Trains and trills trump nation's tree

The National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse south of the White House/Patricia Leslie

The best decorations at the National Christmas Tree setting on the Ellipse south of the White House are the trains.  They go round and round little villages which are all lit up at night, and they light up faces, too, of all ages.  Like candles glowing in the night.

The trains at the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse south of the White House/Patricia Leslie

For a few moments visitors are hypnotized by the glory of the moment sweetened by nightly (and daytime, too, on weekends) live seasonal music coming from nearby performers on stage. 

What is the reason the singers' backs face visitors to the National Christmas Tree? Is the target audience the traffic on Constitution and the people at the Washington Monument?  Can they hear what I hear?/Patricia Leslie

 

For years I've been struck by the permanence and artificial appearance of the national tree and how much it reminds me of senior ladies who used to wear hair nets.  Who remembers those?  Egad.  The national tree looks like it is permanently fried, perfectly coiffed, with that sprayed-on look which used to be popular in the 1950s.  Tightly woven together in perfect symmetry. 

Is it an artificial tree?  The website says it is real and was transplanted to the grounds about a year ago.

Please, abandon all hedge trimmers and chainsaws, ye who enter these hallowed spaces.

Perhaps it's only because I see it at night.  But from Constitution Avenue during the day the tree looks like it was decorated by robots on ladders.  The white balls hang in boring rows, suspended huge ping pong balls. 

Please, may we have some semblance of humanity at our nation's tree?   Something which loosens it up so that it does not look like it was decorated by a machine (or a "plan" of a map of the tree used year in and year out) but by nature.  And people.  Without artificial components.

It's too "matchy matchy," what you would expect to find in North Korea. (The website says General Electric designed and provided the lights for the tree.  Yep, looks like some engineers had a hand in it, all right.)

Sadly (there's more), the 56 trees all of the same exact height and width which surround the tree (representing the states, territories, and the lowly District of Columbia) are practically identical.  The signs say the ornaments on each tree are individually crafted by state representatives. (Not legislators.  Can't you just imagine that?  A decorating party for state legislators?  Yuk! Yuk!  But, come to think of it, maybe they'd all get along better.  "Who's got the glue?" "Please pass the scissors.")  The lack of individuality suggests they came right out of a manufacturing plant in China.  Or, perhaps the artists were following strict guidelines issued by...engineers?

For the Tennessee tree, Pam Weston from Tennessee Young Artists in partnership with Middle Tennessee State University made these ornaments for the states and territories' "Pathway to Peace" at the National Christmas Tree /Patricia Leslie

On second thought, it must be the bubbles which encapsulate and protect the ornaments from the elements which lend them this image, but the plastic cases detract from the contents and obscure the designs.

 

The sign indicates Jenna Lee of the John P. Sousa Middle School made ornaments for the District of Columbia tree, pictured here/Patricia Leslie

 

Hamilton Glass and Patience Salgado, ART 180 made these ornaments for Virginia's tree/Patricia Leslie

Can you spot three moving engines with headlamps? Patricia Leslie

Now one of the engines has moved out of the picture.  Where did it go? Patricia Leslie

 

The back of the White House, the big house, whose seasonal finery we enjoy/Patricia Leslie

There is an alternative. 

Up at the U.S. Capitol at the other end of the National Mall  is the Capitol Christmas Tree ("This is real!") which last year featured ornaments made by Colorado school children.  It looked more natural and honest, leaning one way a little bit with uneven branches, to wit, a heckuva lot better than the National Unnatural Christmas Tree. 

Or, what about permitting each state to design its own tree?  And ornaments.  What an incredible idea!  (Engineers prohibited from entering.)

Please have a look, see what you think, and write soon.

Weekend Flights

The remainder of 2013 scheduled performances at the National Christmas Tree for which the people of the United States are truly grateful are:

Wednesday December 18, 2013

5:00-5:30 pm Louise Archer E.S. Chorus

Vienna, VA

6:00-6:30 pm Robert E. Aylor M.S. Chorus

Stephens City, VA

7:00-7:30 pm Olney E.S. Chorus

Olney, MD

8:00-8:30 pm Kent Island H.S. Wind Symphony

Stevensville, MD

 

Thursday December 19, 2013

5:00-5:30 pm Virginia Women’s Chorus

Charlottesville, VA

6:00-6:30 pm St. Mary’s Bryantown Choir

Bryantown, MD

7:00-7:30 pm West Springfield H.S. Madrigals

Springfield, VA

8:00-8:30 pm Mayfield Singing Ambassadors

Manassas, VA

 

Friday December 20, 2013

5:00-5:30 pm Maranatha Gospel Choir

Fredericksburg, VA

6:00-6:30 pm Boyle School of Irish Dance

Alexandria, VA

7:00-7:30 pm Lewisburg Area H.S. Concert Choir

Lewisburg, PA

8:00-8:30 pm NPursuit Jazz

Richmond, VA

 

Saturday December 21, 2013

1:00-1:30 pm Children of the Light Dancers

Fairfax, VA

2:00-2:30 pm The Christmas Singers

Gaithersburg, MD

3:00-3:30 pm Central Bucks West Chamber Choir

Doylestown, PA

5:00-5:30 pm Victory in Praise Dancers

Baltimore, MD

6:00-6:30 pm Ox Hill Baptist Youth Choir

Chantilly, VA

7:00-7:30 pm Blue Ridge Thunder Cloggers

Waterford, VA

8:00-8:30 pm Tru Voice NYC Singers

New York, NY

Sunday December 22, 2013

1:00-1:30 pm Hearts of Gold

Linthicum, MD

2:00-2:30 pm Bull Run Cloggers

Manassas, VA

3:00-3:30 pm Washington Mennonite Chorus

Washington, DC

5:00-5:30 pm The Voices of Zion

Washington, DC

6:00-6:30 pm Metropolitan School of the Arts

Alexandria, VA

7:00-7:30 pm Linda Clark

Richmond, VA

8:00-8:30 pm Voices in Praise

Friendship, MD

Too perfect symmetry/Patricia Leslie

 

What:  The National Christmas Tree

When:  Now through January 1, 2014

Where:  In the Ellipse south of the White House

Metro station:  Farragut West

Cost:  It's free!

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Celebrity bishop Gene Robinson in town

Bishop Gene Robinson at the Center for American Progress/Patricia Leslie

 

Retired bishop Gene Robinson, whose homosexuality spawned the departure of some conservative members from The Episcopal Church in 2003 when he was nominated for the episcopate, was in Washington last week where he attended a religious liberty presentation at the Center for American Progress.

The discussion centered on the creeping growth of religious expression which threatens to usurp civil rights and is increasingly found in legislation on state and federal levels to discriminate against gays, for example.  Panelist Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign said religious liberty exemptions would give license to bully those who are different. 

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance said he was "so proud of the ACLU because they are taking on the Catholic bishops," referencing  a case in Michigan where a pregnant woman at a Catholic hospital was given insufficient information leading up to the miscarriage of her fetus. Panel member Eunice Rho of the ACLU provided elaboration.

Sitting in the rear of the audience, Bishop Robinson was recognized by a panel member who asked him for a comment. 

Robinson, whose national identity and honesty have helped increase Americans' acceptance of gays, said to combat discrimination "nothing works better than personal stories…. [and] getting people to tell stories about spiritual pain."

Said Mr. Gaddy: "You can't substitute anyone's holy book for the Constitution because the Constitution protects everyone."

Lissy Moskowitz from NARAL Pro-Choice America was another panelist.  CAP's Sally Steenland served as moderator, and Tom Perriello made opening remarks.

A report by CAP's Joshua Dorner which outlines the current debate, Religious Liberty for Some or Religious Liberty for All?, was available at the meeting.

According to the report, almost 70 percent of Americans believe civil rights trump religious beliefs and that business owners, for example, should not be permitted to discriminate against those whose lifestyles do not match their own.





patricialesli@gmail.com

McLean art show is a holiday treat

 

Betty Ganley's Spring Diva captured first place at the McLean Art Society's December 2013 show.

For art lovers there are few things more enjoyable than visiting a new show and viewing paintings, accompanied by vino and hors d'oeuvres and talk with the artists.

And so it went last week at the McLean Project for the Arts at the McLean Community Center where a crowd showed up to see the McLean Art Society's new competition, 40 works selected by juror and artist Kurt Schwarz.

The grand prize winner was Betty Ganley's Spring Diva, which was not the first time Ms. Ganley has won a blue ribbon.  Indeed, her works have won several first, second, and honorable mentions in national and area competitions.

Her story is one which gives hope to new and/or struggling artists. 

Years ago when she was a part-time nurse who rose at 4 a.m. to get to work, Ms. Ganley began painting, a diversion from work and family responsibilities.  Fearful that the oils and materials stationed in her bedroom where she painted were too tempting for her young children, she turned to watercolor and worked in her kitchen. 

Watercolor is much easier to set up and take down, she explained. And she still paints in her kitchen.  In watercolor.

"I can't imagine retiring without something to do," she said at the McLean opening.  At Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring where she worked, she directed an employee art show where one surgeon was a glass blower and another, a deep sea photographer. 

For a contemporary show, few abstracts are found in the McLean display, but plentiful scenics and pleasant landscapes fill the gallery. The only unsettling piece is a self-portrait watercolor whose female frown stops you on the ramp walk, not only because of the unhappy stare directed at the viewer, but because of the vast difference from the other subjects. 

Carmen Uribe's Les Champs Elysees won second prize at the McLean Art Society's December 2013 show.

 

Judge Schwarz, whose oils hang in collections around the world and who teaches at the Art League in Alexandria and the Loudoun Academy of the Arts, said both Spring Diva and Les Champs Elysees by Carmen Uribe, which won second, "grabbed my attention immediately."  Diva has "beautiful use of rhythmic shapes, lost and found edges, and masterful control of the medium," while the contrasting colors in Les Champs help make it "a striking composition," according to program notes.

He said it was difficult to narrow choices to 40 for the show:  "I get rejected a lot myself and know what it feels like."

 

Two Goats by William Dunn won third place which Schwarz said he would "love to see hanging in my home."

Honorable mentions went to Hill Town by Carol Higgs, Harbor Colors by Virginia Luster, and Spirited Journey by Betty MacDonald.

Norma Anderson, Queen's Lace, did not win a prize but its beauty and detail drew attention.

Most of the paintings are for sale and provide a lovely change from the malls for holiday shoppers, and who would not welcome finding a new piece of art under the tree?

What: McLean Art Society's Members' Juried Show

When: Now through January 6, 2014, Monday through Thursday: 9 a.m. - 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday: 9 a.m. - 12 a.m., and Sunday: 12 - 6 p.m.  (Closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.)

Where: McLean Project for the Arts at the McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, VA 22101. For directions and a map, click here.

Admission: No charge

Parking:  Plentiful and free

For more information: 703-790-1953 or 703-790-0123

patricialesli@gmail.com

Washington Post's John Kelly responds to criticism

 

The stained-glass window at the Washington National Cathedral which honors General Stonewall Jackson/Wikimedia Commons  

 

The stained-glass window at the Washington National Cathedral which honors General Robert E. Lee/Wikimedia Commons

 

 

John Kelly isn't as placid as he comes across most days in his column in the Washington Post.

Here he is responding to criticism about his suggestion to add "some sort of sign" at the Washington National Cathedral to explain the presence of stained-glass windows devoted to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, windows Kelly labels "niches":

The fact is Lee and Jackson chose to take up arms against the country they had sworn to protect. Now, you may decide that this makes them men of honor. Fine. And you may believe that lots of people had slaves back then – the old, “Hey, everybody else is doing it” defense. Cling to your weird Lost Cause cult as tightly as you want. But don’t inflict it on the rest of us by having your womenfolk sneak overly pious memorials into Northern churches. (Emphasis added.)

The Washington National Cathedral is a "Northern" church?  It says "national" in the title.  Hmmm. 

Do you think Kelly would endorse "some sort of sign" at the Jefferson Memorial since Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, too? How about a sign at the Custis-Lee Mansion at Arlington National Cemetery where General Lee lived with his wife, Mary Custis Lee?

President George Washington owned slaves for most of his life.  Should signs be posted at the Washington Monument and at Mt. Vernon?  At Washington Circle?  Post notices of apology at entrances to Washington, D.C.? 

patricialesli@gmail.com

Old Paris for Christmas at the National Gallery of Art

 

Charles Marville, Salle des Cariatides, au Musée du Louvre (Gallery of the Caryatids, Musée du Louvre), 1851, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons' Permanent Fund

Is anyone not in love with Paris?  Yesterday?  Today or tomorrow?

You don't want to miss the city of love and light when it was turning over in the middle of the 19th century in a period of urban revolution, a city in transformation, captured in 99 photographs and three albums now on view at the National Gallery of Art.

It's all the work of Charles Marville (1813-1879) in the first Marville show in the U.S., accompanied by "the first scholarly catalogue" about the official photographer of Paris who also acted as photographer to the Louvre.  A man who died in relative obscurity, "one of the most accomplished and prolific photographers in the history of the medium," with nary an obituary but whose work is suddenly coming to light, thanks to the work of Sarah Kennel, the National Gallery's associate curator of photographs who curated the show, independent researcher Daniel Catan, and others.

Charles Marville, Percement de l'avenue de l'Opera (Construction of the avenue de l'Opera), Dec. 1876, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, copyright, Musee Carnavale/Roger-Viollet

 

Marville photographed not only cityscapes but scenes in France, Italy, and Germany, the lakes surrounding Paris, countrysides, buildings, bridges, and sculptures which convey in their golden sepia tones, an aura of peace.

Charles Marville, Man Reclining Beneath a Chestnut Tree, c. 1853, lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1946. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The man in this photo is believed to be Marville.

Before they were razed to make way for the "new" Paris under the direction of Baron Haussmann, Napoleon III's chief urban planner, crumbling structures and narrow, long streets filled the city.* On commission by the government, Marville took 425 pictures "before" and "after."  

For the most part, people are noticeably absent from the photographs whose long exposures demanded the subjects stand still three to fifteen seconds. The scenes are often bleak and lifeless, eerily quiescent, with no evidence of animal, person, or litter. It's as if a movie studio contracted with the city to use the streets for filming to ensure no movements of any living thing occurred.

The catalogue suggests a comparison to a catastrophe hitting the city, and in some ways it did with the demolition of so many structures now deemed more valuable in their absence than their presence, much like some structures and other entities we see today. (Permits for the teardown of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, at the corner of 16th and I, N.W., Washington, D.C. were issued Oct. 13, 2013.)

Marville's pictures stand as monuments to the cemetery of buildings, and it is agonizing to see the remains of Hotel de Ville, the city hall, a building started in 1532 and destroyed by the 1871 fire of the Paris Commune (which followed the Second Empire and preceded the Third Republic).

Stored in the building were Marville's historic photographs, documents, paintings, sculpture, and all the city's archives which perished.

Fascinating comparisons of the Fontaine des Innocents from the year after the memorial was completed in 1850, to 1858, 1868, and 1871 show the changes to the square made into a park with splendor replaced by a confined, "tamed fountain."

Charles Marville, Fontaine des Innocents, 1858, the AIA/AAF Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

 
Marville was not his real surname. That was Bossu which, in French, means hunchback. Bullying is not a contemporary worldwide phenomenon, sadly, but Marville, a diminutive man, 5 feet, 2 inches, was bullied, too, and desired to change his image. When he was 18, he informally adopted "Marville," which the catalogue notes, is close to the French "ma ville" (my city).Was it coincidence that his name change occurred around the same time as the publication of Victor Hugo's Le Bossu de Notre-Dame, the catalogue asks.

Marville was born in Paris where he grew up in modest, but not impoverished, surroundings.His father was a tailor, and his mother, a laundress.

Charles Marville, Haut de la rue Champlain (vue prise a droit) (Top of the rue Champlain) (View to the Right) (20th arrondissement), 1877-1878, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, copyright, Charles Marville/Musee Carnavale/Roger-Viollet

 

The Musee Carnavalet, Paris, loaned the National Gallery almost half the works in the show which cover Marville's career.

Charles Marville, South Portal, Chartres Cathedral, 1854, lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke Gift and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschell, 2000. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

For romantics and those Parisian lovers on your gift list, a handsome 266-paged color catalogue is available in the National Gallery shops.

The show's next stops are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which helped the National Gallery of Art organize the show, from January 27 -May 4, 2014, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 13-September 14, 2014.

The people of the United States are grateful to Leonard and Elaine Silverstein for helping make the exhibition possible.

In honor of the exhibition which celebrates the bicentennial of the artist's birth, Chef Michel Richard of Washington, D.C. and the National Gallery's Executive Chef Pierre Cummings have designed a special menu with French dishes, wines, and beer for the Gallery's Garden Café Francais in the West Building.

 

George Marville, Urinoir (systeme Jennings) plateau de l'Ambigu (Urinal, Jennings System, plateau de l'Ambigu, 1876. Musee Carnavalet, Paris, copyright, Musee Carnavale/Roger-Viollet

 

 Marville talks:

December 14, 15, 17, 18,and 20 beginning at 12 p.m., the West Building Rotunda with Eric Denker. Duration: 50 minutes.

What: Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris

When: Now through January 5, 2014, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Sunday.

Where: Ground Floor, the West Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall. The closest Gallery entrance to the Marville show is on Seventh Street, N.W.

Admission: No charge

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

For more information: 202-737-4215

Palace Resorts Package Deals: Save $200 on select flight + hotel vacation packages with promo code MEXICO200.

*In the December 8, 2013 issue of the Washington Post, book editor Jonathan Yardley named Paris Reborn:Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City by Stephane Kirkland, one of the best books of 2013.

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free holiday concert by National Cathedral and St. Albans singers at St. John's, Lafayette Square, Dec. 4

The Madrigal Singers from National Cathedral and St. Albans schools under the direction of Benjamin Hutto (far left)

To celebrate the holiday spirit in a peaceful, stained-glass setting before your calendar fills with parties, why not a free concert by Madrigal Singers?
 

The public is invited to attend a noontime performance on December 4 at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, the host of First Wednesday concerts every month from October through June.

At the December presentation 36 students from the National Cathedral and St. Albans schools will sing traditional hymns and secular songs, medieval and contemporary selections for Christmas and Advent, under the direction of Benjamin Hutto.

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

Other St. John's First Wednesday programs, all starting at 12:10 p.m., are:

January 8, 2014 (2nd Wednesday): Organist Richard Fitzgerald improvises on themes from the stained glass windows of St. John's

February 5: Soloists from St. John's Choir perform baroque music for Valentine's Day

March 12 (2nd Wednesday): Virtuoso Organist Dongho Lee performs Charles Ives's Variations on "America" and other works

April 2: The U.S. Air Force Strings conducted by 2nd Lt. Shanti Nolan, with Michael Lodico, organist, perform Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto

May 7: Easter music for trumpet and organ with A. Scott Wood and Benjamin Hutto

June 4: Organist Alan Morrison

Who on December 4:  Madrigal Singers from National Cathedral and St. Albans sing seasonal selections, directed by Benjamin Hutto

What:  First Wednesday Concerts

When: 12:10 p.m., December 4, 2013

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

How much: No charge

Duration: About 35 minutes

Wheelchair accessible

Metro stations: McPherson Square, Farragut North, or Farragut West

Food trucks: Located two blocks away at Farragut Square

For more information: Contact Michael Lodico at 202-270-6265, Michael.Lodico@stjohns-dc.org.

patricialesli@gmail.com