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Ms. Blogcutter goes to Washington
May. 11th, 2013 07:07 pmMalice Domestic, a crime fiction convention honouring the traditional or "cosy" mystery, is held every year in the Washington D.C. area. I haven't gone in about ten years but since this year was their 25th anniversary and I liked all the main authors attending, I decided to go this year.
American Guest of Hono(u)r was Laurie R. King (who writes the Kate Martinelli and Mary Russell series); International guest author was Peter Robinson, who writes the DCI Banks books; and Carolyn Hart and Aaron Elkins were both there getting lifetime achievement awards. Canadian authors were well-represented - Linda Wiken (aka Erika Chase), Mary Jane Maffini and Victoria Maffini (aka Victoria Abbott), Vicki Delaney, Louise Penny (who won an Agatha award for best novel of 2012), Barbara Fradkin, Elizabeth J. Duncan, and no doubt others I've forgotten, were all there. There were also a few of the UK-based authors I admire, people like Ann Cleeves and Peter Lovesey. It was a jam-packed schedule, beginning with registration and showing of a Vera episode Thursday evening and full days of programming Friday morning through Sunday afternoon. I even got up early to attend a 7AM new authors' breakfast on Sunday!
That didn't leave a lot of time for sightseeing beyond the hotel, but I managed a bit. On Friday, there weren't any panels before noon that really interested me that much, so I ventured downtown and visited the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Absolutely fascinating! There were some artists who were somewhat familiar to me, like Frida Kahlo and Judy Chicago, but many more whom I'd never heard of before. Then on the Sunday afternoon, instead of attending the closing tea, I decided to go to the Dupont Circle area. The weather was beautiful - sunny, though cooler than Ottawa had been. I wandered along Embassy Row and through a Sunday street market before going to Kramer's bookshop and having a light lunch at the adjoining Afterwords Cafe. After Afterwords, I went to the Phillips Collection. Now, "Collection" implies something fairly small, and in fact I had decided to focus on smaller museums this time around, thinking they might be a little less overwhelming. But although it was housed in a converted house, there were multiple annexes, and the surroundings and furnishings were as much part of the collection as the artworks themselves. I ventured into a tiny "Wax Room"; I sat for a few minutes in the slightly larger, but still small Rothko Room, which has a bench in the middle and one Rothko painting on each of the four walls. I think I may previously have seen some slides of that room last year at Music and Beyond (or was it Chamberfest?), when the Bach Choir did a lunchtime concert called Rothko Chapel. But experiencing the room itself is a whole new level! And speaking of concerts, the Phillips Collection has a lovely music room where concerts are given on Sunday afternoons May through October - I lucked into the first one of the season! It was a choir performing Renaissance motets by various composers, including Tallis, and I was reminded again of last summer in the Rideau Chapel portion of our own National Art Gallery.
I was impressed with Washington's subway system, once I got the hang of it - fares are based on distance travelled so you have to insert your farecard into the turnstile both when you enter the station you depart from and when you arrive at your destination.
Next time I go, I think I'll arrange to have a bit more free time for sightseeing. I didn't really go back to any of the traditional haunts like the White House or the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian museums. Nor did I go back to the Spy Museum, or to the aboriginal museum, the Newseum, the Museum of Crime & Punishment... or a lot of other places that I would have liked to see if I'd had more time. But perhaps there will be other opportunities in the future. It is, after all, only an hour-and-a-half flight away.
American Guest of Hono(u)r was Laurie R. King (who writes the Kate Martinelli and Mary Russell series); International guest author was Peter Robinson, who writes the DCI Banks books; and Carolyn Hart and Aaron Elkins were both there getting lifetime achievement awards. Canadian authors were well-represented - Linda Wiken (aka Erika Chase), Mary Jane Maffini and Victoria Maffini (aka Victoria Abbott), Vicki Delaney, Louise Penny (who won an Agatha award for best novel of 2012), Barbara Fradkin, Elizabeth J. Duncan, and no doubt others I've forgotten, were all there. There were also a few of the UK-based authors I admire, people like Ann Cleeves and Peter Lovesey. It was a jam-packed schedule, beginning with registration and showing of a Vera episode Thursday evening and full days of programming Friday morning through Sunday afternoon. I even got up early to attend a 7AM new authors' breakfast on Sunday!
That didn't leave a lot of time for sightseeing beyond the hotel, but I managed a bit. On Friday, there weren't any panels before noon that really interested me that much, so I ventured downtown and visited the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Absolutely fascinating! There were some artists who were somewhat familiar to me, like Frida Kahlo and Judy Chicago, but many more whom I'd never heard of before. Then on the Sunday afternoon, instead of attending the closing tea, I decided to go to the Dupont Circle area. The weather was beautiful - sunny, though cooler than Ottawa had been. I wandered along Embassy Row and through a Sunday street market before going to Kramer's bookshop and having a light lunch at the adjoining Afterwords Cafe. After Afterwords, I went to the Phillips Collection. Now, "Collection" implies something fairly small, and in fact I had decided to focus on smaller museums this time around, thinking they might be a little less overwhelming. But although it was housed in a converted house, there were multiple annexes, and the surroundings and furnishings were as much part of the collection as the artworks themselves. I ventured into a tiny "Wax Room"; I sat for a few minutes in the slightly larger, but still small Rothko Room, which has a bench in the middle and one Rothko painting on each of the four walls. I think I may previously have seen some slides of that room last year at Music and Beyond (or was it Chamberfest?), when the Bach Choir did a lunchtime concert called Rothko Chapel. But experiencing the room itself is a whole new level! And speaking of concerts, the Phillips Collection has a lovely music room where concerts are given on Sunday afternoons May through October - I lucked into the first one of the season! It was a choir performing Renaissance motets by various composers, including Tallis, and I was reminded again of last summer in the Rideau Chapel portion of our own National Art Gallery.
I was impressed with Washington's subway system, once I got the hang of it - fares are based on distance travelled so you have to insert your farecard into the turnstile both when you enter the station you depart from and when you arrive at your destination.
Next time I go, I think I'll arrange to have a bit more free time for sightseeing. I didn't really go back to any of the traditional haunts like the White House or the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian museums. Nor did I go back to the Spy Museum, or to the aboriginal museum, the Newseum, the Museum of Crime & Punishment... or a lot of other places that I would have liked to see if I'd had more time. But perhaps there will be other opportunities in the future. It is, after all, only an hour-and-a-half flight away.
