Island Med Student

Today’s pic was inspired by a reader of my blog, John. He mentioned wanting to put together a collection of photos of the lone shoes you always see scattered about in places. I took this photo of a lonely shoe on the sidewalk right outside my building. I really like his idea, and I’m especially interested in the stories behind these lonely shoes. How were they lost? Where is the owner? I’ve lost many things while galavanting around, and I’ve even lost a shoe once. It’s actually is a great story. I was involved in a spontaneous mud wrestling contest in the middle-of-nowhere-West-Virginia and I was wearing flip flops. By the end of the fight, I realized that I had lost one of my shoes. We looked for that flip flop for hours, while listening to Black Eyed Peas, dancing, eating hummus, melting chocolate bars, doing the robot, making video recordings, and drinking cheap beer.

Maybe someone finally found that lonely flip flop years later. I wonder what kind of story they made up for it.

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Baltimore seems to have an excess of smokestacks. I’m interested in finding out how all of them are currently being used, if at all. In particular, I’ve always been curious about the one that you see as you’re coming into the city on I-95, that has “Baltimore” written on it. I managed to snap a picture of it as Micah was driving, which is hard to do! After some searching, I managed to find this out from a virtualtourist website:

“This is the smoke stack that greets you when you come into Baltimore from the south on the BW Parkway (I-295). On the south side of the stack it says BALTIMORE and this picture is the north side. It is a waste to energy plant (AKA a Large Municipal Waste Combustors or MWC) with a Multicomponent Infrared Gas Analyzer in the stack to analyze the exhaust. The Baltimore Resco plant has a total capacity of 2,250 TPD (tons per day), consisting of three 750 TPD units each with emissions controlled by an electrostatic precipitator.”

I also found this neat kids website with more information.

I don’t know much about how the trash-to-energy plants work. I’m always very excited about sources of renewable energy, so I’m very fascinated by this approach. As far as I can tell from doing a very quick search online, it’s an environmentally friendly way of creating power. The gases are re-used instead of being released into the air, so I think the pollution is almost zilch. Why isn’t everyone doing this? I’m obviously very ignorant on this topic, so if you’re reading this, and you know more about it, please do share!

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Okay, so I promised to post one pic a day in my photo series, but alas I have already failed. I will try and not miss anymore days, though. Anyway, today’s pic was taken while driving past a building yesterday afternoon. It’s not that great of a pic, but I took it because I just thought the building was really neat.

Baltimore is a city with a very rich history, and it also has a lot of great architecture. I enjoy history a lot, and especially the history of buildings. I like learning about how certain buildings were used in the past, and what kind of people lived in them. It’s kind of like thinking, “If these walls could talk…I wonder what they would say.” I know that the walls of places that I’ve lived in before would probably have a lot to say, so I know there are some other walls out there with a lot to talk about!

The building is on the corner of Broadway and Eastern Avenue, near Fells Point. I tried looking up the history online, but couldn’t find anything (I didn’t look all that hard, though). If any of you out there happen to know the dillio with the building, please do share!

Also, on the topic of taking a picture a day, I recently discovered this blog post about Jamie Livingston. Apparently, he took a polaroid every single day for 20 years until he died. There’s some pretty amazing stuff on this site, so check it out. I’m actually thinking about doing the same thing. Not for the Baltimore series, but perhaps another one. It just sounds like a lot of fun.

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Today’s pic was taken just 2 blocks from my apartment. There is an entire block of row houses (for which Baltimore is well known) that were condemned and have been boarded up. If you’ve ever seen the HBO show, the Wire, you’re probably very familiar with Baltimore’s boarded up row houses, as they were featured as favorite dumping grounds for drug dealers. In the show, many bodies were dumped into abandoned row houses, and then boards were nailed to the doorways, preventing the police from finding the bodies. I’m not sure if there are any documented cases of this actually happening in Baltimore, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were.

The boarded up row houses are just another reminder of the urban decay in this city. Does it make me sad? Yes, in some ways it does. But on the other hand, it just means there is opportunity for growth. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Search the world over, I’m a Baltimore-trash-girl.

Today’s Baltimorean pics were all shot on the block outside my apartment. Yes, I’ll say it again – ONE BLOCK! And I didn’t even take pictures of all the trash. Yes, Baltimore does have a trash problem. And yes, the street beside my house is a hangout for people who apparently like to drink a lot of alcohol and have sex. The positive is that they apparently have large penises, and are engaging in safe sex. So there’s that.

Lesson learned today? Taking pictures of trash is fun! And when you walk around with two dogs and a big camera taking pictures of trash on the ground, everyone assumes you’re an artist! I had several people tell me so.

Anyway, there were so many great shots that I’m cheating today and posting more than one pic. I felt that they were better as a set.

Also, 10 points and an ice cream cone to the person who can tell me the reference in the title of this post.

Without further ado, here be the pics!

And the very best one!

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Today’s Baltimorean pic features me, and my dogs Scope (black and white) and Molly (brown). I was lazy today and didn’t take pictures, so thank you Micah for letting me steal this one from your iPhone.

I think that many people share my opinion that the city motto painted on the benches throughout the city is incredibly hilarious. Thank you Baltimore for being a bone tingling, ironical juxtaposition treasure trove!

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

I believe Baltimore’s official motto is still “The Greatest City in America.” However, a recent ad campaign was supposed to change the motto to “Get in on it” which is pretty funny, actually. Watch their ad campaign video here.

Today’s pic was taken out the window of the third floor stairwell of my apartment building. Enjoy.

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Today’s Baltimore pic is my doggy doo Scopers relieving himself on a Baltimore City fire hydrant. The pic was just too cute not to post. Today I got my car back. Long story, but details and pics to follow tomorrow….

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Today’s pic was taken just one block from my apartment. It’s the entrance to Green Mount Cemetery, which is a historic cemetery built in 1839. I would have taken pics of the inside, but you have to take the tour to get inside, and I didn’t have the time for that (hopefully will soon). A Baltimore city landmark plaque at the entrance reads,

“Green Mount Cemetery was dedicated in 1839 on the site of the former country estate of Robert Oliver. This was at the beginning of the ‘rural cemetery movement’; Green Mount was Baltimore’s first such rural cemetery and one of the first in the U.S. The movement began both as a response to the health hazard posed by overcrowded church graveyards, and as part of the larger Romantic movement of the mid-1800s, which glorified nature and appealed to emotions.

Green Mount reflects the romanticism of its age, not only by its very existence, but also by its buildings and sculpture. The gate way, designed by Robert Cary Long, Jr., and the hilltop chapel, designed by J. Rudolph Niernsee and J. Crawford Neilson, are Gothic Revival, a romantic style recalling medieval buildings remote in time.

Nearly 65,000 people are buried here, including the poet Syndey Lanier, philanthropists Johns Hopkins and Enoch Pratt, Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister-in-law Betsy Patterson, John Wilkes Booth, and numerous military, political and business leaders.”

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series

Today’s Baltimorean Pic…

“Baltimore – The Greatest City in America” photo series