Thom and I had a lovely day out last Saturday. In the afternoon we went to Finland… well, just the embassy, to see “Sauma,” an exhibit on contemporary Finnish design. Located on Massachusetts Avenue across the street from the U.S. Naval Observatory and the Vice President’s residence, the embassy itself is a great work of modern design, with its industrial look set against the surrounding forest. “Sauma” is made up of 15 innovative installations. Pictured below are the Kuutio futon (a cube-shaped mattress with a zipper running along the edges, which can be opened up and configured into a chair, a bench, etc.) and “Air,” an “urban olfactory installation” (three bubbles that evoke the identity of three different cities through sight and smell).
The weather was pleasant, so afterwards we took a walk around the area and looked at the stately embassies and houses. We came across a lightly forested area and took the road down into it (Fulton Avenue), which turned out to be Normanstone Park (the back of the Finnish Embassy looks out onto it).
The rest of my photos are up on Flickr.
We drove to Dupont Circle and had an early dinner of lamb dishes at Skewers (a great Middle Eastern restaurant on P Street), then had drinks at Starbucks, and finally we walked over to our main event of the evening, The Kinsey Sicks, “America’s favorite dragapella beautyshop quartet,” at the Carnegie Institution (which is a lovely, but unlikely venue for the group; the auditorium, with its art-deco cartographic murals and phases-of-the-moon lighting fixtures, seems like the perfect place to instead hear a lecture on geographic expeditions). The Kinsey Sicks were hilarious as always, and have a special place in our hearts, as Thom and I first met at their gig at the Birchmere in 2003. Their current show, which was presented by One in Ten’s “Laugh Out Loud,” centers on politics and takes the guise of a Republican Party function. We also got to see and hear the “new” Trixie, and she is fabulous.
It was a grand day out!