My mom had been planning a “something-I-can’t-tell-you-yet” Christmas present surprise for a few weeks now, and yesterday we finally found out what it was. We were picked up by car and, after following the directions of the Garmin, we arrived at Arena Stage to see a performance of Next to Normal. The picture above shows the main stage set, which was, besides the songs, truly one of the coolest parts of the show.
I don’t go to see theater shows very much, but every time I do, I say to myself, “You should go see more shows.” Then I also walk around for the next three days pretending and wishing I was good at singing…
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Union Station, all decked out!
December 19th, 2008
Union Station is a great place for seeing giant Christmas decorations, and this tree, a gift from Norway, is no exception. It has been lit since November 25th, and symbolizes the friendship between the United States and Norway, and their gratitude for U.S. assistance during and after WW II. This marks the 12th year of the Norwegian Christmas at Union Station.
It’s the top half of our Christmas tree! …Yes, amazing that we were able to fit anything more into our home sweet tiny apartment, but there it is — in all its fake tree glory. We still don’t have anything on the top of it yet though. Usually we put the giant Testudo ornament there, but that might topple the poor thing over. So it’s empty for now. Do more people put stars or angels on top of theirs?
Matt took this photo a few weekends ago on a rainy night in Adams Morgan. We had just polished off an amazing amount of sushi and a round of saki bombs at Singapore Bistro along with 4 of our friends. When we left the restaurant, it started to pour, so we hopped in a cab and went to have a drink on 18th Street. Soon after, we walked home in the rain.
Hey, look! some people eating on one of the balcony restaurants inside Union Station. I’m surprised that Matt was able to take this photo without being harassed by the security cops about taking photographs inside the station… You can read more about the controversy at Lightboxdc.
As promised earlier, a picture from Jim Henson’s Fantastic World at the Smithsonian’s International Gallery. (Even though you are not supposed to take photos… here’s some blurry camera-phone for you) If you are a kid you will love this exhibit. If you are a grown-up, you will love this exhibit because it will remind you of being a kid. From Fraggle Rock to my personal favorite King Goshposh and his sidekick Featherstone, there are tons of things on display that will make you smile. The life-size puppets are the best part, and people enjoyed peering into the cases to look at the construction and detailing.
I thought Henson’s simple lines sketches were the most interesting. In many cases, a few pencil strokes was all it took for an idea to be born and described. You could see the personality of his character puppets long before they became 3-dimensional. It was also interesting to learn about all of Henson’s “failures” – ideas that were deemed too ridiculous at the time and never picked up.
And of course there was the always-adorable Kermit, innovative at the time for his soft structure which would allow the puppeteers to create tons of different facial expressions with just small changes in their hands and fingers.
Go go go! to the exhibit – you have to see it for yourself.
plaster model of the TWA Terminal in New York
July 1st, 2008
Here’s a photo I snapped of the TWA Terminal model that is currently on exhibit at the Saarinen exhibit at the National Building Museum… before I was told no photos are allowed. whoopsies.
If you haven’t checked out Artomatic yet, I feel sorry for you! But there are still two weeks left so it’s cool. Here’s the scene on the ground floor from opening night — great local music and no shortage of graffiti on the walls either.
On a somewhat related but unrelated note, there is one of those On the Fly carts that is always parked outside the Artomatic building, and we finally tried it the other night on the way in… there are a couple of them in DC now and I’m always reading good reviews of them. For $2, I figured it was worth seeing what the taco hype was all about. I have to say that the chicken taco I got was downright gross because of this cold coleslaw stuff they put on top of it. And also, while I understand the convenience factor, $3 was a little much for the Diet Coke I was craving to clear my mouth afterwards. How can they charge more for that than the actual taco??
Maybe I missed the point. I will have to give them one more chance, since I do like everything else about their concept of sustainability through cheap food from a cart. And the masses of other foodies reporting online seem to dig the On The Fly grub. Guess it was an off night for me…
The new Harris Teeter grocery store at 17th and Kalorama just might become my new place to shop for groceries. While I didn’t really see what made the H.T. any better than Giant, as all the hype claims, I did see this sign in the store on my way out. And it’s more than Giant can boast. And so maybe this means nothing, but it also means there is a possibility of seeing Chris Cooley shopping for bread and eggs, and this is where the potential lies. go skins go.
Old City Cafe is the bomb-diggity. They serve yummy falafel sandwiches and the best part is loading it up at their scoop-it-yourself toppin’ bar. I’m not exactly sure what all the fixings are, but there are a lot of them to choose from. Tzatziki, tomato salsas, sour cream, spicy green stuff, other spicy red stuff. Who knows? It all tastes good when mixed with the falafel balls.
1773 Columbia Road — and it’s open til 4am on weekends.
