The June Solstice always comes too soon in my mind. Seems like we are just delving into summer time things when the longest day arrives. How can this be Midsummer already? I looked it up, and here are a few things I didn't know about the June Solstice:
Number One
Solstice translated means "sun stand still" which I think is a highly romantic turn of phrase and am not sure how I got this far in life not knowing this except I didn't take Latin in school.
Due to the vagaries of sundials and time pieces, the earliest sunrise and the latest sunset do not happen in most places (including Washington D.C.) on the solstice itself. This year our earliest sunrises start happening on June 7th at 5:42 a.m. And the latest sunsets begin on June 22 at 8:37 p.m. And yet, June 21st is officially our longest day of the year clocking in at twelve hours and some change depending on where you live. Trying to understand this makes my head hurt, but let's just say time is not a precise science when applied to Nature and leave it at that. I can live with this.
Number Three
The solstice technically occurs at the same time all over the world when the sun is above the Tropic of Cancer.
WHAT? Now my head hurts again.
Number Four
June Twenty-first will sport fourteen hours and fifty four minutes of daylight- five hours and twenty-eight more than the December solstice so at least there's that to be happy about unless you are a slug or some such creature of the night.
Celebrate the Solstice itself- all twelve plus hours of it-topping off your light filled day with The Thrillbillys at JV on Thursday evening. These guys never disappoint. The band is an ass kicking well oiled machine, and JV is a scene in itself where Christmas lights crisscross above the dance floor all year long.
Friday night we've got one of DC's best songwriting roots rocking bands- The Rhodes Tavern Troubadours opening for The Iguanas at Pearl Street Warehouse which is just the right size for seeing music and has an excellent sound system, too. It's a pain in the ass to find any kind of parking at the new waterfront, but there is a Metro shuttle and new water taxi routes to try besides car services. If you want parking, go out to the suburbs where Goin' Goin' Gone is throwing down their boogie blues thing at JV -also on Friday
And for those of you who really want to buck the work week, The Beanstalk Library and Bal Boheme play the Galaxy Hut on Monday.
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