ambivalent images

Seed Pod

A seed pod of some kind sits in the grass after a rain. I have no idea what kind of tree this fell from, but it caught my eye because of its contrasting colors. Everything is falling from the trees around here, including apricots. Yes, apricots. On my way to and from school there is a line of large apricot trees which recently dropped all their fruit. That fruit quickly was smashed by traffic, then it rotted in the sun, creating the most rank stench you can imagine. Mmm!

Sisu's View

The view Sisu (our dog) sees looking out through our front gate on a rainy day.

Mail Chute

An old mail chute in a K Street office building. According to the National Postal Museum, mail chutes like this were introduced in the late 19th century. Here's a bit more:

Cutler's company was the sole manufacturer of mail chutes and receiving boxes until 1904. During those 20 years, the company produced more than 1600 receiving boxes, and continued to produce them for several more years. This receiving box was constructed in 1920.

This page suggests you can still buy mail chutes, but not Cutlers. So that means this mail chute is at least 84 years old? It's funny, because the exterior of the building makes it look fairly modern. I guess that's what you call a facade. Deceptive appearances in the heart of America's capital!? Shocking, isn't it?

K & Conn

The corner of K and Connecticut in downtown D.C., right near the Farragut North metro stop. This is just a few blocks from where I work now. I like saying “I work on K Street.” That's really the coolest part of my job. (I understand that “K Street” carries no special significance for most people, but in D.C., among a certain set of people, it's known as the street where the political insiders work and do their dirty deals. There are lots of legal firms on K Street, as well as political consultants, ad agents, lobbyists, etc. So it's part of, if not the heart of, the oozing underbelly of American national politics. And I know almost nothing about it really, so I'm just talking about rumors and innuendo and probably the real power people would laugh at this if they read it. So it goes. Oh, but there was an HBO show last year (a very bad one) called “K Street,” so there's at least a little evidence that I'm not completely insane.)

Sit, Sisu!

Sisu sits in the park after playing in the creek. I like this picture because she looks like she's listening to me, which happens rarely. ;-)

Connecticut Avenue Bridge

Connecticut Avenue Bridge as seen from below in Rock Creek Park. This is a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment, and Sisu loves to go down and play in the creek (right). It's nice living so close to the park, although this far south it's pretty narrow and the recreational path running through it tracks the road very closely so the beauty of a park is sort of dulled by the cars whizzing by. And man, do they fly! We tried crossing the road the other day and it was like playing Frogger at an advanced level. I don't know what the speed limit is on Beach Drive, but I'm pretty sure most drivers exceed it—by quite a bit.

Gallery Place Options

The list of possible destinations you can reach from the Gallery Place Metro on the green and yellow lines. Few other stations on the D.C. Metro offer so many choices.

Tennis Abaci

Tennis balls made into an abacus-like art piece at the D.C. Convention Center. I believe some of the balls are also racquetballs. There were three of these on the same wall w/the balls painted in different colors and arranged in different ways. When I first saw them, I thought, “cool, interactive art! They should have put them lower so little kids could play with them easier.” But when I went to play with them, I found they weren't interactive at all; the balls don't move. Too bad.

Greg Palast

Greg Palast signs books at the Green Festival. Palast is a reporter probably best known for his work exposing how Florida disenfranchised thousands of black Floridians in 2000, much of which he collected in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. We heard him speak for about 30 minutes and he gave us plenty of reason to fear that the 2004 vote is already stolen. As he put it, "You've probably already voted; they just haven't told you how yet." What's he talking about? Off the top of my head, I recall he said that many if not all of the Floridians (most of them black) who were wrongly prohibited from voting in 2000 are still on the "banned" list in 2004, and hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots are going to be counted by hand (and possibly behind closed doors). Now the Pentagon is trying to keep overseas Americans from voting. Do we live in a Democracy? Hmm.

No Sweat

Chuck Taylor copies made by well-paid labor. Some of the proceeds of this particular model go to Code Pink. These shoes are made by NoSweatApparel, and they're a sort of protest of the fact that Nike recently bought Converse, and Nike is known as a global “leader” in the use of sweatshops to make its goods. We saw them at the Green Festival on Saturday, which was very very cool. From a cynical perspective, the festival was just proof that caring about the environment just puts you in another, more specialized (and often pricier) demographic. It was basically a mobile mall where all the stores were selling healthy and environmentally friendly products. But from a more positive perspective, it was community activism and social justice in action. Sure, just about everyone there would have been happy to sell us something, but for the most part, any money we spent there would go to environmental protection or sustainable and socially just activity. You can't say that about a trip to many other marketplaces, can you? Check out the list of exhibitors—you might want to do business with some of them in the future. For example, get your:

• Fair trade coffee from Equal Exchange or Cafe Campesino
• Safe cosmetics from Safe Cosmetics or Organic Truth
• Cell phones from Better World Telecom
• Gluten-free snack bars from Bumbler Bar
• Completely animal-free shoes (no leather) from Deja Shoes or Shoes with Souls
• Gluten-free popcorn and soy snacks from Grandpa Po's (they're yummy!)
• Gluten-free bread from the French Meadow Bakery
• Reusable gift wrap from Lagniappe Gift Wrap
• Smart t-shirts from Northern Sun
• Eco-friendly household products from Seventh Generation
• Sweat-free clothing from American Apparel. Note: AA has a controversial relationship w/unions —it says it treats its workers well so they don't need a union (which is one of the things many anti-union employers have always said). I say it's great that AA employees get good pay and benefits, but that only means they have a responsibility to help their industry peers who don't get such good treatment, and the best way to do that is by joining the union. The union's corrupt? Join and change it. I'm not seeing AA's high ground here. See a bit more on this here.

That's just a sampling—there's lots more there. Happy shopping!

Teach Critical Thinking

Good advice written by someone at the Adam's Morgan Festival on a street banner. As I've been meaning to do since the festival, I've finally collected the rest of my pics from that day into a short series. None of them are that great, but there are more pics of these banners if you're interested in more of what the average Adams Morgan Festival attendee thinks of Bush and the war on Iraq. (Hint: D.C. is overwhelmingly Democratic.)

On Guard!

My new OnGuard bike lock to replace the compromised Kryptonite. The OnGuard lock is supposed to be better because it uses a rectangular or square key instead of a cylindrical key like they Kryptonite locks. You can still pick it, but not with a Bic pen! This picture also shows the cable I use to lock up the front wheel of my bike, so it's all double-locked. That won't prevent it from being stolen, but it should be a deterrent, and that's really the best a person can do.

Giraffes

A box of carved animals for sale at the Adams Morgan Festival.

Sprinkler Alarm

Viking sprinkler alarm on a Mt. Pleasant building.

Dunk Tank

A volunteer dunkee expresses relief after a potential dunker missed the mark and spared her a drop in the drink. This dunk tank was a fundraiser at the Adams Morgan Festival last Sunday.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Is this what Shel Silverstein had in mind? (This was taken on Adams Mill Rd, which borders the SE edge of the National Zoo.)

The Left Bank

Inside the Left Bank on 18th St. in Adams Morgan. AOL Cityguide calls it "achingly hip" and that's probably a good description. But the herbed fries are incredibly good and they offer fresh omelets in the morning made-to-order right at your table. L. and I had brunch there a while back, then coffee w/The Scoplaw and In Limine the other day, and while the place seems a bit too precious, that doesn't have to stand in the way of it being a good place to hang out. So far it's never been too busy when we've been there so you're free to chill, listen to the great music (and they do play excellent music), and, apparently, surf the web. (According to AOL, they have WiFi access, although I don't know if it's free.) Try it the next time you find Tryst too packed...

Sakharov

Statue of “academician” Andre Sakharov outside the Russia House at the corner of Connecticut and Florida Ave. in Dupont Circle. Really, what could be better than a disembodied head apparently supported by hands from the absent body?

Ethiopian Feast

Our vegetarian sampler at Meskerem on 18th Street in D.C. I'm a little ashamed to admit this was my first experience with Ethiopian food and it was terrific. For the uninitiated, everyone in your party gets food served on the same plate, and rather than eating with utensils, you eat with your hands by scooping up food with pieces of a spongy flatbread that you tear off of folded round loaves. (In the picture above, all the food is sitting on a "loaf" of flatbread that's lining the large plate. We've already eaten a lot, so some of the bottom flatbread has been torn away. Yum!) Not only is Ethiopian food tasty, but the eating experience is fun, as well.

Humidors

Personal humidors at a cigar bar in D.C. I can't remember the name of this place, but I think it's on F Street downtown and it's an "all smoking establishment." We stopped in for a drink and were amused to see the "personal humidors" of the regular customers. Apparently you can put whatever label you want on your humidor, including company logos and strange sayings. One said "We are those men." What does that mean?

Jefferson Memorial

The Jefferson Memorial sits beneath a cloudy September sky. This pic was taken from the bridge on Constitution Ave. as we were walking around the Tidal Basin to the Peddle Boats. We rented a 4-person boat and sweated our way out to toward the Memorial. I thought we might cruise around the basin a bit, but it was way too hot and the peddling was far too much work to do more than get an ok view of the Memorial (right) and get off the water. As I mentioned, I'd recommend waiting on the peddle boating until mid to late October when the weather should be nice and cool and the light much better. But I do recommend the peddle boats; when it's not miserably hot and humid, they can be a lot of fun.

Plastic Furniture

Plastic "lounge" furniture at "AIR," a downtown D.C. outdoor music thing. As the banner (right) indicates, "AIR" offers live music on the Woodrow Wilson Plaza, every Friday from 5-9 p.m. "No Admission! No Cover!" Plus, you get to sit in funky plastic furniture with lots of little palm trees scattered about, so what more could you want?

Forget the Rent?

A note on a public chalkboard in the 1st floor common area at GW Law School reminds students to pick up their loan checks. I thought this was hysterical since nearly every law student I know (myself included) was more or less broke for the last six weeks of summer, counting the seconds until those loan checks became available so they could rush them into their empty bank accounts. But yeah, perhaps this message is for all those kiddies who worked at firms making $30k for 14 weeks of work (yeah, that's what the highest tier of summer associate positions pay). I guess maybe they wouldn't really care about those loans...

GW Law Democrats

The GW Law Democrats' information table made the biggest splash at the GW Law School Student Organization Fair last week, complete with stickers, yo-yos, and even a stuffed donkey. The group is planning a number of voter registration/information events for the next two months, which is a good thing. Sure, DC is a foregone conclusion for Kerry, but perhaps some GW students are going to vote in their home states where their votes will actually matter. Isn't it great to live in a Democracy where every vote doesn't really count?

Purple Posies

Odd purple flowers that look like they're about to bloom. We saw these on a walk around the neighborhood yesterday and I took a picture because I'd never seen anything like this before—the whole plant is purple, while it looks like the actual flowers might be some other color. Odd, but very cool.

Woodley Park Metro

Inside the Woodley Park Metro Station. The silver "columns" in the foreground are the half-circle shrouds around the payphones on the platform.

1940s Gas

A mural painted on the side of a car wash near the DC-Maryland border. I have no idea if the scene it depicts is anything like the 1940s, I just thought it was cool.

City of GW

A map of the George Washington University campus in downtown D.C. The neighbors are unhappy because GW is the largest private landowner in D.C. and just keeps buying more stuff and expanding, and I think the big complaint is that, because it's a non-profit institution, it doesn't pay property taxes, or not much, and so the city is poor because GW is rich. I don't fully understand the issues, and I don't have time to track down the controversy right now, so, um, nevermind. ;-) In other GW-related news, both the law school and undergrad classes have begun at GW and the campus is crawling with people. Now if the weather would just turn nice and cool, it would feel like fall.

Capital Haze

A view of the Capital Building from the corner of Pennsylvania and Constitution Ave., showing the haze of humidity that hangs over Washington D.C. nearly every summer day. The temperature on this day was in the 80s with very high humidity, which is the standard July/August/early September weather here. Basically, you go outside, you're soaked in sweat. I am, anyway. I can't wait for winter.

Leave No Stupid Idea Behind

Little red schoolhouse facades adorn the entrances to the Dept. of Education building on C St. SW in downtown D.C. For the record, there are eight of these stupid things (four sets like this). Howard Dean called the No Child Left Behind Act the "No School Board Left Standing" act because it took so much control away from local districts and it put many in a financial bind by forcing them to spend money they didn't have on things they didn't want. I guess it was more important to spend money on PR stunts like these stupid schoolhouse facades than to actually fund education in this country. Good to know we've got our priorities straight.