Tweaked

Don't quote me on this, but this might be the first new show to open at one of DC's large art museums since the shutdown. Several area museum shows have been held over and extended, and I know some smaller galleries have done some online exhibitions. But this one is brand new! In person! Obviously, the opening is contingent upon the latest coronavirus guidelines/restrictions etc. NMWA currently has a timed ticketed entry system available on their website. So plan ahead. "Paper Routes, the sixth installment in NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series, showcases contemporary artists working in paper. The exhibition series is presented every two to three years and is a dynamic collaboration between the museum and participating outreach committees. The 22 committees participating in this exhibition worked with curators in their respective regions to create shortlists of artists working with paper. From this list, NMWA curators selected the artists whose work is on view in Paper Routes. Featured artists in Paper Routes respond to the many uses and cultural associations of paper—from protest signs to packaging, lottery tickets, and wallpaper—approaching the medium in varied ways. Some highlight the delicate properties of paper through meticulous cuts, resulting in elaborate forms, patterns, and designs. Others compact and consolidate the material, forming surprisingly dense and monumental sculptures. Artists rely on traditional as well as innovative techniques. Paper Routes highlights and celebrates this diversity of approaches and the transformation of this ubiquitous and eclectic material into complex works of art. The exhibition features works by Jen Aitken (representing the museum’s committee in Canada), Elizabeth Alexander (Massachusetts), Natasha Bowdoin (Texas), Mira Burack (New Mexico), Elisabetta Di Maggio (Italy), Oasa DuVerney (New York), Mary Evans (United Kingdom), Rachel Farbiarz (Mid-Atlantic Region), Dolores Furtado (Argentina), Angela Glajcar (Germany), Dalila Gonçalves (Portugal), Julia Goodman (Northern California), Joli Livaudais (Arkansas), Annie Lopez (Arizona), Paola Podestá Martí (Chile), Echiko Ohira (Southern California), Luisa Pastor (Spain), Sa’dia Rehman (Ohio), Natalia Revilla (Peru), Lucha Rodríguez (Georgia), Georgia Russell (France), and Hyeyoung Shin (Greater Kansas City)."

I've used the corona down time to watch every season of Chef's Table, David Gelb's award-winning chef documentary series streaming on Netflix. David Gelb first made a name for himself with the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi. He views Chef's Table as the follow-on series to Jiro. To be fair, the series does become rather formulaic and some of the production is overblown...but the food porn is excellent. And many of the stories are interesting and inspiring. On September 3, 2020, Chef's Table: BBQ was released as a four part season focused on BBQ and other fire-based cooking. Some highlight episodes include: Magnus Nilsson of the now closed Faviken. (This episode is similar to the Mind of a Chef series featuring Magnus) Enrique Olvera of Pujol. (He comes across as being a genuinely nice person, plus the tacos) Virgillio Martinez of Central in Lima, Peru. (This episode is pretty much mind-blowing) Ana Ros of Hisa Franko in Slovenia (Most of the chefs/restaurants I have heard of, but she was new to me) Jeong Kwan at the Chunjinam Hermitage, South Korea. (She is Buddhist monk cooking vegan temple food. This is a very different, serene episode) Lennox Hastie of Firedoor in Sydney, Australia (Bourdain fans will recognize him from the episode featuring Asador Extebarri) I wasn't keen on the episodes featuring Tim Raue and Gaggan Anand, who both came across as jerks. Anyway, if you haven't watched Chef's Table, it's excellent escapism as we head toward the colder months.

Haha, yes, Philadelphia free range chihuahua (in cheese form) is delicious. I did look into the plantain and peanut combo and found a couple references to Ecuador, although in that prep the plantain is mashed. Most other references online for plantains and peanuts are indeed West African. Or, perhaps, at the end of service one day, chef had some leftover plantains and a jar of peanut butter and a new dessert was created. Whichever, it's delicious.

It sure looks like Philly has a lot of taco options. Probably too many to sample during a day trip, especially during our Age of Corona. The best taco joint seems to be universally ageed upon: South Philly Barbacoa. But we weren't anywhere nearby and 3 out of the 4 of us were veg/vegan. No lamb for Tweaked. Rosy's Taco Bar, four blocks west of Rittenhouse Square, appears to be fairly new on the scene, having opened in 2018. It has already received solid accolades, making various Bests Tacos in Philly lists. It's near my gf's sister's place so off we went. We ordered take out so the overall quality suffered a bit. I'm not sure tacos are the best option for takeout containers. But overall Rosy's did a good job. The large order of nachos ($13) was indeed large. They suffered the most during the trip home, with the cheese congealing. But they were still tasty. The good thick and well fried nacho chips held up to the toppings. An order of the vegetable tacos ($10 for 3), with eggplant, corn, poblano and chihuahua were again solid. The filling was a bit bland and some salsa helped. Now, the plantains, whom ever is working the plantain station is working some magic. We ended up ordering plantains two ways. The side dish of plantains with crema and cilantro ($5) and the plantain dessert with spiced honey and peanuts ($5). Both orders were huge, I'd say at least two plantains worth of delicously fried chunks in each container. The plantain side dish was standard issue, but very good. The plantain dessert was a revelation. I've never seen plantains with peanuts before, but everyone should know about this. In addition, along with crushed up peanuts and honey, the plantains came with scoops of a peanut butter filling, much like one might find in Ben and Jerry's peanut butter cookie dough style ice cream. Fantastic. I'm sure there are other high quality taco places in Philly. So I would rate Rosy's tacos as good, certainly good for a neighborhood joint, but perhaps not drive across town good. The plantains with peanuts and honey...these are drive to Philly good. Sorry for the crappy photo. This represents about half of the container of the dessert plantains.

Well, we can report a new restaurant opening in Cleveland Park. 3321 Bistro is taking over the Coppi's space. A banner signage went up this week. Although the generic name (3321 is the street address), stock style photos on their IG account, and their website domain is still for sale, doesn't really instill a lot of confidence. But, if they can whip up some good pupusas, fried plantains, and rice and beans, they will get more money out of me than Coppi's. Which would be $0.00, since the one time we went my parents picked up the tab. Sorry Mom and Dad!

The Lounge. That's a rough one. It's as if millions of livers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. (Apologies to Obi-Wan)

Personally, I think this is one of the best, if not the best, restored concert footage of the classic Genesis lineup. At least what I've come across anyway. It's known as: Genesis: Live 1973 - First time in HD with Enhanced Soundtrack Shepperton Studios, UK: 30/31 October 1973 Watcher of the Skies (0:00) Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (8:36) I Know What I Like (17:40) The Musical Box (24:00) Supper's Ready (37:10) The notes on YouTube explains the process that was used to transfer and restore the audio and video.

The concert footage used around the one hour mark is available as a stand alone concert video on youtube. It's very good. I'll see if I can dig it up. The skinny Gabriel years were excellent.

I'd say the only problem with that live version is it's only about 5 minutes long, which is half the length of the studio version. On the other hand, people clearly took some good drugs that night!

As someone who grew up on the Syracuse side of the rivalry, I'll always remember game day of a Syracuse v. Georgetown show down. 30,000+ people going nuts at the Carrier Dome is deafening. RIP Coach Thompson. Wash Post obit

We haven't done Restaurant Week in years simply because it no longer seemed worth the effort or money. But given our corona times we decided to do RW take out and order and share the $35 dinner menu from Sababa (they also offer a $55 menu with expanded options). The $35 option includes: Three Salatim (Red Pepper Muhammara & Walnut; Turmeric Tahina with Honey Harissa; Roasted Garlic Labne) and a order of Hummus and Pita. All of which are packaged separately. The salatim pretty much act as dips, and we should have ordered another pita. The main course is served up like a wonderful TV dinner and includes a choice of kebob (we went with salmon), Israeli salad (which was ok), and always good Fried Cauliflower. Dessert is the delicious Konafi Cake (Shredded filo, apricot labne filling, chantilly cream pistachio). We decided to augment the order with the excellent roasted halumi and spring onion falafel from the regular menu. We had more than enough for dinner for 2 plus a light lunch. Everything was really good, and we kinda wish they would offer this as part of their regular menu!

Joe Englert has passed. A partial list of bars and restaurants he was involved in includes: The Argonaut, The Palace of Wonders, The Rock and Roll Hotel, The Red and the Black, The Pug, Granville Moore's, Sticky Rice, The H Street Country Club, Big Hunt, Lucky Bar, DC9, Trusty's Full-Serve Bar, the Capitol Lounge, Pour House, the Insect Club, Politiki, McClellan's Retreat, State of the Union, Truxton Hill, Toledo Lounge, Andalusian Dog, Carmela Kitty’s, Nero’s, Pennsylvania Avenue Pourhouse, Club Random, and there's probably more.

Like many Cleveland Park restaurants, Indique already did a good amount of take out pre-corona, so it's no surprise that they would do take out well during-corona. Plus stewy Indian dishes tend to travel well. We had: Samosa chat: One samosa on a bed of chole with chutneys. Always delicious. Paneer Makhani: Paneer in a rich creamy tomato-y sauce. Also always delicious. But could use more paneer! Chole: Very good. Thick stewy tomato-y sauce with plenty of chickpeas and chunks of potato. Dal: From the side dishes, a very nice simple dal. I would order again. Bread: Perhaps Indique's weak spot. I prefer a naan with a crisper texture. But the butter naan and garlic naan went well with our dishes. A big pile of Indian food on a rainy night hit the spot, with leftovers for lunch.

All I can say is CL bubble, single game, knock out for the win. Other than Barca, teams are playing like they care, good goals, stunning results. Hoping for an entertaining semifinal round. Tuesday Aug 18 RB Leipzig v PSG 3pm Wednesday Aug 19 Lyon v Bayern 3pm

Ruth Asawa commemorative stamps are now available.

In anticipation of the Hirshhorn sculpture garden reopening to the public on August 17, the museum has installed two new acquisitions: Sterling Ruby's "Double Candle" Huma Bhabha's "We Come in Peace" Hirshhorn Acquisition Announcement Wash Post with the story.

The always great James Oseland teams up with the always great Ten Speed Press for a new cookbook series World Food, inspired by the old Time-Life cookbooks. The first release will be World Food: Mexico City: Heritage Recipes for Classic Home Cooking on Nov. 24, 2020. The second release will be World Food: Paris: Heritage Recipes for Classic Home Cooking in early 2021.

Well, after a disjointed season...paused in the Spring due to coronavirus with most leagues finishing up with a rapid fire session of games...not much changed. English Prem: The Big Four of Liverpool, Man City, Man United and Chelsea took the top four spots, with Liverpool running away with things. German Bundesliga: Bayern won the league by a comfortable 13 points over Dortmund. Spanish La Liga: Real Madrid topped Barcelona by five points and the rest of the league was an afterthought Italian Serie A: Juventus squeaked by with a one point cushion, and won its 9th title in a row. French Ligue 1: The French shutdown the season on April 28, but PSG had already built a 12 point lead over the rest of the table, so no one really cared. Yawn. The Champions League Quarter Final round kicks off in Lisbon on August 12 in a modified single game knock out round format (ie: World Cup style).

Some more from Washingtonian

We have been doing local places in the Cleveland Park and Woodley Park area which we can walk to. The sandwiches from Duke's Counter have been great. The fries are good but steam in the take out counter so they are no longer crisp. But if you reheat them on a sheet pan in the oven they come out decent. Bindaas and Sababa have both done good jobs. Spices already did a lot of take out so it's pretty much the same. The sushi has been ok, the ginger salad great, and the fried spring rolls good. Similarly Siam House already did a lot of take out. We always order the same: Penang tofu and a noodle dish. Similarly with Indique. We have ordered a couple of times and no different from pre-corona. Delicious.

Chef Tom Cunanan is leaving. Per IG.

The city has closed the CP service lane and made it for pedestrians. Hopefully they keep it that way and make it a more people friendly space.

While I will agree there is something wrong with the neighborhood, it appears there is more to the Firehook closure. The Abbo family, who ran Roma for many years, own the properties that includes Firehook. With the recent death of Abbo family members, the family Trust has taken control of the properties and under the rules of the trust the properties will be put up for sale. Presumably the trust is liquidating its assets, which is not uncommon. So, unfortunate for Firehook, and it appears 5 properties along the Cleveland Park strip will be soon up for sale.

Brian Eno has a very long line of credits and collaborations. With Ambient 1: Music for Airport he coined the term "ambient music." Per wiki: The album consists of four compositions created by layering tape loops of differing lengths, and was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent of defusing the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. Ambient 1: Music for Airports, performed by Alaska Orchestra with live visuals by Carla Zimbler

Saturday August 1, 2020 at 9:32 am alignment occurs.