albadger | You've got the Key to the City, if you know how to avoid the crowds! (Reply)

I seem to be leaving the hotel room later every day! Thursday at 9, Friday at 10, and it's 10:52 today and I'm still typing away.

the Heurich House, just off Dupont Circle. I picked this from one of those "5 things in DC you must see" and it was an amazing treat. I'd made a reservation ("some tours sell out!" bellows the website), but I ended up being the ONLY person there for the 11:30 tour. Adorable guide Rachel gave me a private showing, peeking in corners normally not shown off (she said), going into way more detail on the history than she'd be able to with a group. I felt a little guilty but not much. The house also pleases because it's on a weird lot (thanks to DC's stupid diagonal State Streets), and the architect cut all the rooms into weird and delightful shapes. If I was Uncle Moneybags, I'd much rather have this place than, say, the Breakers.

Freer and Sackler Galleries -- the Freer is half amazing Aisan art treasures, and half hackwork from G.M. Whistler, remembered today for a handful of accidentally great paintings, but mostly a lickspittle for the snooty elite. The good stuff -- the Asian stuff -- continues in the Sackler, a very new (to me! it's only 32 years old) building just south of the red brick castle. Most of which is blocked off for new exhibits. Oh well. But it's right next to

the National Museum of African Art, rather cooler, but again largely getting ready for the next show. But free postcards! FREE!

Oh, but on to my main Smithsonian destination of the day, the Hirschhorn. Current exhibit is "Damage Control: Art and Destruction since 1950." Mostly movies of people setting fire to things, blowing things up, dropping things from high buildings, etc. etc. It sounds stupid... and it is stupid... but an odd thing happened -- as the imagery piled up, and I was exposed to one act after another of 50-year-old vandalism... it started to make sense. So I bought a magnet.

Theater for Friday was Mother Courage at the Arena Stage, the main draw being Kathleen Turner in the title role. This was strange. It's nearly the end of the run, and it felt like she didn't have all her lines down; and she was surrounded by some truly great actors including Jack Willis and Rick Foucheux, who were on their game and seemed to keep her in line. But, still, she has a presence... not quite Killing of Sister George, but great to see

Today, walking around the west end of the mall, memorials, monuments, and then off to the Kennedy Center for Moby Dick: the Opera!, which, sadly, does not include the exclamation point in its official title.