in our lane waiting for a red light, so we could check out the classic wagon. He loves the size, solid build, shapes, body styles and big motors of them older kinds'a vehicles, and I do too. But I would have had trouble with other drivers, around me, for stopping in traffic where he did. He's just a born 'n' bred city fellow who seems to comfortably fit right in however he wants to on any Baltimore streets he drives on - no matter what he does. Me-own-self, as an old-time pro-driver, with well-honed driving skills, who once possessed a delivery/cab driver's intimate knowledge of the streets of Baltimore, I was duly, and pleasantly, impressed.

The photo below is Rafael standing and smiling at the corner of Baltimore's Park Avenue and Mulberry Street, in front of where (Abe) Sherman's Book Store used to be.

Below is Rafael in the doorway at 332 Park Ave, next to the front window of the former Sherman's Book Store.

Here are two photographs of Rafael meeting the owner of Bouillabaisse Cafe, at 316 Park Avenue.

Bouillabaisse Cafe
316 Park Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410) 244-8173 phone
Email : czardog1@verizon.net

Here are two photos of Rafael sitting at the table of a small eatery where we had breakfast. I never paid any attention to the name or exact location of the place.

Ralph gave me signed copies of two books he's written - Storyteller and The Wire.

Photography by David Robert Crews

Baltimore's Rafael Alvarez is a journalist, author and television producer and writer. Here is his official web site:

http://www.alvarezfiction.com/

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Rafael Alvarez Encounters Morris Martick on Park Ave in Baltimore, Md.

On Tuesday, 9/28/2010, well known Baltimore, Maryland writer Rafael Alvarez and I were walking up Mulberry Street, towards Park Avenue, in Baltimore, heading towards the location where Sherman's Book Store used to be - at the corner of Park and Mulberry. That morning, we had just met for the first time. We each had our own memories of the well known book store and its owner - infamously brusk Abe Sherman - and had each written about Abe and the store. Amongst other writing, Rafael wrote Abe's obituary for the Baltimore Sun Newspaper. I wrote a little story about my times as a teenage customer of Abe's - during the 1960s. Old Abe sold the first Rock and Roll band posters in Baltimore, and I bought a poster of the Rolling Stones from Abe - my first of many posters.

As Rafael and I walked up Mulberry, we stopped to take photos of and talk about the building where Martick's famous bar/eatery once operated. I never was in the place, being too young to go in when it was a bar, and not into spending time in the area when it was a French Restaurant. It is known as an old Beatnik joint to me, and that to Rafael too, but he had had the pleasure of eating many great meals there - when it was a Restaurant Francais.

We walked on up the half-a-block to the corner of Mulberry St. and Park Ave, where we took some photos of each other in front of the former Sherman's Book Store. As we walked on down Park Ave., low and behold here comes the owner of the now closed Matrick's, Morris Martick, strolling up the sidewalk towards us. 88-year-old Morris had been born in the building Matrick's had been in, and he has lived there most of his life. I had never seen the man before, but Rafael knew him well. So we stopped and spoke with him a bit. And I took some good photographs of Morris and Rafael, plus a damned great little video of them conversing.

Below is the building where Martick's was, and Morris Martick was born, has lived for most of his 88 years on This Good Earth, and he still owns the place.

Here are still photographs that I took of Rafael and Morris, with Rafael on the left and Morris on the right:

Morris Martick

And here is a video of some of the conversation between Rafael and Morris:

Photography by David Robert Crews

After Rafael and I parted company with Morris, Raf said that the conversation, photos and video are "gold". I believe they are gold to anyone who has any personal connection to Martick's, or anyone who is into really cool Baltimore history. Do a web search for "Morris Martick" and links to tons of really cool reading about Morris will be there for you to pursue and enjoy.

Here is an article in the magazine Urbanite where Morris speaks about his life: http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/baltimore/speak-easy/Content?oid=1244887

Here is a Facebook page for former employees of Matrick's:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32947099191

Make sure you check out the discussion board on the Facebook pages. It's quite humorous.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Bethlehem Steel At Sparrows Point, Maryland`

Photography by David Robert Crews

That huge structure dominating the skyline is the monster that ate the Town of Sparrows Point, Maryland. It is a modern blast furnace that replaced ten older blast furnaces, and the town had to be torn down to make room for it. In 1962, my Granddad Crews retired as foreman of numbers 9 + 10 blast furnaces, the biggest ones there at the time.

My paternal grandparents were some of the last residents to leave their rented home there, at 1014 F Street, in 1973. The Bethlehem Steel Company owned the town; they owned every house and store and the land that all the churches were on. But it was well run for the benefit of the residents, and was virtually crime free. There was a lot of dirt that fell from the mill onto everything, even the leaves of the hedges had red dust on the bottom of them, but that was about the only bad thing about living there. It was a true small town where most families knew one another. The schools were good, the stores well stocked and their goods were reasonably priced, and if there was any problem with the houses the company sent out repairmen right away. The houses were well maintained with regular painting and wall papering, etc..

I spent a lot of my youth down there at my grandparents' home, hanging out in the town with the other kids there, and we went to church down there too. I went there every holiday from the day I was born till the house was torn down. My cousins all lived close enough that they were there for every holiday too, plus many birthdays, and any day of the week we might go visit my grandparents. It was the best of homemade foods, real iced tea, big family card games--first it would be all ages card games then later in the evening the penny jars came out when the adults began to play poker for fun. It was a large home full of love.

Photography by David Robert Crews

This is the place I have visited most often in my dreams.

This is where my grandparents house was. I remember the elbow in that overhead steam line well from when I was playing in their back yard or talking to Grandmom as she hung up clothes to dry on the clothesline or in the alley talking to Granddad as he worked on his big car--he kept his Desoto, Dodge, or whatever big V8 motored Detroit yacht he owned that year all tuned up and running smooth, but with that throaty, low, powerful rumble those kinds of motors have.

David Robert Crews

bethlehem steel
sparrows point maryland
ursusdave
photography
baltimore
maryland

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Bethlehem Steel As Seen From A Boat Near The Ore Docks

Photographs by David Robert Crews

Left click on the bottom photo to enlarge it and you'll see how dirty that truck is. Everything "Down The Point" (Bethlehem Steel Mill at Sparrows Point, Maryland) was always getting dirty like that.

David Robert Crews
bethlehem steel
sparrows point maryland
ursusdave
photography
baltimore

Monday, December 04, 2006

Sunset Seen From Ft. Howard Veterans Hospital

Photography by David Robert Crews

Those strange things that look a bit like steamboats on the Patapsco River are Anne Arundel County shoreline buildings of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company.

I have seen several fantastic sunsets from this point of view, when I was a patient in the Ft. Howard, Maryland Veterans Administration Medical Center and was temporarily confined to a wheelchair. It is so safe there that I had no fear of being out there by myself while I was quite crippled up and mostly helpless for awhile.

I went back down there one evening, when I wasn't a patient, and took this photo. I'd sure like to photograph a few more sunsets from down there.

David Robert Crews
photography
ursusdave
fort howard maryland
maryland

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Sunset At The End Of A Pier

Photography by David Robert Crews

This photo was taken when the pier was owned by Pelican's Restaurant and Bar in Millers Island, Maryland. Then Hurricane Isabel came along and temporarily wiped out the business capabilities of this piece of property, and it did the same to some other business properties, and it destroyed or nearly destroyed many nice homes. I have to get down there to see if this restaurant is open again. If Pelican's hasn't been reopened, there are several other good eateries down there where I can get a delicious meal.

Oh, the wavy effects on the photo is from it being in small file JPEG format; that digital limitation does help prevent any worthwhile copyright infringement by a person who would take it and say it’s their own or use it for commercial purposes without paying me, but the print of this and the larger file of it look gorgeous. Let me know if you want to purchase a copy.

David Robert Crews
ursusdave
maryland
millers island
photography

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

2000-2001 New Years Eve Baltimore Fireworks

Photography by David Robert Crews

These are the 2000-2001 New Years Eve fireworks in the Baltimore Harbor. There are plenty of fireworks photos in this world, consequently the ones I shoot usually have a local landmark in them so people can see where the photos were taken.

David Robert Crews
photography
ursusdave
fireworks
maryland
baltimore

Monday, November 27, 2006

Baltimore Blues Society Picnic

Photography by David Robert Crews

The headline act at the Blues picnic was one of the Granddadies of electric Blues guitar, Hubert Sumlin. Here's a backstage view of local Maryland area Blues musicians backing up one of their heros and teachers, Hubert Sumlin. Hubert had just returned from playing at Mick Jagger's birthday party in Switzerland, he's one of The Rolling Stones' heros and teachers too.

Photography by David Robert Crews

The guy kneeling amongst the relaxing crowd at a Blues picnic is an old friend of mine from the 1960s, Dale Patton. Dale was the lead singer in a band called The Psychedelic Propeller, my neighbor, Austin O'Baker was the drummer in the band. I used to hang out with them and was dubbed their equipment manager, so I could get into their gigs that were in bars. The band members were all under 21 years old at the time, the band did play a lot of gigs in Georgetown, Washington, DC, where the drinking age was only 18, but I was only 16-17, and I liked to dance with the girls and have a rockin' good time. I did help to carry the equipment in and set it up. Dale helped found the Baltimore Blues Society.

We were all some of the first music fans around Baltimore to buy record albums by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, any Blues musician's, Country Joe and The Fish, Jefferson Airplane, Frank Zappa, The Cream, and we had those albums and knew the music on them well for many months before any of these musicians' records were played on any Baltimore radio stations.

David Robert Crews
photography
baltimore
blues
ursusdave
baltimore blues society