"For a city that’s filled with button-downed Brooks Brothers shirts and Ann Taylor pantsuits, it’s great to see that there’s still some dirty, weird folks around."
But they obviously mean that dirty, weird thing in the best possible way, because the gist is overall positive. Palace of Wonders, The Red and the Black, and the Argonaut all received explicit mentions.
25 comments:
good catch, inked!
someone here mentioned that we should stick all these articles in a binder and send them to trader joe's. that was a brilliant idea!
who was 'spearheading' the drive to bring trader joe's to the hood? was it the developer for that site across the street from the old children's museum?
Anwar and H Street Main Street are the ones courting Trader Joe's.
If I actually gave a damn, I might be irritated by New York's perpetual hipper-than-thou condescencion whenever they review anything in DC.
My favorite quotes:
"After years of living in the foodie shadow of the entire eastern seaboard—New York, Miami, even Boston—D.C. recently, somewhat surprisingly, leapt to the major leagues"
"The Smithsonian’s often overlooked National Museum of the American Indian not only has a fascinating permanent collection, like the "Our Universes" exhibit of native cosmology, but it also happens to have the best cafeteria on the Mall."
"If you’re hungry late night, the pirate-themed Argonaut is one of the few kitchens to stay open in an otherwise early-curfew town. You can eat the New American food with organic accents till 11 p.m. during the week and midnight on weekends."
Some idiot yuppie wrote this. Possibly from poo poo's favorite state Iowa. Thanks for mentioning my neighborhood in a national article New York Magazine, but I don't need you to tell me my city's cool.
darn, 8th and el beat me to the punch, and earns two gold stars for that one!
too bad it's anwar who's "leading" the effort for a trader joe's (or anything for that matter).
it's really too bad, cuz otherwise, we might have a fighting chance.
The cafeteria at that Native American Museum is really quite good. Definitely better than most selections on the Mall.
I don't doubt it, hillman. I was referring to the "often overlooked" part. It's almost like the douchebag's only been to the Air and Space Museum and wants a pat on the back for walking two more blocks.
I'm just amazed at all the recent H St. publicity coming out of NYC period! What's up with that?
I took it as completely enlightened that the NY mags always mention the Indian Museum. All I ever hear from anyone is the Air and Space as if it were the only museum in Washington. AND all I ever hear from the locals is how they "don't get" the Indian Museum and it is ugly building(???). The Smithsonian is so stale, count your blessings that the writer is able to key in on the one progressive museum on the Mall. There is no MOMA or New Museum. Believe me Washington has a long way to go before you can use hip as a descriptive term for DC.
I think the American Indian building is beautiful...how can anyone miss it? But the contents left me wanting more.
Saturday night we ducked into the Pug and I was stunned by the large crowd of 20-somethings. Is the Pug now the hip place for the kids from a particular college? They weren't signing, so it wasn't a Gallaudet crowd.
I liked the Indian museum. But I think they wasted a ton of space. A big chunk of the building is essentially hollow and unused. I found a lot of the artifacts to be beautiful and fascinating, but there was no history narrative to go along with them. Maybe they wanted to be nonpolitical, and maybe there's more info on the guided tours (which we waited around for but it never showed up). But I left thinking I saw a lot of neat Indian headdresses and such but that I learned very little about actual Indian life or beliefs or how things changed when the white man came along.
But the cafeteria was terrific.
It does seem like there is alot of wasted space and space devoted to retail. They do need to do a better job of explaining how one "uses" the museum. It is not "linear" and at times feels very disjointed, but while that is not the point, it is the point. Indian culture does not have a beginning and end. I agree it is a hard concept and you don't get much help...but I have heard so many people discount the museum because it wasn't set up to white culture standards. I don't know if the dress exhibit is still there, but I thought it was spectacular.
I personally think it should have been named the National Museum of the NATIVE AMERICAN and for that reason would never call that place "progressive" (sure, AIM were radical and took the AI moniker, but that was in the fricking 70's).
The museum does INDEED have a premium of empty space. I agree with Hillman there. I really wish there was more on display. It seems...sparse. This is thousands of years of history that this museum is supposed to represent and dozens of individual nations, each with their own language, traditions, etc.
"I found a lot of the artifacts to be beautiful and fascinating, but there was no history narrative to go along with them."
That's sort of the point...The National Museum of the American Indian is an art museum featuring American Indian artists. It is not a natural history museum; we've already got one of those. You'll note that a large part of the collection consists of new/recent pieces.
That said, the presentation sometimes reverts to a historical narrative, and some purely functional items are elevated to art; so a lot of people leave the place confused as to exactly what the curators are trying to accomplish. I certainly left confused & underwhelmed.
It might just be an old field school talking but I could go for a more elaborate history of stone tools. (:
All the comments are always what one hears about the actual museum. Contemporary Native Americans were actually involved in the planning and the organization of the museum....it's done from their perspective.
It does seem as if more could be done to help those from other cultures understand better how to experience the museum. This is something that probably requires repeated visits and some openess of thinking.
I went with an actual real live Native American (he actually prefers to be called by his tribal affiliation or simply 'Indian'), and he was as baffled as I was by much of what he saw. His comment was that it was all very beautiful but that it lacked context.
I understand that they are presenting information about a whole bunch of different peoples, but even a few more 'click here to learn more' displays would have gone a long way toward actually educating visitors, the vast majority of whom don't have the luxury of repeat visits.
In my opinion the museum only works with one of the Native guided tours. We were told by our tour guide that so much of Native American History is through "story telling", and you get a different story each time you have a different tribal guide. I've also taken someone there and we didn't wait for the guide and that person just found the whole experience "blah" and I couldn't have agreed more. So if you had a bad experience try going and waiting on a guided tour.
I don't mean to commandeer this topic, but does anyone know when the new Harris Teeter in SE is set to open (if it hasn't opened already)?
I'm an Indian, and I hate the stupid Indian museum. It's like having a museum of "dwellers of the Americas" that tries to put hundreds of cultures into one box--one which inevitably gets dominated by the conceptions of "cowboys and Indians". Americans just can't get Tonto out of their heads. The only Indian that matters to people are the western plains Indians. That's why I hate the exterior, for one. Having no patronizing museum at all would be welcome.
It's like having an Asian museum shaped like a pagoda. It's a bit insulting.
Of course, I don't go for identity politics at all, so I guess I'm not typical.
RE: Harris Teeter.
So far all they've done is signed a letter of intent which doesn't mean much.
Not to pimp someone else's blog but DC mud has a recent update.
Re: Harris Teeter, I've driven by in the last two weeks and there is a huge sign over the space. I believe it says they are opening this spring. Seemed official looking to me, but....
To clarify on Harris Teete:
mas asked about the SE location, at 14th and Penn, which has a banner saying that they will be opening this spring (2008).
I think fishfood is referring to the NE potential location. Harris Teeter had signed a letter of intent for the 2nd and H location, but has since pulled out. They may build at 1st and M St NE, according to Alan Kimber: http://anc6c05.blogspot.com/2007/10/update-on-steuart-development-at-3rd-h.html
I stopped by to look at the Jenkins Row condos this past weekend....they told me May 16th the Harris Teeter will open.
ATTENTION TOURISTS AND THOSE UNFAMILIAR WITH D.C.: DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT WALK FROM UNION STATION METRO TO H STREET PLACES. Safety first! Take a cab to and from the metro; walking to and across H Street means bums/thugs/liquor stores/boarded, barred townhomes. My family did it at ~5pm and we still wonder how we made it alive. Good food/beer, though.
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