Untitled – A travel documentary comprised of footage shot by documentarian Michael Glawogger as he traveled for months through Eastern Europe and down into Western Africa. Glawogger contracted malaria and died in Liberia during filming, so the resulting film is a compilation of his footage in accordance with his notes and instructions. At its best, his footage captures ways of living totally foreign to a Western viewer that in collage raises questions about animal cruelty, child labor and garbage (yes, garbage). Overall, this is a passion project that will mean more to Glawogger’s family and friends than to a wider audience.

National Museum of African American History & Culture – Conceptually this museum is quite brilliant. After entering this museum you actually begin your journey by taking an escalator and then an elevator deep underground the National Mall. Down there you will work your way up through centuries of painful history, emerging hours later in present day. These history levels are text heavy and avoid sensation in most instances. However, I was emotionally exhausted by the end; the mere facts of this history are enough to overwhelm. After the history levels, you get to explore the cultural floors above, covering music, theater, visual arts, sports, and more, thus completing the metaphor: the history is the foundation to a rich culture and a stunning structure that will now be a fixture in this country’s ongoing dialogue.

Philip Glass 20 Etudes: A 5-Pianist Performance – MINIMALIST classical music composer Philip Glass came to the Kennedy Center and he brought friends! In the house were jazz maestros Jason Moran and Aaron Diehl, Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange) and concert pianist Jenny Lin. The performers were given four of Glass’s 20 piano Etudes a piece to be performed in order, though Hynes ended up ceding (or losing) his second two to others. The Etudes are, well, studies of register and tempo on a sole piano that share melodic structures that mutate through the whole set. For this performance, the constantly rotating performers were part of the study, each bringing a part of their personality to the music. As exciting as this was, I would have preferred to have Lin, the most talented pianist, play all 20.

City of Sadness – This is an early Hou Hsiao-Hsien film from 1988 that follows the gradual ruin of four brothers, each falling into the chaotic power vacuum of post-WWII Taiwan. The movie depicts how the remaining Japanese cultural presence, the distant civil war on the mainland, and the lack of stable local governance will sow the seeds for a future Taiwanese nationalist identity built upon estrangement and despair. Hou’s signature long takes are effective at staring at a past that had previously been avoided in Taiwanese film, though his greatest aesthetic achievements appear in later films.

National Portrait Gallery: America’s Presidents – This permanent exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, which reopened after renovations this past Fall, was given an attendance boost with the additions of the new President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama portraits by artists Kenhilde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively. Both paintings are spectacular in person. The vibrant greens and blues of the flora engulfing the President are magnetic and you find yourself getting lost in them. Similarly, the enigmatic face of the former First Lady beckons you towards the somber blue void surrounding her. These two paintings conjure not just the images but meditations on their respective subjects. Equally as exciting were the large crowds. People of all ages and races were gathered around them in a palpable awe, in most instances making it impossible to see the full pictures.

Tamayo: The New York Years – The best paintings at this Rufino Tamayo retrospective exhibit at the SAAM (Smithsonian American Art Museum) are four WWII-era works depicting dogs, a horse and a lion in variations of a rabid trance amongst post-apocalyptic backgrounds. Tamayo was a Mexican modernist painter who incorporated cubism, pre-Colombian imagery and expressionistic color fields to achieve his singular look. In Tamayo’s time in New York City, those elements never worked better together than when evoking the primal, hellish circumstances of the world circa 1943 through animalist symbols.

David Finckel & Wu Han – Hosted by The Phillips Collection, David Finckel (cellist) and Wu Han (pianist) were in town to perform a two-hour cello-piano set for a majority geriatric crowd. Having been oblivious to the duo, I was pleased to learn that in addition to being supremely talented they are also an adorable married couple. The set was highlighted by two Felix Mendelssohn pieces, Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major & Lied ohne Worte (Song without Words) in D Major, and Edvard Greig’s Cello Sonata in A minor. The latter was a beautiful bipolar blast from Scandinavia that best illustrated to me the ways in which a duet can play notes for each other, filling in spaces to help one another transcend their forms.

Saturday Night Live – This episode ended with a skit featuring host Sterling K. Brown visiting a family’s mother on her death-bed. Her last words as she fades in an out of consciousness turn out to be the lyrics to Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me.” Before you know it, Brown is performing the song with music backing, the children and paramedics dancing as they defibrillate the mother, “CLEAR!” It was totally unhinged and sadistic, and it capped the most madcap episode I’ve seen in years. My apathy for this show has turned to curiosity.