Got up far too early this morning in order to get breakfast from Carmen’s Country Kitchen. It was worth it, but my brain takes too long to catch up with the world and I found myself overwhelmed by Philadelphia. After a fantastic breakfast with crispy striped bass under fresh salsa made of mangoes and cilantro and plums and an omelette of Herculean proportions, we made our way up through the Italian Market section on 9th Street.
Saturday IS market day, apparently. We were assailed by a million scents and sights and noises. From the finery of corner spice stores to the overload of tightly packed ducks in wooden cages – people yelling prices and offering to sell us cheap turtles. The continued Philadelphia challenge of side-stepping signs of dog-passage plagues us as we hunt the perfect cheese and fineries of pasta.
Afterwards we made our way down I-95 looking for ways to pass the time, finally discovering an amazing old bookshop not too far from our show in Havre de Grace. Washington Street Books apparently began 17 years ago as an antique shop and slowly expanded into comic books and then (the owner’s wife explained) “Well, the toys just sort of came with the comic books.”
I was already in Love with the first huge room, filled with old books in slip covers and various knick knacks and old lunch boxes. Immediately finding a hundred year-old copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales with colour illustrations which I quickly bought for Heather made me very forgiving about the Life-size mannequin of Jar Jar Binks.
“Oh, but you’re REALLY like the OTHER room! That’s where we have, oh, you know… the monsters and robots and lions and tigers and bears and things!”
Washington Street Books in Havre de Grace, MD.
How right she was. An amazing collection with a collector’s eye for detail, an antique-buyer’s eye for cramped and dusty organization, and a fanboy’s whimsy – Battlestar Galactican Daggets mixed freely with Spawn Angels and Todd McFarlane’s Tortured Souls glared mutely at the gleeful Smurfs who in turn smirked over the travailles of ANYONE foolish enough to set up shop on Hoth. Life-size Wicket heads beneath a 5′ long Millennium Falcon, AT-ATs and aliens all vied for my attention and it was no surprise to hear that the actual toy collection had sprung from a Love for Star Wars.
I’m indeed impressed and glad that I’d run across my purchase so early in the visit. Any later and Heather’s gift might’ve been supplanted by something for me- I mean – for Brennan.
Also – an interesting note for car trips with rob: Photoshop makes me carsick – Dreamweaver does not.
Also, face painting and portraiture was perpetrated. All in all, a good time was had and I got to sit at a table with my friend and fellow musician-in-arms Dan Layman-Kennedy. At one point he lamented “I’ve had acne for twenty years. I’ve had it for longer than it took me to get it.” Sigh. It’s true. And I’d forgotten how funny he was. It was good to be reminded. All in all it was a fantastic event. Children making art at Thynkvocally’s benefit for the American Cancer Society at the Bottomless Cup in Havre de Grace, MD. The day was absolutely stunning, sunshiney and windy – and then as evening closed its fist the storms rolled in and run amok all over us. Wally (Walter Dyer) was silhouetted by ferocious lightning and his music was punctuated with thunder.
