Mandrill Rules!!!!

I have three favorite jam bands: Mandrill, War, and Parliament-Funkadelic. The first two were in the DC area last week, though War at the Carter Barron sold out before I could cop tickets. And George Clinton is on tour again with Parliament-Funkadelic and will be at the 9:30 club in July. Life is good.

Mandrill was at the Birchmere while I was away on vacation, but fortunately they were also in nearby Annapolis this Monday at the Rams Head Tavern, and they jammed like they had never left the scene! Still gettin' it done! Mandrill stands ten strong, and with the four Wilson Brothers and some others from the original iteration and an outstanding selection of newer talent (notably on drum kit, lead guitar, and violin) they rocked all their hits in a breathless 90-minute set. Highlights included "Mandrill," "Fencewalk," "Children of the Sun," "Mango Meat," "House of Wood," "Get it All," and of course "Ape is High." Carlos Wilson's voice and flute were in fine form, as were Lou Wilson on trumpet and vocals, Ricardo "Doc" Wilson on Trombone and vocals, and Wilfredo Wilson on congas and vocals. Admonitions by the venue that the audience refrain from dancing went appropriately unheeded (as if the audience had any choice once Mandrill started jamming).

Mandrill has always been horn-strong, with trombone and trumpet, soprano and baritone saxes, all mic-ed, so the sound was deafeningly loud. My ears rang for hours after the show since I was sitting next to the stage. Back in the day, I used to shoot concerts with my ear next to the loudspeakers with no problem. Not any more.

Still, it was all worth it, and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a concert so much.

World's greatest rock band: the Rolling Who?! The Grateful Duds?! They better reco'nize! Mandrill Rules!

Bicentennial Blunder

Photos by Incorrigible Curmudgeon (c)2008

Of all the miss-steps taken in celebration of the Bicentennial 32 years ago, among the worst (at least in DC) has to be the bright idea to make planters out of discarded car wheels and tires. The tires were cut away from the wheel hub on one side of the wheel and flipped inside-out, still attached to the other side. The result was a bowl shape which was then trimmed in a scallop pattern in an effort to make these hideous things as appealing as possible. Filled with soil, they became crude planters of sorts. When painted, you could almost forget their origins save for the tell-tale tire pattern clearly visible. These 'planters' once proliferated throughout DC, though most have mercifully disappeared. These photos were recently taken on Ingraham Street, NW, near Kennedy.

The only thing worse was the brainstorm to paint DC fire hydrants to look like little steadfast tin soldiers, attired in uniforms the likes of which even Michael Jackson would avoid. The color palette on these atrocities was straight out of the local house paint store (where it no doubt came from) and contributed to the garishly grotesque appearance of these stunted humanoids with the phocomelic paddles for arms and their 'we are Devo' helmets. Thankfully, they all seem to have been replaced or repainted in dark green, though a few have been spotted well into the 21st Century. If I ever spot one that slipped through the cracks I'll be sure to post the photo.

Watermelon House, DC

photo (c)2008 by Incorrigible Curmudgeon

1100 block of 'Q' Street, NW, Washington, DC

Taking Inventory

photos (c) 2007, Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Ever since 9-11, I have endeavored to make a point of not taking things for granted. And as a photo documentarian I have always strived to be a vernacular iconographer, an artist capturing, celebrating, and immortalizing in my photos the everyday things and places we too often take for granted, things we will look back on in 30 years saying "whatever happened to?" Like gas stations with signs advertising gas at 29.9. Or the original McDonalds or Little Tavern restaurants. Or storefronts plastered with signs for products that no longer exist.
One could argue that there is nothing 'vernacular' about the U.S. Capitol bldg. or the Washington Monument, but they are certainly among the things we Washingtonians take for granted, barely giving them a glance when we spy them while walking down the street or looking out of our workplace windows. During my commute there is one place at the corner of North Capitol St. and Michigan Avenue where I can see them both. I haven't had much success photographing the monument from my moving car as the monument ducks in and out of the filtration silos for the MacMillan Reservoir at that corner, but here is a shot of the Capitol dome, looking down North Capitol from my car. I shot the monument from the roof of my garage at work. And every day I'm in DC, I continue to take inventory.
What are the things you take for granted in your towns? Whatever they might be, New York has taught us to never do so again.

Pink Snow

Photos (c)2008 Incorrigible Curdmudgeon

Say what you will about the DC metropolitan area, but it can be drop-dead beautiful in the Spring with all the flowering trees that proliferate apart from the more famous Tidal Basin Cherry Blossoms trees. In my neck of the woods, we are blessed with 'Pink Snow" for a brief window of time each Spring. Here are a few examples.

WTF?! moment #3

photo (c)2008 Incorrigible Curmudgeon

I found these hanging under the Florida license plates of a car parked on Howard University's campus recently. NPR says now a Florida legislator is trying to have them banned. Sez they're called "Truck Nutz" and they're proliferating like crazy on Florida cars, particularly pick-ups and SUVs. Not sure what to say about them. An interesting cultural phenomenon, sadly not just for the George Bush demographic anymore.

The Last Little Tavern, Laurel, MD

(c)2007 Incorrigible Curmudgeon

This is the last restaurant in the Little Tavern chain left in Metropolitan Washington, DC. This one is on Route 1 Southbound, just south of Main Street in Laurel, MD. It closed shortly after I shot this photo over the Christmas holidays, supposedly to re-open soon. Not sure if it ever did. Downtown Silver Spring used to have two of these, one's now a red-roofed paper company, the other a yellow-roofed Chinese carryout. Another dying piece of Americana.

Silver Spring, MD, Downtown

photos (c)2008 Incorrigible Curmudgeon

I lived in downtown Silver Spring for 10 years in the '90s, back when it was a dump, okay, actually just seedy, tawdry, and run-down.

These days, its been re-invented as a destination, and has become one of my my favorite places to hang-out, with cool places like the AFI Silver theater, the Austin Grill, Borders books, Whole Foods, and free garage parking on evenings and weekends. Also decent Ethiopian food (Lagano) and bland but decent Caribbean food (Negril's) nearby, along with Panera's, Macaroni Grill, Asian Bistro, Starbucks, Great Eggspectations, the Majestic Twenty stadium seating movie theater, and the incomparable Roadhouse Oldies. Supposed to be free wi-fi throughout downtown, but I haven't vetted it yet.

Silver Spring backroad

Batchellor Forest Road, Silver Spring, MD (c) 2007 Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Omegas on the long-walk

Omegas on the long-walk. Howard University

photo (c) 2006 Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Lake Artemesia, College Park, MD

Lake Artemesia is a man-made lake formed from the land excavated to elevate the tracks of the Metro Green line which run parallel to it. The lake is about a half a mile North of the College Park Metro station.

It has become a beautiful wildlife refuge with paved paths around and across it. The only downer is that boating is prohibited. This lake would be perfect for kayaking.

Talk Cinema/"Elsa Y Fred"

"Elsa Y Fred" (Spain/Argentina 2005) is a wonderful gem of a movie, and yet another Talk Cinema reminder of why I love the movies so much.



Ostensibly a love story between a free-spirited 78 year-old widow and a repressed 79 year-old widower she woos, attempting to free him from his practiced torpor.



It is a love story to film (in particular to fellini's "La Dolce Vita" with elements of "Harold and Maude" and "Cinema Paradiso" and even "Harry & Tonto"), a love story to falling in love despite age or infirmity, and a love story to living life free from fear.



It posits that while many elderly sufffer from the fear of dying, far too many suffer from a fear of living. That worse than the inevitability of death is dying having not lived as fully as one could have/should have.

Fred (Alfredo) is played by Spanish actor Manuel Alexandre, Elsa by Uruguyan actor China Zorilla, both somewhat older than the characters they embody so fully and well. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

Kathy & Zamaniya

Kathy & Zamaniya at a Bob Evans restaurant in West Vrginia.

Photo (c) 2006 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Chuck Brown at Howard University

Chuck Brown playing for the Howard University Christmas Party for staff and faculty, thrown by President H. Patrick Swygert, Christmas 2006. Photographed with Nikon D200 with 28-200mm lens, using built-in flash.

Photo (c) 2006 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Kay and Morgan

A couple of great faces.

Photo (c) 2008 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

This is What 92 Looks Like

This is my cousin Reba, age 92, from Ohio.

We should all look so good.

Still sharp as a tack and still driving.

A wonderful, warm, and witty woman.

Photographed with Nikon D200 with 18-200mm lens.

Photo (c) 2006 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Talk Cinema/"the Life Before Her Eyes"

Talk Cinema hits another homerun with"The Life before Her Eyes," a brilliant, memorable new film that stays on your mind long after the movie has faded from the screen



Essentially a lyrically beautiful meditation on the ways in which a Colombine-type school massacre affects those impacted for generatons to come.



Told in flashback from the POV of two students who confront the gunman, 17 year-old girls from the low rent side of the tracks, who remain best friends despite polar opposite backgrounds, one a risk-taking rebel who's parents are divorced, the other a God-fearing church goer from a large, pious family.



The acting is superb, particularly Evan Rachel Wood as one of the young girls and Uma Thurman as the girl grown up with a daughter of her own.



Film is directed by Ukrainian director Vadim Perelman and this is his second film, after House of Sand and Fog.



Had I heard going in that a movie was dealing with a school massacre, I would never have been inclined to go see it. I am so glad I was able to experience this movie afterall.

I highly recommend this film.

Chicago Urban Landscapes

All photos (c) 2007, Incorrigible Curmudgeon

In March 2007, I made my first visit to Chicago and was captivated by the imagery I encountered (like finding that Lake Michigan was as turquoise as the Caribbean). These are a few of my favorite images.

Rehoboth Beach, DE, October 2007

Rehoboth Beach, DE, October 2007

Photo (c) 2007 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

40th Anniversary of Howard 'A' building takeover

I was a freshman at Howard University when 1,200 of us entered the Administration building on March 20, 1968, sitting-in in protest over the threatened expulsion of 38 of our classmates who had been accused of disrupting Charter Day.

Four days later we marched back out, having shut down the University and having saved those students from expulsion, successful in having prevailed in all our demands save one: the removal of President James M. Nabrit, which would come to pass two years later when Dr. James Cheek took office.

While we were the first United States university closed down by student activism, Columbia University (which had supported our efforts) followed our protest with one of their own and because of better media coverage is generally assumed to have been first. I am happy to set the record straight.

Among the protest leaders, Michael Harris, the Freshmen class president would later become a lawyer in the Howard University Office of General Counsel. Howard University Student Association (H.U.S.A) president Ewart Brown, M.D. is currently Premier of Bermuda, and Tony Gittens, Ph.D. is executive director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

For further information, reference the 1968 NET (Public Television) documentary on the protest “Color Us Black.”
Also read Tom Myles’ 1969 book “Centennial Plus 1: A Photographic and Narrative Account of the Black Student Revolution: Howard University 1965-1968.”

Wintry Mix

Early morning Ice in the street
The dreaded freezing rain aftermath
our pitiful 1" one and only DC snowfall this winter
our pitiful 1" one and only DC snowfall this winter

Photos (c) 2008 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Winter's trending down here in DC and we have yet to have more than an inch of snow. All we seem to have earned is the dreaded 'wintry mix,' freezing rain & sleet, the lavender expanses on the TV weather maps, while everyone else gets the 'white stuff.'


We've had the usually hystrionics by the local meteorologists warning of impending apocalyptic snowfalls headed our way but they have all brushed past us to the North, some even to the South. North Carolina has received more snowfall than DC this winter. Hell, even Hotlanta got snow.


I feel cheated, and with only 3 more weeks until April I am not optimistic that we will make up for lost time this winter. The Cherry Blossoms will be in bloom this year starting March 27th.

Street Memorial

Photo (c) 2008 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

The street memorial is a whimsically sad form of art which, if not unique to DC is certainly ubiquitous in DC.

Assembled in tribute to a recently deceased child who is just as likely to have been a hit-and-run victim as a victim of random street violence, these memorials usually consist of a photo, sometimes flowers, and stuffed animals tied or gaffer-taped to a lamp post. This one is on the corner of Sherman Avenue and Columbia Road, NW.

One of my students once did a photo essay on these types of memorials. I'm sure there's a coffee-table book in there somewhere for a photographer with the time and talent to more formally document this phenomenon.