2026 Washington Auto Show

In 2025 we got to see Buick’s Wildcat EV, and this year brought the new concept car’s roots to the show in the form of the original 1985 futuristic testbed (and legendary Hot Wheels).

First unveiled in 1985, the Buick Wildcat concept was a sleek, forward-looking statement of where General Motors imagined American luxury performance could go: low, wide, unapologetically futuristic, and packed with then-cutting-edge digital instrumentation.  Seeing the original Wildcat on the auto show floor this year made for a striking time-warp moment, especially when viewed through the lens of last year’s Wildcat EV debut.  While the 1985 concept leaned into Bézier curves, aviation influence, and analog futurism, the modern EV reinterpretation carries that same experimental spirit forward with smooth surfaces, bold proportions, and an all-electric ethos.  Nearly four decades apart, both Wildcats serve the same purpose: less about production reality, and more about Buick staking a claim on what its version of the future looks like.

The Washington Auto Show sadly seems to shrink every year these days, and this year felt especially small, with fewer attendees due to the snowstorm still impacting the region, and large swaths of missing attendance - I remember the days when German manufacturers were on display, and luxury marquees such as Lexus, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Lincoln, Cadillac, and Jaguar were all highlights; this year, not even Nissan was included in the Japanese offerings - very disappointing annual downsizing.  Based on this, I was shocked Alfa Romeo and Land Rover both had small displays.
Exotics are always present in some capacity, but these are halo cars for the average attendee; I’m speaking about the missing makes attendees previously would have been able to experience the product.

After the show, a cool scene of chilly, ice covered DC:

Guinness Open Gate Baltimore: St. Patrick's Day + Radio Hero

It’s only once or twice a year I really get to celebrate the Irish half of my heritage, and last year after briefly meeting up with a friend catching a flight, I decided to treat myself and finally go check out the Guinness Open Gate Baltimore brewery which I was nearby.  I’m not a huge beer person, but when I do go for one, Guinness is typically my first choice, or other stouts - not surprising as a daily coffee drinker.

My main goal was to get lunch and relax a little while I was out near Baltimore since I’m not out that way very often, but I saw online that the brewery had St. Patrick’s Day celebrations scheduled all weekend even though this was a few days before the actual holiday.  Going in blind and not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised that not only was there a live band playing, but there were multiple spots and a vendor fair indoors and (tented) outdoors to check out and choose from.

Since I was mainly there to eat something, I didn’t even see if any brewery tours were available the day I was there - I suspect not, and would prefer seeing that as more of it’s own dedicated day.  Outside, with my fish and chips and my first selection of Guinness — a brew I had never even heard of them making before — I enjoyed the band playing a selection of Top 40 covers from the last couple decades; lots of millennial hits.  The band was fittingly titled Radio Hero.

Kaiser Permanente: Building Support for Public Health

On March 29th, 2023, Kaiser Permanente underscored the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes the need to address gaps in the U.S. public health infrastructure. It introduced three multi-sector initiatives to improve public health.

1. Health Care Industry Coalition: Leading healthcare organizations, including AHIP, Alliance of Community Health Plans, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, and Kaiser Permanente, are forming a coalition to enhance connectivity between public health agencies and the healthcare system. The focus includes building connectivity, ensuring emergency preparedness, establishing interoperable public health standards, and modernizing public health data systems.

2. Partnerships Between Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Public Health Agencies: The CDC Foundation, along with Kaiser Permanente and various CBOs, aims to optimize relationships between public health agencies and CBOs. This involves developing recommendations and roadmaps to strengthen partnerships, especially during public health emergencies.

3. Public Health Services Research Agenda: AcademyHealth, with support from Kaiser Permanente, will engage stakeholders to set a research agenda. The goal is to create a robust evidence base informing interventions, models, and partnerships to improve the public health system.

The overall goal is to reimagine and strengthen the public health system, involving various sectors in addressing urgent challenges identified during the pandemic.

Speakers included Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rick Pollack, President & CEO, American Hospital Association (AHA), Judy Monroe, President & CEO, CDC Foundation, among others.

2024 DC Auto Show

It’s been tradition amongst my friends ever since college to visit the DC Auto Show every year - the only years I’ve not attended were the year it was cancelled due to COVID, and the one year I happened to be buying a car the same day of the show.

This year was no different; we made a day of it and explored the show as usual.  This year I did something a bit different, and took some video clips in addition to my usual photographs of whatever caught my eye - I treated this as an exercise to sharpen my skills with a new video editing suite, and perfect my HDR and high framerate workflows.

After the auto show, we all met up with some friends at our favorite cozy spot in the district.

The BMW Ultimate Driving Experience: 2022

Note: This entry is being posted in late 2024, well after the event concluded.

Enjoy some highlights of BMW’s Ultimate Driving Experience in 2022.  This would mark my second time at BMW’s annual driving event which showcases some of their latest models.  This year we’d be getting spirited wheel time in the all-new BMW i4 M50: BMW’s latest all-electric sedan sporting 536 horsepower and a 0-60 in just 3.7sec.

I’ve driven many electric vehicles, including a Tesla P85D.  And while the Tesla certainly had a more explosive launch with its nearly ~700HP motors, this and its “full-self-drive” are mostly just party tricks packaged in a poorly assembled, low material quality body that simply feels cheap and unintuitive.   For two cars supposedly in the same class, there is simply no comparison - BMW has Tesla beat at its own game hands down.  Aside from the i40 possessing the quality in materials and build that one expects from the German maker, but it also comes with BMW’s famed handling; driving the i40, one wouldn’t know it isn’t a beefy V8 aside from the fake engine noise piped in through the sound system - while convincing, knowing the sound is a lie is the only thing that makes the driving experience less genuine.