Washington Monument/ Mt. Vernon

Today my dad and I took the light rail into the city. We rode the light rail from the Lutherville stop down to Lexington Market where we got off and headed into the city on foot. If you look at the top of the pictured building you will see an ad for Luskin's electronics. I didn't pay any attention to it, but my dad pointed out that there used to be a Luskin's near our house but it went out of business 10 years ago. I guess that ad must be really old then, huh?

One cool aspect of this mural is that it show cases the change over time of a street block. Initially the houses are bordered up and the citizens unengaged.

Next, the area was clean and the citizens seemed content.

Finally, the citizens don't settle for being content and instead become proactive in their community.

I saw this on a the window of a day-care center and couldn't help but smile. On a week before had us senior thirteen year girls sung the song "How does your garden grow?" from our first grade play with the lower schoolers at their spring concert.

This looked very Banksy-esque, although I don't think the man himself has come to Baltimore, yet. This graffiti seemed very fitting for a bordered up store front.

This mural was called "My Sister's Garden" so I wonder if it has any connection with the shelter My Sister's Place. As the mural says, each of the 100 flowers in the garden was designed by a homeless women. Many of the churches in the Mt. Vernon area are adorned with art work.

These yellow ribbons are prayer ribbons. Across the street from the ribbons was a painted screen; Baltimore is famous for them.

I just loved this mural. And on the other side of the abandoned performance center there was another mural.

There was an abandoned theatre that too was covered in art work.

My dad and I had some extra time to kill before my mom was going to pick us up so after I realized we were close to Red Emma's I decided that we should check it out. I had first heard of the coffeehouse/ bookstore from a girl whom I traveled to Egypt with. She was from DC and suggested that we meet up and check out Red Emma's after we got back to the States. This girl was quite the independent one (she choose not to wear a bra, deodorant, or shave anywhere-- not that there's anything wrong with that) and I admired her spirit. We didn't, however, stay in touch after we got back and somewhere along the line the name Red Emma's had morphed into Red Rabbit's and then Red Room or maybe even the Red Velvet. As a result, I never found the venue. That is until my parents brought home the Baltimore Magazine's City Guide 2009: Secrets of the City--101 Things to Eat, See & Do. Red Emma's was featured in the Intellectual Temple section.

I found the sign on the store front window amusing. You should also know that "Reflecting the current economy, Red Emma's honors the Euro."

I was in the market for a new book so I got The Taqwacores, a novel by Michael Muhammad Knight about the Islamic punk rock scene which has been VERY interesting thus far. When the cashier was ringing up the book, he asked me whether I was a part of a labour union (presumably because he would have given me a discount). I hesitated before saying no. But let's take a second look, shall we? While I never actually signed up for the CPI (Communist Party of India), the CPI-M, or AISF (the party's youth branch), I did partake in rallies and according to one newspaper was thus endorsing the party.

So should I have said yes to his question? Is a political party the same as a labour union though? Perhaps the very fact that I'm even asking these questions means that saying no was the correct answer, at least for now.