Once Again, It's the Madness of March Time

In life, there are all kinds of important -ologies. There's biology for the body and theology for the soul. If you want to understand people, you should look at psychology or sociology. If you want to study old things, that might involve archaeology; if old people are your passion, that could lead you to gerontology. In fact, when it comes to -ologies, there's everything from A (astronomy) to Z (zoology).

But for 3 weeks each March, there is only one -ology that really matters. And that would be bracketology, the frustratingly fun science of trying to figure out just which one of 68 (which used to be 64 which used to be 32 which used to be 16, which in the 1930s used to be 8) teams will win the NCAA basketball championship.

It's called March Madness and whether you live in Washington the District or Washington the state, it will be the big topic of sports conversation until a new national champion is crowned in Atlanta on April 8. For the uninitiated few or anyone newly arrived from another planet, here's how it works. The NCAA selection committee chooses what is supposed to be the best 68 college basketball teams in the country. They are then ranked from 1 to 68. The last 4 chosen match up in play-in games. The 2 winners join the other 62 teams in equally divided fields of 16 teams in 4 regions of the country. In the 1st week, a series of games produce what is called the Sweet 16. The second week reduces that list to the Elite Eight; then the Final 4. Those 4 teams then play 2 games for the national title.

But here's where the fan fun comes in. Using brackets they fill in and then scratch out and then fill in again, millions of Americans try to predict the winner of each of the games with the object, of course, to pick as many winners as possible including (and most importantly) the eventual national champion. These bracket sheets are then entered into national pools, online pools, and office pools, sometimes simply for bragging rights, but most often with some kind of financial reward for correct picks. However, despite your sports knowledge or luck level, the seemingly simple task usually proves to be so frustratingly difficult that you often end up believing  you should have bypassed your office pool, again won by a secretary who had never attended a basketball game in her life, and instead drowned your bracket in the nearest swimming pool.

And what makes it so difficult? It's a little thing called upsets. Upsets can, and do, happen.  A #15  seed isn't supposed to beat a # 2 seed, but it happens. In fact. it has happened 6 times over the years. Last year, it happened twice. Duke lost in the 1st round to #15-seeded Lehigh, as did Missouri to Norfolk State. And the upsetting upset situation just gets more uncertain as you move down the seeds. In the tournament:

• 16 times, a #14 seed has defeated a #3 seed
• 24 times, a #13 seed has defeated a #4 seed
• 38 times, a #12 seed has defeated a #5 seed
• 38 times, a #11 seed has defeated a #6 seed.

In fact, the only certainty in the 1st round of the tournament  is that no #1 has ever lost to a #16 seed. But , as my Mother used to say. you should never say never. Indeed, two #1 teams over the years have come away with a single-point victory, making it just a matter of time until a #16 bests a #1.

The Perfect Game: As a Villanova alum I had to show this

So how do you avoid the upsets that can bust your bracket? You definitely have to have a scientific system. Here are a couple I have encountered in my 50-year love affair with tournament time. One of my friends worked out a sophisticated scheme involving uniform colors. For example, blue topped red which topped green which topped yellow etc. I always wanted to ask her what she would have done in the ancient Olympics where athletes competed naked, but she was always so mad at losing in the pool that she wouldn't speak for a month and by then I would forget to ask her. Then there was another friend who thought religion might be the answer. In her case, whenever  a secular college would match up against a school with a religious affiliation, she would pick the religious school. That meant, for example, that she would pick Notre Dame over UCLA, even if UCLA was the number 1 ranked team in the country. But what would happen if 2 religious schools met? Well, being a sometimes-practicing Catholic, my friend would choose the Catholic school over any other denomination. But what would she do if it was a contest between 2 Catholic schools (such as when my alma mater Villanova played Georgetown for the national title in 1985)? First, she would give you a look of pity for asking such a question and then launch into a discussion of why Jesuits always trumped Augustinians. So how did the divine intervention theory work? Well, not too well. In 25 years, the total number of times she won the pool was 0. But she never gave up her faith.

But what do you do if you don't have a plan and you can't spend the next 72 hours studying every aspect of all 64 teams in the tournament (assuming your pool doesn't ask you to pick the play-in teams and you have that much time)? Pressed for fast action, you could go with the selection committee's 4 #1 teams. If you followed that this year, you would have Louisville playing Gonzaga and Kansas playing Indiana in the Final 4 with Louisville winning it all. Of course, the fact that only once (2008 with Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, and Memphis) have all 4 #1 seeds made the Final 4, might not make you anxious to adopt that approach. 

In the end, it all comes down to numbers. First, there are the numbers produced on the court. I can tell you with absolute certainty that the only team to win 6 straight games will be the champion. And, in each of those 6 games, that team will have produced more points than its opponent. Then there are the odds numbers. There are 2^63 or 9.2 quintillion possibilities for the possible winners in a 64-team NCAA bracket, making the odds of randomly picking a perfect bracket  9.2 quintillion to 1. With the expansion of the tournament field to 68 teams in 2011, the odds are now increased to 2^67 or 147,573,952,589,676,412,928 (147.57 quintillion) possibilities. With numbers like that facing you, I only have a final 4 words for you --- good luck in picking.

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So, with local favorite Georgetown a #2 seed,  how is March Madness playing out in the nation's capitol? Well, tonight, at the 6th and I Synagogue, the home of lofty lectures and book talks by such prominent DC figures as Al Gore and Sandra Day O'Connor, you could have attended a Bracketology 101 program, where 2 local sports gurus were offering inside tips on how to fill out brackets. Then there is the National Park Service, which in a takeoff on March Madness, is offering its own Memorial Madness tournament where 8 Civil War monuments are vying to capture the DC Civil War monument title. (No word yet on who will cut down the nets for the winner).  Today, The Washington Post published a special 8-page section on the tournament, complete with an analysis of each of the 4 regions by noted sports writer and best-selling author John Feinstein. You can check out the Post coverage online by clicking here. Finally, DC is home to the nation's #1 college basketball fan, President Barack Obama. As he has done since he has been in office, President Obama will be filling out his bracket and posting it on the White House website.

We Shouldn't Be Monkeying Around with Our Environment

A young Jane Goodall greets an even younger friend

In 1960. a young British woman in her 20's, with no formal college education, but a passion to study wildlife in its natural habitat, arrived in Tanzania for 6 months to study chimpanzees. Today, 53 years later, Jane Goodall is not only considered the world's leading expert on chimpanzee life, but is one of the most recognizable advocates in the world for positive change, not just for animals, but for people and the environment as well.

Yesterday, a documentary about her amazing life and incredible impacts, Jane's Journey, was shown at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as part of D.C.'s annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capitol.

If you are receiving this post by email, click here to view the trailer for Jane's Journey

The Goodall film was part of a twin-bill of features on apes shown at the museum. The second film, Beny, Back to the Wild, portrayed the true, moving story of a young bonobo's return to the wild after he was captured and held in captivity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

To see the trailer for Beny, Back to the Wild click here.

After the showing, Beny's rescuer, Claudine Andre, received a standing ovation when she took the stage to answer questions from the audience about Beny and the other bonobos she has been helping at her Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary.

"Of course, we become very close to the bonobos we rescue and I am sad when we return them, but that is the greatest gift we can give them," Andre said. She added that while initial efforts look positive, it may be "20 years" before it can be established without question that the restoration program is a success.

The DC Environmental Film Festival, which is in its 21st year, is featuring the role of rivers in human survival and their vulnerability in a changing global environment. The festival, which will conclude on March 24. is screening a record 190 films from 50 countries. You can check out the remaining festival schedule by clicking here.

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Goodall and her monkey of hope

As soon as I saw the schedule, I knew we would be seeing the 2 films today at the National History Museum. My wife loves apes and monkeys. In fact, at one point, our only son actually had 2 "brothers," as we were supporting a monkey at the local South Jersey zoo in the community where we were living and a chimpanzee at the Jane Goodall Institute's chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya. Before we retired and moved to Crystal City, Judy also had a huge collection of stuffed moneys and apes. The Jane's Journey film revealed  that Goodall also has stuffed monkeys, one of which her father gave her as a child and another that she has been carrying with her everywhere for more than a decade during her 300 days of travel a year. That monkey, a gift from a blind magician, has become a visible symbol of hope Goodall believes people need as they consider today's environmental and wildlife conditions.

Dining in DC: DC-3

If you don't consider a special hot dog as celebratory Irish food, then it's clear that you are not one of the menu makers for DC-3, the specialty hot dog joint in the Capitol Hill Southeast section of DC. For their special sandwich for St. Patrick's Day weekend, the eatery was featuring a hot dog consisting of a homemade banger sausage served on a potato loaf roll with green sauerkraut and Guinness mustard.

You might think that when the DC-3 owners opened their eatery that serves only hot dogs, they chose the name for the city of their location. Well, you would be wrong. The DC-3, while indeed an abbreviation for the District of Columbia, is actually taken from the Douglas Commercial 3, the famous commercial  plane 1st used when air travel came of age in the 1940s.

That theme is incorporated into the design of the eatery. A giant map pinpoints the locations across the country where many of the hot dogs originated. For example, you can choose the DC half-smoke, the NY Coney, the Cincinnati chili dog, the Chicago 7, or the Jersey bacon-wrapped ripper.

On our most recent visit, since DC-3 is so near the Capitol, I decided to have a full political spectrum lunch. So, for my Blue State leanings, I picked the California left-winger, a vegetarian dog that consists of house-made falafel with tzatziki sauce, avocado, and diced tomato. For my Red State balance, I added a West Virginia slaw dog which was a weiner topped with chili sauce and cole slaw. My less adventurous wife, as usual, chose a regular hot dog. Of course you can customize that choice with 16 different toppings including 2 types of mustard and 3 different kinds of relish.

In keeping with its we-only-serve-hot-dogs approach, DC-3 offers only 4 sides, all of which are designed  to accompany their sandwiches. You can choose from chips, fries, fried pickles, and frickles, a combination of fried pickles and fries.

After finishing your meal, on your way out, a cut-out of a stewardess in 1940's uniform will thank you for your business and encourage you to fly  DC-3 again soon.  Chances are, if you like dog variety, you will.

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The Prices Do DC Rating 

• **** (4 buns out of 5) - 3 for quality, plus 1 more bun for the variety of hot dogs offered.

Beating Back the Mores of the 50s

Before there was Bob Dylan, before there were the Beatles, before there was an American counterculture, there were the Beats, a 1950s group of outrageous personalities who were determined to overthrow the restrictive, repressive social mores of the time through their writings and lifestyles.

"They were exactly  the opposite of the conformity of the 1950s. They really wanted to upset the apple cart. It's very difficult to believe that these people could live in the America then that was the way we know it was today" says author Ronald Collins.

Collins appeared recently at the Newseum to discuss Mania: The Story of the Outraged and Outrageous Lives That Launched a Cultural Revolution, the new book he co-authored with David Skover.

Collins said he and Skover decided to write the book after their research showed that most of the existing works on the subject were "deadly boring."

"They would put anybody to sleep in minutes. We wanted to write a high octane narrative like the way they (the Beats) lived their lives," he explained.

Of course, the work features the best-known of the literary rebels - Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs. But it also sheds light on some of the lesser known figures of the movement like Lucien Carr, who murdered a young New York college student, liked to chew glass at New York parties and then spit out blood, and eventually became the Washington Bureau Chief for UPI (United Press International).

The narrative is a tale of talent, but it is tempered with the effects of lives plagued by alienation, addiction, madness, demons, and often a general disregard for others.

"These people changed the literary landscape, but there was all this carnage," Collins said. "It's very easy to admire these men, but when you see these things they did in their lives, you take a deep breath. There was a real dark side. They were fascinated by criminals, by the seedy side of life."

The Beat writers didn't have to look too far for sources and settings for their stories, essays, and poems. "They wove the facts of their lives into their fiction," Collins said. "They produced a body of work that has survived."

Collins was asked if works of the Beats will last through the ages. "I think some of it will," Collins maintained.
"'Howl' (Ginsberg's most famous poem) and On the Road by Kerouac. Was Allen Ginsberg the Shakespeare of his time? Absolutely not. But he did have these remarkable moments."

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Of all the figures associated with the Beat movement, the one that clearly stands out from the others was Lawrence Ferlinghetti . "He was the only one that wasn't a madman," Collin says. Ferlinghetti was a poet, but he also operated the famous City Lights bookstore, which still exists in San Francisco. Despite the racy language in the poem, Ferlinghetti decided to publish Ginsberg's most famous work "Howl" and sell it in his store. Federal authorities seized all the copies of the book, claiming the poem was "a danger to young people who would be exposed to this depravity." Ferlinghetti decided to fight the action in court, and, in a surprising verdict, the judge ruled in the poem's favor. For his part, Ferlinghetti seemed to disregard any punitive actions that could have resulted from the legal battle. "What's the worst that can happen to me. I'll end up in jail reading poetry."

Faking It in Photos

Believe it or not, this is a photo

It has been said that pictures don't lie. But that's not true. Long before the 1990 introduction of Photoshop, in fact ever since the beginning of photography in the mid-19th Century, photographers have been altering their pictures, sometimes to make them more realistic, sometimes to make them more illusional.

And it is a wide variety of these altered photographs that make up the new Faking It: Manipulated Photographs Before Photoshop exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. 

"From the beginnings of photography, it was a question of do we believe what we see? It's a question that still exists today," says Adam Davies, a National Gallery photo expert who has been giving tours of the exhibition.

Davies said that the fact that the first photographs could only be taken in black and white caused photographers to begin manipulating their photos. "The way we see the world is in color and early on photographers wanted to make their pictures more realistic and life-like so they began coloring them in to make them more like the real world," Davies explained.

Later, symbolism and allegory swept through the photographic world, leading to even more photo manipulation. "Photographers were saying I want to create pictures that look more like my experience of seeing, even if it requires deception to do so."

But the public became confused. "People didn't know what to make of it," Davies said. "They said 'you've been telling us that photography is a science and now you're telling us it  is art.' But these photographers were not trying to document things; they were trying to get at a more accurate view of reality."

With the surrealist movement, photographers tried to emulate the creations of such artists as Salvador Dali. "Here, photographers were trying to make it (photography) real to their dreams and their fantasies," Davies said.

In the 20th Century, especially in the fields of political persuasion and commercial photography, photo manipulation became even more common and creative. "People realized that what they were being shown was not necessarily the truth. The photographer is a magician, but you enjoyed being tricked. There is a Penn and Teller quality to the work," Davies said.

The intriguing exhibition is divided into 7 chronological themes. They are:

• Picture Perfect
• Artifice in the Name of Art
• Mind's Eye
• Novelties and Amusements
• Politics and Persuasion
• Pictures in Print
• Photoshop

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If you have any interest in photography, you really should check out this intriguing exhibition which is running until May 5. A fun activity, as it is at any exhibition, is choosing your favorite item on display. This is mine:

In this manipulated photo entitled "The Two Ways of Life," Oscar Gustave Rejlanda captures 2 young men trying to choose either a path toward industriousness and fidelity, as depicted on the right, or wantoness and lust, displayed on the left. When it was originally exhibited the picture caused a public outcry. Of course, that furor may have also been sparked by the fact that Rejlanda's altered photo featured nude models, which shocked many viewers.

Olympus Has Fallen: Some Words from Its Stars

For any viewers worried about the realistic destruction of  the White House and several other nearby parts of Washington DC in his new movie Olympus Has Fallen, director Antoine Fuqua has some reassuring words. "We're in good hands. It's never going to go down like this," he says.

Gerard Butler, who stars in the film as a disgraced Secret Service agent who valiantly and violently battles his way back to grace against North Korean terrorists, agrees. "This movie is about the heroes of this country who risk their lives everyday to create that safe space for us to live in," Butler says.

Butler and Fuqua, joined last night by Aaron Eckhart, who plays the embattled president, and Angela Bassett, who portrays a feisty Secret Service chief, spoke to the audience following a special DC screening of Olympus Has Fallen, which opens here and in theaters across the country on March 22.

Prior to the showing, Butler joked that the group, on tour promoting the new film, had a special trepidation about appearing at a DC screening. "This is your city and we blow a bunch of your buildings up," the Scottish actor said.

Judging from the reactions of the crowds both during (there were some frequent claps and cheers whenever Butler exacted a lethal brand of justice against the incredibly evil terrorists) and after (many of the questions began with words of praise for the uncanningly accurate portrayal of DC and the White House), Butler's fears were unfounded.

Here is the official trailer for the film. (If you are getting this post in an email, click here to view the trailer)

So how did the filmmakers make the White House attack scenes so compellingly real?  "Obviously, you can't shoot in Washington with terrorists running around," Fuqua said. A replica of the White House and the surrounding area was built in Louisiana where much of the film was shot. CGI techniques and footage from Washington contributed to the setting as well.

Many consultants,  including former Secret Service, political, and military experts were used in an effort to make a completely fictionalized movie seem more real.  ""We took all their ideas," Butler said. "What would they (the terrorists) look for? What would they find? What would I say here?"

Even in this time when polls show that Americans' opinion of their governmental leaders is extremely low and the country is polarized politically, the reactions at screenings have shown "how much there is a connection with the White House and the presidents," Butler said.

Butler poses with fans after the screening

In fact, Butler maintains that it is really the character of the president who is most important to the impact of the film. "In the end, it is the president who we are inspired by. He is the hero of the movie," Butler said.

So how did Eckhart, who thanked Fuqua for giving him a role where he spent 7 weeks of filming being tied up and beaten in a simulated small White House bunker, feel about the film? While he acknowledged that violence and the inclusion of so many edge-of-your-seats scenes will probably bring viewers to the theater, he hopes they leave with something  more. "It's a human movie and it's about the decisions you have to make in a crisis," Eckhart said.

Fuqua, the director of the critically acclaimed Training Day,  concurred that there was more than mayhem to the film. "Sometimes we get to document life. And sometimes we get to fictionalize life. Then sometimes we get to send messages, too," he said. "I think this film deals with what we are about as a country and that obviously effects you in an emotional way."

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If you want to hear more from Fuqua and the stars of the movie, The Washingtonian interviewed them yesterday and you can read that article by clicking here. Interestingly, Olympus Has Fallen is not the only White House attack film this year. On June 28, White House Down with Jamie Foxx as the president and Channing Tatum as a Secret Service agent who must protect him from terrorists will be released. To read an article comparing the 2 films, click here.

Art Underground

There has always been an underground art scene in the DC area. But now, Crystal City is ready to give that phrase a new literal meaning with this weekend's opening of Art Underground, a transformation of five blocks into an underground arts and cultural destination with galleries, studios, interactive exhibits, regular performances, and special events.

"I'm very excited," says Sandi Parker, co-director with Marina DiCarlo of the renamed Gallery Underground, which will be one of the focal points of the transformation. "I think this will create the kind of artistic vibe that people will really like."

In addition to Gallery Underground, Art Underground will include 2 other existing entities: Fotowalk Underground and the award-winning Synetic Theater. The trio will be joined by the new Studios Underground, where you will be able to see artists creating their work, and ArtJamz Underground, where artists of all talent levels can engage in participatory paint parties and other activities.

The newly renamed gallery, which is home to the 40 members of the Arlington Artists Alliance, has been open for about 9 months. "This was sort of a grand experiment. No one knew how it would work," Parker explained, adding that the project has exceeded expectations. "We've just been thrilled," she said.

The gallery has been attracting residents from local apartments, businessmen and businesswomen on their way to and from work, and tourists. It offers a new themed show each month. For example, this month's art falls under the category Real and Imagined. An upcoming show will be titled Walk on the Wild Side and will feature animals.

Parker praised the Crystal City BID (Business Improvement District) and the owners of much of the underground retail space Vornado/Charles E. Smith for helping with the transformation. "There's this wonderful symbiotic relationship with all these groups," Parker said.

She is especially looking forward to the opening of about 20 different artists' studios. "You'll be able to walk past and see all these artists working and stop in if you want," she said. In fact, Parker is so supportive of the idea that she is setting up her own studio to be part of the Art Underground.

Art Underground will celebrate its official launch on March 16 with an open house and free mega paint-off hosted by ArtJamz from 6 until 10 p.m.

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For the sake of full disclosure, I should admit that my wife Judy, who is an artist and a retired manager of an art gallery and custom frame shop, and I have a vested interest in seeing the Art Underground succeed. We live in Crystal City and our apartment complex's lower exit leads directly to the Gallery Underground. In fact, we jokingly refer to the entire 11-block Crystal City underground as our basement. And believe me, it's great having a world-class theater company like Synetic and ever-changing art from the gallery and Fotowalk in your basement. And I'm sure the new editions will only make our basement better.

Dining in DC: 2 Soul Classics

Now here's some real food for your soul

If you think a city nicknamed Chocolate City for the size of its African-American population would have some good soul food, you'd be right. DC has many great southern soul restaurants. Some like Vidalia, which often appears on lists of the top 10 restaurants in Washington or Georgia Brown's, where the Obamas have dined, are upscale treasures. But the real barometer for soul cooking  is in the type of comfort food that Grandmom used to make. And 2 of the best in DC are The World Famous Florida Avenue Grill and Oohs & Ahhs.

The Florida Avenue Grill, located not surprisingly on Florida Avenue, is the older of the pair, having opened in 1944. Oohh's & Aahh's on historic U Street is the more junior, having been serving diners for only a decade.

Both offer great soul food staples. Like all iconic diners, both have counter seats where you can watch food being prepared before you. The conversations are always lively and both have vocal supporters that insist their favorite meal at their favorite eatery is the best.

And both have storied histories.

For the past 35 years, The Florida Avenue Grill has been owned by Lacey Wilson Jr., whose father Lacey Sr. founded the grill a year before World War II ended. When destructive riots destroyed much of the area in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the eatery survived. Asked why, Wilson has a quick response: "Because I stayed up at that front booth all night long with a shotgun!"

Today, the walls are covered with pictures, most signed, of the famous who have enjoyed the grill. There are movie stars, music stars, sports stars, political stars, and local celebrities. Many return again and again. For example, whenever social activist Dick Gregory is in DC, you will find him doing what he has been doing for 5 decades, stopping in for the mac and cheese at the eatery which once served as a setting in a John Grisham novel.

Oohh's & Aahh's is operated by executive chef/owner Oji Abbott, a native Washingtonian. The restaurant  has consistently received the “Cheap Eats Award “, and the “Best Macaroni and Cheese“ from The Washingtonian Magazine. In 2011, it was featured on The Food Network cable TV show, "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives," hosted by Chef Guy Fiero.

As you might expect, the Hall of Fame patrons at Abbott's establishment skewer younger, with such noted diners as basketball superstar LeBron James or music megastar Jay-Z.

So what about the food - how good is it? We say really, really, really good. Both my wife and I find the fried  chicken at the Florida Avenue Grill the best we have ever tasted. I feel the same way about the fried whiting at Oohh's & Aahh's. Of course, both eateries have those wonderful southern sides - collard greens, potato salad, green beans, yams, and cornbread which you can wash down with large glasses of sweet tea, all brought to you by pleasant, outgoing servers.

So which one do you choose? The correct answer is you don't - you eat at both as often as you can.  At least that's how my wife and I handle the question. And we would suggest you follow our example if you truly want to satisfy the cravings in your soul.

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The Prices Do Dc Rating - **** (4 very full plates out of 5)

The News About the News

Does local TV news give too much emphasis to negative stories, especially crime? What will the effects of the sequester be on the country? How can TV repeatedly announce a crippling snow storm that fails to materialize?

These were just some of the questions NBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander and ABC 7's local news co-anchor Allison Starling attempted to answer last weekend when they appeared at the Newseum.

Allison Starling at her anchor desk

One of the sayings displayed on items at the Newseum is the newsroom slogan: If it bleeds, it leads, which means mayhem and violence make for an important story that should get prominent play.  Many people claim following that mantra leaves readers and viewers more frightened and that there should be more reporting on positive stories. "I understand that criticism and I think we've all been guilty of that (overemphasis on violence or destruction) at some point," Starling said. She added that since the lead stories of the night are promoted repeatedly before the actual newscast, such items do "make it seem like we are overdoing it."

Alexander said there is also an economic reason behind the decision to emphasize crime stories. "Covering crime is the easiest news to produce since everything you need is at one site, and, as a result, it is also the cheapest news you can cover."

The issue of the cuts, coming as a result of the sequester which went into effect this month, has been very much in the news and Alexander was asked about its impact. The correspondent explained that there is a 30-day period before most of the cuts begin. "We really don't know what the impact will be, but this was not the way to make cuts," he said.

Starling spoke about the news stories that reported a massive snow storm would be hitting the Washington area last week. That storm brought only heavy rain to the DC area. The co-anchor explained that the studies show that weather "is the #1 thing that people tune into local news for."

"I think as a result of that, we get ahead of ourselves at time, " Starling said.

Obviously, as a local TV market, DC is unique in that it is also the nations' capital. "I think it's the best local news market in the country. National news is local news for us. It's a challenging place to work because you think the president could be watching you," Starling said.

Alexander reports from the White House

Before he became a White House correspondent, Alexander spent more than a year covering the presidential  campaign of Republican candidate Mitt Romney.  He explained that duty brings a special set of  problems. "You hear that 'hey we've got this thing' and you begin to think he may just pull this thing off," Alexander said.  He noted that the unsuccessful end of a presidential campaign comes as an adrenaline shock to reporters, as well as the candidate and his staff.  "The end of a presidential campaign is about as abrupt as anything you will ever encounter. After all those months, at 9-ish on election day, it all ends." he said.  "One politician described it by saying 'It's like you've been driving in the Indianapolis 500 and now you're in bumper-to-bumper traffic."

Alexander said he shares the current sense of frustration that President Obama and his political team don't make themselves as available to White House reporters as the reporters believe they should. "With the new social media, there are a lot of ways to circumvent traditional media. If the White House puts out a picture of Obama playing with Bo, that's really propaganda," the correspondent maintained. "Sometimes, it's a one-way street and we want to pepper him with questions."

Starling addressed a common charge that reporters are biased in their reporting. "Of course, we bring all our life experiences to everything we cover, but you do your best to show all points of view. You have to remember it's not about me, but it's about the person involved in the story," she said.

Both Starling and Alexander expressed some concern with the increasing number of internet news sites and cable news stations that do come from a particular political view. In fact, America's increasing political polarization makes one idea clear, Alexander said. "The number of independent thinkers in the country is getting smaller and smaller," he said. To drive home his point, Alexander used a personal example. He said he has a young relative who claims to get a lot of her news from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a faux news show on the Comedy Network. "I think the guy is pretty funny, but you can't make him your sole source of news."

So how do you make sure you are getting the full news picture? "You need to read and listen to a little bit of everything. That's the only way you can fight having the blinders on," Starling said.

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Starling and Alexander share more than the same career. They are also a husband and wife who exchanged their wedding vows at the Newseum last year. To read about how they balance their professional and personal lives read The Prices Do DC post Love in the News. 

Love in the News

Allison Starling and Peter Alexander

Today, Allison Starling, the co-anchor of ABC 7's local DC news show, and NBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander made their second joint appearance at the Newseum when they participated in an Inside Media program about how busy reporters balance professional and personal lives. The pair were perfect for this assignment since at their last Newseum appearance, Starling in a gown, and Alexander in a tux, got married.

Obviously a first question for the couple was why did they choose the national museum of news on Pennsylvania Avenue for their wedding?  Starling explained that the location, combined with the fact that the museum heralded their profession, was a big factor in the decision. "We wanted something that was very Washington and we loved the view (of the Capitol, which is clearly visible from the upper floors)," she said. "It was just a perfect spot."

As background, the 2 rising media stars explained how they came together. They both met as reporters in 2001 in Seattle. "Then she blew me off for about 8 years," Alexander said with a laugh. Starling remembers it somewhat differently. She says that they remained friends for all that time. "I tried to set him up with a lot of my friends because I realized what a great catch he was," Starling said with a laugh of her own.

When they both found themselves involved in DC news, Starling heading up the 5 and 11 p.m. news reports,  and Alexander covering Mitt Romney's campaign for the White House, Starling decided to keep the great catch for herself.

Alexander maintained it was his long-distance wooing as an international correspondent that helped him finally capture the woman of his dreams. "When you call from Baghdad and say I was thinking about you but I have to get off the phone and go to the bomb shelter now, but I'll call you right back, it's worth a lot of points," he contended

But could the fact that the two work for competing news networks jeopardize their union? "Does it get a little tense during (rating) sweeps time?" host John Maynard asked.

"Well, I'm his biggest fan and I like to think that he's my biggest fan," Starling replied, refusing to take the in-jest bait.

Alexander said that the fact that they both intimately know the demands of journalism could actually strengthen their relationship. "I think that when I get a phone call in the middle of the night that sends me racing out of town, Allison will understand," Alexander said.

Do they critique each other's work? "I think she's perfect just the way she is," Alexander quickly responded.

"Laying on a little thick, today aren't you," Starling retorted.

"We're trying to figure out who buys dinner," Alexander told the crowd, who joined in the laughter.

In keeping with the lightness of the topic, Starling and Alexander were asked if their kids would work at ABC or NBC. "We are in negotiations with CBS," Alexander joked. However, the question did lead to a serious news flash. "Actually, we may have to consider that question," Starling said, announcing that the couple was expecting their 1st child in July.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
As the host does every session, Maynard warmed up the crowd before the program began. He asked who came from the most distance. One woman said Anchorage, Alaska. It appeared she would be the winner until a young man, who turned out to be a visiting journalist, answered Russia. "Hey, you can see Russia from your house, right?" Maynard then asked the woman.

The Colors of Confinement

Unless you lived in the 1940s, when you think of World War II and that era, the images you form in your mind are probably in black and white since that is the way most pictures capture the period.  So when you first encounter the Kodachrome pictures of  Bill Manbo, the colors startle, especially when you consider Manbo's subject - he was documenting the incarceration of his family and thousands of others who were in barbed wire surrounded camps simply because they were Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Manbo's poignant, powerful pictures form the focus for Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II, written by North Carolina jurisprudence and ethics professor Eric Muller. Muller recently appeared at the National Archives to discuss Manbo, the book, and one of the darker periods of freedom in American history.

Manbo's story is similar to those of all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He, his wife, and his young son Billy, were rounded up and taken from their home after President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing that all people on the West Coast of Japanese ancestry be incarcerated. Manbo's family, along with his father-in-law's family, were first placed in the Santa Anita (racetrack) assembly camp. They were then transferred to the Heart Mountain Camp in Wyoming, one of 10 such temporary facilities built to house the Japanese-Americans. From 1942 to its closing in 1945, the Heart Mountain Camp was home to 14,000 people, making it the 3rd largest city in Wyoming at the time.

During his years in the camp, Manbo satisfied his interest in photography by taking dozens and dozens of pictures of people and the stark landscape they now were forced to call home. Initially housed in plywood and tar paper shacks, the residents, used to the mild weather of California, were forced to endure temperatures that could dip as low as 13 degrees below zero.

However, despite their circumstances, the internees began immediately to try to reconstruct as much of a normal life as they could. "They wanted to preserve the dignity of the family," Muller said. "The color of Manbo's pictures show the resilience of the group and contrast with the bleakness of the camp where they had been placed. He used his camera to capture things that were beautiful or interesting to him."

But, of course beyond the beauty, the pictures also document years of a people subjected to surveillance and captivity, simply because they were considered of suspect loyalty. Eventually, authorities loosened the restrictions and internees were allowed to leave for work. Manbo went to Cleveland. His father-in-law Junzo, traveled across the country to southern New Jersey where C. F. Seabrook was building a farming empire using Japanese-American workers. However, Junzo's plans for a life at Seabrook Farms were cut short when his wife became ill and he had to return to Heart Mountain, where he and his wife became among the last to leave when the camp closed in 1945.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

My old school: The Seabrook Class of 1951, the year before I was born

The decision to incarcerate Japanese-Americans had a tremendous impact on my life, as I lived during my formative young years in the Seabrook community that Junzo visited. Initially, C. F. Seabrook employed hundreds of Japanese-Americans to work his fields and giant frozen food plant. Later, the Japanese-Americans were joined by Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, and other Eastern Europeans (we called them DPs) displaced by the ravages of World War II. In fact, growing up I wondered if there was something wrong since we were the sole family on our block who spoke only English at home. I played with friends with last names like Niji, Ogata, Ishuin, Taniguchi, and Furishima. Of course, I spent time in their homes and they in mine. I trace my love of ethnic food to the strange, wonderful smells in their kitchens. I even received an award for citizenship from the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) at my 8th grade graduation. Ironically, however, despite my closeness to the situation, I never learned of the shameful American history behind the Japanese-American concentration in my community until I studied  at Villanova University. If you would like to learn more about my early home community check out these web sites: Seabrook Farms, NJ, Seabrook at War, The Spinach King, and the Seabrook Education and Cultural Center.

The King Years: Understanding Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement

Acclaimed author Taylor Branch isn't exactly sure when he first became fixated on the issue of race and the Civil Rights Movement, but he believes it probably stems from the relationship he observed that his father,  an Atlanta dry cleaner, had in the 1950s and early 60s with his close black friend Peter Mitchell.

Branch would be in the dry cleaning shop and listened to the 2 men talk and joke, but when the time came to go to the baseball game his father and he would go see the local white team the Atlanta Crackers, while Peter could only see the black pro team, the Atlanta Black Crackers

"It was a very strange era and I could tell my Dad didn't like it," Branch says. When Branch was still a pre-teen, Mitchell died. Branch and his father went to the service, the only 2 whites there. "My Dad got up and spoke about Peter and it made a huge impact," Branch said. "I couldn't understand how there was such a bond and such intimacy, but there were all these barriers."

Two of the most significant events in American race relations bracketed Branch's youth: he was born in the same year that the Supreme Court handed down its school desegregation ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education and he completed his college studies in 1968, the year that civil rights leader Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis.

So when he began his writing career, it wasn't surprising that he chose the life of King and the Civil Rights Movement as his subject. "I think race went deeper in me than anything else," Branch says. The author wrote a 3-book series on the subject of the movement, 2,306 pages that are acknowledged to be the best, most comprehensive examination of that era ever written and also garnered Branch a Pulitzer Prize..

Now, Branch has released a much shorter work entitled The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, which explores the same time period through an examination of 18 pivotal events. Branch recently appeared at the National Museum of American History to discuss his new book.

Branch says he still "gets an awful lot of blank stares" from fellow whites who don't understand his passion for this subject. "But that is nothing compared to the adjustments that African-Americans have to make to the majority culture every waking moment of their lives," he maintains.

Studying Rev. King, the movement, and its other fearless leaders is important, Branch contends. "They are the Founding Fathers for us. Learning about Martin Luther King is a way to the future, not the past. If they could be nonviolent in the movement and have hope, then surely we can do that today," Branch told the large crowd gathered to hear his remarks.

Branch believes there have been major strides in his lifetime toward better race relation, but there still is much distance to travel. "People say race is solved and in the next breath they say it's insolvable," he said. "They say we don't need to talk about race anymore, but when everybody says it's not about race, to me it is all about race. Everybody is in a perpetual state of conflict about what to do."

Part of the difficulty might focus on an idea that Branch endorses, that slavery and racism are America's "original sin." To actually eliminate racism, a first step must be to acknowledge its deep roots. "Race was, and is, very powerful and very scary," Branch said. "Some people feel too embarrassed to talk about it. But you need to build up your comfort with discomfort. Race is the doorway to all these freedoms. But we all have to get involved. Something this pervasive cannot be done by just the bad guys."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Taylor Branch's talk was co-sponsored by the National Museum of African-American History. That museum is now under construction and is expected to open in 2015. Until then, special exhibitions and programs such as Branch's talk are being held in the History Museum.

Reporting on Ground-breaking Women

If you would like to make news history a part of your celebration of National Women's Month this March, the Newseum has designed a special visit where you can follow the trail of newsmaking women featured throughout the Pennsylvania Avenue museum.

Entitled Newsmaking Women in the Newseum, the self-guided tour offers stops on all 6 floors of the facility. Here is the itinerary:

• Concourse Level: see record-breaking female athletes including tennis champion Venus Williams in the film "Press Box: The History of Sports Reporting.
• Level 1: First, watch 19th-century investigative reporter Nellie Bly go undercover in an insane asylum in the film "I-Witness: a 4-D Time-Travel Adventure." Then, visit the Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery to view photographs.by The Washington Post's Carol Guzy, the 1st journalist to win 4 Pulitzer Prizes.
• Level 3: At the Internet, TV, and Radio Gallery discover how women have broken barriers in broadcast and digital news and see original artifacts from NPR's Susan Stamberg and TV reporter Pauline Frederick. Then, pay tribute at the World News Gallery and Journalists to female journalists who sacrificed their lives in pursuit of news.
• Level 4: Learn how the First Amendment helped women win the right vote in 1920 by checking out the First Amendment Gallery.
• Level 5: Explore the lives of pioneering female journalists like Nellie Bly, Ida B. Wells, Margaret Bourke-White, Helen Thomas, and Barbara Walters through stories and artifacts in the News History Gallery. Also peruse historic front pages including the 1868 women's suffrage newspaper The Revolution and a 1920 San Francisco Call and Post heralding the 19th Amendment, which gave U.S women the right to vote.
• Level 6: see a view of Inez Milholland leading 5,000 women down Pennsylvania Avenue on a march for voting rights in 1913.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

If you visit the Newseum before March 15, you can also check out a special outdoor exhibit on the issue of gaining the right for women to vote. There, the dramatic, behind-the-scenes story of the 1913 suffrage parade is being told in Marching  For Women's Rights, which features historic newspaper front pages and graphics. The exhibit is located in front of the Newseum

Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Bisland and the Great Race of 1889

One could often be found in the nearest saloon; the other in the nearest literary salon. One sought out the most sensational stories she could find; the other wrote about arts and culture.  One was called, scrappy, ambitious, and hard-driving; the other was referred to as the most beautiful woman in New York journalism. Considered separately, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were a study in contrast. However, their competing late 19th Century mad dash around the world captivated the nation, helped shift views about women, and changed both reporters forever.

That event is the subject of Matthew Goodman's latest book entitled Eighty Days: Nelly Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's Ground-Breaking Race Around the World.

Goodman appeared at an Inside Media program at the Newseum last weekend to talk about the 2 women and their adventure, which, from the book title you've probably guessed was an attempt to eclipse the around-the-world challenge time set in Jules Verne's classic novel, Around the World in 80 Days. The effort was historic in that it was the 1st time one trail-blazing woman, let alone 2, tried the feat on her own.

Both Bly and Bisland worked at newspapers when they were a male-dominated domain of spittoons and cursing. In fact, both women never even wrote from the newsroom - they wrote from home and delivered their stories to the office. "The newsroom was like the saloon and the voting booth," Goodman said. "Most women were relegated to the women's page writing about such things as the proper sequence of brown and white sauces at a formal dinner party. It wasn't considered appropriate for a woman to do the kind of stories that men were assigned."

Bly constantly attempted to destroy that idea. She burst into public consciousness with her stories on the horrors of a New York City insane asylum, the details of which she obtained undercover by being committed  to the truly frightening institution (Anybody else thinking this past season's American Horror Story: Asylum here?)

The idea of the world trek was Bly's. She convinced her editors at Joseph Pulitzer's World that she could accomplish the feat, and sensing a sensational story, they agreed. "At the time men didn't even want to send women across the city, let alone across the world," Goodman said. "But Nelly Bly was an incredibly fierce, independent woman. No one had been so audacious. No one had been willing to risk so much for a story." Perhaps most shocking of all was that Bly wasn't taking a slew of streamer trunks with her; she would make the trip with a single small satchel (which, by the way, is on display at the Newseum).

At the time (1889), newspapers were highly competitive, engaged in a constant battle for readers. At The Cosmopolitan (that's right, the great-great-grandmother of the same Cosmo today where you can find emaciated models and stories about 742 ways to drive your man crazy in bed) wanted in on the action. So, about 8 hours after Bly's departure, the editors there dispatched their erudite, elegant staffer Bisland on a race to best Bly. Bisland tried to get out of the assignment by claiming she was hosting a dinner party that very night. "However, the real reason was that she instantly understood that this type of story would make her stand out and she really tried to fight off fame," Goodman explained.

The public was immediately captivated. Not only was their the sexual element in the story, it would also allow quickly delivered news flashes using the telegraph - "the new radical technology and the internet of its time."

"The fact that a woman might actually do this freaked people out and annihilated their sense of space and time," Goodman added.

Bly won the race in a time of 72 days. Both women kept journals and wrote books. Not surprisingly, the books were quite different in tone since both both women set off with quite different attitudes. Bisland never really saw it as a competition, but rather a chance for her to view the world.  "Bly desperately wanted to win and said she would rather die than come back last," Goodman said.

Goodman's talk was delivered on a weekend when much of DC was focused on the 100th anniversary of the Suffrage March for the right of women to vote, a change that wouldn't come until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. So were Bly, who took part in that march, and Bisland pioneering feminists?

"They wouldn't have used the word feminist, but they were very conscious of being a woman in a male-dominated society," Goodman maintained."What they proved was that it really wasn't that difficult for a woman to do this type of thing by herself."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
You can learn more about the fascinating journalist who was Nelly Bly by visiting the Newseum. In addition to viewing her travel satchel, the story of her trip is featured in the News Corporation News History Gallery. You can also go undercover with Bly in the 4-D experience film at the Walter and Leonore Anneberg Theater.

The Women of the Washington Press

In her new book about the women of the Washington press, Maurine Beasley describes dozens of stories about how female reporters have faced sexual harassment and sexist attitudes both at work and from the news sources they covered.

But Beasley, a former reporter for The Washington Post and now a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, revealed one personal story she didn't include at a talk she gave on Women of The Washington Press: Politics, Prejudice, and Persistence this past weekend at the Newseum.

While at the Post, Beasley was experiencing a problem with a specific editor. She took her complaint to the union. There, a sympathetic representative bluntly explained the issue. "You don't have the right thing between your legs," Beasley said she was told.

It was highly appropriate that Beasley was delivering her talk on this particular Sunday. Exactly 100 years ago on that March 3 date, more than 5,000 women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue right past the present-day site of the Newseum demanding the right to vote, a decision that came in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment.

So why did Beasley choose this particular topic? "I took it on because it is so close to my heart. I've seen a lot of changes in this field," said Beasley, who has been involved in journalism for decades. "It (the story of DC women reporters) is a narrow slice of the whole cultural interaction between men and women."

Beasley talked about Ann Royal, a distinguished DC journalist from 1830 to 1854. At that time, the job was judged to be completely inappropriate for any woman. "She was written off as the town freak. However P. T. Barnum said that if she had been a man she would have been a member of Congress," she said.

The women's suffrage movement was instrumental in seeing more women move into male-dominated, spittoon- and smoke-filled newsrooms. The leaders of the movement weren't interested in talking to male reporters. That reluctance forced publishers to hire women to cover the issue.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who viewed herself as a journalist, was also responsible for expanding the number of female reporters. When her husband was president, Mrs. Roosevelt began holding press conferences for women writers only. Again, this forced a hiring of additional women to cover those news making events.

Throughout much of the 20th Century, females were usually  relegated to the women's page of the paper. Those who did cover news were often subjected to unwanted sexual advances, especially from powerful members of the DC political community. "A lot of female reporters said those advances were so routine, they didn't even bother to report it," Beasley said, adding that many people whispered that women who reported big news were "sleeping with someone" to get the story.

Today, the situation is not as prevalent. But problems still exist.  "Discrimination is more hidden and in that sense more difficult to deal with," Beasley maintains.

But despite improvements, female reporters can still face sexual challenges in their chosen career. Beasley said a fellow journalism teacher told her of a recent incident of completely inappropriate behavior. One of the professor's young female grad students encountered a prominent politician last year and told him of her admiration. "He said 'when can we get together and sleep on it," Beasley said the politician replied. "Maybe he was trying to be funny or cute. But I don't know."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
During her years at the Post, Beasley was familiar with Katherine Graham, one of the most prominent and powerful women ever in journalism. Graham took over as Post publisher after her husband died. She helped guide the paper through the Watergate era coverage that immensely enhanced the Post's
reputation and image. So how supportive of women in the newsroom was Graham? "That's an open question," Beasley said. "To the women who worked in the newsroom at the time it wasn't that visible."

Synetic Stages a Splashingly Good Tempest

Synetic's wet world of The Tempest

Wondrously wet and wild. Now that might seem an odd phrase to describe a classic Shakespeare play, but it is perfectly apt for Synetic Theater's visually stunning new version of The Tempest, a marvelously acted silent production staged entirely in a pool of water.

In the director's notes for the play, Paata Tsikurishvili explains the decision to let the actors slip, slide, and splash through water as they wordlessly tell the story of the wizard Prospero and his fantastical island filled with unforgettable images of  magic, mystery, love, revenge, and redemption.

"For me, water has all the versatility appropriate to Prospero's island story: the potential for hilarious silliness, combined with sadness, mystery, danger, and most of all, a quality of literal and figurative reflectiveness," Tsikurishvili says.

The sets, musical score, and staging work perfectly to create what is clearly one of the award-winning Synetic's strongest efforts ever. All the acting performances are commendable, but as might be expected by those familiar with the play, a wordless version allows 3 characters to truly stand out - the drunken buffoon Stephano,  the tragic monstrosity Caliban, and, most especially, the loyal spirit Ariel (an other worldly costumed mix of silver Ozian flying monkey and David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust period), played respectively by Synetic stalwarts Irakli Kavsadze, Vato Tsikurishvili, and Dan Istrate.

Stephano tackles his bottle

The monstrous Caliban mourns his dead mother

Ariel receives support from Prospero

As always with their silent Shakespeare adaptations, the Synetic actors use a mix of dance, mime, physical actions, props, lighting, music, and still and moving images to successfully convey both plot and theme. "Since our first silent production in 2002, I have often been asked, without the language, is what we do really Shakespeare," Tsikurishvili says in his play notes. "I believe it is. Shakespeare has been translated into multiple languages. We believe the language of movement is a no less valid method of exploring  his work than any other. As Shakespeare himself painted with words, we attempt to paint his words with our images, offering an archetypal Shakespeare that we know, as one reviewer put it, 'in our bones.'"

I agree. And I'm equally certain that this latest production will leave you speechless with awe and admiration for what you have just witnessed. Oh, and by the way, if you're worried about your theater-going attire, if you sit in the front rows you will be given rain gear. Trust me, take it. You'll need it.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
The Tempest is running  at the Synetic's Crystal City Underground (which, so fortunately for us, is really an extension of our Crystal Plaza Apartments basement) theater until March 24. You really don't want to miss this unique production. But if you need a little more convincing here is what DC Theater Scene had to say about the staging.  And here is a by-the-numbers account of the water involved from The Washington Post. Finally, here is the visual trailer for the play. (If you are receiving this post by email, just click here to view the trailer.)

We Are Women, Hear Us Roar

In March 1913, 5,000 women, some riding snow-white steeds but most walking, paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue to demand the right of American women to vote. Today, 100 years later, families and females of all ages flocked to the National Museum of American History to learn about that historic campaign and offer their children a chance to practice their own advocacy.

The march gets off to a good start

Artifacts from The National Woman Suffrage Parade, the first ever civil rights parade to use the nation’s capital as a backdrop, formed the focus for the day's experiences. On view were cloaks, sashes, and hats worn during the parade; copies of the day's official program; actual letters and newspaper articles about the historic event; and slogans, buttons, and banners calling attention to the cause.

In 1913, the battle for the vote was nothing new for women's rights advocates of the time. The 1st proposal to amend the Constitution and give women the right to vote was submitted to Congress in 1878. The idea for the parade is credited to activist Alice Paul, who, after spending time in England, became convinced that more in-your-face type campaigns were needed to force the issue.

To make sure the event received the maximum publicity, the parade was scheduled for March 3, one day before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. Although neither the victorious Democrats or the Republicans had included female voting as part of their campaign platform, Paul and others were convinced that a massive march would create more political support for their cause.

Inez Milholland

Activist and lawyer Inez Milholland, then 27 years old, led the parade wearing a crown and a long white cape while riding atop a large white horse named "Gray Dawn." She was joined in the march by such luminaries as Helen Keller, Ida Wells, and Nellie Bly.

The 1st float in the parade carried a giant sign proclaiming "We Demand an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Enfranchising the Women of This Country." Another float distinguished between the 9 states of light (those states at the time that allowed women to vote) and the 39 states of darkness which denied that right.

To further publicize their cause, "newsies" costumed in purple robes with green and white sashes walked along the parade route, selling a special edition of the Woman's Journal which they pulled from bags bearing the slogan Vote for Women in large green and purple letters.

The male crowd becomes unruly

Although the parade was carefully planned and scripted, organizers were caught by surprise by the outburst of violence their march caused. After a good beginning, the marchers encountered huge crowds, mostly male, on the street that should have been cleared for the parade. The women were jeered and harassed while attempting to squeeze by the scoffing crowds, and the police were of little help, many of them even participating in the attack. More than 200 people ended up being treated for injuries at local hospitals. Despite the harassment, most of the marchers finished the parade and viewed an allegorical tableau presented near the Treasury Building. 

The mistreatment of the marchers by the crowd and the police caused a national furor and kept the voting issue in the news for weeks. However, it would be 7 more years before victory was achieved with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

This marcher approves

After learning about the parade and the history surrounding it, youngsters were encouraged to visit several stations where they could create items for their own social justice campaigns.  Two of the stations allowed young activists to create posters calling attention to issues they believe need to be addressed.  Another allowed them to post their thoughts about the greatest women living today. Visitors could hear DC singers perform songs associated with the early 20th Century voting battle. Experts in period costumes were also on hand to talk about the issues of the time with those interested.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
If you want to see and learn more about the Suffrage Parade, the museum is planning to keep the 30-foot long showcase that recreates the mood of the parade and illustrates its impact on display at least through this spring.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Want to see The Book of Mormon in DC? Good luck with that.

Back in the 1960's when I first started going to concerts and theater events, you didn't have to plan your night  months in advance. You could pretty much decide you wanted to see someone like Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the Who, or even the Rolling Stones at 6 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday night, jump in a car and drive to the venue (for me, it was usually either the Spectrum in Philly or Steel Pier in Atlantic City), pay your money (in those days a ticket went for single-digit dollars), grab your seat or floor space, and enjoy the show. In fact the only time I was ever turned away in advance for a concert was a 2-show appearance at the Spectrum by Elvis in 1969.

But, to borrow from Bob Dylan (whom I also saw a few times as a walk-in), how times have changed.  And I'm not even talking about event prices. In this age of ticket scalpers and internet ticket resale sites like StubHub, not only must you commit to a popular event months in advance, you might not even then be able to get a ticket unless you want to pay astoundingly inflated prices. Nothing better illustrates the current situation than this week's saga of the advance sale of DC tickets for the Broadway award-winning hit The Book of Mormon, which is coming to the Kennedy Center this summer.

The tickets for the wildly anticipated religious musical satire by the creators of South Park went on pre-sale to Kennedy Center members only. (For the sake of full disclosure, my wife and I are Kennedy Center subscribers, but we didn't seek Book of Mormon tickets). What resulted was an amazing tale of supply, demand, greed, and modern technology. (If you want to read a 1st person account of a how-the-heck-do-I-get-a-ticket-to-this-event, you can in the Tales, Tidbits, and Tips section at the end of this post, which describes in hour-by-hour detail the travails of one local DC ticket buyer).

At 10 a.m on Wednesday, in what Kennedy Center officials are calling "unprecedented demand," more than 6,000  potential ticket buyers attempted to log on to the Kennedy Center's website, causing the system to crash, a malfunction so severe that the site had not been fully restored by late Thursday.

The ticket rush was not unexpected since center officials had been informing members by email that they expected demand to be significant. Apparently, however, the amount of that significance did catch officials by surprise.

The Kennedy Center spent the day Wednesday sending out Tweets and Facebook posts, explaining the situation and apologizing for the inconveniences. Of course, the apologies, though numerous and sincere, did not help buyers procure the tickets they wanted.

Finally, late Thursday afternoon, the Kennedy Center sent out a final email, again apologizing for the glitches,explaining what happened, and announcing that, despite the problems, the members-only tickets (which had also been offered at the venue itself) were sold out, meaning that no non-member of the public would have access to the show unless they purchased tickets from an agency or on-line dealer. A check Friday morning proved that hundreds (and probably many thousands) of Book of Mormon tickets were available at ticket dealers online for any performance date.The tickets that I viewed ranged in cost from $157 to $800.  Of course, those prices pale when compared to the $10,000 tickets I saw advertised for the recent 2 New Jersey shows by the Rolling Stones.

Now I understand that you can't turn back the clock. The 60's days of easy access to popular events are as gone as the 15-cent hamburgers we used to eat after those shows. I completely understand if a show sells out. That's good for the venue and great for the performers. But something strikes me as fundamentally wrong if you have to give money to a 2nd-party ticket agent or scalper to see that show. If I am going to pay $800 to see a religious satire, then both the outgoing and the incoming Popes, as well as the person they claim to represent on this Earth, better have starring roles.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
While I only watched the Kennedy Center ticket story unfold from afar, others had a more involved position. Here is a highly entertaining account from DC Theater Scene writer Stephen McKnight about his attempt to get The Book of Mormon tickets. Click here to access the article.