#smithsonian

#smithsonian

Happy weekend, everyone!We hope the air clears up so you can enjoy the weekend's fun outdoor music shows.If you prefer to stay inside, you can visit the new Capital Jewish Museum, or get tickets to Hadestown the musical.Best Things to Do This Weekend
June 8-11



Capital Jewish Museum opening.Get a first look at DC's newest cultural attraction: the Capital Jewish Museum.

Happy holiday weekend, everyone!Who's thrilled about the long weekend?Show your excitement with live music and camping at Delfest, or explore artist Robert Houle's new colorful retrospective at the Smithsonian.Best Things to Do This Weekend


National Memorial Day Concert.Before you head to the parade on Monday, experience an evening of grand live music at PBS's National Memorial Day Concert .

Happy Monday, everyone!Taste specialty menu items during Alexandria Restaurant Week, or grab an all-access pass to a local film festival to add to a week of fun.Best Things to Do This Week


Alexandria Restaurant Week.Did you have a good time chowing down during DC Restaurant Week? (Some DC restaurants have extended their Restaurant Week deals .)

Happy Thursday, everyone!You can stay warm indoors and enjoy a lively step show or embrace the sweater weather outdoors at a holiday pop-up market.Whichever you choose, you're bound to have a great time.Best Things to Do This Weekend


     
Step Afrika!'s "Magical Musical Holiday Step Show."You don't want to miss DC's very own dance in the holiday spirit live at Arena Stage.

Happy December, everyone!Jump-start the new month with seasonal good vibes at a holiday boat parade or winter festival.Best Things to Do This Weekend


     District's Holiday Boat Parade.At the 30th annual District Holiday Boat Parade this weekend, you can watch a parade of more than 60 bedazzled boats float along the Washington Channel.

The long weekend brings solemn Memorial Day ceremonies, including the opportunity for the public to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknowns.For the first time since 2019, the public can attend the live broadcast of the National Memorial Day Concert, recorded on the Capitol's West Lawn.But this weekend also brings plenty of fun, from the cookouts and dance parties of Black Pride to the Hometown Holidays music and food festival in Rockville.

By Michele Karlsberg-
Michele Karlsberg: Bay Area resident MariNaomi (they/them) is the award-winning banned-book author and illustrator of nine graphic books, including the Eisner-nominated Dragon's Breath and Other True Stories.Their work has appeared in The New Yorker "Daily Shouts," The Washington Post, LA Times, The Rumpus, Kazoo Magazine, and more, and has been displayed in venues such as the Smithsonian, the de Young Museum, the Cartoon Art Museum, the Asian Art Museum, and the Japanese American National Museum.

"Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky," an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History, explores the impact of light pollution on different organisms.(Avalon.red/AlamyStock Photo)One of the darkest places in daytime Washington at the moment is a tribute to the night sky.The notably low-lit exhibition "Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky" is the National Museum of Natural History's effort to illustrate what's been lost as artificial illumination bleaches out the heavens.

The day after President Biden released a video announcing he would be running for a second term, he and the first lady, Jill Biden, stood in black tie and evening gown on the red carpet outside the north entrance to the White House to welcome President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, to the second state dinner of the Biden administration.

Looted Benin Bronzes that were returned by Germany to Nigeria are examined during a ceremony in Abuja on Tuesday.Nigerian officials said that more than 5,000 ancient artifacts are estimated to have been stolen from Nigeria, the majority by British colonizers.Olamikan Gbemiga/AP Germany has returned 22 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria as part of a larger effort by Western nations to seek reparation of stolen artifacts from Africa.

The oldest animal at the Houston Zoo, a radiated tortoise born nearly a century ago, is finally a father.The zoo announced last week that Mr. Pickles and Mrs. Pickles welcomed three tortoise hatchlings: Dill, Gherkin and Jalapeno.(All three comfortably in the family of pickle preserves.)It was an astounding feat, zoo officials said, not only because Mr. Pickles is 90 years old, but also because the critically endangered species rarely produces offspring.

A living room on the main level has tall windows and a fireplace.(TruPlace)Montgomery County native Lee Meiners noticed the house on Riley Road while driving through the neighborhood with his wife.The newlyweds lived in a nearby townhouse, but Meiners later said he knew this house "was the one" the first time he saw it.

French volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft carved out an illustrious career by daring to go where most of their colleagues feared to tread: right to the edge of an erupting volcano.The photographs and video footage they recorded during the 1970s and 1980s contributed to significant breakthroughs in their chosen field.

Zircons studied by the research team, photographed using cathodoluminescence, a technique that allowed the team to visualize the interiors of the crystals using a specialized scanning electron microscope.Dark circles on the zircons are the cavities left by the laser that was used to analyze the age and chemistry of the zircons.

After a successful popup at Chef Troy Guard's Grange Food Hall in October, Seattle's famous bakery, Piroshky Piroshky, is back in town with pre-order pickup December 1st.Founded in Seattle's historic Pike Place Market, Piroshky Piroshky has offered hand-crafted Eastern European pastries to loyal fans since 1992.

Laura Lasorda and Eric Karros joined Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva and other dignitaries from the city of Fullerton over the weekend to unveil the sign for and officially dedicate the Tommy Lasorda Memorial Highway.Recognizing the late Los Angeles Dodgers manager with such an honor began in 2021, when California legislature passed ACR 67.

In this screenshot captured by NPR, the bow of the shipwrecked Titanic is seen from the first human-operated vehicle to visit the site in 1986.The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution released footage from that 1986 dive on Wednesday.Screenshot by NPR/WHOI It wasn't until July of 1986, nearly 75 years after the RMS Titanic's ill-fated voyage, that humans finally set eyes on the ship's sunken remains.

Image: Theo O'Neill and the Milkyway3d.orgteam You may not realize it in your day-to-day life, but we are all enveloped by a giant superbubble that was blown into space by the explosive deaths of a dozen-odd stars.Known as the Local Bubble, this structure extends for about 1,000 light years around the solar system, and is one of countless similar bubbles in our galaxy that are produced by the fallout of supernovas.

Looking to get out of the house?Try exploring an off-the-beaten-path museum.TikToker Noelle Harada (@noellemargaret8) set out on a mission to visit every museum in town, going beyond the Smithsonian.She recommends five hidden gems.716 Monroe St., NE @noellemargaret8 Stop 73/83✅ American Poetry Museum #dctok #dmvtiktok #musuemtok #dcmuseum #americanpoetry ♬ Summer Background Jazz - Jazz Background Vibes
The Brookland museum doesn't just showcase the works and personal histories of American poets-most of the exhibits have a visual-art component to highlight a given poem's themes.

To be fair, Spam did send a warning: The email about the brand's new, limited-edition holiday flavor read, "Let's just say, it'll have you asking 'WTF?'"That is, indeed, what I said when I opened a mailer from the company to find figgy pudding-flavored Spam, bearing the tagline "flavor, spice, and everything nice."

Tucked into a corner of the Library of Congress is the Densmore Collection of cylinder phonographs - a bygone medium containing the living songs of an ancient culture.In the early twentieth century, the U.S. government continued its assault on Native Americans by demanding they relinquish their tribal languages and belief systems, teach their children English, and enter the American mainstream.