Kim's guide to Frederick

Alright, I’ve lived in Frederick…..hmm…..way too damn long, and despite a lot of complaining, it’s my hometown. It doesn’t make me an expert, but I have got a lot of more-or-less educated opinions.

WHERE TO EAT AND WHAT TO EAT THERE:

Nido’s –
Can’t go wrong with simple, delicious, low-priced Italian food, in a restaurant with clouds painted on the ceiling. I’ve had semi-romantic dinners here, but also friendly gatherings with a carafe of wine, complete with stories that start “I laughed so hard I …” The waiters know me, and everyone else there by the looks of it. Order baked ziti or anything with the red sauce.

The Orchard –
Let the chic urban hippies that frequent this place order the wholesome, organic entrees – you go right for desert. Everything in them is the real deal, and nothing is oversweet, and your plate isn’t piled with a giant cake and a bunch of random stuff drizzled and powdered all over the place to make it look gourmet – it just tastes good and ultra-fresh.

LaPaz –
Best salsa I’ve ever had, and the prices are good. Avoid Friday and Saturday nights, if you’re claustrophobic. They’re opening a new, larger location soon.

Cacique –
This Spanish/Mexican restaurant is the best place to go for a unique brunch.

Brewer’s Alley –
For the love of god, don’t order anything except the pizza. The food combinations are probably supposed to be “creative” but they err on the side of “bizarre”. (Goat cheese and arugula salad with capers and walnuts, anyone?) That said, the pizza’s good. For some reason, there’s always tons of people in the bar. It ain’t the in-house beer that’s packin’ em in, that’s for sure.

Kyoko Café
Sushi and Thai food in a stylish little location overlooking Patrick street.

Lotus -
Fun Chinese restaurant, with the best fried tofu I've ever had. They seem to recognize me there too.

FUN (CHEAP) STUFF TO DO:

Gallery Walk –
First Saturdays, fall through spring, downtown. Stores and galleries downtown stay open late, and you can wander through, while eating and drinking the free goodies. They have special themes, depending on season, as well. (there were ice sculptures and a weird cupid guy in one of the stores, for Valentine’s Day) It’s free, unless you buy as well as look.

Arts Festival (you may be noticing a theme) –
This festival features works of local and regional artisans. It’s juried, which I think means that someone “wins”. Nothing museum-quality, but nothing too crafty or cutesy either. I always find something fascinating, and the live music is fun too. There is an admission charge.

Duck Pin Bowling at Village Lanes –
For kids and the seriously bowling impaired. The balls are super tiny. If you get it right, they literally skip out of the gutter. A Baltimore/Maryland oddity. You can also go to Rock-n-Bowl at Terrace Lanes, for some memories of being 14.

http://somdfrederick.org/bowlingDuckPin.htm

Frederick Coffee Company –
Everyone hangs out here but nobody is quite sure why. It’s open 24 hours, and has live music several days a week. That could be part of it. They roast/burn the beans on site. It’s getting a strange, beatnik-nightspot feel due to the hours change, and the coffee is usually terrible, but it’s an authentic neighborhood coffee house, and that’s rare in suburban sprawl-ville.

Cunningham Falls –
Near Thurmont, 15 min away. You can make the falls a 15-minute stop (shh – park in the handicapped lot for quick access), a several hour hike (take the “difficult” hike, it’s much more interesting and vigorous), or an all-day event (canoe on the lake or hike the surrounding area, too), depending on what you want. Go in the fall, to avoid crowds and admire the colors.

Old Movies at the Weinberg –
It’s a concert venue now, but it started its life as a movie theater. For the silent ones, an organ comes out of the floor while the guy is playing it. No, really.

the time between

I started to think today about my experiences singing with the Master Chorale of Washington (I've chosen not to sing with them again next year). It was fun, but getting back and forth to D.C. took almost as much time as rehearsals and practice. I started to think about how logistics and commutes drain the energy for the actual activities they bring us to. Here are a few examples:

Master Chorale -
commute - 2 hrs weekly (more, during the time of concerts)
add meeting with carpool folk, dropping them off - 30 min extra, weekly

That's 2.5 hrs of commuting for a 2.5 hr rehearsal.

The Day Job -

commute - 13 hrs per week
actual time at work - 37.5 hrs per week


The Church Job -
commute - 3 hrs per week
actual time at church - 5 hrs per week

adding this to short trips for groceries, visits, etc.:
I spent 20 hrs per week IN MY CAR!

omg, I didn't think it was going to be that bad.
I have to go and take a nap, now.

Ok, having moved to Leesburg and quite the choir......

work commute = 5 hrs weekly
church commute = 1 hr weekly
back and forth to md for friend visits, fun stuff in dc, etc. = 3 hrs weekly
grocery store, etc. = 1 hr weekly
driving time total: 10 hrs per week

so supposedly, I'll be getting back 10 hrs of my life and saving $37.50 in gas every week. Theoretically...

The opiate of the masses

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4715210

According to this NPR story, lately Iranian clerics have become more lenient about trade, and have begun to even encourage consumerism among the people of their country (youth in particular). Their religious piety used to forbid shows of wealth but now, strangely, it endorses them.

In one interview, a girl stated that her fellow youth used to be involved politically, but now they don't have the time. Protests and political activism have been replaced by shopping and trend-following, and working to make more money to do more shopping. These Iranian clerics know exactly what they're doing. Money is the opiate of the masses.

Religion here in the United States has in some cases taken a similar turn. Especially in the case of mega-churches, wealth is considered a sign of blessing, and something to be aspired to. I guess they don't devote many Sundays to studying the Sermon on the Mount.

Many churches, when they DO use a wealth-related biblical text, often skew it to suit their purposes. I remember the sermons I heard, even at good ol' Calvary UMC (the church where I grew up), in which the minister preached on the passage that includes "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." He spent considerable time explaining that "the eye of the needle" is actually a difficult pass through the mountains, which was difficult to traverse by camel. That may be so, but WHO CARES? The disciples, whom he was talking to, then say, "Well then how can anyone be saved?" They knew that Jesus wasn't saying, "well, it might be kinda hard for you to enter the kingdom of heaven". They knew he was saying it was pretty darn impossible. Then, of course, Jesus follows with the beautiful, paradoxical, "With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible."

Many churches spend a lot of time trying not to piss off their richer members, who allow (with their giving) much of the church's activities to go on. But in doing so, they water down their message. Mega-churches, who endorse the pursuit of wealth as "the Christian way", hopelessly pervert the meaning of the gospels.

In Iran, church and state have joined forces to quiet the people by busying them with the accumulation of wealth. Better-off Iranian youth, rather than engaging themselves in political activism against a government that is deeply corrupt, and doesn't reflect their values, are seeking the cheap pleasures of expensive goods. In effect, they silence themselves.

Here in the United States, a similar trend is happening. Many of us are so consumed with our own financial concerns that we ignore the blatant way our government has been abusing its power in the last few years.

The pastor at Calvary UMC summed up his sermon by saying that having money is ok, unless having it consumes your life, and separates you from the path of God. Today, though, money is power. It gets people elected, it makes wars begin. As the middle classes shrink, the divide between rich and poor gets larger, while the chasm of poverty becomes easier to fall into, and wealth becomes survival. When you have money, you vote differently, live differently. You live to protect what you have. So the question becomes not "when does having money divert you from living a Christian (or moral) life?" The question is, "when doesn't it?"

Be afraid, do nothing

If I were John Stewart, I would read this article aloud, stopping at strategic points to ask, "REALLY?"

"WASHINGTON - The Bush administration raised the terror alert a notch to code orange for the nation's mass transit systems on Thursday, responding to a spate of deadly rush-hour bus and subway bombings in London.
"Obviously we're concerned about the possibility of a copycat attack," said
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The heightened alert will apply to "regional and inter-city passenger rail, subways and metropolitan bus systems," Chertoff said at a news conference.
Chertoff said that U.S. authorities have "no specific credible evidence" pointing toward an attack in the United States.

( It seems to me, we've decided to eliminate "specific credible evidence" as a basis for our terrorism alerts and security operations altogether)

At the same time, he said, "we are also asking for increased vigilance" particularly in the U.S. transportation system.
He stressed that authorities are not asking Americans to avoid using their subways and bus systems in the light of the worst attack in London since World War II. To the contrary, he said those who use mass transit should continue to do so."

-By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

The terror alert system really bugs me. I'm sure it means something important to police, and it's good that they have a specific way of stepping up their security measures and such. But what does Code Orange, mean to Joe Blow on the street? Why does the traffic sign in DC say, instead of "Accident on 495, Expect Delays" - "Terror Alert - High". So Joe can worry about whether or not to send his kids on the bus this morning? So he can feel nervous as he steps on the train? (though not so nervous as to not take it altogether - that would be acting in reaction to fear - letting the terrorists win!!!)

Be afraid, do nothing. Do not prepare, but be ready. Let those in power make decisions that will save you. Trust. Obey.

An American Tune

This has got to be the saddest song ever written:

Many's the time I've been mistaken, and many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken, and certainly misused.
Ah, but I'm all right, I'm all right. I'm just weary to my bones.
Still you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant, so far away from home,
so far away from home.

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered.
I don't have a friend who feels at ease.
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered, or driven to its knees.
Ah, but it's all right. It's all right. For we've lived so well so long.
Still, when I think of the road we're travelin' on, I wonder what's gone wrong.
I can't help but wonder what's gone wrong.

And I dreamed I was dying.
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly, and looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly. And I dreamed I was flying,
and high up above my eyes could clearly see the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea.
And I dreamed I was flying.

And we come on the ship they call the Mayflower.
We come on the ship that sailed the moon.
We come in the age's most uncertain hours, and sing an American tune.
Oh, and it's all right, it's all right, it's all right. You can't be forever blessed.
Still tomorrow's gonna be another working day and I'm tryin' to get some rest;
that's all - I'm trying to get some rest.

- Paul Simon

Is that genius or what?

when job and life conflict

I love working in churches, and doing music with the people there. That much is a given - a lot of people haven't found something they truly love to do, and I'm lucky in that way. But it's a Catch-22 - because I'm working when I'm in churches, I never get to experience the spiritual refreshment that just being there and experiencing the service can give. Also I don't have the liberty to neccessarily choose my church. I like to sit in a really interesting and progressive church, my mind open to the ideas. But some churches are dogmatic or over-simplifying, and I feel like I need to close my mind, just a little, to keep the silly formulas and guilt trips they lay from creeping in. It's exausting to try to segment your mind this way - to go to a worship service and not truly participate is terribly exausting. I now know how my less- or differently-religious friends have felt upon sitting in church, wondering if they should mutter the "amens" that didn't come from the heart.

I sit quietly during the Apostles Creed, because I don't believe in the recitation of creeds in general, and because I don't agree with many of the statements in the Apostles Creed specifically. I don't like doing that, but I didn't like saying it, either. I respect the people around me, who agree with it wholeheartedly. This is part of their faith, and that faith is part of what makes them the good people I know them to be. I want to tell them that I'm not protesting. I want to tell them that I don't think they're wrong. Maybe every word is true. But I don't feel those truths deeply enough to proclaim them to a room of people, outloud. It's a moment when I know I don't belong. It's a sad 30 seconds for me.

I loved working with the choir, though, even the disappointments and setbacks. I love caring about something I get paid for. It feels like the ultimate freedom. I remember the first time I felt that way - when I stood on the roof of the Court St parking deck, in downtown Frederick, after nailing my Homewood nursing home interview. I was about to get paid to do something I had previously volunteered to do. I looked down at the city and for the first time, it was MY city.

"When you are home, you see the streams running, you feel the wind blowing, you hear the fields singing, you are aware of the earth. Home is open eyes - not comfort, but freedom"

Where is home? Is it the place where you can run to to find safety? Is it with your family? Is it where you were born? Is it where your friends are? Maybe home is not freedom after all, but a different kind of captivity. It's the place where you choose to be imprisoned. It's where you draw the line - I will make these sacrifices. I need these things to survive. I do not need these. So maybe home is about choices. What a mystery is belonging.

"How strange and powerful, the love of home.
Stranger sill to be alive at all,
to be anywhere, in all its endless detail,
and the millions of tiny locks that will be broken
before you can be released from where you are
to return again to the place,
so many years ago, you started from,
the nothing that is everywhere but here."

-Michael Creagan