Free, artsy weekend

My weekend was a mix of very low-key (renting a movie, going to Target and working) and more intense (a full-day outdoor music festival) activities. I won't go into detail on the movie ("Milk") or Target (crowded and expensive). And I'll include my Silver Spring adventure in a later post.


Free art
In between errands on Saturday, I went downtown to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The Corcoran is one of the oldest galleries in D.C. (It's also associated with the Corcoran College of Art and Design.) The gallery usually charges a small fee but, in an attempt to get more visitors in a slow month, it was waiving the fee every Saturday in August. I finally made it there the last Saturday of the month. I enjoyed the gallery; it has a nice selection of paintings and sculptures. It also currently has a William Eggleston photography exhibit, which was interesting. However, given all the free options in D.C., I don't know if I would pay too much to return to the Corcoran. It just wasn't very big. (It didn't help that the gallery had portions closed to allow for the installation of a few new exhibits.)

Free music
Thanks to a friend, I was alerted to tickets for the Virgin Mobile Free Fest musical festival, which was Sunday in Columbia, Md. I joined a group of friends to spend a day in the sun and see a bunch of bands (some that I knew better than others). In the end, I saw: Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, Girl Talk, Jet, Public Enemy, Hold Steady, The National and small pieces of others. I also saw LOTS of interesting people. Plus, I managed to not spend much money on $8 beers and to not get sunburned, so it was definitely a winning day.