Free choral concert Oct. 7 opens St. John's First Wednesday series

The U.S. Army Chorus

The United States Army Chorus will usher in this season's First Wednesday Concert Series at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, at noontime Wednesday, October 7.

Formed in 1956 to accompany the U.S. Army Band, the U.S. Army Chorus regularly sings with the National Symphony Orchestra on Memorial Day, Independence Day, at other patriotic events, and for visiting heads of state. It performs with many symphonies across the U.S.

Also called "Pershing's Own," the chorus is one of the few professional male choruses in the nation, and its members speak more than 26 languages and dialects. Most of the singers hold advanced music degrees. 

In their repertoire are traditional military music, pop, Broadway, folk, and classical tunes. 

Next year the singers will celebrate their 60th anniversary with former members, many who have successfully transitioned to Broadway and opera stages around the world.

Accompanying the singers at St. John's will be organist and Staff Sergeant Dan Campolieta. Captain Curtis Kinzey will direct.

St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

St. John's is known to many Washington residents as the yellow church at Lafayette Square, and often called the “Church of the Presidents.” Beginning with James Madison who was president from 1809 to 1817, every president has been a member of St. John's or has attended services at the church. A plaque at the rear of St. John's designates the pew where President Abraham Lincoln often sat when he stopped by the church during the Civil War.  

Last weekend St. John's began a year of celebration in honor of its bicentennial.

First Wednesday concerts begin at 12:10 p.m. and last about 35 minutes. Food trucks are located at Farragut Square, two blocks away, for those on lunch break.

Who: The U.S. Army Chorus

What: First Wednesday Concerts

When: 12:10 p.m., October 7, 2015

Where: St. John’s, Lafayette Square, 1525 H Street, NW, at the corner of 16^th, Washington, D.C. 20005

How much: No charge

Duration: About 35 minutes

Wheelchair accessible

Metro stations: McPherson Square (White House exit), Farragut North, or Farragut West 

For more information: Contact Michael Lodico, St. John's associate organist and choir director, at 202-270-6265.

Future dates and artists of the First Wednesday Concerts are:

November 4: Saxophonist Noah Getz and organist Michael Lodico will present Esprit de la Lune by Andrian Pertout.

December 2: Madrigal Singers from St. Albans & National Cathedral schools will sing seasonal music.

January 6, 2016: Concert organist Janet Yieh will play works by Brahms and Widor.

February 3: Bob McDonald and Friends will sing to celebrate the crooner's centennial in "Sinatra Turns 100."
 
March 2: The Lafayette Square Duo composed of Rebecca Smith on harp and Michael Lodico on organ will play a composition by Peter Mathews. 

April 6: Soloists from St. John's Choir will sing.

May 4: The U.S. Air Force Strings Chamber Orchestra with harpsichordist Brandon Straub will play Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.

June 1: Concert organist Roderick Demmings, Jr., will play virtuosic works by Bach, Wammes, and Widor.

patricialesli@gmail.com
 

The last 'Rainy Day' in Washington at the National Gallery of Art

Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877, The Art Institute of Chicago.  This work anchored the exhibition at the National Gallery of Art.

Dear Readers, I regret to inform you that I am late posting about this magnificent show ending today at the National Gallery of Art, and I can only hope this brief description will provide a glimpse of the French artist, Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)  the man who would be lawyer,  engineer, collector,  feminist, and an Impressionist realist artist himself whose works increase in stature, interest,  and reputation with every passing year. 

Fifty of Caillebotte's paintings prove it in The Painter's Eye.

Family money allowed Caillebotte to collect art, and that he did, at a time when Impressionism was in its infancy and still quite controversial.  He bought art by Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas, Manet, and Cezanne, among others, and gave many to museums and to the French government which vetoed some of his gifts.  (Years later, when the government came calling, Caillebotte's sister-in-law refused to give the government the art pieces it had initially rejected.)

Caillebotte did not need to sell his own works to eat, and he seldom marketed his paintings.

Gustave Caillebotte, Luncheon, 1876, Private Collection.  

Caillebotte drew Luncheon not long after his father died.  The viewer becomes a guest at the table where Caillebotte's younger brother, Rene, dives into his food, not waiting on the butler to finish serving his mother.  A year later, Rene was dead at age 25 which led Gustave to write his will early, including disposition of his art collection.

Gustave Caillebotte, Self Portrait, 1888-1889, Private Collection

Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers, 1875,

Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Gift of Caillebotte's heirs through the intermediary of Auguste Renoir, 1894

The Floor Scrapers, a scene the painter may have drawn from his own studio and considered Caillebotte's first masterpiece, was rejected by the Paris art establishment in 1875 because the workers were considered "vulgar," and not acceptable as representatives in art of the working class.  Only peasants and farmers were sanctioned.

Gustave Caillebotte, Man on a Balcony, Boulevard Haussmann, 1880, Private Collection.  In 2000 this sold for more than $14.3 million.

Gustave Caillebotte, Interior, Woman at the Window, 1880,  Private Collection 

I like to think of Mr. Caillebotte as a feminist.  Compare Man on a Balcony with Interior, Woman at the Window.  Note the man's cavalier stance, his debonair position of strength and confidence as he gazes out upon the Paris scene below.  "Harrumph," he seems to complain:  "What manner goes here?  I do not know if I approve." Perhaps there are too many floor scrapers idling at lunch, 

Meanwhile, in contrast is the woman, above, in funereal garb, standing in her "cage," the railing which is much higher than the man's, mind adrift, thinking, perhaps, "what if?" while looking out beyond to the figure in the window across the way.  Adjacent there in the chair is her keeper and bored husband:  "Shhhh!  Can't you see I am reading?" his position suggests.

The Gallery wall label says these two paintings may have been a pair. 

Gustave Caillebotte, Interior, a Woman Reading, 1880, Private Collection 

And what in the world do you make of this little shrimp of a man lying on the sofa, about half the size of the woman in the chair?  He reminds me of The Incredible Shrinking Man, and maybe that's what he is to his mate.  The same couple pictured in Interior, Woman at the Window (above)? As the length of their relationship grows, his importance diminishes.

Gustave Caillebotte, The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1883, Private Collection

Gustave Caillebotte, The Fields, a Plain in Gennevilliers, Study in Yellow and Green, 1884, Collection of Frederic C. Hamilton, Bequest to the Denver Art Museum

You see what you missed!  

Alas, not all is lost, however, since a fine catalog, Gustave Caillebotte:  A Painter's Eye of almost 300 pages is available, and you may wish to see the show at

the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth where it opens November 8 through February 14, 2016.  The Kimbell and the National Gallery co-organized the exhibition.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Pictures of a thousand thoughts close today at the National Gallery of Art

Andrew Moore (b. 1957), Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana, 2008, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Before it closes today, a photography show at the National Gallery of Art certainly makes a visit worthwhile to see the second of three celebratory exhibitions of the 25th anniversary of the Gallery's vast photograph collection, this one entitled The Memory of Time:  Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art.

If it is peace and solace you may be seeking, however, this is likely not a good place to drop in since the renderings will leave you anything but calm. Many of the photographs will engage your mind in a tumultuous way, especially two by Andrew Moore (b. 1957): Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana, 2008, and Model T Headquarters, Highland Park, Michigan, 2009.
 
Palace Theater, a large color picture, is a haunted house, the den of the Phantom of the Opera, a graveyard of old pieces which I loved for its magical effects and the ability to lose myself in what was.   

It is full of objects and stimulation, and once you see the photograph, it shall not be  forgotten.

Moore's works described in the exhibition's catalogue are photographs of "places which have undergone accelerated cycles of growth and decay, transfigured less by the slow march of time than by sudden catastrophe  or cataclysmic change."  

The son of an architect, Moore studied photography at Princeton and spent thirty years taking pictures of buildings which have seen their uses change, their facades decay and, in some cases, disappear, like a tree in the forest which eventually withers, bends, and dies. Like an old person in a nursing home with no one to attend to her, sitting, waiting to totally collapse into a heap of death. But those are living things and buildings are not.  Or, are they?

To see the Palace Theatre in its last state, one of decay and ruin, one can easily imagine the grandeur and beauty it claimed when it served Gary as a center of activity and performance, color, and vitality.  The "before and after."  The theater was built in 1925 for vaudeville acts, then it became a theatre, and now...What is it now?

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
   Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
   Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, 
   The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
   And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
   When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
   Times still succeed the former. 

Then be not coy, but use your time,
   And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
   You may forever tarry.

 Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Andrew Moore (b. 1957), Model T Headquarters, Highland Park, Michigan, 2009, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

And then there is Moore's Model T Headquarters, half consumed by a grassy green carpet where moisture and mildew odors seep through the picture, and almost ooze out onto the gallery floor, enough to practically smell the putrid odors.  The open door in the photograph leads to past human interaction, while isolation and loneliness are what remain. The curvy lines of the grass contrast with the lines of the door and the wall which mean...what?  In a previous life, I saw many empty scenes like this one in empty, vacant buildings.

In the exhibition are 76 photographs by 26 international artists, presented for the first time at the National Gallery of Art. Curators are the Gallery's Sarah Greenough and Andrea Nelson.  

We the people are grateful to the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund which made it possible for the National Gallery to acquire these photographs. 

The third and last exhibition of the photography series is Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art:  Recent Gifts, scheduled November 1, 2015 through March 27, 2016.  

The first was In Light of the Past: Twenty-Five Years of Photography at the National Gallery of Art which closed July 26, 2015.

What: The Memory of Time:  Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art

When: Sunday, September 13, 2015, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where: Ground Floor, West Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Seventh streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.  (Closest exhibition entrance is on Seventh Street.)

Admission: No charge

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

For more information: 202-737-4215 

patricialesli@gmail.com

Phillips' photo show ends this weekend

Louis Faurer, Broadway, New York, N.Y., between 1949 and 1950, printed later. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Gift of Jerri Mattare, 2013. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC 

Street scenes, modernism, and documentary works are among the 130 photographs by 33 artists which are on view through this weekend in American Moments: Photographs from The Phillips Collection.

It's a modern American history lesson told in pictures, capturing everyday people at work and play.

Louis Faurer, Times Square, New York, N.Y. [Woman with Umbrella], c. 1948. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Gift of Randy Kohls, 2013. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

 Esther Bubley, Girls Entertaining Their Guests, Card Room, Women’s Residence (Arlington, VA), 1943. Gelatin silver print, 10 3/8 x 10 3/8 in. Gift of Kenneth Polin, 2014. The Phillips Collection, 

 Washington, DC 

Some of the artists whose works are included are Harry Callahan, Paul Strand, Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Brett Weston, Edward Weston, Lewis Hine, William Christenberry, Bruce Davidson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Lee Friedlander.

They photographed more than just the bigger cities and New York.

 

Clarence John Laughlin, Grandeur and Decay No. 1, 1944. Gelatin silver print, 13 3/8 x 10 5/8 in. Acquired from the artist, 1945. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

 

Arnold Newman, Marcel Duchamp, 1942, printed later. Gelatin silver print, 20  x 16 in. Gift of Lisa Finn, 2012. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

Esther Bubley (1921-1998), a "people photographer," who, early in her career,  quickly abandoned a  job at Vogue because she didn't like it, traveled the world, taking pictures for Life magazine, Ladies Home Journal, and for the federal government's Office of War Information, among many employers.

She documented everyday scenes, and a series of her pictures at the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital led to her inclusion in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1952.

Two years later Bubley became the first woman to win first place in competition at Photography magazine, winning a trophy which featured a male photographer. 

Another woman included in the Phillips' display is Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), known for her stark black and white shots of New York City in the 1930s.  

Is it true that the works of most great artists stem from miserable childhoods?  

Ms. Abbott credited hers for her independence, self reliance, and determination, according to the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum where she was inducted in 2000.  The museum notes her achievements "are wider ranging that anyone else's in the history of American photography."  

The Phillips presents the exhibition "in celebration of recent major gifts," many on view for the first time at the museum.

What: American Moments:  Photographs from the Phillips Collection

When: Now through September 13, 2015, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., with extended hours on Thursday until 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, 12 - 7 p.m.


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.

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

For more information: 202-387-2151

Patricialesli@gmail.com

The Morgan Library and Museum is "must see" in NYC

A closed entrance at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City (formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What was formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library is now the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City and one hazards a guess about the shortened name.  Because we now speak and write in monosyllables?

Caged books at the Morgan Library, on three levels, however, a guide said, with an appointment, the books are available to the public/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The ceiling in the library at the Morgan Library/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The guard said everything was attached to an alarm so I should refrain from picking anything up.  I did not pick anything up. 

Pages that have survived from the earliest work of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Quartet for Piano and Strings in A minor (1876 (?) - 78 (?)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The "Water Music" by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The little book in the foreground is a pocket-sized Magna Carta, its "earliest widely obtainable" form, like those which lawyers carried around in their robes for ready reference, according to the label. It was written in Latin and Anglo-Norman-French and dates from c. 1300/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This is a letter from J.D. Salinger (1919-2010) to Holden Bowler, a lounge singer whom Salinger met on a cruise ship when Salinger worked as activity director in the Caribbean in 1941.  Salinger told Bowler he had a book in mind, and he would use Bowler's first name for his protagonist, Holden Caulfield/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The building is stunning in its appointments, jewelry, rare books, and furnishings.  It was constructed from 1900 to 1906 for $1.2 million, designed as the library of financier J. P. Morgan (1837-1913), and after his death, was opened as a public institution in 1924 by his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), following his father's wishes.  

 

Mr. Morgan's desk and chair in his study/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In Mr. Morgan's study/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The guard said this was the "first globe." I failed to ask him, "first globe of what?" It is in Mr. Morgan's study/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the wall in Mr. Morgan's study is The Virgin and Child with...? by Francesco Raibolini (1447-1517) called Francia. Compare it to his Virgin and Child with Two Saints (about 1500-1510) at the National Gallery in London/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The entrance to Mr. Morgan's former office, now a gallery which houses jewelry more than 1,000 years old/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Cicadas, anyone?  How about some cicada brooches?  Big ones (life sized?) which date 380 - 500 A.D.  and worn by Germanic women who lived along the Danube River and the Black Sea, on display at the Morgan Library.  The label says cicadas "symbolized immortality in the ancient world, perhaps because of their apparently miraculous regeneration after long periods of dormancy."/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Merovingian jewelry, 450 - 610 A.D., at the Morgan Library.  Can you detect the bird brooch, the eagle brooch, the composite bird brooch casing, the buckle, and the disc mount (36, far left), the last which is similar to that found in the grave of the first Merovingian king, Childeric (d. A.D. 481)?  A typographical error in the label copy identifies the buckle (at top and worn by elite warriors on their sword belts) as the eagle brooch (38, second from left, below the disc mount)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Garnets and gold jewelry were popular in the Middle East and along the shores of the Black Sea from around 50 to 300 A.D. On top is a pendant, and in the center, a pair of earrings, and a ring at the bottom, all on display at the Morgan Library & Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

These are "Eastern Gothic" earrings, with polyhedral beads, c. 500 - 620 A.D., and larger than a woman's wrist, on display at the Morgan Library & Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

To complete a delightful experience, go for lunch at the Morgan Library & Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

The guard said Mr. Morgan had an underground passageway to travel from the library to his home (located nearby at 219 Madison Avenue before it was torn down in 1928 to make way for an expansion of the library).

The last known photograph of J.P. Morgan and his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., walking together, January 1, 1913/Wikimedia Commons and Moody's Magazine

Changing exhibitions, lectures, concerts, family programs, workshops, tours, films, the permanent furnishings and collections are all found at the library today.
 
I was pleasantly surprised by the contents and building, and was made to feel welcome by the friendly staff throughout, unlike the reception I received from the woman with long brown hair at the Frick Collection who prevented my access to public places and practically shoved me out the door, well before its 5 p.m. closing.  Goodnight, Frick!

What: The Morgan Library and Museum


When: Open Tuesday - Friday:  10:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. (open until 9 p.m. on Friday); Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where:  225 Madison Avenue at E. 36th St., New York City 10016

Admission:  $18 Adults, $12 Children (13–16), $12 Seniors (65 and over), $12 Students (with current ID)
Admission is free on Friday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Admission to the McKim rooms only (Mr. Morgan's Library, Study, Rotunda, and Librarian's Office) is free on Tuesday, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, 4 p.m to 6 p.m.
No admission charged to visit the Morgan Shop, Morgan Dining Room, and Morgan Café.

For more information: 212-685-0008 or email visitorservices@themorgan.org
patricialesli@gmail.com

Bike the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath

Bikers along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath near Shepherdstown, WVA.  The path ranges from 7 to 12 feet across, and although it may look like Spanish moss hanging from the trees, it's not/Photo by Patricia Leslie

An adventure may begin at the Ferry Hill Plantation managed by the National Park Service and located on a hill above Shepherdstown, WVA where free bicycles and gear are available on weekends through Labor Day.  (Call ahead:  301-582-0813.)  

During the Civil War, after the Battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam, the Confederates housed their wounded at Ferry Hill.  They used the grounds as headquarters and encampment sites, like the Union forces did (at separate times). 

Ferry Hill lies above the Potomac River which troops crossed during the Antietam, Gettysburg, and Monocacy campaigns.  A NPS brochure says that when Union soldiers suspected the mistress of Ferry Hill, Helena Blackford Douglas, of conspiring with Confederates across the river, they imprisoned her husband, Robert, a minister.  Robert's son, Henry Kyd Douglas, was an aide to Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and wrote I Rode With Stonewall/Photo by Patricia Leslie

"Honey, you're in the wrong lane!"/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Historic markers line the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Barbara Humes, left, Harpers Ferry guru, and NPS guide Cindy Brockman, in the distance,  stop to read what it's all about on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath near Shepherdstown, WVA/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What I've always wanted to do: run with a tire strapped to my body.  Yee-haw!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Campers off the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A brochure says swimming in the Potomac River is verboten, but these swimmers do not understand German. Overheard in English:  "Jackie!  Bring me a beer!"/Photo by Patricia Leslie

"That's more like it."/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A monument to James Rumsey (1743-1792), on the banks of the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, WVA, seen from the Towpath on the other side of the river.  In 1785 George Washington appointed Rumsey to be the first construction superintendent to build a canal at Great Falls, but Rumsey quit after a year when he did not get more pay.  Rumsey invented a self-propelled steam boat which he launched at Shepherdstown in 1787, and he has a following dedicated to his cause: the Rumseian Society/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Antietam Aqueduct along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath, north of Harpers Ferry.  The aqueduct was built in 1834, mostly by Irish immigrants, many who died from a cholera epidemic which swept the campsites/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Bikers ride between the stone walls of the Antietam Aqueduct on the Chesapeake and Ohio Towpath/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This hill, the last rung before reaching Ferry Hill at the end of the ride,  is much steeper than it looks!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 You can't go wrong with an adventure along the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal which stretches 184.5 miles from Georgetown to Cumberland, Maryland, but it's not necessary to do it all in one day. (!) 

You may begin the fun with lunch at the Blue Moon Cafe in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, highly recommended with its large and varied menu, good food (and beer), sure to please most everyone (including babies and dogs) in a delightful, shaded outdoor setting with indoor seating, too.

After tasty treats, you may proceed through Shepherdstown and Shepherd University and head over the bridge atop the Potomac River into Maryland, home of the Ferry Hill Historical Park which is up the hill and immediately to your left.  There you will find free bikes, helmets, and a National Park Service guide (if you're lucky, she'll be Cindy Brockman) to lead you along the street and down, down, down the path to the grassy green wonder of the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal Towpath. 

You can walk, run (with a tire), or ride the trail in gaps, like we did, starting at the Ferry Hill Mansion and ending at the Antietam Aqueduct (about six miles round trip). The trail straddles the Sharpsburg/Antietam Battlefield, and is beautifully shaded which helps keep you cool.

The park is "trash free," meaning you take out what you bring in, and at the Ferry Hill Mansion, no bottled water is sold, so take your own container or buy one there.

Exercise, an outdoor setting, nature, fresh air, camaraderie with friends, tranquil scenes, history, butterflies, sunshine and Vitamin D, all things good for you and available at no charge at Ferry Hill. 

patricialesli@gmail.com

Love nights and jazz notes at the Sculpture Garden

Another party night at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In the distance is the dome of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and beyond it, the top of the Washington Monument, seen from one of the entrances to the Sculpture Garden.   In the winter, the Sculpture Garden's center becomes an ice rink/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Shoes are not required at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art.  And shirts?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This is an impressionist painting of a veggie sandwich hanging at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Hidden love under a Chagall umbrella at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Incendio made music at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art on July 31, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The amount of visible grass at the Sculpture Garden set a record for the summer.  (You have to attend to know what I mean.)  A guard told me the week before was packed, and we mused about the reason.  The salsa dancing?  He said people were dancing galore.  Center in the photo is Joan Miró's Personnage Gothique, Oiseau-Éclair (Gothic Personage, Bird-Flash), 1974, cast 1977, bronze, Gift of The Morris and  Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation/Photo by Patricia Leslie

I can see clearly now the grass is there.
I can see all obstacles moved away.
Gone are the crowds that made me sad.
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
bright (bright) moonlighty night.
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
bright (bright) moonlighty night.

Oh, yes I can make it now the crowd is gone.
All of the bad feelings have disappeared.
Here is that seat I've been longing for.
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
bright (bright) moonlighty night.

(ooh...) Look all around, there's nothing but green grass.
Look straight ahead, there's nothing but green grass

This could be a park at the beach with a big, pink elephant to admire.  It was actually a lark in the park at the Sculpture Garden with Alexander Calder’s Cheval Rouge (Red Horse), 1974, on long-term loan from the Calder Foundation, New York/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Look at these beauts!  The latest in head fashion, newly arrived from Hermes for next year's entrants in New York City's Fifth Avenue Easter Parade/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Something which never changes at the Sculpture Garden's party nights:  the long line for the ladies room/Photo by Patricia Leslie

One last kiss, oh, baby, one last kiss, it never felt like this, oh, baby, not like this, you know I need your love, oh, oh, oh, oh, baby one last kiss at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This year is the 15th season of free sculptures in the jazz garden or free jazz in the Sculpture Garden (take your pick, they both are available) to be seen and heard on Friday evenings, now through the end of August at the National Gallery of Art's prized outdoor jewel.

Inside the gated community (outsider alcohol, verboten, with bag check) are fascinating sculptures to admire (both of the permanent and human varieties), live music to hear, and food and beverages to consume to launch the weekend celebration.   


Which sculpture is your favorite?  As you ponder the answer, you may settle on the meaning of life.  Stand at different corners of Roy Lichtenstein's House I (1996, fabricated 1998, fabricated and painted  aluminum, Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation) and watch it move.  What does it mean?  

Or consider Roxy Paine's Graft, (2008 – 2009, stainless steel and concrete, Gift of Victoria and Roger Sant) waving towards Capitol Hill.  It's easy to determine a meaning.

Last Friday night, it was not the band which stole the show, but the usual suspects:  the people, the scenery, the young, the old, the babies and bold were all on hand.  It's lots of fun. With lots of food and beverages to buy.  

Unless you bring your own chairs (which are allowed),  blankets, or towels, you may be standing, standing, standing, since unoccupied seating is not available unless you get there long before the opening bell.

Upon arrival I ducked in the cool (air conditioned) Pavilion Cafe to find just a few ahead of me in the food line, and my favorite dish, the hummus plate.  

I placed my order with the fellow behind the counter who skidded it across the counter top to me, and upon examination, I tossed it back:

"Where are my grape leaves? This is the wrong plate."

 "Oh," he said, "those were last year's menu.  I miss them, too."  So yesterday. 

Yesterday all my food plans since have gone astray,
Now the menu is in serious decay,

          And I may have to eat at the Subway

Suddenly I'm not as excited as I used to be.
There's a leaf hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why grape leaves had to go, I don't know, no one would say.
They made dinner gong, and I long for yesterday.

Yesterday, eating hummus was such a holiday

       Now I found a place to hide away 
       Which may be on the dreaded subway 

And this was heard in passing:


Where have all the grape leaves gone, long time passing?
Where have all the grape leaves gone, long time ago?
Where have all the grape leaves gone?
Menu planners got them everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
 
With drooped shoulders and a sadness that only grape leaves could shatter, I made my way to the sweltering outdoors and the line for bar-be-cue.  And beer.

Alas!  No lite on draft!  Only Stella.  Pullease.

And no place to sit.  

Ho hummus, I bought some bar-be-cue.  (Honestly, these Nawrtherners don't know what bar-be-cue is. Have they ever been to the Saoyuth and tasted bar-be-cue?)

In a roped-off area, a guard stood on a stone wall where a fellow sat smoking near the constantly long line for the ladies room, and with the guard's permission, I sat down to eat.  No problems. Not even smoke got in my eyes.

But, Sculpture Garden:  Why so few seats?  I declare the number of bars at your party has doubled, and it does seem like seats have been removed to fit more people inside the province.

Sculpture Garden:  Have you ever been to the South and sat in grass and later discovered you've been devoured by invisible chiggers?  The aggravation lasts about five days, and you have to scratch in the most private of parts!  Once done, you will never sit in grass again, I don't care if it's plastic grass the Inuit have planted for decoration in Nunavut.

Sculpture Garden:  I do not sit in grass.  But, I do have a suggestion for a new sales item for your Friday night gigs:  towels for rent.


Party people, hurry!  There are not many Friday weekends left (4) before summer fun ceases, and soon, it will be brown and dull winter when the temperature may drop to minus 30, and we shall be frozen solid in our winter tombs.  Better to enjoy life now while we've got it!  

 Who: 
August 7   – Miles Stiebel (jazz violin)
August 14 – Origem (Brazilian jazz)
August 21 – Seth Kibel (clarinet)
August 28 – Afro Bop Alliance (Latin jazz)

When:  5 - 8:30 p.m. every Friday through August 28, 2015 (During the summer, the Sculpture Garden opens every day at 10 a.m. (11 a.m., Sunday) and closes at 7 p.m.)

Where:  The Sculpture Garden, National Gallery of Art, between Seventh and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.  

Admission: No charge, but you may want to bring some coins for drinks and treats.

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives.

For more information: 202-289-3360.  And/or check 
www.nga.gov/jazz for the latest information.

patricialesli@gmail.com