Zemer Peled Studio​ is seeking a part time Art Studio Manager to work 2 days per week.

Candidate has to live in Baltimore area. Some of the work can be done at home, candidate doesn't have to be at the studio for all hours (ideally once a week) Availability online and via phone mandatory.

I love my owner. He freed me from the crowded cage and carried me home in his arms. I love my owner.

I love my owner. He took me on a walk today. It’s amazing outside. I love my owner.

I love my owner. I accidentally peed on the floor. He yelled and threw a big wad of paper at me. It’s not my fault. He forgot to walk me today. I love my owner.

I love my owner. He hasn’t fed me in a few days. I tried barking yesterday to remind him. He just hit me. It didn’t hurt. I love my owner.

I love my owner. He finally noticed I had no food. He gave me some that smelled funny, but I know he would never give me anything bad. I love my owner.

I love my owner. I got sick and threw up. I think it was the food. He got mad at me though. I love my owner.

I love my owner. He put me in the small dark room where he keeps his clothes. Earlier I saw a squirrel outside and barked. I forgot he hates that. I love my owner.

I love my owner. I tried getting into the bucket where he puts all his leftovers, but it fell over. He kicked me.

I love my owner. He came home really angry today, but I don’t think I did anything. I went over to him to make him feel better. He threw his boot at me.

I love my owner. It’s painful for me to breathe. I hope this means he won’t hit me again. Maybe he’ll help me.

I love my owner. I whimpered a little today to show him something was wrong, but he yelled at me. He’ll notice at some point.

I love my owner. I decided not to get up today, not even for him. I felt sad and hurt.

I love my owner. He took me to a nice lady today. She started checking all over my body. Maybe this means he does care about me, after all.

I love my owner. He gave me some medicine that made me feel better. I knew he cared about me.

It’s been a week. He hasn’t given me that medicine since. I nudged him to remind him. He kicked me. I howled in pain. He clamped his hand over my snout.

There’s something on my snout. It keeps me from eating or drinking or making noises. It’s really tight. I hope he takes it off soon.

Someone was at the door today. I tried to squeeze through when he started to open it. He got mad.

I have a new collar now. He grabs it, and then it chokes me. Sometimes he’ll just stand there, laughing, and dangle me by my collar, so I can’t breathe.

I managed to get my muzzle off today. It felt so much better. When he got home, he saw the ripped up muzzle. He kicked me.

He brought a new muzzle home. This one is a lot thicker, and it has spikes that hurt me whenever I try scratching at it. He made it even tighter than the last one.

Some people knocked at the door today, but he didn’t answer it. They left something on the door that he brought inside and crumpled up. He glared at me then locked me inside the dark room.

The people came back today, I could hear them talking. They started going through the house. “No dog here,” he said.

They came again when he wasn’t here. I wasn’t in the dark room for once. They found me.

I’m back in a crowded cage. A lot of people pass by, but they never look at me. I don’t want them to look at me. Don’t look at me.

A new person came and stopped in front of my cage. She keeps coming back. She always looks at me sadly.

She took me to a house that smelled like her today. Maybe this means she is my new owner. I don’t know how to feel.

She feeds me and walks me everyday and gives me treats. She even lets me sleep in her bed. I love my owner.

She came home crying today. I walked over to her slowly, and she wrapped her arms around my neck and cried. She actually let me comfort her. I love my owner.

We go out for runs a lot. I’m always more tired than she is afterwards. She doesn’t mind though. I love my owner.

I love my owner. I barked today when she got home. She just laughed. It felt good to bark again. I love my owner.

I love my owner. I take naps a lot. She likes to take them with me after she gets home. I like when she does that. I love my owner.

I love my owner. I threw up today. She looked sad and cleaned it up. I don’t want to make her sad. I love my owner.

I love my owner. I felt really tired today, so I didn’t get up. I wasn’t even hungry. I don’t even remember if she came home today. I love my owner.

I love my owner. She brought me to another nice lady. She was crying, so I licked her face to make her feel better. Then I felt a pinch, and all of a sudden, I was tired. I wanted to stay awake to help her. I tried. I couldn’t. I hope she’s alright. I love my owner.

This is an installment in The Retriever’s new creative writing section.  If you would like to submit your creative writing or art for possible publication in The Retriever, please contact pawsforartsubmissions@gmail.com. For questions, contact ceyda1@umbc.edu.

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author.

Baltimore’s Mayor Catherine Pugh, a member of the University of Maryland Medical System Board of Directors, is at the center of a controversy involving an all-too-convenient $500,000+ in profit from her “Healthy Holly” books. Mayor Pugh profited from the sale of the series in a supposed attempt to end childhood obesity. The UMD Medical System, among other organizations, purchased thousands of copies of her self-published book over the course of a few years, bringing Mayor Pugh’s integrity into question.

In the face of this scandal, the city council has called for her resignation. She, on the other hand, is insistent that after her recovery from pneumonia, she will return to office loaded with apologies for actions that brought on public distrust and the inkling of an unsavory business deal.

But I digress. The true horror, I’d argue, is more the contents of the series itself. Even beyond literary circles, the phrase “self-published” raises eyebrows and lowers expectations. “Healthy Holly” is a joyful romp through a hellhole of spelling errors, typos, character inconsistencies and flaws.

Amid other grammatical atrocities is the misspelling of the word “vegetable,” coupled with the book series major flaws in character motivations. For instance, in “A Healthy Start for Herbie”, a young child’s initial instinct upon meeting her newborn brother is to ask when he can exercise. The story follows her disappointment as she interrogates her mother about what brutally strict health regimen the baby can maintain. This leads the reader to conclude that perhaps Mayor Pugh isn’t the only fake one here.

Jokes aside, the whole scenario still reads like clickbait, except all that makes it a meme is factual. Mayor Pugh has expressed her full intent to return to office despite the fact that Baltimore City Council has reached a consensus: she must resign immediately. At the briefing, in which she addressed the scandal and her involvement in it, she apologizes for doing anything to make the public question her integrity and commitment to the city’s well-being.

She then proceeds to demonstrate her good intent by showing off her up-and-coming baby’s clothing line that promotes healthy eating and exercise in the presumed newborn and toddler demographic.

I can say with sincerity, the more I followed the breaking story, the more I laughed because of just how bizarre it all was. I fully acknowledge the misappropriation of funds, power and patronage that this deal entailed. The particular irony of this situation is that these funds could have been allocated properly in an effort to actually improve the health of children within the city, which Pugh stated was a supposed priority.

“Big news” today makes a habit of confusing and leaving the reader often more hopeless and apathetic when navigating a political landscape. But, there is an odd sense of humor, as well as simplification, in this local scandal. Politician is outed for a financial scandal. Politician is ostracized. More meme-worthy information is uncovered. Politician is urged to resign. Politician insists they’ll be running for re-election, despite that they continue to caricature themselves as what is wrong and detestable within their constituency, spending exorbitant amounts of money along the way … oops, I mean… resuming her position after an unfortunate bout of pneumonia.

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author.

I remember shortly after the elections in 2016, I got a lot of flak for supporting Bernie Sanders in the primaries but not Hillary Clinton in the general. I am certainly not the only one to experience this. In the wake of that election, a number of thought pieces ran online, in the media and even in Clinton’s own biography which pushed a persistent narrative of how the election was lost by the interference (or, lack thereof) of Bernie Sanders and his supporters.

It is no surprise, then, with another election approaching and Sanders once again running, that many of the same pundits who blamed us for Clinton’s loss are now asking if we have “learned our lesson” and will finally vote for whoever it is the Democrats run in 2020. For me, at least, my answer is simple: no, I will not.

If my vote, or rather, if the vote of progressives who back Sanders is essential to winning in 2020 then the Democrats need to run someone we support. Instead, we are met with a terrible sense of entitlement from the establishment that begins with the assumption that anyone the Democrats run is worth voting for simply because they are Democrats. This political worldview is toxic, and buying into it denies me and other voters on the left of the DNC a scant amount of agency that still remains in this political system.

This is not a radical idea anywhere except in the US. Certainly, in 2015, Britain’s largest progressive party, Labour, was in an eerily similar situation. They had lost 26 seats in parliament while under the leadership of center-leaning establishment politicians, due in large part to more progressive voters swinging to other parties or staying home. The response of the Labour party was to embrace the Left and adopt a socialist as their party leader, which gained them 30 seats in the very next election.

In sharp contrast, the Democratic Party seems to have done little more than demand “unity” from its members, though seemingly only in one direction. While we most definitely might see calls for “unity” when the racists are exposed within the party, they were nowhere to be seen when top Democrats condemned Ilhan Omar or when some Democratic senators joined their Republican colleagues to attack the Green New Deal.

Frankly, this is the real spot where Clinton failed in 2016. She ran a campaign that did not even visit many of the supposedly solid blue states that swung for Trump because she assumed she had their support. She made no real attempts to reach out across the political divide within the party, doubling down by selecting a running mate that was even further right than she was, largely again out of this assumption that everyone who was inspired by Sanders’ message would then vote for her.

The fact is, if the Democrats want to win in 2020 they need to inspire voters and reach out to their progressive base, not just assume that that base will support them. If Clinton lost the election in 2016 because she lacked the votes of Sanders supporters, the responsibility was on her to have secured those votes. If she was unable to gain that support, she was a weak nominee who should not have been the nominated in the first place, and the same very well may be true in 2020.

For all the drama that came of 2016, one thing must be clear: if the Democrats need Sanders supporters to win their election then they should work to earn those votes. Or, failing that, they could just run Sanders because he has already put in the effort to earn my vote.

Basking in the orange glow of soft lights, Meg Duffy, John Andrews and Keven Lareau of Hand Habits took on a full house at the Songbyrd Music House on April 12.  Duffy leads Los Angeles band, Hand Habits. Although this is Duffy’s first solo project, they have an extensive background in music, most notably as a touring band member with Kevin Morby. Their most recent album, “placeholder,” came out in early March of 2019. This is their second time performing at Songbyrd. Duffy references the growth in their audience, “It’s very very cool to see more than 30 people.” 

Duffy and Andrews begin the set with a rush of sound. Their magnetic harmonies, absolutely in tune with one another, flood the venue like a river, pulling the crowd in. Duffy’s tonality is breathtakingly gentle yet powerful. Their voices weave in and out of one another with a grand ease and naturality that radiates off the stage. They have a unique control of the crowd, compelling people to pay attention. 

Susceptibility takes center stage as Duffy forlornly sings in “yr heart,” “And I let you see the part of me / They called it understanding / They call it vulnerability / And your voice sang oh / Says I will not harm you / I will not alarm you.” Duffy, with a twinge of sarcasm, explains to the audience, that, although it may be hard to sit through long sets, it is just as hard for the artist to stand on a stage and sing about experiences that were difficult and painful for them. “It’s a give and take, you know?” said Duffy. “I’m just being honest. I lie sometimes too, but I’m being honest.”

Duffy’s lyrics and presentation make you leave the show glowing, having learned something. The lyrics make you feel as though you are learning along with Duffy, entering their world and coming away as another person. In “pacify,” Duffy sings, “I don’t want to pacify you,” in the loveliest minor key, in such a way that I felt as though I understood, as though their struggle was almost palpable or tangible. Their words are so clearly enunciated, not far from their speaking voice. They explain, “I don’t like talking loudly,” between their songs.

As Duffy nears the end of the concert, they begin to incorporate incredibly layered guitar solos, breaking through the fabric of the sound and expertly moving up and down the fretboard as Andrews plays out a crisp beat. The guitar is almost surprising, cutting through the quietness of the venue, but it is certainly not out of place or off-putting. As it filters off the stage, the crowd begins to dance a little more.

When Duffy is not singing, they are swaying their head back and forth, feeling the lyrics that hang in the air, feeling the ache of the yearning that comes with knowledge and experience. Hand Habits are touring with Tasha, who join Hand Habits on stage for an encore. They perform a carefully executed cover of “Save Me” by Fleetwood Mac, playing themselves out with a captivating sound.