Hooray for Culture Sunday!

Today, a bunch of ladies and I explored a variety of cultural opportunities here in our fair city:

First up, Onyah and I joined 3 of my coworkers to hit the Crafty Bastards festival at the Marie Reed Learning Center in Adams Morgan. This festival showcasing really diverse arts and crafts attracted a huge crowd, and I was really glad that the weather decided to shine down on such a great community event. The wares on display ranged from hand-screened children's tees to furry hand bags to funky buttons and coasters to some pretty impressive (and pricey) jewelry, photography, and sculpture. One thing I learned from our exploring is that apparently the octopus is a much popular animal than I thought, cuz I swear every third booth had some cutesy octopus items! This event was a great example of how DC really is a small town, cuz I ran into several people I know and my friends did, too. Six degrees of separation, indeed. Shoofly was there with her great stuff, so I hope people said hello!

Next, a new iteration of the gal-gang sampled the brunch tapas at Jaleo downtown. This was a recommendation from GPLiving (gracias), and we really enjoyed it. We'd all been to Jaleo many times before, but this was our first opportunity to sample their brunch items. It's a small list, but that actually helps you narrow down the choices. I had a poached egg with potatoes and chorizo, a plate of pork sausage with mushrooms, and a DEELISH piece of fried brioche with strawberries and apple compote. Plus a surprisingly strong mimosa made with orange liquer. Yummy all around.

Finally, one of the gal-pals and I made our way to the National Gallery to see two of their current exhibits. In the East building, we headed for "Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris." I've heard mixed reviews of this one, but I actually really liked it. I'd seen a few of Rousseau's jungle pieces in other museums over the years, but I didn't know much about him or his work at all. This exhibit is somewhat unusual in that it offers both original works by the artist and a signficant amount of information and artifacts that help put that artist in context. Rousseau never left France in his life, and his work was inspired by and/or copied from things that he saw in the Jardins de Paris botanical gardens and zoo, as well as in the tabloid news of his time. This is why his jungle paintings often seem so surreal, with animals and plants that would never actually be together in the wild. I found it really interesting to learn the context of the Victorian art world as it fell in love with the "exotic."

Our last stop was a small gallery in the West Building for "Streets of New York", a photography exhibit I read about in last week's Express. This was a collection of gritty urban photos from the likes of Weegee and Lisette Modell, among others. I enjoyed studying the rich black & white portraits of Coney Island gang members, subway riders, children at play, and socialites on their way to the opera, as well as some great portraits of the Big Apple itself. If you go see the exhibit, look for the kinda surreal photo of the Empire State Building at night. I think that was my favorite.

This was a great day, as I finally feel like I'm starting to take advantage of so many of the great things our city has to offer. The museums in our nation's capital aren't just for tourists! :-) And, of course, now I'm exhausted!