On the Road

A few fun things to do in DC

The kids and I hopped on the Metro and headed in to D.C. yesterday while Rockford worked. Our first and only planned destination: the International Spy Museum.

 

rockford would have loved the spy museum’s Bond Villains exhibit
Poppy loved it, but Pete was less enthusiastic. I think he would’ve been more engaged had we not been evacuated midway through for a fire alarm. The museum tries to be an immersive experience, and the alarm break broke his already wavering interest.

We went back later to check out what we’d missed, and the kids found a few more interactive bits to play around with. Poppy loved memorizing her cover story and being tested on it — I was impressed that she remembered it all even after the fire alarm interruption — and Pete thoroughly enjoyed crawling through the air ducts.

In a town chock-full of amazing free museums, it was pretty tough for me to shell out $54 for the three of us to go to the spy museum. It’s a fun spot, though, and I think it’s worth the cost for older kids. 

poppy & nam june paik’s “electronic superhighway”
 
We spent our brief exile from the spy museum across the street at the American Art Museum. Poppy and Pete did a fun little scavenger hunt, and I got in a really quick visit with some of the guys in the presidential gallery. Some of my favorite works were in the gallery of contemporary figures’ portraits. 

   

 Everett Raymond Kinstler’s portrait of Katherine Hepburn is on display with her four Oscars.

Poppy and I were both fascinated by Robert McCurdy’s portrait of Toni Morrison. It looks just like a photo, and it’s gorgeous.

   

Kehinde Wiley painted his portrait of LL Cool J for the 2005 Vh1 Hip Hop Awards. It’s ginormous and vibrant, and I love it.

We went to the Natural History Museum to visit the dinosaurs for a bit, and then we went back to the hotel for a swim before dinner. Today we’re going to stay around the hotel, because it’s hot out there and there are 200 billion other people also touristing the town this week.

On the Road, Uncategorized

On the road and hanging by a song

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Today is the day we find out if I can write a blog post from my phone. I was trying to write it in the browser, and it wasn’t working so well and I thought “hey maybe there’s an app for that,” and it turns out there is and it works pretty well.

 
We just wrapped up our annual summer visit to Michigan. The kids swam a lot, Rockford and my dad golfed a lot, and I read a lot. We went to a baseball game, and we ate a lot of Sizzling Rice Soup.

Today we’re on the road, on the way to Maryland, where Rockford has a few days of meetings. (We have housesitters and nothing to steal but elderly cats so take your business elsewhere, Thieves of the Internet.)

We saw a brand-new Tesla on the back of a Tesla-hauler. We saw the Weinermobile. We saw a man named Dino and his family approach the counter and one by one order every last slice of “cheese and pepperoni” at the travel-plaza Sbarro’s.

We have discussed the duties of the British monarchy, the bland appeal of Nicholas Sparks tales and the merits of the Mallowcup. We are listening to Soul Coughing and James Taylor and Eve feat. Gwen Stefani. We will be on the road for at least three more hours.

We can blog from our phones. What a world.

Music, partner campaign, reviews

Joy Williams embraces new sounds and raw emotions on “Venus”

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Joy Williams’ new record, “Venus,” is a breakup album — or, as Williams calls it, “a break-through album” — but it goes beyond heartache. You can almost hear Williams working through her emotions, dealing with the expectations placed on her specifically and women in general and meditating on what it means to challenge those expectations. It’s about picking up the pieces, reassembling yourself into something familiar but new and then moving along with your life on your terms.

The imagery in some of the songs — the ghostly whispers and raven’s feathers in “Before I Sleep,” for example, and the thorny crowns of the broody, atmospheric “The Dying Kind” — would be right at home on an album from Williams’ now-defunct duo The Civil Wars. Aurally, the strongly syncopated “Venus” is largely a departure from the duo’s old-timey, folksy sound.

Williams says she initially played the songs on the album with an acoustic guitar before her “love of Massive Attack, Annie Lennox, Portishead, Kate Bush and hip-hop” moved her to try out some different production styles. I’m not sure where Portishead fits into the mix, but I can hear a little Annie Lennox and even a very light bit of hip-hop in the production.

“The Dying Kind” in particular kind of sounds like Galadriel left Middle Earth and teamed up with Justin Timberlake to make a record. Which isn’t a coincidence, exactly, as Timberlake introduced Williams to her co-writer and producer Matt Morris and thus left what she calls his “invisible fingerprint” on the record.

In addition to the eerie-but-catchy “Before I Sleep,” I was particularly drawn to “Welcome Home” and “You Loved Me.” “Welcome Home” is an achingly pretty song. Williams has a beautiful, lilting voice, and the song is all strings and lyrics like “come inside from the cold and raise your weary soul” and “you’re wanted, you’re not alone.” “You Loved Me” sounds like a lullaby, but it’s a very melancholy one; “I had all the answers; it was easier than facing the dark.”

Overall, it’s a strong, empowered record. But the album does have a couple of tracks I’m not crazy about. “Not Good Enough” is the record’s most pop-country sounding track, with a little bit of Celine Dion warble thrown in. Neither pop-country nor Celine is my favorite, and it’s my least-favorite song on the record. Likewise, while I appreciate the sentiment behind “Woman (Oh Mama),” I found both the lyrics and the production a bit overdone:

I can’t find links to videos for anything else on the album, but you can preview it at iTunes and/or Amazon. “Venus” comes out on June 29.

Disclaimer: I participated in the Joy Williams “Venus” album review program as a member of One2One Network. I was provided an album to review but all opinions are my own.