'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
A Visit to Washington DC
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio
Theater Podcasts
for iTunes and iPods, with
pictures
Shockwave Radio
broadcasts on archive.org
Bookmark my bookmark
page.
Nascent Wikipedia entry for Shockwave Radio Theater
A Thanksgiving Trip
For Thanksgiving this year, I went to Washington DC where my brother Joe and very pregnant sister-in-law Patty played host. I was only in town a few days, but I went to the National Mall with my other brother Dan and sister-in-law Joyce and to the National Zoo with my mother. What follows is a trip report, minus the turkey.
National Museum of the American Indian
The inside of the museum, looking down into the
atrium from the second floor balcony.
You can see part of the
longboat exhibit to the right.
One of the newest Smithsonian museums on the National Mall is the National Museum of the American Indian. Located next to the Air and Space Museum, it opened in September 2004 and still feels new and wonderful. The building itself is graceful yet powerful, with no right angles. PDF brochure From the outside, the waves of adobe-colored concrete look like the museum is built into a hillside. Through the doors, the massive conical atrium feels like the inside of a bark teepee. Ducks swim in the moving water on the mall side of the grounds. There are several movie theaters; we saw a terrific movie in the Main Theater that spanned Native American culture from New York City to Peru to Barrow Alaska. An elevator takes you to the 4th floor and you wander the trail of exhibits down. We only had time to fully explore part of the top floor. "Our Universes focuses on Native cosmology--the worldviews and philosophies related to the creation and order of the universe--and the spiritual relationship between mankind and the natural world." A series of exhibition spaces shows and tells the origin myths and everyday spirituality in the lives of several tribes in the Americas. It's all too easy to lump "Indians" together when, in fact, dozens of unrelated tribes over two continents had very different worldviews and lifestyles.
Much of the Native American culture was destroyed or irreparably altered by the coming --and staying -- of the Europeans after Columbus. "Our Peoples explores events that shaped the lives and outlook of Native peoples from 1491 to the present." Calmly but not dispassionately, the exhibit takes you through disease, famine, slaughter and genocide brought by the Europeans, and how this affected life for the survivors. On the flip side, the exhibit brags about the food and other products brought from the now-named Americas to Europe and beyond, and their continuing effect. Tobacco, corn, chocolate, gold and much more.
I've reviewed lots of restaurants in my time, but I've never reviewed a cafeteria before. The Mitsitam Café is the only restaurant I've visited with a docent. As wewere at the head of the long line, next to enter, a museum employee carefully described the five food stations representing five different tribes from five areas of two continents. Don't just pick the first thing you see, he said, but explore first. All the stations have main dishes, sides, soups, etc. Once inside, I could see that it wasn't a typical slide-your-tray-down-the-line place. The food itself wasn't terrific, but it was good and inexpensive (for a tourist place in a museum). The three of us couldn't resist and sampled dishes from all over, including buffalo burgers, venison, purple potatoes, seafood soup, pumpkin pie and sassafras tea. I'm not sure how pure they were trying to be, but I didn't see anything that wasn't originally from the New World.
Everyone we met was friendly and helpful. Sometimes moreso. With only a little prompting about her heritage, one of the cafeteria workers launched into a history of her immediate ancestry. Dolores Palmer is part "Blackfeet. Not Blackfoot. Neither of our ankles were ever in chains. We were never slaves". It seemed most of the museum employees were native Americans, and proud of their work. An amazing place.
Outside window to the right: pool and waterfall,
with ducks.
The National Zoo
The National Zoo, also run by the Smithsonian, is a treasure. It's free and extensive. I've gone to the zoo several times, and I still haven't seen everything. Perhaps their most famous animals are the giant pandas. The pandas have a large area in which to roam around, and an inside exhibit details much of their life, habitat and eating preferences. When we were there, one of the pandas, presumably the lighter female Mei Xiang, was comfortable resting in the crook of a tall tree, dozens of feet above the ground. Panda cam
Baron
Dave poses while a giant panda rests waaay up in a tree
the
panda is the small black-and-white animal near the middle of the top
left quadrant
The Bird House is also always worth a visit. Outside, several pools of water host ducks and flamencos in a comfortable space. The ground floor has a several large spaces for various interesting birds. Exhibits include an extensive listing and map of extinct species. In the middle of the building is a large wooded atrium where the birds fly free and you can see them with no barriers. You're visiting their habitat.
The Textile Museum
I've never quite understood the high technology of weaving despite hands-on exhibits in places like The Textile Museum. It's a small place, but interesting. At the entrance to the museum, you can pick up magnifying glasses. No touching! But you're encouraged to look closely.
The current exhibit is on the fabric of the Chin people, from Western Myanmar/northeastern India/eastern Bangladesh. Many examples of fabrics, ranging from the ceremonial to the status dress are on display, with descriptions of weaving technique. The Chin are an ethnic minority of two million, and the examples are recent. It's a part of the world I don't usually get a look at. Upstairs is a small display of 18th Century Persian carpet fragments and an Activity Gallery.
I went with my mother, who is much more into the subject, and it was fun to watch a real maven's eyes light up. The gift shop is small but compact. The Textile Museum just a few houses away from The Woodrow Wilson House, where the former president spent the last three years of his life. We didn't have a chance to duck into it, but the whole area looks ripe for exploration.
Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do
Meanwhile, my brother Joseph Romm has a book coming out in January. Look for it. Order your copy now. You'll hear a lot more about it in the coming months. Hell and High Water is a major examination of the most important issue of our lifetime. I talked to him about the book, and will make a podcast of our conversation closer to the release date.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Same-sex marriage bill to be reintroduced in California (advocate.com)
A bill to legalize same-sex marriage in California, which was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, will be reintroduced on Monday by openly gay assemblyman Mark Leno. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, sponsored by the gay rights group Equality California, would allow same-sex couples to obtain a marriage license from their county clerk.
Daphne Evitar: Keith Olbermann Proves That Dissent Has An Audience (The Nation; Posted AlterNet.org)
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has become the first cable news host in years to tell it like it is, and his soaring ratings prove the American public does have a taste for real news and honest dissent.
Kim Ficera: Don't Quote Me: Perez Hilton (afterellen.com)
The gay blogger who outs celebrities is giving gays a bad name.
Shauna Swartz: We Love Lucy (afterellen.com)
Her screen credits are many, but Lucy Lawless captured worldwide notoriety - and many a queer girl's heart - with one role in particular: her six-year stint in the title role of Xena: Warrior Princess. There is even a dwarf planet that was temporarily named for the character, with an orbiting moon named for her sidekick, Gabrielle. (Sadly, the name of the planet has since been changed to Eris.)
Christine Champagne: Daytime Television's Newest Queer Character (out.com)
All My Children has gone out on a limb before to break ground in the depictions of gay and lesbian characters. In 1982, the show introduced viewers to Dr. Lynn Carlson (Donna Pescow), the first lesbian character on a soap. In 1995, teacher Michael Delaney (Chris Bruno) was the first established recurring gay character featured on a soap, and in 2003, Eden and Lena (Olga Sosnovska) shared the first lesbian kiss seen on daytime.
James Hillis: Gay People of Faith Come Out of the Closet (afterelton.com)
Gay Christians, lesbian Muslims, queer Jews and bisexual Buddhists have always been here. But now, gay people of faith are finally stepping out of the shadows and into the media spotlight. "It was that right moment in time," evangelical minister and gay activist Mel White says, "when finally someone could lift up the fact that God created and loved us just as we are, and the church should be damned for saying otherwise."
Gay Christian Ministry (truthsetsfree.net)
Free Download: The Bible, Christianity, & Homosexuality by Justin R. Cannon (truthsetsfree.net)
Edward Fays: 'Mister, Why Are You So Wrinkled?' (beliefnet.com)
An elderly man explains to a young boy that sometimes signs of aging are signs of a life well-lived.
Clickable Advent Calendar (beliefnet.com)
Reader Comment & Suggestion
Re: Whale Songs
Marty
Several years ago Paul Winter was in Pgh for a concert and introduced and included some "Songs of the Humpback Whale", recorded by Dr. Roger Payne. These songs were recorded while he was asslciated with the New York Zoological Society. They are a wonderful collection of 'songs' and I feel very fortunate to have purchased a tape at the time.
All of my grandchildren have been "forced" to listen to the tape when going somewhere in the car with me, and have come to love the songs as much as I do.
I found 2 samples on the net at:
www.ourmedia.org/node/38297
and
www.ourmedia.org/node/38300
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
Hubert's Poetry Corner
BRITNEY SPEARS SINGLE STARE
JUST TOO MUCH OF A FORMERLY GOOD 'THANG'?
Reader Question
What's going on?
Last night, the bottom part of your page (say the last 1/3) never loaded. Tonight, the page cuts off right after the TV listings. What's going on??? I miss the rest of the stories and links you always have!!!!
Linda >^..^<
Thanks, Linda!
I'm not doing anything different, but the ways of the web are still a mystery to me.
Have you tried popping your 'F5' key a couple of times?
Any suggestions out there?
Purple Gene Reviews
'Boxcar Bertha'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, dry and windy. The humidity was all of 5%!
Washington Hosts Hollywood
Kennedy Honors
Washington's elite mingled with artistic icons at the Kennedy Center Honors on Saturday, paying tribute to five people for their lifetime contributions to the arts and American culture.
At a dinner for 250 hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, even many familiar Washington heads were turning as the 29th annual honors were awarded to movie mogul Steven Spielberg, country singer Dolly Parton, musical theater composer and stage producer Andrew Lloyd Webber, conductor Zubin Mehta and singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson.
Spielberg, a well-known political foe of the current administration, emphasized the nonpolitical nature of the event a day before he and the other honorees are expected to meet resident George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, at the White House. Spielberg said such disagreements would "remain in suspended animation for 48 hours."
Kennedy Honors
Campaigns For Civics Curriculum
Richard Dreyfuss
"The teaching of civics presently in the United States is dismal and startling," Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
Dreyfuss is launching a campaign to develop a civics curriculum for the nation's schools.
"It is time that we revive the notion that we can learn how to run the country and learn, not, you know, for Republicans and not for Democrats, but learn how to run the Constitution," he said.
Richard Dreyfuss
Lends Name To Children's Books
Muhammad Ali
A new classroom collection of children's books bearing Muhammad Ali's name is intended to help motivate and empower young students, particularly boys, to overcome a different kind of obstacle to becoming accomplished readers: disinterest.
Scholastic Corp.'s "Muhammad Ali Presents Go the Distance" features books that champion Ali's values and are aimed at socially disadvantaged students in grades 3-8 who believe neither reading nor education is relevant to their lives, says Lonnie Ali, the boxing legend's wife.
"The foundation of all education is reading," she says. "Books can take a child outside of his immediate vicinity, his immediate environment, to someplace else. It makes them learn about other communities outside of their immediate neighborhoods. That's one of the things this particular library has been designed to do: to take children on that next journey out."
Muhammad Ali
Fights Church Effort to Hide Museum's Fossils
Richard Leakey
Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors.
He told The Daily Telegraph (London): "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind. The collection it holds is one of Kenya's very few global claims to fame and it must be forthright in defending its right to be at the forefront of this branch of science." Leakey was for years director of the museum and of Kenya's entire museum system.
"The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact," said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, head of the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya, the Christ is the Answer Ministries.
Richard Leakey
Wants 'To Build A New Haiti'
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean called on his Haitian countrymen to reject violence and work for a stable future during a free concert aimed at promoting development in the impoverished nation.
"It's time to build a new Haiti," the Grammy-winning artist told more than 20,000 cheering fans Friday night at the waterfront pier of this resort town. It was his first concert in Haiti in eight years.
The concert capped off a weeklong film and culture festival organized by Jean's Yele Haiti charity, which promotes music and the arts as a way to reduce poverty, create jobs and improve Haiti's image.
Wyclef Jean
Jazz Guitarist Celebrated In LA
Kenny Burrell
Helped by four big bands, eight guitarists, four saxophonists, five pianists and four vocalists, the University of California at Los Angeles threw a four-hour birthday tribute Saturday for one of its professors, jazz guitar great Kenny Burrell.
Burrell, a master of bebop guitar who played with Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Benny Goodman, turned 75 last month and the party was an acknowledgment both of his music and his pioneering teaching of jazz studies at UCLA.
The guitarist has been an influential player ever since making his first album in 1951. Jimi Hendrix once said that Burrell has the sound he wanted and Duke Ellington called him the best guitarist he knew.
Kenny Burrell
War Widow Dedicates Wiccan Plaque
Roberta Stewart
The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan saw a Wiccan symbol placed on a memorial plaque for her husband Saturday, after fighting the federal government for more than a year over the emblem.
Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, and Wiccan leaders said it was the first government-issued memorial plaque with a Wiccan pentacle - a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle. More than 50 friends and family dedicated the plaque at Northern Nevada Veterans Cemetery, about 30 miles east of Reno.
They praised Gov. Kenny Guinn for his role in getting the Nevada Office of Veterans Services to issue the plaque in September. The agency cited its jurisdiction over maintenance of the state cemetery.
Roberta Stewart
SUV Crash
Lane Garrison
A sport utility vehicle carrying Lane Garrison of TV's "Prison Break" and three teenagers struck a tree, killing a 17-year-old boy, police said.
Two 15-year-old girls inside the vehicle were also injured, one critically, during the late Saturday night accident, police said. Garrison, 26, had minor injuries.
The vehicle jumped a curb and hit a tree. Authorities were trying to determine who drove the SUV, which was registered to Garrison.
Lane Garrison
Heckuva Job, Brownie
Katrina Victim
Workers demolishing damaged houses found a body thought to be that of a Hurricane Katrina victim, authorities said.
The body, believed to be an adult, was found Wednesday night in a yard in the devastated Lower 9th Ward, Orleans Parish chief coroner's investigator John Gagliano said. Its gender and identity are unknown.
It could be the 28th Katrina body found in New Orleans since March, when a federal mortuary service shut down and turned the collection of bodies over to the coroner's office. The last body was discovered July 31, bringing the death toll from Katrina to 1,697.
Gagliano also said coroner's officials found houses in that neighborhood that did not appear ever to have been entered since the Aug. 29, 2005, storm flooded the neighborhood, and that volunteers from several city agencies will search those areas.
Katrina Victim
Pastor Behind Worldwide Racket
Shark Smuggling
A British pastor of the Moonies church faces jail for masterminding a world-wide shark poaching and smuggling racket.
Kevin Thompson, 48, from Jarrow, near Newcastle, now based at the Unification church in San Leandro, California, is one of six men arrested for taking, then selling, thousands of undersized leopard sharks.
Investigators say that, at first, Thompson used his church's boat to take teenagers on fishing trips. But then he learned there was a market for the sharks and, in 10 years, netted more than $1m (£505,000).
Shark Smuggling
Council for Animal Ethics
Denmark
Denmark's Council for Animal Ethics said on Thursday there was no need to ban sex with animals unless it took place in pornographic films or sex shows.
Only one of the 10 members of the council, set up by the Danish Justice Ministry to establish and uphold animal ethics, wants bestiality expressly forbidden.
A senior member of the right wing Danish People's Party was shocked by the recommendation and said the subject should be put to a referendum.
Denmark
Distributor Fights Maine Over Label
Santa's Butt Winter Porter
A beer distributor says Maine is being a Scrooge by barring it from selling a beer with a label depicting Santa Claus enjoying a pint of brew.
In a complaint filed in federal court, Shelton Brothers accuses the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement of censorship for denying applications for labels for Santa's Butt Winter Porter and two other beers it wants to sell in Maine.
But the state says it's within its rights. The label with Santa might appeal to children, said Maine State Police Lt. Patrick Fleming. The other two labels are considered inappropriate because they show bare-breasted women.
Santa's Butt Winter Porter
Thanks, Fred!
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
