User:Topdogeditor/Conrad Bladey

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Conrad Jay Bladey (born April 19, 1953) is an artist, author and teacher who works primarily in two areas: art cars and Irish/English history and customs. Bladey is also credited with keeping Irish traditional cooking alive and extolling the virtues of an Irish wake as a social activity; he taught a popular course at Harford Community College in how to drink.

Artist

A primary exhibitor of art cars each year at Baltimore’s ArtScape festival, Bladey withdrew this year because the cars were no longer displayed for art’s sake, but as marketing attractions for other businesses. Quoted by the Baltimore Sun, Bladey noted: …at the festival last year I noted that I could hardly see the art for the vendors. As a volunteer exhibitor I was helping these people find customers. Then I looked at my ‘fellow’ artcar artists- I found that two out of three did not just bring their cars there but brought their entire retail store which they used the appearance of the car to sell.

Bladey became an artcar artist in 1987, as a result of a prank. That year, a prankster stuck an Andover High School sticker on the door of his Omni. Not wanting to make a fuss about it, Bladey simply festooned the car with additional stickers. With that, a dedication to artcars grew until Bladey had become Baltimore’s foremost artcar designer. Art cars connect with almost everyone in a positive way, said Conrad Bladey, one of the art car artists displaying their mobile art. "Paint something on your car, people will smile, laugh and wave." An act of vandalism threw Bladey into the medium of art cars, he said. "Someone put a bumper sticker on my old ‘78 Dodge Omni, but I didn’t get mad. I just kept adding them on, and it grew from there." Bladey has said that his mission is to see more artcars on the road.

Author

Bladey has published 17 books on mainly Irish and English subjects: Bladey’s expertise extends from proper teas to Guy Fawkes Day celebrations. Included also, however, are books about local Maryland history, early American prayer, and Oktoberfest.

His book Brigid of the Gael: A Complete Collection of Primary Sources was glowingly reviewed by Cindy Thomson, author of Brigid of Ireland and several other Irish-subject novels. Thomson notes that Bladey’s book is “well researched and provides a lot of information from the legends surrounding Brigid to how to weave a St. Brigid's cross, to traditions surrounding the feast of St. Brigid. If you don't mind spending the money, I recommend it.”

Cooking, Running a Wake and Drinking

Within his nineteen publications, Bladey offers recipes for everything from bread to stew. He is a proponent of hosting a wake while living, and suggests the ballad Finnegan’s Wake as a model. Bladey includes the lyrics to the tune in his book A Guide to the Traditional Irish Wake: The Wake That Knows No Sleeping.

Bladey has also taught, as a practical anthropology course, how to drink. The course, called The Irish Pub, was based at Harford Community College, north of Baltimore, Maryland, and was divided between the anthropology of drink and a visit to a J. Patrick’s Irish Pub in Locust Point, Baltimore.

Founder, Guy Fawkes and Wassail Celebrations

Several years ago, Bladey founded the Center For Fawkesian Pursuits Bonfire Society. Celebrations include ritual effigies of Guy Fawkes, Pope’s Day Carts, and burnable torches which are provided to celebrants for a procession. As an ethno musicologist, Bladey has researched and performs traditional “rough music” on period interests. Also included are traditional bonfire recipes, developed as part of his work as a traditional foodways expert; drawing form his archaeological education, Bladey created and tested earth oven “imu” cooking technology in support of his bonfire celebrations. Bladey claims his experiments have resulted in “a new awareness of the durability of plutonic rocks in earth oven cookery.” The celebrations, held in suburban Baltimore, attract as many as 150 celebrants each year, and have sparked others to hold Guy Fawkes Day celebrations nationwide.

Another celebration Bladey has exported across America is Wassail, on or about January 17 each year. For this, he researched and created the only Mari Lwyd effigy known to be used in the United States. The effigy is a Welsh horse skull with articulated jaw decorated traditionally for Welsh Wassail rituals. Included also is the traditional Christmas Bull, a bull skill decorated in traditional manner.

Education

Bladey attended high school in both London, England, and Alabama, U.S. He earned a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and also studied in Munich, Germany. His teaching certification is from Bowie State University, Bowie, MD. Bladey attended graduate school in Archaeology and Urban Planning at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Publications

Via his company, Hutman Productions, Bladey has published the following books, which he also authored:

1. Pósadh and Bainis: A guide to the Culturally Correct Irish Wedding―all of the wonderful customs. ISBN 0-9702386-3-0

2. Irish Tea time Companion. A grand collection of Irish tea time recipes with traditional sayings. ISBN 0-9702386-2-2

3. The Good St. Brigid of Kildare. A short guide to the Saint, Her Stories and customs ISBN 0-9702386-1-4

4. The Wake that Knows No Sleeping. A guide to Irish Wakes; How to go out in style! ISBN 0-9702386-4-9

5. Brigid of the Gael. A complete reference work stories, recipes, customs, crafts. Second edition ISBN 0-9702386-0-6

6. The Irish Crafts,Customs for Samhain/Halloween. A reference for crafts, stories and customs ISBN 0-9702386-5-7

7. Bonfire Prayers, Customs, Recipes, Songs, and Chants for Guy Fawkes Day. The best short guide to Guy Fawkes Day. ISBN 09702386565

8. Do the Wassail! A collection of wassail songs, recipes, customs- a handbook of the traditions. ISBN 0970238673

9. A Beuk of the Sangs of Tommy Armstrong the Pitmans Poet. A complete collection of the Songs and Recitations of Tommy Armstrong with commentary and musical scores. ISBN 0-9702386-8-1

10. Traditional Bavarian Oktoberfest Songs. Traditional Bavarian Oktoberfest songs and customs.

11. Prayers from American History. A Prayer book for use in American History Classrooms

12. Saint Stephen and the Wren. Primary source for St. Stephen's day customs.

13. Human Adaptation to the Fall Line Setting: A Framework for the Archeology of Laurel, Maryland

14. Travels With Charley and Mrs. Helen Linthicum, 2008. Guidebook to places associated with John Charles and Helen A. Linthicum.

15. Mrs. Helen and Uncle Charlie Linthicum, Maryland Patriots of the Gilded Age, 2009.

16. The Celebration of St. Martin of Tours in German-Speaking Lands

17. The Book of Wassail. A five volume primary reference concerning Wassail traditions, 2011.