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So today is day one of "Life in DC can be an adventure too" i.e., you don't have to go further than metro to "travel" when you live near the friggin' capitol.
Not that this is going to keep me away from NYC or London.
Anyway, although the cherry trees are more light green than blazing white or pink and the short but vehement monsoon last night picked what was left of the blossoms, today was the end of the 2-week Cherry Blossom Festival. There's a parade, which I didn't go to, and a Japanese street market, which I did. The Federal Triangle metro would bring you up right in the middle of it, but I opted for the Smithsonian exit, so I could approach from below.
I mention this because it is the first time in ever that I have been on the Mall when there hasn't been something *on the Mall* - the National Book Festival, or the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, or the March for Women's Lives or whathaveyou. And y'know? For a muddy stretch with bad grass, the view is pretty damned impressive. To one side is the Washington Monument, and as you start heading north, the Lincoln Memorial peeks out from behind it. Look to the other and there's a bigass red castle - the original Smithsonian - and framed at the end is the Congressional Building.
That's just pretty freakin' awe-inspiring, it really is.
The festival itself was... okay. Sorry, I've been to street markets that have thrilled me more. The many "Japanese eateries" were a line of trucks serving the same old fast-food versions of tempura, teriaki - and Japanese is in quotes because they also offered fried rice and pad thai. Pad Thai? At a Japanese pride festival? All righty then.
It was laid out in a T along Pennsylvania and 12th, with Japanese pop singers at one end, traditional dancers at the other, and what looked like a mix of popular and traditional entertainers at the bottom platform. There were some people wandering around in kimono, rather more in anime costumes, and one tall black woman done up as a full geisha (she completely captivated the people running the booth where I was when she came up to shop).
Bento-wise, it was disappointing. Plenty of bento bags everywhere, but the only boxes were those gigantic 3-tier presentation deals. But I did get a lovely magnet of a painting of the Washington Monument seen through blossoms from the Sackler booth, and a bowl. (I seem to be having bowl karma at the moment.) The bowl is important because I've been rethinking how I want to redecorate my bedroom. I've given up on the Bollywood brothel idea (to the relief of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
boogiebabe_smap and shawan_7 - little do they know I just plan on doing another room like that) because the bedroom has become my zen zone, where I sit and read in my little reading nook. And Bollywood is too "shouty" for a room that I want to make more peaceful and zenlike.
I want to repaint, but the question of what color has been pressing on me, and if I should repaint the white trim, and what do I do about the dark, mahogany furniture? I'm not replacing it - it was my grandfather's and not only would it be hideously expensive to redo the whole bedroom, I'd NEVER be able to buy anything approaching that quality.
Which comes, in wordy degrees, back to the bowl. The beautiful bowl with dark brown and white details on a tranquil sort of slate that is several shades lighter in person than in the picture. So that takes care of the white and the brown, and I just have to take the bowl to a paint store and say "match this" and see if I can find some blossom print for curtains.
So the bedroom's being based on Japanese ceramics, and the bathroom's being based on Italian ceramics...
Having done my bit for multiculturalism, I'm going to revert to back to fangirl now. In addition to the new episode, I came home to the latest DWM and the latest three tie-in books, and I've promised myself that I can finish the last of the Torchwood tie-ins (Twilight Streets) before tomorrow night.
Not that this is going to keep me away from NYC or London.
Anyway, although the cherry trees are more light green than blazing white or pink and the short but vehement monsoon last night picked what was left of the blossoms, today was the end of the 2-week Cherry Blossom Festival. There's a parade, which I didn't go to, and a Japanese street market, which I did. The Federal Triangle metro would bring you up right in the middle of it, but I opted for the Smithsonian exit, so I could approach from below.
I mention this because it is the first time in ever that I have been on the Mall when there hasn't been something *on the Mall* - the National Book Festival, or the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, or the March for Women's Lives or whathaveyou. And y'know? For a muddy stretch with bad grass, the view is pretty damned impressive. To one side is the Washington Monument, and as you start heading north, the Lincoln Memorial peeks out from behind it. Look to the other and there's a bigass red castle - the original Smithsonian - and framed at the end is the Congressional Building.
That's just pretty freakin' awe-inspiring, it really is.
The festival itself was... okay. Sorry, I've been to street markets that have thrilled me more. The many "Japanese eateries" were a line of trucks serving the same old fast-food versions of tempura, teriaki - and Japanese is in quotes because they also offered fried rice and pad thai. Pad Thai? At a Japanese pride festival? All righty then.
It was laid out in a T along Pennsylvania and 12th, with Japanese pop singers at one end, traditional dancers at the other, and what looked like a mix of popular and traditional entertainers at the bottom platform. There were some people wandering around in kimono, rather more in anime costumes, and one tall black woman done up as a full geisha (she completely captivated the people running the booth where I was when she came up to shop).
Bento-wise, it was disappointing. Plenty of bento bags everywhere, but the only boxes were those gigantic 3-tier presentation deals. But I did get a lovely magnet of a painting of the Washington Monument seen through blossoms from the Sackler booth, and a bowl. (I seem to be having bowl karma at the moment.) The bowl is important because I've been rethinking how I want to redecorate my bedroom. I've given up on the Bollywood brothel idea (to the relief of
boogiebabe_smap and shawan_7 - little do they know I just plan on doing another room like that) because the bedroom has become my zen zone, where I sit and read in my little reading nook. And Bollywood is too "shouty" for a room that I want to make more peaceful and zenlike.I want to repaint, but the question of what color has been pressing on me, and if I should repaint the white trim, and what do I do about the dark, mahogany furniture? I'm not replacing it - it was my grandfather's and not only would it be hideously expensive to redo the whole bedroom, I'd NEVER be able to buy anything approaching that quality.
Which comes, in wordy degrees, back to the bowl. The beautiful bowl with dark brown and white details on a tranquil sort of slate that is several shades lighter in person than in the picture. So that takes care of the white and the brown, and I just have to take the bowl to a paint store and say "match this" and see if I can find some blossom print for curtains.
So the bedroom's being based on Japanese ceramics, and the bathroom's being based on Italian ceramics...
Having done my bit for multiculturalism, I'm going to revert to back to fangirl now. In addition to the new episode, I came home to the latest DWM and the latest three tie-in books, and I've promised myself that I can finish the last of the Torchwood tie-ins (Twilight Streets) before tomorrow night.
