Day 348/365 - Beer, Nachos, and Star Trek

I missed out on seeing the newest "Star Trek" movie in its first run in theaters. My buddy Chris and I were going to see it on one of our Monday guy night at the movies, but because of scheduling issues we never got around to it. I figured I'd have to wait and catch it on DVD, but then Chris' wife Des noticed that it was playing at the Arlington Cinema 'N Drafthouse and gave us a heads up. So tonight I drank beer, ate nachos and fried mac and cheese, and finally saw "Star Trek."

I think this was the first J.J. Abrams movie that I unreservedly enjoyed. Generally his films fall apart in the final act. Most of the time it's like he has ADD and loses interest in developing a project all the way through to the end, so the last third or so tends to suck and not make much sense. This one was good thoughout, however. It excellently balanced character development, action scenes, romance, and special effects and was perfectly pitched to appeal both to diehard Trek fans and newcomers who didn't know or didn't care about the "Star Trek" universe.

All the key touches were there: Kirk made out with a hot green chick, Bones groused "Dammit, I'm a doctor not a [fill in the blank]," Spock said "fascinating," Scotty said he was giving all the engines had to give, Uhura was hot, Chekov spoke in a bad Russian accent, and the alien baddies got blasted. Yep, that's "Star Trek" all right.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 283/365 - The 'W' Is for Woeful

After a cloudy, rainy, miserable Spring we've lucked into a delightful Summer thus far in DC. We've only had a very few days in the 90s. Most days have been in the low to mid 80s with blue skies and low humidity. That's very unusual for this area. Normally summer is one big muggy malaise.

I was reluctant to let the lovely weather slip by unappreciated today so I pried myself off my couch and had lunch at an outdoor cafe in the District. Then I walked down to the National Gallery of Art to check out an exhibit on Venetian sculpture (it was okay) and another exhibit on Spanish royal armor and portraiture (it was very cool). After the gallery closed and they herded us all outdoors, I ambled around the National Mall for a bit before heading over to Bartholdi Park to see the flowers.

Then it was time for the Nationals game. Ugh. I should've just called it a day and gone home. Up until that point the day had been glorious, but unfortunately it couldn't last. For the third straight day, the Nats lost to the Cubs. The Nats were up by 4 runs after two innings but of course they let the game slip away from them and ended up losing 6-5. This season Nationals Park has been a Bermuda Triangle for hope and a black hole for happiness. Firing the pitching coach didn't make the team any better and neither did firing the manager. They're just flat out lousy.

I'm beginning to question the merits of renewing my season tickets for next year. Instead of putting myself through the disheartening ordeal of attending 41 games next season, I might be better advised to just whack myself in the head with a mallet 41 times. That would be cheaper, quicker, and less painful.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 222/365 - Winging My Way Home

Flew home from my niece's wedding in Houston today. This shot was taken inside one of the American Airlines terminals at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. My day started with me at my sister's lake house sitting on the dock looking out over the water and ended with me sitting at my computer going through the 600+ photos I took over the course of the weekend.

Being a wedding photographer must be a great gig. I realize there would be a fair amount of stress and craziness involved, but weddings are so super-saturated with love and joy that it seems you'd have a permatan of happiness if that was your regular work environment. Now I think I have a second fallback option after pastry chef if the lawyer thing goes kablooey. It's good to have options, even if they only get used for daydreaming purposes.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 216/365 - Wolverine

Chris, Adriana, and I went to the movies in Georgetown tonight to see "Wolverine." It was about what we expected from a comic book movie. It's a bit long and meandering without much in the way of a tightly-constructed plot, but there are some good action sequences and some suprisingly good performances, particularly by Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber. It deviates a fair amount from the comic books, which I found a little distressing given that Wolverine was one of my favorite characters from back in my comic collecting days. Adriana particularly enjoyed all the half-nekkid male eye candy. Unfortunately for Chris and me, there was no female equivalent to balance things out. Life is so unfair.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 206/365 - Double Feature on 14th Street

Caught two musical revue shows by the In Series company at the Source Theatre on 14th Street today, one a matinee and the other an evening show. The first, "From U Street to the Cotton Club," was a Jazz Age revue recounting the life and career of a fictional songstress who started out in the clubs along U Street, the famous Black Broadway of Washington, DC, before moving on to the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom in New York. The revue featured two male and two female singers, a piano man, a drummer, a saxophonist, and an actress/dancer playing the parts of both the songstress, Sassy, and her granddaughter as she recited monologues and reminiscences from her grandmother's journal.

The revue incorporated 20 songs of the period, with DC native and jazz legend Duke Ellington getting the lion's share of the billing, along with a few Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, gospel, and blues tunes thrown in for good measure. The musicians were top notch. One of the female singers was excellent. The remainder were good in some songs, not as good in others. The actress/dancer was very good in both capacities and did an outstanding job in making the fictional Sassy seem a real, flesh and blood woman. The writing of the show was also very good, with some of the reminiscences and observations verging on the poetic. The staging was very minimal, but effective and the costumes were adequate.

The second show, "Berliner Kabarett," recreated the dissolute and jaded cabaret scene of Weimar Republic era Berlin during the period between the two world wars. Set in a seedy, rundown cabaret/bordello in the wee hours of the morning, the revue featured a pair of drunken soldiers, a hostess, and two waitresses/performers/prostitutes, all of whom sang during the show. They were accompanied by a pianist/accordionist as they performed 20 songs by Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht.

Each of the singers was excellent, as was the musical accompanist. The set design and costuming were very good at recreating the "resigned to circumstances," "enjoy yourself now because things will only get worse," feel of that time and place. It was like being inside a Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich movie. While there was not much in the way of dialogue in this revue, there were recitations of bits of poetry and essays from the period that blended well with the music and broadened the sweep and scope of the show.

The In Series company appears to specialize in revues of this sort and given how much I enjoyed these two pieces, I'm now looking forward to catching their next show.

P.S. - the photo is of the sign on the side of the Ellington apartment building on U Street a few blocks from the theater. Given the first revue's emphasis on the Duke's repertoire, it seemed a good choice of subject.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 157/365 - Saturday Time Machine

Today was a perfect day for a retro boy like me. I started off by heading over to the Smithsonian Institution's American Art Museum to see the exhibit "1934: A New Deal for Artists." It's a collection of paintings from 1934 sponsored by the U.S. government under the Public Works Art Project, a precursor to the longer term and larger scale Public Works Administration initiative. Participating artists were requested simply to depict "the American scene." Everything else was up to them.

It's quite a good exhibition with some wonderful paintings and excellent discussions of what life was like in the U.S. during the depths of the Great Depression (which should really be called the Terrible Depression instead). It's also a reminder of the importance of art in society, even in tough times. After I finished checking out the exhibit, I headed over to the DC Armory for more retro goodness -- the DC Rollergirls' latest roller derby match. As an appetizer, the Cherry Blossom Bombshells completely crushed the visiting Boardwalk Brawlers from New Jersey in an exhibition match. The main event between the DC DemonCats (my faves) and Scare Force One was a closer match, however. It was pretty hotly contested as well. Two skaters went down with injuries and there were multiple penalties.

In the end the DemonCats pulled out the victory, their second win this season over defending league champs Scare Force One. This was my second trip to the roller derby and this time I sat on the floor of the Armory right at the edge of the track. I was hoping to end up with a rollergirl in my lap at some point, but no such luck. Several did go flying into the crowd just to my left, however. I'll have to remember that spot next time.

After the roller derby ended, I capped off my throwback day with a visit to the American City Diner for dinner and a movie. ACD is a diner in the Friendship Heights section of DC that serves up both classic diner fare and classic movies, which it shows on its deck for free every night at 8:30. In winter the deck is covered and heated, but in better weather I'm guessing it's open to the air. I opted for a very vintage meal of meatloaf, coffee, and apple pie to accompany tonight's movie, "Dial M for Murder" with Grace Kelly and Ray Milland. I'd never seen it before and it was quite good, as was the food. I'm a little bummed that I missed ACD's screening of "King Kong" earlier this month. Now that I know about this place, I'll have to make sure I check their movie schedule fairly often to see what's showing.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 79/365 - Jour de Luxe

Today was a pretty self-indulgent day (so not that different really from all my other days). I hadn't done a photo walk in a while and it wasn't too terribly cold out today, so I decided to make a little outing to Bethesda, Maryland. I ambled about for a bit taking pictures of various things (including a mural that I really love and keep meaning to have my portrait taken in front of) and then I wandered over to Cafe Deluxe for lunch.

It's not really all that 'luxe', but it is pretty good. I sat in a booth and read a back-issue of Conde Nast Traveler while I ate a salad of mixed greens and goat cheese with a cup of roasted tomato soup, followed by a crab cake entree with a corn and asparagus medley on the side and washed down with three cups of coffee. After lunch, I headed to the arthouse movie theater at Bethesda Row to catch a showing of 'Slumdog Millionaire.'

It's an excellent movie and I loved it. It's very dramatic and romantic and powerful, and I came close to getting a bit 'misty' at the ending. It's been talked up for an Oscar and it's certainly deserving of that honor, unlike a lot of movie industry hype. It's directed by Danny Boyle, the same guy who made the movie 'Millions,' and it shares a lot of common thematic elements with that earlier film. Both films focused on a pair of brothers confronted by a threat from the criminal world and dealt with the idea that great money equals great success and great happiness.

I'm not sure whether that precept is true or not, but I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to find out for myself. Given that I was feeling particularly self-indulgent today, after the movie I swung by La Madeleine, a little bakery and cafe, and treated myself to a sacher torte and an Orangina. The torte wasn't quite as good as the ones they serve at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, but it was still pretty darn good. It had been a while since I'd had an Orangina. I love the little beaker shaped bottles they come in. Drinking one always makes me feel a bit like a mad scientist quaffing some experimental potion.

Far as I know though I didn't turn invisible or morph into Mr. Hyde after drinking it.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 72/365 - Bright Lights, Big Screen

My favorite movie of all time is the Frank Capra Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life. I've seen it about a zillion times before, but always on tv. I'd never seen it on the big screen in an actual movie theater until tonight. Just across the DC border in Silver Spring, Maryland is the AFI Silver Theatre -- an old art deco movie palace restored and operated by the American Film Institute. It's a lovely old structure with a gorgeous main auditorium and is an outstanding place to see a movie.

I met up with Erin M. in the theatre lobby. She planned this trip to the movies as an outing for the DC Social Group on Flickr, but through the process of attrition it wound up just being me and her there tonight. That was fine. We had a great time anyhow. She thinks it's the best movie ever made as well, so since it was just the two of us we didn't have to deal with any non-believing cinematic heathens pooh-poohing our adoration.

It was very cool to see it on the big screen. The lighting and shading seemed better and I noticed a lot of little details in many of the scenes that I had never noticed before when I watched it on tv -- like the skull and crossbones patches on all the boys stocking caps at the beginning, the little skull carving that was on Mr. Potter's desk, and the way Ernie the cop shot out one of the lights in the 'Potterville' sign when he was shooting at George during the 'alternate history' sequence.

Yes, it's maudlin; yes, it's simplistic; yes, it's far-fetched and full of logic holes -- but it makes me laugh a lot and cry a little and for that I love it. I love it.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)