Ah, the Breath of Autumn

     

Sorry to say but this so-called September note is verging into an early October dateline. Stay tuned below!

     Then embarrassingly enough, the days become a new month and an entirely new outlook: more on future than past. Weather creates a model, a pattern of slow-slow, quick-quick. Temperatures up and down. Hot and cool. Delicious to observe, to enjoy changes.

    Beware: What you see as often as not really can be believed, even more so if music is supplied. But what if what you are dealing with A1 magic and its wizardly rays? What you see then is likely perhaps a fantasy, some mechanical imagination. And, imagine, even when it's happening outdoors!

    So it was on Sunday the 24th on the grounds of Kennedy Center's Reach Plaza, when a so-called data sculpture was on show in an enormous 10 square meter black cube created by digital artist (so the Wash Post said) Refik (could that be 're-fixed?) Anadol (anagram of?) in homage to the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. A soundscape with moving parts that seemed to make sense only to listeners and viewers who already knew the music. The sound blared, the children played - how few of them seemed really curious beyond trying to touch the screen. The tape or whatever it was kept rolling, repeating insanely for a 16-minute run. Ok: so what if a Czech billionaire was the sponsor (and major Kennedy Center donor). The spectacle isn't a new one apparently:  commissions are the artist's forte for dramatic settings such as the opening of the Las Vegas sphere last year. It took a newspaper article to explain what was going on - so pity those who stumbled upon the scene without having done their homework. "Dvorak Dreams" is the title. Results, admittedly - even to critics, are uneven. But long live the creative process in whatever form. 

    The danger I felt is its capacity to anethesize an audience. Spontaneity, live musicality, are naturally elusive in such work. I don't question that my immediate reaction was to pursue more seriously than ever the value of reaching out to people - strangers - in casual encounters, to feel elicit some real contact the way someone might feel listening to a live concert performed by human beings who have mastered the ability to create sound and make it seem spontaneous.

    

    So much of Washington's history and 'culture' (in broadest sense) is lost - or can be - to outsiders, tourists, etc. Residents don't often catch up to the best of it all unless by accident or by paying close attention to the online announcements that proliferate endlessly on emails and gmails. To wit, I grew fond of the still-nascent institution DC History Center (complicated by a better known Washington history section at the  MLK Library downtown) by a casual visit to the elegant former Carnegie Library building that occupies a block of Mt. Vernon Square. Which IS the square, in fact. Apple is spread over the entire first floor. DC History is downstairs with a commanding feature on the still evolving history of so-called home rule.  But this past weekend (we now are talking  October 5, the Center sponsored a number of free tours - one on the building itself and another (both of them an hour long) on the colorful alleys that can be found only by looking off the main streets.

     Think the neighborhood of Shaw, and the name Blagden Alley, one of the best preserved-while-still=evolving landmarks. It is, most of it now, under an historic preservation statute so that a tour such as one I had on a bustling Saturday could only happen under auspices of the Center and their foresight in hiring a commercial business called Off the Mall Walking Tours, led by a spirited Katie Kirkpatrick. She does as many as three different themed tours on peak days each month.. Blagden was a draw for sure. She encompassed history and present day worlds - so that at one time we are hearing about immigration of formerly enslaved people from the South (and before that the fact that  DC land was forested or swampy, never just what famous Pierre L'Enfant brought to bear later). How visual and vital such an area was throughout its slow settlement. Who lived there and how. Up to present day residents in habiting proudly what were formerly stables and even hospitals for horses and dogs, plus the mysterious fronts of several other closein addresses. (Insomniac - a bar? Death reads one plaque: a restaurant or a joke?)

    So much to take in and so lively a scene. Indeed, one sign points to an alley history center all its own - likely encompassing many other similar hidden spaces though few as well maintained as Blagden is today.

    Other thoughts on the season: Skies are clear and air clean enough that sometimes it's possible to hear background noises in a neighborhood that could be equally a political demonstration or a church service, the Marine Baracks on Capitol Hill  playing taps or the sound of someone's car radio through open windows.

 

    

    

August - Prelude to Coming Attractions?

 

    Always the anticipation - will September bring relief from weather and will normal school startups then (mid or late August into  the 9th month) change the country's mood. Or your own.

    Certainly politics has taken a turn that could be either  much better or ?.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES - Now on August 19, Democratic Convention with Ms. Harris charging ahead. 

And what a difference is WAshington DC in August after humidity (rain sun rain sun) of July. It is a cliche to think the opposite. Less traffic more green even sometimes cool nights and mornings for walking.

July and Why?

 Signs of a summer season: a disabled man slumped over in his wheelchair in front of the US Post Office on Penna. Ave. SE  while in the background a younger man tenderly gives fresh water to his dogs using the top of a small jar.  Trees above are a blessing. So are passersby thinking to give some money to the tired oldster.

    Why such a stupendous heat 'storm' locally and nationally? And why do I let it be my excuse for lack of any meaningful activity?

    Sure, I helped a friend move from her small house to a medium-sized condo nearby. That led to a short sense of wellbeing, a sense of helping others. But that doesn't carry over to the next day.

    Because it's July and the weather seems to be in charge - the unpredictability leading to a wayward mentality no doubt. 

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

    And for distraction, I focus on an old habit: reading, considering and sometimes using New York Times Cooking recipes. Where does the satisfaction come from I ask myself: the urge to collect them is hard to resist, often hard to follow and seldom produces satisfactory results. I concede this is probably a solitary woman's  subject probably a holdover from pandemic activity's closet life. I surmise it is admiration for the orderliness of instructions, the promised evocation of good tastes and smells. No doubt it is the anticipation that brings joy. In any event, I doubt I share the compulsion with anyone I know. So much the better then.

And so it is when I go for a trim with Walter - to have the attention of another person,, however brief, and see accomplishment in the result, however imperfect.  Clip, clip, clip he goes on relentlessly, matching talk to the sound of the scissors. He begins by asking a polite question - something about 'where have you been traveling' or such. Soon the session becomes a series of anecdotes, observations, advice. He has just yesterday perhaps had a slight stroke, he says, but he knows how to ease out of it - by taking off his shoes and walking slowly outside on the grass, all the while breathing slowly, in and out, focusing on calming his nerves so his heart slows. A neighbor saw him and told his wife who screamed thoughtfully, insisting on taking him to an emergency room. He obliges her - now that he has conquered the tremor - but the medical team probably agrees that he has had a small slight stroke. Ah, but he is undaunted. He has solutions to prolonging life: watermelon juice,  daily round of salt in hot water  - "since what they give you first thing when you go there is a sodium injection,' (he thinks).

The stories go on, of past encounters low and high: about being asked to 'do the hair' of certain high end government officials at some super secure event before such people were to take the stage or sit before a camera. How, one time, a woman begged him to let her come along as his so-called assistant but when he obliged, she broke down with nerves, drank too much and had to be ejected from the scene.That was the last time I'll ever do that, he confesses. He confesses so much while his fingers move with such finality through my ever shorter locks. He wants me to have 'a certain look,' not like anyone else - he says. Younger and more vital. We are in this together, this aging thing.

June Swoon

     

    It's transition month - out with spring and into summer, Blasts of heat and cold, sun and rain. AC or a fan? Unavoidable sense of time moving on..... 

    Onto such treasures as the reopening on June 21 of an enhanced and modernized Folger Shakespeare Library in DC.  - a major event in the capital's cultural history and resources.

    A statue of Puck, the mischievous shape-shifter in "Midsummer Night's Dream," is an apt greeter for visitors entering the West entrance of the handsome white marble building at 201 East Capitol Street.  After a four-year  $80.5 million renovation, the museum - dedicated largely to the life and times of England's master poet and playwright - has changed shape in wondrous ways both inside and out.

   The structure itself was raised several feet above ground,  an engineering  marvel to behold. There are now  two entrances, new exhibit halls, new gardens,  an expanded cafe and gift shop, and new ergonomic and digital features throughout. Daylight, once forbidden in order to protect  precious treasures on display, now illuminates the Great Hall next to the scholars center  - i.e. the more accessible Reading Room. The intimate Elizabethan styled theatre remains the same under the fabled unicorn painting on the ceiling.

     Known worldwide as home to the greatest number of Shakespeare's original folios, Folger boasts a welcoming message everywhere  and an increased emphasis on the educational aim of the privately endowed institution. That's not to say it isn't also promising to be entertaining and provocative as well. 

  No one should be surprised to see the image of Martin Luther King Jr. among other celebrated literary figures on  colorful wallpaper in the Stuart & Mimi Rose Rare Book & Manuscript Exhibition Hall. The surroundings are dramatic and eclectic, reflecting the taste and interests of an Ohio couple's sterling collection.

    See below, from highlights of the opening days:

* Audience cheering for the all-female Go-Go Band Be'la Dona on stage in the Elizabethan theatre with fusion music and dance they call Sensual Crank, a  tribute to  its home town (Go-go was born in Washington.)  And as if to further  illustrate the Folger's universal appeal across the boundaries of time and culture, a flamenco troupe proceeded them.

    *Now on permanent display: a copy of a 17th century printing press. The public can try hand-printing on a similar but  simplified version at a desk nearby.

    * A sample offering in a special exhibition room featuring copies of extraordinary rare books across the ages  entitled "Imprints in Time." This one  from 1493-94  is the first book ever printed in the English language - and it's legible, sort of, inches away from the viewer behind super-secure glass.

    *An image of Martin Luther King Jr. on festive wallpaper among a legion of notable authors' works through the ages. Shakespeare is just a small part of the library's collection of some 350,000 documents and artifacts. 

    *Outgoing Library head Michel Witmore at the press preview celebrating the private marble museum's four-year $80.5 million transformation, noting the building's location among other fabled  Capitol Hill institutions - all of which representing "where words matter most." (Congressional buildings, the Supreme Court, and  the Library of Congress).

    * Selections on offer at the new Quill & Crumb cafe include English Waldorf salad, creamy ricotta blackberry tartine, crab avocado tartine, etc. Check ahead for open hours that may vary according to the season and activities' schedule.

  A sample of what is ahead for the summer (from a recent announcement) shows free programs indoors and out, July and August.  Check details  at folger.edu/what's on. Timed entry passes are available online.

   

May-be

 

      An ongoing debate. Will it ever end? I.E .  The ongoing subtext of caution as seen in the unpredictable behavior of people regarding other people masking. Because (says one friend) I assume they have Covid.. No, they are just being cautious, says another friend. Maybe I carry one because I might be in a crowd where I can't be sure everyone has their vaccines up to date, I say.

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

    Meanwhile, joyful and even educational opportunities abound in post-pandemic DC. 

Among the latest and perhaps most impressive is the opening of Folger Theatre's new play on May 7, a startling original adaptation of Ovid's classic 'Metamorphoses' (by way of Mary Zimmerman's translation), with the first all-black cast in the august institution's history. It is also a chance to see an impressive work of art as you climb the stairs from the lower level public reception and exhibit area to the theater and the Great Hall just beyond. "'Cloud of Imagination' is a hanging light sculpture composed of hundreds of paper forms glowing fiber optical fibers - a metaphorical piece (of course - who would expect otherwise in a poet's home) by German artist Anke Neumann. 

Consider it homage to art and ideas set in motion (and on paper) in this temple of artistic endeavor (containing more of the bard's first folios than anywhere else) - finally opening to the public  next month after four years of renovation.  And consider the choice of a play about  Greek myths and gods an apt one  given that the fact that the building's namesake, Folger Shakespeare Library, drew on such sources for much of his work. As for the lavish over-the-top production itself, what would the bard say? (Beyond 'the play's the thing and all the rest of us mere actors .....) He might be tempted to shout, to sing, instead so impressive is the talent on stage (so beyond words?), endearing and engaging. Much will be made of the director's surprising decision not to have an authentic body of water in place on the stage itself - traditionally is a central feature around which the action moves. But choreography and props, such as a  rustling trail of blue--green fabric, make a fine substitute.  After all, the play's theme, like the title itself ,"Metamorphoses,' is about change - all the vagaries of human nature often god induced. Satirical, comedic, even horrific at one point: a man driven out of control by his appetite can't get enough so he takes a knife to turn himself into a meal. Not meant for viewing by babes.

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

River Daze: Aboard the Anacostia Riverkeepers Alliance boat

A cloudy casually drippy day in late May - perfect for a few curious water-loving adventurers seeing a part of Washington's shoreline from the district's 'other river.' This was not your usual isn't it lovely tourist trip. For two hours, invited guests were treated to an expert's knowledge of the best and worst of a river's fate over the years (sewage flow and billion dollar attempts to correct pollution, etc.) as well as information on buildings that line the banks. Chief among the latter was/is the great green glass headquarters of DC Water, whose job it is to watch over this tributary  spilling eventually into the great mid= Eastern watershed. 'Trey' was our leader, our historian. He made sure we noted ,too, the presence of the new Frederick Douglas Bridge that rolls majestically like a steel ribbon from DC SW to Anacostia beyond. (Above) and the original home of the FBI in an Art Deco tinspired facade brick building now converted into luxury apartments (above), the public and private facilities of historic Washington Navy Yard,  the osprey and eagle nests hither and yon, past the first Black yacht club in the country dating back to 1945.

 "DC was never a swamp. It was a series of hills," he asserted at one point. It remains so as a far view of the US  Capitol in the distance proves.The colors of the water beneath us were ever changing as weather changed throughout two hours. But in a way the most suprising face was kept to the last: real news! The nonprofit group is sponsoring what will be a first free controlled public swim in the river if conditions allow. A target date is June 29 this year, with backup dates should they be necessary. Slots filled up immediately when the announcement first went out. To quote from the organization's web site:

"This is the first time in over 50 years that residents will be able to legally swim in the Anacostia River, a tributary to the Potomac River and part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The event celebrates our region’s progress towards restoring the Anacostia Watershed and protecting it from pollutants and other runoff that impacts water health and quality. Restoration of the Anacostia began in the mid-1980s and was accelerated by the formation of the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership (AWRP) in 2006, led by COG and made up of local, state, and federal agencies, environmental organizations, and private citizens."

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

And this update to the Folger 'coming out party' in June (officially Friday 6/21): That timed-entry passes are recommended to see the building and special exhibits planned. Guests who choose to do so receive expedited entry on busy days, while others without passes might have to wait in line. They can reserve for June 21 through the end of September on Folger's website - www.folger.edu.

Spring Fling

 

    Spring takes some getting used to, especially when preceded by days of rain. Then suddenly we get wind and gradually the sun leading to one or two full days of Vitamin D. Along with it comes the kwanzan trees, a more hardy longlasting version of the fabled Washington brand. Now mid-month one very special specimen stands guard over three and a half backyards on Capitol Hill,  a treat to behold and worthy of the name 'Gloria.'  She is a flirtatious plant, flinging her limbs about in spectacular fashion, seemingly free as the birds that nestle within.

    And of other positive scenes: a memorial service inside the National Portrait Gallery on a Saturday morning before the museum opened. The man honored had once been the Gallery's head, bringing it into the 20th century so that, in words of the current director, Kim Sajet, "he redefined the world of national portraiture and allowed us to include living beings. Daughter Gillian Pachter spoke fondly of her father as "good at telling lives,"  an indelible portrait himself of a person fiercely committed to humanity. "He made portraiture not about yesterday but about today and tomorrow" said Lonnie Bunch, founder of the Museum of African American History and Culture currently head of the entire Smithsonian itself. Above all, this self-described flaneur ws "living just in the moment wherever I am." He made sure that life included abundant travel, adventures galore, and, above all, no regrets. Son Adam aptly remembered a father who never forgot to give his children 'mad money' for their travels, so they could enjoy pleasures sought and enjoyed without guilt. So dedicated to the humane, the feast of friendship, the man for some reason never learned to drive. Which, in a sense, is the very definition of a flaneur, a wanderer who takes chances and makes every moment his own.

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

    PS Nothing in  what follows is especially about spring doings except how an increased number of visitors to the capital city during school break time can impinge in coincidentally ways about how we locals go about our everyday life. For this Eastern Market home owner, such activities recently included a trying task  - cleaning a Baratza model coffee grinder. It is no mean feat to tackle this device, first to take it apart and clean the inner pieces, then figure out how to put it back together again. Two other people tried their hand at the task and none  succeeded in making it work again. So I lugged it several blocks away to the Peregrine Espresso store to get sympathy and possibly some help. But not even the  barista on duty knew what to do. I was told to return in two days' time after  the morning rush hour  when the owner could try since it's likely she had the same product at home. That I did, waiting while she did her best = unsuccessfully. The first time the first day another customer suggested I call the manufacturer who could supply me with a tool to take out the part that was now stuck. Or likely I could send the thing back and have it made whole again by 'customer service.' But on my second day at the coffee shop another stranger walked in and saw what was happening and got to work. In a very few minutes my machine was working again. How could this friendly stranger  just have happened by. He was visiting DC from another Washington - the state - and even better he boasted, he was from the Yakima Valley, one of the country's most fertile agricultural areas. He told how: millions of years ago rich soil from  Montana was deposited there ...and so on.The encounter was a serendipitous exchange, so different from  the fractious momentous doings taking place inside the nation's Capitol building only a mile or so away. 

Long live serendipity and the importance of making each moment count. Now a segue to the name of this blog: Urbanities. Being urbane takes many forms,  one of which surely is being able to recognize and appreciate when the moment matters. The word urbane too often infers 'citified', 'polish' or 'suavity' - on the negative side. But a person can be urbane in a rural world as well. A question of attitude...

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

    The news drives odd even irrelevant subjects to ponder IF and when a person can't relate in any personal way. Call it trivialization, if you may. It is also defensive action in the face of impotence. I cannot relate to the hysteria on campuses across the country where pro-Palestinian voices seem to refuse to consider Hamas' proclamations of the need to obliterate Israel. At the same time those same students might as well be supporting Putin and his stated aims of obliterating an independent Ukraine.

    So I take refuse in worrying about Secretary of STate Antony Blinken and how he must be coping. How he bears up under jet lag, even how does he manage to refrain from smiling. Serious is His Business for sure. Stalwart.  This is, admittedly, a useless waste of my emotion. But it's not exactly looking on the bright side either.

March Blows In

     

    And my camellia bush blooms,  slowly. Now about six out of a potential hundred or more. March days move forward  slowly, not wanting to raise hopes for the world.

    So to dispel the gloom (and gray rain), I tackle the mundane - which is to try making a friend of sorts whenever I'm  indulging in  commonplace and mostly frustrating household tasks. Like finding a solution to a window roller shade that will no longer roll. This involves a trip to Home Depot where my request for help with two domestic matters of little consequence produces just that: no immediate result. Just to make the tasks not seem quite so futile I challenge myself to engage on a human level (a little smile, a patient approach, a 'we are in this together' attitude). Instead of surly (I'm told 'we don't do that' at first try) when I'm breaking up a group of women employes talking together to get an answer, I strive in a small self-satisfying way to create fellowship. I come away with the name of a firm that will do it, providing I show interest in buying another shade. My second mission is to locate what may be called a food waste storage can, otherwise known as future compost. A genial man whom I meet walking the aisles volunteers to lead me to a shelf where a possible container might be found. Instead, we find a pail without a lid. He spends several minutes in the search. We conclude  he earnestly and sympathetically agrees: nothing like that at the Depot (which doubles as a waiting place for out of work hopeful handymen bunching in groups) is useless and together we come up with the local hardware store where personnel answering my question (about where and what is a likely source for this object) by phone include the store's owner.

This is a sermon on how somewhat trivial chores can matter. I had to be taught to think 'common sense' . The lesson came from a fellow in the hardware store (where a sign read 'no ski masks allowed') who logically enough suggested unrolling the shade to see what might be in a label on the bar holding the fabric. Yes, there it was, my last name and the date of my last encounter with the maker of the shade.

    While I'm thinking basics - chores, camellias and such - I keep regressing to the habit acquired most severely during the pandemic: following carefully every day's New York Times Cooking column. The recipes with their reassuring vibe - yes, you can do it if you can read - and the calmly satisfying photographs attached. How and why they mattered so much in getting through a day - some lodestar, escapist fantasy of being able to cook and eat well.

    That's one reason but probably not the only one. The organizing fetish is a cover, an excuse, to imagine actually accomplishing something in the face of doubt. The effort is its own reward.

PS The prospect of turning a mix of unlikely ingredients into something digestible, even worth digesting, is another reward. Even, somehow, when results fail. Take cauliflower, green olives, almonds and feta for example. Suspense reigns throughout the trial... which is graded on a 'nice try but' level. So on to the next experiment: chicken thighs, dates, sweet potato and plenty of spices.

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

    Another food story that also is news. Of a sort that at least patrons of Folger Shakespeare Library will welcome. After waiting through four years of renovations and suspense about a reopening date (now set for June 21 this year), hungry friends and supporters of the immensely impressive  and handsome edifice on Washington's Capitol Hill will surely welcome the invention there (really a reinvention) of a well-supplied cafe in the Great Hall. Anyone familiar with the museum-library-theater complex should take a look at the lively scene imagined in this photo. Better, too, take heart in the democratic way the cafe space was named. "Crumble and Quill' was crowdsourced publicly and voted on dramatically enough down to the last ballot. The name surely will stand out among more common cafe titles of the town. A great salute to the wordsmith indeed.

    Sherry surely. And crumpets?

PS Any  devoted Folger fan might have noticed that I transposed  the name of the new hangout: It should have been Quill & Crumb. So kudos to those who caught this. Or was it my subconscious wanting to trick a reader?

    Or this, from the department of Never Underestimate Variety in an Urban Setting.

    Twice this week (the last of March 2024 forever.....), we attended two events of an extremely different nature that were free and open to the public (with registration), thereby again proving how an informed life (free email distribution) helps make an interesting life.

    Journalist Bill Press has a gig of sorts that  finds him periodically interviewing people of interest at the Hill Center on Capitol Hill. One requirement seems to be the subject at hand must have wide appeal and often has a book just published that an author or speaker hopes to publicize. Yes, copies of books are on sale at the site. Thus did Alex Prud'homme come to write "Dinner with the President: Food, Politics, and  a History of Breaking Bread at The White House." Not irrelevant is the fact that his great aunt is/was the great cook and memoirist Julia Child (he helped her produce her 'My Life in France.') Undoubtedly, he knows a good table and a good story when he is at or around one.  True to form, he could and did entertain with anecdotes true and believed about dining habits of political and social notables. He told of quirky tastes and reasons for them, reputations of White House chefs, how and why dining traditions are  enshrined in those hallowed quarters. How 'gastro diplomacy' works. 

    A day or so later I attended a big band concert at - why not? - the Martin Luther King Library, by the 44-year-old  LGBTQH however you wish to combine the letters Jazz Band who call themselves "the Different Drummers." Certainly a different way of applying a familiar expression - to march to the tune of a different drummer. The timpani were all women but members were all ages and backgrounds, as was the talent: Japanese born horn player who could make his language a rhythmic force said aloud and another younger man (on another instrument) whistling in jazz style.Oh, to hear audience appreciation like that at every entertainment event in this city...