a busy weekend
Friday
I won tickets from the local NPR station to see Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company's Fall Festival of Indian Dance. We'd see them last year at Dance Place during the annual DC Dance Week. I was impressed with how many of the dancers, judging from their short bios, also keep "day" jobs, including one woman who's an engineer with the EPA. I also liked how diverse the dancers are - in addition to Indian and Indian-descent performers, there were dancers of every color, including one Filipina. I'm not a big fan of contemporary dance, so it was a little jarring for me to see one piece that started with spoken word and ended in complete silence with only the sounds of breathing and movement, and another piece where classical Indian dance was incorporated in a modern piece. I enjoyed the "old school" performances the best. My ticket allowed me to sit in the special guest zone so I sat close to the stage and loved the views of the footwork and the costumes. This was also my first visit to the Lincoln Theatre - a very nice venue conveniently situated across from the Metro and next to Ben's Chili Bowl.
Saturday
Saturday morning I attended the Relief Society activity at church. The participants were asked to attend two out of four workshops, on healthy living, budgeting, personal style, and emotional health. I went to the sessions on budgeting and personal style. I don't think I learned anything "new" per se, but I enjoyed hanging out with church friends. I should make more of an effort to see folks outside of Sundays....
Saturday afternoon I trekked down to the Smithsonian and decided to visit the Freer and Sackler Galleries. I haven't been in several years, except to watch the occasional movie or attended a Philippines or Fil-Am-related event. Perhaps because I'm bothered by the absence of Moroccan art or Philippine art. Regardless, I did like the blockbuster exhibition, Falnama, the Book of Omens. I was reminded of the lush and elaborate works I'd seen in Istanbul, and I loved with the Muslim depictions of scenes from the Abrahamic traditions, including images of Jesus and Mary.
Saturday night was the usual "blood and violence" lineup on NBC that MoBob is so fond of - Mercy, followed by Trauma and Law & Order, topped off by the local news, which is often the bloodiest and most violent show of the evening. My tolerence for gross scenes is pretty low and I checked out early, though I did notice that despite being set in San Francisco, as far as I can tell, there aren't any Asian people in the cast of Trauma. Hello?
Sunday
Today's talks in church were great. One of the talks centered on how life-long members can inadvertantly make new converts feel less welcome or less worthy. He totally hit everything on the mark. I can definitely say that my struggles with Mormondom often stemmed from the cultural side. Even relatively mundane aspects like food - funeral potatoes? green jello with shredded carrots? hawaiian pile-on?
Then MoBob and I attended the "alley party" organized by neighbors on our street. There was a good turnout, and most of the people I'd never seen before. Of course I gravitated toward people I'd already chatted with, which I suppose defeats the purpose of meeting the neighbors.
Street Sense asked me to take photos for a feature on homeless people and tobacco use so MB and I walked to Union Station and then the Center for Creative Non-Violence, the nearest shelter facility. I took some long distance shots of people in front of the shelter entrance, and then I asked a cluster of four people across the street if I could take their photos. They refused, but we had a nice conversation, and I told them about Street Sense. Tomorrow I'm going with the reporter to Georgetown and Metro Center so perhaps we'll have better luck there.
And then I took a nap.