Night at the Gallery

I'm thoroughly exhausted after the brother's wonderful wedding weekend. Full recap to come...eventually. In the interim I have a few [long] posts in draft I forgot about.

Two weeks ago, I took Shana with me to the Cocoran Art Gallery for a flash fiction workshop. This was my first experience with flash fiction and first experience since college writing about art.

The workshop was led by a writer who works at the Corcoran, who previously worked at MOMA in New York, and has published works. There were fewer than 10 of us in attendance, which made for a comfortable and open setting. The workshop was based around a current exhibit, Shooting Stars: Publicity Stills from Early Hollywood and Portraits by Andy Warhol. Here is a portion of the description from the website:

Shooting Stars features promotional photographs of early Hollywood film stars alongside Polaroid portraits and black-and-white images by Andy Warhol. Made half a century apart, these two bodies of work illustrate some of the ways photographers have contributed to our understanding of celebrity and fame.

The purpose of the workshop was to view the exhibit and then write about a work in the voice of a celebrity. It could be from the voice of the celebrity in the photo, the voice of a celebrity viewing one of the photos, or really anything. We read same sample works, either written about a celebrity, in the voice of one, or dedicated to one, and then took an hour to view the works and write. Then we re-convened to read our pieces aloud.

It was so surreal and also serene to have the gallery almost to ourselves. (There was one other group touring it.) We got to sit (but not lean against the wall, as I learned) and just write, surrounded by all this art.

I didn't expect it to go so well, to be so inspired by the portraits. I shouldn't have been surprised because I do admire and appreciate art, especially portraiture, but I'm a very slow and meticulous writer and can't usually think and execute so quickly. There were actually several photos that inspired me and had me creating stories in my head.

The one that grabbed me the most was one of the early publicity stills. The subject was a Richard Barthelmess, circa 1927. I had never heard of him, but just now looked him up and he was a silent film star. This is the exhibit photo:

 
He reminded me so much of George Clooney that I decided to write in the voice of George Clooney viewing the portrait. And this is what I wrote:

Look at him. Look at me. Same eyebrows, same hair -- or same hair 20 years ago -- same eyes. He's a dashing guy. He's a good looking son of a bitch. Thank, god. That's all that matters here, right?

He has the right look, the right car, the right address. Maybe he even has the right pedigree, not too focused on either collar, blue or white. He did his time in the chorus line, so to speak, before jumping in to the lead role. He probably even has a shiny award or two, or at least he's been nominated. It is, of course, just an honor to be nominated.

But let's get to the good stuff. He's got the girl. He always has the girl. Or a string of girls. Women, actually. He's not Errol Flynn. No one should ever be Errol Flynn. So what if he rotates them every 2 years. Doesn't mean he's gay or asexual. It means he's bored or choosey or a dedicated bachelor. It's a thing. People magazine said so.

He doesn't have a stint in rehab, but give him time; his next film will be a flop.

But let's go back to his look. that perfectly tailored coat with its artfully popped collar.

The cigarette, so close to slipping out of his fingers, but so clearly a vital part of who he is, before the surgeon general has a say.

I could do without the pinky ring, but to each his own.

But that stare, wow. What is he looking at? Do I look like that? Could I look like that?

I want to know what he's thinking. I think I know.

He wants them to stop talking about his love life. To stop referring to his looks in the past tense. He wants to write and direct more. He wants to be asked in interviews about writing and directing instead of why he isn't married.

I think he wants a drink, a large drink to fill his brain with fuzzy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Because they aren't always there. He isn't always happy. Money, fame, awards, isn't always enough. He wants a break, a drink. He doesn't know what he wants.



Image source

Happy Chic

On Tuesday night, I attended a lecture at the Corcoran Gallery of Art given by potter and designer Jonathan Adler. I've admired his work for several years and was excited to learn more about his creative process and inspiration.

He was unpretentious and unabashedly passionate about his work and his great life. (Which he attributes to "luck, luck, luck, luck, luck, and patience.") He had such great humor and joy that I didn't mind that he sometimes spoke like an Internet-obsessed teenage girl. (Words like cas, biz, pics, internets, hi-larious, preggers, and breaky instead of breakfast. Yes, I took notes.)

 
He talked about his love of pottery, how he started, interior design, his business, and more. He also showed photos of some of his work and talked about the pieces and interiors. Here are a few of my favorite things from the lecture and Q&A session:

On criticism:
I try to tune out outside noise and follow my heart. 

On his business:
I say yes to everything.

On design:
Good design -- and what I strive for -- is something that is uncovered rather than created.

In design and decorating the most important things are comfort and joy. 

On his style:
Eccentricity is fantastic and glamour always.

On his pottery:
The idea was to make them look perfect.

On needlepoint:
I have an obsession with waspy, country club style from the sixties.

 
On his husband, Simon Doonan:
He's a genius and just the best person who ever lived. 

On why he turned his formal living room into a room with a ping pong table:
There's no TV, what is anyone going to do in it? 

I tend to have pre-conceived notions about certain creatives, especially artists and interior designers. I loved that he wanted his pottery to look like it's machine-made, because he wanted them to look perfect. And that he doesn't think interiors should be stuffy or formal. (That's pretty obvious when you look at his work, but it was still nice to hear.)

Someone in the audience asked if he found his business expansion to be limiting to his creative process and he said if anything his success has inspired him to create more. (He also has a president who handles the actual business of the business, so I'm sure that helps, but is also nice that he's not good at everything.) I liked that no matter what, he's still so committed to his art and the creation of "aggressively eccentric" and glamorous design.

Day in a D.C. Life

Like most of the country, spring/summer has come a bit early to D.C. On one such recent perfect day I took the opportunity to enjoy the weather and play tourist.

A pretty dogwood tree in full bloom and my pre-lunch snack of a red velvet cupcake.

Sitting in front of the Newseum to eat my cupcake and looking up at the First Amendment carved on the outside.

The primary reason for this visit to the Newseum: to check out the new "Every Four Years" exhibit, covering the press and presidential elections.

Costumes from "Saturday Night Live"! The suits Tina Fey and Amy Poehler wore as Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton, as well as the snowsuit Jason Sudeikis wore as Todd Palin and the moose costume worn by someone.

Paraphernalia from my two favorite news shows: Props and press passes from "The Daily Show" on the left and a debate script -- with his notes! -- from Anderson Cooper 360 on the right.

Tim Russert's infamous "Florida!" marker board from the 2000 debacle.

After the Newseum it was time for lunch.

Teasim used to be a favorite of mine, but since they took the meatball bento box off the menu, I've struggled to find something I like. This udon shrimp soup was only ok.

Next up: American History Museum

I was fascinated by these old firefighters helmet. They look so regal!

Daniel Radcliffe's robe from the first "Harry Potter" and Nastia Liukin's leotard from the 2008 Olympics and a torch from the 1984 Olympics.

A full-size house taken from Massachusetts. I've always skipped this exhibit for some reason but it covers the history of five families that lived in one house over the course of 200 years. Fascinating.

The Jefferson Bible.The bibles on the left are ones he cut verses out of, and the one on the right is what he pieced together to form "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth." Jefferson is my all-time favorite Founding Father so this was just awesome to see.

Exhibit on the slaves of Monticello, which documented the families that spent generations working the plantation. Also just fascinating.

After relaxing in front of the Museum for a few minutes, basking in the beautiful day, I decided to swing by the National Archives to see what special exhibits they had.

Looking up at the Archives while waiting to go in. Stunning sky.

After that I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the metro.

I was struck by post after post of the D.C. flag, American flag, and British flag, in honor of the U.K.'s Prime Minister David Cameron visiting this week. I may or may not have skipped a bit as I rejoiced in three of my favorite flags hanging side by side by side.

Finally my day concluded with a trip to Foggy Bottom.

Thanks to wine night at the restaurant Circa, my friend Lauren and I were able to enjoy a Prosecco-filled Happy Hour on their patio in the 70 degree weather. Perfection.



The last month

I've really been struggling lately in coming up with things to write about here. (Which is quite unfortunate timing as I start a six-week writing class soon on personal essay.) But a quick browse through my iPhone photos revealed a number of activities that I haven't blogged about. And then reminded me of even more non-photographed activities from the past month.

Book Club

Generally my book club meets each month at a DC restaurant. But sometimes a member will host a potluck at her home just to mix it up and save a little money. This month I offered up my humble abode. It went really well and I really do love having people over. (Even though I had a number of anxiety attacks leading up to it, but that’s just how I roll.) About an hour before people were set to arrive I realized I didn’t have fresh flowers and I just can’t have people over without fresh flowers. So to Giant I went/ran and purchased these. Three weeks later, I just threw the majority out but still have a few going strong. Best $15 ever.

Joey and Michelle Visit

My brother and his girlfriend came for the weekend toward the end of September. I introduced them to my office, we took a tortuous drive through DC to get to the Nats game, watched the Braves prevail over the Nats, went to Eastern Market, went to the National Mall and visited the World War II and Korean War Memorials, took a Potomac River Cruise from Georgetown, and had some good meals.

Presidential Visit

The wax museum here recently revealed the wax figures of ALL the presidents. All. The. Presidents. The roommate and I were a bit excited about this. (More on this later.)

Les Miserables

In May I bought my ticket to see Les Mis at the Kennedy Center. Unfortunately, I was not a fan. Which I don’t quite understand as I love plays, love musicals, love history, love the French Revolution even, but did not love the play. At all.

Matt Nathanson

I attended my first concert at one of DC’s most popular venues, 9:30 Club, with my friend Lauren to see Matt Nathanson. He put on a great show and was really funny, too.

Good Times

This past weekend I spent an evening in Bethesda with one of my work friends, Shana. We had dinner and then just hung out and chatted at her place until 2 in the morning. You know how I keep going on and on about what great friends I have? Well, I mean it and I do. The next day I met Brandie to see “The Ides of March” and then have a late brunch at Austin Grill. Yes, I had a mimosa and pancakes at a Tex Mex restaurant. But B had a mimosa and tacos at a Tex Mes restaurant, so…

Things I Learned This Weekend

It's perfectly acceptable to forgo plans so you can stay home and watch it rain.
I love rain just about more than anything and it has been ages since I was home during a good storm. So late Saturday afternoon, as the sky began to darken and thunder sounded in the distance, I grabbed some tea, a book, a blanket, and curled up on the couch to listen to and watch the rain hit the window.

The Hope Diamond really is worth the hype.
Brandie and I went to the Natural History Museum on Sunday morning. Our first stop: something shiny.

The rescue vessel for the Chilean miners is really small.
The main reason for our trip to the museum was to see the new exhibit on the Chilean miners. It was pretty small but did feature items on loan from the miners, including a signed flag, letters, and a helmet. There was also one of the test rescue vessels and I'm not sure I could have fit one leg in there. (Slight exaggeration but it was small.) 

According to a blood pressure cuff in a museum, I have high blood pressure.
There was also an exhibit on race at the museum and one of the displays allowed you to test your blood pressure. This is because apparently one of the stereotypes over the years has been that African-Americans have high blood pressure. Now, any other time I've had my blood pressure checked, including most recently last month at work, I've been normal to too low. Well, today I was in full on hypertension mode. I'm going to blame it on the fact that this was a blood pressure cuff in a museum and that as I sat there reading the warnings of "might faint or feel pain," my heart was racing a bit more than usual. 

Not all brisket is created equal.

A new restaurant opened in Penn Quarter called Hill Country Barbecue. Between numerous trips to Texas over the years and my Daddy's supreme grill master skills, I've had my fair share of brisket. (And probably the share of a few others as well.) This brisket was just good, but not great. Same for the beans and the cornbread. Very good, however, was the water out of a mason jar.

Ulta is amazing.
In the past few months I've kind of become addicted to beauty blogs and how tos on You Tube. As a result, I spend a bit more time in Sephora than is prudent. And while I thought I'd been in an Ulta before, today I discovered this was not true and that it is a wonderful, wonderful place.


Ryan Gosling is crazy stupid hot.
B and I ended the day in a cool movie theatre to watch "Crazy Stupid Love," which was crazy stupid good. (Is that getting old yet?) Funny, well-acted, and well-written; it was just a solid film.

"Well, it turns out, I've got a rose garden." (Pres. Shepherd, The American President)

One of my Mom's favorite movies is The American President. I really like it too, and bought it on DVD last month. However, Mom is not capable of changing the channel when it's on. In fact, I think she has a sixth sense when it's on and probably hasn't missed an airing in years. And of course she has it on DVD, too. These three facts equate to me seeing it approximately 164 times over the years when I lived at home. It's a good movie, but yeah, that's a bit of an overkill.

So when they had the movie poster in the American Presidency exhibit at the National History Museum, I decided to have a little fun.


You know I love you, Mom.

Sunday History

On Sunday Joey and I went to the National History Museum. Joey hasn't been since he was a kid, and thus obviously hasn't been since it was renovated last year. I'm still really disappointed in certain aspects of the new museum - such as the First Ladies exhibit, pop culture exhibit, and what just seems like too much wasted space. However, there is still a lot of good stuff to be seen and trust me, I know, because we saw EVERY SINGLE EXHIBIT on Sunday.

Sample conversation:
Me: There's Julia Child's kitchen
Joey: Who's that.
[I explain that she's a famous chef, wrote a book, just had a movie about her, etc.]
Joey: Ok.
[I start to walk away from it.]
Joey: Wait, we have to see it!
Me: You said you didn't know who she was!
Joey: So, I still want to see it!

And see it, we did. I believe our favorite exhibits were on the American Presidency, transportation, war, and the Star Spangled Banner.

Just a few favorites...

Desk Jefferson used to write the Declaration of Independence

Clinton's sax

Press passes from Helen Thomas (I'm currently reading one of her books. Love her.)

Furniture from Appomattox

Joey and a Ninja Turtle! I made him pose for a lot of different photos, but this one he jumped in front of without any prodding.

Mr. Hawaii

I get a kick of out seeing modern things in museums, things I have actually used or seen in my lifetime. Like this gas pump. Except, since I don't drive, I've never actually used a gas pump, which makes this picture sort of historical

Tree stump from Spotsylvania. (This one gave me chills. We're talking a 150 year old tree stump from an historic battle site!)

Seeing everything with Joey was a lot of fun and made everything seem new again. One of my favorite things about my family is their interest, knowledge, and excitement for history. I may be the one with the history degree, but I only have that interest because of the love and respect for the past that my family has nurtured for as long as I can remember.

My junior year of college I was writing an article on a Civil War battle site about a half hour from our house. Despite us having visited it numerous times, I was having trouble finishing the article. So Daddy, Mom, Joey, and I piled in the truck and went to visit again. We toured the site, walked in the surrounding woods, and drove throughout the town looking for things for me to write about. I don't know, I'm going home soon, I'm feeling a bit mushy.

Picture Dump: Hirshhorn

A few weeks ago I took my first trip to the Hirshhorn with my best friend from high school and one of her friends. My friend was an art major in college and a talented artist, and I loved going with her because she knew a lot about different sculptures and artists. I also liked going with her because we can still be silly and make each other laugh. And she has the same confusion as I do about a lot of modern "art" pieces, and all three of us tended to dislike/mock/ponder the same ones.

Stamp carousel. I worked at a library in college and we had a smaller carousel with stamps for the books. Yeah, I'm weird, this sculpture made me dorkily happy.

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down:

I thought it looked like a Dalek. Genie decided it was a "penguin of death." Read the explanation on the plaque, turns out it was modeled on a penguin. That's why she was the art major.

The main reason we went was to see the Louise Bourgeois exhibit. She had some interesting stuff, some crazy, and a lot of big metal spiders in cages. (But the guards caught me before I could take any pictures of those.)

Silver surfboard type things surrounded by chairs, intended for people to sit and ponder their reflections, except you weren't actually allowed to sit and ponder.

My favorite, though I can't remember the name. But it had to with how people used to classify women as "hysterical" when they were just having typical human emotions or reactions. Feminist statement, hell yes.

And that's all. I do occasionally get some culture.

Saturday in DC

I had a good day last Saturday...

I started at the Archives, but the line was too long and too full of children, so I went to sit by the skating rink at the sculpture garden.

But I realized I was only accelerating my trip to Hell by laughing at people falling, and made myself leave. Pit stop at bookstore, then walked to the Renwick Galley, passing by the White House:

I had never been to this gallery and really like it. It’s quite small, but nice so as to not be overwhelmed by so many pieces. They have “American crafts,” so there were highly skilled quilts or woodwork, really my type of gallery.

I then walked to the Portrait Gallery/Art Museum. The American Art Museum, in conjunction with the Renwick, made a mural of Presidents Obama and Lincoln in honor of Presidents’ day. However, it wasn’t just any mural, it was made out of 5,000 cupcakes.

They were giving them away when they were done, which is how I came to have a volunteer ask, “Obama nose?,” and then hand over two exceptionally delicious cupcakes. The little girl beside me got "the twinkle in his eye." I contemplated knocking her down for them but again, no need to accelerate the express train to hell.
And just to make it clear, and to be perfectly honest, if someone said they were making a mural out of Stalin and Lenin with 5,000 cupcakes, and you could get some free after 5 p.m., I'd be there too. But unlike the Obama and Lincoln cupcakes, which tasted like freedom, I assume Stalin and Lenin ones would taste a bit more tyrannical, with maybe some of the blood of the workers thrown in for good measure.

(I was pointing this out to try and make me sound less like a raging liberal for eating Obama cupcakes, but I don’t think it worked. Besides, he's president now, so it's just being a good patriot.)