Matt and I took a “Bitters and Infusions” class through the Libations Bar School, held this past Wednesday night at The Spice and Tea Exchange in Georgetown. In the most basic terms, we learned that you can add almost anything to an over-proofed liquor (like moonshine), let it soak for a few weeks, shaking it daily, and then voila! You have yourself a bitter than can be added to a cocktail. They were traditionally made as medicines to cure all sorts of ailments, then people commonly started adding them to gin or wine, and that’s where the cocktail came from.

We got in small groups, and chose several flavors from throughout the spice shop to put in tiny flasks of moonshine. I think ours ended up with ginger, some sort of berry (looked like a blueberry, but smaller, can’t remember its name), and gentian root. Not sure what that is going to end up like, but it was fun to concoct. We got to sample a variety of other bitters that had already been marinating for while… I am talking “sample” as in one medicine dropper worth on the tongue — that stuff can be POTENT. Whew. For someone who loves to smell strange things, this class was awesome for me, I was in my own little happy place. So if you happen to start seeing all sorts of little strange bottles popping up in our kitchen, don’t think it’s all weird and all, just ask for a taste.

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Yesterday we participated in the WABA and Embassy of Sweden sponsored Vasa ride , which kicked off at the embassy in Georgetown. We opted for the leisurely Kort Vasa at 14 miles, a trip that took us through all four quadrants of the District. For the more adventurous (and well-trained), there were the 56-mile Vasa and the 28-mile Halv Vasa. Honestly though, we were sold upon the promise of hot blueberry soup at the completion of the ride — and it was well worth it. Click for more pics of the event.

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Some alleyway lights and shop windows in Georgetown, from the last time we wandered over there a few weeks ago. We had every intention to make it over there yesterday, but it was snowing (again) pretty hard by the time we stepped out the door, so conditions for taking more photos were pretty lame. Instead, we decided to go get some homemade pizza. Only we couldn’t find the place we were looking for. So we got some noodles instead. yum yum nom.

On another note, happy birthday to JJ (“Free the Tacos.org”) one of Juxtaexposed’s biggest readers and possibly our biggest fan.

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This afternoon we took the Georgetown Connection bus from Dupont Circle over to 31st and M Street to check out an exhibit at Parish Gallery that my sister had been raving about a few weeks ago. Titled “Art in the Eye of a Needle,” the exhibit features micro-sculptures by artistWillard Wigan, and, truth-be-told, you just have to see it to believe it.

There are about 15 different “viewing stations” throughout the gallery featuring sculptures, viewed only under a microscope, that include subjects from the Obama family, to the Simpsons, to Charlie Chaplin on an eyelash, to an anonymous couple enjoying a Valentine dinner–on the head of a sewing pin. Each tiny creation takes 8 weeks or longer for the artist to create using materials like nylon fibers, dust particles, housefly hairs, and cobwebs. According to Wikipedia, “the pulse of the artist’s finger could easily destroy the entire work, Wigan therefore has to control his nervous system to ensure he does not make even the tiniest movement… Wigan, when working, enters a meditative state in which his heartbeat is slowed, allowing him to reduce any hand tremors and work between heartbeats.”

Norman Parish, the gallery owner, shared a humorous anecdote with us as we were leaving. He said that the artist was once working on a sculpture of Alice in Wonderland, when he accidentally took a breath a little too close to Alice — and inhaled her. !!! Probably not very funny at the time, considering the labor that goes into these pieces, but I can’t come up with another type of artist that would face that same problem.

If you have a chance, go check it out, I guarantee you can’t look through each microscope with a straight face, especially when you see the houseflies! The exhibit is open until January 23rd. Parish Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, from noon to 6 pm, and is located in Canal Square at 1054 31st Street NW.

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…out of the SUUUN! under the Whitehurst… Whitehurst..

The Whitehurst Freeway rises above K Street in Georgetown, and it carries vehicles along the Potomac River between the Key Bridge at the west end and Rock Creek Parkway/K Street at the east end. Named after H.C. Whitehurst, the director of the District Highway Department at the time of its conception, the bridge was built in the 1940′s and was the District’s very first freeway. Steel shortages at the time delayed its construction and it opened a year behind schedule, in October 1949. The final cost: $3.3 million. Included in the demolition was the house of Francis Scott Key, writer of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Source: http://www.dcroads.net/roads/whitehurst

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The side of the Big Wheel Bikes store in Georgetown. I’ve never been inside this particular store, but I do enjoy this abstract bicycle on the wall!

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There is a new holiday decoration in the form of a snowflake tree in Georgetown! It’s in the park at the west end of M Street, right before the Key Bridge. It looks really beautiful at night, as captured there by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr, but it also has an interesting structural appeal in the day light too. (Wow I sound like a nerd.)

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The Georgetown canal. If you squint your eyes, don’t the clouds look like they make a big heart?

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Here is the side of a house in Georgetown, just off the C&O canal that runs 185 miles from western Maryland until mile 0 in Georgetown, DC. and a link to some more photos from the area, as well as a few of me screaming…

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