Washington's July 4 music, art, and folklife

Singing with the Ozarks at the Smithonian Folklife Festival is a big hit/By Patricia Leslie

Hymnals are available to sing along with the Ozarks at the Smithonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

You may enjoy sidewalk music near the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

More sidewalk music at the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

If you get the hungries at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, prices are higher than expected, even while expecting top dollar! You're better off walking a few feet to the DC Chicken House food truck or the restaurant stand at the American History Museum to save a few bucks or bring your own!  Plenty of places to sit for a spell and eat up.  Plus, the beer is more than a $1 cheaper at the History stand in front of the museum/By Patricia Leslie

At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, this cost $29 including $10 for beer and $19 for barbecue with fat (taxes built in). Orders are not custom made, but sitting, waiting cold on the shelf which the attendant hands you after you've paid. 

Who asked for dollops of catsup? Not me!  But there you have it!/By Patricia Leslie

The nearby food truck, DC Chicken House, has much better food, and it's cooked to order! Not getting cold on the shelf. And half the price ($10) with a homemade sauce. Yummy!/By Patricia Leslie

The DC Chicken House Food Truck/By Patricia Leslie

Applause for recycling and composting at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

 

If you need a rest, the cool and calm National Gallery of Art is open 10 a.m. until 5 p.m, on July 4, too!/By Patricia Leslie

Or read a favorite book and rest at the National Gallery of Art, open on July 4/By Patricia Leslie

You may take a break near the Dante exhibition at the National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

Crowds are big at the Dante exhibition at the National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

At the Dante exhibition, National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

Down the hall from Dante in the newly refurbished gallery at the National Gallery of Art is Still Life with Flowers Surrounded by Insects and a Snail, 1610 by Clara Peeters, 1594-1640, Gallery 50A /By Patricia Leslie

And see Young Boy in Profile, c. 1630 by Judith Leyster, 1609-1660 in the same gallery (50A) at the National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

But the best is saved for last! Can you spot a young dancer in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art?/By Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

The 2008 Cowboy Census in D.C.

By the Queen of Free

Music, dancing, and fun galore at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall...

Never were there so many cowboy hats in one place in D.C.: 4.

The Washington stuffed shirts? Not there. And it's a good things, too, for this crowd was having too much fun to be slowed down by the likes of political sad sacks. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act? What? There's an election when?

At the Texas Dance Hall the audience was 95% tourist, all bedecked in their tourist apparel, dancing the evening away on Wednesday night to the likes of Texas musicians whoopin' it up big time.

Dance floor ages: six months to way beyond, all having a great time. Heads and feet of the chair sitters and those along the periphery, a bobbin’ in time with the blues music. The music crowd was bigger on Thursday night, but the dancin' music was not as inviting, what with Bhutan music, costumes, skeleton dances, and the talented, delightful Mariachi Los Arrieros to perform and play.

Kicking up those heels, guzzling beer (restricted to which areas?), listening to zydeco, the blues, all live, all entertainment. What more could a person ask? (Well, ahem, about those canned kidney beans, and, please, could we have limes next year with our Coronas?)

The thrill is not gone.