Hirshhorn After Hours

Friday night was the quarterly After Hours at the Hirshhorn museum on the Mall. This is basically a dance party complete with cash bar, DJ and access to the galleries. I did not realize though that the main event was outdoors in the central open courtyard of this cylindrical museum, and that it would be quite cold in the evening. So I was a bit underdressed. The tickets were $18 each and considering the cash bar only served $5 coors lite in the beer department, I don't think we are the targetet clientelle. I remember when I was single, any excuse to combine drinking with meeting young members of the opposite sex sounded like a grand idea... "what? Only $100 to get into that singles mixer at the department of sanitation parking lot? You can count me in?" OK, perhaps a slight exageration but you get the idea. In fairness, the DJ was pretty cool and they had a stage for some hip hop and break beat dancing (which I could not really see because I was intimidated by the large crowd). The $7 crushed blueberry margherita was actually pretty good too.

As for the museum, we had to race through it as they closed it at 10 and we only made it in around 9 but we managed to get through it all. They currently have a long running exhibit called Colorforms going now, representing a style of simple geometric shapes and bold colors that I have never found particulary engaging. Much more interesting was their very impressive sculpture collection occupying the inner corridors of each level, and some mobiles by Alexander Calder.