Desperately Seeking Salem

This has been the summer of many things. A summer of coconut ice cream obsessions. A summer of day’s without dishes (my favorite). A summer of creative production despite all of the distractions.

I’m seeing it all over town and in my conversations with Salem’s creative folk.

Salem’s very own Stephanie Lenox, poet and new mama has put together the brand-new issue of Blood Orange Review, a highly respected online literary journal, in-between her darling baby’s naps and working for A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village. It includes, among other strange, curious and beautiful things, an essay on roadkill that is something like a piece I once wrote after trailing around with the dude who picks it off Iowa highways for a living.

Hey, just cause I’m a mama doesn’t mean I can’t be interested in roadkill.

There is also a sweet poem about bees.

Will Bragg, all-around man-about-town these days, has opened up a downtown studio. He’s been photographing the people who work around him. Sure, this might seem like a routine and ordinary project, but look at this gorgeous woman who owns Glance Glasses! Hair, commence greyness!

All kinds of jealous of his recent photo shoot with Grand Duchy, Frank Black’s new project (you’ll remember they played their first show here in April of 2009).

Congrats to Will, for getting what all of us want. You know, a room of our own.

Jessica Ramey of Northwest Nest, a hero to mothers all who aspire to raise their kids and create their art at the same time (the impossibility of achieving flow — ask me about it sometime), launched a Salem Zine project that you may have heard about here, and here.

One quibble about the article about Jessica. She’s not one woman behind the trend in Salem. In this case, she IS the trend.

You can download her Salem zine here.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pooped from having just typed what other people are doing. But what about you? Have you managed to create something glorious in the scant idle hours of summer?

This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Books, Capital Shots, Celebrities, You are what you read. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.