by Peggy Robin Last Saturday I went to the National Building Museum with an out-of-town guest to see the exhibit on Capital Brutalism, which offers visions by various architects of how some of our city's largest and most intimidating brutalist buildings could be transformed to make them more pedestrian-friendly, or at least a bit less off-putting and monstrous. To be clear, this take on the exhibit reflects my own prejudice against the brutalist style; the exhibition's explanatory copy does not use such judgmental language and it explains that the term "brutalism" does NOT refer to a brutish indifference to people or a crude animal-like cruelty but comes from a literal translation of the French word "brut" (or its feminine form, "brute"), meaning "raw". It's called "brutalism" because the primary building material is raw concrete. The whole paragraph above is all just a digression from the point of today's Still Life with Robin column. The Brutalism exhibit quickly turned into an side excursion for us, something we realized would be the case the instant we walked through the big front doors of the Building Museum and saw that the main event, occupying the entire, huge ground floor, was the Destination Dominoes exhibit - the work of domino artist Lily Hevesh and her team of builders. There were two different types of domino activities going on at the same time - different but equally incredible in the gotta-see-it-to-believe-it category. Part One was the construction of the world's largest tower of dominoes. Two domino builders, each on top of a height-adjustable scaffold, would add dominoes, one at a time, oh-so-precisely, to the top layer of the tower, to continue its upward climb toward the ceiling of the grand hall. All it would take to ruin the painstakingly slow, multiple-day construction project would be for one stray toddler to slip inside the not-securely-fenced-off-building zone, to bring the whole shebang crashing down in an instant. It's odds-defying that the tower reached the record-breaking height of 33 ft, 3 in, without a hitch. After which, it was toppled, just as planned. Today's Washington Post, print edition, has the whole story (available online at https://wapo.st/46a3XZH). https://x.com/Hevesh5/status/1814309871451271194 Part Two was taking place at ground level, where Lily Hevesh along with a crew of well-trained helpers were constructing the greatest and most elaborate set-up of dominoes, to be knocked down TODAY at 4:30 pm. Sorry, the tickets to watch this real-time spectacle at the museum are long sold out. Next, I went scurrying around the NBM's website to see if I could find a link to watch the dominos fall in a livestream video but did not come up with anything. If I missed the link and anyone else spots it, please post it to the Cleveland Park Listserv before 5pm today, (which is when the dominoes are set to fall). If no one posts it by the deadline, I have strong hopes that a video will turn up on Lily Hevesh's Youtube channel, and I'll be sure to watch it when it does. (I went to https://www.youtube.com/@Hevesh5 and hit the "subscribe" button for notifications.) In the meantime, if you want to see what a truly phenomenal domino cascade looks like, just watch any of the mind-boggling videos of Lily's previous efforts. I recommend this one -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWgH0hXZKrE, well worth the five minutes it will take up in your life! ------------------------ Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.

- The Blue Giro Ski Helmet has been taken. (It comes with the black fabric case that was under it if the new owner wants to come back for that. - Gently used black/red size 41 bike shoes and new size 6 night diapers are still FFPU in front of 3116 Rodman St. Best, Carter Rodman St carterdenny @ gmail dot com

Good Morning: These items are free for pick up in front of 3116 Rodman St NW: - Blue Giro Ski Helmet, Adult Large, Like New - Black/Red Bike Shoes, Size 41, Gently Used - Size 6 Diapers, New, Opened the package and realized we got the wrong ones Best, Carter Rodman St carterdenny @ gmail dot com

Professor Jennifer D. Williams, a scholar of African American literature at Howard University, examines the life and literary contributions of Lorraine Hansberry, an immensely significant figure in 20th-century American literature and civil rights history. This event is part of the series "Great Voices of Black American Literature" hosted by Georgetown Neighborhood Library. Date: Tuesday July 30 Time: 6:00 pm Location: Georgetown Neighborhood Library, 3260 R Street, NW Posted by: Mohammad Abedi (DCPL) Georgetown Neighborhood Library https://www.dclibrary.org/plan-visit/georgetown-library