View Ford's body in the Capitol's rotunda. OK, not a serious idea. Still for DC area commuters, the funeral plans are very important.
Visit the NGA and then go ice skating in the sculpture garden.
i think a group of us are going out for a dinner on friday night. if you want to come, just let us know and we can email you the restaurant info.
Are any of the APA-attending members of the unfoggetariat going to be around this afternoon?
I'm going to the APA at 3 to register and try to get in contact with a place I'm interviewing. After that I'll be milling around, if anyone wants to commiserate about the job market, etc.
Scott, I made reservations for us at the "beacon hotel and corporate headquarters." So we're good.
Matt,
The grey owl roosts in oaks, but not in ash. Meet me beneath the yew tree.
man, i wish i could be there.
i'm glad i'm not there.
if you APA folks need any restaurant or bar recommendations or anything else, i'm sure us D.C. folks would be happy to answer any questions in this thread.
Ben: The Blue Cat waits by the Big Door *in the rain*. You know what to do.
5, awesome, B. UnfoggeDCon, here I come! (As soon as, you know, I finish writing/revising/re-revising/presenting this damn talk.)
using the wrong number is *part of the code*!
13: but I didn't want ben to think he was awesome.
12: That's just what they want you to think, Kid Bitzer--If that's your real name!
SEK, any word on where you're staying at the MLA?
I still have fold-out couch space available. Email me if you are still in need of a place to crash. And yeah, what Catherine said about advice on places to go. We can always activate the DC BlogScene Hivemind for unique requests.
14--
i decry any suggestion of pseudonymity.
the bitzers came over on the mayflower, and before that they came with the conqueror, and before that they showed a strong readiness to come with anyone.
be that as it may, i am kid bitzer.
as little richard said, enunciating a central principle of metaphysics, "there's only *one* little richard! cain't be no mo!"
and in light of this week's tragic events, i quote this from wikipedia:
"Little Richard has been credited by James Brown, who called Little Richard his idol, with, "first putting the funk in the rock and roll beat"."
there aren't too many of us who can boast that JB credited us with possessing the funk. i myself just try to stay humble.
Did you ever do the Bitzer, Kid?
man, i showed them how to pony, just like tony maroney.
furthermore, i was doing the twist, just like this.
i taught them all that stuff.
in other words, yes.
No fair - you all get to party and all I get to do is meet my beloved's ex-wife, over dinner. The ex-wife who got every fucking asset in the divorce, the house, the stocks, the money, because it was the fastest way to get rid of her. The ex-wife who hates me for "stealing" her husband. The ex-wife who called me "a bimbo". The ex-wife who refuses to believe he left her for himself, not for me, that he was on his way out before he even met me.
I will be pleasant. I will be charming. I will not engage in neener-neener PDAs. I will do this because his children will be there, and I don't want to add to their discomfort.
But I will not be having fun. Not M-fun, not any kind of fun. So when all of you are carousing and getting drunk and convincing Dr B and Rob Helpy-chalk to do strip-tease dances [it has to be both of them, or it would be sexist], think of me, sitting in a lovely Italian restaurant down by the beach, dining with the person who hates me most in all the world.
I will be on the look-out for additions of subtle poisons to my piccata sauce. If I never post again, I missed the cyani...
As soon as, you know, I finish writing/revising/re-revising/presenting this damn talk.
Oh, right, that. Fuck. I'm going out to get some food now instead. I swear I'll have *something* to read at the panel....
SEK, any word on where you're staying at the MLA?
Yeah, Scott. Inquiring minds would like to know this.
I hate you all. Not that I don't want to see the high school friend and her new baby who are in town conflicting with the DCon. But I still hate you all.
New babies are overrated. Truth be told, they don't do very much.
Thanks for not going to DC, 'Breath -- it makes me feel less solitary in my misfortune.
'Breath
Alternative nickname for LB: Bretty.
24--
right, you've got my thanks too, lb.
let's all not go, and then talk about them behind their backs--
*in code*!
I'm gonna be wandering around DC on Friday and Saturday. My plan is to hit the Hirshhorn on one of the days, then wander up and down the mall taking pictures and hitting the various Smithsoniae as whim strikes on the other day, with a stop at some point at the Lincoln Memorial. I'm up fro company if anybody wants to join me on either day, and willing to switch which day I do what based on the preferences of anybody who wants to join me.
I'm also looking for meal tips/suggestions for Saturday. I'm hoping to scrounge up some barbecue and, I dunno, maybe some seafood?
Chopper: There's not all that much food convenient to the Mall. Museum cafeterias, food courts at the Reagan Building and Old Post Office. Or you can wander up into expense account country -- from 10th to 14th, E to G. No barbecue, iirc, but a couple of seafood places that aren't bad (and also aren't particularly cheap).
A person can do a whole lot worse in life, on a Friday, than a sandwich at The Breadline, on Penn between 17th and 18th. With the peanut soup.
The American History museum is closed, I think, and so you've got a long walk from wherever you last wanted to be to Lincoln. You might think seriously about doing Lincoln/FDR/Jefferson late Friday night (depending on the weather) as they're all better (glorious might be the better word) by night. OTOH, VN and Korean War have to be experienced in the daylight.
WWII you want to time just right -- early afternoon, in good weather -- and make a sacrifice to the tourism gods: the thing that makes this one work is eavesdropping on conversations between WWII vets telling grandchildren stories they never told their wives, much less their children. You have to mill around with purpose.
About the monuments, CharleyCarp's 29 is completely right.
LB, can't you just bring the baby down with you? I, for one, think it's teh suck that you can't come. :(
Chopper, I can tell you some things to look out for at the Hirshhorn, if you like. It's a small museum, but they have some very busy, sculpture-centric shows going right now. I'd be up to have a look-see on Friday, but I'm fairly occupied on Saturday.
24: we can talk behind their backs while they're busy.
32: Any other recommendations besides the Hirshhorn, 'Smasher? I'll be roaming around with the S.O. on Saturday midday/afternoon.
33--
gary, you make a very interesting point, but i posted that on my blog 7 comments before you.
34: Janet Cardiff has an installation at the Corcoran that looks pretty interesting, and is also closing after this weekend. I'm planning to go see it tomorrow.
Weird -- I just refreshed the page and at the top of the sidebar is a comment on "UnfoggeDCon Pisstaking".
36: Thanks. That looks like it could be cool.
Re: the monuments . . .
At the FDR Memorial, which is wonderful, be prepared for assholes who think it's both entertaining and original to take pictures of each other standing in a bread line sculpture. Sadly, it's never not happened when I've been there. After all, what's funnier than people desperate to feed their families?
FDR can be a little confusing to get to, but it's worth it. The easiest way to keep your bearings is start at Jefferson, then walk to FDR.
The WWII Memorial is a hideous blight, made acceptable only by, as 29 says, the presence of vets. Once they've all died, the thing should be blown up.
(Okay, I'm a little bitter. Back when I was a D.C.er, I got g.d. sick and tired of yet another slice of the Mall being paved over or taken out of the public domain. By far the worst is the f'ing security perimeter around the Washington Monument.)
39 -- Another reason to go to FDR at night. I've never seen this in the dark.
A couple of other recommendations:
- There's a cool-sounding exhibit of Duchamp, Man Ray, Ernst, Kandinsky & others at the Philips Collection, near Dupont Circle. Alas, the Philips isn't part of our socialist Smithsonian, so it's not free -- $12. (Though the permanent collection is always free on weekdays.)
- The Textile Museum (also near Dupont Circle, but a bit hard to find because it's tucked away -- have a map or get good directions)
The last time I was in D.C., we went to the National Building Museum. If you like architecture or urban planning at all, it's really cool.
Ditto to Sommer's post: If anyone has utterly failed to make proper travel arrangements, we have a futon around the corner from the Flophouse someone might be able to persuade me to make available.
On a blog where people are regularly asking each other to have sex, 44 might be least subtle solicitation yet.
More than Sommer's announcement that she was waiting on making an offer of her sleeping space to see who was most attractive?
It was precisely Julian's failure to name the obvious that called the obvious more forcefully to mind.
Ah. The camel principle strikes again.
All right, I think I'm hitting the Hirshhorn on Friday afternoon, and then the Philips if I can swing it before dinner. After dinner (barring a bar outing or other social event that spontaneously arises), I'll bug back to the Mall for the monuments.
Saturday I'll wing it, but probably spend on the mall going to different museums. Anybody wants to join me, my phone # is sixfiveone-sixsevenfive-nineeighteighteight. I'll be at MattF's place as quickly after my 10:30 landing time as trains and the Metro and my meandering pace allow, maybe 12-12:30, if folks want to meet up in tha tneck of the woods.