Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

night in the city

Rob and I Metroed into D.C. after work last night for a long-overdue “date night.” Our plan: Head over to the National Museum of Natural History for the final installment of Smithsonian Jazz Cafe. Tickets for the event were $10/person — or free with admission to an IMAX movie that night. Since the IMAX tickets were $6 each with my Smithsonian membership, it was a much better deal to go see a movie first then head directly into the cafe for the band’s first set.

We’d decided ahead of time that the 3D short Into the Deep was more enticing than the 3D dinosaur movie, so we purchased our tickets and headed into the theatre just before the film started. This was my first IMAX movie, and the first movie I’d seen in 3D in some time, and I was amazed at the vibrant underwater colors, the extreme close-up footage and the way, because of the 3D, everything felt so near. I had to resist the urge to reach out and brush aside the strands of kelp that seemed to be coming right toward us as the camera delved deeper into the ocean.

After the movie, we walked downstairs to the museum’s Atrium Cafe for dinner and jazz. The dining area had a nice ambiance to it for the evening, with the house lights dimmed, twinkling blue votives on the tables and warm spotlights on the stage. The night’s featured act was the Frederic Yonnet Group, whose lead member played a mean harmonica. Their set had a lot of energy to it and featured some great jams that had me nodding my head in time to the music without even realizing it. At one point, he worked “Happy Birthday to You” midway into a song as the cafe staff brought out a birthday cake to someone in the audience. Yonnet’s CD is up on iTunes; I may have to invest in it, or at least download copies of “Boogie on Reggae Woman” and his surprisingly un-pablum cover of “Time After Time,” my favorite songs from the set. (I say “un-pablum” because it’s hard to do that song well and not have it come off as treacly, over-sentimental tripe.)

After dinner, we headed up to Dupont Circle and Luna, one of our favorite restaurants, for more conversation and a bite to eat, a nice way to end the evening. I love Luna — both its Shirlington and Dupont locations, but especially the Dupont restaurant — because the food is good, the menu varied, the staff friendly and the atmosphere funky-yet-relaxed and unpretentious.