Seein’ the DMV: Dance Theatre of Harlem/Firebird and Bazaar Meat-092626
Although I spent my birthday month of September in the DMV, I managed to get around fairly often. This past week focused on music, beginning with attending the Met’s Live in HD 20th anniversary broadcast on Saturday the 19th. The following Saturday, I invited my eldest sister, Debra, to join me for the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) performance at Washington’s National Theatre. The September 26th matinee was one of three performances scheduled for DTH in D.C. on their 2026-27 tour schedule. The program opened with Return, featuring songs by R&B masters James Brown and Aretha Franklin, followed by Donizetti Variations, a ballet set to composer Gaetano Donizetti’s opera, Don Sebastian. DTH’s featured work was the 1982 reimagined Caribbean setting of the ballet, Firebird, with an orchestral score by Igor Stravinsky, choreography by John Taras, and sets and costumes by Geoffrey Holder. It was a stunning performance. I captured the…
Birthday Trippin’ 2026: Old Post Office Clock Tower & Lincoln Memorial
The morning of my LXVIIIth birthday was a sunny and warm September 17th. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather forecast and the smaller crowds I expected to visit the Lincoln Memorial and its newly opened Undercroft. I also saw an opportunity to finally visit the Old Post Office Clock Tower after several unsuccessful attempts. Old Post Office Clock Tower Rather than driving SB and dealing with the challenge of finding parking, I parked at the Metro station near my home. I took the subway to the Federal Triangle station, which was across the street from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which now leases the building where the clock tower is located. Previously, I’d visited while the tower was closed for renovation, and then I missed the limited hours when it is open to the public. This time, I arrived shortly after its opening for the day. Although the site…
California-Oregon NPs-Gettin’ Home-0428-050226
By the time I reached the Portland, Oregon, Amtrak station on Tuesday afternoon, I had completed the drive from Crater Lake, boxed and mailed the items I had purchased during the trip that I didn’t want to carry with me on the train, cleaned up eight days of mostly living in my rental car and turned it into the Enterprise dealer in Portland, then gotten a free ride to the train station from Enterprise. (BTW, my compliments to Enterprise for their service throughout the rental process. I’ve been using them for years and will continue to do so.) When we pulled into the station, I had to take a couple of pictures of the tasteful, old-fashioned building. I was lucky on the trip back that the staff at Portland went out of their way to get me seated in the lower car level, which is for those who need accessible…
California-Oregon NPs-Gettin’ There-April 17-20, 2026
Departure day finally arrived on Friday, April 17th, but I wasn’t ready. While I had worked on prepping equipment and information for the trip to California, I hadn’t packed anything. This is not much of a problem when I am driving SB for the duration, but when I am reliant upon mass transit (Amtrak in this case), I have to operate under their schedule. I managed to finish laundry and gather things, but I accidentally left four important items: my tablet–which contains several downloaded files about my anticipated stops–and its peripherals, my handicap parking tag, my print 2027 atlas, plus the dash camera I wanted to use to video some of the scenic routes I would drive in my rental car. More about the impacts of these missing items in later posts. My youngest brother got Debra, my eldest sister, and me to Washington Union Station in time to catch…