I took this photo of Virginia Tech’s solar decathlon house, LumenHaus, this past weekend as it was being constructed on the 5th St lawn outside the National Building Museum. It will be there until Sept 27th, when it will then move to the National Mall for October 9-13 and 15-18. The house features the sliding glass doors (seen in the picture) on the north and south facades, which are all about allowing in the *light*. But more importantly, there’s an app for that — the heating, cooling, lighting, insulation, and sunshades can be controlled by using a computer or iPhone. Now we’re talking! Good luck to the team as they participate in Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid next summer! US represent.
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…
This morning I woke up and thought, I can’t believe that the Sept 11th attacks happened seven years ago today. It seems like an eternity when I think of all the things that have changed in my life, and in the world… but I can remember that morning like it happened just yesterday. Today at the Pentagon, a memorial to Flight 77is opening near the west wall to commemorate the victims at that site. There are 184 light benches for each one of the victims.
Great picnic spot = a grassy patch near the Potomac, just down past the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge. Good for: sunsets (see above) and boat watching. Pairs well with PB&J sandwiches, wine, a blanket. Bad for: gnats, seeing loch-ness monster things jump out of the Potomac.
OK, so I’m pretty excited about the Olympics starting tomorrow and I’m feelin’ the USA pride. I think I’ll be paying extra special attention this year to the Olympic triathletes, and by that I mean my mouth hanging open wide at how fast and buff they are. I heard on the radio today that there will be a special multimedia presentation at the opening ceremony, which I am equally excited about seeing. I wish I could have worked on something like that.
This photo is from Arlington National Cemetery…. and hmm why is the moon out?
This morning I had the honor of attending the funeral of one of my co-worker’s mother. Her mother served as an Air Force Military Nurse and was given a full military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. It was a truly amazing and moving ceremony complete with the horse-drawn caisson, the bugler playing “taps”, the honor detail folding the flag, and a twenty-one gun salute.
This photo is from a trip we took to to the cemetery but in honor of Memorial Day the Army (I believe) has placed a small American flag in the ground in front of every single tombstone in the cemetery. To put it in scale for those who have not visited, Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of more than 290,000 of our country’s bravest and covers an area of 624 acres. That is a lot of flags.
UPDATE: we passed the 1000 visitors mark, wooohooo!
Interface Multimedia was asked by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation to create a video showing the expansion plans for the National Museum of the Marine Corps. We were invited to attend a community outreach reception at the museum in Quantico, VA to promote the expansion. It is that giant metal and glass spire that looks like it is projecting out over I-95 as you come up to DC from the south, a very distinct form to be sure. The Museum was designed to reflect the shape of the famous flag raising at Iwo Jima and contains an enormous atrium with a number of full size planes, tanks, and helicopters. We were not able to see any of the immersive exhibits last night, but from what I understand they are the most impressive exhibits in the Museum. Other highlights of the museum include lifelike scenes from various moments in the Marines rich history complete with the metals won in the conflicts, the garments that were worn by the troops, and their weapons (including a lot of grisly trench knifes).
We expected that they would show the Interface video during the event, but unfortunately that did not happen. Luckily you loyal Juxtaexposed readers can watch the video on IFMM’s website here and view the remainder of the photos here.
The National Museum of the Marine Corps is a little bit of a drive from the District proper but it is well worth the trip if not only for the architecture.
