The head honcho at my place of work gave the whole office a half-day off yesterday. The good news came in the form of an email at about 10 AM. I'll have to admit, it's been hard for all of us to work this week, as the weather in DC has been picture perfect...clear, blue skies, mid-70s, and flowers blooming everywhere!

I decided to spend the rest of the day at the new Newseum. It's a great place for a news junkie like me and a trip back in time for me as a boomer who has lived a lot of the "history" that is on display...the introduction of TV in the US, the Civil Rights movement, the wars in Viet Nam, Iraq 1 and 2, the OJ trial, the Nixon and Clinton impeachments, the walk on the moon, 9/11, etc. It pays tribute to the print media too, and that part of the place has a lot more of the older artifacts...old cameras, telephones, typewriters (do my grandchildren even know what a typewriter is?).

It's full of glitz and glamour with huge flat screen monitors everywhere and a bunch of small theaters showing documentaries about one thing or another. It had a Times Square-ish, ticker-type news thread that circles the interior with the latest news. Many of the interactive screens give even more insights. You can even pretend to be a newscaster, with backdrops of the White House, the Capitol, etc. The outside view from the top of the building gives a great view of the sites along Pennsylvania Avenue. It's well worth the 20 dollar entry fee and I'll go back.

After the Newseum closed at 5 PM, I took the metro to a stop that I haven't spent much time at...Cleveland Park. I purchased my tickets for the 7 PM show of the Rolling Stones documentary "Shine A Light" at one of the, I'm sure, oldest movie theaters in DC. The place had a huge ground floor theater, with non-stadium seating. A curtain covered the screen which opened just prior to the movie starting. Once the show began, it was obvious that it had an updated sound system. And the mostly boomer audience enjoyed the show, including a lady on my row who was probably closer to 70 than 60, who leaned forward in her seat the whole time and applauded after each number. She made me smile bigtime!

Now seeing 60-something Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ron on the big screen is not a totally pretty site, but the energy of the film made up for the over-abundance of wrinkles on display. I really enjoyed the numbers "Loving Cup" with Jack White and "Champagne and Reefer" with Buddy Guy. The Stones are a phenomenon and Scorsese, I think, has another good flick under his belt.