Leaping point

SXSW wrapup, part V (final)

2011-06-28T11:45:00.001-04:00

Before starting our evening music experience, I tried to avoid a repeat of the first two nights where my feet gave out before the schedule did. A side trip to the CVS showed I wasn't the only one in Austin with issues – the footcare section was completely sold out of every insert, cushion and anything else to add a layer of relief above the hard venue floors. So at least I wasn't alone in my plight.

28. David Berkeley, Tap Room at Six, 7:30 p.m.
SXSW is, by design, not a place to fully immerse yourself in one artist's music. The sets are short, the crowds always at risk to bolt for the next hot act, and each act might play three or four or more shows in a day. By necessity, seeing dozens of bands at nearly as many venues in a day means you're getting a sample of each of them rather than a full concert experience. For the most part, the musicians seem to embrace the festival and its quirks. David Berkeley did not. In fact, he seemed openly hostile during his set, bemoaning the fact he didn't see real fans in the audience and castigating the industry nature of the event. Tip for anyone getting started in music: open contempt of your audience is not a recommended way to go.

29. Eliza Doolittle, Tap Room at Six, 8 p.m.
The British press compares Eliza Doolittle to Lily Allen. Musically it makes sense – they both cheekily sing jaunty-sounding songs with a heavy British accent – but she reminded me of no one more than Miley Cyrus. Not musically; although they both fall under the very wide net of female-sung pop, it's a pretty meaningless moniker. (And I can't see Miley coming out backed by a group of guys dressed in the aggressively uncool garb of bow ties above red-and-white striped shirts with constant smiles.) But what they do have in common is their eyes, which grab and play with the audience. Eliza Doolittle used hers to great affect, flipping from sultry vamp to innocent fluttering, but always giving the impression she is in control.

30. Sharon Van Etten, Central Presbyterian Church, 9 p.m.
From Eliza Doolittle's pop we moved to another female singer, but the shows could hardly have been more different. We headed up to Central Presbyterian Church in order to catch Typhoon and happened to arrive at the start of Sharon Van Etten's set.

The soaring ceilings flanked with stained glass windows formed a perfect set for Van Etten's soulful voice. Between songs, it was apparent her vocal cords were nearly shot; standing behind a guitar almost bigger than she was, she had to croak out her apologies for the state of her voice along with backstories for the songs. But once she started singing, the slight rasp and raw edge only added to the incredible intimacy and emotion of her songs. Among all the bands we saw, no one gave more of themselves to their music than Van Etten did here. Once she finished, the crowd, which had been sitting in the overpacked pews, rapt in attention, stood as one for the ovation.

31. Typhoon, Central Presbyterian Church, 9:30 p.m.
The only band we saw twice at SXSW. After catching a short set with some technical limitations Thursday, we circled this set on the schedule to catch the band with a full complement of amplified sound and it lived up to all our expectations. As with Sharon Van Etten, the full sound and harmonies were perfectly complemented by the stained-glass setting.

More than any other band, Typhoon's sound stuck with us in the days and weeks after we left Austin. Once we arrived home, we immediately ordered two CDs and they've been in heavy rotation ever since. This was, no question, our find of SXSW.

32. Washington, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, 10 p.m.
One of the few acts I'd listed as a must-see. I first heard Megan Washington on a podcast by Triple J, an Australian radio station, and immediately her songs stood out. On the surface they're catchy pop songs with a female singer, but there seems to be more beneath the surface lyrically and musically than most pop songs, while the hooks stick in your head.

33. The Jezabels, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, 11 p.m. I didn't know anything about the Jezebels before their set started, and I still don't. From the first song, the sound was so washed out, perhaps by design, perhaps from poor sound work. Either way, we decided after the initial song to head down the street to see the Limousines, a band I knew of only from one single.

34. The Limousines, Emos, 11:15 p.m.
Another of the pleasant surprises of SXSW. The two-person electro-pop dance band was pure fun. Even more of a surprise was that Kirsten - whose tastes tend to run more folk than dance - enjoyed the set as much as I did. It was late Saturday night, Sixth Street had filled up, there was party in the air. The energy coming off the stage and reverberating through the audience here swept us up. And when they dropped their hit, everything got amped up several notches. It was time to soak up the revelry and just enjoy being in Austin.

(Side note: Emos had set up a bank of port-a-johns in the back of a courtyard, which we utilized after the show. And then noticed, along with a few others, the odd rockings of one of the units. As the amorous couple opened the door, about two dozen people broke out in applause. The female portion of the pair ducked in apparent embarrassment and ran away. The male looked around and broke out into a grin. There may have been a bow.)

35. OliveTreeDance, corner of 6th & Neches
In our pre-SXSW research, I'd come across a frenetic dance track featuring didgeridoo. Then I learned it was played by a dude from Portugal, and then I was gutted to find out his only SXSW performance was on Wednesday, before we were going to arrive. Seriously. I love this.

And then, we stumbled across him playing street performer on a random corner on Sixth Street between shows. And I seriously could have watched this damn near forever. Although far more amazing was the fact he apparently really could play forever. He was playing again at the corner about two hours later when we walked by again. His instrument of choice, played at a thousand beats a minute, can not be easy to keep up for that long. He did. I tip my cap to that man, who made our night that much more enjoyable.

36. Art vs Science, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, midnight
Originally I'd tentatively scheduled another female singer in this slot, but we decided to cut the folk out of our night and stay with high-energy acts. (Turns out to be a good decision, as our original choice, Brooke Fraser, apparently only played three songs.)

So instead, we headed back to the Aussie showcase (I do love me some Australia) for Art vs. Science, another act I'd been introduced to through Triple J's podcasts. The rooftop was packed for this one, and the band ably filled the criteria we were looking for - keep our energy peaking. Art vs Science doesn't take itself too seriously, and when the beats dropped the rooftop was literally bouncing. In the back, we could turn around and see the madness of Sixth Street, now packed wall to wall with music still coming out of every door and window.

37. Neon Trees, Emo's, 1:15 a.m.
We walked in here to try and boost our flagging energy with whatever remained on stage. Neon Trees gave us a brief adrenaline boost, but not enough to overcome the quick-approaching fatigue. I don't remember anything about this band, and I took no notes. It was time to call it a festival, but even walking to the shuttle bus center and riding home the afterglow of the evening remained.

We'll be back.

SXSW wrapup, part IV

2011-06-05T23:21:00.002-04:00

Saturday, March 19, 2011 (afternoon)

22. Yip Deceiver, Side Bar, 2 p.m.

Two o'clock is essentially first thing in the morning for at lot of SXSW attendees, and it clearly was for Yip Deceiver. Playing on a makeshift stage set up in a smoker's courtyard behind the bar, with the afternoon sun beating down on a dozen or so people watching from the bare wood picnic tables set on a bed of gravel, the lead singer looked out made an announcement. “It's hot, we're hungover, but fuck it – let's have some fun.”

He and the rest of the band made good on his promise, with some distorted electo-pop, heavy on 80's influences. Even as the sun baked the outdoor space, the band gave all the energy they had.

23. Venice is Sinking, Side Bar, 2:30 p.m.
I stumbled across this band in some random corner of the Internet and became completely infatuated with their song Okay, enough to mark them as a must-see at SXSW. The swelling strings (seemingly every act with more than three members featured strings at South-by) and chamber-pop harmonies didn't disappoint.

24. Little Scream, Swan Dive, 3 p.m.
Out of every venue we saw where the SXSW stage was crammed into an unlikely space, the Swan Dive was perhaps the least well-executed. The bar appeared to function as more of a lounge club when not pressed into SXSW duty, and the temporary stage stuffed into a corner was completely out of sight of the sound board at the back of the room behind and below an elevated seating section. With the bar empty for setup, the sound guy was probably minimally able to see what was happening on stage, but filled with people he had absolutely no idea.

Little Scream's set suffered a bit from muddy sound, perhaps partially due to the odd setup and partially due to the bar's unkind acoustics. Nevertheless, the music was good. The obligatory string player was bolstered by a bass flute, a novelty even for SXSW. Flute often helps lyric indie sounds, and did so here as well, complementing the strong vocals. This show mostly hit home how incredible the SXSW experience was: seeing this set in a different context, as the headliners in some small rock club one night, would have been an experience to talk about. Here, it was only the second-best show I'd seen so far that day, and there were still more than a dozen shows to go.

25. Blue King Brown, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, 4 p.m.
Maggie Mae's played host to an all-day showcase of Australian music, which was our home for the rest of the afternoon, and which we returned to Saturday evening as well. Our first taste of down under came from Blue King Brown, a roots group which mixed funk, reggae and roots rock sound. I'm not a huge fan of those elements either on their own or in sum, but lead singer Natalie Pa’apa’a's stage presence captivated me. She may have been the smallest person on stage, but she had a regal bearing and the rare quality of commanding the attention of every person in the room.

26. Andy Clockwise, Maggie Mae's Gibson Room, 5 p.m.
We decided to check out what was happening through a side door and wandered into what appeared to be a performance by Zach Galfinakis. Backed by loud distorted guitars and a wall of noise, the bearded lead singer gave a frenetic performance, bounding around the stage, jumping into the crowd, leaving a trail of sweat wherever he went.

27. Bliss N Eso, Maggie Mae's Rooftop
OK, this one is cheating a bit. I barely got to listen to a full song before we headed out to grab some dinner, but if I had been alone I would have absolutely stayed for the entire set. I have a soft spot for Australian hip-hop, which seems to have taken American old-school rap as the starting point but evolved into something slightly different than modern American hip-hop; the Australian genre seems somehow to take itself a little less seriously.

SXSW wrapup, part III

2011-05-02T08:47:00.003-04:00

Friday, March 18, 2011 (evening)

15. Agesandages, Rusty Spurs, 8 p.m
The music schedule for SXSW sprawls early into the interactive portion of the fest, but the focus turns completely to music starting on Wednesday. The full days and nights can take a toll, as Agesand ages demonstrated. Whatever they'd been up to the first couple days of the festival had clearly taken a toll – in the spaces around songs, all of the members slumped, and one of the singers had a sickly sheen indicated he was either horribly hungover, about to get horribly sick, or in some horrible boundaryland where the two overlap.

They found some hidden reserves of energy once the music started, perhaps understandably given their songs. Full of handclaps, Agesandages blended the vocal harmonies of 70's family rock with modern indie pop. A very fun show, even if the band members occasionally looked like their batteries ran out as soon as the music stopped, only to energize again with the opening strains of the next number.

16. The Diamond Center, Black and Tan, 8:40 p.m.
The two venues – Rusty Spurs and Black and Tan – were connected and the set times slightly staggered, so we pushed through the crowd to catch the end of whoever was playing. We caught the final song or two; what we heard was something like trippy jam-band music played by a Southern garage group.

17. Dolorean, Rusty Spurs, 9 p.m.
Back on the other side of the hallway, Dolorean played songs which sounded like a Southern garage group playing Southern rock. There wasn't anything particularly noteworthy or unique to their sound in a genre I'm not really a fan of, and we left early.

18. Yellow Ostrich, Antone's, 10 p.m.
I'd marked this show on the SXSW schedule as soon as I heard their single “Whale,” and was intrigued about how the live show would work when I learned the band was essentially one guy, Alex Schaaf, making music with loops and recording multiple tracks. For SXSW Yellow Ostrich swelled to three members, with a drummer and bassist joining Schaaf on stage. The sound still swelled beyond the three, as Schaaf layered and looped the sound with an impressive array of pedals and a Mac laptop in the center of the stage. The reliance on technology became a liability as the drummer started the opening beat for “Whale,” Schaaf went to the laptop and looked stricken. As the beat kept going for at least a couple minutes, Schaaf kept desperately trying to get something to work on his laptop, before giving up and going to the microphone for a (relatively) stripped-down version which still worked well. The long delay showed his relative inexperience on stage; a veteran would have given up long before and gone into the song without the full complement. Even so, there was a lot to like among Schaaf's inventive songs.

19. Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!, B.D. Riley's, 11 p.m.
One of the rules I set for myself going into SXSW was not to wait in lines. If I couldn't get into something I wanted to see, there would always be other acts worthy of my attention at the same time. The only time this came into play was for this timeslot; after Yellow Ostrich we'd planned to see the hugely-hyped Yuck play in a venue around the corner. But the line stretched half a block, and even our wristbands put us well back in the priority list behind a number of full-fledged badge holders. So after about five minutes we moved on to Plan B.

From the start, Tiger!Shit!Tiger!Tiger! had my vote for best band name at SXSW. I had absolutely no knowledge of the band beyond the name, but we went to check them out figuring it would likely either be a very good show or a very bad one. The band turned out to be a very loud pop punk outfit, playing in the corner of a packed Irish pub. So packed, at first we listened to the set from the sidewalk through the open windows before we managed to make our way inside. The front of the pub was packed with revelers watching the band exuberantly make their way through a set which included not only the wall of noise but also antics from the lead singer, including jumping up on tables and singing half a song laying on his back after diving into the middle of the dance floor. It was the exactly the type of moment I wanted from SXSW, stumbling onto an unknown band playing a very good set.

And in another only at SXSW moment, the back room of the pub was almost entirely empty, except for a half-dozen people at the bar watching basketball on TV. It looked like the regulars were studiously ignoring the manic demonstration taking place in the front room of their bar.

20. Wye Oak, The Parish, 12 a.m.
Our main goal for the night was to see Wild Flag at the Parish, and we got there early enough to catch Wye Oak. The duo's set was strong, with elements of folk and alt-country, but yet again I found late in the night my aching feet got more of my attention than the band.

21. Wild Flag, The Parish, 12:45 a.m.
By the time Wild Flag came on I'd found a seat along the wall to catch our final set of the night. The all-female group, made up of former members of Sleater-Kinney and other bands, had earned a ton of hype coming into SXSW. The band had been together less than a year and had only released their first studio records in the days before SXSW, but the experience of its members gave it the polished chemistry of a long-established act. The heavy guitars and drums filled the Parish's large room, and as the final chords died out we decided the show was just the right end to the night.

SXSW wrapup, part II

2011-04-14T08:52:00.006-04:00

Friday, March 18, 2011 (afternoon)

9. P.S. I Love You, Austin Convention Center Dot Com Day Stage, 3 p.m.
The only real added benefit to having artist rather than general fan wristbands was access to the convention aspect of SXSW, so we started Friday at the downtown convention center. In hindsight, a walk around the trade floor should have been in order to see what freebies were available, but we instead opted for more music. A few stages in the convention center are set up for bands to play short sets during the day. Kirsten had seen a review of P.S. I Love You which caught her eye, so we found the stage and took a seat.

This was quite possibly the strangest combination of act and venue I've ever seen. The stage was set up at the front of a semi-darkened convention room, with folding chairs set up in front and a few scattered tables near the back. Like any meeting room, the modular walls, sterile carpeting and overly-air conditioned air provided a sterile, corporate atmosphere. The two-piece band came on and filled the space with distorted noise-rock (which proved to be somewhat surprisingly good). As each song ended during the short set, the final strains faded away to polite clapping, then dead silence from the audience. Even the usual audience rustle was swallowed up by the deadening character of the room. The front man didn't even try to inject any banter, making the juxtaposition between the sprawling fuzz sounds of guitar and drums with the complete absence of response from the crowd the most odd and interesting part of the entire experience.

10. Felice Brothers, Austin Convention Center Radio Day Stage, 3:20 p.m.
P.S. I Love You's set was also the shortest - about 20 minutes - we saw at SXSW, giving us time to walk next door to the much larger Radio Day Stage room to catch the end of the Felice Brothers. The few songs were heard were agreeable alt-country, and there was an actual crowd of people in front of the stage enjoying the show. The room wasn't without it's own oddity, as the back of the room , completely unlit, was populated by bodies sprawled on large provided pillows catching some midday rest, turning whatever was being played into their own personal lullaby.

11. Unicorn Kid, Latitude 30
The afternoon's destination was the Scottish music showcase, chosen solely because I've found several Scottish bands agreeable (or great) over the past few years. None of them were playing this particular show, but I figured completely unknown Scottish bands beat any other completely unknown bands so we headed over. Upon arrival, we discovered another very big positive the show had going for it – free food and an open bar. The space was nearly packed when we arrived around 4 o'clock, with Unicorn Kid up on stage behind a laptop. The bleeps and beats created a dreamy electronica which wasn't too far out of place for an early afternoon bar several shades darker and cooler than the sun-drenched street outside.

12. Popup, Latitude 30
I was more concerned with making my way through the line for the taco bar and then grabbing a couple of drinks than listening closely during Popup's set. The band seemed notable mostly for having an attractive lead singer in a short skirt.

13. Rachel Sermanni, Latitude 30
A petite girl in a sundress took the stage with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, radiating the nervousness of a student at her first open-mic night, but there was nothing small or unassuming about the sound once she started singing. Rachel Sermanni was one of our best surprises at SXSW – her voice, tentative and shy in the banter, filled the room once she started singing, nicely complemented by her guitar, which on some notes she played with a near-percussive style to fill out the sound. Sermanni made the crowd stop and listen, not always an easy feat at an event where everyone is thinking ahead to the next band, the next party, the next stop.

14. King Creosote and Kid Canaveral, Latitude 30
King Creosote is a Scottish singer-songwriter who, according to Wikipedia, has released more than 40 albums – all in the last 13 years. This fact seems more notable than anything else about this show, where he was backed by the band Kid Canaveral. He seemed like a charming bloke, a guy you'd want to see come out to sing in a dark pub when you're having a few pints at the bar. This afternoon, though, the sound didn't grab me the way Rachel Sermanni had. The performance was fine enough, but by this time the food had been put away, the bar had started charging, and we were already trying to work out how to start the evening. We stuck around for the end of the set and wandered out into the late Austin afternoon.

SXSW wrapup, part I

2011-03-27T23:39:00.000-04:00

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The actual music portion of our SXSW experience started relatively late in the afternoon. Our first taste of the festival was getting stuck in traffic around the convention center for 45 minutes looking for parking. We eventually found a garage (8th and Lavaca; although the signs posted everywhere informed us we'd need $5 exact change to leave after 8 p.m. - and $18 if we left earlier in the day – by the time we got back to the car at 1 a.m. the gates were open. There's your SXSW free parking tip.) and walked to the convention center to pick up wristbands. We didn't realize it until a couple hours later, but we ended up with artist bands due to somebody's confusion. A friend had access to free food and drink across the street at CNN's venue for the interactive portion, so socialization came before music.

Going into SXSW we'd made a loose schedule with several options for most time slots. Our first music decision was to head out to Homeslice Pizza to catch Trampled by Turtles, which turned out to be an excellent decision.

1. Apex Manor, Homeslice Pizza, 4 p.m.
We turned up during Apex Manor's set, which was fully acoustic and unamplified. Maybe 100 people were hanging out, which meant the sound didn't quite carry all the way to the back of the throng. Up front by the stage was fine, which was were we managed to situate ourselves. I remember almost nothing about this band. I know the vocals were hard to make out, and the playing (four guitars) was good. After this set, discovered Homeslice apparently didn't have a permit for noise, so they were forced to go unamplified for most of the afternoon. Or mostly unamplified.

2. Typhoon, Homeslice Pizza
I knew I was going to like this band before the first note. During the switchover, band members just kept appearing, a dozen all told, toting string cases, horn cases – even toy hand bells unpacked and set out by the keyboard player, who had to sit crouched at the edge of the crowded stage. The set didn't disappoint. Expansive sound, large-scale harmonies, moving from spare guitar+singer to full-on joyous; the band knew how to use its numbers to full effect, but was also smart enough to scale it down for moments of intimacy that made the full-throated sound all the richer. A couple microphones were set up for the vocals and guitars to balance the sound, the start of Homeslice's move back toward full amplification, but the band was forced to contend with the limitation of setup which only seemed to fit the revival aspects. This band was the first unknown discovery of our festival, and the only band we saw twice during our time in Austin. This movie captures the exact moment when I knew this week was going to be something to remember.

3. Ivan & Alyosha, Homeslice Pizza
Before going to SXSW, Kirsten and I put together loose schedules. We found bands we wanted to see or might want to see and checked what time they'd be playing around town. We went into the trip expecting these schedules would be loose guidelines to figure out where to go next, but knowing things would change on the fly and we were unlikely to see most of the bands we'd listed. This was, I think, exactly the right thing to do. I can't imagine wandering through the saturation of music that is SXSW without some sort of guide, and if we go back I would absolutely do this again. However, this did mean most of the bands we saw were bands we already knew. If I thought stumbling into random shows would always turn out as well as Homeslice, I would take a different approach. Perhaps going blindfolded. The back-to-back lineup of Typhoon and Ivan & Alyosha was one of the best one-two punches we saw, and it was all the better for being two bands previously completely unknown to us.
Ivan & Alyosha are five guys from Seattle whose indie-folk harmonies display a clear Fleet Foxes influence (I imagine you can't be a Seattle band without a Fleet Foxes influence one way or another right now). The emotion in the music was outstanding. I bought their EP as soon as we got home.

4. Great Lake Swimmers, Homeslice Pizza
I knew this band by reputation only. While I liked this show, my recollections have faded into the background of the week. All I can tell you is they mix guitar and strings (I didn't realize how prevalent violins have become in the indie rock scene – everybody has at least one string player). Sorry, Great Lake Swimmers. You were good, but not good enough to stand out in my music-saturated memory.

5. Trampled by Turtles, Homeslice Pizza, 7 p.m.
And really, the reason I can't remember anything about GLS is because Trampled by Turtles blasted the previous show right out of my brain. This band was the reason we were at the show to being with. I'd really only heard their single Wait So Long, which as a recording showcases the band's flaws: the tempo is too fast for the band, especially the vocalist, to handle. But it is also rollicking fun, and live all the weaknesses are buried by the sheer energy of it all. The band plays so hard at least three of the five members broke strings during the short set, replaced the string mid-song and jumped right back into the fray. The audience fed energy back to the band and this speed-grass set pumped out waves of ebullience. As it finished everyone wandered joyfully out into the sunset..

6. DeVotchKa, Lustre Pearl, 10 p.m.

We had no obvious destination for the evening, settling on the Lustre Pearl showcase mostly because we'd seen a write-up previewing the bands that morning which was fresh in our mind, and it seemed as good a destination as any. The decision paid off with the “gypsy-punk” of DeVotchKa. Their sound takes Latin dance music and blends it with roots and pop sensibilities to come up with something unique, along with the most eclectic instrumentation I've ever encountered. An upright bass was swapped for a sousaphone (decked with strings of lights); melodica featured in most songs; two different members played an accordion during the set; the drummer stepped out from the back to deliver an impressive trumpet solo. Add in a charismatic front man and rhythms that demand to be danced to, and you have perhaps the most original band I've seen in a long time.

7. Phantogram, Lustre Pearl, 11 p.m.
One of the few disappointments of the fest. The minimalist electronica reminded me of The XX, another group which underwhelmed live. At about this point I realized standing to watch shows all day left me with aching feet and a sore back.

8. Cold War Kids, Lustre Pearl, midnight
And about the time Cold War Kids came on, we decided it was time to call it a night. We stayed for the first couple songs and headed home, our fatigue getting the better of us.

South by Southwest

2011-03-27T21:44:00.002-04:00

Last week Kirsten and I traveled to Austin for the South by Southwest music festival. It was the first SXSW for both of us, and after seeing 36 bands in three days (37 shows - we doubled up on one band) I want to capture my initial reactions to all of them. So I'm going to recap my SXSW experience, one band at a time, in a few posts the over the next couple of days.

A few tips based on our experience for anyone thinking of heading to Austin for SXSW:

* A badge/wristband isn't necessary, but if you can afford it, get one. Official showcases generally happen after 7 p.m. each night. During the day unofficial parties are everywhere, and just about any band that's playing the fest is going to be playing during the day. Just about every evening showcase has tickets available for people without a badge or wristband as well, although to get in you'll have to show up early and stay. Badges (full conference registration, several hundred dollars) have top priority. Wristbands (which we had) get you into any showcase for free, after badges have been admitted. We failed to get into only one show in three nights; the wristband generally allowed us to breeze right in and gave us the option of hopping from venue to venue all night. To get a wristband, however, you have to be an Austin resident or know an Austin resident.

* Have comfortable shoes. Standing on hard concrete floors in dozens of venues made my feet and back a wreck by the second night. I wasn't the only one; by the time I made a trip to CVS the footcare section had completely sold out.

* Make a schedule, but don't expect to keep it. We prepared by listening to samples of SXSW bands and reading previews, making notes of artists we'd like to see. We used that as a loose guide about where to go, but we also changed plans on the fly as we heard things we liked or ended up geographically unable to get somewhere in time. It allowed us to discover bands we wouldn't have otherwise seen.

* If you're thinking about going, go. I can't recommend the experience enough.

Inauguration - crowds and cold and ceremony

2009-02-06T23:09:00.007-05:00

Nearly three weeks later, I figure I better put up my recollections of inauguration day.

Our alarms were set at 6:15 a.m., with the aim of leaving the house by 7. Our No. 1 priority was to make it to the Mall for Obama's swearing-in and speech. Since anything within reasonable eyeshot of the Capitol platform was reserved for ticket holders, we were hoping just to be a part of the crowd, hopefully with a view of one of the 20+ JumboTrons set up on the Mall.

Information had been disseminated in the days before Jan. 20 on possible avenues to reach the Mall area, but all of it came with a caveat: No one knows exactly how things will work out. With crowds of up to 2 million expected to descend on downtown, any hiccup would turn into a jam - and possible hiccups were everywhere.

We had a Plan A, B and C - which may have been our first mistake.

Plan A was to try the Metro. There was some worry the cars would be so packed we wouldn't actual be able to get on. I felt it was worth heading into the station near our house in the morning and try to get on a train. As it turned out, we were worrying about the wrong thing.
Plan B was to try and take a bus down Georgia Ave. toward downtown and see how far we could get, then walk the rest of the way to the Mall. We preferred the Metro to the bus primarily because the parade route was set up north of the Mall, and the parade route was generally closed to all pedestrian traffic (security checkpoints were set up for people wanting to watch the parade). Instead, we were hoping a Metro trip to L'Enfant Station, south of the Mall, would leave us a more open route to the Mall, avoiding security checkpoints. Again, as it turned out, our plan didn't quite take all the factors into account.
Plan C was to ride bikes downtown. This was generally agreed to be by far the best way to get there, except for the fact it was below freezing that day. It would not, however, be nearly as fun to get back. It's downhill all the way from our house to the Mall, which means uphill all the way back. We also had a possible spot to watch the parade after the speech, and bikes would impede that process.

The speech was open for the public to watch from the three miles of the Mall (mostly the mile and a half between the Capitol and the Washington monument. The parade would happen afterward - scheduled for 2:30 p.m. (swearing-in at noon) but the parade was likely to run late.

My sister came down to stay with us from Baltimore, and a friend of hers came up from Atlanta. The friend knew people with connections to a downtown law firm, and we ended up with invites to watch the parade from the firm's offices on Pennsylvania Avenue, just past the White House at the end of the parade. We weren't sure if the crowds would actually allow us to make both, but we were going to try.

Just before 7 we headed to the Metro station, and easily got on a near-empty train. We felt this was a good sign - even though the train filled up as we approached downtown, it wasn't any more full than a rush hour train. As we passed the Chinatown station, we looked outside at the packed platforms and were momentarily glad we'd decided to head to L'Enfant. Until we got off at L'Enfant and realized we couldn't move from the platform to, well, anywhere.

After making a quick decision that getting back on a train was unlikely to help, we started to make our way into the packed throngs attempting to leave the station. It didn't take long to get within eyesight of the fare gates, but we couldn't move toward them. After a short wait, a Metro employee spoke over the PA system, letting us know the escalators were overloaded and they could only let a certain number of people out at a time. This was the first and last time of the day when someone actually gave helpful information to a crowd.

An hour later, as we finally made our way out of the station, we were caught up in a mass of people making their way a few blocks away toward 12th Street to take them to a Mall - it looked like what would normally be an on-ramp was completely clogged with people. We hopped out of the crowd and up a staircase onto an almost deserted L'Enfant Plaza (filled with what must have been frustrated vendors who had to watch everyone walk underneath them, as most tourists had no idea this route was an option). We made it to Independence on the backside of the Smithsonian Castle, and had to make a decision - walk East, toward the Capitol and try to set up in front of the Hirshhorn, but risk finding an already-packed Mall with no place for us, or rejoin the herd of people moving West, further away and possibly nowhere near a Jumbotron screen. Originally, we'd hoped to set up on the Washington Monument grounds, thinking it would be easier to gain a spot there, so we headed East. When we got to the first possible entry point, at 12th Street, we found our way blocked by barricades and police, so we kept moving east. Problem was, this funneled us into a long stretch with no possible outlet, caught in between the two USDA buildings. As we closed in on 14th Street, the crowd simply stopped moving. We were about 20 yards away from 14th, an opening to the Mall, for about 45 minutes. No one in the crowd had any idea why they weren't moving, but clearly no one was. We lucked out - next to us was a guy who pulled out a portable radio. We quickly heard the Mall was completely closed to pedestrians between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, which explained why no one was moving.

No one, that is, except for a small number of people who had decided to simply ignore the barricades and jump over - the other side was relatively deserted, as there was about half a block between us and the real crowds. After learning the Mall was closed, we decided to try and make our way toward the Lincoln Memorial, fighting our way across Independence away from the Mall, where the people thinned out slightly. But only a few yards along, it seemed clear the mass of people would make it difficult to go anywhere - east or west - so we joined the barricade jumpers, hopping onto an empty stretch of ground behind the line of port-a-johns that lined the Mall (seriously - they were another barricade for almost the entire mile-plus length). We squeezed through a gap in the toilet sentries and found ourselves in the midst of an even denser mass of people. We were still on the South side of the Mall, south of Jefferson and in between 15th and 14th - about 500 feet southeast of the Washington Monument.

I caught a glimpse of one of the last Jumbotrons and wormed through the crowd until I couldn't go any farther. I could just see the picture through gaps in the heads in front of me - I realized the three girls with me had only a view of the people directly in front of them. It didn't take long for my sister and her friend to feel a little claustrophobic and decide to move back for a little space. Kirsten and I stayed where we were, even though we were packed in close enough that for a few brief moments it was literally hard to breathe, and for the full hour and a half or so we waited in these spots until Obama's speech I had a hard time moving my hands above my waist (I was carrying a bag with food and water that ended up only cutting off circulation to my hand until well after the speech).

Despite all this, I still had a view of the screen for the ceremony and speech (not as good a view as the few people who decided to climb a tree, but those spots were taken by the time we got there - it can't have been comfortable for those who stayed in the branches for a few hours to watch). We also had a great view of the crowds around the Washington Monument - clearly we wouldn't have gotten a spot there.

The ceremony and speech, I'm sure, were the same as they would have been to anyone watching on TV, although our sound had no commentators - just the open microphones as they showed pictures of dignitaries walking through the Capitol, with the occasionally announcement as someone official took their seat for the ceremony.

Immediately after the ceremony, the crowd had nearly as much trouble dispersing as it did gathering. The screens all carried announcements that the northern exits from the Mall were closed, and pointed people to 14th Street for a Southern exit, but 14th street was still barricaded, and people were being channeled into small passageways along the sidewalks, which made for a frustrated group of people who were ready to no longer be a group.

We decided to head against the traffic and go up to the Washington Monument for a better vantage point. The crowd had thinned by the time we started to make our way to the law office for the parade. Ever since getting out of the train station, I hadn't had cell service - I saw reports later saying officials had actually jammed the signals for security.

Leaving the Mall, we ended up having no problems. We found our way north onto 18th Street, which I had heard was jammed, but it was steadily moving. Cell service was restored when we were about a block from the law offices, and I got a text from my sister letting me know she had just gotten there.

We arrived at the law offices around 2 p.m. and were ushered into the 10th floor conference room (clients were being hosted on the 2nd floor - the 10th floor seemed to be mostly family).

There we finally had a chance to thaw out (it was in the high 20s that day, with a small wind - although we didn't notice the wind until we were out of the crowd - being packed in does have small advantages), grab some food and settle in. We watched inauguration coverage on a TV on the back wall, including images of the Obamas walking in the parade, until they made the final turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue and we could just watch them walking along. From our vantage point, we saw them reach the end of hte route, and then we later watched them walk from the White House into the presidential review stand. We hung around for a while before making our way back home - this time the Metro presented no problems.

2009-01-21T23:58:00.002-05:00

After the inauguration madness, I'm exhausted.

I'll try to put up a post detailing our Inauguration Day experience in the next day or two. In the meantime, you can see a few photos here.

the inauguration is coming!

2009-01-14T23:36:00.001-05:00

The town is about to go into full-fledged crazy mode for the weekend's inaugural festivities. I've already had the pleasure of sitting in unusual traffic jams thanks to new road closures to accommodate the new First Family, and starting Saturday or Sunday it appears cars will not be welcome at all in this city.

The news has been a steady flood of warnings - traffic will be at a standstill, Metro won't be able to move the crowds, no one will actually be able to get anywhere near the inauguration events - except hidden in the torrent are a few drops of conflicting optimism - the crowd estimates have been revised downward by a factor of at least two (from a wildly inflated initial number), the number of buses applying for parking downtown was underwhelming, there are still hotel rooms available in D.C.

It seems like this will be a massively crowded event and traffic is going to be impossible (don't even try to get in from Virginia - you can't) but outside of the near-freezing temperatures I'm looking forward to making my way into the heart of the craziness Tuesday (not to mention the extra-long weekend).

White Christmas

2009-01-05T23:31:00.001-05:00

Square Butte and Round Butte
Originally uploaded by slack13

A traditional holiday with everyone home has become a rarity for my family. This year we not only managed to get everyone in the same place for the holiday, we also had an even-rarer White Christmas (even on the often-frigid plains of Montana, snow on the ground has been scarce for recent Dec. 25ths).

The weather contributed a nice backdrop for the vacation, although it also nearly derailed my family's plans of Christmas proximity. We came by planes, trains and automobiles, and in every case were delayed as we tried to make our way across country toward central Montana.

My sister was the first to attempt the journey, driving cross-country with a friend, and a blizzard stranded them for an extra day in South Dakota. Our flight was delayed long enough we were 15 minutes late for a connecting flight in Denver. The airline's first response was to tell us every seat into the state of Montana was full for the next three days, getting us home on Christmas, but with an unwanted stay in Colorado. Thankfully, enough other people were delayed a standby spot was easy to come by a few hours later - someone else got the problem of a very extended Denver layover.

My brothers both decided rail was the way to go; one came from the West and one from the East. The Eastern route was the more troubled of the two - the train didn't even leave Chicago until about 24 hours after the scheduled departure, leading my brother and his wife to explore the confines of Union Station for a day. The weather in Oregon nearly shut down all transportation there, but Amtrak delivered my Western brother only 8 hours late or so.

The holiday itself provided much opportunity to catch up - the entire sibling set hadn't been together for more than three years, and three out of four partners came along as well. The weather stayed cold, but not horribly so - the snow stayed on the ground and the wind (mostly) stayed away, providing a crisp setting for those who chose to wander out in the elements, and a perfect scene through the windows for those who preferred to stay within range of the wood stove. A day on the ski slopes gave us some of the best conditions I've experienced in years, and there was even a mini-reunion for my high school class (we had six of 13 classmates in one place, which qualifies in my eyes).

The main problem, as always, was the return. I could have used a few more days out West.

weekend

2008-11-18T22:26:00.003-05:00

We missed out on the really nice fall colors when the weather was still nice, but this weekend Kirsten and I did manage to sneak in a short walk in the woods of Rock Creek Park before the truly freezing temperatures arrived (there were actual snowflakes in the air today, although none of them survived the trip to the ground). Rock Creek remains one of my favorite things about the city - there's something soul-cleansing about being able to travel less than a mile from our house and end up on a trail in the forest without visible signs of being in the heart of the city. It's a shame we haven't taken advantage of the park's picnic areas, which include fire pits - a barbecue must be on the agenda for the spring.

We had grand ideas about hitting up some culture this weekend (it's been a while since I just spent a day wandering the museums) but instead we defaulted to crass commercialism when we heard National Geographic was holding a warehouse sale. Basically, cheap books piled up by the pallet load. Not a good idea to put me in the middle of a book sale for science, history and nature books but I managed to have enough self-discipline to keep the tab relatively low (at $10 a book - the big ones - not too bad).

It was a National Geographic-themed day, as our next stop was the NG museum downtown. Te Papa (New Zealand's national museum, and a frequent stop for my Wellington wanderings, as well as the venue for one of my many temp jobs down there) was holding a traveling exhibition on whales in conjunction with NatGeo. In keeping with NZ official policy, all the exhibits had Maori translations - a nice way to send my mind traveling back to the islands.

We also had big plans to hit up a few galleries participating in FotoWeek, although those were sacrificed to time issues. Maybe before the week is out.

dancing in the streets

2008-11-07T12:24:00.003-05:00

Kirsten and I watched the election results at a friend's house, with about 20 people, some of whom had already left by the time the West Coast polls closed and the Networks called the race for Obama. We stayed to watch John McCain's speech, which meant we missed the last Metro train home. Walking among horns blaring, we caught a bus where the mood of the driver and passengers can only be described as jubilant. There were several impromptu street parties in D.C. that night, including a large gathering of people outside the White House. We missed those, but no matter where you were around midnight after the election you couldn't miss the horns honking in celebration and the people on the sidewalks chanting Obama.

The result excited me as well, although not without trepidation. I don't think there's much the government can do to turn around the economy, although I imagine there are many things they could do that would make it worse. I don't yet believe that a huge majority in Congress will actually translate into major policy changes for the good of the country instead of individual grabs for more power and money. And I don't know if Obama can hang on to the excitement that clearly existed for his candidacy.

But for me the biggest promise of Obama was that he appears to want to know. He wants to examine all facets of a policy decision, to see if it could really work. He wants to hear dissenting views. He wants to get the details right.

This could be an illusion. The shine could tarnish, and we could find out once again the politicians tend to be more interested in their own electoral interests than the country's. We could find out the challenges of the moment, which will almost certainly call for sacrifice and tough decisions politically, are too much.

But I hope the feeling that had people celebrating in the streets with total strangers Tuesday night and Wednesday morning carries over, at least a little bit, for the next few years.

2008-10-29T22:29:00.003-04:00

Like everyone else that actually lives in D.C., the only time I ever actually go and visit the iconic landmarks of the city is when someone comes to visit. There are plenty of spots in this city I have on my to-see list, but that list rarely gets anything crossed off of it when there isn't someone else providing the motivation to not simply stay on the couch.

But I enjoy it, every time, going out among the unwashed tourist hordes. And thankfully, my uncle gave me the needed impetus this month when he arrived in Washington for a week-long visit.

Among the items on his itinerary was a tour of the Capitol, arranged by the office of his Senator in Montana (who wasn't in town for our visit, but a few days before his trip to D.C. my uncle saw the Senator in the hardware store and briefly visited with him - the Senator is an old softball friend. This seems to me to be a pretty good illustration of something about Montana, but I'm not sure exactly what). In my previous year and a half of D.C. residence, I had not seen the inside of the Capitol building - the last (and only) time I'd been inside was in 1995, when we got a tour as part of a high school trip. Needless to say, I did not have a perfect memory of all the interior details - or any of them. It had just seemed like too much of a hassle to actually wait in line for a Capitol tour or to try to set a date for a staffer-led tour. But having someone else set up a tour was perfect.

The Capitol is the most imposing building in D.C., and is even more so when you consider the fact it was built essentially in what was the middle of a cow pasture and some forestland. And there are areas inside the Capitol that have the same aura - mainly in the Rotunda under the dome, lined with paintings of battle. But the most striking thing about the Captitol's interior is how cramped, dim and unglamorous much of it is. Many of the "corridors of power" are narrow, dark passageways - often with a statue thrown up, seemingly anywhere it would fit. Offices of Congressmen are tucked into corners where you'd expect nothing more than a broom closet, or along a basement hallway with exposed pipes on the ceiling. Some of the older areas, where the earliest meetings of Congress took place, are dark enough, surrounded by interior walls of thick stone, I can't imagine how things worked before the advent of electric lighting. Even the House chamber, which looks like such a large auditorium in tracking shots during the State of the Union, is surprisingly small and utilitarian.

In all, I like this better than I would if it was all high ceilings, white marble and trappings of glory. There's some of that, to be sure, but the more austere bits seem as though they are there to insert some a much-needed reminder of the responsibility of the place, of the work to be done, of the fact all the power of the place comes from being representatives of the people.

Or maybe such things are lost on those that actually work there, where the power of the positions is easier to drink in, and certainly more heady. In this, more cynical view, I think the symbolism is no less appropriate - the grand image of government, up close loses much of the glamour.

Nationals Park

2008-10-27T21:04:00.000-04:00

All summer, I've had this post started and sitting in my draft folder. I guess at least this way I'll get it out before the World Series is over:

Washington, D.C.'s new baseball stadium - Nationals Park - opened this spring, giving the capital's new team a brand-new stadium after three years of playing in the crumbling confines of RFK Stadium. The beginning of the season brought high hopes for a decent team and a signature park.

Unfortunately, neither wish was fulfilled.

The team has been miserable, hit by injuries and a lock to have triple-digit losses. The park isn't quite as bad as the performances it has housed, but it, too, certainly is a disappointment.

The pre-opening promotional materials hyped the park as continuing in the best tradition of the post-Camden Yards "retro" parks. But the best features of the truely old parks and the new crop of imitators are the intimacy and charm - two aspects completely missing from Nationals Park.

The D.C. area offers many architectural gems the park could have played off. It could have incorporated aspects of the Capitol dome, the only major landmark visible from the stadium. It could have put in subtle classical touches, maybe some columns to mimic the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. Alternatively, it could have made the most of its location in a former industrial area, and gone with an exposed brick-and-steel construction which has worked for several of the other new parks.

Instead, the decision was apparently made to go with another option. The architects appear to have toured the city of Washington, and decided the most exciting style along the streets were not the classical symbols of government. Instead, they went with the buildings that housed the actual workers of that government - the park appears to have been based on the style of the hulking concrete Federal offices that blot the downtown landscape.

The outside of Nationals Park is a solid wall of white concrete rising out of the street, broken only by a few windows on the back side of the team's offices and luxury suites. On the one side where the seats end at street level, offering a view outside the stadium to the surrounding streets, the single-worst aspect of the park destroys what could have been a redeeming street plaza.

Right where the left-field upper deck ends, in the middle of what would have been the line of sight toward the Capitol and the National Mall, stands a five-story parking garage.

It is the most visible feature of the park for the vast majority of fans who arrive at the stadium via the nearest Metro station, and it's just the most glaring example of the way good things have been overshadowed by the areas where the stadium doesn't live up to the potential.

The view of the Captiol, for instance. Thanks to the parking garage in left-field, the dome is only visible from a handful of the upper upper-deck seats. The team also made a big deal of the decision to plant a row of cherry trees along the plaza in left field, which would in theory provide an iconic view in early spring when the pink-blossomed trees dominate the scenery along Washington's streets. In reality, the handful of trees are too few to draw the eye, except as out-of-place oddities.

There are bright spots, especially in the conveniences for fans.

There are enough different concession options that I heard someone describe the stadium as a "baseball field surrounded by a food court." The description wasn't meant to be complimentary, but when you attend a game as a fan it is nice to have more options than just the usual hot dog and pretzels. The options include several local vendors and there are some decent values to be had (for a stadium).

The high-def scoreboard is large enough for a clear picture everywhere in the park, without dominating the scene. The display got better as the season went along - at first, it was occasionally hard to find such obscure information as the score of the game, but by the end of the season they found a way to include the necessary information along with the flashier offerings.

In the end, though, what stands out about Nationals Park aren't the things that work well. It's all the ways in which the park could have been good, but just isn't.

fall, with a vengence

2008-10-21T23:15:00.002-04:00

After weeks (months) of 80+ degree temperatures, this week all of a sudden there's a chill in the air and the trees have started to turn. Summer has officially left the greater D.C. area, to be mourned by me until the leaves start to return sometime in March.

I did take advantage of the last weekend. My uncle was in town from Montana, and we spent time in Baltimore with my sister, and then took a trip to Great Falls and a surprisingly strenuous hike among the rocks lining the river.

A tour of the Capitol, a hockey game and a few other adventures followed. Now the family visit is over, fall has clearly arrived and I'm just hoping for a few good snowfalls to get me through the winter.

politics

2008-10-15T12:32:00.003-04:00

Every so often I'm asked by people who don't live in D.C. what it's like being in D.C. during a big political event like, say, this election.

The answer is, it's not much different. There might be a few more people who pay attention to the politics, since there are definitely more people who are paid to pay attention to politics. But for someone who isn't working in the government or dealing with the feds only occasionally does the being geographically near the workings of power change my perception.

For example, this morning several news sites ran a story on Dick Cheney having heart problems and going into the hospital. Of course, the focus was on the fact that the Vice President of the United States was experiencing a health problem, even if relatively minor. This is news.

In D.C., the perspective is a bit different; for a local blog the news wasn't the Vice President's heart trouble. The real news was the traffic impact Cheney's motorcade would have on people trying to navigate the streets near the hospital.

That's how politics affects you differently living in D.C. - the big issues aren't any different (unless you happen to be one of the people actually working on them). But the actual workings of government can actually touch you in a tangible way.

move, completed

2008-09-29T21:27:00.001-04:00

We're still living among mounds of unpacked boxes and our furniture situation is in a state of flux, but at least we're moved in.

It's been nearly a month since we moved from one part of Northwest D.C. to another part of Northwest D.C. (we moved north and east, ending up near here). The first week after we moved in, neither of us spent enough time at the new apartment to bother to unpack anything (I was working 16 hour days and Kirsten was out of town for work). So what is at best a slow process - unpacking - became even slower. At least now we've got most of the boxes opened, a few of them emptied and even have furniture arranged (figuring out how to fit things in the living room took the better part of a weekend). Now the wishlist includes things like unpacking the final few boxes, figuring out where everything goes (instead of simply piling loose ends on top of the unpacked boxes), trading up from our free couch and acquiring a desk to configure some sort of computer work space (although just hauling out the dual laptops in the living room works too, I guess).

I can see a future, someday, when every surface isn't covered with loose ends. I don't know why I think such a future exists, since my past has mostly been filled with loose ends everywhere, but such dreams are nice to hold on to.

rain, rain, sent away

2008-09-26T09:40:00.005-04:00

Last night was to be the final home game of the season for the Washington Nationals. Instead, a few hundred fans showed up to sit through a two-hour rain delay before the game was finally canceled without a player ever taking the field.

It was kind of fitting for this Nationals season - they're about to lose 100 games - and to be honest, it was easier sitting through two hours of rain delay than it would have been to watch a bad outing of baseball one more time.

new buses

2008-09-18T10:05:00.002-04:00

Saw these the other day on my way to work - it's apparently a new bus design for the D.C. city buses.

You can see the current bus design here. These buses look a little like the D.C. Circulator especially with the partial solid-red color scheme, but are more rounded.

nearing the end

2008-09-17T21:01:00.001-04:00

Sunset at Nationals Park
Originally uploaded by slack13

I'm out out Nationals Park for one of the last games I'll see this season (my personal countdown has me working four more games).

I won't really be sad to see this season gone - the Nationals have rarely been pleasurable to watch, and I'm about done of the long days I end up with when I work a day job and a night game. When I do a full three-game series, like this week, my sleep total takes a serious hit.

But I've had a chance to be out at the park for probably more than 20 games this summer, and I've also seen games in Baltimore and Seattle - a good summer all around. I need to put up a few more park reviews, I suppose.

A preview of the Nationals Park review: this photo shows one of the nicest aspects of the park - the view of the Capitol - and also gives a glimpse of the worst aspects of the park - the parking garage in left field that blocks the view for everyone that's not in the upper upper deck.

one more

2008-09-17T19:32:00.001-04:00

department of defense police
Originally uploaded by slack13

Perhaps this is one too many entries on D.C.'s police forces (or three too many?) but for the first time I have a photo, and of a logo that had befuddled me for some time.

I'd seen these cars driving around, but couldn't figure out exactly what entity they were policing for - only that the cars were more gaudily colored than the average cruiser in this city. Caught this one parked on a curb and was finally able to identify the shield on the side: The Department of Defense.

Makes sense, I suppose, that they'd have a police force (or at least as much sense as, say, the Housing Authority having a police force) but I think they could do a better job of identification.

adding on

2008-08-22T09:05:00.001-04:00

Today I added two new sightings to my police force list:

1. I discovered the Government Printing Office has its own police
force. Unanswered is the question why.

2. Parked in the bowels of union station are a fleet of Amtrak police.
At least this makes some sense, although I'm not sure if train robbery
is quite as common as it was, say, 100 years ago.

moving

2008-08-06T19:45:00.002-04:00

Our lease is up at the end of the month, and we're looking for a new place. (Right now we're essentially in a semi-private studio apartment which is the basement of a shared house, and we'd like to get more space and fewer roommates).

We've been casually looking for a few weeks, and looked a bit less casually this past weekend. The first group of places that met the budget we'd decided on were not particularly exciting. Monday, though, we found a place that met most of the criteria we were looking for. We put in an application, and are waiting for a verdict. It'd be nice if it came through, but we've still got about three weeks to look if it doesn't.

We're already gearing up for a move, and I'm not sure we ever really unpacked from the move out here. Moving is the usual way of things, though, as far as I'm concerned. Only once since leaving my parents' house and setting out on my own have I stayed in one spot for more than a year - that was a house in Hattiesburg (which cost less than half - for the whole house - of the rental price of any one-bedroom we're looking at).

2008-08-06T19:40:00.002-04:00

Last night we stumbled into a new pub quiz spot, after finding out our usual Tuesday stop was not offering trivia that particular night.

The quiz was so-so, but the Tuesday night half-price burgers were definitely worth it. They aren't quite the best quiz night deal, but it's not bad.

After finishing the burger, I couldn't finish the fries, and I literally felt myself digesting for the rest of the night. I think I was still full this morning.

West Wing, the tour

2008-07-29T19:23:00.003-04:00

A few weekends ago, my brother dropped by D.C. for a few days to play tourist.

However, before he left he spent one afternoon being a tour guide, or at least a facilitator. Turns out, one of his college acquaintances happens to work in the West Wing of the White House, so we got a private tour one Sunday afternoon.

For those who are huge fans of the TV series of the same name, the West Wing might be a disappointment. It looks little or nothing like the set of the series. Other than the fancy touches (huge blow-ups of photographs by the White House photographer, original portraits of historical presidents, American art everywhere, and the general trappings of power) it generally looks like a well-carpeted office building. Walls instead of cubicles, and better suits, but the general feel stays the same.

So in general it's just offices, but of course the fun is in the details. Such as the Roosevelt room with dual portraits of Teddy and Franklin, with the story being the portraits are rotated depending on the party affiliation of the administration. Currently, the portrait of Teddy is on top. With any luck, in a few months Franklin will take the spot of honor.

There's the newly renovated press briefing room, complete with engraved name plates at the base of each chair. (The front row goes something like: NBC, ABC, Helen Thomas, CBS, CNN). Then a quick jaunt up and around through the halls, and you end up in front of the Oval Office. A different hallway leads behind, to the Rose Garden. Then duck through a door to see the actual working offices of the people behind the Office.

Across the street is one of my favorite buildings in D.C. - the Old Executive Office Building.

The building is built in a grand French style, with columns dotting the exterior and wide, sweeping staircases and hallways inside.

The most ornate room is the Indian Treaty Room - which never saw an Indian Treaty signing. But it does have a grand tile floor, a balcony and the gleaming touches designed to impress. Also a nice view of the White House across the (closed to the public) street.

In all, a day spent looking at places I never expected to see despite living in this city.