Crafty Bastards

The annual Crafty Bastards was held over the weekend.

A little more about it:

Now in its 10th year, Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair is an exhibition and sale of handmade alternative arts and crafts from independent artists presented by the Washington City Paper. Crafty Bastards will be held outdoors on Saturday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013 in the Union Market parking lot. Admission is $5 each day (ticket price subject to change). Crafty Bastards 2013 will feature 140+ vendors. Join the Crafty Bastards email list and connect with us on your favorite social network to get festival updates.

People standing in line to get in.

Casey Trees is located a few blocks from where I live

There's a wide variety of things to buy including skulls of animals

This is some of the stuff my friend Tina does.

Tina showing off wares.

You can find her stuff at Tina Seamonster

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this.

Anyone for a bike bag

Some of the food truck that were there

Union Square

This is where Crafty Bastards was held Union Square. It is a very cool place.

Here's what they are trying to develop there:

Union Market will be the heart and soul of a broader district bringing a renewed spirit to the neighborhood. The market district will once again be the engine of entrepreneurial spirit. Currently, more than 100 businesses employ 1,500 people in food production and distribution. It is a rare place in the city where a wide variety of ethnic groups and diverse social-economic groups come together and share the same spirit of community. Surrounding the market will be a vibrant mix of retail, restaurants, hotel, entertainment, incubator space for new food concepts as well as retail and wholesale space. EDENS is proud to be a part of this urban village.

The market is certainly a start for that vision.

It was originally the Centre Market:

Centre Market, once the largest market in Washington, D.C., opened to the public in 1871. By 1900, it was the center of a vibrant commercial life in Washington, D. C. Close to a railroad station and streetcar lines, sitting between the White House and the Capitol Building, the market was a crossroads for all of Washington, D. C. After years of success, it was torn down in 1931 to make way for the National Archives. Undaunted, many of the businesses relocated and created a new venue, Union Terminal Market at 4th Street and Florida Avenue NE, an area close to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Freight Terminal and highways to Maryland.

Here are a few pictures of what's inside the market. Some really yummy stuff. And yes I did focus on the chocolate.

Saturday in Washington

A few of things I saw when I was walking around Washington on Saturday.

Window washers washing the windows on a building near my gym. I not afraid of heights but this is one job I don't I would particular want to do.

Down by the White House were a group of guys playing hockey.

An employee of the White House Gift store waving American flags to attract people to the store.

Finally this car was near the Rhode Island Ave. metro stop. It looks like the person is driving a carrot. What occurred to me was the person would have picked that cover. What were they thinking?

2Political Episode 91

 






2Political Podcast Episode 91 is now available. You can listen to it or download it from the podcast site, 2political.com. You can leave comments there as well as download or listen to any episode (you can access the five most recent episodes from the list on the right side of my blog).

Arthur is clearing the backlog of recorded episodes! He hasn’t been able to get this episode edited due to lack of time and to some technical problems with the recording. Those problems meant even more time was required for editing, and Arthur just didn’t have any time. We recorded another episode in early September, and he’ll post that one soon.

We spent this episode responding to comments Roger Green left on our previous episode. We have a few digressions, of course. Jason also talks about his experience after being attacked and robbed, including dealing with the criminal justice system.

Everyone’s welcome to leave a comment—agree or disagree!

Links for this episode:
The national joke – The blog post that Arthur mentioned
Dealing with that “white privilege” conversation with humor – Roger Green’s post
When will moderate whites condemn dangerous White Culture? - Chris Hayes parody
Video of Violent, Rioting Surfers Shows White Culture of Lawlessness – the Gawker parody article that prompted Chris Hayes’ satire segment
The View Along My Sunday Walk – Jason’s blog post that Arthur referred to at the very end
Arthur’s blog, podcasts and videos can be accessed here.

Get 2Poltical Podcast for free on iTunes

Linda Ronstadt at the 2013 National Book Festival

I had the wonderful opportunity to go down to the National Book Festival on Saturday. I got to see Linda Ronstadt talk about her new book Simple Dreams.

It is really sad that she has Parkinson's Disease. A great singing voice has been silenced but Linda can still talk and the talk she gave was just wonderful. It is great to see that she hasn't strayed very far from her liberal roots. She was very funny and irreverent and just fascinating to listen to.

Here's a little of her talk.



There's also an article about her in today's Post. This is part of what she said on Satuday:

“We weren’t all having orgies and smoking a big spliff,” she said, when I asked her to talk about the “sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll” lifestyle we all associate with rock stardom. Those stories are exaggerated, she said, and her nightlife was often cuddling up with her stuffed panda reading “Anna Karenina.” She admits that she did drugs, like so many others in her orbit then. But she said they weren’t really her thing: “My addiction was to reading.”

It was just fantastic to see her. I'm looking forward to reading her book. I tried to buy it but it was sold out. I take that as a very good sign.

The reviewer in the Post loved the book:

Just about everything in Linda Ronstadt’s “Musical Memoir” is engaging and interesting, but the best part comes first: a long chapter — the longest in the book — about her childhood and adolescence in Tucson, an enchanted time beginning with her birth in 1946, a time that, she realized many years later, established “an essential part of who I was: a girl from the Sonoran Desert.” This may come as a surprise to many of her admirers, who understandably associate her with the “California country rock sound” that first made her famous, but in fact for the last two decades of her career — suffering from Parkinson’s disease, she retired from public performing four years ago — she mainly sang Mexican music, the same music she had learned as a girl right across the border.

I got to see her at DAR Constitution Hall (probably around 1995-96) when she was promoting the album Feels Like Home one of my favorites. She did many of the songs from the album. Then sang How Do I Make You and then did one hit after another. It was amazing. Here's How Do I Make You.

The Running Presidents, Part I

OK so they're not running here but it is the Presidents. As you can tell by the number of Posts I do on them I love them. What a great idea for the mascots of the team. And the race is always a good time. My friend, Mark, says it's not a presidents race unless one or more of them fall down. I have to agree.

It's Bill.

Abe dancing with a fan

Teddy!

George

Tom greeting fans.

Abe emerging from the Red Porch.

The Running Presidents, Part II

Here's Abe and Tom climbing on to the back of the broadcast booth that the pre and post game shows are done from.

Last Games for the Season at Nationals' Park

Sunday was the last day for games at Nationals' Park for the season. There was a split double header because of the rain postponed game from Saturday. It was also tribute day to Davey Johnson.

From the Post:

The man who first came in touch with Washington baseball when he was a Senators ballboy during spring training in Orlando at 10 years old has finally come full circle. He played in and managed more than 3,800 games. He is one of five managers to win manager of the year in both leagues. His teams finished first or second in their division in 14 of his 17 seasons as a major league manager. As a player, he won three Gold Gloves and made four all-star appearances. He has won three World Series, two as a player. He guided the Nationals to their highest moments, including a first division title in 2012.

The next few posts will be about those two lasts games. Unfortunately for the Nats there will be no post season this year. They were eliminated last night when they lost to St. Louis. However, since August 9 the Nats record is 30-13. I believe the best in baseball for that time period.

A few pictures from when the players came out of the dugout after the tribute to Johnson.

Linus Under the Umbrella

I had to dry out the umbrella I took to the game on Saturday and Linus decided he wanted to check it out.

More on my 8 plus hours of baseball but that will be tomorrow. For now here's Linus.

The Nats Game that Wasn't

It started raining around 4 or so and just rained and rained and rained.

It didn't stop until 11pm. Just about that time the Nationals finally called the game. Being the trooper that I am or idiot depending on your viewpoint, I stayed until then. It wasn't all that bad because I knew some people who were at the game too so we hung out together.

The problem we had was there was no update on what was going on. There was an announcement that game would be delayed around 7 or so and then four hours of nothing. Around 9 or so the food places started to close down. A couple remained open on the 100 level of seats but that was about it.

At the very least they could have let people know the situation was still being evaluated. This game is important because Cincinnati lost to Pittsburgh (a game we got to see because it was broadcast on the jumbotron). It is still possible that the Nats could get into the playoffs. They need to win both games today. That was the upshot of the cancellation last night that there will be a split double header today.


Lots of baseball for me today!

This gives you an idea of the rain.

These people sat in their seats for over an hour in the rain.

Cotton Candy!

At the National Book Festival

I'm at the National Book Festival on the Mall waiting to see Linda Ronstadt.