8.13 - endless summer
what’s new in washington d.c.?
As a carless Washingtonian in a summer with not much to do, seeing all sorts of car required drive-in movie options was kind of a bummer. But, it looks like the tide is turning for us transportation-restricted individuals missing movies! In addition to The Wharf’s Sunset Cinema, Navy Yard’s The Bullpen is showing two Harry Potter movies this weekend with picnic table seating.
The Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden reopens on Monday if you’re looking for a new place to wander outside and/or pretend to understand the meaning of modern art pieces (just me?).
let’s talk food
Turns out I’m not the only one who’s been craving sandwiches throughout quarantine. Washingtonian highlights a bunch of d.c. restaurants that have rolled out new sandwich concepts during the pandemic, including Columbia Heights’ Room 11, Union Market’s Coconut Club, and Shaw’s HalfSmoke.
Grilled pizza? Say no more. The new Mercy Me all day cafe in West End is serving a wide range of “sorta South American” eats, with a wide range of food and drink selections from breakfast to dinner.
what’s on our minds?
Washingtonian collaborated with designers and architects to reimagine some of d.c.’s best known spots in the age of COVID. I’m partial to the downtown d.c. treescape and the Kennedy Center “beehive theater,” but it’s fun to look through all of the creative ideas.
While homelessness continues to be a pervasive issue in the District (but improving by some metrics!), Washington City Paper highlights a recent positive step taken by the city: moving the last of families experiencing homelessness out of a scorned Days Inn motel in Northeast D.C. into apartments or short-term housing programs. The Days Inn was particularly problematic for residents, with long-standing complaints about substandard housing conditions and security concerns.
Quick links to other weekly #goodreads:
What Is MasterClass Actually Selling? - per The Atlantic, “MasterClass seems ideally suited to frustrated 30-somethings for whom education has not necessarily resulted in upward mobility or even a job.”
How social justice slideshows took over Instagram - per Vox, “ The 10-image carousel, which Instagram launched in 2017, has been repurposed by activists, independent artists, advocacy groups, and well-meaning individuals as a means to educate and inform the masses, one slide at a time. Consider it something like PowerPoint activism. Over the past few months, these slides have migrated their way into my Explore page or been reposted on Stories of my friends and followers; in fact, these posts became so popular that I encountered similar designs and sentiments across multiple Stories. The most striking graphics stood out in my feeds, almost like an advertisement.”
Number Fever: The Pepsi Contest That Became a Deadly Fiasco- per Bloomberg Businessweek, “Decades ago, a marketing stunt promised Philippine soda drinkers a chance at a million pesos. But an error at a bottling plant led to 600,000 winners—and to lawsuits, rioting, and even deaths.”
The pandemic will make movies and TV shows look like nothing we’ve seen before - per The Washington Post, “No crowd scenes. Few locations. Limited romance. Hollywood entertainment is about to get really strange.”
what are we watching/reading?
The Power by Naomi Alderman. I realize I’m very late to the game on this book, but bear with me - I just got a Kindle and am tearing a long list of books I’ve meant to read (thanks d.c. public library!). The Power, released in 2016, imagines a world where women all of a sudden gain the ability to deploy a powerful electrical current as a weapon. While the book begins as a subversion of typical gender roles, it ultimately exposes the corrosive danger of power, regardless of its holders.
Love on the Spectrum on Netflix. This touching unscripted show follows a range of young adults on the autism spectrum looking for love. While a show like this could veer into the saccharine, I found it to be appropriately observant, touching, and eye-opening. And, unlike in many other dating shows, genuine and earnest feelings of love (or searching for love) radiated off the screen.
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‘til next time -courtney