Mexico Inside Out

Beautiful Malaysian Dance at the Folklife

"Jai Ho" at the Folklife Festival

Fox-5 Live at the Folklife Festival

Running on the Mall often brings me access to great opportunities--especially this time of the year where there is a lot going on.


Had the unique pleasure to watch Fox-5 Holly Morris and videographer David Rysak participate in a hand casting demonstration with Smithsonian's Lora Collins.

Mexico and the Worm

The Folklife Festival has taken off (both figuratively and literally) and has been quite moving.  Well, The Mexico exhibit is so different from previous years.  Last year Wales showcased what you typically expect to see when you visit that country (Read my 2009 post on Wales) . Same for Bhutan the year before.  And even Northern Ireland (Read my 2007 post on Northern Island) the year before last. Every year, I make life-long friends from the countries that visit and are featured: From the Silk Road to the Mekong Delta.

This year, the exhibit is trying to show how diverse Mexico is and to focus on the arts, culture and trade of the indigenous groups who even have their own dialects.  These people are not what most people come to see when they study or visit Mexico -- and their culture is in danger of being lost -- even more reason to showcase their talents and skills in the Nation's Capital.

RUNIN Haiti and Poland in DC

"Running in DC is always an adventure -- My Coach always said, you never know what you're gonna get"

What connection does Haiti and Poland have with the National Mall.  None that I'm aware of, unless, you're happen to go running like,  me.
 
Today, I literally ran into old friends at the National Mall.  Yes indeed, a year ago, I met Connie and Natasha (while running) at the annual Polish Dancing and the Laying of the Wreaths Ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial.  This year, I ran into them again, coincidentally, on the other side of the Mall: US Capitol Reflecting Pool.  "Running in DC is always an adventure -- My Coach always said, you never know what you're gonna get."

Here is the post from last year.

So why when I was enjoying my time at the Folklife Fest, all of a sudden I decided to go running.

It was intermission at the Evening Concert at the 44th annual Folklife Festival, and I said "Why not?"

I was enjoying the Boukman Eksperyans perform a special concert for Haiti.  Boukman is a Grammys-nominated group who performed an interesting mix of Haitian-Caribbean fusion for over two hours.  Before long, the crowd were on their feet moving to the rhythm and sound of Haitian music.

What I found also interesting is the fact that the Smithsonian is leading an international team in preserving thousands of artwork from scores of museums and collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince.  The Smithsonian has found a large, 7,500-square-foot building which was formerly occupied by the U.N.

Folklife Fest "Wales" on YouTube

Please check out my "Folklife Fest" video on YouTube:

Hopefully, this video will depict the natural beauty of Cardiff Bay with its glorious Castle to the pit mines -- a reason why Wales is an industrial powerhouse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q21nAd2XcS8

Folklife Festival -- Wales After Lunch

Today, I made my trek to the Folklife Festival after my farewell luncheon at Fogo de Chao on Pennsylvania Avenue.

I was very impressed with all the rich slabs of meat especially the picanha, succulent steak dipped in garlic paste and roasted over hickory wood.

No one can skewer many different types of meat and make it so succulent like Fogo can. And the carving -- just perfection.

Needless to say, after several servings of prime rib, sirloin and the juiciest steaks, I was in no shape to run.

But I still made my daily trek to the mall and had great fun.

Welsh storytelling and poetry

I love to listen to Welsh poetry

Majestic prose and medieval history

The Pride of Wales and how they set their country free

The tale of war, the language of love and a beautiful story

                                                      Women making wire rope

Karl Chattington making a coracle, a small, lightweight boat with an ancient lineage dating back thousands of years.

My friend Karl is making a nice coracle

If you launch it in the river, it will make a true oracle

I wonder how it floats with a load of slime barnacle

But then again the whole history of the boat is just a time miracle

"Windsong", a Bristol Channel 16 footer, was built in Cardiff on 1937.

I told Sage how impressed I was with the extent of effort and presentation that Smithsonian puts into researching, planning and showcasing the unique culture, arts, and music of the featured country.

Every year, I learn something new and meet new friends who remain friends on my Facebook account.

Caitlin Jenkins, ceramic artist, making pottery, that will one day grace a beautiful table setting

I like to see Caitlin make traditional Welsh pottery

It's plain and simple, not too gaudy

Ceramic earthenware can serve us tea or coffee

So we can sit in the shade and   admire all of life's glory

I was interviewed by Ms. Sage Sawyer of the Smithsonian




















Keith Rees, a textile weaver, spinning dark Welsh wool to make thread

A Great Day for Great Britain

Today, the world's best triathletes will gather in my hometown to race in the International Triathlon Union (ITU) championship. The ITU series features eight races around the globe and more than 100 elite triathletes will compete in the only race to be held in North America. Spots in the 2012 Olympics are at stake for the ITU athletes, so the competition would be fierce -- I would be sure not to miss all this excitement and action with world-class athletes wearing their nation's flags racing up and down majestic Pennsylvania Avenue.

This morning, I rolled out of bed at 4:30 AM to head out to what I thought would be a beautiful, summer rain-free and action-packed day -- I thought wrong about the weather, but the day was indeed full of energy and excitement.


One of DC's most amazing running groups, DC Capital Striders, would be sponsoring an aid station (on Mile 5 on the course, between 7th and 9th Constitution), and I was indeed honored to participate and perhaps pick up some pointers for my Ironman 70.3 in Cancun later this year.


Nkosi offering Adrian Fenty a cup of water. He forgot to ask the Mayor how the Potomac tasted (especially after all that rain).

Stephanie handing out Powerade to a top-notch athlete. Although water was popular at first (I managed to meet my quota of 10 cups), powerade came back strong at the end.

I even got to see a couple of my friends on the course, including the ubiquitous Bill Brigman, USAF, former colleague and Nation's Triathlon veteran. Glad Bill liked my water -- too bad it wasn't bourbon, Bill.

After helping out with both the sprint and Olympic distance races, the Capital Striders gang disbanded and headed out to Penn Avenue to watch the pros strut their stuff.

Time trial bikers racing in front of the elegant and nautical Navy Memorial. Guess what the flags in the background spell?

Answer: NAVY - ME - MO - RIAL

The top three finishers in the men's competition: Gold: Alistair Browlee of Great Britain (1:48:58), Silver: Javier Gomez of Spain and 2008 Olympic champion (1:49:11) Bronze: Maik Petzold of Germany (1:49:24).

After the elite men championship, I decided to visit the Newseum to get a bird's eye view of the race from it's much-vaunted and full-length balcony (made famous from during the Inaugural parade)

This turned out to be a great idea. Not only was I able to get sweeping, unhindered views, I met another Brit, Betty Vo, who recently received her Masters in Journalism at George Washington University. As luck would have it, Betty, was on her way to Dulles to fly back to UK, and the Newseum was her final stop. I'm glad I got a chance meet her and chat with her before her return home.

Betty and I in front of the Berlin Wall. (No surprise why Betty didn't want to get close to me -- I had just run along Penn Avenue). I found out later that ACT UP or the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals who are committed to end the AIDS crisis.

Betty, who aspires to be a radio broadcaster in the UK, shared with me her views about journalism. She doesn't believe that journalists should always go out on an assignment to find the story. Instead, sometimes, it's better to let the story find you.

Needless to say, I was quite happy to hear her views -- kind of like what Run in DC is all about: Running around this exciting town not on a particular agenda but to observe and blog the human-interest stories that appear right in front of my eyes (even if I have to run to it).

At L'Enfant, I bid Farewell and Following Seas to Betty -- I wish her well and best of luck in her career. Maybe one day, I'll hear her on "All Things Considered."

After all this, you would think the excitement would finally be over -- you thought wrong -- I had watched a lot of runners, but I had yet to go out for my long run.

A run along the National Mall brought me in touch with Ms. Ang Herad, Stuart, Carwin, and Gwenno from the beautiful and historic country of Wales.

Ang Herad is ensuring that the Folklife Festival fully captures the rhythm of everyday life in Wales so that visitors will be able to get a real sense of the people and landscape of this breathtakingly beautiful and culturally-rich country.

The Wales Cymru team is building a very nice, authentic Welsh pub equipped with delicious and nutritious Welsh beer. This is exactly what we had two years ago when Northern Ireland was featured at the Folklife. Read my post from July 2007

For good luck and good health, Ms. Jones presented me with a piece of world-famous Welsh slate mined from the mountains of Northern Wales. I had to run around the mall with this in hand, but mysteriously I picked up speed -- I'm making a bracelet out of this stone.

 This stone wall was made by my friend Stuart

 A great chap from Wales, he was quite a Seaward

Mined from the mountains, extracted from the deep quarries

If you pack it tight, it will last a million years

So, how was my day after all. Let's see Alistair Browlee of GBR won the Gold; I met Betty Vo from London and now I have made two, true Welsh friends at the Folklife and even have a momento to prove it -- It's a Great Day for Great Britain.

(Note, despite my naivete, I know that Wales is not part of GBR but actually part of the UK -- but they all have great pubs, great slate and this makes a great story -- so there.)

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