Mom in Town

I could probably get a whole lot of posts out of my mom coming into town for a long weekend as we packed the weekend full of things to do, all deserving a mention. But I will summarize them all into a single quick Itinerary with links:

Thursday PM -

Pizzeria Paradiso - Had the special, a mushroom and sausage pie, along with a four cheeses with fresh arugala on top. Mom and Sam had a flight of Belgian beers while I had a Dulk Milk Stout.

Dolcezza - Bought coffee for the week and a Hazelnut and Pistachio gellato

Friday AM -

National Gallery of Art - West Building - On the round level is the Chester Dale collection, a gift of mostly early 20th century art from the generous benefactor, including a good video of the same.

Friday Afternoon -

National Gallery of Art - East Building - After a quick lunch on the mall, visited the East Building for the first time. Beatiful scultures in the open main level, sort of misplaced Sacred Made Real exhibit about 16th century Spanish religious sculpture and painting, an interesting space, complete with choral music setup for Mark Rothko, Many mobiles from Alexander Calder, cutouts of Henri Matisse, beautiful photos of windows, and an eclectic colection of 20th Century art. Highlight was probably Dali's Sacrament of the Last Supper.

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art - Walked down the mall en route to the monuments, but the extreme heat pushed us into this museum behind the castle to cool off. Only saw the first level where there was an exhibit on the use of animals in African art, mostly archeological, but some modern pieces.

World War II Memorial - Many of the war monuments are relatively new since my mom moved from the area so we did a quick walking tour. The first is a bit overwhelming... in size, not in emotion. The WWII memorial in its attempt to honor the contributions of every state and to organize their contributions visibly in so egalitarian a way, it is hard to really focus on anything in particular so I guess, I don't really get much from this one.

Korean War Memorial - This one on the other hand, though I have no personal relationship to this conflict, is incredibly moving. The tableux, statues expressing very human emotion realistically moving through a jungle, combines the natural elements that were such a large part of that conflict with a monument wall, memorializing the faces of so many contributors.

Vietnam Veteran's Memorial - Only saw this from the periphery, but again this stark monument provides a powerful focul point, the memorializing wall of names, shaped as a "V".

Friday PM -

60 Miles to Silver Lake - After a light dinner of homemade salad, took the bus down to Logan Circle to meet mom and go to the Studio Theatre where Sam and I have seen two other productions. This was a relatively short no intermission play taking place completely in the front seat of a car consisting of the conversations between father and son over several years.

Saturday AM -

Patisserie Poupon - I was not in attendence but mom got to rendevous with her old friend Pat for a lovely breakfast on the back patio of this Georgetown eatery.

Saturday Afternoon -

Politics & Prose - Wanted to give my mom a taste of this DC institution at which Sam and I are regulars. On saturday afternoon, Nan Chase talked about her book, Eat Your Yard about planting and eating edidble plants in even a small yard across any climate.

Northern Virgina Fine Arts Festival - Took the drive out to Reston, near my office, to this very large festival where mom ran across a couple old friends quite by accident. Many of the vendors we have seen at the Winter Park festivals along with many new booths of very high quality and reasonable price. Hope to return next year. Highlites were Valerie Bunnell, Lenny Campello, Kina Crow, C.L. Cunningham, mom's friend Ellie Diez-Massaro, Glenna Evans, Marie Gruber, Aaron Hequembourg, Clare Malloy, Woodrow Nash, Ginny Ganong Nichols, Scott Olson, mom's Art Tribe friend's boy friend Steven Olszewski, and Rasa Pranckunaite.

Saturday PM -

Dukem - This Ethiopian restaurant is fairly well known in DC as the place to go when you want to sample this cuisine. It is located in the up and coming U Street coridor on the periphery of what is now known as Little Ethiopia.

Sunday AM -

Dupont Farmers Market - Wandered the market, sampling cheeses and fresh fruit. Bought some chocolate/almond croissants and apple pastry to eat on a bench in the circle. Wandered the streets of Dupont circle, saw mom's 21st St House, and her regular hangout, the Phillips Collection.

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian - This is a stunning building architecturally. Started at the top floor to view a cool short film in a circular amphitheater then walked through some historical exhibits. Saw an excellent exhibit by a current Canadian artist, Brian Jungen titled Strange Comfort, where he uses many common items from our lives including sports paraphenalia to sculpt items of Native American significance. Glanced at the cafeteria menu and decided we will definately return for that alone.

Sunday Afternoon -

Walking the Dogs - headed to Montrose Park, adjacent to Dumbarton Oaks for a walk with the dogs, and utterly exhausted them.

Art Studio Openhouse - I could not find any link for this but there was a cool openhouse at an artist cooperative at Avon and R St NW across from Montrose park. This was catered by Whole Foods and there were some interesting artists on exhibit.

Sunday Kind of Love - Busboys and Poets hosts a poetry open mic the third sunday of every month (in addition to their other open mic events). There were some phenomenal voices here, both on the established side (Aracelis Girmay and David Gewanter), students of the genre, and amateur.

Wow. Vacation from vacation time.