throwback (snowy) thursday

The kid had fun making a snowman on our cousin Ann's deck ...

throwback thursday: november details

I am still in denial about it already being November. How did that happen? I decided to check my flickr photostream and see if I had tagged anything with this penultimate month of the year, and came up some photos of stripes and lines and other appropriately fall-like D.C. details from about four or five years ago.

seventeen days

Am I counting? I guess now I am.




I didn't intend to do a countdown, but my Google calendar is getting so overbooked that I decided to check how many days we have left in D.C. Seventeen. No wonder I'm feeling so overwhelmed. I've been trying to keep my eyes open as I wander through town, snapping a photo here or there of things I have liked or strike me as worth remembering.




I had lunch today at Ollie's Trolley, which had a distinct make-over last year (?) with its antique circus-themed toys. But Ollie's is still the crazy little burger joint that I remember and its signature fries are still spicy. So check that one off the list...

rolling thunder

A lot happened last weekend. I had originally intended to capture what D.C. is like when Rolling Thunder invades town, but got sidetracked. So here are some belated pix, taken by the mother-daughter iPhone team . . .

photos © xoxoxo e - all rights reserved

get your motor runnin' . . .

a trip to the arboretum

I have lots of organizing and sorting to do at home, but it didn't seem right to dive right into that without a little bit of a break on a sunny (and a little chilly) day . . .

The lilacs were starting and smelled amazing . . .



The Capitol columns are always a favorite . . .



And inspire the use of fun iPhone photo filters . . .



The azalea maze was so inviting . . .



SO many beautiful azaleas . . .

duck ramp

Stuff is just pouring off the trees, being blown by the wind. I now know the taste of pollen—bitter, metallic. No ducks climb up the ramp. The fountain is off, the water still.

the redbuds are coming, the redbuds are coming . . .

Actually these fabulous trees are starting to wane.

They replaced the cherry blossoms and the dogwoods and lilacs are now replacing them.

But they are still gorgeous, purple/pink flowering trees. Spring, spring, spring.

street smart?

D.C. buses are currently plastered with the Street Smart ad campaign. Am I the only one horrified with seeing a woman being hit by a car, her baby in the stroller to be next, their deaths looming larger than life as I wait at a red light? Does my kid in the back seat of our car need to see this imagery? Who is this serving? We all know that horrible things can happen to drivers, pedestrians, bikers, etc. We all should be careful. But the shock tactics of this ad, mixed with its Easter egg colors, just piss me off. Not to mention, that all too often the vehicle that plows down innocent pedestrians is actually a city bus. Enough already.

Related articles by Zemanta

• There's More to Bus-Pedestrian Safety Than "Crossing With Caution" (streetsblog.org)
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tu-yips

When my brother was a very small child (a very long time ago) we all got a huge kick out of his pronunciation of some words. By far my favorite was his uttering "tu-yips" whenever he saw one of these spring flowers. My mom was quite the gardener back in the day, so there were many varieties of tu-yips to be enjoyed.






By the way, all of these photos were taken by the kid.

i saw jesus outside target last night . . .

There was a mini Via Dolorosa parade in Columbia Heights on Good Friday—much to the chagrin of the many motorists who were sidelined for almost an hour as police blocked all traffic prior to and after the parade—and to the delight of neighborhood strollers, shoppers, diners and the faithful.

where's the fire?

Yesterday's Starbucks run included not one, but two enormous firetruck ladders to the roof of an office building, evacuating its occupants to the street below. It must not have been too serious, however—once I was heading back to work about ten minutes later everyone was gone without a trace.

don't get me wrong, cherry blossoms are cool, too . . .

. . . but what I really and truly love? Tulip magnolias . . .

Happy Spring.

around town

I'm walking around D.C. and trying to document what I like about this town. It's provincial and pollen-laden and full of lovely little details.

spring has sprung

Makes all that horrible snow just a distant memory, almost a dream . . .

terracotta army

The current show at the National Geographic Museum, Terra Cotta Warriors, should not be missed. It isn't a huge show, but to paraphrase Spencer Tracy, what's there is "cherce." The pieces are all amazing to look at, from 2000 year old arrow tips to the detail of the hair, incised on both individual warrior figures and even their horses.

But my favorite part of the show was a frieze-like set of miniature clay figurines showing the process of making the warriors. Cameras were forbidden while we were there, but there are some wonderful images in the flickr pool.

Reminiscent of work by sculptor Tom Otterness. In a very good way.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocor/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

For some fun pop culture riffs on the warriors, you can see them come to life in the very silly latest Mummy movie. Angelina Jolie also does battle with sculptures that come to life in one of my favorite guilty pleasure flicks, in Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. It's not China, but Cambodia's Angkor Wat, but it's still fun to watch if you're in a sculpture-as-monster mood . . .

rediscovering art

As an artist and former art student I have plenty of favorite artists. Many were acquired through museums all over the world that I have been lucky enough to visit. But just as many originated in childhood perusal of art catalogues owned by my parents. Flipping through pages of those heavy books I first fell in love with the pastel ballerinas of Degas and the beautiful blues and flesh tones of Botticelli. But as I get older and wander through a familiar museum, a familiar collection, I can also rediscover a familiar artist. Or maybe the artist is discovering me, reaching out and revealing an affinity I wasn't aware of previously.

The latest to catch my eye has been Paul Manship. After living many years in New York, I was more than aware of Manship and his Art Deco style, most spectacularly represented by the Prometheus statue in Rockefeller Center. At a recent visit to the National Gallery of Art I was pulled again and again to his statue Diana and a Hound. It's a wonderful bronze, and my love of line work is as delighted by the overall lines of the piece as the wonderful details of the goddess's hair and the hound.

The full sculpture, also at Brookside Gardens

details from the National Gallery of Art

I'm strictly a 2-D artist, which may be another reason Manship appeals to me, as I always respect art that can incorporate things that I love, like line work, as well as doing things I can't do, like think in the round, in bronze. I'm not yet sure whether this rediscovery will inspire some more artwork on my part or just feed the senses. Either way, I know I'll be going back soon to take another look.