Photographer Jon Dragonette has started sending in his tour diary posts from the East Coast leg of Sparks' IGNITE WHAT'S NEXT art tour with David Choe, Saber and Retna. We'll let Jon take it from here...

Photos by Jon Dragonette. Video by Michael Langan

The first stop on our Sparks: IGNITE WHAT'S NEXT tour happened to be Bodymore, Murderland. For those of you not streetwise, or without cable, that is what the locals of Baltimore, Maryland call their fair city. The downtown is not so bad if you like being an annoying tourist. But my advice is take a ride through the rest of the city. Especially East Baltimore. That shit is pretty much as real as it gets.

A sample of photos from our first day in the city. We had no event so we cruised around.

Being annoying tourist.

Skylines.

When we got to our hotel the power was out. The place looked like a haunted mansion. I really was scared for my life.

Plus this creepy but awesome-looking church was directly across the street. Ghosts scare me to death. We were all in agreement.

Lunch with Retna

Dessert with Kid Vid



The Legend of the Baltimore suites

Check back and see what comes next.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL EAST COAST SCHEDULE

See also www.sparks.com and www.upperplayground.com.