The collection chronicles from the historic event of Rosa Parks being arrested for not giving up her bus seat, to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968.

The Road to Freedom – Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement – 1954-1968, offers historic mages that capture the non-violent civil rights movement movement through non-violent awareness raising, the events surrounding the 1961 Freedom Riders who protested racial segregation on public transportation, the fire hosing of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama, the famous Bloody Sunday during the Selma-Montgomery March of 1965 and other crucial events as they were captured on film are on display.

A few of the most moving, historical and my personal favorites included:

• Rosa Parks calmly getting booked at the police station after being arrested.
• A burned out public bus after a riot.
• A bloody protestor who was beaten by police.
• Several photos of Bloody Sunday. 
• A series of photos of Black students being the first to enter integrated schools, as protestors taunt them and the National Guard protects them.

This is magnificent collection of historical photographs during one of America’s most violent and disturbing time.

Road to Freedom – Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement – 1954-1968
The Smithsonian International Gallery
1100 Jefferson Drive, SW
Washington, D.C. 20560  (map it)

Dates and Times – Daily through March 9, 2009 – 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Admission – FREE

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Smithsonian – Blue and Orange line, then a 1-block walk or use the DC Circulator.

Parking – Metered street parking is available in the area.

Images – Bloody Sunday, March on Washington – both public domain _________________________________________________

Post from: The DC Traveler

Originally called Armistice Day, November 11th, commemorates the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I.  The “Great War” formally ended 90 years ago today, on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month in 1918.  Sadly, news of the wars end did not reach many non-European fighting fronts due to poor communications, notably across Africa, for up to two weeks.

After World War II, President Eisenhower signed a bill into law in 1954 to rename the day Veterans Day. 

So to every veteran who served America…We Thank You. 

Images – from personal collection   ©2008, Jon Rochetti  _________________________________________________

Post from: The DC Traveler

The test kitchen chefs select a couple dishes to perfect, then try dozens, and sometimes over a hundred versions of the dish until its perfect, easy for the home cook and as easy as possible.

The resident chefs show step-by-step instructions making recreating their dishes simple and stress free.

The show also tests cooking equipment and gadgets, and has a food tasting segment where supermarket foods are rated after being tested by a panel of tasters.

The show’s host, Christopher Kimball is also the publisher of a great hands-on and mostly advertising-free cooking magazine, Cook’s Illustrated and recently launched a second publication, Cook’s Country Magazine.

Kimball is hitting the road to promote his new cookbooks, The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book and The Cook’s Country Cookbook.

Christopher Kimball of America’s Test Kitchen
Friendship Heights Village Community Center
4433 S. Park Avenue
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815 (map it)

Date and Time – Thursday, November 13, 2008, 7:00 p.m.

Tickets – Free, but reservations are required by calling 301-656-2797

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Friendship Heights – Red line, then a 4-block walk.

Parking – Limited free street parking, with paid parking at the mall across the street.

Image – Flickr – Kimball
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Post from: The DC Traveler

Yet I hope it’s not true!!

Seen on a DC lamp post near F and 18th Streets, NW in Washington, DC.

Image – from personal collection   ©2008, Jon Rochetti 

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Post from: The DC Traveler

As the best-selling author of million plus sellers such as “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim,” he’s what some call the literary equivalence of a rock star.

His show should be an evening of wit and satire as he examines the human condition from his unique vision coming from a middle-class, North Carolina background.

His published books, stories and collections include:

• Me Talk Pretty One Day
• Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
• Barrel Fever
• Naked
• I Was Told There’s Be Cake
• Holidays on Ice
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames

David Sedaris
Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University
730 21st Street, NW (21st & H Streets, NW)
Washington, DC   (map it)

Dates and Times – Saturday, October 4, 2008, 8:00 p.m.

Tickets – $45.00 and $40.00 and are available by phone at 202-397-SEAT or online.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Foggy Bottom/GWU – Blue and Orange line, then a 2-block walk.

Parking – Metered street parking is available as well as a paid garage parking.

 Images – Flickr – Bookstore

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Post from: The DC Traveler

With over 5,200 surveillance cameras operational in the District, not including the ones in and around private and public schools, cameras run by news organizations, hotels, tourist attractions and even the public, you can assume you will at some point, be under someone’s watchful eye.

There’s even a live National Park Service Cherry Blossom cam and a dozen or so at the National Zoo, spying on the pandas and tigers, 24 hours-a-day.

But the most notable cameras are the 5,200 controlled by various Federal and District government departments, that were recently tried together to be centrally monitored by the DC Police, to improve crime monitoring in the city.

Last year, District police cameras captured three homicides on video and saw a 19% reduction in violent crime in areas covered by surveillance cameras.  And while some groups, including the ACLU, criticize cameras as a violation of civil rights and privacy, they seem to forget that every time you walk in to just about any retail establishment, restaurant, hotel, mall, or commercial or government building, you are probably being caught on video.

Only one city in the world has more surveillance camera – London, with over 10,000 cameras deployed.  And the two next closest U.S. cities, New York (3,000 cameras) and Chicago (2,000), lag way behind DC’s 5,200.

You can also watch some of the area’s 100 DC traffic cameras, and others observing area traffic around Maryland and Virginia. 

The District Police has also been deploying deployed a network of ShotSpotter gunfire sensors, that by this Fall, will cover almost 25% of the District’s area, especially in high-crime area.  The coffee can sized sensors can quickly pinpoint the location of gunfire and notify police.  To date, police have been able to quickly locate 13 homicide victims and close to 50 victims of assault where firearms were used.

Images – 7th and Jefferson, large camera – from personal collection – ©2008, Jon Rochetti 

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Post from: The DC Traveler

The Smithsonian Institution was based on a gift of James Smithson, a British scientist, who left his entire estate to the United States of America in 1827.  His gift of over 100,000 gold sovereigns, or $500,000, (just under $9.5 million in today’s dollars) required the government to establish the Smithsonian Institution, to “increase and diffusion of knowledge."

An act of Congress in 1846 expanded the growth of collection into the world’s largest museum complex (16 museums) with over 140 million objects and the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

The Smithsonian museums include:

• Anacostia Community Museum
• Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
• Arts and Industries Building
• Freer Gallery of Art
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• National Air and Space Museum
• National Museum of African Art
• National Museum of American History
• National Museum of the American Indian
• National Museum of Natural History
• National Portrait Gallery
• National Postal Museum
• S. Dillon Ripley Center
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Smithsonian Institution Building
• Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo)
• The National Gallery of Art (affiliated)

Happy Birthday Smithsonian!!

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Post from: The DC Traveler

She’s hitting book tour trail in the month before she takes over as permanent chairperson of the Democratic National Convention, happening at the end of August in Denver.

Her 192-page book recalls her learned insights from her San Francisco roots to spending 28 years in Congress.

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Washington DC  (map it)

Dates and Times – Wednesday, July 30, 2008,  7:00 p.m.

Tickets – 23.95, which includes tickets for two attendees, plus one copy of her book Know Your Power. For tickets call Politics & Prose bookstore at 202-364-1919.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Gallery Place – Chinatown – Rd, Green and Yellow lines, then a 3-block walk or use the DC Circulator.

Parking – Metered street and garage parking is available in the area.

Image – Pelosi

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Within months of its release, the book was banned in numerous countries including India, Bangladesh, Singapore, Thailand, South Africa and six other nations, due mostly to complaints from the Muslim community regarding controversial characters. Additionally, the story line of the novel, considered provocative by some, noting how some Muslim characters were portrayed, added to the controversy. Misinformation, incorrect translations and other factors ultimately led to a feeling in parts of the Muslim world that the book was sacrilegious.

By 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa or religious edict under Islamic law, ordering the equivalence of a death sentence on Rushdie. It was the first time in recent history that a government had publicly called for the murder of a private citizen who lived ion another country.  Khomeini’s edict caused Rushdie to head underground for close to 10 years. 

Since The Satanic Verses was released, there have been several plots uncovered to assassinate Rushdie, including one in London, where an allegedly Hezbollah-sponsored bomber was killed when his bomb exploded prematurely in a London hotel. In another related incident, his Japanese translator was also murdered.

Rushdie is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University in Atlanta.

He will be discussing his latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence at an upcoming meet the author.  It’s assumed other, more emotional topics about his life and threats on it, will also be discussed, based on comments he made at a recent talk given at Stanford University.

Salman Rushdie
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Washington DC  (map it)

Date and Time – Monday, June 30, 2008, 7:00 p.m.

Tickets – $6.00, or receive two free tickets with the purchase of Rushdie’s his new book, The Enchantress of Florence, $26.00 at Politics & Prose at 5015 Connecticut Ave., NW.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Gallery Place Chinatown – Green, Red and Yellow line, then a 2-block walk or use the DC Circulator.

Parking – Metered street and paid lot/garage parking is available in the area.

Images – Rushdie, synagogue

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Twenty years later, the 7-acre President’s Park was renamed Lafayette Park, after the French General who participated in the Revolutionary War.  He was one of the six foreigners that were ever granted Honorary Citizenship of the United States, along with Winston Churchill; humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg; governor of the American colony of Pennsylvania, William Penn and his wife; and Mother Teresa.

Over the year, Lafayette Park has been used for many purposes, besides a comfortable park – a race track, a graveyard, an apple orchard, a zoo, and even a slave market. Within blocks of the park, slaves were housed who labored constructing the White House.  

During the Civil War, parts of the park were used as a Union Army encampment for as well as to corral their horses, mules and cattle. 

The park hosts five statues, four of foreign Revolutionary War heroes, including Lafayette, French General Rochambeau, Poland’s General Kosciuszko and General Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben of Prussia. One American, President Andrew Jackson also has a statute in the park.  He is probably most recognized as the face on the $20 bill. 

In 1963, protesters, led by Rev. Martin Luther King, gathered at St. John’s Church at the northeast corner of the park (H Street and Madison Place) before starting the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Today, the park is popular with chess players, feeding the birds, quiet relaxation or as an occasional  site for a protest or rally.

Lafayette Park is just a block from the White House and is surrounded by historical buildings, including the Old Executive Office Building (now called the Eisenhower Executive Building) at 17th and Pennsylvania.

Lafayette Park
Pennsylvania Ave. and Jackson Pl, NW
Washington, DC 20006

Dates and Times – The park is open to the public 24-hours a day.

Admission – FREE

Nearest Metro Subway Station – McPherson Square or Farragut West, Blue and Orange lines, then a 2-3 block walk, or use the DC Circulator.

Parking – Limited metered street parking is available in the area.

Images – Jackson statue, Lafayette statue, cannon, chess players, birds 

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Post from: The DC Traveler