There's a new facebook group dedicated to saving the Smithsonian's petting zoo, which – according to the Smithsonian's 2012 proposed budget – will be closing in the spring or early summer due to budget cuts. (Budget cuts? The Smithsonian asked for $100 million more in appropriations for FY 2012 than it received in its last [...]
On a recent visit to the National Gallery of Art, I made a pit stop at the mezzanine bathroom. Only two people stood ahead of me in line, but I still had a long wait: there were just two bathrooms and both were occupied. By the time I finished, the other bathroom was still occupied. [...]
I am moving this weekend. To honor the occasion, I opened up my top desk drawer. I haven't opened this drawer in months. I haven't looked deep inside it in at least a year. I treated it as a museum for my very important papers and receipts and reporter stuff. I don't think I've cleaned [...]
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival seeks volunteers: It announced today that it is still looking for a few brave souls to work the popular event:
It "needs capable and enthusiastic volunteers before, during and after its annual Folklife Festival, which will be held on the National Mall Wednesday, June 25 through Sunday, June 29 and Wednesday, July [...]
Tyler Green's excellent Modern Art Notes points to an interesting post at daddytypes.com, in which Greg Allen describes a recent visit to the National Gallery of Art with his three-year-old daughter. There, they collide with a docent attempting to explain Clyfford Still's painting 1951-N to a group of middle-schoolers:
"Who wonders why [...]
In April, I reported that the future of the Smithsonian Jazz Cafe, housed at the National Museum of Natural History, was uncertain. At the time, Leslie Whipkey, a marketing volunteer for the program, said she heard the cafe was “operating deeply in the red,” and worried that Smithsonian Business Ventures, which oversees revenue-generating elements of [...]
OK, I admit it. The Posties and their incessant coverage of Tai Shan fascinated me. While a freelancer, I went to the zoo just about every day to check on the hysteria. I took my camera. The gift store has been consistently rich feeding grounds. I mean, do people really buy this wacky shit? A [...]
Has Knut, the polar bear babe rejected by its mother at the Berlin Zoo and who is 4 months old today, usurped Butterstick's title as international bear of choice?
The "ice bear," as the zoo's translated Web site calls him, gets the May Vanity Fair cover shot by Annie Liebovitz! Sure, he's included because of the [...]
It was Friday night at the Smithsonian Jazz Cafe and Frederic Yonnet was warming up the crowd. He cupped his hands over his mouth and broke into a lively harmonica solo. Then, removing the silver rectangle from his lips, he smiled widely. "Is there anybody in the room?" he teased. "Do you want some more? [...]
Yoko Ono embraces peace, health, prosperity, and wishes, but she can do without sunlight. Descending to the Hirshhorn's sculpture garden for a press event this afternoon, the petite conceptual artist and rock-star-by-proxy was protected by an umbrella, carried by a factotum of her "Imagine Peace" and "Wish Tree" projects.
Ono's wish trees arrived in Washington for [...]
If you're looking for a soundtrack while you read the various articles and blog posts about Lawrence Small's resignation from his post as head of the Smithsonian Institution, try If You Ain't Got the Do-Re-Mi: Songs of Rags and Riches. It's a compilation of folk songs about money troubles that came out two weeks ago—on [...]
National Museum of Women in the Arts: Not to be outdone by Smithsonian venues that recently have hosted DJ-centric evening events, the private museum is offering “VJ/DJ: After Hours at NMWA.” In addition to having some wine and noshing on tapas, you can check out offerings from Finnish “live cinema artist” Solu, DJ Samantha Waldram, [...]
Slipping a Roger Miller LP off a turntable and replacing it with an Alan Vega disc, Ian Svenonius took a moment to explain how he ended up spinning at the latest edition of Hirshhorn After Hours last Friday. "We wanted to create disjunction," he said, adding that his set list was created in collaboration with [...]
When it comes to underground dance music, no institution has its finger on the throbbing pulse of D.C.'s dance night scene quite like...the Smithsonian? And when those hip folks at the Smithsonian say "underground," they mean it—tonight's "Montreal Underground" will take place at the Smithsonian’s underground Ripley Center.
[E]xplore the sounds and images of the [...]
