Lake Trout and Fried Chicken

I was surprised to come across many un-listed murals, but I guess they were foretelling an entire day of surprises...

This is a decorative border at a school next to the first mural. And then the wall next to it was just blank:

I had never come across Lake Trout before, but once I saw one sign it seemed as though they started popping up everywhere I looked. I did so research and I found this article on Metromix: Baltimore by Brandon Picchierri entitled Munchie: Lake Trout—It’s a local tradition, but is it good?

"Culinarily speaking, there are very few dishes that are still specific to one region. Southern barbecue is everywhere, there are Cajun restaurants across the country. Even Maryland crab cakes (minus the required Old Bay) pop up in the most unexpected places.Then there's lake trout—one dish that stays true to the streets of Baltimore, without so much as a thought of moving up or down I-95. Neither from an actual lake nor an actual trout, lake trout is most often a fish commonly known as an Atlantic whiting, or just whiting, and is very easily and abundantly caught right off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. Almost always deep-fried, breaded and served on plain white bread, Lake Trout usually begs for condiments. Hot sauce and mayonnaise, ketchup and horseradish, salt and pepper; the choice is yours. If it could be compared to anything, we'd describe it as a poor man's fish and chips.Perhaps "The Wire"'s Jimmy McNulty and Bunk Moreland express it best:McNulty: "Lake trout? It's a white fish. A trash fish." Bunk: "Yeah; it's a white-trash fish." "

“The In Spirit” Park was truly food for thought. And it not only had a mural (with a deep message, literally written out might I add), but also has memorial trees for lynching, September 11th, violence, slavery, violence, addiction, and civil rights.
Sadly the area surrounding the mural isn't all that great. I was pleasantly surprised to find wind chimes on each of the memorial trees. My grandpa has a wind chime outside of his apartment and when I was up there last weekend he would bang it forcibly every time we went into the house. These wind chimes, however, were so far up in the trees that only the wind could touch them.

In this mural while there’s a white boy playing with black children in the bottom half of the mural, but there appears to be no white figures of importance looking over the community. I don't really know what kind of message they were trying to send with that: kids you can play with whites, but don't look up to any of them?

I found many murals celebrating graduation (there were a surprising number of schools in the area). In the first mural, the children are looking at map of the area as if to say that a high school diploma can (as it rightfully does) give you control over your surrounding and, as the boy looking at the globe testifies, the power to dream on a global level. Notice also the jubilee.
Notice that BU is written on the girl’s graduation gown.

In another mural I found a lot of pride for the area. SOWEBO stands for south west Baltimore. I think this mural is really neat because it is set up like a bulletin board (notice the thumb tacks). This mural was near Franklin Square (where a high school is located) and it was also on what appeared to be the main eating/ shopping avenue for the area.

What a great view of the downtown area.

Around this time my dad and I were getting hungry for lunch. I had seen Lexington Market as we were driving to the first mural so I suggested me go there. However, at one of the last murals before lunch, we stumbled upon another market. Now I, as I think most Baltimoreans are, am familiar with the big markets: mainly Lexington and Northeast, but I had never heard of the Hollins Market. My dad was hesitant about going in because the surrounding area was not all the great. I cut a deal with him and said we would go to Lexington Market for lunch, but first go in to use the bathroom at Rollins Market. In my defense the building was immaculately clean and there were even these cute, inviting foot prints on the nearby sidewalk that lead up to the market. And of course, right next to the market was the colorful mural (with an accompanying colorful fence) that we had originally intended to see. So upon entering we asked one of the vendors where the bathroom was. He said he would take us and brought the keys from his stall. When we had gotten back to the car, my dad told me that the man who let him into the men’s bathroom had asked him: “what are you all on a field trip today?”. So maybe we didn’t look like me belonged but it was nice to find such a diamond in the ruff.

I was surprised to find that SOOOO many of the murals not only had trash in front of them, but were partially blocked by trees. Yes, trees are great for the environment and the landscape, but they’re blocking the art work!
This one had a fence too.

As I was driving (it was raining today) to one of the last murals, I came across what appeared to be an abandoned house in a neighborhood park. I walked around the building and it was sealed off; there was no way to get in. There was a group of guys sitting across the street and I really wish I had asked them if they knew anything about it. I’m reading this book though, called Capital City and it's about drug warfare in DC and to be completely honest it has slightly scared the shit out of me. And I feel awful that I’m making any assumptions, but: and that’s the key, but.
Yeah, those are the guys. Notice also “This is my park.” This was a bench right next to the building. So I have this thing about benches. I spent last summer taking a class at Georgetown and when I was down there someone said that Georgetown was almost completely separate from the rest of DC. They used the metro and benches as an example. You see, in Georgetown while the benches are long (fitting three or four people like a normal bench), they have dividers so that no one (i.e. the homeless) can not lie down (and sleep) on them. This bench eliminates that problem because it isn't even big enough for someone to lie down on! And about the DC metro (there is one is Baltimore too and I was surprised to find that it had a stop at Lexington Market; let's just say I'm very excited to ride it later this week), I think a passage in my book Capital City sums up thoughts exactly (if a little crudely). To put the scene is context this gangster named Shank thinks he is going to be killed shortly and he wants to rob a white man before he dies:

"I'm riding a 90 bus into Adams Morgan. Alot of white people live around here. It's easier to rob a white mother-fucker up here than it is in Georgetown. Once you're in Georgetown it's hard to get the hell out of there [because there's no metro]. Your ass would have to run like fifteen blocks before you could get out. But in Adams Morgan you can slip around and run through these Hispanic areas until you get back to Fourteenth Street. Once you get back to Fourteenth Street you can chill. Cops ain't gon' chase you as much around the black neighborhoods."

So finally the last mural. I think it pretty much speaks for itself, the detail was incredible.

I will say this though, after some research I discovered that every December John Hopkins Children’s Center has a fundraiser called Night of the 1,000 Elvises. (Hence the Elvis in the upper left hand corner).

Disclaimer: When I was in India, a few of the girls kept blogs and I didn't think much of it because I was keeping a journal. But let me tell you, this blog buissness isn't Just Another Sunday Stroll if you know what I mean. I spent more than three hours on this post (and not only writing, but just uploading and moving the pictures!), so I hope you appreciate what I'm doing because I think these murals are really cool and I want them to get more exposure.