With Bruce Springsteen playing the Arena tomorrow night, I've been thinking about when I met the Boss a few years ago. My wife Anne and I were going to Ireland to celebrate our anniversary, and Marc Anthony Thompson—a friend of ours, who happened to be a member of Springsteen's Seeger Sessions band—caught wind of it and told us they were playing three nights in Dublin. He suggested we come out to a show, if we happened to be in town at the same time. So we did exactly that.

Not surprisingly, the concert was amazing. You can check out Springsteen's Live in Dublin CD and DVD for proof. After the show, we met Marc backstage for a drink. Marc—a great songwriter himself, who records under the name Chocolate Genius Inc.—grew up in South Central L.A., was not previously much of a Springsteen fan, and tended towards the cynical and acerbic. I, on the other hand, grew up worshiping Springsteen and, even though my fandom had waned, I still had him on a pedestal. I respected the guy.

So with some trepidation, I asked about Marc's Boss, and he immediately began shaking his head. Uh-oh, I thought, Here it comes. "I've never met anyone like him," he said. "He treats everyone the same, whether you're a rock star or a cleaning person. In all the time I've spent with him, I haven't heard him utter a single condescending word."

He then noted that Springsteen seemed to genuinely care about his fans. In fact, when a fan was struck by a car outside the venue in Rome, Springsteen visited her in the hospital and mentioned her by name (sending get well wishes) at every subsequent concert on the tour. At the first show in Dublin, he spotted a small child in the front row and had the band play "Froggie Went a Courtin'" for the tike. When the song started, the parents broke into tears. Marc and the band found out later it was the child's all-time favorite song, and the youngster was battling leukemia.

"These sort of things happen over and over again," Marc said, before asking, "You guys wanna meet Bruce? Do you care?"

He led us through a door, and there was Bruce with his wife, Patti, and their children. Bruce smiled when he heard we were from Baltimore and wished us happy anniversary. We talked a little about the tour, and about Marc, but it was something of a blur. We all shook hands and said our goodbyes.

And as we approached the door to the backstage bar, we heard a voice call out: "Hey, Anne and John..." We turned to see Bruce smiling and waving. "Happy anniversary!"

Yeah, he really is as nice as he seems.

[In the above clip, which was shot backstage in Dublin, you can spot Marc at about the one-minute mark. He's on the left, wearing a grey fedora.]

The parade of Baltimore bands signing with Chicago's Thrill Jockey Records continues. According to the label, Future Islands will release a full-length CD, In Evening Air, next spring. If you're not familiar with the band's New Wave bounce, check out the above video for "The Happiness of Being Twice."

See if you can spot Dan Deacon in the clip. He's currently recovering from major back pain (acute sciatica) that caused him to curtail his U.S. tour. Maybe we'll see him around town a bit more, but get better, Dan.

In the meantime, Future Islands is releasing a 12" remix collaboration—"Post Office Wave Chapel," which features No Age and Beach House's Victoria Legrand—and playing Floristree on Nov 28th.

Speaking of Beach House... the band's Sub Pop debut, Teen Dream, is slated for a January 26th release.

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?

The piece of art that changed my life was seeing Charles Ludlam getting ready to be Marguerite Gautier. He was in dress rehearsal for a benefit for The Ridiculous Theatrical Company called Taboo Tableaux. It was eleven different scenes from the previous shows the company had done. At this point, Charles Ludlam and I were partners, but I had never seen him perform. I was backstage before the final scene and watched Charles put on make-up for act III of Camille. It was at that exact moment I knew there was a place for me in this world—for a queer actor. Three months later, I made my acting debut in Caprice.

Everett Quinton directs The Mystery of Irma Vep—the off-off-Broadway smash written by Charles Ludlam—at Everyman Theatre through Dec. 13th. Quinton and Ludlam won Obies for Irma Vep ("Best Ensemble Performance") in 1985. The costume changes alone are worth the price of admission.

[photo of Ludlam (above, at left) courtesy Everett Quinton]

Tonight, David Simon, Barry Levinson, and John Waters appear together at MICA's Brown Center to benefit the Maryland Film Festival. Tickets will set you back $125 to $250.

Around the corner, Jandek—the reclusive indie musician—plays a super rare concert at Load Of Fun, backed by local experimentalists Jason Willett, Dan Breen, Twig Harper, and Susan Alcorn.

Down the street, Bob Hieronimus talks about symbols and art and creates a mural (on-site) as Telesma performs its unique brand of psychedelic rock at the Windup Space.

Caleb Stine plays The Patterson, and the Tim Green Quintet plays Jazzway 6004.

And Boister wraps up its 13th birthday celebration with two shows at An die Musik. Oysters and chocolate will be served.

All in all, not a bad night.

Gabriela Lena Frank's "Inca Dances," commissioned by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, snagged a Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. The premiere recording of the piece appears on Manuel Barrueco and Cuarteto Latinoamericano's excellent Sounds of the Americas CD, which came out last year on Barrueco's Tonar label. Barrueco is on quite a roll. Look for a review of his new CD, Virtuoso Guitar Duos, in our December issue.

Sesame Street went on the air 40 years ago today, and here's one of my all-time favorite clips from the show. Judging by the You Tube comments, I'm not alone.

A bit of stimulus money has trickled down to the arts. The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) has announced who'll be receiving National Endowment for the Arts/Baltimore City job retention grants, which were made possible by $250,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and matched by the city. As reported in earlier posts, the grant program was created to aid in job retention efforts in the arts community. 

The NEA funds allowed BOPA to award grants ranging from $1,500 to $15,000 to help support full-time, part-time, or contractual workers for the following organizations: 

American Visionary Art Museum, Art on Purpose, Art With A Heart, Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance, Arts Every Day, Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, Baltimore Architecture Foundation, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Baltimore Museum of Industry, Baltimore Public Works Museum, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Theatre Alliance, Banner Neighborhoods Community Corporation, Black Cherry Puppet Theater, Child First Authorit, CityLit Project, Community Concerts at Second, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Dance Baltimore, Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute, Everyman Theatre, Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Hippodrome Foundation, James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Magical Experiences, Maryland Art Place, Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Maryland Film Festival, Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Humanities Council, Maryland Lawyers for the Arts, Maryland Science Center, Maryland State Boychoir, MUSE 360, Museum of Ceramic Art, Nana Projects, Neighborhood Design Center, Opera Vivente, Parks and People, Port Discovery Children's Museum, Pumpkin Theatre, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Sail Baltimore, Single Carrot Theatre, Stadium School Youth Dreamers, Station North Arts & Entertainment District, Transforming East Baltimore, Unchained Talent, Walters Art Museum, Wide Angle Youth Media, Woman's Industrial Exchange, Wombwork Productions, WYPR, and Young Audiences of Maryland.

The latest addition to Baltimore's impressive mural program was unveiled in Govans this afternoon. Community leaders and children from Govans Elementary School joined artist Lyle Kissack (left) for the dedication at the intersection of York Road and Benninghaus Avenue.

Kissack's "Steelworkers" mural (a collaboration with Gerald Ross) was featured in Baltimore a few years ago.

For pics of other city murals, including more of Kissack's work, check out City Paint 2009.

[photos: John Lewis]

When Deanna Bogart emailed to say she'd be performing at the Pyramids, I figured she may be referring to the Pyramid arena in downtown Memphis. Memphis is a big blues town, so it made sense.

Well, it turns out Bogart was talking about the Pyramids in Egypt. Check out this Reuters photo, taken by Tarek Mostafa.

I'll try to get more info in the coming days.

[photo: courtesy Deanna Bogart]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?

Ben E. King's recording of the R&B classic "Stand By Me" captured me as a high school freshman in 1961. The song was a haunting interracial partnership of artists that rose above the segregation of culture and politics in that era. It inspired me not to look down on rock music, but instead to sing it myself in a band to help pay college bills. Now, in my '60s, I still love singing those old songs with a goofy reunion band called Off Our Rocker. Every writer needs a little fun in the midst of history and literature.

Pulitzer Prize winning historian Taylor Branch discusses his new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, at the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Library on November 5th. The talk begins at 7:30 pm.