For Kristen’s birthday, July 10th, we hopped down to the Metro and trained on in to Washington DC to go wander the Smithsonian. It was an incredibly hot day, and we didn’t have ALL the time (or stamina) in the world so we only really got to hit up three museums – we started off with the Hirschhorn, wandered over to the National Air and Space Museum and then over to the American Indiam Museum before heading to a wonderful Mexican restaurant and feeeeeding.
Ai Weiwei’s piece at the Hirschhorn was a vast 360 degree display of precisely designed wall paper and Lego portraits of freedom fighters, activists and / or terrorists (you probably have to read up on each of them to decide which is which, and probably few people in the audience are going to agree on all of them). I’m wishing there was more information on his choice of medium (I like the contrast between the elegance of the surrounding wall paper and the 8-bit graphic look of the Legos, but why specifically Legos? Are the digital kiosks that tell you who everyone is just sourced from Wikipedia? Or is there a message from the artist there?). Yup, I’m guilty of wanting to be led part of the way – but when you clearly have a political message, I think you’ve got a duty to communicate the message as clearly as possible…
Driving in the rain, re-ordering t-shirts, checking traffic, fielding wedding questions from my mother, all while trying not to use up the last gigabyte on our data plan. Small worries, first world problems… they are MY problems. Passing the accident that’s caused THIS backup, I see at least two more accidents on our route to Bethlehem, PA – people are driving dumb.
Yesterday we played Alive at Five in Frederick, MD in about 100 degree weather and very, very close air. The sound was awesome, but I could just FEEL the weather sapping every ounce of energy out of my body as my fingers and arms stuck to the body of my guitar. Sure enough strings started giving way, the electrical tape on my fingers started slipping – we had to start dropping songs from the setlist because it was literally too hot to play them. Still – we had a great time and met some amazing dogs…. Who knew that competitive Frisbee-catching dog-balancing was a thing? Not I, not I. But damn Steel and Ella were talented dogs and they danced most enthusiastically to our sounds. They didn’t seem to mind the temperature at ALL and their humans were all too happy to share their fuzzy Love with us.
Untitled (Big Man) by Ron Mueck is downright CREEPY to be in a room withVisiting the Hirschhorn on Kristen’s birthday – July 10th, 2017 in Washington, DC. Alberto Giacometti has long been one of my favourite artists and The Nose is pretty iconic. Apparently “Dog” is sort of a self-portrait, in that he came home really tired and made this piece representing how he felt. I didn’t find the “who” but I really enjoyed the “what” of these playful entities…
of course I REALLY Love when concept and aesthetic come packaged so beautifully together. Across from this was a piece that LOOKED sort of like a mattress but was actually a mold taken from beneath someone’s bed (e.g. where you might be hiding if you were a scared kid!) and that’s pretty powerful once you know what it is – but above – just the visual is enough, but then when you discover the dark one is CHOCOLATE sculpted through the act of consumption and the light one’s made of SOAP and sculpted through the act of bathing, it’s a whole other level. “Lick and Lather” by Janine Antoni at the Hirchhorn in Washington,
Man oh MAN I want to balance Corgis on my FEET!
It was a brutal three hours of playing high-energy bar music. We were covered and we had prepped with a cooler filled with ice and ice and water and more ice, but there was really no way it was going to be an easy show. Joey backing us provided a bit of extra drive, and the breezes that came wafting through off the creek were almost orgasmically in their sensuality – but man, I came off that stage feeling like I’d been beaten with sticks. Between load out and a huge dinner I was in bed before 11. We watched a couple of Muppet shows just to zone out – but yeah, I tried to read a little and couldn’t make it but a couple of paragraphs before simply losing focus.
Kristen and I a’wanderin’ the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC on her birthday on July 10th, 2017. It’s long been one of my favourite museums (even back when I thought it was named for someone called Aaron Space). It was cool to see a lot of new stuff (like the RQ-7A
Tonight’s just a drive, and tomorrow’s a short set – Sunday’s a little more intense playing a couple of hours of music (outdoors AGAIN) to “a bunch of drunk ungrateful physics students” (their words, not mine – I’m curious about this teacher’s relationship with his students) and then Monday’s my open mic for the first time in five weeks. And then there shall be Tuesday. I don’t have to go ANYWHERE on Tuesday. I’m really, really, really looking forward to TUESDAY.
Kristen and I enjoying the sides of Skylab – the United States’ first foray into having a habitat in space – an incredible thing built before I was born.My first memories are of the Death Star and Space Station V from 2001 – and even though my dad helped build Skylab, once I became cognizant of its existence I was sad to see how “real” space stations held up against the dream.I have NO idea why a drone reconnaissance plane got nicknamed “The Screamin’ Demon”) and of course to visit old, old favourites like the USS Enterprise’s flight deck and the surprisingly still-in-place old animations of the moon…
Wandering Washington DC for Kristen’s birthday… it seems like the Newseum knows its entire concept is under attack in Trump’s America – which seems so unaware of the First Amendment to Constitution of the United States of America. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
The rain has cleared, traffic’s evened out – we’ll see if they manage to clear the other two accidents before we get there. Even if they do, of course, I have absolute faith that they’ll make more. Vaguely concerned about the parts that seem to falling off the gold Avalon in front of us, but as we swerve and pass them, they rapidly become SEPs and so now we dodge a PT Cruiser that is apparently having difficulty with the whole “merge” concept.
Highways really ought to be reserved for emergency services. Like the service of getting my damned music to Clinton, NJ. Move it Cruiser.
Our last stop amongst the museums of the Smithsonian was the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.I was very, very grateful to have the attentions of our friend Chris, who works at the American Indian Museum since he was able to give us a really great tour of both what was on the floor and what was behind the scenes. The most powerful exhibit was a breakdown of treaties made with Native Americans and the United States government – as well as a breakdown of perceptions about the treaties, how they were made, how they were broken, how they were upheld – and more recently, cases that have forced the United States to respect them. Above – that’s one Hell of a quote. Racism isn’t new, but even with black America, they were at least valued as slaves – I can’t think of another people who the United States literally set out to exterminate.
By now we’re crossing the Susquehanna, heat shimmering off the river, the old stone of the bridges bleached and panting, the sky hazy and grey in patches, sunshine streaming and steaming through here and there, but mostly the sky is closed up like some suffocating blanket. Tomorrow in New Jersey should be a LOT more friendly… but I brought a towel this time, just in case someone needs to sop me up off the stage.
Many amazing things at the National Museum of the American Indian – I’ll settle for some rabbits. Go there.Funny, the damage doesn’t look as bad from out here.American Indian Museum selfing with our friend Chris on Kristen’s birthday, July 10th, 2017 in Washington, DC.Kristen Jones eagerly awaits her birthday dinner in Washington DC.The sculpture garden closed like… the moment we tried to step inside. Cool chrome tree thoughJuly 13th, 2017 at the Carroll Creek Amphitheater in Frederick, MD for Alive At Five. We met cool new friends and their cool new dogs… a brutal day but a wonderful day.
