On Sunday, J and I attended the Capital Pride Festival, which by the looks of things was a huge success. I took some photos, and treated J to an Italian Ice before we got too overheated and had to head for some shade. As a straight guy with a gay family member, who supports GLBT rights and same-sex marriage, I wanted to show a little support for the team, without crashing the party too much. :) One thing that immediately caught my eye were the classic cars on display, from the Lambda Car Club. Some have complained about the number of corporate vendors at the festival, but it's heartening to me that so many mainstream American companies have embraced their LGBT customers and employees.

Eventually, the strong sun and lack of shade drove us indoors, to the National Gallery of Art, where we took in the Afghanistan exhibit. The show runs through September, and is comprised of hundreds of beautiful artifacts from Afghanistan's National Museum in Kabul, which were thought to be lost as a result of the violence that has plagued the nation since the 1980s. Unfortunately, no photography was permitted, otherwise I would have taken plenty of photos for Flickr. I was surprised to see how much of the art was influenced by classical Greek styles, with Corinthian column capitals, and sculpted figures with heads that looked a little like Alexander the Great to my untrained eye. There was also some art that looked to be influenced by India and/or Persia. Running through my mind the whole time was the concern that these artifacts would eventually be returning to Afghanistan, and will again sadly be at risk for destruction considering the instability there. Hopefully, they won't go the way of the giant buddha statues at Bamiyan!