August 31, 2011 : Public Art and Development in Mid-City

51st State Art 

Construction crane on 14th Street at S St NW

3

August 28, 2011 : Martin Luther King Memorial

MLK Public Art 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

Washington Memorial

August 27, 2011 : Kale Chips

Kale chips & booze in Brookland

1 Head Kale

Ripped into pieces into a large bowl

Poured-over generously with olive oil, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast, plus some cayenne and paprika. 

Laid out on baking sheets over parchment

Cooked at 350 for 20 minutes

Eaten in seconds

August 23, 2011 : Mushrooms in Brookland

Mushrooms, or, Things You Shouldn't Put In Your Mouth

August 23, 2011 : South Campus Watch

South Campus Watch (7th St at Monroe St NE) 

South Campus Watch (Bunker Hill Road at MI Ave)

Aside from sometimes ripping up the street to do what is presumably necessary utility-related work, the South Campus site has been quiet for most of the summer. 

CUA Brookland Metro entrance

August 23, 2011 : Friendship Heights

Friendship Heights Jenifer St Metro Entrance

August 19, 20011 : Capitol Hill

Erol's Video Club

A Blockbuster Video on 8th Street, SE on Barraks Row in Capitol Hill was shutting down, and when they ripped off the sign, an antiquated sign for Erol's Video Club emerged.  I would have gone to a different location, but I totally remember this chain from when I was little.

August 17, 2011 : Madam's Organ in Adams Morgan

Sarah & the Tall Boys 

My partner's bff's sister plays in a touring bluegrass band called Sarah & the Tall Boys.  We go see them whenever they gig in D.C., usually at Adams Morgans' Madam's Organ. 

August 16, 2011 : Prospect Park

Prospect Park subway entrance 

Prospect Park Zoo mural

Brooklyn / Prospect Park Zoo Mural Elephant

Elephants in the Entrance

Subway lamp

August 16, 2011 : Public Art & Washington Square

Washingotn Square Arch, looking North.  

West Village Public Art 

Waiting for the train at 8th St - NYU (old stomping grounds)

Because we came back to Brooklyn a few days earlier than planned, we took it as an opportunity to stay-cation, and went to a yoga class, and traipsed around the city.  We both went to NYU for undergrad, and she works there now, so it's great to retain this connection to my undergrad experience.

August 15, 2011 : Providence, RI

Babe and Scrabutologist

Justine and I were going to go to Provincetown after Kripalu, camping for a few nights on the beach and stopping to see my PhD-candidate friend the Skrabutologist in Providence, RI on our way up.  But we got hit with a tropical storm, and had to turn around back to Brooklyn.

Duck & Bunny, Providence, RI

August 14, 2011 : Kripalu Center

Main Building

With Justine & Cindy Lee

St Francis overlooking the valley

The Kripalu Center, in Stockbridge MA, resides in a 1950s-building Franciscan Monastery, and can accommodate up to 600 students at a time.  We were there during a power weekend, so it was a little crowded and hectic, but the setting was unreal it was so beautiful.  Our workshop with Cindy Leek was really great.  Gave me a lot of food for thought about the idea of vinyasa - how it's not just a specific series of linked poses, but is best translated into "to place in a special way," and can be applied to so many facets of life.

August 12, 2011 : Kripalu CenterLa

The Lake

The Main Building

Sunflower

Rabbit Friend

Caution Sign

Justine at the Lake

August 12, 2011 : Brooklyn, NY

The scariest thing in NYC 

All mattresses are vectors of the disease that is bedbugs.  I gave this sack of springs a wide berth. 

Brooklyn  

Brooklyn

Bolt Study

Behind the Fence

Over the Wall

August 11, 2011 : NYC

Justine waiting for the train at Union Station

I drove up to Brooklyn, NY to pick up my friend Justine on our way to a yoga retreat in Massachussets.  We went into the city to take a class at OM Yoga studio, where Justine practices, which is owned by Cindy Lee, with whom we were going to take our retreat.

August 8, 2011 : Columbia Heights

The Worst-Named Apartment Building in Columbia Heights

The Asrat.  For serious.  A friend was looking at an apartment here.

August 8: 2011 City Hawk

Hawk in the City

I was showing properties in Brookland and Brentwood, and we happened upon this hawk (look closely in the center, on top of the fence post) in the back garden of this teardown wreck on Brentwood Road just north of Rhode Island Avenue.

August 9, 2011 : Brentwood / Edgewood

Rhode Island Avenue Metro platform

August 6, 2011 : Public Art

Classy Anacostia in Logan Circle

There's this one electrical box on P Street at 14th Street, NW, the intersection of a lot of development over the past decade and a half.  There's always something interesting, and usually pro-D.C. painted or wheatpasted here.

July 6, 2011 : Chez Decatur

Rainy Day on Decatur Street 

The Gargoyle in the Back

August 3, 2011 : Dupont Circle

Yoga District Dupont Circle

I really like this location of Yoga District.  Going to class gives me an excuse to be in Dupont Circle, which is always chock full of public art, plus good cheap eats that I deserve all the more after sweating it out with one of my favorite teachers.

I first first took dance lessons near Dupont when I was four years old, and started smoking cigarette when I went to high school nearby. It feels like I've come full circle when I take a yoga class just down street from my old dance studio, all in the service of my health and not smoking.

Alice Swann Memorial 

Alice Swanson was killed on her bicycle by a truck driver who had multiple DUI/DWI infringements. Tributes to her completely uncessary death have been going up, and been taking down for years.

August 1, 2011 : Chancellor's Row

Utility Work on Hamlin St at 7th St NE 

I see it right from all of my windows. 

It's not the construction sounds that the most annoying part.  The most annoying part is the sound of construction vehicles going backwards.  BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. I think this stuff was a massive storm drain. But, hey, Chancellor's Row is pretty.