Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 32 - April 2010

I talked myself in to going down to the Lincoln Memorial on Easter morning for the annual sunrise service. If you ever get the chance to watch the sun rise from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I strongly suggest you take advantage of it. I would also suggest, however, that doing it any other day of the year would probably be more enjoyable, unless, of course, you prefer to be part of a crowd prone to celebrating leaden rhetoric and the evils of intellectualism.

That aside, the adventure was hardly a loss: dragging my ass out of bed in time to get down to the Mall before sunrise resulted in being down there early enough to take a stroll around the Tidal Basin before its paths were completely choked by throngs of people looking at DC's famous cherry blossoms. Katie and I took a leisurely stroll under the cherry trees, got just enough crowd-dodging in to fill our quota, and got back up to our neighborhood brunch spot just in time for them to open the doors.

The cherry blossoms are world-renowned for good reason. They are beautiful, and, even though I can generally only stomach the crowds every other year or so, I am always surprised to find seeing them takes my breath away. What I really like about the cherry blossoms, however, is their appearance signals the imminent onset of one of my three favorite things to do in DC: walking through the azalea collection at the National Arboretum at the height of their bloom season. The azaleas usually come out a week or two after the cherry blossoms, and, while the cherry blossoms are breathtaking, the azaleas are dumbfounding, flabbergasting, thunderstriking, agogging. I grant that my fascination with azaleas may be a peculiar outgrowth of my childhood in Savannah, where azaleas figure prominently in the civic landscape, but the array of colors and the sheer volume of blooms on the 10,000 azalea shrubs at the Arboretum during the two weeks or so when they're out is a sight to see even if you have no childhood memories to pluck with them.

I went out to check on them this morning, and the early arrivals are already here. The warm weather and rain we've seen this past week should be pushing them almost all the way out in the next week or two, although the Arboretum itself is claiming the 23rd and 24th as the peak season; however, whether you take my word or theirs, like sunrise in Lincoln's lap, if you get the opportunity to go out to the Arboretum to see the azaleas in bloom, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of it.


Title - Artist

It's the Hard-Knock Life - Annie and the Orphans
Across the Universe - The Beatles
You Can Leave Your Hat On - Joe Cocker
Why Should You Come When I Call? - Counting Crows
Don't Stop the Music - Jamie Cullum
Cover of the Rolling Stone - Dr. Hook
Cold Beverage - G Love and Special Sauce
Hands in the Air - Girl Talk
Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters - Elton John
The Front Porch Song - Robert Earl Keen, Jr.
Need You Know - Lady Antebellum
Boys Boys Boys - Lady Gaga
California Dreaming - The Mamas and the Papas
Pavlov's Bell - Aimee Mann
Imagine One Day (so far away) - Matisyahu vs. John Lennon vs. Blink 182 vs. Bob Marley vs. Gentleman
Dear God - Monsters of Folk
Sometimes It's Our Mistakes That Make for the Greatest Ideas - Norma Jean
Fear the Boom and Bust - John Papola and Russ Roberts
Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
Underwater - Tegan and Sara
Ukelele Lady - Traditional
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
Piece of Crap - Neil Young
Dancing With the Stars theme
Give Me Back That Filet o' Fish