Day 321/365 - Inglourious Basterds

Went to the movies to see the new Quentin Tarantino flick "Inglourious Basterds" with my buddy Chris tonight. We were originally going to go yesterday, but he had a domestic scheduling conflict so we had to push it back a day. We like going to the movies on Mondays because it tends to be less crowded.

I had done all I could to avoid seeing/hearing/reading anything about the movie. Whenever the commercial came on tv I'd change the channel or close my eyes and put my fingers in my ears. I really hate most movie trailers/commercials they release now because they tend to blow the entire plot point by point and spoil any sort of surprise. Most times after you see the preview you don't need to see the movie, because you already know what happens. I don't know who is in charge of assembling most movie trailers, but they suck.

Okay, rant over. So I avoided knowing much about this movie. Chris didn't and he already knew how it ended. Despite coming at the film from two different perspectives, we both liked it. It wasn't what I was expecting. It's not a new Dirty Dozen. It's a love letter to the movies twined about a revenge fantasy. I guess I could best describe it as a mix of the "Dirty Dozen," "Cinema Paradiso," and "I Spit on Your Grave." Also unexpected, Brad Pitt wasn't really the star. Both the guy playing the SS colonel and the woman playing the refugee theater owner had larger parts and took up a bigger share of the storyline.

It's a long movie, 2.5 hours, but it moves well. I think the fact that it is broken up into several acts and subplots makes it seem like several smaller movies than one long one. That's pretty much standard Tarantino, though. I think this is probably his best work since "Pulp Fiction." His signature touches are there -- it's brutal, bloody, bizarre and funny with dueling dialogue and quirky and absorbing characters. He seems to have gotten quite a bit better at cinematography. A lot of the shots are sumptious and lush.

It's certainly a movie worth seeing and I'm anxious to find out what the DVD version will be like. The extras should be good. My friend Chris pointed out that there were likely a lot more character-establishing scenes that were cut to pare the movie down to its current running length. But don't wait until the DVD comes out. Go and see it now and then you can compare it later.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 320/365 - The Big Catch

This is "The Big Catch" sandwich and fries combo at Nationals Park. It's a footlong, overstuffed crab salad sandwich and a whole heap of fries for $18. Basically, it's a two-foot length of food. This was only the third one of these I've had. It's something you don't get unless you're exceptionally hungry, and given that I worked through lunch so I could leave the office early enough to catch the Nats 4:35 p.m. game against the Brewers, today qualified on that score. I was still stuffed afterward though.

Considering that the carrying case it comes in is two feet long, it's not really the sort of thing you can take back to your seat with you. Well, not unless the person siting next to you doesn't mind lending you his/her lap. That's why I ate mine sitting at one of the picnic tables near the left field foul pole on the 300 level. It was so nice sitting there in the sun with the breeze blowing that I stayed there for the whole first half of the game.

Hmm, now that I think about it the Nats didn't start losing until I left the picnic table and went and reclaimed my seat from the squatter that had parked his butt in it. Maybe it's my fault they got whupped 7-1. Nah, that was solely attributable to crappy pitching and the inability to hit with runners on base.

Oh well, at least the weather was beautiful... even if the baseball was ugly.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Rainbow Staircase

For this week's extra shot from my archives, we have this photo I took of the illuminated staircase at the Signature Theatre in the Shirlington section of Arlington, Virginia. The stairs change colors and display the entire spectrum.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 319/365 - All the Fun of the Fair

Or almost all the fun anyhow. Arlington is a decidely more urban than rural type of county, and that shows in its county fair. There are no livestock competitions, no greased pig wrestling contests, and no sheep rodeos for kids. However, the Arlington County Fair does have funnel cakes, corn dogs, midway games, rides, and arts and crafts, cooking, and gardening competitions. In short, it has fun.

As you may have deduced by now, I went to the Arlington County Fair today. It had been years since I'd been to a county fair (and I've still never been to a state fair yet) so I was looking forward to this. I started out my Fair experience today with a footlong corn dog and a chocolate dipped frozen banana, before moving on to the ferris wheel, a strawberry funnel cake, and the giant slide. And, of course, I took lots of photos. I'd thought about going to the Montgomery County Fair which was also going on this week and which does have livestock competitions, but it would have been a mass transit ordeal to get there, so I decided to stay closer to home instead.

I had a blast!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 318/365 - Hammering

It was raining again at Nationals Park tonight. The Nats aren't going to set a record for losses this year (thank heavens), but it's starting to look like they may set a record for rain delays. If it weren't a bobblehead night, I probably would've just stayed home.

It was though, so I ventured over to the ballpark, picked up my Frank Howard bobblehead, bought a Jesus Flores t-shirt from the team store, had a beer and an order of chili cheese fries to counteract the salad and diet Snapple I had for lunch, and then gave up and came home.

It was raining when I left the ballpark and still raining when I got home. Hang on, let me check and see if they've gotten around to starting the game yet...

Yikes! It's the second inning and Milwaukee is ahead 7-0. So much for turning on the tv to watch the game. I originally intended for the title of this post to be a bit of a play on both the rain coming down and the blistering Frank Howard's statue at Nats Park is giving the ball in the photo above. Now I guess it's also a reference to what's happening to the Nats on the field. Bummer.

I'm not really sold on this statue or its two brethren (Walter Johnson and Josh Gibson), btw. They're all done with the same "motion tracking" style. Big Frank's statue is supposed to capture his swing and give a sense of energy to what is typically a very static art form. It's a good concept and all, but it really just makes him look like the six-armed bastard child of a Hindu deity with seaweed clinging to his bat.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 317/365 - H O T

After a mild start, summer in DC has taken a turn toward the miserable. It's hot and the air is as thick and sticky as syrup. Being outside is like walking around with a wet woolen blanket draped over you.

I had thought about going to a county fair tonight, but then I decided I'd rather just stay in the air-conditioned indoors and watch some old movies off my DVR. Given that it rained pretty hard earlier, I think I made the right call. Plus I got to watch one Stewart Granger-Grace Kelly movie ("Green Fire") and another with Clark Gable and Susan Heyward ("Soldier of Fortune").

BTW, this shot is part of a sign in the Potbelly's sandwich shop at work. I swung by there this afternoon for an Oreo milkshake. I'm not all that crazy about their sammiches, but they do make some mean milkshakes.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 316/365 - Brew at the Zoo

Hot, tired, and still half-drunk. I'll write a description at some point tomorrow.

----------------------

Okay, I’m sober, awake, and air-conditioned now. I’d heard about Brew at the Zoo but never been before. It’s a fundraising event the National Zoo hosts every summer where they bring in around thirty breweries to set up booths at the Zoo and give out samples of their beers. For the price of your ticket you get a nice glass mug with the Brew at the Zoo logo etched on it and all the free samples of beer you can drink in three hours.

There is a sample line etched on the mug and many of the brewers were strict/stingy about only filling your glass up to that mark. I did notice that the women in attendance generally were given more in their glasses than guys, probably because most of the people working the booths and pouring the beer were guys. The booths are arranged in a loop at the back end of the zoo and you just get a sample and then move to the line for the next and drink your beer while you wait to move up to the head of the line. Which means that it’s pretty much just continuous beer drinking for hours. Because your mug is only getting filled to sample size, it doesn’t seem like you’re drinking that much but it adds up quickly.

I was supposed to go with a couple friends, but something came up and they were unable to go so I had to fly solo. It’s an event that would be more fun with friends, but it was still pretty good on my own. They should’ve handed out a map though showing the different brewers’ booths and listing their beers because if you find one you enjoy and would like to buy at the store, it’s hard to remember what it was after trying so many different ones (not to mention the memory fog brought on by simply drinking so much beer). Of the ones I liked, there are only two that I can remember by brewery – a porter by Flying Dog and a hefeweizen from Starr Hill. They were both delish.

My only gripe about the event is that it’s held at the worst possible time of year. August in DC is like a summer vacation in Hell. It’s so hot and muggy that the entire city feels like one big outdoor sauna. They should push Brew at the Zoo back until September when the weather is less brutal. Especially given that you have to hump it back up the hill to the zoo entrance after the event ends. I can’t lie, I had to stop twice and take a break on a bench for a few minutes (whether from the beer I’d drunk or the oppressive heat I don’t know. Possibly both).

If I go again next year I think I’ll spring for the VIP ticket. Then they throw in a free t-shirt, appetizers, and you have your own private beer booths so you don’t have to wait in line. Plus you’re under an awning in case it rains. After all, you don’t want the rain watering down your beer.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 315/365 - Lunch with "Tony Plush"

My buddy Chris and I went to the ESPNZone for lunch today to catch a question and answer session with Washington Nationals centerfielder and lead-off man Nyjer Morgan, whose on-field alter ego is "Tony Plush."

It was a fun session. He's a very lively, entertaining, honest guy. He talked about how he left home in San Francisco when he was 16 to play hockey in a Canadian development league before hanging up his skates and going to college in Walla Walla where he started playing baseball.

He's become one of my favorite players since the Nats acquired him a month ago in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He's an excellent centerfielder who can chase down nearly any ball, a deft basestealer, can hit for average, and seems like an all-around good guy.

Go Nyjer, go Nats!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 314/365 - It's All Good!

Who cares if the Nats comeback against the Rockies fell a little short tonight and they lost 4-3, at least the game wasn't delayed by rain as I feared it would be. And, best of all, last night at one minute to midnight the Nats signed top draft pick Stephen Strasburg, the best amateur pitching prospect in the past 10 years!

So what if no pitcher taken number one overall in the draft has ever lived up to the hype and that even if Strasburg does he'll likely bolt to another city as soon as he's eligible for free agency, for the next six years he's going to be a Washington National.

Over the next several seasons I'll be looking forward to a lot of strikeouts, a fair number of wins, a couple playoff appearances, and a Cy Young award. The grass is always greener at the ballpark, even when it's home to a last-place team.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 313/365 - Not a Work of Art

For this week's self-portrait, I took a shot of myself with my D90 and then ran it through the watercolor effect on an old version of Microsoft Photo Editor to give it the look of a painting rather than a photograph. This is me tired after a busy day at work.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Uniformity

This week's extra photo from my archives is a shot I took of the Navy Honor Guard at the Navy Memorial in Washington, DC last Veterans Day.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 312/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 9

Time for me to make a fool of myself again with another Post-It Note impression. Quick, who am I this time?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 311/365 - Everyday Art

I had an art-filled Saturday today. Although I didn't plan it that way, all three stops on my impromptu art tour focused on everyday rather than 'high' art and, fittingly enough, all three were free. I started things off at the Corcoran Museum, which has free admission every Saturday this month. They are currently featuring a very cool photography exhibit by William Eggleston entitled Democractic Camera. His shots aren't of celebrities or of beautiful, exotic landscapes. Instead, he shoots regular people, ordinary places, and average objects, but the way he composes his shots is what makes them artistic.

It's easy to make an eyecatching shot of an intrinsically interesting subject. It's much harder to do that with a nondescript subject. Eggleston excels at it, however. My favorite photo in this exhibit is a shot he took of the back of a woman's ornate 1960s up-do at the next booth over in a restaurant or diner, but all of his stuff is pretty striking. Next stop on my everday art tour was the National Geographic Society's Explorer's Hall, where they have an exhibit entitled Kodachrome Culture that features photographs taken by American tourists traveling in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. These are not your average tourist summer vacation photos. They were very well done and the place in time they depicted was equally as interesting as the place in the world they highlighted.

Last stop was the all-day Mural Jam that was going on at the Rhode Island Avenue Shopping Center. There is a long concrete retaining wall that runs in back of that strip mall and an organization called Albus Cavus was sponsoring a public art project wherein several local artists were collaborating on painting a massive mural that stretched the length of the wall. A few of the artists were using brushes, but most were wielding spray cans. As you can see from the shot above, however, they weren't just the typical conception of graffiti artists. The things they were able to do with spray paint were absolutely amazing.

Never mind the bread and circuses, give the people art!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 310/365 - Twenty Interesting Experiences

Didn't know what to shoot today, so I decided I'd go with a photo of an adventurous still life and blather on about some experiences I've had that I thought were interesting. Some of these are repeats of things I mentioned on my list of random facts about myself from Day 76, but whatever.

Twenty Interesting Experiences I've Had:

1. I've been through the Panama Canal
2. I climbed an active volcano (Mt. Pelee) in Martinique
3. I've attended Mardi Gras in New Orleans
4. I've bungee jumped
5. I've been inside a pharaoh's burial chamber in an Egyptian pyramid
6. I've been hoisted up into a helicopter that was hovering over the deck of a ship at sea
7. I've attended Carnevale in Venice
8. I went to the first ever Nationals game in Washington, DC
9. I've eaten dinner at Citronelle
10. I've skydived
11. I've been to a Broadway play
12. I've ridden a train through the Chunnel
13. I've been swimming with dolphins
14. I saw a Space Shuttle launch
15. I was a ballboy at a Kansas City Kings basketball game
16. I've been to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
17. I've been in a car that was upside down
18. I've ridden bareback on a horse that was swimming in the ocean
19. I saw Nirvana in concert
20. I've loved and lost

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 309/365 - (Ex) Sailor

It's not Halloween, I'm not going to a costume party, I haven't reenlisted, and I haven't completely lost my mind. This is just my self-portrait for the week. I thought I'd see if I could still squeeze into my old Navy dress white uniform.

Squeeze was definitely the operative word here. Fourteen years after being discharged from the Navy, I could barely fit into the jumper. The pants didn't come close to fitting. Even the hat felt small. Oh well, I think I'm happier being fat and free.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 308/365 - Rough Day at the Office

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology (and a cool boss) I worked from home today. Reviewing grant applications for legal sufficiency isn't the most exciting gig in the world, although occasionally some of the project proposals are fairly interesting. When you're doing it while sitting poolside, however, it's a pretty damn good job.

Now if only there were cocktail waitresses and a swim-up blackjack table.

(Taken with my iPhone)

Day 307/365 - At the Dentist, Again

It was time for my six-month check-up, so I stopped by the dentist's ofice on my way to work this morning. I didn't realize that much time had already gone by since my last visit. I was a bit worried she'd tell me today that the repair job she'd done on my crumbling tooth wasn't holding and that I'd need a root canal.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case. However, she did find some new decay on the sides of two of my bottom teeth. That's them in the photo on the monitor above. My dentist's office is cool. This flat screen is attached to the patient chair and it can display a map of your mouth and it can also show photos that she takes inside your mouth with this wand camera thing. Then she points out the problem areas in the photo and you can see exactly what needs fixing.

Because the decay was on the outside of the teeth, she didn't need to do any drilling. Just a quick bit of grinding and then she spackled them over with this tooth-colored filling goop. Then I got to walk around for a while with one cheek and half my tongue numb. Made answering phone calls at work sort of interesting.

(Taken with my iPhone)

Day 306/365 - G.I. Joe (Doesn't Blow)

Suprisingly the GI Joe movie doesn't suck. My friend Chris and I went to see it as part of our occasional "Monday guy night at the movies." I was expecting it to be rather craptastic, but with some cool action sequences and effects. However, apart from the Paris sequence -- which was overlong, largely unnecessary, and absolutely ridiculous, it was a fairly good movie. Definitely enjoyable.

The characters, while two-dimensional (it was based on a cartoon after all), were entertaining and the story almost made sense. The action sequences, which are really the star of a movie like this, were pretty damn cool. It wasn't a particularly original piece of cinema. There was pretty heavy borrowing from Star Wars and also the Bond movies, but I didn't feel cheated after it was over.

It ain't art, and it ain't particularly smart, but it is fun. Yo Joe!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Kitchen Composition

For this week's extra photo from my archives, we have this shot I took a few weeks ago of a bowl of green apples in my kitchen. I really liked the various shapes, colors, and textures.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 305/365 - Lightning in a Jar

I went down to my neighborhood park tonight to catch myself a jar full of fireflies -- or as we call them in the midwest, lightning bugs. Every time we went down to my Grandpa's cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks when I was growing up, my brother and I would go out and catch as many lightning bugs as we could.

We'd put them in a mason jar with holes poked in the lid and set the jar on the dresser in the room we shared to make ourselves a nightlight. Then when we'd wake up in the morning we'd have a jar full of dead lightning bugs. We never could figure out how to keep them alive.

I didn't have any mason jars, so tonight I had to make do with an old jelly jar instead. I caught about six or seven lightning bugs, but once I put them in the jar they refused to glow. Seems like they only lit up when they were flying and the jelly jar was too small for them to fly around in, so after a few minutes I let them go. I don't really have much use for a jar full of dead lightning bugs at this point.

When I was a kid, summertime consisted of lightning bugs, watermelon seeds, squirt guns, bicycles, hide and go seek, reruns on tv, playing army, running through sprinklers, staying out 'til dark, road trips, freeze tag, camping, sidewalk chalk, hamburgers on the hibachi, and NO SCHOOL.

We didn't have play dates, or serial summer camps, or reading assignments. We just had fun.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 304/365 - Bobblehead Night at Nats Park

Tonight the Nats had their first bobblehead night of the season. They gave away Adam Dunn bobbleheads and if that wasn't reason enough to leave the ballpark happy, they also beat the Arizona Diamondbacks to secure their seventh straight victory. I believe that may be their longest winning streak since the inaugural 2005 season when they won ten in a row. Be still my beating heart -- the Nats are actually playing winning baseball.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 303/365 - French Twofer (Deux Pour?)

There is a French restaurant in Georgetown called La Chaumiere that I've been wanting to try for a few years and tonight I finally went. I was going to see the movie "Julie & Julia" that is, in part, about Julia Child's formative years in France and I thought it would be cool to have dinner in a French resaurant beforehand. La Chaumiere is a small, intimate restaurant with a rustic and cozy feel to it. The food is very good. I had an emmenthaler cheese souffle to start and followed that with the venison medallions. Plus a couple glasses of champagne. Why not?

I took the unforgivable step of skipping dessert so that I would have time to stop by an ATM and get to the movie theater on time. When I got to the electronic kiosk at the theater to buy my ticket, I discovered that my debit card was not in my wallet. Cue moment of minor panic. I decided I must have neglected to take it out of the folder thing the bill was in at the restaurant. I started heading back to La Chaumiere when it hit me that I'd still had the card when I stopped by the ATM, at which point I realized that I'd gone off and left my card in the machine after taking the cash. Ugh.

I wasn't too, too worried given that there was no one else around the ATM when I went, it was inside the bank foyer rather than on the street in the open, and I believe ATMs are designed to suck your card back inside if you forget to take it. My card wasn't there when I got back to the ATM, and this is where buying an iPhone came in handy. I used it to get on my bank's website and find the number for reporting a lost or stolen card. There hadn't been any activity on my card since I'd withdrawn money, and they went ahead and cancelled it and sent me a new one. Phew.

By that time I'd missed the 7:15 show, but there was another one at 8:15 so I pulled up the map on my iPhone, found the nearest Starbucks, went and got myself a mocha frappucino, and did the Wall Street Journal crossword puzzle on my phone to pass the time. If it's possible to love a little hunk of metal and plastic, I'm coming to love my iPhone.

Back at the movie theater, the lady at the ticket counter recommended heading straight to the auditorium to get a good seat because it was looking like the show was going to sell out. Great recommendation, and something I wouldn't have gotten had I used the electronic kiosk rather than dealing with a person. The show did turn out to be packed and a lot of people who came in after me had trouble finding a decent place to sit.

The movie was very good. It has two storylines, both of which are based on real events. One is about Julia Child discovering French food in post-WWII Paris, learning to cook, and putting together her groundbreaking cookbook. The other is about a woman who decides to prepare all 500+ recipes in Julia's book in one year and blog about it daily. The plotlines echo each other in several regards, much in the way that the subplot informs on the main plot in Shakespeare. The first hint of this is in the introductory scene for each character when we see Julia drive by the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Julie drive by a rusty water tower in Queens.

Although their lives are very different on the surface, the two women's stories share many of the same elements. Each is trying to find something to do with her life, something more than just what she's done in the past and something more personally meaningful than just another way to pass the time. Each finds the answer in French cooking. BTW, don't go see this movie when you are hungry. I can only imagine it would be torment.

The Washington Post movie critic made a big noise over noting that the Julia Child scenes are more compelling than the Julie the blogger scenes. How insightful. Let's see, Julia Child and her husband are portrayed by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. Who'd have guessed that their performances would outshine those of Amy Adams and the anonymous guy who plays her husband? There's some rocket science for you. I enjoyed both storylines. So go, see this movie and have a fun night out. Just make sure you eat beforehand.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 302/365 - Phillips After Five

Although I've been a member of the Phillips Collection for two years and can get into the museum for free, I'd never been to one of their "Phillips After Five" events until tonight. Turns out they are pretty damn cool.

My evening started off with the Mortified performance piece in the museum's auditorium. If you're unfamiliar with Mortified, it essentially involves people getting onstage in front of a room full of strangers and recounting some of the most embarrassing and angst-ridden moments of their adolescence. Tonight's participants read from their high school journals/diaries, recited old love letters, and in one case sang childhood songs they'd written about their neighbors and friends. It was a hilarious, empathetic, touching, and occasionally cringeworthy experience. Evidently they stage events in cities across the country, so if one pops up in your neck of the woods you should go.

After the show ended, I ventured up to the third floor to check out the "Paint Made Flesh" exhibit, which highlights the way that the development of oil paints lead to greater skill and interest in depicting the human form among painters. The exhibit features a wide range of works from a variety of artists, styles, places, and eras. When I'd finished perusing it, I wandered around the permanent collection to visit a few old friends amongst the artworks, although I was bummed to discover that one of my Phillips faves -- Matisse's "Studio, Quai Saint-Michel" -- had been taken down from display. Don't know whether it's being restored or loaned out, but it was MIA.

From there I ambled on down to the music room to catch the tail end of a jazz quartet's performance. There was a cash bar there, but I had no greenbacks on me so I had to make like a teetotaller. Boooo. I then wrapped up the evening with a late supper and a bit of bookbrowsing at Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. I guess I'd have to say it was a very yuppified night out. Fun, but definitely yuppified.

(Taken with my iPhone)

Day 301/365 - I Have Been Assimilated

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy."

My iPhone came in the mail today! Serendipitously, I spent the afternoon on the internet researching various lists of the top iPhone apps and then when I got home, there was my new toy!

Recently I decided it was time I got myself a smartphone. I don't really talk on my phone that much. Mostly I use it for going on the internet, texting, and playing games, so smartphones would seem to be perfect for me. I've been a T-Mobile customer for the past 7 years and I would've gotten a model they offered, but they decided I wasn't eligible for an upgrade discount and were going to charge me $399 for their smartphone. Hmmm, let's see.... I could stick with T-Mobile and pay $399 for their smartphone, or I could switch to AT&T and get an iPhone for $99... okay then, AT&T it is! Brilliant business model, T-Mobile.

Now if I can just get the activation to kick in on my iPhone I'll be able to play around with it.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 300/365 - Sweet!

This was the helmet sundae (chocolate-vanilla swirl with hot fudge) I had at the ballpark tonight, where the Nats came back from an 0-4 deficit to beat the Marlins for the first time this season! And to make matters even sweeter, this is Day 300 of my 365 Project. Only a little over two months left to go. I've only got to hang in there until October 8th and then I'll be done. Whew!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 299/365 - Anti-Matter Me

For this week's self-portrait I decided to play around a bit and run a shot of me in a 'screaming maniac' pose through the negative effect on an old version of Microsoft Photo Editor just to see how it turned out. I can't tell whether I look more like a poltergeist or a pissed off Smurf.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - "What's WMATA with You?"

For this week's added shot from my archives, we have this photo of an Orange Line train in DC's subway system that I took on my walkabout last weekend. One of my contacts on Flickr pointed out that it looked like it could be a scene from a sitcom.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 298/365 - Spicehenge

After walking from Crystal City up to Rosslyn, over to Georgetown, and down to Foggy Bottom yesterday I didn't feel like doing much today. Mostly I just watched old movies I'd recorded on my DVR and finished up the book I'd been reading. In fact, the only time I left my apartment today was to go to the sports pub up the street to get dinner and read my Entertainment Weekly.

That meant I didn't have much of a photographic palette to choose from for my 365 shot today, so I decided to construct a model of Stonehenge using the spice jars I had in my cupboard. It's not entirely accurate, and it's certainly not to scale, but it's a fairly close approximation of Stonehenge anyhow.

The things I do to amuse myself...

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 297/365 - I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
William Wordsworth
1804

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 296/365 - Nibble and Nosh

This was my late afternoon snack today. The General Counsel invited us over to her Capitol Hill rowhouse tonight for a BBQ send-off for our summer interns. I didn't know how good the food would be, or if it would be lame and I'd want to bail early, so I made sure to eat a snack.

It actually turned out to be a quite nice. The GC's hubby cooked us up some burgers and hot wings on his fancy "Green Egg" grill (it looked more like a cross between an avocado and a golf ball than an egg) and we stood around drinking beer, stuffing our faces, and shooting the breeze. Their rowhouse was nice, and away from the office the GC was very laid back and low key.

There were two guys there and I thought one was her dad and one was her hubby, but it turned out the old guy was her husband and the other dude was our new Deputy General Counsel who starts next week. Oops. Glad I didn't say anything. That would've been embarrassing.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 295/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 8

Change of pace this time -- instead of a person I'm a thing. Quick, what am I?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 294/365 - The Color Purple

I never thought I would like this musical. I haven't ever seen the movie (it looked too girly), so when the Kennedy Center announced they were bringing a touring company production of the show to town I was less than impressed. But then earlier this week they sent me an email advertising the fact that tickets to many of remaining performances of "The Color Purple" were being discounted to $49, so I figured 'what the heck, I'll give it a try.' Glad I did.

I went to see it tonight with my friend Pia and her musical-mad niece and we all enjoyed it. It's certainly not the happiest and most lighthearted of musicals. There's a lot of sorrow and suffering, hardship and hate in it, but despite that it manages to be very uplifting with numerous laugh-out-loud moments. The story focuses on the struggles of a woman who loses everyone she loves and is victimized by everyone she doesn't. The play follows her from the age of 14 to her grey-haired old womanhood and recounts the many memorable characters that pass through her life and the trials she endures.

The set design and staging is very stylized and evocative and the music and songs are memorable and rousing. The performances are simply outstanding. American Idol winner Fantasia burns brightly in the lead role of Ceelie. I was surprised at how good an actress she is. She doesn't play the part so much as she inhabits it. And man, can she sing! Her voice is an unstoppable force unto itself. As good as Fantasia's performance is however, the play is absolutely stolen by the actress portraying the feisty and unyielding Sophia. Her "Hell, no" song was the highlight of the evening for me.

Now after enjoying the play I'm going to have to rent the movie and give it a chance. Sometimes being proven wrong can be a good thing.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 293/365 - World's Coolest Lunchbag

That's my badass, pirate-themed, insulated vinyl lunchbag ($10 at Target) framed inside a gussied up old police call box. I set up this shot today on my way over to the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory for lunch.

It was pretty cool sitting at tree-top level in the rainforest while I ate my lunch and read my book. A bit on the humid side, however. I really should've gone over there for lunch when I was reading all about the 'green hell' of the Amazonian rainforest in The Lost City of Z. That would have lent it the perfect atmosphere.

Although, come to think of it, there is a desert room at the Conservatory that would go well with the book set in Egypt that I'm reading now. Dang, I should've thought to sit down there today instead of trekking up to the gantry overlooking the jungle section.

I love themed activities.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 292/365 - If I Win the Lottery...

I don't buy individual lottery tickets, but I do have a lottery subscription. It's good for six months at a stretch and I'm automatically entered in every drawing during that period. At the end of the six months they send me a check for my winnings (if any), and then I renew my subscription. Usually I don't win anything, but I have won four or five bucks a few times and once I won fourteen. I know, I know -- lotteries are essentially a tax on people who are bad at math (guilty as charged), but I don't care. If nothing else, being able to dream about winning is worth the cost of the subscription.

I've spent a good deal of time daydreaming about what I'd do if I won. First, I'd pay off all of mine and my family's debts. Then I'd endow two trusts -- one to cover all my family's medical and educational expenses for hopefully several generations and one to make charitable contributions (kids and animals mostly, I'm sappy like that) and fund a couple scholarships at my law school alma mater.

I'd quit work and take everyone at the office out for a big fancy lunch somewhere, complete with a fleet of hired limos to chauffeur us there and back. Then I'd hire a firm of naval architects to design me a yacht that looked like a millionaire's pleasure craft from the 1930s, but was state of the art with the latest in technology and comfort. I think I'd call it the Vagabond Prince. This next part is where my detail-obsessive lawyer side comes out -- I'd set up a corporation or LLC to contract for the yacht and be responsible for employing on the crew to shield my assets and protect me from liability and I'd set off on an around the world cruise that took however long it took. I'd take loads of photos and make notes with the goal of getting a coffee table book of my trip published at the end of the journey. I'd have a website too that would include a map with real-time positioning data and webcams so you could see where I was. I'd post a few photos and notes too just to whet people's appetites for the eventual book.

Hopefully doing it this way would mean I'd be able to consider it a business venture rather than a pleasure cruise and maybe write off a portion of the trip as a business expense. Tax law not being my forte however, I'm not sure about that part. I'd have a personal assistant/operations manager that would take care of port clearances and logistics and all other administrative details so that I would only have to worry about deciding where to go next and how long to stay there.

The first leg of the voyage would be from DC down to Miami and I'd invite my friends along and it would be one big floating party. Then I'd charter a plane to fly them back home from Miami and I'd set off on my circumnavigation of the Earth. And that's what I'll do if I win the lottery.

What would you do?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Fortress in the Clouds

This week's added shot from my archives is a photo I took last weekend of the I.M. Pei-designed East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I liked the way the roof of the building looked like castle battlements and framed the sky.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 291/365 - Quick, Take a Shot of Something

I've done nothing all day but read a magazine and watch tv. Then I remembered I needed to take a shot for the 365 project, so I decided to photograph me doing what I did best today -- sitting on my butt. Hope your Sunday was as restful (although hopefully more productive).

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 290/365 - Keep on Trekkin'

This is part of a larger Shepard Fairey mural pasted on the side of an alley in the Dupont Circle section of Washington, DC. During the summer and fall, I try to go on a photowalk through a different part of the city once a month or so. However, I hadn't been on one yet this summer and given that today is supposed to be about the only dry day for the next week, I decided to grab my gear and hit the streets.

I started out in the U Street area and then moved on through Shaw, Logan Circle, and Dupont Circle before ending up in Farragut. All told, I walked just over three miles, explored some parts of the District I hadn't seen before, had lunch and dessert at Circa, picked up a book at the store inside National Geographic HQ, and took 130+ photos (84 of which turned out to be worth keeping). If you haven't gone on a photowalk where you live I highly recommend doing so. It's a great way to learn a city -- just get yourself a map, grab your camera, and go. There's always something worth photographing just around the next corner.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 289/365 - Jazz in the Sculpture Garden

Jazz in the Sculpture Garden is a free outdoor summer concert series in Washington, DC that is held every Friday evening in the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden. I think that makes reason number 2416 why it's pretty damn awesome to live/work in DC. This concert series has been going on for years, but tonight was the first time I'd been. The Young Lions were playing and they were pretty good.

I got there an hour after the concert started and by that time people had parked themselves in nearly every available inch of the garden. There were people picnicking, people dancing, people drinking, and people just hanging out and enjoying the music. Now that I've been, I'm going to have to come back and check out some of the remaining concerts in the series this summer. I'll have to try and get there earlier, though, so I can stake out a good spot.

Normally there are long, arcing jets of water spraying across this fountain, but they turn them off for the concert. In wintertime this fountain is converted into an ice skating rink. That's something else I haven't been to check out yet, but I plan on doing so this winter.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 288/365 - Hat Trick

I had trouble thinking of something to shoot for today's photo, so I fell back on an old game I used to play when I was cooped up indoors during my high school years and got bored. To wit -- get a hat, turn it upside down, and try to toss a pack of cards into it one by one.

Not the most scintillating of past-times, but it gave me something to do while I was waiting out the rain delay of the Nats-Cardinals game on tv. Plus, it gave me something to shoot. When I played this game in my younger days I used my genuine Indiana Jones felt fedora, now long since lost. This time I had to make do with the synthetic straw hat I bought to keep the sun from baking my brain when I went to Egypt several years back.

This hat came with an olive drab (accent on the drab) hat band that was kinda bleh, so I took an old cloth belt that I'd bought in the Caribbean when I was in the Navy, cut it to the proper length, and glued it together. Voila, instant tropical-flavored hat band! This shot wasn't rigged or staged, btw. Those are how (and where) the cards actually landed. Looks like my aim hasn't improved much since high school.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 287/365 - Rockin' the Red Loft

Our office, including our summer interns, headed out to Nationals Park tonight to catch the game against the Mets. We got there about 90 minutes before first pitch and hung out in the Red Loft bar drinking and gabbing. It was a fun night out and it got even better when the Nats beat the Mets 3-1!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 286/365 - Belgian/Baseball Self-Portrait

In honor of Belgian Independence Day, this week's self-portrait is an homage to Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte's painting The Son of Man. Given that I don't own a bowler hat I decided to put an American twist on it and substitute a baseball cap and then, in keeping with that theme, I swapped out a baseball for the green apple.

Happy Independence Day, Belgium!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 285/365 - Nerdvana

This is one of the bronze lion statues flanking the entrance to the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC. Given the look of wide-eyed wonder on his face, he seemed the perfect subject for today's shot. Tonight I attended a rather interesting lecture about Howard Carter, the discoverer of King Tut's Tomb, at the Corcoran. It was delivered by an author who had recently written a biography of Carter tracing his life from his childhood as the poor grandson of a gamekeeper who drew portraits of people's pets for money, to his becoming the most famous archaeologist of all time and a man who charged $10,000 per speaking engagement.

As tonight's outing goes to show, yet another of the innumerable advantages of living/working in the DC area is the fact that, if you were so inclined, you could attend a lecture or presentation every night of the week and twice on Sunday. There are lectures on art, science, history, books, politics, music, and a thousand other things. They are held at museums, galleries, coffee shops, bookstores, offices, and an endless stream of other locales. No subject is too esoteric, no topic too wonkish, and no theory too farfetched. It's like geek heaven (or maybe given that most lectures cost to attend, Disneyland for dorks).

The statement that "DC is like Hollywood for ugly people" gets thrown around ad nauseum, but I think it might be more accurate to say that Hollywood is like DC for dumb people.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Run Away with Me to Paris

For this week's extra photo from my archives we have this collage shot I took of photos from my trip to Paris several years back, along with the accompanying bit of drivel that inspired the shot. Not sure what lead to this. It just popped in my head one night while I was eating dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. Go figure.

------------------------

Run away with me to Paris and we’ll live la vie Bohème
We’ll be poor as church mice, free as birds, and happy as clams
I’ll grow a beard and learn to smoke a pipe
You’ll buy a beret and pastel skirt and ride a bicycle everywhere
We’ll live on baguettes and cheese and crepes and love
I’ll write obscure poetry and mutter darkly of ‘revolution’
You’ll make charcoal sketches and utter ‘merde’ under your breath
We’ll drink large glasses of wine and little cups of coffee
I’ll scowl and have a quick, cynical, barking laugh to mock the world
You’ll pout and have a sharp laugh of merry abandon to puncture my pretension
We’ll walk hand-in-hand beside the Seine and sit in the sun at sidewalk cafés
We’ll whisper ‘je t’aime’ and shout ‘vive l’amour fou’
We’ll live and laugh and love as though nothing else mattered or had ever mattered
Run away with me to Paris

(Taken with my Nikon D80; underlying photos taken with a Pentax K-1000)

Day 284/365 - (500) Days of Summer

Today was another day that was too beautiful to let pass by without getting out and enjoying it, so I decided to head to Bethesda. My friend Pia had raved about Ali Baba's Falafel in Bethesda and the arthouse movie theater there was one of the three in the area showing (500) Days of Summer, which I'd been anxiously awaiting. Who am I to resist kismet?

The falafel was the second-best I've ever had (first best is still L'as du Fallafel in the Marais section of Paris) and while I was sitting there on the curb scarfing it down who should walk by but Pia? She and another friend of hers were there perusing the goods that the outdoor bazaar at the Farm Women's Market had on display. We chatted for a bit and then I did my own turn of perusing the wares before heading down the hill to the movie theater.

After buying my ticket I still had some time to kill before the show started, so I popped into the Gifford's next door and got myself a peanut butter cookies and cream ice cream cone. Yummmmmmm. The movie turned out to be as good as I'd hoped. It was sadder and more realistic than most romantic movies. It's a non-linear, out of sequence narrative that charts various events over the course of a guy's life in the five hundred days that pass after he meets a woman named Summer.

There are sweet, romantic, happy, funny scenes and bitter, cynical, sad, funny scenes -- with the latter predominating toward the end. The casting is perfect. Even though Zooey Deschanel doesn't fit the cookie cutter Hollywood sex object mold, she's completely believable as the irresistible attractive and destructive force in the guy's life. The lead characters are both annoying and likeable in their own rights. They're much like real people in that regard.

The movie's bittersweet love story of a quirky couple and scrambled narrative style are probably most similar to another movie I loved, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Even the soundtrack for (500) Days is awesome, with the exception of two snippets of Patrick Swayze warbling "She's Like the Wind." Gack. The excellent group dance scene set to Hall and Oates "You Make My Dreams Come True" in the middle of the movie atones for even that horror, however.

I'll be curious to get a woman's perspective on the film to see if the apportionment of blame for the couple's problems is different from the female point of view. I put most of the fault on Summer, while recognizing that the guy had his own share of issues. I could maybe see the pendulum of blame swinging the other way, though.

(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 282/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 7

I haven't done one of these in a while. Quick, who am I this time? Or perhaps I should say, "Qui suis-je?"

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 281/365 - In Vino... Wisdom!

Our half of the Office of General Counsel (the old fogies are up on the 7th floor and the rest of us are down on 5) went out for happy hour tonight at a cool bar called Wisdom near the Potomac Avenue Metro station. Wisdom is an excellent place to go for drinks. It's a cozy, laid back, funky lounge with its own specialist cocktails. We snagged a little curtained, candlelit nook just off the main room and proceeded to try as many different alcoholic concoctions as we could. Clockwise from the top above are a Pears of Wisdom, an Apple Strudle, a Sophomoric Sazerac, a Ghetto Symphony, and an absinthe.

If you're looking for an interesting new happy hour locale in DC, go to Wisdom. The only problem is that it doesn't open until 6 p.m. so we had to first go to Trusty's, a non-air conditioned redneck-ish bar next door until Wisdom opened. Oh well, at least that gave us an opportunity to drink beer out of Mason jars and get glared at by people who weren't in suits.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 280/365 - Playing Hooky with Harry Potter

Thanks to my subversive instigation, nearly my entire office (including both our interns) snuck off to catch a noon showing of the new Harry Potter movie today. Don't worry, we used our vacation time to go so there's no issue of tax dollars being squandered while federal employees go AWOL.

Given that it's summertime I was expecting the theater to be packed with kids, but it was almost exclusively a crowd of nerdy adults. Comme nous. The movie was good, but as usual there was a lot they left out. They kept most of the comedy and romance bits intact, but surprisingly they cut a major action scene from the book. Still, it was a satisfying film and skipping off in the middle of the day to go to the movies was great. Coming back to work afterward, not so much.

Surely there has to be a magic spell to chase away work. Some variation of expelliarmus perhaps, or maybe this calls for a patronus.


(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 279/365 - Spring Awakening

Saw the musical "Spring Awakening" at the Kennedy Center tonight. It was good and well-deserving of its haul of Tony Awards. As have a thousand stories before it, it works the inexhaustible mine of teen angst. Despite the fact that it's among the oldest of story lines (as supported by the fact that the non-musical version of the play was first performed -- and promptly banned -- over 100 years ago), it still manages to seem as fresh, frenetic, raw, and real as youth itself.

This may not be the first choice of play to go and see with your mom or minister given that it deals quite bluntly with sex, sexuality, incest, child abuse, teen pregnancy, masturbation, suicide, and abortion, but it is certainly worth seeing. The set design is excellent, the costuming is quite good, the performances are all solid, and the songs (for the most part) are both good and hummable.

My only quibble really is with the final number, which comes across as a desperate ploy for a "Seasons of Love" type moment. It seems jarring and out of place given the scene that precedes it and the overall tenor of the play to that point. A key character faced with a very trying ordeal decides to resist rather than surrender in a powerful set piece, and then the cast effectively joins hands and sings 'Kumbaya" and chipperly asserts that everything will be alright? WTF? The play should end with a defiant, 'set the world on fire' anthem instead of a limp, treacly, ballad.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 278/365 - The Sum of My Parts

For this week's self-portrait I decided to play around with the mulitple exposure mode on my camera. I extended my zoom all the way, held my camera out at arm's length, and tried to get close-up shots of one eye, one ear, and my mouth.

Looks like my aim was off a little, but it still turned out all right. I like how the curve of my ear blends into the line of both shots of my nose.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)