Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 4

This fellow was jumping for joy when he heard the Washington Mystics got a story in the Washington Post/Photo by Patricia Leslie

All right, already. 

So the Washington Post ran a story June 30, 2014 with the headline at the top of the page (D3), "Misfiring Mystics lose eighth in past 11."  

You think the Mystics would get that much coverage if they won a game?

No, sista.  You've got to be kidding.  They lost to the San Antonio Stars, 73-65.

But it was a story.

A story. 

A miracle on page D3.

Hold on.

Whatsis?

You think the editors used a picture of the Washington Mystics in a story about the Washington Mystics? 

This bears repeating:  
You think the editors used a picture of the Washington Mystics in a story about the Washington Mystics?

That makes sense, no?

Yes.

You think? 

You think.

 God forbid, WAPO would send a photographer to a Mystics' game. I don't suppose the wire services shot any photos of the Mystics' game and that is why WAPO used a picture of, instead and hold on, the "Liberty." Who's that?  Dunno.  Never identified.  New York or Connecticut?

Oh, come on.  Not really.

Really.
Now, just imagine this: 

A newspaper story of the Whatevertheskins' game and no picture of the Skins!  But juxtaposed (rhymes with "panty hose") with the story is a picture of the Dallas Cowboys playing another team! 

No Whatsisskins! 

No hometown team pictured anywhere!

You've got to be kidding.

Or, a story (one of four on the same day) about the Nationals and all you see are tomahawks and Atlanta Braves! 

Or, how about 16 stories (the same day) about Bryce Harper and nothing but pictures of Justin Upton?

Come on! No way!

I tell you, it's the truth.

You think?

I am going to write my favorite legislator and propose Title IX for the newspaper once the newspaper almost goes defunct and has to accept a federal bail-out. 

Hey!  GM got one.  Why not WAPO?  A newspaper run by the government.  Richard Nixon was right, all along.

Next up for the Mystics:

July 2, 7 p.m. v. Indiana Fever at Verizon

Read:  Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 1

Read:  Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 2

 

Read:  Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 3

 

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 3

Washington Mystics coach Mike Thibault seems to cry "Help!" for media coverage/Photo by Patricia Leslie

If you thought you might get some pre-game coverage in the Washington Post about today's Mystics game v. the San Antonio Stars at Verizon, you found out you were wrong.

Nothing.

Well, excuuuuusssse me, a single line of 8 point type in the right corner on page D10 is not coverage? 

"San Antonio at Washington, 4"

"4" as in 4 p.m. 

As on the bottom of the last sports page.

The only female in today's sports section was Serena Williams and her defeat at Wimbledon.

Why bother subscribing to WAPO? 

News about local women in sports? 

Local female teams?  

Getoutahere.

If the Washington Mystics had any friends at the Washington Post, the stands might be a little fuller/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

Help, I need somebody
Help, not just anybody
Help, you know, I need someone
Help

When I was coachin', so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured
Now I find, I've changed my mind, we don't want to be ignored

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate your comin' round
Help me get our team back on the ground
Won't you, please, please help me?

And now our lives have changed in, oh, so many ways
Our winning team never makes it to the page
But every day and some we feel so ignored

I know that you can help us like you've never done before

 

Help us if you can, we're feeling down

And we do appreciate your bein' round

Help us bring the fans back on down town

Won't you please, please help us

Help us

Help us

Whoooooooo.....

 

 

Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 1

 

Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 2

 

Next up for the Mystics:

 

Wednesday, July 2, 7 p.m. v. Indiana Fever at Verizon

Patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Modern German art show ends today at National Gallery of Art

Ernest Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Self-Portrait, 1928, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

 

Anyone with a slightest interest in modern art will not want to miss the exhibition of German prints and drawings from the collection of Ruth Cole Kainen which closes June 29 at the National Gallery of Art. 

Ernest Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Head of Dr. Bauer, 1933, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Spanning the years from the 18th and 19th centuries to the 1960s and 70s, the prints reveal the traumatic changes and turbulence in Germany and the effects upon its artists. In her bequest of 2012, Mrs. Kainen (1922-2009) gave the National Gallery almost 800 works of art.

In the 1960s she started her German collection which begins with the 15th century, and it was conversation about one of the artists, Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, according to her obituary in the Washington Post on September 26, 2009, which introduced her to her future husband, Jacob Kainen(1909-2001).  Mr. Kainen was also an artist and internationally known curator who helped build and manage the print collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

Mrs. Kainen, a native of Rosboro, Arkansas, served in the Navy WAVES during World War II.  In 1958 she arrived in Washington to work as a fundraiser for the National Symphony Orchestra.

Lea Grundig (1906-1977), Unterm Hakenkreuz: Gestapo im Haus, 1934 (Under the Swastika:  Gestapo in the House),  Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The current presentation, one of three devoted to the Kainens' gifts of almost 1,300 art works to the National Gallery, links the past with the present, Germany Romanticism with impressionism with German expressionism, said Earl A. Powell, III, the Gallery's director. 

Emil Nolde (1867-1907), Alice, 1907, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Prominence is given to prints and drawings by Ernest Ludwig Kirchner(1880-1938), Egan Schiele (1890-1918), Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948),Walter Gramatte (1897-1929), Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966) and Wilhem Morgner (1891-1917).

Johann August Nahl (1710-1785), The Tomb of Madame Langhans, 1750s,  Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Andrew Robison, the National Gallery's Andrew W. Mellon senior curator of prints and drawings who curated the show, said he traveled the world to find the best Kirchners which were only a few miles away, at the Kainens'. 

What: Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection

When: Ends Sunday, June 29, 2014 when the National Gallery is open 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where: Ground Floor, West Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Where are the Washington Mystics? Part 2

With a little help from their friends at the Washington Post, the Mystics might be able to fill more seats at home games at Verizon Center/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Mystics are not to be found in a prominent position among the sports pages of the Washington Post,* that's for sure. 

The day after the team won its first game in five starts, when players beat the Stars 81-70 in San Antonio, all the team could muster in WAPO's sports pages was a lowly left corner of 179 words (including the title) alongside a hockey capsule (June 25, 2014, p. D2).

On the front sports page were color photos of Tiger Woods and Lebron James, the latter which took up almost half the page.  I thought the NBA season had ended.  Does James play for the Wizards?  Is he joining the team?  On page D3 was another picture of Woods. I guess when it comes to sports, all that counts are men.

Those editors think only men read sports? 

What kind of message does this send to budding female athletes?

The only photo of a female in the section was a young girl holding a sign, "Welcome back, Tiger."  Whew.  Looks like the sports sex discrimination at WAPO will continue long past my lifetime, alas.

* This version is not what appeared in the print edition.

Next up for the Mystics:

June 27, 7 p.m. v. Connecticut Sun, Verizon Center

June 29, 4 p.m. v. San Antonio Stars, Verizon Center

Part 1 of "Where are the Washington Mystics?" is right here.

Last September at Verizon when the Mystics played the Connecticut Sun/Photo by Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

Phillips' masterworks all 'Made in the USA'

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Sunday, 1926, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

One of the biggest and best of any show I can recall at the Phillips is on display through August 31 which presents 125 artists, 120 years (1850-1970) and 200+ paintings that have just returned "home" from a four year "world tour" seen by 300,000 people.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Washington Arch, Spring, 1890, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  In 1966 Duncan Phillips donated one of his Childe Hassam's to an auction benefitting the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Duncan Phillips (1886-1966), the founder of the Phillips Collection, personally knew many of the artists whose pieces he selected for inclusion in his museum, many "on the verge" before their creations were recognized as the masterpieces they have become and which now hang on three floors in Made in the U.S.A.

Isabel Bishop (1902-1988), Lunch Counter, 1940, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Phillips insisted that his showcase, "America's first museum of modern art," become "a champion for America's own artists," and from its opening in 1921, its reputation and collection have grown to fulfill his dream, demonstrated by this stunning display. 

Guy Pene de Bois (1884-1958), The Arrivals, 1918 or early 1919, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Mixed in with the names of familiar artists in the array are lesser knowns, too: Doris Lee, Marjorie Acker Phillips, David Hare, and Morris Louis join Rockwell Kent, Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, Georgia O'Keeffe, Max Weber, George Inness, Robert Henri,  Grandma Moses, Anne Goldthwaite, Robert Motherwell, and Sam Gilliam, to name some whose works hang in the show in chronological order according to 12 themes.

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), Miss Amelia Van Buren, c. 1891, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  Because of his insistence on working with nude models, Mr. Eakins was forced to resign from the Pennsylvania Academy.  The Art Institute of Chicago rejected Miss Amelia Van Buren because it was considered "too realistic" for the public.  When hearing this, Duncan Phillips rushed to acquire it from the owner, Amelia Van Buren.

It's the biggest presentation the Phillips has mounted in almost 40 years, well worth a visit(s) long before it closes.  You know how treacherous these big shows can be at the end, with everyone elbowing, pushing and blocking views.  (And please call for rescue should you want to stand back and have a look.)

Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Still Music, 1948, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

You may want to go on a day or evening of a related event.  (Please read below.*)

The exhibition has so much to see and think about, from jazz, to portraits, oblique, abstract, modern, realism, and maybe you are a romantic?

George Bellows (1882-1925), Emma at the Window, 1920, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  Between 1911 and 1924, Mr. Bellows painted 11 portraits of his wife, Emma.

Seeing the art may make you smarter, too. 

An article in last week's Wall Street Journal proves what many of us already know: "Our Brains Are Made for Enjoying Art."  The story describes research conducted by the University of Toronto which documents brain activity and the benefits humans obtain from viewing art.  So, in addition to practical enjoyment from viewing the paintings, you may be able to stave off Alzheimer's disease.  Which might be considered a brain stretch, but, why not?  Just another reason to go and take pleasure.

Seymour Lipton (1903-1986), Ancestor, 1958, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  Mr. Lipton originally trained as a dentist.  On the wall to the left of Ancestor is a portion of The Seer, 1950, by Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974), The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

An interactive program, "uCurate," is included in the show (and can be activated from your home by accessing the Phillips' website) which permits guests to design their own art galleries using three touch screens and pieces from the presentation.

Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981), Abstraction, 1940, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  This and another one by Mr. Bolotowsky, who was a native of St. Petersburg, Russia and a founding member of American Abstract Artists, were the first to enter a museum. 

I can't wait to get back to set my brain aglow all over again.  There, I think I have well said enough.  It is, indeed, difficult to contain my enthusiasm.  

Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Blue Cafe, 1928, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

A catalogue of almost 300 pages is available for purchase in the shop and online. Major sponsors are Altria and the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts.

Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), Plumes, 1931, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  The first Kuhn solo show in Washington was at the Phillips.  Mr. Kuhn was a co-organizer of the 1913 Armory Show.

 

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), Burial of a Young Man, c. 1908-11, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Duncan Phillips purchased this in 1918 amidst the tragedies of World War I and the death of his brother from influenza in the same year.

John Sloan (1871-1951), Clown Making Up, 1910, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. This is the first Sloan painting to enter a museum.

 

*Related tours, talks, performances, and musical events include: 

Sold out: June 26, 5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. performance of the New York Idea by the Picnic Theatre Company (Fee.  Reservations required.)

June 26, 6 and 7 p.m. "Spotlight Tours" of the exhibition.  Included in exhibition admission price.

June 29, 11 a.m. Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, Wikimedia, D.C. Bring your laptop and become a writer about the show's artists for Wikipedia!  Free but registration is required.

Every Sunday at noon a tour of the exhibition with a docent (Included in the exhibition admission price.)

July 3, 5 - 8:30 p.m. Phillips After 5, "Happy Birthday America" with music by Charlie Sayles, Tony Fazio, and the Blues Disciples, gallery talks and make your own postcard art activities. Reservations highly recommended except for members who are always admitted without charge. (Fee for others.)

July 10, 6:30 p.m. Isadora Duncan Dance by the Word Dance Theatre (Fee. Reservations required.)

July 24, 6:30 p.m. Lecture by Elizabeth Hutton Turner, professor of modern art at the University of Virginia, "Reinventing Space:  Calder, Davis, and Graham." (Included in the exhibition admission price.  Free for members.)

July 31, 6:30 p.m. Vocal Colors:  A Musical Exploration of Visual Art with soprano Melinda Whittington and mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule of the Wolf Trap Opera Company  presented in collaboration with the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts (Fee. Reservations required.)

August 7, 5 - 8:30 p.m. Phillips After 5.  American Bounty.  Gallery talks and sample classic American cuisine "through a moveable feast of food trucks." (?  Call for more information and to make highly recommended reservations, 202-387-2151. Fee except for members, no charge.)

August 14, 6:30 p.m. Lecture by Sally Pemberton about her grandfather, Murdock Pemberton (1888 - 1982), the first art critic for the New Yorker who said Mr. Murdock "may be the most interesting person you've never heard of."  He wrote often about the development of American modernism, and Ms. Pemberton has written a book about him, Portrait of Murdock Pemberton.

August 14, 21, and 28, 6 and 7 p.m. "Spotlight Tours" of the exhibition.  Included in exhibition admission price.

What: Made in the U.S.A.: American Masters from the Phillips Collection, 1850 - 1970

When: Now through August 31, 2014. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. with extended hours on Thursdays until 8:30 p.m., and Sundays, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Closed on July 4.

Where: The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St., N.W. at Q St., Washington, D.C. 20009

Tickets: $12, $10 for students and those over 62, free for members and for children 18 and under.

The Phillips is a Blue Star Museum, offering free admission for all active duty military personnel and their families through Labor Day.

Metro Station: Dupont Circle (Q Street exit. Turn left and walk one block.)

For more information: 202-387-2151

Patricialesli@gmail.com
 

Book review: Love & War by Mary Matalin and James Carville

Mary Matalin, I almost liked you.

The three reasons why IMO the James Carville and Mary Matalin book, Love & War*, did no better than #14 for one week on the New York Times'  best seller list are:

1.  The cover
2.  The title
3.  Dick Cheney

A better cover would have pictured the authors in a New Orleans park with Mary Matalin sitting in a white ladder-backed chair wearing "Southern," and James standing nearby, in a hat and seersucker, sucking on a piece of grass, you know, "Southern" with the trees dripping Spanish moss which I think still grows in Noirrraaarrrrrlins, unless the Yankee pollution has killed it off.

As the cover looks now, they could be two old folks sitting on the porch of a nursing home with that pink thing in her hair which looks like one of those spongy rollers, the kind Condi Rice may wear. (?  It's in the book.) 

Who wants to read about two old people in a nursing home? One who talks nonstop about Dick Cheney?

Me neither.

The title is trite, dull, and rather common.  Another book by the same name, which is also about marriage, pops up first on Amazon. It was published in 2011.

And then there's still another Love and War, part of a trilogy of fiction about the Civil War which has sold a mere 5,000,000 copies.  

Whose title was this, anyway?  Anybody ever think about market research?

May I suggest for the second edition:  Sex and White House Ruins.  (That title is not taken.)  Something along that vein to grab the attention of a book buyer, even if it's not all about sex.  Doesn't have to be. (Readers: The Matalin/Carville book does have a chapter about their sex lives. (!))

Dick Cheney:   Oh, please and barf, Mary Matalin.  He makes up half the freakin' book!  With your sob stories, I had to keep a plastic bag beside me in the bed at night while I read.

Her adoration for him knows no bounds, and she expounded upon it ad nauseam. 

Are you kidding?

Dick Cheney the "comforter"? Oh get real, Mary Matalin.  A viper is more comforting than Dick Cheney.

The part about September 11 and its aftermath when she continues her glorification of the demon became insufferable, and I had to skip those pages and move on.

Anyway, I am just guessing Mary Matalin and James Carville didn't write the book; they "talked" the book, and their dear editor, Martha Sherrill, whom they credit at the end, transcribed and assembled all the jambalaya into one piece. 

She did a darn good job.  

The "writers"  alternate speaking roles, and Mary talks the most, too much.  Since I like the way James thinks, naturally his portions are more interesting to me.  He speaks rather matter-of-factly without all that philosophizing.  (I have seen them on stage together twice, and he "won" both times, likely because I wanted him to win.  I realize that.  What you wish for is what you get.)

The couple is (at times) painfully honest, in some cases, brutally so, which makes the book a lot better than otherwise.  Not much is screened.  Without inflecting criticism on most, they withhold personal attacks.   There is no index (new trend). They are whom you expect.

The reasons for their move to James's beloved New Orleans are spelled out along with their routines, etc.  (Please, do not get in the way of his daily run. When he is not running or reading print newspapers, he consults for foreign political campaigns, and after the book was published, joined Fox as a contributor.  She tends animals, among other things.)

The book makes it obvious that he loves her more than vice-versa since she would practically give him up for the Most Despised Person on the Planet (MDPOP) and even says so on page 184:  "...he just knew it would be a divorceable offense" [to directly attack Cheney]. 

I was horrified. Give up James for a snake?

When things get too ripe, James ceases arguing with her.  (The Iraq War and the 2000 presidential race are real hot topics in their household.  You think things might be heating up again?) 

Besides life in Noirlins, the description of the evolution of James's relationship with Barbara Bush is good, and so is the women's fitness regime at the White House during the aftermath of September 11, but, please, cease with the page after page of September 11.  ("I read so you don't have to." You may want to skip their September 11, and certainly all of Chapter 9, as if we didn't know their political philosophies.)

James says (a la the wizard, Bill Clinton) that an excellent way to win friends and influence enemies, is to always talk about your target's children and their grandchildren, endlessly.  You can never go wrong.  And if it worked with Barbara Bush who, it sounds like, considered James a snake of sorts.

I didn't buy the book.  Of course not.  I am more "dead broke" than Hillary and Bill were.  I got it at the Fairfax County Public Library, the best public library in the world bar none, and more proof about this book languishing on the shelves:  I was able to renew it every time I tried since no one had requested it, and it's only been out of the gate six months.  (The librarian told me that the library sometimes has waiting lists of longer than 1,000 for a new John Grisham. Yikers.  Glad I am not one of those readers.) 

Anyway, most political junkies will want to read this book themselves, no doubt, but they pretty much know the contents. 

* The subtitle:  Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home.   An interesting fact:  On the cover, her name comes first, but on the title page, it's his name which is first.

patricialesli@gmail.com




 

Where are the Washington Mystics?

 

Not pictured in today's Washington Post.

 

Coach Mike Thibault and the Washington Mystics get no help from the Washington Post/photo by Patricia Leslie

Under a surprisingly large headline (for women's sports: "Washington tops shorthanded Chicago"), what picture do you think WAPO used for the story?

You might expect a picture of the Mystics scoring.  A battle under the net.  (The final score: 79-68.)  A picture of the night's heroine, Emma Meesseman?

No, m'am, strike damn.  Get real.  That makes too much sense.  That would be logical, no?  To expect  a picture of the Mystics?  Or Coach Thibault or something... Mystics?  On top of that big story about a game the Mystics won.

Please.

Why, of course, WAPO used a photo of, of (sic and hold on) competitors (Connecticut and New York) playing in a game  at Madison Square Garden. 

That would be New York, right? 

Yes. 

That picture covered almost a third of the page. And the article about that game?  Give me two paragraphs and two paragraphs only. 

Oh, but that picture has a former Georgetown player in it. 

Big deal.  That was so last year.

I had to take several looks.  Whatsis?  It made no sense.  No picture of the Mystics?  What is going on?  They did play at Verizon, didn't they? 

Well, yes.

I suppose WAPO:

1.  Deems the Mystics too unimportant to show on the sports pages.  So it relies on the wire services for photos of...competitors?  Or...

2. Left the page in the hands of an 16-year-old intern (no pay).  Or...

3. Is so broke it has no money for wire service photos of the Mystics.  Or...

4. Was so captivated by the NHL and the World Cup it forgot about the rest of sports. 

5.  All of the above?

Hey, WAPO editors, it is 2014, not 1914. 

Next up for the Mystics:  Atlanta, Verizon, 4 p.m., Father's Day, June 15.   Take your camera.

patricialesli@gmail.com