The DCist Exposed Photography Show exhibits DCist editors' picks from photos tagged as "DCist" on Flickr. My husband and I went to the opening at Longview Gallery, where I met senior editor and Exposed bartender, Martin Andres Austermuhle. I discovered that he too spent his early years in Bogotá, Colombia. Small world! (Ok, he's Swiss and I'm not, but I was British in a past life and that's close. Right?) True, I'm bound to meet home-grown Colombians in the city of embassies. Pish tosh, they're transient expats, not "childhood-Colombian". There's a difference and the expats would say it's a little larger than an ant-hill. But, I digress...
Why I waited that long to visit Longview Gallery, I don't know. I felt right at home in this space, somehow. The intimacy of its fairly small interior balances its loft-y vibe. It reminded me of Georgetown's Halcyon House, the setting for an event I did in my last year as a wedding designer. I would share a few shots with you, but Leikness-Dougherty kept forgetting to send shots of my work. (Evidently, I don't forget. Admittedly, a little scary.)
More digression: DCist's logo is adorable. I felt like skipping across the room when they stamped the logo onto our hands, but it was too crowded for that. I didn't want to wash it off right away, forgot to scrub it off and went to bed. The result? A DCist temporary tattoo on my face! It showered right off, though. I wonder how my (euh) spontaneous French language instructor would have reacted had I gone to class DCist-branded...
Back to the original point. Longview is truly the perfect setting for my favorite shots by 2011 winners:
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| Infusion Dance Co - spiggycat |
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| Babel - specimenlife |
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| [love in loss] - holding steady |
And these 2. (Sorry, sources disabled image sharing.)
4th of July - A Moment to CaptureDC Caribbean Festival
T h e B a d ...
I was taken hostage by an insurmountable craving for cake. I intended to get a slice of real vanilla cake with whipped cream frosting and strawberries at Whole Foods, but they were out of my flavor. Gasp! They had chocolate-frosted chocolate cake and carrot cake. I am all for chocolate as an accompaniment - Nutella, chocolat chaud, peanut butter cups - not as a narcissistic dessert ingredient. I do have the ability to like carrot cake, but it scares me because it's too unreliable. (You can end up with a gag-inducing carrot cake just as easily as you can end up with a really great one.) That left only their angel food cake with fresh berries. Normally, I don't buy ready-made desserts, much less an entire cake to take home. If I don't buy it, I don't eat it. I also don't like the wastefulness, the thoughtlessness of impulse buys. But it isn't everyday that you're kidnapped by cake. I argued that cake wasn't an impulse buy because it was on my list. Off I went with my little extravagance.
Life Lesson #_: Don't buy a whole cake when you're hungry. I know this rule. I usually follow it pretty well. (I'm really good at following rules... so long as they're not silly rules made up by other people.) Last two days? Nope, not so much. I ate most of it. By myself. (No photo of the blushing cake, because, well, it's gone.) On the bright side, it was lunch and breakfast, it could've been real butter-rich cake, and I had power cardio and reformer class afterwards. Was it good? Not bad, but a little drunk on sugar. (In America, we seem to be seduced by sweet excess, often piling high fructose corn syrup on top of sugar. The French, however have mastered the art of dessert. They know it isn't necessary to bulldoze the palate with sugar.) After all that, my favorite part was the berries and I should've just bought a tub of them.
But try paying Cake's ransom with berries.
T h e U g l y ...
Hmm. Crickets. I go treasure-hunting for the lovely, the fun, the original and the inspiring so it isn't easy to resurrect the ugly. The bouncer in my head promptly escorts the ugly away. There is enough "ugliness" out there - slightly ugly and very ugly, among the familiar and the unknown, close to home and far away. I vote for not being around it but going for the treasure instead.
This isn't ugly in the least, but it's scary in an oh so fun way. (Fluorescently colored - is it meant to be consumed? It's too cute to eat!) It's the best DIY idea I've ever seen for St. Patrick's Day. For more info on making your own leprechaun trap, visit the fabulous Not Martha.
l i v e e x u b e r a n t l y™
