I was dancing in the 9:30 Club Bar

A few months ago, E won tickets from Prince of Petworth to see Jonathan Richman at the 9:30 Club.  I was not familiar with him, though I had heard a bit about the Modern Lovers and as PoP pointed out, Richman's bio is pretty amazing.

The show was great fun.  Richman cultivates a guileless stage presence, but he's just self-aware enough in concert that he's endearing rather than annoying.  Sample song titles: "If You Want to Leave Our Party Just Go," "No One Was Like Vermeer," "The Lovers are Here and They're Full of Sweat" and "My Affected Accent."  My favorite might be a song in Spanish about stale bread ("Es Como El Pan"), which he sang as a means of explaining why he doesn't play older music on his tours.  He did dip into his catalog, to the delight of the audience, when he played his surprisingly catchy 1992 song "I Was Dancing In the Lesbian Bar."

I dare you not to whistle this song sometime today.


From Late Night with Conan O'Brien

RULEZ. Or, How I (Will) Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog.

Next on the agenda: my general plan for writing here. I welcome input, which that is a scary thing to do mostly because such an action implies a WILDLY optimistic level of investment from theoretical readers.  But, if you're reading, and would prefer to be less bored, please let me know how I can help with that in the comments.  I am willing to do my best!  My rough draft plan of attack is below.

Posts that may appear on this blog:
- Awesome things that I see/do/smell/otherwise experience (see previous post)
- Compelling/humorous/adorable internet miscellany
- Book reviews, when I finish books (I am much better at starting them than finishing them these days)
- Movie/TV reviews, because I usually finish those and have (uninformed, amateur) OPINIONS, yo
- Recipes that work
- Music I enjoy
- Occasional musings on subjects of interest to me, including but not limited to: feminism, pop culture, plants I grow, language, my admittedly tenuous grasp of politics, DC chillin', lurve and weddings (yeah, shut up), and design/style (whatever that is)

Subjects that I will strive to avoid in this blog:
- Whining or complaining about my daily life (srsly I am like the luckiest person ever, that would be a douche move)
- Excessive coverage of my Very Important Wedding Plans (definition of "excessive" TBD, but I can probably keep at least some of the wedding boners in my pants)
- Excessive personal details, because I am boring and, um, I have a job?  (Which I swear I do most of the time when I'm not going to museums, really, for real, guys).

Goals:
- Attribute found materials to their sources whenever possible
- Include a lot of pictures
- Work on developing an engaging yet authentic voice (yes, those are kind of opposites in my world, sadly)
- Maybe highlight some neat stuff that people other than myself might want to check out

So . . . there's that.  Onward! Your reward for scrolling to the end of this post is a video of Muppets eating each other and exploding. You're welcome.


From The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years

For the Record

Just so we're all clear: I'd like to point out that while I did in fact go to a museum during the workday yesterday (which was awesome), I was only actually there for about 15 mins, during a 30-minute walk that I counted as my lunch break because I ate my standard greens-hummus-blue-cheese salad at my desk shortly BEFORE running out of work to do yesterday.  I am not TOTALLY irresponsible as a human being.  For the record.

(Also for the record: I will be back for another 15 minutes at some point in the future.  Speed art!  It is the wave of the future.)

Surprise!

Hello friends,

I ran out of work to do at 1:30 pm today, so, um, I started a blog? Welcome.

Before I started the blog, though, I took a quick walk outside to experience April in DC sans climate control.   (Spoiler alert: it is warm, pollen-filled and slightly sticky).  I first wandered down to Lafayette Park in front of the White House, just a 5 min walk from my office.  There is often something (or someone) interesting to see there:

Eli Nature Boy (p.s. we're FB friends)

"Yes We Cannabis"

Magnolias

But today the park was pretty tame, so I kept a-walking.  Right past, and then back, and into, the Renwick Gallery/American Art Museum.

The Renwick

How gorgeous is this building?  The Renwick houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum's craft and decorative arts program.  I stop in on occasion to see probably my favorite piece from their collection, Larry Fuente’s Game Fish.

Larry Fuente - Game Fish

(If you’ve been to our apt. you may have noticed a postcard-sized picture of this piece in an Ikea frame on the wall, because E and I are classy like that.)

The Grand Salon

The Renwick is kind of a weird hodgepodge of a museum, combining contemporary folk art and sculpture with traditional portraiture and landscapes.  Truthfully the architecture and interior design is as much of a draw for me as the art.  The Grand Salon looks like how a classic art gallery should look, with circular couches, pink walls, oriental-inspired rugs, gold window-dressings and a high ceiling with skylights.  And did I mention PINK WALLS? The only drawback is that the paintings high on the walls are harder to see because of glare from the lights.  I picked out a few to focus on today, mostly from what appeared to be the “Artist Self-Portraits and Paintings of Cows” wall.  (You can see all of the paintings in the Grand Salon at the Renwick’s Flickr).

James Jebusa Shannon - Mother and Child (Lady Shannon and Kitty)

I love the movement in this portrait.  The woman looks a bit too white and the girl’s right hand is a little too posed (unless she’s fiddling with something, can’t tell for sure), but the fistful of hair, the facial expressions and the character’s actions are compelling.

William H. Howe - Monarchy of the Farm

This painting benefits from the context of its sheer size on the wall and its large, gilded frame.  Great title.

Alice Pike Barney - Self-Portrait with Palette

Movement!  Can you tell I like it in paintings?  Also wacky backgrounds.  Also tough painter ladies with wild hair.  I love how her signature is incorporated into the painting itself rather than hiding away in the corner, even though it’s kind of distracting and totally breaks the rules.  If you're feeling clicky, here is Alice Pike Barney’s Wikipedia Page (DC salons! Douchebag husband!  Lesbian daughter!  Decades-younger second husband! This lady did some living.)

That is all.  Thanks for reading, or at least looking at the pictures!

m