DC

I’ve seen this sky before.  The clouds form an impenetrable grey sludge that keeps the daylight hours in a kind of perpetual dusk.  It was in Gettysburg and its here too.  Looks like the color of political gridlock.  I think DC needs more sunny days!  We arrived in Rockville some 15 miles outside of DC around noon on Wednesday, found our hotel and decided to take a reconnaissance trip into the mall area to see if we could figure out the subways and navigate the area.  Success!  A 10 minute ride in the hotel shuttle to Metro and then 35 minutes to central DC is all it takes.  We’ll focus on the Museums over the next 60 hours.

THE CAPITOL BUILDING:               Look closely, the two houses have a stained appearance in contrast with the central part of the building.  Hmmm…..

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY – the Race Exhibit: “Race, as a concept is a recent idea, only a few hundred years old.  It is based on the exercise of power and differential economics.  It does not make useful differentiations between people.”

NATIONAL BOTANICAL GARDENS: “By 2015 it will take an earth 1.6 times as big as ours to sustain humanity at our present level of consumption.”

NATIVE AMERICAN MUSEUM: “Being an Indian is not about being part something; it is about being a part of Something.” (Hopi)  “The Earth and myself are of the same mind.” (Chief Joseph)

AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: I learned that bike mechanics can change the world – Wilber and Orville Wright.  I think I would make a good bike mechanic….

HIRSHHORN MUSEUM: (2 and 3 dimensional art): “Our earth is made of layers of destruction and reconstruction made by man and nature.  We are generation and generation of layers.  We landed on this earth with the lights of comets across the universe.  We are small light made from mysterious energy.  I cannot forget that everyday.” Grazia Toderi (Commenting on her video art exhibit)

FREER ART MUSEUM:  In the beginning, man went forth each day- some to battle, some to the chase; others, again to dig and to delve in the field…until there was found among them one, differing from the rest, whose pursuits attracted him not, and so, he stayed by the tent with the women and traced strange devices with a burnt stick upon a gourd.  This man…this dreamer apart, was the first artist.” James McNeill Whistler (he liked languid and pensive women models)

AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUM: “…so many lucky men restless in the midst of abundance.” de Tocqueville 1835

AMERICAN ART MUSEUM: The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens of the Globe.”  John Muir 1901

Pictures: The "stained house and senate, Library of Congress, National Gardens, American Indian Museum, Lunar Landing Module, and yes, George Washington looking like a Greek God.  The statue didn't go over well in the 1860's and ended up in the museum