Day 209/365 - Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo a mis amigos. I spent mine eating queso, drinking Corona, and watching "The Mexican" on dvd. Perhaps not the most authentic way to celebrate Mexico's victory over the French imperialists at the Battle of Puebla, but it was fun anyhow. "The Mexican" is an odd little movie, but I like it. Great cast (Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Gene Hackman) and quirky humor. If you haven't seen it, rent it. There's quite a bit of bloodshed, though, so be advised.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 208/365 - Today's Shot

When all else fails, resort to being literal.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Edward Hopper Window

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took on my weekend trip to NYC last week. This view from the window of my hotel reminded me of the sort of scene you'd see in an Edward Hopper painting.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 207/365 - Rainy Day Self Portrait

This week's self-portrait is me out in the rain on my way home from a late breakfast. It's been raining all morning and the forecast is for it to keep raining all day. Not hard, but steady. As a result, my team's kickball game was cancelled and we'll have to make it up as a doubleheader later in the season. They almost won the game I missed last week due to my trip up to NYC. They only lost 2-3. That's a big improvement over the results of our prior two games.

I don't really mind rainy days. They're perfect for staying inside and reading and watching tv or going to a museum or the movies. Plus you get to stomp in puddles! That's the best. It's like Mother Nature's equivalent of popping bubble wrap. After years of study into the subject, I've discovered that the trick is to do it with one foot while you draw the other one up out of the way. That way you burst the puddle but don't get much water on yourself. The worst approach is to jump in with both feet. Then the water shoots up between your legs and soaks your pants.

And definitely avoid muddy puddles. It's okay when you're a kid and your mom gets stuck having to clean up the mess afterward, but it pretty much sucks as an adult.

(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 205/365 - Birthday Bowling Bash

In honor of Adriana's quarter century of life on this Earth, she, Desiree, MJ, Chris, and I journeyed to far Bethesda to celebrate with two games of bowling, two rounds of shots, two pitchers of beer, two rounds of appetizers, and entirely too much fun. From there, it was on to the Tastee Diner for some late night gnoshing and then a quick stop at the revolving Skydome bar in Crystal City for a good night view of the city.

Feliz cumpleanos, Adri!

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 204/365 - Fogo de Chao(down)

These are the funky light fixtures from the place I ate lunch today. I missed my friend Chris' birthday camping trip at the beach last weekend because of my trip to NYC, so today I made it up to him by taking him for lunch at his favorite restaurant -- Fodo de Chao. Fogo is a Brazilian steakhouse that offers all the meat you can eat. Servers walk by with various cuts of meat on skewers and saw hunks off and drop them on your plate.

Chris and I were there for an hour and between the two of us I think we ate approximately half a cow. We both had a serious case of meat bloat/food coma afterward. I don't think I'll need to eat any more meat for a week. Right after we got back from Fogo, Chris had to go straight to a meeting with a couple of businessmen from India. Good thing he didn't tell them what he'd just done for lunch. That might not have gone over too well.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 203/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 5

Time for another Post-It Note impression!

Quick, who am I this time?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 202/365 - Ragtime

I headed over to the Kennedy Center tonight to see their revival of the musical "Ragtime." It was the first time I'd seen a show in the recently renovated Eisenhower Theater. The Eisenhower is the smallest of the Kennedy Center's three main theaters. It's roughly the size of a small Broadway theater. Before the renovation it was drab, dark, and rundown. The makeover is quite startling. It's now warm and bright and cozy, all gold and blue and blonde wood. Unfortunately the acoustics are still problematic. Before the renovation, it was very difficult to hear the actors lines from the upper balcony. I don't know if that is still the case, but I can report that the prime orchestra seating isn't so prime from a sound standpoint. Many of the song lyrics, especially in the group numbers, were impossible to distinguish. It was largely just a fuzzy, foggy, blur of sound. Hopefully that's something they can tweak going forward.

The play itself, despite the sound issues, is excellent. It's based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow and concerns three strata of American society at the beginning of the 20th century -- the privileged white upper class, the disenfranchised black middle class, and the struggling immigrant lower class. The story mixes fictional characters with an eclectic array of historical figures such as Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, and JP Morgan. With a large cast of characters and a lot of plot points to cover, the play proceeds at breakneck speed but still manages to avoid seeming rushed or hastily sketched. It's a great story and it inspired me to purchase a copy of the book from the Kennedy Center gift shop immediately upon exiting the theater.

The primary theme of the play is the individual search for identity as reflected by one member of each social strata -- the white homemaker, the black musician, and the immigrant artist. The three struggle to define themselves and discover who they will be in this new American age and their journeys toward self discovery are contrasted with the white husband's mania for exploring the world's boundaries while studiously ignoring his own personal frontiers.

The cast is strong and is composed of performers who are both good singers and good actors. In particular, each of the three leads does excellently in his or her part. The staging is stark but effective and the costumes are very good. The music is lively and well done, but the songs tend to sound largely the same. There are a few standout numbers, but for the most part it isn't the sort of score you'll go around humming the next day. The compelling story, rich characters, and skilled performances though are enough in themselves to make the show well worth seeing. But I'm still irked about the acoustics/sound design.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 201/365 - Istanbul Sounds Intriguing

This week's self-portrait is a shot of me sitting at an outdoor restaurant reading a magazine while I wait for the dinner I just ordered to come. I really need to get myself to the grocery and buy some grub fixin's so I don't have to keep going out to dinner every night. That can't be healthy for my body or my budget. I had an appeal response to file today and I had to work through lunch to get it done on time, so I was starving by the time I got home.

The article on Istanbul did make it sound like a great place to visit, btw. Wonder if I could combine a trip to Turkey with a trip to Jordan? Hmmm...

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Frozen Motion

For this week's added photo from my archives, we have this extended exposure shot I took of the crowd inside Grand Central Terminal in New York this weekend. I liked the way some of the people appear solidly rooted in place while others stream through like passing ghosts.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 200/365 - Give My Regards to Broadway

I took this shot this morning as I was walking toward Penn Station after checking out of my hotel. I could've taken the subway, but I decided I'd rather walk. I definitely fall into the "great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there" camp when it comes to New York. The museums and shows and eating places and other sights and attractions are nearly limitless, but so are the crowds, noise, grime, and stench. Like Vegas, it's a place I don't think I'd want to spend more than 2-3 days at a time. For those 2-3 days though, it's pretty damn awesome.

This weekend I saw the tableau of the city from the Top of the Rock, explored Grand Central Terminal, went to a ball game at Citi Field, toured the USS Intrepid, wandered around Central Park, soaked up the sights and sounds of Time Square, saw a Broadway show, and had breakfast at a diner, dinner at a little Italian restaurant, and cheesecake and a chocolate egg cream at Lindy's. I couldn't have done all of that in any other city on Earth.

Only in New York.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 199/365 - In the Heights

When I decided to make a weekend trip up to New York, I checked to see what shows were playing on Broadway. The pickings were pretty slim. It was mostly just shows I'd already seen and more rehashes of Disney movies. The only show I really wanted to see was the musical "In the Heights." Instead of buying my ticket in advance over the internet, I thought I'd wait and see if I could get a discounted, day of performance ticket from the TKTS booth in Time Square. No such luck, unfortunately. I wound up having to pay full price at the theater box office, but it was money well spent.

"In the Heights" is something pretty rare on Broadway these days -- an original show rather than one based on a movie. The play is set in Washington Heights, a section of upper Manhattan that is home to many Latin immigrants from many lands and islands. The story focuses on a wide cast of characters who are all either trying to follow their dreams or figure out what their dreams actually are. It's a bit of a cross between "La Boheme" and "Romeo and Juliet," with a New York Latin flair. The story is engrossing and keeps you engaged as you wait to see how it all turns out in the end. It's a bit unusual though in that there is no antagonist in the play, apart from the vicissitudes of life and circumstance. The presence of a heavy might have been a good idea and could have tempered or counterbalanced the overall sweetness of the play.

The characters are likeable and well fleshed out for the most part, although some of the minor characters are largely stereotypes. The performers are generally good, especially the male lead Usnavi. The dancers are appropriately energetic and limber and the singers are passable. The set design is good and eschews the trend toward mechanically spectacular staging in favor of a fixed set that conveys the claustrophobic coziness of the neighborhood. The music and songs are good and "In the Heights" is the first musical I've seen that successfully blends singing and rapping without making a mess of either.

It's easy to see why "In the Heights" won the Tony Award for Best Musical. It's just a shame that there aren't more original shows like this being staged on Broadway. It's disappointing that the creeping 'Disneyfication' of Time Square has now extended to the productions in the theaters as well. If this keeps up, Time Square will be little more than a urban strip mall full of chain restaurants and chain plays.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 198/365 - At Citi Field

I took the day off work and caught the Acela up to NYC today so I could see the Nationals play the Mets in their new ballpark, Citi Field. This was my first Nats road trip of the season. I usually try to catch a couple of their road games each year. This year I'll be going to both of the brand new ballparks in New York. In each case, I bought my ticket on-line the day they went on sale and I got a pretty good seat in both ballparks. Here at Citi Field, my seat was thirteen rows back from the field and just a little to the left of home plate.

With this trip, I've now been to watch pro baseball at fourteen different parks: Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Camden Yards in Baltimore, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, RFK Stadium in DC, Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia, Wrigley Field in Chicago, U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Old Yankee Stadium in NYC, Shea Stadium in NYC, Minute Maid Park in Houston, Nationals Park in DC, Petco Park in San Diego, and Citi Field. My favorite so far is Wrigley. It's so snug and cozy there it's like you're watching a baseball game being played in a friend's backyard. My least favorite is probably Three Rivers. With the way that stadium was designed, it was like watching a game being played at the bottom of a well.

Citi Field is all right. I like it better from the outside than the inside. It has a very nice facade that is a throwback to old Ebbits Field and the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the main entrance is cool. Inside, it's really nothing special, although the bridge in back of the bullpens is a good gimmicky touch. The seats feel like they're far back from the field. I just had a couple hot dogs, a pretzel, and some crackerjacks so I can't really speak about the food options there, but the beer choices are pathetic. I walked all around the lower seating bowl and all they had on tap was Bud and Bud Light. I did find a stand that at least had Brooklyn Lager in a can, so I didn't have to go thirsty.

The Nats lost tonight, as per the usual. They kept it close, though. The final score was 4-3 and they were going up against a really tough pitcher in Johan Santana. They scored two runs in the ninth inning, so at least they made it worthwhile to stick around to see how it finished. Oh well, hopefully I'll get a better result when I go see them play at the New Yankee Stadium in June.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 197/365 - Slice of Heaven

Come to think of it, that would be a pretty cool name for a pizzeria.

I took a break from getting my stuff together for my weekend jaunt up to NYC tomorrow to head over to Cafe Pizzaiola for a Neapolitan-style pizza with smoked mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and prosciutto. Followed up, of course, with a dish of gelato. There's no indulgence like self-indulgence!

Forget ambrosia, I think pizza is truly the food of the gods. It encompasses all four food groups -- grains and cereals in the crust, dairy in the cheese, and meat and vegetables in the toppings. That has to make it the most perfect of all foods. And it's even circular, which makes it the perfect shape.

I had a friend in law school who said that pizza is like sex -- even when it's not great, it's still pretty damn good. This, however, was great.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 196/365 - Little Blue Marble

Happy Earth Day to all my fellow Earthlings (and to any otherworldly visitors as well).

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 195/365 - April Bower

For this week's self-portrait we have this shot of me under a canopy of pink cherry blossoms in a grove of trees between Capitol Hill and Union Station in Washington, DC. Honestly, I wasn't intentionally trying to look like Eraserhead here.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 194/365 - Rain Delay

I waited out a two-hour rain delay at Nationals Park tonight to catch the major league debut of the Nats top pitching prospect, Jordan Zimmermann. It was cold and rainy and foggy and the ballpark looked both ghostly and like a ghost town, but the kid pitched pretty well and helped his team notch a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves. It was nice to watch the Nats win for a change, even though I missed the end of the game because I had to leave in the bottom of the 8th inning in order to catch the last train home. Stupid rain delay.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Rowboat Romance

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took of two rental rowboats snuggled up to each other in the C&O Canal in Washington, DC.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 193/365 - The Agony of Defeat

Today was the second game for my kickball team. We got clobbered again, but at least this time we scored two runs instead of getting shut out. You should have seen us whooping and hollering and jumping up and down after we finally scored. You'd have thought we'd just won a championship or something. I guess small victories are better than no victories whatsoever, even though they do still go down in the "L" column.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)