dc4free#2: smithsonian folk festival

this week's event was the smithsonian folk festival on the national mall, which i guess is about 10 blocks from where we live. we walked down this morning, but i can't really recommend it to anyone. in fact, i'll try to start a little ratings system (maybe a really good event gets 4 of 5 marion barrys, while a waste of time gets only 1.5 of 5 marion barrys). under such a system, the old smithsonian folk fest gets, oh, about 1 marion barry, and that only b/c they had an exhibit nominally about hockey (it was about skate-making and had some hockey sweaters strewn about to lure in unsuspecting males). unless you're interested in alberta (this had to be the greatest concentration of canadians in the continental u.s. outside of a celine dion concert -- give me gordon lightfoot 6 days a week and twice on sundays, btw), or you've got a basket-weaving fetish, you're sol @ these festivities. i've always liked all things canadian, but i've a growing suspicion that @ least that province may be b-o-r-i-n-g, even if it is "canada's rocky mountain playground" and the location "brokeback" was shot. so, this dc4free weekend was a bust. the only thing really fun (a carousel that i swear went faster than it looked like it was going before i got on the thing w/ both my kids) actually cost us $2.