With everything else, ordinary life is having its own moments. The Factory much older than a half century, of course, and when there was active waterfront of interest to the old colonial and new US Governments. The Torpedo Factory is now an art center operated by Alexandria, but it was a production facility for Naval Weapons onboard the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station. Today it is the nation’s longest continually operated ‘community of publicly accessible artist studios’ in a converted industrial space.
It is an awkward phrase suitable for awkward times and has inspired cultural place-making around the world.
Socotra House’s Creative, Legal, Production and Marketing departments were encouraged to attend on a non-sponsored basis. Accordingly, we put our Fleet liberty caps on, looked in the wallets and purses to determined how much we could spend over how many hours and decided to go do some social commentary and let things slide a little into the weekend.
It is the Factory’s 50th anniversary weekend, so worth a stop if you are staying in town. Today, visitors encouraged to bring 70’s-inspired outfit and a tie-dye bandana spirit. We vaguely remember that, so the attraction was natural and with the season teetering toward full Fall, we thought a margarita outdoors was in order to mark this one.
Our cohort of military vets were around from the Vietnam days, with some not arriving until the mid-1980s. By then, Arlington County was well transitioned from the relatively plush north suburbs and the down-at-the-heels Alexandria post-industrial town into what it is now, and the Torpedo Factory was part of it and still edgy-hip when we first met it.
This afternoon was drag, which reflects the edge of something that seems to be quite comfortable. free retro Art Center bandanas, sweet treats from Scuttlebutt Bakeries with. live acoustic guitar tunes in the passageways. We have challenged Splash and Rocket to participate in the free face painting, and have asked Vic to get his hands wet in the tie dye event with the Mobile Art Lab people.
You never can tell what will happen at these things, and considering current cultural context, a vote to optimism and fun! The Naval Intelligence Professionals had a no-host social at the Marina over at the Columbia Island Marina last night and it feels like some of the amazing energy being released in town is being channeled in a traditional way! Let’s enjoy it before the weather really changes!
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