Lady Bird Johnson at The National Portrait Gallery

By The Queen of Free

At the National Portrait Gallery the only portrait of a First Lady to hang in a gallery with Presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson, Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Harry Truman is one of Lady Bird Johnson.

Where is everybody else?

Curatorial Assistant Amy Baskette who gave a “portrait talk” about Lady Bird on Thursday evening said the Portrait Gallery began beefing up its First Ladies collection about four years ago, and an exhibit on them will open “soon.”

The comparatively small painting of Lady Bird by Boris Artzybasheff (cool first syllable) commissioned by Time magazine for a cover in 1964, is sandwiched between portraits of her husband, Lyndon, and President Ford. Hanging perpendicular to the Johnsons is John F. Kennedy who is captured brilliantly by Elaine de Kooning in a striking, contemporary, large vertical masterpiece with lots of green splashes.

Perhaps it is the dove behind Lady Bird, the colors, and style which suggest art deco and precisionism. Why the dove?

Ms. Baskette spoke in glowing terms about Lady Bird Johnson, her business acumen and other achievements. Her image and issues (beautification and the environment) are more esteemed every day. That Lady Bird even had issues she promoted gallantly, unlike the Bush First Ladies who wasted their pulpits, is laudatory, especially considering that Lady Bird’s era preceded the elevation and promotion of women as equal citizens (and no, we haven’t made it).

Lady Bird Johnson died in 2007.

The group of eight who listened intently to Ms. Baskette for her 20-minute talk ranged in age from 20-somethings to 60-somethings, mostly female (6), and 100% Caucasian.

On March 19 at 6 p.m. Martha Washington’s portrait will be featured in a talk by Sidney Hart, and on March 26 at 6 p.m., Erin Carlson Mast from Lincoln’s Cottage will talk about the poor, the sad, the much maligned Mary Todd Lincoln. All, free!

The National Portrait Gallery is open from 11:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. every day.

Winter Along the Canal Towpath

By The Queen of Free

See that brown green murky water standing dormant (dead) along the canal towpath? Do you believe anything can live in it? The fishermen say it is so. Yuck! One fisherman told us he usually (usually) puts the fish back in the muck that he catches. (Please tell me what you do with the others. You don’t eat them, do you? And you are still alive?)

It is still there: The browns of winter. The bare trees enable hikers to see across the Potomac to the massive homes with large windows which sit high atop the cliffs. Where is the house of Daniel Snyder who cut down all the trees so he could better see the Potomac?

Compared to the W + OD Trail in Fairfax County, the canal towpath, saved by Justice William O. Douglas, is almost barren of bikers and walkers, and that is good.

We chanced upon a kayak school in a small channel where two watchful parents watched and listened to an instructor give lessons to several students who weaved their vessels in and out the waterways following hanging poles strung from tree branches which guided their paths.

Maya Lin at The Corcoran

Run, go fast, and see the Maya Lin show at the Corcoran.

But, wait, didn't it just start?

Yes, run, go fast and see the Maya Lin show at the Corcoran.

Garcon! My skates, s'il vous plait.

The size, the materials, the scope, the construction, the curves, the wood, the designs, all of which have a strange, calming effect which I need. Surely, the muted color of the materials contributes. Except the big straight pins. They have a story to tell.

About 200 members attended the members' opening on Tuesday night and heard Ms. Lin speak a few moments about the exhibit, "Systematic Landscapes," her interest in the Earth and introduce her children (and her husband, too? I could not see or hear).

A guard told me the Corcoran staff spent six weeks putting the show all together.

You mean, all the wood pieces in the mound and the hanging wire?

Yes. They are numbered. Everything is neatly diagrammed so the staff knew where to hang/put it/them.

On the floor of one gallery are black rectangular squares which act like floor fences surrounding three individual lake pieces. The guards keep visitors "out" of the blocks. But in the "mound" gallery, feet come perilously close to wood pieces which form the base of the "mound" and there are no guards to "keep out."

'Splain!

I said to the guard: "I guess it would have been too tacky to put up signs telling people to keep off and away from the sculptures." The guard smiled: Yes.

But "Tonight's our first test to see how it works. If someone knocks over a few pieces, that won't upset the mound too much since the wood is 'stabilized,' but if someone falls flat on it, that will be an upset." The "lakes" are unusually precarious and need protection, the guard said.

Everyone was having a good time with old and new friends, beer, wine, cheese, bread, scallops (the best!), beef sticks, cous cous, lemon creme puffs, and the new show.

Overheard: "It's all the media's fault. The media has driven this. The market was up 400 points today." And: "Frank is catatonic. The market was up 300 points today."

Run, go fast, and see the Maya Lin exhibit at the Corcoran. It closes July 12.

Pictures to come.

The roof is still under repair on the other side, but you don't even notice. Now, about those floral designs...

Ripped to Shreds: The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden

By The Queen of Free

The dainty, charming Mary Livingston Ripley Garden was ripped asunder on January 20, 2009 by the million+ Inaugural visitors.

They smashed fences installed to keep them out and protect the grace of Mary Garden.

Compare the pictures above with that at the Mary Garden Web site.

Signs posted at the garden's two entrances announce to visitors the plight of Mary Garden which lies between the Hirshhorn Museum and the Arts and Science Building on the Mall:

"It will take time and quite a bit of replenishment to rehabilitate the Garden"

.

Dotting the garden are bits of yellow and purple flowers poking their heads from the few remaining bulbs bursting from the ground and from tree buds.

Despite the bare ground, walking along the curving path through the garden is still a pleasurable exercise.

On May 25, 1988 the Smithsonian Institution's Women’s Committee laid a plaque on the Independence Avenue entrance in honor of Mary Livingston Ripley who spearheaded the creation of the garden on land originally designated for a parking lot. She was married to the Smithsonian's eighth Secretary.

Last summer on its wee 1/3 acre plot 1,260 varieties of plants grew at Mary Garden, say the signs which carry optimistic wording that the Earth can rejuvenate itself. Yes, it can.

A Sparkling Universe at Air + Space

By the Queen of Free

Most of the lecture was over my head, but the delivery and visuals were fascinating, informative, and beautiful.

Did you know that one of the goals of the International Year of Astronomy (did you know it is celebrated this year?) is to have "everyone" (i.e., everyone) look through a telescope? It is one means to commemorate "400 Years of the Telescope" which happened to be the title of an intriguing film presented last Thursday night at the National Air and Space Museum preceding a talk by Dr. Sandy Faber, "The Milky Way: Why We Need Her (her?) and How She (she?) was Formed." (Is this like hurricanes which used to be perpetual "she's"?)

Had standing room been available, that's what it would have been at the IMAX theatre which was loaded to the universe with young and old for the event. We had to squeeze in tightly to fit everyone in. (It was heavenly seeing so many turn out for a female scientist.)

However, the constant seating of latecomers and the chatter by the staff marred the screening of the film and the Q + A before Dr. Faber's lecture which made it difficult to hear everything. Please, Air and Space: Do not seat latecomers and interrupt the presentations!

Anyway, the Smithsonian official (did not catch his name since it was hard to hear) who introduced Dr. Faber actually quoted Wikipedia, providing more credence to the online encyclopedia. Imagine, a scientist with a Ph.D. uttering “Wikispeakia” out loud. Saying he consulted it. Yeeks!

In a Q+A session before the lecture, Dr. Faber said a tough part of her math studies was "complex variables." Hmmmmm. "We are the children of 'quantum fluctuation,'" she noted. Hmmmmm.

In her unassuming, down-to-earth manner, Dr. Faber said the Milky Way is a band, not curved as photographs commonly suggest. Because of city lights, many have never seen it. The Milky Way is best seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

More facts from Dr. Faber: The universe began about 14 billion years ago with the “Big Bang.” Our sun and planets are about 4.6 billion years old. No two galaxies are alike. Spiral galaxies are flat. Except for dust, stars are very far apart.

The light from the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years across! To shed light on a light year, Dr. Faber mentioned the sun's light takes 8.5 minutes to reach Earth; Jupiter's light is 40 minutes away. (In lay terms, a light-year is the distance light travels in a year or approximately, quoting Wikipedia now, ahem, almost 5.9 trillion miles a year (300,000 kilometers/second). Reflected light from the moon reaches Earth in 1.2 to 1.3 seconds.)

The accompanying film and photographs she presented made you feel like you were peering out from a wide convex front window of a space ship that you calmly steered at a cool trillion MPH while floating and zooming through the Andromeda Galaxy and the Orion and Crab nebulae. (Actually, we would have been going much faster.)

There now, do you have an idea about the size of the Milky Way?

Did I get everything right? No? You are invited to make corrections and/or additions, too.

The lecture was part of the third annual John Bahcall Lecture Series made possible by the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Hubble Space Telescope Program at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Faber is from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Thanks to all the sponsors for a gorgeous, enlightening evening! (Some information was received; better than none!)

A Bell of a Night with the Smithsonian Associates

by the Queen of Free (for members)

It was a dull and listless night at the Smithsonian Associates’ “free” lecture presented by artist, art critic, poet and nephew of Virginia Woolf, Julian Bell, at the S. Dillon Ripley Center Tuesday night.

Maybe it was his British accent. Maybe it was the rapid rush of his words, or the almost slurring of them which made comprehension difficult. Maybe it was too much art presented all at once. Maybe it was Mr. Bell's facing the screen rather than the audience. Maybe it was all of these things which combined to make it a lacklustre showing, unusual for the Smithsonian.

The acoustics did not seem to impair the presentation on 17th century art, but after 10 or 15 minutes the first audience members departed, followed stealthily by others, like mice scurrying in a hole (the exit), to hurry home and catch President Obama’s first major address.

About 150 mostly senior citizens* attended and 100 percent were Caucasian (or the ones I could see). (*Overheard conversation subjects: swimming lessons, pills, aching feet, late breakfast.)

Julian Bell said the period 1600 – 1670 was a “uniquely exciting phase in the history of art," and he finds a connection between early modern and present day art. Some of the artists and the works he mentioned included Rubens, Rembrandt, El Greco, Velasquez, Vermeer. One of the most fascinating pieces he described was the sculpture, "The Head of the Damned," terrible and horrifying, which he said (if I understood correctly) that the artist made from studying himself in the mirror.

Mr. Bell is the author of Mirror of the World: A New History of Art which he planned to sign after his lecture.

Charley Pride at DAR's Constitution Hall

Charley Pride


Charley Pride






The U.S. Air Force Band's "Wizard of Oz" Cast




Katherine Kohler plays the clarinet



By the Queen of Free

Although he is 70 and his voice quavered a little, Charley Pride can still put on a heckuva show. Combine his talents with the U.S. Air Force Symphony Orchestra in a free performance at DAR’s Constitution Hall and you’ve got a magnificent Sunday afternoon of splendid music.

He was a little stiff physically and his voice, not as strong as when the Country Music Hall of Fame selected him Male Vocalist in 1971 and 1972, and Entertainer of the Year in 1970, but Charley, who wore a shimmering metallic jacket in rainbow colors, can still carry a tune in a hearty manner, dance on stage, carry on a conversation with the audience, and seem to love his work.

With the backup of the Singing Sergeants, he delighted the mostly senior citizens for more than an hour with his big hits including: “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” "For the Good Times," “He'll Have to Go,” and “Mountain of Love." Until Sunday I had not realized the reggae flavor of his music.

The keyboard accompanist was especially strong and the violins were exquisite. The percussion section at times was too powerful.

The Hall’s acoustics complement the artistry. And two jumbotrons added to the pleasure of the listeners who tapped feet to keep up with all the lost loves (who writes his music?) and romantic ballads Charley sang. He talked to the crowd, which filled about 90 percent of the seats, about his mother who died at 47 and the advice she gave her children. He sang a song “for the ladies” specifically selected by his wife of 52 years.

The first half of the Sunday show featured the Air Force Concert Band and costumed band members who sang an energetic, professional medley of “Wizard of Oz” tunes which the audience adored.

The winner of the Col. George Howard Young Artist Competition, Katherine Kohler, an astonishing high school clarinetist from Napierville, performed an outrageously unbelievable piece with the orchestra.

Throughout the afternoon the musicians' precision, sound and clarity led by Col. Dennis Layendecker left a listener shaking her head that the quality and enjoyment are available at no cost. Only in Washington, D.C. Guest emcee was Bernie Lucas from 98.7 WMZQ.

Next up: Keiko Matsui, jazz pianist, March 22 at 3 p.m. at the Hall.