Rob “Meatball” Lorie is a growing legend around these parts. With a website dedicated to sightings of him – I Heart Meatballz – and an upcoming solo show The Great Wide Open, the world is his oyster, or maybe, he is our Meatball.

I went down to Little River Yacht Club yesterday where the show will take place. I made Rob nuts with a handwritten note interview. This workshop/gallery space is where Mr. Lorie has a studio, and thus is a portal into this world from a magical artistic dimension in Meatball’s mind. I asked artist and man-in-charge over at the LRYC Larry Newberry if he’d tell me one word he would use to describe Rob. He said, “Other than Meatball?”

Before you head over to Flute Salad at Lester’s on Saturday, September 24, read this interview and check out Meatball’s show named after the popular Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song at 70 NW 73rd St.