Editors’ Picks: Arts & Culture

Hippest New Record Store: Art Sound Language

Build the coolest vinyl collection in town by stopping at Art Sound Language. Located in the Chevy Chase Arcade, the record shop also features art books perfect for any coffee table, as well as a carefully curated selection of fiction. But the main event is the eclectic range of new and pre-loved records that cross genres from rock to jazz to hip-hop to electronic, as well as an international collection. If you want to fall for a new-to-you indie rock band, you’ve come to the right place—the store stocks titles by smaller niche artists such as The Sea Urchins and Fruit Bats. But if you prefer to stick to the classics, never fear. You can also pick up an album by the Grateful Dead, The Smiths or Hall & Oates. 

5520 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., instagram.com/artsoundlanguage

Best Use for Old Trees: Montgomery Parks Stump Sculptures

For more than 300 years, the Linden Oak towered over the intersection of Beach Drive, Grosvenor Lane and Rockville Pike in Bethesda. But when it started to die, Montgomery Parks gave it new life. The tree was cut down this past July, but through a grant from the Montgomery Parks Foundation, chain saw artist and Olney resident Colin Vale transformed a limb from the tree into an artistic bench in Ken-Gar Palisades Local Park in Kensington. The bench was unveiled in December. The same grant funded another project by Vale in October. After an overcup oak tree at the intersection of Beach Drive and Cedar Lane in Kensington split during a storm and had to be removed, Vale carved a dragon, a child and a treasure chest into the stump along the Rock Creek Trail. Other Montgomery Parks stump sculptures can be found in Brookside Gardens in Wheaton (also by Vale) and two by chainsaw artist Joe Stebbing in Jesup Blair Park in Silver Spring. “Trees provide environmental and social benefits when they are alive,” says Montgomery Parks urban forester Colter Burkes, “and by turning them into art shows, they can continue to benefit the public after their death.”