The empty Reflecting Pool with its bottom completely removed / under reconstruction between the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial fountains. I've seen the Reflecting Pool empty before but never with its bottom removed.I'm not sure what the Park Service is up to with this project but if it doesn't fix the non-existence circulation system in this fountain, nothing will change and it will be a nasty, stagnant, goose and duck shit-filled clogged up mess in no time flat again.
Oh, yes, that trailer structure in the lead image (and another on the other side) is the location whence tonight's National Mall July 4th fireworks display will be launched.#######
July 4th ... Big Deal ... The Empire is in serious trouble with fundie - crazies and corporate oligarchs run amok, pussy Dems incapable of standing for anything, a dysfunctional and locked up political culture, and a destructive media suffocating everything.
But in the spirit of the day, Happy Birf-day Amur'ca!
I went down to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall yesterday with K. I took a lot of photos -- including with Hippo and including the lead image to this entry. They are posted in this entry.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival -- South Asian food tent -- on the National Mall, Washington, D.C., 4:09PM, July 3, 2011.All these ethnic cuisines -- South Asian, "Senegambian", Colombian, etc. -- all are basically rice and chicken or rice and beef. The first dish I got was gross, though, in a curry sort of way and I cut my losses and just ordered a new dish.
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I honestly have no idea what to do today. There will simply be too many throngs of people in the heat and humidity even to consider going down to the Mall for the damn fireworks display. As it is, you can hear the display's concussive explosions across most of the inner part of the city including Dupont Circle and see it in many locations, too.
I'm just so lost, feeling miserable and in a profound D.C. rut with no other options. And it is 8 long, agonizing weeks until I even get to take my planned Jersey shore vacation to Wildwood with Gary.
If I lost my job this summer, that would quickly end my time in D.C. and I guess I'd just go down to Florida to stay with my dad -- and probably drop dead soon thereafter.
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Anyway, what follows are some pictures I took yesterday down at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival with K.
**Updated 11:35PM 6/24/2014: Content removed.**
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The Motor City tent with an R&B group from Memphis singing various songs, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, National Mall, Washington, D.C., 4:49PM, July 3, 2011.Speaking of the Motor City, I thought Detroit was depopulating itself by, like, 90%, and mostly being turned back into park land.
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The Peace Corps tent, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C., 4:38PM, July 3, 2011.There was a whole Peace Corps theme to this festival on the occasion of the organization's 50th anniversary. There was actually a "reunion tent" for former Peace Corps volunteers to meet up with notices left on these panels dedicated to different countries.
The Peace Corps reunion tent, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C., 4:41PM, July 3, 2011.#######
And continuing with my current blog theme of all things EQUATORIAL GUINEA ...
The reunion panel for Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 4:42PM, July 3, 2011.I guess not that many Peace Corps volunteers have gone to Equatorial Guinea. Also, I think there are five (5) nations with "Guinea" in the name:
Equatorial Guinea
Guinea (or Guinea-Conakry)
Guinea-Bissau
French Guinea
Papua New Guinea (on the island of New Guinea)
Then there's THE Gambia ...
Here is the reunion panel (#7) including for those who served in The Gambia, Guinea (i.e., Guinea-Conakry), Ghana, Cape Verde and Côte d'Ivoire, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C., 4:43PM, July 3, 2011. That lady in the striped hat walked into my picture shot right at this moment, but somehow it works.
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We left the Folklife Festival area and headed over toward the Washington Monument, passing by the ornateUSDA headquarters. There in a grove of trees next to the NW side of the building we saw nature in action involving what I THINK were two peregrine falcons and a squirrel.
One of the raptors was trying to capture a squirrel, which for its part performed stunning, gravity-defying, tree-to-tree acrobatic avoidance maneuvers and lived to tell the tale.
The two possible peregrine falcons in the aforementioned grove of trees outside USDA headquarters, Washington, D.C., 5:15PM, July 3, 2011.#######
Here is the base of the Washington Monument with the flags that encircle it, 5:27PM, July 3, 2011. The thunderstorm approaching is visible as a darkening of the hazy, bright summertime sky to the north behind the Monument.#######
The Washington Monument rising above an ancient tree that grows just SW of the structure, 5:31PM, July 3, 2011.I'll refrain from any sexual inferences that might be drawn from this image.
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K. and I got caught in a drenching thunderstorm around 6:30PM but by that point we were near Lindy's Red Lion in Foggy Bottom and ducked in there for what turned out to be about an hour and a half. (Hippo was safely stored away inside inside K's bag and stayed dry.)
This is the Federal Reserve Annex Building, more properly known as the William McChesney Martin, Jr., Federal Reserve Board Building, located at 20th and C Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 6:15PM, July 3, 2011.The thunderstorm was quickly approaching.
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The big fountain in Robert Latham Owen Park next to the Federal Reserve Annex (Martin) Building, Washington, D.C., 6:16PM, July 3, 2011.#######
Hippo wanted his picture taken next to the big fountain in Robert Latham Owen Park, Washington, D.C., 6:16PM, July 3, 2011. Hippo had to hurry back into K's handbag before the drenching downpour started. He is a clever little hippo -- who prefers to be dry.
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Chaotic - turbulent thunderstorm clouds (a squall line really) as seen over Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C., 6:25PM, July 3, 2011.#######
DELUGE! We got caught in the squally downpour along I Street, NW, a couple hundred feet from Lindy's Red Lion and made a dash for it. This was 6:29PM July 3, 2011."Do you know the location of every bar in the city??" K. asked me.
The storm dropped just 0.18" at DCA but the wee hour storm I mentioned in the previous entry dropped 0.69" there -- or 0.87" for the day. We still have not had at least 1" of precip on a calendar day at DCA since March 10th.
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After the storm ...
Fading sunlight on receding storm clouds (which still stretched overhead) at Dupont Circle at dusk, Washington, D.C., 8:32PM, July 3, 2011.I had walked back to Dupont Circle, seeing K. off at the Metro and thence home before going out to Larry's Lounge last night with the usual crew. Of note, the storm toppled some big branches around the neighborhood.
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Clarification:
Oh, yes, please see my clarification in the previous entry. That was a picture of Izmir, Turkey at pre-sunrise dawn with the body of water in question in the Gulf of Izmir (formerly Smyrna), an extremity of the Aegean Sea. The APOD caption incorrectly referred to it as a "reservoir." I have corrected it in the caption.
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Another post-stormy sunset sky over Washington, D.C., 8:34PM, July 3, 2011.#######
Blog-keeping:
**Updated 11:35PM 6/24/2014: Content adjusted and removed.**
A donkey in an enclosed pen at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, in the Colombian "The Nature of Culture" , Washington, D.C., 5:02PM, July 3, 2011.There was a fan blowing on the donkey and a sign warning people to keep their dogs a safe distance away.
**Updated 11:35PM 6/24/2014: Content removed.**
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Golden Girls Quote:
Rose: "BOY, have I been STUPID! I haven't felt this dumb since I found out William Conrad wasn't one guy in a jacket and another guy in a pair of pants!"
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OK, that's all for now. My next update will be in a few days.
--Regulus
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