February 24, 2009
Can’t Be in New Orleans? Listen to Mardi Gras Music at Your Desk
Blowout at Mardi Gras, courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways
In honor of today’s Mardi Gras festivities happening down in New Orleans, we thought we’d treat our cabin ever with a little bit of Louisiana jazz and zydeco courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways.
There is Blowout at Mardi Gras, a collection of Dixieland jazz recorded in 1955 featuring
Another older selection that may get you in the mood is Clambake on Bourbon Street, a recording of more New Orleans jazz, this time with some Satchmo-inspired tunes from
But lastly, on a tip from our friends over at Folkways, is a new release from the talented Michael Doucet, the acclaimed cajun/zydeco musician. The album was nominated for a Grammy this year, but he lost to none other than himself, as part of his band BeauSoleil.
Don’t let your Fat Tuesday go by without a little merriment; just don’t go too crazy with the beads or your bosses will start wondering what’s going on.
February 23, 2009
David Rockwell, the Oscars Set Designer
David Rockwell, photo by Todd Plitt
Last night after the red-carpet coverage, a segment on New York architect David Rockwell caught my attention. I know that guy, I thought; he won a design award last year from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
Rockwell designed the newly revamped and stunningly svelte stage set across which the equally svelte Hugh Jackman sang, danced and charmed his worldwide audience.
Rockwell told newspapers that he was going for a “nightclub” effect for the show. The theater’s typically red hues shifted to cool blues for the night. A curtain made of 92,000 dangling Swarovski crystals framed the stage. At times, the band was onstage. And the web-like pattern on the stage floor mimicked that in Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.
Rockwell’s firm has designed restaurants, Broadway sets (“Hairspray” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”), the Jet Blue terminal at JFK, and city playgrounds.
Rockwell is all about playful reinvention. In fact, he had a leg up on the job going in; he knew the Kodak Theater’s ins and outs because he designed it to begin with. Here are a few snippets from an interview I had with him at the time he won the Cooper-Hewitt’s award.
There’s such variety in your work. What do you look for in a project?
The thing that is most interesting to us is doing things where we don’t know the answer before we begin. What I look for is a client who is curious and a chance to invent. A common thread through our work is trying to find ways to create surprise and delight through design.
Necco Wafers and a Lite-Brite helped inspire your set design for “Hairspray.” Do you surround yourself with toys as you work?
I do. Our office is a big, habitable collage or playpen. One thing I collect is kaleidoscopes. They are interesting examples of taking things we’re familiar with in the world and reframing those in a new and interesting way, jumbling up things to get a new view on them.
It’s been said that you put people at the forefront of your work, often interviewing those who will be using the space to help inform your design.
One of our basic building blocks is people and looking at spaces from their point of view, how they move through it, how a space unfolds. So we start by creating a kind of narrative. I think so much of my inspiration in design is from the world of theater. I love theater, and I grew up in a family where my mom was involved in theater. If I’m working on a play, the script is the map. When we’re creating a building or space, we have to extract that script from the clients we’re working with. Our interviewing is really about finding that hidden DNA, those special elements about the client, the site, the location to build the story around.
Smithsonian Events Week of 2/23-27: Bourgeois, Phone Booth
Mercury Capstule Phone Booth (left) will be discussed at the Udvar Hazy Center. But is it cooler than the R2-D2 mailbox? Let's discuss. Image courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum.
Monday, February 23: Featherwork Workshop
You know what your spring wardrobe needs? Feathers, and lots of ‘em! Learn how to make a war bonnet of your very own under the tutelage of Dennis Zotigh. Free, but reservations required. Call 202-633-6644, or email NMAI-GroupReservations@si.edu to reserve your spot today. National Museum of the American Indian, 10:30 AM.
Tuesday, February 24: Reruns
Yesterday’s Featherwork Workshop repeats today. Aside from that, we got nothing new.
Wednesday, February 25: Black Orpheus
A modern retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set to a bossa nova beat. Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus went on to nab both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1959. (On a side note, President Barack Obama cites it as his mother’s favorite movie in his memoir Dreams From My Father. You can get in on the discussion of this film—and the issues it raises—at Film Blog.) Free. Anacostia Museum, 11 AM and 7 PM.
Thursday, February 26: The Mercury Capsule Phone Booth
It’s hard not to question the aesthetic sensibilities of the 1960s, which is partially why that decade is so much fun to examine. Take, for instance, this novelty phone booth in the shape of the Mercury space capsule. What can one say about this marvelous piece of space-age kitsch? Personally, I’m speechless; however, Air and Space Museum expert Margaret Weitekamp will be on hand to talk about this beautifully bizarre homage to the United States’ advancements in space exploration. Free. National Air and Space Museum Udvar Hazy Center, 12:30 PM.
Friday, February 27: Friday Gallery Talk: Louise Bourgeois
An afternoon at the art gallery? How bourgeois! Louise Bourgeois to be exact. She’s the artist responsible for the big honkin’ spider living outside the Hirshhorn’s entryway and the focus of a recently-opened exhibition of her work. She is also the subject of today’s gallery talk, headed by local artist Cara Ober. Free. Hirshhorn, 12:30 PM.
For a complete listing of Smithsonian exhibits and events, be sure to visit www.goSmithsonian.com and check out the easy-to-use calendar.
February 20, 2009
Weekend Events: Mardi Gras and Elephants on Parade
African Elephant Sounding Danger by Eli Harvey. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Friday, February 20: Santouri: The Music Man
Not to be confused with the Music Man of “76 Trombones” notoriety, this Iranian film tells the story of a young musician whose life falls apart just as he reaches the height of fame and is left to pick up the pieces. In Persian with English subtitles. Free. Freer Gallery, 7:00 PM. Repeats February 22.
Saturday, February 21: Mardi Gras Carnival—Art and Music Festival
Can’t make it down to the Big Easy for the annual madcap Mardi Gras debauchery? Come out to the Anacostia Museum for some budget festivities! Enjoy a guided tour of the museum’s Jubilee exhibition in addition to music, costumes, mask-making, face-painting, storytelling and other arts and crafts fun. (And better yet, you don’t have to crawl home and give your mother a red-faced explanation for how you got a neck full of Mardi Gras beads!) Free. Call 202-633-4844 for more information. Anacostia Museum, 10:30 AM-2:30 PM.
Sunday, February 22: African Voices
The Natural History Museum celebrates Black History Month by focusing on one of Africa’s most distinctive inhabitants: the elephant. Let’s face it, they’re pretty cool critters and it’s hard to dislike them whether you’re young (by way of Dumbo) or old (yes, it’ll be a while before pink elephants will make the endangered species list). Come learn about how these noble creatures communicate with one another through the museum’s permanent African Voices exhibit. Free. National Museum of Natural History, 1 PM-3 PM.
For a complete listing of Smithsonian exhibits and events, be sure to visit www.goSmithsonian.com and check out the easy-to-use calendar.
February 19, 2009
Remembering Executive Order 9066
The cover of Shirley Castelnuovo's "Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II." She is one of four speakers at "The Japanese American Experience in Print" tonight at the National Museum of the American Indian.
On December 8, 1941, the day after Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor, Cedric Shimo applied to join the United States army. Though American, his request was denied because of his Japanese ancestry. He tried again, this time with the Military Intelligence Service. They were looking for someone to translate Japanese, so they accepted.
Shimo attended basic training, but the day before graduation and his deployment to the front lines, he was kicked out. The reason is that he wanted to say goodbye to his mother, who was behind barbed wire at a Japanese Internment Camp in Manzanar California, considered a Western Defense Zone where no Japanese-Americans were allowed.
As a result, Shimo was eventually transferred to the 1800th Engineer General Service Battalion for the remainder of World War II. It was a diverse unit that consisted of German-Americans, Italian- Americans, and Japanese-Americans — anyone who had ancestry related to the Axis forces. They were not allowed to carry guns, just shovels. Their missions involved digging ditches, repairing bridges and patching roads.
By today’s standards, Shimo was a resister – someone who openly protested the imprisonment of Japanese-American families during World War II. Even now, he says he is proud to have served his country with a clear conscience.
To remember the 67th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 – the law signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, which created the Japanese Internment Camps – the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program invites Smithsonian visitors to hear Shimo and three others share their stories. “The Japanese American Experience in Print” takes place at 6:30 p.m. this evening, Thursday, February 19, in the Rasmuson Theater at the National Museum of the American Indian.
The event features distinguished writers including David Mura, author of “Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire,” Kiyo Sato, author of the memoir, “Dandelion Through the Crack: The Sato Family Quest for the American Dream,” as well as Shirley Castelnuovo, author of “Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II,” who profiles Shimo in her book.
Established in 1997, the Asian Pacific American Program sponsors diverse programs that reflect the Asian and Pacific American experience. Current exhibitions includes “Barriers to Bridges,” an immigration-themed exhibit at the National Museum of American History, as well as “Japanese American Pioneers of the Jet Age” at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.
