When the Suns Come Out

 

At one point we had to endure a brief, yet quite torrential, downpour.  If it were June I would have called it a summer shower but, you know, it’s still February.  Lucky for us it only lasted about ten minutes and the sky remained stunning for the remainder of the day.

When I was a senior in High School our church choir took a tour to Washington D.C. to perform with other choirs from around the country.  As Congressman Turner is a member of our church were were able to get a group picture taken on the steps on the Capitol building with him and Ginny!

 

With such a short span of time in the area I had to pick and choose which buildings/museums to delve into and which to just take at what essentially amounts to “face value.”  This go around the Capitol happens to fall into the latter of the two.

And, for a further insight into how my mind works, I took this picture from here because the view reminded me of one of Renate Aller’s photographs now on display at the John Cleary Gallery in Houston. You see the resemblance, right? RIGHT!?!?!

 

I dunno… some statue of some guy on some horse.  It’s probably historically important?

 

“There it is,” as David said, “your tax dollars at… something.”

 

Artist: Judy Garland/ Album: The Capitol Years

The Indian Palace

 

A stones throw away from the Botanical gardens is the American Indian Museum. (Not that I’d recommend throwing stones anywhere near the gardens.  You know… glass houses and all).

 

Look closely and you can see Mary Anne and David!

 

Artist: Danny Elfman/ Album: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I Always Say Hello to a Flower

 

One of the places I wanted to make sure to get to was the United States Botanic Garden, located at the foot of the Capitol building.  Now, the laaaaaast time I went to a botanic garden was a couple of New Years ago when visiting my friends Nate and Jamison and Kyle in Minneapolis.  They have quite a lovely one there, except I find myself in a bit of horticultural trouble at one point.  One of the rooms is dedicated entirely to ferns of all shapes and sizes, and when I was standing next to one of the larger specimens I heard an awful cracking noise and a giant branch fell basically two inches away from me.  Naturally, everyone there immediately looked to me as the culprit.

I’m innocent I tells ya, INNOCENT!! (also, this was taken about two phones ago, so excuse the quality)

 

Needless to say, I did my best to stay away from any fern I came in contact with.

Look, Joseph, but don’t touch

 

The orchid room

 

Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers! I refer to them as the harbingers of Spring because when I lived in Ann Arbor they were always the first to push through the snow.  Campus was littered with them, as was Plymouth road, and they always made me excited for the change of seasons

 

This is what I look like when NOT toppling over mother nature like a hyperactive lumberjack

 

Artist: Faith Prince/ Album: A Leap of Faith

Space Rock

 

Next to the Hirshhorn Museum is the Air and Space Museum, which we only took a very quick jaunt through (as is evident in the paltry two pictures I took inside:

 

Touching a moon rock!! (Which, as David pointed out, is surely rife with moon and Earth germs alike)

 

Artist: Weezer/ Album: Maladroit

Modern Times

 

Fair warning, you’re most likely going to be inundated with lots o’ posts over the next couple of days due to the incredible amount of museums, sites and events I am trying to pack into my mini-vacation.  I’ll try and vary them a bit so it’s not an art post after an art post, but no promises.

With the morning and large portion of the afternoon free, Mary Anne and David were kind enough to act as tour guide to some of the Smithsonian museums and the first stop on our list was the Hirshhorn Museum of Contemporary Art.  As with future posts from the other museums I will do my best to limit the pictures to those of only my favorite pieces, a process that seems almost unfair due to not only the breadth of instillations, but also because I liked so many.

I feel no remorse in including Edward Hopper’s “First Row Orchestra” at the top of the heap.  If, with a gun held  to my head, I had to choose a favorite artist, Hopper would undoubtedly be the name that would immediately pop out.  It’s certainly audacious to assume a pistol bearing miscreant would take the time to inquire about my taste in the visual arts in the midst of, you know, robbing me an all, but stranger things have happened I guess.

She is NOT in the mood for Bartok tonight

 

This next piece reminds me of a row of dilapidated buildings on the outskirts of Crockett.  I wish I had a picture of them to show a comparison but, unlike other random photo holdings I have, it’s not hiding in the bowels of my computer’s processor.  I even told Mary Anne something like: “The sad thing is that a part of me wants to call someone in Crockett, have them go to Grapeland and take a picture of them and email it so I can use it for the blog.”  Yes, folks, that’s what my life has come to these days.  Those of you in my Houston County entourage will hopefully know what I’m talking about!

Siah Armajani’s “Fibonacci House Bridge” (1986)

 

Our next piece comes from Mr. 15 Minutes of Fame himself, Andy Warhol; though, to be honest, I found it to be lacking something and took it upon myself to add the finishing touches to his piece entitled “Marilyn Monroe’s Lips.”

Even movie starts need a little help from Burt every now and then

 

I’m ashamed to say I failed to get the name of this instillation piece and it’s artist, but it’s getting awfully close to encroaching upon DOUBLE RAINBOW territory. (Watch here if you are unfamiliar with this viral video deliciousness).

IT’S SO BRIGHT AND VIVID!!!!!!!!

 

And finally, the tail end of a much longer (22 minutes, I think) video by Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck entitled “Staging Silence.”

They should TOTES get a job with the Pottery Barn design team

 

Artist: The Black Keys/ Album: Magic Potion

Where the White Boys Dance

 

Just because I’m on vacation doesn’t mean that I've forgotten that…

 

IT’S

DANCE PARTY

FRIDAY!!!!

[Federal Edition]

 

So, what better way to celebrate than by featuring one of Texas’ brightest governmental stars doing what he does best. (And yes, that is dripping with as much disdain as Cheryl Burk’s sequined attire).

 

Artist: The Killers/ Album: Sawdust

Other options included:

- “Criminal World” from David Bowie’s Let’s Dance

- “The Crapshooter’s Ballet” from Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls

Brush Up Your Shakespeare

 

There comes a point in one’s life when a person must forgo the tried and true “crashing on a friend’s sofa while on vacation in order to save money” shtick and start staying in hotels like an adult.  For most people that comes after college graduation.  As you may well know… I am not like most people.  The joys of being a starving artist, however, means that you get a certain pity-induced BONUS ROUND of sorts.  Except in this instance it’s not so much a friend’s sofa as it is a friend’s parent’s guest room.  One day I’ll grow up, but I’m not so much seeing it in the near future.

As such, I was picked up at the airport by my friend, Cynthian’s, mother Mary Anne.  I had met her a couple of times before when she came to Ann Arbor for some opera performances and we got along absolutely famously. (Don’t even get us started on pear martinis).

After treating me to a fantastic dinner they were headed to see Shakespeare’s oft forgotten play, Cymbeline, at D.C.’s Shakespeare Theater Company while I planned on meandering about the Mall area taking in a good, long monument stroll until the show was over.  At least, that’s what I had intended on doing.  When checking to see what time the show was going to finish I found out they had $15 student rush tickets. So with my trusty University of Michigan badge in tow I snagged a seat!!!!

 

The play itself is a veritable Cuisinart of Shakespeare-isms: star crossed lovers, mistaken identities, impending war, prodigal sons, gender bending camouflage, royal bloodlines, etc… and it. was. FANTASTIC!!  I’ve extolled my love of the Bard here once before and you can bet your donkey headed fool it’ll probably happen again.

(photo via the company’s website)

 

My only previous knowledge of the show was that of a certain portion of the text that has been set by numerous composers over the years, most notably Gerald Finzi, Roger Quilter, and more recently, Stephen Sondheim.  I actually performed one of these versions on my Masters recital a couple of years ago when doing Quilter’s set of Five Shakespeare Songs.   (Forgive the medial quality of the video… it was thrown together for this post so dealz with it.)

Translation: E’rybody dies and ain’t no one better than the next. And with that, dear readers, I bid you goodnight until the ‘morrow!

Artist: Cole Porter/ Album: Kiss Me, Kate