Mike Ackerman came to visit this weekend, arriving Friday afternoon, 2/15. After a little lunch we walked downtown and visited the
National Portrait Gallery and the
American Art Museum. We looked for the Colbert portrait (our second search) and once again failed, but walking through either place is never disappointing - their collections are wonderful. For an early dinner, we ate at
Clyde's of Gallery Place, up on the second floor, which has Victorian decor with wood paneling and columns. Anne and Ack both had the rock fish; Mike had shrimp. The food was tasty and the prices not too high. None of us had oysters, which is one of their specialties. (Ask Ack to tell you the embarrassing story of the first time Anne had oysters; she won't tell it.)
On Saturday Ack cooked his famous egg sandwich for breakfast. The highlight for Anne was discovering that Ack learned how to cook it from his dad. This was a new nugget of information (which is rare after 33 years together). After shopping for our upcoming Sunday brunch with Alana and buddies, Mike and Ack took the Red Circulator bus downtown. The goal - a photoshoot of the monuments. Later, heading up Pennsylvania, they ran into Anne riding her bike, then connected with Alana in a nearby sports bar before she headed to work at her own sports bar. The weather was nice enough that we could sit outside. Then it was back to the Portrait Gallery to meet up with cousins Tom, Tim, Ryan, Emanuel and his girlfriend Karen. We ate lunch at Fado Irish Pub near Chinatown, a place that Anne rightly called 'fake Irish'. The beer was good and the food a notch up from typical pub fare with the addition of many lamb dishes.
That night, Mike, Anne & Ack joined Leslie Prosterman and for a fun night at
Chick Hall's Surf Club in Bladensburg, MD. The blues band,
Smokin' PoleCats, was really good, especially when vocalists Mary Shaver and Marianna Previti performed. Both with their own distinct singing style, they 'completed' the band. If you want a fun night of dancing to good music on a nice wooden floor, get out there soon. They close in 10 days.
Thank God Sunday was sunny in DC because Saturday's cloudiness made leaving Puerto Rico even more depressing! What better way to thank God than to join in a United House of Prayer for All People's shout band of praise. The world headquarters for the denomination is just three blocks from our house, and one of their many chapels is on 6th & M. The Sunday service started at 11, I arrived late, and by the time I left at 12:30, things were just warming up. People, both attendees and musicians, trickled in slowly; a grand piano, one trombone and several tambourines were the instruments when I arrived. When I left the number of trombones had grown to five, and a drum kit, a sax, a tuba, and washboard played by a 10-year-old boy had joined the crew at the front of the church. Personal testimonies of the goodness of God were the main part of the service while I was there, each punctuated with vocal music. The instrumentals were more dominant during the start of the preaching (which began just as I left) and were used in particular to praise Jesus and the presiding bishop, Sweet Daddy Madison. To find out more about the style of music that characterizes United House of Prayer services, here's a nice article from Folkstreams that summarizes the four types of music most important in African American Washington D.C.
In the afternoon I drove to Maryland for a different type of prayer service, one much more subdued but just as sincere. I've started to research the Marian apparition in Emmitsburg, MD, which is about an hour north of DC. My second time attending, I got to this service in time for the apparition of Our Lady of Emmitsburg to the visionary, Gianna Talone Sullivan. I'll continue going there for the monthly prayer sessions and to conduct interviews with the gracious people who are willing to tell me their stories.
