Bump Bump Bump. Loda@Gallery
Something has come up every other week since I've heard of Loda, but Friday was time to finally venture (3 blocks down the street) to Gallery. How have I missed out on this for so long? Amazing musicians, a crowd of artists, solid bass (my weakness), plus a minute with some drumsticks and a shopping cart that sent me into nirvana.
I floated home with a buzzing in my ears and a smile on my face, happily crawling into bed for about 30 minutes before being awoken by the fire alarm and sounds of chaos and confusion in the hall as our apartment building was evacuated. Sitting on the side of the road at 4:30 in the morning waiting for the firemen is not something I envisioned doing post-college. And to the stupid drunkards who pulled the fire alarm and caused this whole debacle: why can't you just come home and pass out like the rest of us? Jerks.
Roadside Angels.
Saturday brought a specific schedule - I was trying to photograph two events before making it out to Baltimore for a festival and then party. In my quest for parking near the Walk for Change I took a few wrong turns and ended up on an entrance ramp to some road with signs for Virginia; then I heard a loud banging noise every time I went faster than 25 mph. Shit. I ended up pulling off on the side of the ramp to discover a 10" piece of a chain link fence lodged into my tire. Shit. (This post is already going to be long so I can't go through the specific justifications of why I have anxiety about driving and driving-related issues. but I do.)
Call dad. He's a thousand miles away. Weighing driving on it versus waiting on a nameless entrance ramp for AAA. Drive. Panicked phone call to friend who might know where I should go. Pointless. Turn down some random road with hopes of parking and calling for help. 15 road construction guys flag me down: "there's something in your tire!" This looks like a good place to park.
They were amazing! They even had a plug kit. It took them about 45 seconds to yank out the mangled fence piece and plug it with this metal thing
Then mush some pliable stuff and jam it into the hole.
All fixed!In all my fluster I didn't even ask their names. But thank you to the kind Washingtonians who came to the rescue of a needlessly panicking girl.
B.more.
Between that and 2 hours of traffic on my way up 95 and my whole day was thrown off; this is why I don't plan.
So I took advantage of the hours I would have been walking around the Hampden festival and explored Charles Street instead. I found Caffeine Addiction, a fantastic coffee shop with delicious food, excellent service, and a cute little patio area out back that was perfection for the afternoon.
Then I laid in the grass of the (other) Washington Monument and finished The Russian Debutante's Handbook. "we must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read". I wanted to.Party hardy with a cast of Baltimore's finest hipsters, eating incredible vegan food (thanks Trish!) and a (long overdue) sleep on Kelsey and Sean's couch. The second best part about spending the night at Kelsey and Sean's is that the next morning always brings a trip to the Farmer's Market for the delicious fresh donuts. The market had a crafty section that varies greatly in quality; but this week I found this beautiful stained glass art and got this necklace by African Sand Glass Art - a mother/daughter duo working in stained glass and also making jewelry.
We also stopped by Saratoga Coffee, a new coffee shop between the Market and the apartment. Standard coffee with a petite but quality selection of books, it's a coffeeshop anyone would be happy to have added to their neighborhood. And the two guys working there were pretty chill as well.
Adams Morgan Day and Camera Play.
On the metro en route to Adams Morgan Day, I finished crocheting a redo of the fingerless mitten I made from some stretchy yarn.
Adams Morgan Day was amazing: a huge day of art, music, crafts, food, performances, and people watching. Em and Vara came for a little bit.
But left soon after so I wandered around taking pictures. Don't let this giant chunk of ice fool you, it was Africa hot out there.
I ran into the boys of Tshirt Insurgency, doing their thing.
I walked by a booth with an interesting canvas on the ground. I snapped this picture, then was immediately beckoned inside by the artist.
Cherif Mamadou is a friendly man, a bit eccentric, and eager to share his work.
He also beckoned in this black bandanna guy and we all took a picture together. Then he showed off some of his work.
It was mostly painting, but he had some mixed media components, like the balloon he's tugging on below.
We sat together on the sidewalk, he approached a canvas with two brushes and the music blasting and he danced the paint onto the canvas and I snapped photos away.
His hands moved so fast, it was nearly impossible to get anything in focus. But the experience was incredible. It was special to share that experience with a near stranger.
His paint pants rocked.
Approaching the canvas.
And his sketchbook.
I found a little used book store, Idle Time Books; cute, but lacking the charm of Capitol Hill Books. Nothing was as cute as this little dog hiding under the table in a feeble attempt to escape the sun.
Check out these knitted scarves. That's a log of knitting for one scarf...
I've seen Jon Wye's stuff around at many of the crafty market fairs, Sean even got one of their belts (ninjas with the signature "Junk" belt buckle) at Crafts n Kisses in February. He has a pretty sweet chair:
They do beautiful graphical leather belts and cuffs as well as screened shirts. Technology malfunctions gave us a brief chance to chat and I found out three things. 1. Keith is soon going to live overseas for 2 years in a really obscure country that I can't remember right now, so he got a sweet new DSLR camera. 2. Jon's studio/workshop is in Eastern Market (I wonder if I can finagle an invite to go check it out?) 3. DC is full of incredibly nice and chill individuals.
This was my one purchase of the day: one of the Jon Wye shirts printed on amazingly soft organic cotton tees.
Then I met up with Danny after he had walked his fiance home to get out of the heat. It was hot. I'm a Florida girl, and it was HOT.
We were both starving and parched, so we went to The Diner.
Grilled Cheese on Rye. Yum.
Danny is so fun to photograph, but is very camera shy.
I took pictures anyway.
The Diner has a pretty awesome ceiling.
Up the street we played audience to some pretty spectacular karaoke. I bet you'd never guess that the audio to this photo is Ashlee Simpson's "Pieces of Me". Swear.
Up the street some more was music that was far more pleasant to the ears. Some salsa dancing lessons followed by a pretty sweet drum circle.
This little kid was adroable. He was rocking out hard core with his drum, easily becoming a fave of all of the photogs.
The beats were wild and the bass loud. Awesome.
A quick walk over to Dupont Circle in search of hydration and we stumbled upon some leftovers from a Saturday night at Dupont...Classic.
It's going to be a busy week of gouache and concrete. In case there's no post before it, Happy Anniversary to my awesome parents. 27? Woah.
Currently Reading: After Dark by Haruki Murakami
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