9/11: a memory

In the summer of 2001 I moved to Washington, D.C. from New York City. I got a job at the Smithsonian Institution, and an apartment in Adams Morgan. I settled into my new job and life.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was walking out of a doctor's appointment in downtown D.C., on K Street, when I noticed a lot of people standing, looking confused, holding their phones, looking around. As I walked down the street towards the bus stop to head into work I heard snippets of conversation, "Pentagon bombing," "Plane hijacked." What the hell was going on?

Cell phones didn't work. The Metro wasn't running. I walked into the lobby of the Capitol Hilton (there are hotels on almost every corner in D.C.), found a pay phone, and managed to get through to my boss at the Smithsonian. She at first said to go ahead and come on into work, and I wondered how exactly I was going to pull that off, but as we talked she got an email telling her to send all staff home — there had been an "attempt" on the Pentagon. I wished her and everyone down on the National Mall luck and went back out to 16th Street. There was nothing else to do but walk, and I walked home with hundreds of others, also stranded with no public transportation. The tension was palpable — what exactly was going on? There were whispers of New York being hit, too.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, but none of us on our pilgrimage really paid much attention to the weather as we periodically checked our phones — with no results. I reached home just in time to watch the Twin Towers fall on CNN. I spent the rest of the day frantically trying to reach loved ones still in New York, as they also tried to reach me. Phone lines finally began to work around 8 p.m. or so and we began to trade stories and sighs of relief. We were all glued to the tube for days after that, trying to take in the horror. For months after, the scorched walls of the Pentagon could be seen while I was driving in and out of the city. Part of me still can't believe 9/11 happened. I just pray that nothing of this horrible magnitude will ever happen again.

World Trade Center, photograph by Elizabeth Periale, c. 1991

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smithsonian channel rocks out

The Smithsonian Channel has got its groove on this March with some great music documentaries. This Friday, March 21 (10 p.m. ET/PT) is the premier of "Blondie's New York," featuring the pioneering New Wave band. The program focuses on their breakthrough album, Parallel Lines, and the band's transition from underground punk recording artists to punk/rock/pop superstars. Featuring interviews with all the band members and the influential album producer Mike Chapman, "Blondie's New York" takes each song, track by track, and shows not only how it was created, but the collaborative process behind them.

The band members of Blondie include:

Deborah "Debbie" Harry on vocals
Chris Stein on guitar, 12-string guitar, E-bow
Clem Burke on drums
Jimmy Destri on electronic keyboards
Nigel Harrison on bass guitar
Frank Infante on guitar

Lead singer Debbie Harry was a triple threat — a brilliant lyricist, great singer, and beautiful girl who became a fashion icon. She and partner and Chris Stein were at the height of their romance while making Parallel Lines, which is reflected in songs like "Picture This" and Pretty Baby." Not only do viewers get to hear the stories behind these songs from the creators, but get a tour of the downtown New York punk scene which spawned the group. Clubs like CBGB were a training ground for the group, who were finding some local success, but nothing like what was to come. Chrysalis records executive Terry Ellis, after catching one of Blondie's downtown gigs bought out their their current recording contract and paired them with producer Mike Chapman, whose attention to detail  and relentless perfectionism helped craft Parallel Lines and pushed the band to experiment with new sounds like the disco dance beat that dominates "Heart of Glass." As Harry recalled in The Guardian,

" ... in 1978, we got this producer, Mike Chapman, who asked us to play all the songs we had. At the end, he said: "Have you got anything else?" We sheepishly said: "Well, there is this old one." He liked it – he thought it was very pretty and started to pull it into focus. The boys in the band had got their hands on a new toy: this little Roland drum machine. One day, we were fiddling around with it and Chapman said: "That's a great sound." So we used it.

Back then, it was very unusual for a guitar band to be using computerized sound. ..."

Narrated by Kim Cattrall, "Blondie's New York" features some great music and even greater interviews with Harry, Stein, and the rest of the band. Blondie fans will want to dig out their old CDs and vinyl and listen one again to some great songs from Parallel Lines, like "Hanging on the Telephone" and "One Way or Another."

The Smithsonian Channel also has two other music-themed specials which have already aired. "Amy Winehouse: One Shining Night" follows the late singer on a visit to the Irish fishing village of Dingle, where she performed some of her biggest hits in a small 200 year-old church to the locals. The intimate performance captures Winehouse at the top of her form, shortly after the release of her 2006 awarding-winning album Back to Black. The film features excerpts from an interview with the singer, who talks about her passion for music and her influences, like soul singer Carleen Anderson, Thelonius Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Sarah Vaughan. Winehouse also was influenced by '60s girl groups like the Ronettes and the Shangri Las.

It is wonderful to hear the singer talking about her work and do what she does best — sing — in "Amy Winehouse: One Shining Night," but it is also bittersweet, as one can't help but wonder what other wonderful work we will miss out on from a woman who died too young, at the age of 27. But fans of her wonderful jazz-inspired vocals will really enjoy these renditions of "Back to Black," "You Know I'm No Good," "Love Is a Losing Game" and other songs. A third music documentary, "Rocking the Opera House: Dr. John" can also be viewed. The Smithsonian Channel is rocking out!

gonna fly now

We spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center. It's an amzing collection of history, design and even human tragedy—a piece of the Hindenburg sits in a display case alongside a china place setting from the doomed airship. But mostly it's an opportunity to look up in wonder. And avoid the crowds at the malls!

lost parrot

I've never seen a sign exactly like this before, and didn't realize there was a parrot living so near the Smithsonian. Anyone see Pickles? No questions asked.

morning constitutional

I have a rather elaborate commute, which brings me through or near four Smithsonian museums or sites: the National Zoo, the Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. To get to my last stop, I cross the National Mall, in all weather, fair or foul. It can sometimes be more than a little bit of a hassle, but there are all sorts of interesting sites to be seen.

fun fuzzy tree near Natural History

Does Lowes know you guys are ripping off their logo for your yucky van?

The Castle and Folklife Festival tents still up

Roses near the Arts and Industries building

night at the Smithsonian

We caught the new Night at the Museum flick recently at the Smithsonian in IMAX. What fun. I would have enjoyed it anyway, but working at the Smithsonian gave me some extra laughs and cringes and shrugs. The best Smithsonian moment was when the Air & Space museum came alive, although I had to look the other way at the "new" graphics on the front of the building. But no matter.

There was just enough Robin Williams as Theodore Rex, monkey slapping, and Easter Island "dum-dumming" to go around, as well as some new tricks. Ben Stiller was great, and I think the film is even better than the first one, although that may be because I've only probably seen that one about fifty times (or it just seems that way), so novelty is always refreshing...

Owen Wilson is still my favorite tiniest cowboy, Amy Adams as Amelia Earheart gives Stiller a run for his money, but Hank Azaria is absolutely brilliant as the "bad" Pharaoh, speaking for some reason in a pseudo-Boris Karloff voice and just having the best time ever. As did we. If you catch it at the Smithsonian, Madame Tussauds has leant a few wax figures as an extra treat.

where the (naked) boys are?

...What the heck was the Smithsonian thinking about this choice for a cover photo and story for the latest issue of Smithsonian Magazine? I have a few theories, but none of them reflect well on the "nation's attic."

Simply, this photo and story are not appropriate for a magazine that featured in the past few months dinosaurs and Lincoln and Darwin. Someone, actually a committee of someones, must be asleep at the switch.

I can hear my five-year-old daughter's voice, looking at this magazine cover and saying, "I can see his bottom!" Smithsonian magazine, I can see your subscriptions dropping or rising, I guess, depending on what audience you think you are trying to reach.

Thanks to Liz for pointing this out - I think!