Washington DC in a nutshell

Upon arriving to DC, I didn’t realise how small it was. We’re actually about 30 minutes north on the red line, and happen to be in Maryland. My friend whom we met on the first day arriving for dinner who lives out west 30 minutes in Virginia. The placement of DC seems rather random, but then again, so is Canberra. Anyways, the first day was a discovery day, we tried looking for a chickafil out in Colombia Heights and turns out it was somewhere in Howard Uni and we never made it there, however we got to see some ghetto houses. That’s a plus?

We went to Georgetown with Jasmine; it happens to be the “place to be” where all the “trendy” people go (which are probably as cool as smashing your head against the wall). The requisite for trendy area: Banana Republic, United Colours of Benetton and most definitely Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. We had dinner at some Englishesque pub/bistro and had some steaks.

The next 2 days were non-stop ownage of Smithsonians. We went to the Hirshhorn first which was a 3 level modern/contemp art gallery and it was pretty cool, some nice intriguing works there. I particularly liked the geometrical artworks, which were a plenty. Hirsshorn also has a sculpture garden, which is cool if you’re into that sort of thing.

Next was the Natural History museum, which is awesome. I think we spent close to 4 hours there, it had everything, ocean, dinosaurs, mammals, butterflies, gems, rocks blahhhh. I liked it a lot. I high fived a T-rex. Lots of photos were taken and can be found here. We also walked to the Washington Monument which we nicknamed as “the penis”, because of the phallic connotations that something of that stature would have. Lincoln memorial was also on the books, a bit of a walk down a nice war memorial, and a long strip of water avoiding geese shits left right center, but we made it without any marks on our precious shoes. The size of Lincoln is amazing. It’s also turns out to be an awesome setting in Fallout 3, which is probably my favourite game, so seeing it in real life without power armoured Paladins was amazing (I just used my super imagination). Dinner was at Chinatown, which isn’t really a Chinatown, more like a lane full of Western Stores (Maccas, etc) with Chinese script on them. They were still constructing the Chinese Gates which you see in all REAL Chinatowns. We had dinner at a Chinese/Japanese place, which was alright but nothing to write home about, so I won’t.

The next day was a massive day for aeronautics, the National Air and Space Museum is rad. We did 2 movies in the Einstein Planetarium, which was a new and pleasant experience. I don’t think we really have them in Australia, but in the US, Planetariums are popular. There’s a LOT to see in this one, spent the whole day here. The history of WW2 stuff was interesting, they really like enforcing that they (America) were the victors (Fuck yeah!). Then did a quick rundown of the Freer which did not interest me at all, Asian and African Art. District 9 also came out today, and after hearing the massive boners people on FB were getting, I was really excited to see it, and we did.

District 9 was rad, a nice change from the alien v. human, or America saves the day sort of thing. It’s well thought out, has a few good plot points, awesome acting from the South African bru, and much in the image of LOTR, extraordinary CGI. I went in there without looking at the viral marketing, or reviews, (except with maybe a trailer), and was well rewarded for it, so go see it before people ruin the plot/storyline! Ponyo also came out, and I love Hayao Miyazaki’s movies, so I’m keen for that. Also keen for Inglourious Basterds next week. ANDDDDD 9, Where the Wild Things Are…

I also tried out Heroes of Newerth, a game based on DOTA. It’s in Beta at the moment, and free to play. It’s got great graphics and a leap ahead of WC3’s engine, the gameplay is smooth and with the formula tried and tested in DOTA, HON delivers. I was never a big fan of DOTA, but HON feels much slicker. The game join system is awesome, and if you D/C you can reconnect to the game and regain control of your character which is something that a lot of games are lacking. It’s not really noob friendly, but after 3 games I think you can pick up the process. Games average out to 40 minutes which is a perfect length for something like this. Also, the game is only 200 megs (the Mac client anyway), which is freaking amazing because it looks so clean. There’s still a few bugs or whatever, but the community exists already, and it’s free, so get an account and jump in. I think it’ll be popular game, and hopefully a once off payment and not a subscription model. Regardless, it’s worth 10 minutes of your time playing.

I’m in Washington DC one more day. Not sure what to do, seen all the things I wanted to. 3 days, perfect length for this place.

Oh, quick addition:

Future Primitive Mgmt can go fook themselves. I recorded some Crystal Castles at All Points West, and was testing iMovie Youtube uploading out, and uploaded maybe 1 minute of Crystal Castles, and they removed it off youtube for “copyright infringement”. I hope CC gets the fuck off that management/label and go to one who actually knows anything about the internet, thanks.

PS: I’m still going to upload all 5 videos of Crystal Castles at APW and Lollapalooza somewhere, just need a home for it (my finished movie runs at 1 hour 40 minutes with CC, Tool, Depeche Mode, some DJ’s and Jane’s Addiction).