Weekend bullet points:

• Smash! Records is great as always, and I noticed they have a Boomtown Rats photo on their beam. PUNK. Any record store that puts Shudder To Think and Nation of Ulysses CDs on the shelf is the real deal. Also PUNK.
• W.I.T.C.H. and Death Valley Girls at the Black Cat Friday night. Exactly the tonic I needed. DVG ended their set with “Disaster (Is What We’re After)”, or one of the best modern psychedelic rock songs, during which I got to experience my first true “pit” as opposed to flinching on the periphery. My nose got bonked. Deliscious. Then W.I.T.C.H., whose name stands for “We Intend To Cause Havoc”, did exactly what they intended to do. I love getting myself lost in music, especially recently. It’s the closest I have to a religion, having never done drugs. Getting a brand new sonic prescription, not just through headphones but supplied directly through booming amplifiers, to truly lose myself in a dark room for a short while, was exactly what I needed. To let my head bang in whatever direction it wanted to and let it swell a little. A guy in a well fitting Jesus Lizard(!) shirt, tight pants, and combat boots was totally losing it right up against the amp for W.I.T.C.H.; I saw him around a few times throughout the night between bands. These are the things I like to see.
• The Air and Space Museum is only half open for continuing renovations. What is open to the public is dazzling. I don’t really care about planes other than the uniforms of their stewardesses, but funky colored lights showcasing worldly posters about interconnection and a watch used to keep Martian time are my kind of deal.
• The Hirshhorn reminds the public that we wouldn’t have Infinity Rooms without sixties anti-war abstraction and naked people frolicking in the street. It was great finally seeing some of Yayoi Kusama’s work in person. An exhibition of contemporary Chinese photography really enlightened me. Work under dictatorship.

Repetition, insanity, neurosis, shining stars within conformity, hum de hum de hum…

• The Holocaust Museum is a uniquely exhausting experience. A necessary and perspective-expanding one, but still exhausting. You reach a point where you’re trying to comprehend a placard only to slowly realize that your brain can’t take any more comprehension to begin with. You experience a very unique kind of weight and gravity. Everyone should go once in their lives.
• The U.S. Capitol needs a new drain pipe.