Marco's Fuzzy-Photo DC Day

A lone man in the District of Columbia, Marco stole a few minutes away from work today to bike down to the Mall. Since the good camera is in Utah recording the record-breaking heat wave, these fuzzy photos are all low-rez cellphone pictures

First on my way out the door, I was happy to find a ripe tomato in our front yard veggie farm that our neighborhood homeless guy hadn't got to first. Mmmm, good lunch.


Then, I got on my well-weathered bike and wandered over to our beloved Eastern Market. They're busily repairing/rebuilding the market after the fire a few months ago. In the meantime, a new tent-market is supposed to open in a week or two while they restore the original. Here's what the new foundation looks like now. Obviously with all that concrete and plumbing going in, when they say "tent-market" they're thinking more in terms of the new Denver Airport or BYU baseball stadium tents, and not your typical temporary market cabana:


Here's the current scaffolded state of the old market. The windows that were blown out by the fire have been boarded up, but in keeping with the artistic excesses of the neighborhood, the plywood has all been painted up in an eclectic collection of murals.


Then I pedaled down past the Capitol to the Museum of the American Indian, where Al Gore was hosting a noisy and not very Indian-sounding Rock'n'Roll concert as part of the WorldWide Live Earth concerts. But then the museum is not very Native American either -- unless you count the Gambling Casino Tribe of Native Americans.



Across the street, in front of the Capitol, a Christian Gospel Revival was going on. "Praise the Lord, Do I feel Blessed, Hallelujah!" competed for sonic space with the Live Earth rockers.



And then just down the Mall a bit was the annual Smithsonian Festival of American Folk Life... which this year featured Old Virginia, Vietnam, and Northern Ireland. An interesting mix. Here are some folkloric Virginia African pottery, some folkloric Virginia USDA peanuts, and some folkloric Virginia Quilters.



Here's the Northern Ireland session band in the "Lagan Stage" where I went up and played a couple of tunes on a borrowed bodhran. That's not me with the drum, in case you wondered. That's the guy I swiped the drum from, who played in a sleepy Connie Roberts style. He seemed kind of annoyed by my triplets.



Finally here's the folkloric Irish whiskey brewery. I managed to resist the temptation at the Guinness and the Connemara Peated Single Malt tasting booth...



OK, enough fun. Back to work.