This weekend, I actually did things. Things worth writing about. On Sunday, after meeting some people for lunch, I headed over to the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, which is near George Washington University in Foggy Bottom (it is located at 2700 F Street NW). They have a program at the Kennedy Center called the Millennium Stage, which showcases short performances every day at 6:00PM (you can check here for their schedule of performances).
The performance I happened to see on Sunday ended up being something right up my alley (I hadn't really checked ahead or anything). It was a wind ensemble called the Fairfax Wind Symphony, performing selections from musicals! Including my all-time favorite musical, Les Miserables. It was a very nice event, and I thoroughly enjoyed the music. It was interesting to see how they arranged the music, both in terms of turning songs written for full orchestras into something that could be played by just wind instruments, and in terms of creating the arrangements so one song kind of flowed into another (they grouped the songs by what musical they were from, and created arrangements so what they played was really one piece comprised of pieces of the songs).
On Monday (I know, not technically the weekend. But since I am not working, it is basically the same thing), I actually got up early, and managed to get over to the Supreme Court of the United States (herein SCOTUS), in hopes of getting in to see the Justices render some opinions from the bench (and since there are several opinions in the pipeline that would be landmark cases, to see history). Apparently, though, not everyone who goes gets in to see the show -- it depends on seating capacity in the courtroom, which varies day by day due to a number of factors. After just barely getting in, (I was the first person they did not allow in to the courtroom after waiving in members of the public from the line. Then, at the last minute, they had more seats open up, so myself and a few others got to go)I saw them issue two opinions. Unfortunately, I actually don't remember their names. Also, I did not take a picture of the SCOTUS building because they are apparently working on cleaning the exterior marble, and so instead of the usual impressive facade, all that is there is a scrim with a print of the front of the building on it. Not exactly picturesque.
The first opinion found that federal prosecutors cannot retroactively increase a convicted prisoner's sentence based on the federal sentencing guidelines, as the Court found that this would amount to ex post facto application of law and punishment. 6-3 decision, with I believe Thomas, Scalia and Alito in dissent.
The second opinion had to do with raisin growers in California, the 5th Amendment, and some obscure agricultural statute from the New Deal era. From what I could gather, it sounds like the Court found that raisin growers can raise constitutional arguments to enforcement of terms of the statute in front of the agency in charge of enforcing the statute. Unanimous decision.
If you are interested in seeing the SCOTUS, check their court calendar for more information. Here is their calendar for the October 2013 term.
After finishing at the SCOTUS, I went across the street to the Library of Congress, because it is an epic and gorgeous building, and took photos. They really do not "do" subtlety in DC, do they?
Finally, I went down to Alexandria, VA, again, to pick up the painted pottery that I created a few weeks ago. Behold my epic masterpiece...
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