Saturday Sign of Life: On Vacay

Analog in Digital has been on vacation in California and sans necessary Internet access.
See you soon!

Saturday Seasonal: The Nats

Here are Nick and I at the Nats game. Wood and his mama were with us, but they don't like getting their pictures taken.
The Nats lost to the Brewers 2-5, but there were a lot of happy Wisconsinites.

And Nick added yet another ball park (and the newest in the country) to his long list.

Friday Fave: SYTYCD?

What better way to start my vacay than watching the season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance? I am thrilled that dance has found its rightful place in American media. I am also convinced that this show could have not skyrocketed if we did not have the multicultural landscape that we have today. I mean, would a boardroom full of white men ever have put this on TV? (Ok, not to say that Fox isn't still full of white men, but the audience demand is there.)

Here's one of my faves from last season.





For the not-yet-converted the show follows the model of American Idol, so the first few weeks are chock full of freaky auditions. (Not my favorite part of the show, but entertaining nonetheless.)

Next week's show the auditions go to SALT LAKE CITY, at last putting the region on the dance map, as if the championship ballroom dance team at BYU, the reknowned dance department at the University of Utah, and the numerous national-touring dance companies based there didn't do so already.

Tuesday Timewarp: The Stranglers

Sure, I've been busy with my baby brother (as he calls himself) in town, but I wasn't going to forget Tuesday Timewarp. God, I love YouTube for making accessible video of my favorite bands that I never saw back in the day. This is especially good and has to be about 30 years old. Enjoy.

Saturday/Sunday Senses: A Sunny Day in NYC

My younger brother Nick and I went to NYC for the weekend. Straddled by two rather rainy days, Saturday was absolutely glorious! I'd never taken the Staten Island Ferry, so he, his friend Amanda and I did. Here's a terrific shot from the ferry, just in case you didn't believe how perfect of a day it was.

Earlier that day we stumbled upon Trinity Church, also looking gorgeous in such lush surroundings.
Right as we walked through the grounds we heard wedding bells. I love how urban this wedding looks. Goes to show there are surprises around every corner in Manhattan.

Wildcard Wednesday: Prince of Petworth

My younger brother is coming to town tomorrow. In fact, he's getting on a flight in less than three hours. So I'm running around getting ready.

I was reading the blogs I regularly read and I wanted to point you to one that I love for its simplicity in its appreciation of the everyday in DC and its role as a community builder.

Check out Prince of Petworth, if you have a chance. I aspire to be this guy.

Timewarp Tuesday: The Cure x 2

Anyway, so Wood was telling me a story last night about how his friend Eric called from work. Eric told him that he had just seen The Cure.

And then Wood said, "Who's The Cure?"

"You don't know who The Cure is?" Eric asked with disbelief.

Wood could hear Eric's co-workers break out in laughter in the background.

My dear sweet boyfriend took it in stride. This post is dedicated to him.

Because The Cure had SO many good songs, I had a hard time picking just one, so you get two this week. Here is the video that, if you were a pre-teen or teenager in the mid-eighties, has to be burnt into your memory.



And even this next video suprised me, since while I LOVE early Cure the most, I don't believe that I have ever seen one of their earlier videos. The later quintessential goth (although arguably only in appearance, since The Cure wrote mostly infectious up-tempo pop songs), Robert Smith appears with short hair and no makeup! He's actually looks a bit like Ben Affleck, don't you think?

Monday Money Shot: Beignets and Bachelors

In another birthday post... here is the money shot I wanted. It's not the strawberries, but I think the beignets, the candle, and the "Happy Birthday" in chocolate icing takes the cake! Way to go to my Sweetie for giving me not one surprise dessert, but TWO! Even better is that he did partly because he knew I needed the photo for my blog.

The beignets didn't rival Cafe Du Monde. (My choice, not Wood's.) Though I highly recommend the pecan tart.

Ok, I'll confess that right now I have the finale of The Bachelor on in the background. I have extremely mixed feelings about this show. It's like watching a car crash. Something is so ridiculous about 22 year old women feeling so desperate about getting married, so convinced that they have met the man they want to marry, that I take pleasure in it for its complete disconnect from reality. The sad thing though is that it's not far from reality and that a lot of people get in bad marriages because of that kind of delusion.

That said, I'm hoping Matt asks Shane to marry him.

Sunday Sentiment: Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

Thanks for all of the well wishes from friends and family near and far. Wood and I decided to double up the fancy birthday meal with Mother's Day, so we'll be heading to Acadiana today, making me officially one day younger. (Isn't how that works?)

I wish I would have taken a picture of the lovely slice of strawberry cheesecake I had, surrounded my clouds of whipped cream and more strawberries and lit with a candle. Must have had my sights on eating it more than photographing it. Wood was responsible for all of the extras.

Birthdays are always a mixed bag, aren't they? I think we did a pretty good job making the best of it.

Friday Farewells: A Few of My Favorite Things

Red Ginger closed on Wednesday for good.

And my iPod is toast.

Wildcard Wednesday: Warehouse Theatre

Here's where I went last night: The Warehouse Theater.

I went to what can be described as an open-mic for performing arts. It was mostly dance, really. Works in progress. Mostly modern dance. Some solo routines. All about the length of a pop song. A discussion with the choreographers ensued afterwards, but I had to get home on a school night.

The Warehouse Theater has been called "An Avant-Garde Kennedy Center." It's mostly empty at the moment as they are slowly shutting down this location due to rising property taxes and will relocate in Columbia Heights. You can read all about that here.

There are still a few things going on there. The next of these "open mic" nights is Tuesday, June 3rd. $5 is a good price for a fair amount of entertainment value and for an hour or two that feels like you are no longer in DC.

Tuesday Timewarp: Solid Gold Adam Ant

At dinner tonight, some of us were talking about So You Think You Can Dance? and its imminent season premiere (2 hours on May 22nd!) Then my friend Jessica said....

"Remember Dance Fever?"

Oh, my! I hadn't thought about Dance Fever since the 80s.

She then said, "and Solid Gold."

Solid Gold came on TV on Saturday nights at about 7pm Pacific Time. I was religious about it. The music, the dancing, the stars... and especially the countdown. Anything with a countdown.

Here's a rather bizarre Solid Gold moment. I don't remember Adam Ant ever appearing on the show, but here's the proof. He was dreamy in a new wave kinda way.

Monday Musing: Realization

I blog too much.

In yoga today, we had this meditation where we were walking in our favorite natural place (mine was some woodsy place near a beach), and then an animal that we considered kindly (for me, it was a little tabby kitten) brought us a message written on a piece of paper.

We were supposed to ask ourselves a question and then look at the piece of paper for the answer.

My question was: How can I be happy?

The answer read: Just be.

Saturday/Sunday Summary: In Snapshots

Literally, snapshots from my weekend.... Friday after work. I drop my iPod on the platform of the Metro. Here's the message it is currently giving me. BTW, the webpage doesn't exist.


Any of you fellow Sex in the City fans will recognize that this is much like the "sad Mac" that Carrie got when her motherboard failed. Except that this is a "sad iPod." Wood bought me my pink iPod mini for our first Christmas together in 2005. He momentarily cheered that now he knew what to get me for my birthday next Saturday, but I think he knows in his heart that would be too easy. Meanwhile, we had a beer at Fado with his friend Craig from work.

That night and the next morning, we watched parts I and II of When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Spike Lee's documentary on the state of New Orleans immediately leading up to, during and following Hurricane Katrina. Of course, while important to remember these events, the film was rather depressing.
I must have been subconsciously masochistic, because I then read the cover story in the City Paper. This week's story, "The Last Days of Christopher Savage," recounted a guy who had just moved here who then was allegedly beaten up and mugged a few blocks from where I live, and then supposedly died from his injuries. I later put together that as a former drug addict, he was probably trying to score something, that the City Paper hadn't included anything about his autopsy, and that the details of his story are unreliable. Still, this freaked me out.

Feeling rather down at this point, I decided to get out of my house and head to the gym, but instead found myself in front of the Mayflower hotel, famous for many things, but most recently as the hotel in which Eliot Spitzer used the services of one of the escorts of the now late "DC Madam" Deborah Jean Palfrey.

The reason I was here was to catch a shuttle bus to the German Embassy where my sweetie was promoting all things German. That day, the EU embassies were hosting open houses as part of the Europe in DC program. Things were about to look up!

We then went to see Iron Man. It seemed fair since Wood sat through When the Levees Broke. It didn't do much for me, but Wood seemed to get a kick out of it, so that made me happy. Today we met Wood's mom and her friend Peter for brunch at Open City, a sister restaurant of one of our faves Tryst. While nothing beats a lightly sweet and lighter-than-air blueberry-strawberry waffle from Tryst, the frozen chaipuccino at Open City is heavenly. I also must go back for an Abita Turbo Dog, which is my favorite beer.

It was such a nice day, that Wood and I headed up the street to the National Zoo which is another great free thing to do in DC. We said hello to our animal friends, including my favorite, the California Sea Lions. If I come back as any animal, it would be as a sea lion or a sea otter.

Later this evening, I shopped at the new Harris Teeter, walking down the street (in daylight) where that guy had been beaten. And I felt much better to have, in some little way, taken back my neighborhood.

Thirsty Thursday: Bizarro Sights around DC

On my way to work yesterday... Another protest taking place in front of the "Hinkley Hilton." They weren't protesting the other white meat.


On the way home Tuesday, at Connecticut and K Street. This demolition has been taking place for over a month. The slowest demolition EVER!!!

Here's the same building two weeks ago. Different angle, and more intact. I've heard of halting con-struction because of funding, but halting de-struction? Bizarro, indeed.