My Memorial Day Weekend

Most years I travel for Memorial Day weekend, either visiting friends or seeing my parents when they lived closer, but this year I stayed in the DC area for the holiday. I actually also had Friday off from work, so I had a FOUR day weekend! Here's what I got up to:

Friday

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A friend and I took a nature walk in Mason Neck State Park, which isn't too far from where he lives in Alexandria. It's nice that you don't have to pay to visit (some parks do have a fee, like at Burke Lake Park), and since we went on Friday morning, we were the only ones there. It was lovely walking through the trees, and we saw so much wildlife! My friend almost stepped on a garter snake, and we saw a beaver swimming in the water; we also saw a bald eagle while we were driving. Wildlife sightings always amaze me: if we had been a minute earlier or later, we never would have seen them! 

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The walk didn't take very long (especially when you're an avid hiker like I am), so we decided to head to Occoquan for lunch. We walked around the historic town, which is very cute, with lots of shops, restaurants, and colorful Victorian-style buildings. We got sandwiches at the Ballywhack Shack (so good!) and had a picnic by the river. And even though it's a small town, there must be at least four or five ice cream places to choose from for dessert. We ended up picking Anderson's Country Store because they had the best price, the place smelled delicious (they were smoking pork), and they had a cute backyard area to sit and relax. Highly recommend!

That night my boyfriend hosted a BBQ and invited some of his friends and neighbors over. Having a BBQ over Memorial Day weekend is such an American tradition, so we loved providing so much food (and piña coladas!) to our guests. We had chicken, ribs, and hamburgers on the grill, and we had so many sides: chips and guac, potato chips, coleslaw, corn salad and quinoa salad (both leftover from a work event!), and more. And one of the neighbors, who is a close friend, has a daughter who works at Bakeshop in Falls Church, so she brought over cupcakes. Yummy!

Saturday

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After my morning Orange Theory class, I went down to Alexandria for a yoga class at Radiance Yoga. A colleague of mine goes there, and they have a two-week unlimited special for new people. I had taken one class the weekend before, so this was my second time at the studio. The space is beautiful with lots of natural light, and since I don't do yoga regularly like I did pre-pandemic, I enjoyed the extra stretching.

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To continue my day of activity, after having a quick snack my boyfriend and I visited Lake Accotink at colleague's suggestion. It was a very sunny day, and most of this walk is shaded, so that was perfect. The loop around the lake is more than three miles (maybe even closer to five?), so we walked for a long time. You can't see the lake during most of the walk, since you're in the woods, but you do see streams; at one point you have to walk through a neighborhood to continue on the nature path, which was a little strange. We liked being outside, and we would definitely go ahead, next time going around the lake in the opposite direction!

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After such an active day, we should have taken it easy for the rest of the night. But nope! We headed downtown to go to a rehearsal of the National Memorial Day Concert. My friend is married to the tuba player of the NSO, so he has played this holiday concert for many years. So we joined her for a picnic as we watched the show. The rehearsals on both Friday and Saturday are open to the public, but less crowded than the real concert on Sunday, so it was nice that it wasn't crowded at all. BUT for safety reasons, a lot of the walkways are blocked off, and since we got off at the wrong metro stop, we ended up walking for FORTY minutes before eventually getting to the western lawn of the Capitol (it felt like the Kentucky Derby all over again!). We found my friend and practically collapsed on her picnic blanket. But once we were finally sitting down, it was good to catch up with her and have some snacks. The concert itself was of course somber, since the event is about the memory of Americans soldiers lost in the many wars of our country's history. The performance was a mix of songs (I liked seeing Phillip Phillips and Jo Dee Messina best) and speeches, the latter featuring family members of those who lost their lives or were POWs. I definitely got teary-eyed a few times listening to their very personal stories of grief. This concert is held every year (and similar concerts are organized for the 4th of July and Labor Day as well), and yet this was the first time I ever even heard of it, let alone watched it. It's such a DC thing to do, and I'm glad I got to experience it and take that moment to remember our lost veterans.

You can watch a full video of the concert here:

Sunday

After my boyfriend and I worked out, I visited my grandmother for a little while just to check up on her. My poppop was in the Navy, so it felt appropriate to visit her over the holiday weekend (he passed two years ago). She and I walked (strolled is more like it) around the courtyard of her senior living center, and it was nice to talk with her and spend time together. After I returned to my boyfriend's house, he and I had breakfast before he scooted off to go motorcycle riding. 

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While he was riding, I went back to Bethesda and took a walk with a sorority sister along the Capital Crescent Trail. It's so convenient to have this lovely path right from the heart of downtown Bethesda. My friend and I had the chance to catch up, since I hadn't seen her in about a month, and she told me all about her mom visiting over Mother's Day weekend and her trip to Clearwater for a bachelorette party. We walked for over an hour, so just another day of nature walking for me!

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That night my boyfriend and I went to the Wharf to buy Billy Idol tickets at the Anthem's box office (wanted to avoid those online fees!). Since we were already down there, we had drinks at Cantina Bambina and Tiki TNT. From afar we saw a pop-up for Whistle Pig bourbon, but by the time we walked over there it had already closed. Darn it! 

Monday

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A friend and his girlfriend were visiting the area for the holiday weekend, so we met up for some more Radiance yoga before picking up breakfast from South Block (I got their points since they don't have the app. Woot!) and eating our acai bowls on the Old Town Alexandria waterfront.

Screen shot from Google Maps

Before the rain set in, my boyfriend and I took his dog on a long walk along the trail leading to Howard E. Harman Stream Valley Park. We have passed this entrance several times (just past Penzey's Spices on Broad Street in Falls Church), but I have never walked the path. It takes you into a neighborhood, so you can either turn around or just return higher up on Broad Street and make your way back. Not really a destination for a walk, but if you are already in the area, it is a nice way to get outside.

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We braved the rain that night to meet up with another couple for dinner at Millie's in Spring Valley. Even though this restaurant is right up the road from American University (where I worked for almost four years), I had only ever been to Millie's once before. I think they were understaffed, and because everyone was inside instead of outside because of the weather, the staff seemed overwhelmed. Also, it seems like the vents in the ceiling leak (especially when it's raining), so make sure to sit away from the windows in case you go on a stormy day! The food and drinks are good, but it's a little expensive for what it is. Our bill was nearly $200 just for four of us to go out to dinner! And it's not even a fancy place! Maybe that's why I only visited once before...

SUCH a packed weekend, despite not traveling for the holiday!

Movies from the 2023 JxJ Film Festival [SPOILERS]

 

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I have purchased a pass for the Washington Jewish Film Festival (or JxJ Festival) for several years (read my blog posts from 2017, 2018, and 2019). Of course the festival didn't happen in 2020 or 2021, and while it did take place last year, I guess I was lazy and didn't write about it. But I'm back to my film reviews this time around!

In total, I was able to see eight films. The festival just happened to fall during a time when I was already busy supporting the arts in other ways. (I saw the play Here There Are Blueberries at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, caught Hunter Hayes in concert at Sixth & I, and watched a production about RBG at the Lincoln Theatre in the same week.*) Here are my thoughts about the movies I saw.

Karaoke

This was my first movie of the festival... and it wasn't my favorite. It's mostly about a middle-aged couple who isn't very happy, and then they meet a "cool" new neighbor. In a way, that character inspires them to be more open and free, but he's also a bad influence, causing jealousy and other bad behavior (plus, he does hard drugs). In general I didn't find the characters likeable, although I can appreciate the way the couple was realistically portrayed after two people are married for several decades. I just can't say I would ever watch this movie again or recommend it to anyone else.

Bella

One of my favorite parts about the JxJ Film Festival is the fact that they show a lot of documentaries about Jewish women who did incredible things with their lives. Bella is just that. This film is about Bella Lewitsky, who was an American dancer and choreographer who really put modern dance on the map for the West Coast (dance used to be seen as an East Coast thing, with New York snubbing their nose at L.A. for not having any culture). Even though modern dance is not my cup-of-tea, I do appreciate the arts, and I admire women who have a great impact on the arts and try to protect them for the future. It was cool watching her dance and learning about her career, from dancer to choreographer to having her own dance company. I also appreciate that she was a woman of principle. Her dance company was going to receive a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, but there was a clause saying that in accepting the grant, the company couldn't create any art that could be interpreted as pornography. She felt like that was a kind of censorship, an attack on the First Amendment, and so she did not accept the grant, but rather sued the National Endowment. She was putting her own dancers and company at risk, but it was for the greater good. And she achieved all this success despite being blacklisted for many years during the Red Scare relating to communism. I really enjoyed learning about Bella and her life, and as a supporter of the arts, I can now have admiration for her and her work, too. 

Haute Couture

This film is mostly about an older woman whose career in the Dior atelier is ending, and her relationship with a street urchin (if you will) whom she takes under her wing to help give her a better life. They meet when the young woman and her friend rob the seamstress (and then return the belongings). The young girl lives in a bad part of town and takes care of her mother who has mental health issues; the seamstress wants to introduce this girl to a new world of possibilities, of learning a skill and being surrounded by beauty. While their relationship has ups and downs, they both grow as people in knowing one another. I love fashion, so I enjoyed that part of the movie, and there were surprisingly many ASMR moments, like hair play and touching fabrics and flowers; I was feeling those tingles! I think my least favorite parts were the sex scenes, because the actress looks too young to be having sex, but that's just me being a prude!

Story of Annette Zelman

This movie is based on a true story, and I really enjoyed that it focused on the love story aspect. Although the title mentions Annette Zelman, the film doesn't just follow her, but also the man she falls in love with and hopes to marry. His father is against the match, and he speaks to higher-ups in the German army to break up the couple. He didn't intend her any harm, but of course she is arrested for no reason other than being Jewish; she spends over a year in two different prisons before reaching her demise in Auschwitz. The film does show her in the first two prisons (and her fiancé's visits at the second one), but they do not show her transport to Auschwitz or her short time there. We follow her lover's quest to save her, mainly hoping his powerful father can help without knowing that his father did this to Annette in the first place; he eventually goes to the front hoping to find her and is killed in the war. The movie ends showing Annette's younger sister (who also acts as the narrator of the film) getting married and dancing at her wedding; the scene flips back and forth between that couple dancing and Annette and her fiancé dancing, if only they had had the chance to get married. The boy's father attends this wedding, and I cannot imagine the guilt he felt for destroying Annette's life, causing such pain to her family, and disappointing and in the end losing his only son. I thought this was one of the better movies I saw at the festival this year.

Shadow of the Day

I don't understand the title of this film, but that's the least of my concerns. This movie was SO boring: in two hours, the only interesting thing that happened was one murder. The majority of the film just shows people working in a restaurant, and occasionally interesting people come in; and of course there's the cliché of hiding a Jew during World War II. And when the movie wasn't boring, it was weird. A couple of times there were scenes of schoolgirls in their uniforms doing rhythmic gym exercises, like with hula hoops or on roller skates; it was as if they were putting on a show for the restaurant specifically, and it just so happened that no one else was in the square at that same time. Huh? If I thought I didn't like the movie Karaoke, I certainly thought this film was worse, and I honestly couldn't wait for it to be over. 

Schächten

I saw this movie with my boyfriend as "date night." But... it was not very romantic. This film is meant to be based on a true story, but some parts of it were so dramatic that I wasn't sure which parts were based on reality. Essentially a young man named Victor (played by Jeff Wilbusch, who looks like Paul Rudd) lived in the wilderness and saw his family get slaughtered by Nazis on horseback. So he has made it his goal to get revenge, especially when one particular Nazi gets acquitted in court. He harasses the man and his wife, and even though Victor is beaten and threatened, he continues after the man, until in the end he kidnaps the Nazi's wife (using her as bait) and then traps the Nazi in a cave in the woods leaving nothing in the cave except for a knife. So it sort of makes sense that the movie is called schächten, which translates to shechita, which is a Jewish ritual of slaughtering animals with a knife. It's a long movie with a couple of particularly gory parts (I covered my eyes), and I can't say I'm glad that I saw it.

A Pocketful of Miracles: A Tale of Two Siblings

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Unfortunately I was unable to find a trailer for this film, probably because it's so new. And while it does share the same title as an older film, they are not the same!

This is a documentary about a brother and sister, David and Helene, who survived World War II, separately, but they found each other. The Polish siblings were raised by a linguist mother and a father who was a successful businessman. They went into hiding when the Nazis began taking Jews to the trains, but they were found and all taken to the train station (except the grandmother, who was killed on-site, to which Helene said "was the best thing that could have happened," so that the grandmother didn't suffer in the camps). The rest of the family went on the train, but Helene had received a letter from her father telling her to go to another family's home. While she was only a teenager and wished to be with her family, she did go to the address, and she survived the war from moving from place to place without being caught. Her brother, on the other hand, went through most of the war in Auschwitz with their father by his side. The father helped protect David, but when David was sick and had to go to an infirmary, their father gave up, thinking his son was dead (they already knew the mother and younger sister had already been gassed, so the father felt like there was nothing to live for). But David did regain his health and escaped into the woods during one of the death marches. Through talking with Russian and American soldiers, and learning about his sister's survival (she had been recognized for giving apples to men walking on the marches and eventually was hired to work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilition Administration (UNRRA), David was able to find her and the two reconnected, eventually making their way to America separately. And they both led successful, long lives until their passings.

Wolf Blitzer moderating a conversation with Aviva Kempner, the director of the film.

The movie was directed by Helene's daughter, Aviva Kempner, who is now 75 years old and a second generation survivor. The movie consists of family photos and videos, as well as pictures and clips from true events or from other films portraying the events of World War II (fifty sources!). The most moving footage are from interviews with her mother Helene and her Uncle David about their experiences. These primary sources were provided to the Shoah Foundation, which was created by Steven Spielberg after he was inspired by WWII Jewish survivors during the filming of Schindler's List. The stories of Helene and David were already amazing, but to hear and see them tell it themselves was even more incredible. She clearly was a charismatic, vivacious person who spoke her mind; her honesty of how she truly felt about different people brought the audience to laughter several times ("sorrow with humor" is common with Jews); at the beginning of the film she demands that "nothing be edited," which of course isn't possible! And David was so humble, even after becoming very successful to the point of meeting multiple presidents (actually both siblings knew the Carters). Even after what he has been through, he has such an optimistic viewpoint on life, believing that everything happens for a reason. Both siblings achieved the "American dream" after going through so much. 

After the screening, we had the chance to hear from the director who was in conversation with CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer. He also was the child of parents who survived the war; his family came to Buffalo, NY when he was a baby. His father provided an interview to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum so that those memories were not lost. Blitzer and Kempner discussed how they didn't ask their parents about the war because it wasn't something anyone talked about (or wanted to talk about). They discussed how important these survivor interviews are so that we don't forget what happen, and we have that proof to show Holocaust deniers. This was such a personal film that was so well done, and I'm glad I could see it as well as hear from the director herself.

Valeria is Getting Married

This was not the best movie for me to end the festival with. I didn't like any of the characters, and I felt like they brought the worst out in each other. A young woman from Ukraine, Christina, is betrothed to a man in Israel, and she brings her younger sister, Valeria, to Tel Aviv for her to meet a future husband as well; the first woman's fiancé, Michael, has arranged for the travel as well as the "marriage" between Valeria and Etian (who is paying Michael $5,000 for a "wife"). But Valeria doesn't like her betrothed and locks herself in the bathroom. Christina eventually goes in there with her, but Valeria tosses the key out the window, and now both women are locked in the bathroom while the two men are awkwardly waiting in the living room. Eventually they do come out, and despite the weirdness of the situation, Christina takes Valeria to the airport to go home, and that's how it ends.

The characters were just so unlikeable:

• Christina is being selfish in bringing her sister to Israel; it's simply that she's lonely and doesn't have many friends, so she wants Valeria there with her, even if it's in an unhappy marriage.
• Valeria is being very rude and immature when locking herself in the bathroom instead of handling the situation like an adult.
• Michael is only thinking about the money he is getting paid and doesn't care if Valeria is happy in the marriage or not. He's also rude to Christina, threatening that he could send her back to Ukraine so she wouldn't get her Israeli citizenship.
• Etian comes on WAY too strong with Valeria even though they have only skyped a few times before their meeting. And when he is rejected, he insists that he doesn't want any other woman, that she's the one, and that he loves her. He barely knows her! So he comes off like some sort of psycho, and then you're glad Valeria doesn't want to be with him. 

So... I wasn't a big fan of this year's festival. There were films, mainly the documentaries, that I thought were good, but in general there were too many films I didn't like for me to fully enjoy myself. This will probably be my last year buying a full festival pass, since I felt like I not only didn't get my money's worth, but also wasted several hours of my life that I'll never get back (especially on beautiful, sunny days in May!).

*Here are those related blog posts if you're interested:

• Play Review: Here There Are Blueberries
• Hunter Hayes Concert at Sixth & I
• All Things Equal: The Life & Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

All Things Equal: The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 

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I always admired Ruth Bader Ginsburg from the moment I learned who she was. I was especially enamored after watching the documentary RBG, which highlighted not only her esteemed career but also her loving and devoted family life.

This performance does the same thing. Michelle Azar plays RBG in this one-woman show, and for nearly two hours she is up on stage on her own filling some figuratively big shoes (I assume Ginsburg's real feet were quite tiny for such a petite woman). She mimics the late Supreme Court Justice's mannerisms, especially in speaking slowly and deliberately when giving oral arguments. She worked the stage well (set as the Justice's chambers), and her costume changes were seamless (I especially enjoyed when she was wearing a bright pink workout jacket). I also thought it was fun when she broke the fourth wall, treating the audience like a friend of her granddaughter who is in the office interviewing the Justice for a history project. I thought Azar did a wonderful job of embodying the late Justice.

Throughout the show, images and videos were played on a big screen, such as pictures of abolitionists like Susan B. Anthony, former and current Supreme Court Justices (i.e. a lot of old white men), and this "music video" featuring Kate McKinnon from Saturday Night Live:

I am always impressed by one-person plays (read my blog post about Becoming Dr. Ruth), and this one did not disappoint. But if you have had seen the documentary about her, or even the biopic On The Basis of Sex, I'm not sure you need to see this show, since you already know the story!

Last Day of My Kentucky Trip

 

My last day in Kentucky started with a tour at the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Buffalo Trace is my boyfriend's favorite bourbon, so we were really looking forward to this tour. And it did not disappoint! Just like our previous distillery tours in Kentucky (check out those blog posts here and here), our tour guide was fun and knowledgeable. I didn't realize how many brands fall under the Buffalo Trace name, or that they're all made under five main mash bills (including one for rye products). That means all of the products are made of most of the same stuff; the name and cost differences come from how long it's been aged and where it was stored (at the top of the building, where it's hot, or at the bottom where it's cool). So Ancient Age and Blanton's really aren't that different!

We had the chance to visit several buildings on the campus:

This is where the barrels go after they've aged but before they're emptied.

It's hard to see, but the barrels are being emptied into this trough.
The trough is full of the bourbon as well as bits of char from inside the barrels.

Buffalo Trace has won many awards, almost like a sports team!

This is where the bottling happens. Every bottle of Blanton's comes out of here! And fun fact: did you know that each little horse on the top of a bottle on Blanton's has a little letter on it? There are eight total: B-L-A-N-T-O-N-S. And each horse is a little different, so it looks like a horse running the Kentucky Derby, with the "S" jockey holding up his fist in victory!

Then we enjoyed our tasting, which included some of their spirits as well as a cranberry lemonade cocktail. Yummy! And the next stop was the gift shop. They didn't have our sizes in most of their T-shirts (too bad), but we did end up buying a lot of liquor and other souvenirs. They sent us back to our car carrying a big cardboard box full of goodies!

After our tour and tasting, we left Kentucky and headed to Cincinnati, Ohio. We grabbed lunch to-go from the Cincy Gourmet Deli (probably the best food we ate during the entire trip) and then headed for the Cincinnati Zoo. We were already planning to visit Ohio for a baseball game, but when I realized that Fritz the baby hippo that I love seeing on Twitter is at the Cincinnati Zoo, I insisted we add the stop to our itinerary.

Here are some fun photos:

I'm shorter than a baby giraffe!

Fritz was sleeping in the corner of his enclosure, so I got a nasty glare on this photo.
But at least I can say I saw him!

This tortoise was loving his waterfall. It was like a cooling shower for him!

We loved watching the manatees eat! I don't think I've ever seen manatees in captivity before, so this was very cool.
And we could get pretty close to them (well, minus the glass). Such peaceful creatures!

We were only at the zoo for two hours, and we didn't get to see everything (we never even got to the botanical gardens!), but we needed to drop our things and the car off at the hotel before heading to the Mets v. Reds game happening that night. We relaxed for a few minutes in the room, but after that we walked over to the Great American Ball Park to check it off our baseball-stadiums-to-visit list!

They have an area called "DORA" outside of the ballpark where you can walk around with drinks.
It was such a pretty day, so we enjoyed sipping our beverages out there before the game.

This is a very cool mosaic inside the stadium. Imagine how long it took to make that!

The Reds' version of Mrs. Met!

We forgot to take a photo together at the game! But Steve was happy to support his Mets.

The Mets were losing by a lot at first, but then they hit several home runs and almost tied the game, so that was exciting! They ended up losing, but we still had a really fun time. We especially liked that it was "bark in the park" night, so people brought their dogs to the stadium. The Kiss Cam even showed people kissing their dogs! 

The next day we drove back home. We were sad that our trip was over, but our next vacation is right around the corner! Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post after I get back from my trip to Sarasota, FL!

Hunter Hayes in Concert at Sixth & I

 

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I couldn't name any songs that Hunter Hayes sings, but I know I've heard his name on country music radio stations. When I learned he would be performing at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, I thought that was a bit unexpected (the venue doesn't host many country music stars, although I did see LeAnn Rimes there years ago). But it's a great, small venue and a very convenient location downtown, so I bought tickets. After my friend and I had dinner at the newest location of Mi Vida, we headed over for the show. 

Because Sixth & I is an intimate venue, there really are no bad seats (and they had closed the balcony). We were sitting in the back but could still see everything; our seats were probably ideal with the huge speakers and bright lights at the front. I was surprised by the large set-up, because the space isn't really made for that. It's better for an acoustic set without a lot of equipment, instruments, etc. 

His opener at least understood that part. I had never heard of Loren Gray, but supposedly she's been a Tik Tok star since she was 13 years old. (I feel ancient just using the term "Tik Tok star." I will never understand how these people are famous.) This was only her third show ever, so she was clearly nervous; she even forgot to introduce herself! She sang an acoustic set with just a guitar player with her. Well, it was mostly acoustic, except for the synthesizer that completely changed her voice. I couldn't even tell you if she has any talent because I couldn't truly hear what she sounds like.

Here are some videos of her songs:

Enough for You

Queen

Piece of Work

Guilty (the only song I actually remember hearing)

Even though she only sang four short songs for 13 minutes, it still took nearly 45 minutes for Hunter to get on stage. What could possibly have taken so long? She and her guitarist were just up there on two stools: what could they have messed up to delay the show? I feel like Hunter purposefully wasn't going on stage until closer to 9 o'clock. Ugh.

He was so back-lit by those bright lights that it was sometimes hard to see anything!

He was promoting his new album, Red Sky, which I did not realize is NOT a country album. All of the songs were definitely pop, and most of the people in the crowd were college-aged women in high-waisted jeans. I only recognized one song, which was an older throw-back. I didn't like his new songs: most of them sounded like songs you would hear in a suicide prevention or St. Jude's commercial (You know, the kind of sayings like, "Have faith," "You are not alone," etc.). And he didn't do a lot of love songs. He even told people in the crowd who were in love, "I hate you, but I'm happy for you." WTF? Honestly, the best part of his show was when the drummer did his own solo. 

Here are some of his songs, old and new:

Missing You (my favorite song of the night)

Storm Warning (the only song I recognized)

Lonely Loves Me

Friend

Invisible

Wanted (I actually love this song and totally forgot he sang it. We left the show early, so if he did perform it, I missed it.)

It was just a "meh" show for me. When you're expecting country music and that's not what you get (like when I saw Kip Moore in 2022), you inevitably leave disappointed.

I'm seeing Jason Aldean, the Chicks, Drake Milligan, and Russell Dickerson later this year. They better bring on the country vibes!

Play Review: Here There Are Blueberries [SPOILERS]

 

Members of the League of German Girls, who worked for the SS, eating blueberries. Image found here

I found out about "Here There Are Blueberries" through the DC JCC. They partnered with the Shakespeare Theatre Company on this show and offered discounted tickets. I didn't know too much about the play, but I like supporting the arts, and I love a good deal, so I thought I'd go. I went on my own and headed to Sidney Harman Hall for the show Tuesday night. The show is only 90 minutes long with no intermission, so it's the perfect length!

This isn't the kind of play that has characters and a plot. It's more of a true story being told through a performance (or "documentary theater"). The show opens with a monologue (by Nemuna Ceesay) about the Leica camera that revolutionized photography: roughly during the time between the two World Wars, the personal camera was invented so that anyone could be a photographer anytime, anywhere. And this show focuses on a photo album that was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in 2007. What was so special about the album? It featured pictures of Auschwitz, but none of the photos showed any prisoners; they were all photographs of SS officers and other German staff members at their leisure, including at a resort lodge located only miles from the concentration camp. Many pictures like that had been lost or destroyed, either completely or in part (for example, sometimes the SS insignia on the uniforms would be torn out of photographs). So this album was, and is, a big deal.

Image found here. Photo credit: Rich Soublet II/La Jolla Playhouse

The show centers around Rebecca Erbelding (played by Elizabeth Stahlmann), a real-life archivist and historian at USHMM, who worked on the project of dissecting this album: Should it be part of a collection that is meant to honor the victims, not glorify the persecutors? Who are the people in the pictures? When and where were they taken? The set of the play is the basement of the museum, where the historians, researchers, and the like work in the archives. There are several tables with desk lamps filling the stage, with a stone foundation backdrop. Throughout the show, images were projected onto the walls as well as the tables (they would be flipped up vertically). I really liked how the production brought the photos to life, not only by enlarging them and increasing the clarity, but also by adding color or even sound (for example, for the title picture, the actors would laugh and use bowls and spoons to make the scraping sound of the women eating blueberries from their cups.). It was almost jarring, hearing such laughter, because you know just a few miles away, millions of people were being systematically killed. The pictures show the human side of Nazis and makes you wonder how much they knew (especially the young women working in communications): How could these young girls be Nazis, but also, how could they be blind to the genocide happening around them?

Elizabeth Stahlmann playing Rebecca Erbelding. Image found here. Photo by Rich Soublet II.

As Stahlmann is telling the story of the album, we learn about the global reaction it received when the USHMM released the photographs to the public. One German man recognized his grandfather in several of the pictures; while his grandfather never discussed the war much (clearly), he did say, despicably so, that it was "the best time of [his] life." Another descendant recognized his grandfather as well. His grandfather had been a doctor at Auschwitz and was horrified by the typhus epidemic and malnutrition at the camp; he nearly eradicated typhus there and really helped the prisoners. He wanted to quit the job (seeing that what was happening there was obviously very wrong), but his father and clergyman told him that what he was doing was right; even the prisoners asked for him to stay on, because they feared that things would be even worse without him (which is probably true). So this man stayed in his position as a doctor at the camp, but eight years after the war, he killed himself. Those two grandfathers had very different experiences as SS doctors at Auschwitz, and none of us may have known their stories without their grandsons coming forward. That first grandson talked about how his parents' generation didn't talk about what happened in the war, so his generation needed to be different, and it is.

Later on in the play, someone else (also played by Stahlmann) donates another photo album, but this time the pictures are of the actual camp at Auschwitz, showing thousands of Jews upon arrival from the trains. The most amazing part of this story is the connection between the person who found the album and the photos inside of it. Upon liberation of the camp, a young Jewish woman collapsed from her malnourishment. She was resting inside an SS office building on site, and when she got cold, she looked in a cabinet for a blanket. Instead she found a photo album. As she flipped through the pictures, she saw faces she knew: her grandparents, her two little brothers, herself with a shaved head. She realized that these photographs were taken on the day of her family's arrival to Auschwitz from Hungary; she was the only survivor. Stahlmann was just as wonderful portraying this survivor as she was performing Erbelding; I felt like she had transformed into this Hungarian woman, and her tears nearly brought me to tears, too. 

The work on the museum (and in part this play) is to "take experience and turn it into knowledge," broadening the captured moment of an individual and extrapolating it for the general public. I visited Yad Vashem in Israel (read that blog post here), so after seeing this show, I may finally have to visit the Holocaust Museum in my own backyard here in D.C. Stories like these are so powerful, and I am amazed how well a museum collection could be turned into a live performance like this. 

It's not too late to get tickets to see this show! Purchase tickets here.

Further reading:

• An interview of Erbelding and Stahlmann from DC Theater Arts
• A review from the Los Angeles Times
• A review from the MD Theatre Guide

My Trip to Kentucky: Second Day on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail

We enjoyed our first day on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in downtown Louisville, so we were excited to continue exploring more distilleries outside of the city. For our second day on the Trail, we mostly stuck around Frankfort, the capital city of Kentucky.

A "whiskey thief" is this copper tube, almost like a straw, that you dip into the barrels to take a taste.

Our first stop at ten in the morning was Whiskey Thief, a smaller local distillery (what a way to start the day!). It was a very pretty day, so we enjoyed our tasting al fresco on the Three Boys Farm where the distillery is located. We had tastes of five spirits: four bourbons of different ages/mash profiles and a rye. Whiskey Thief's claim to fame is that their single-barrel spirits are uncut and unfiltered, meaning that every barrel is different, the proof isn't cut down with water, and all the little char bits from the barrel are left in the liquid (so the sediment in your glass is normal). Their spirits were quite strong (~114+ proof), and our mouths were tingly and our throats warm (the "Kentucky hug"). As a souvenir, while we did not do this, you could actually fill your own bottle straight from the barrel and take it home with you. You can't buy their spirits anywhere off the property, so it's really local and one-of-a-kind! Along with some pretzels and a bourbon ball candy, we actually got a second tasting of other spirits in the giftshop, like flavored moonshines and the like. So it was like a two-for-one experience!

The Three Boys Farm has a cat on the property named Pluto. Of course I had to pet him!

This is the old capital building in Frankfort.

After our trip to the farm, we headed to downtown Frankfort. After having pizza for lunch at the Locals, we had just enough time to slip in for a quick tasting at Glenns Creek Distillery before our reservation at Woodford Reserve. Glenns Creek was more of a hole-in-the-wall place; you climbed up some metal stairs and came into a narrow tasting room that could barely hold ten people. They had more than ten spirits on the menu, but you could only taste five of them. So I tried several bourbons and their vodka. I didn't really care for any of them, but then again I was a bit rushed to get to the next tasting. She shuffled us off pretty quickly, saying that Woodford Reserve is very particular about being on time!

I liked this flower wall at Woodford Reserve. My little jacket just happened to match!

Woodford Reserve does ask for you to arrive twenty minutes before your reservation, which is a bit excessive, but I guess it ensures that everyone is there in time for the tour. The feel of the visitors center is kind of corporate, but I guess it is a pretty well-known and successful brand. The tour was very cool, since we got to go inside multiple buildings on the property. We saw the fermenters and the stills, and we got to see where the barrels are stored. And all Woodford Reserve products are bottled and distributed from the same building, so no matter where you are in the world or what year you buy the spirits, they all came from the same place. During the tasting, we tried their bourbon, rye, and double oaked bourbon, as well as a taste of a cranberry lemonade cocktail (and another bourbon ball!). We didn't buy any products in the giftshop, although we were disappointed to learn that they had sold out of their annual Kentucky Derby bottle (although I found some online to send to my dad, since he loves Secretariat)!

Woodford Reserve recently doubled their capacity, now featuring SIX copper pot stills. 

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Josephine Sculpture Park on a whim after seeing a road sign for it. On a nice, sunny day, it was very pleasant walking through the grass and seeing the modern art (a lot of which you could touch and even climb on). It reminded me of Glenstone or the sculpture garden in Minneapolis. We saw lots of wildlife, including a huge rabbit and a swallow peeking its head out of its house. Not an original stop on our itinerary, but a very happy accident!

Here are some photos of the artwork:

Here's the bird peeking out of its nest!

Another fun day in Kentucky! Next up: our day in Cincinnati!