Another Bodden in Washington.....what are we to do

August 27 – August 29, 2008

Well as my days in Washington came to an end, Dad came to visit me (and help me pack) before we made the move back to Canada. Of course before we left we had to take a tour around and check out a few things.

Georgetown University and the hospital I just spent the last 3 months at. Very old and it looks very gothic.

Dad got to experience one of the things I have certainly noticed over the last year or so. As Dad said, it shouldn’t be a surprise but it is weird to be in an area like Virginia where black people are the majority not the minority. And trust me Alberta becomes whiter the longer you stay away. A person’s surroundings certainly affects their perceptions on things.

Anyway, the first night dad was in town he found out how I had no food and I still had a lot to pack. So Thursday we got up bright and early……at 11am (dad let me sleep in) and then went to run some errands. After that we decided to check out a couple of things. Believe it or not there actually was a monument I had not been to yet (although I drove by it every day on the way to Georgetown). We checked out The United States Marine Corps War Memorial (the Iwo Jima Memorial). Now there is not one picture or video or anything like that that would have given me an idea of its true size so you can imagine our surprise when we drove around the corner and got a first glimpse. I hope the picture with dad will give you an idea. It is almost 24 metres (78 feet) tall.

The Iwo Jima Memorial and dad with the memorial. He looks very, very little next to it.

Dad with the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and the US Capitol. There are not many places where you can see all three of these sights but we found one.

Right next door is the Netherlands Carillon. It is a large bell tower that was a gift from the People of the Netherlands to the People of the United States in gratitude for American aid after World War 2. The stairs were locked so we could not walk up to the top (which I am sure dad was very happy about a few days later) but we did learn that every Saturday during the summer they give bell concerts. I wish I had known the early because I totally would have wandered over to hear that one weekend.

We then headed down to the Alexandria waterfront…...a place I had also never been. The water level was a little high, there was some flooding and as the tide came in the water flowed a little higher up the streets but we checked it out anyway. We also had some ice cream at an old ice cream shop. Old Town Alexandria is a very neat place. Most of the buildings have been there since the 1700’s when Alexandria was first founded. Most of the stores and homes have changed hands several times and their new tenants may not resemble the original tenants but still fun to hang out. Lots of little restaurants (including a Cod shop that sells good English style fish and chips and Cadbury chocolate products), antique store after antique store and lots of cute little clothing stores and other shops (which I cannot afford to shop in but I always like to take a look).

You can normally walk right up to this but the high water prevented me from seeing what it was a memorial for. I am guessing it had to do with ships and sailors though.

We were just walking down the street, eating ice cream and there he was.

The next day dad and I did get up nice and early and headed into Washington DC. Of course we stopped for breakfast since I had no food in my house and coffee since I don’t drink it and then we hopped aboard a Double Decker Bus to take a quick tour of the city. I learned very quickly (as did Dad) that I have spent too much time touring the city and that I should now get a part time job as a tour guide (seriously, I could give you a full commentary tour of the city and you know that if you have read this blog). If I ever decide to leave nursing I think I know what my next career will be. Anyway, the tour gave us a glimpse of most of the major memorials and let Dad decide what he wanted to see. Of course since I had already seen it all I just let him lead the way. The one thing that did suck was that the final clouds from tropical storm something- er –other were going through DC and I think the only rainy days I have seen all summer happened to fall when dad was in town. Good thing about DC though is that rain doesn’t actually drop the temperature…..it just makes things hotter.

Dad hanging out on the bus. These are some seriously old buses. Apparently some of the original double deckers. A great way to see the city.....even with a little rain.

Not sure how I never saw this before, but I didn't miss it this time.

Dad standing on the steps of the US Capitol. In the background you can see the Mall on Washington and the Washington Monument.

Hey look a black man with the White House. Just think in a few months there could be a black man living in the White House. We could be that lucky.

Me with the World War II Memorial. Not sure how Dad did not notice my eyes were closed but whatever.

The FBI is celebrating a big birthday. We celebrated with them a little bit.

So Dad and I made stops at the Capitol, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the FBI Building, and the Air and Space Museum.

Dad walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He would be feeling all the walking a few days later.

I must say I am not use to being in museums with this many people but it was worth it. Of course I had visited the museum before but I know very little about planes so lots of things were lost to me but Dad does know some stuff so he could answer some of my random questions.

We topped our very long day off by hitting a Washington Nationals game. My friend John met us and the 3 of us enjoyed a great ball game. The rain held off all night and it turned out to be a great night for baseball. The Nationals won which was great as well.

Me with Teddy. He is one of the four racing Presidents (the others being Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington). You can watch the video of the race later. Teddy has never won a race in the history of the Washington Nationals.

The Race of the Presidents.

Dad overlooking batting practice.

The line score. Even though both teams have no chance in making the playoffs, it was a great game.

Dad and John. I got them both to smile.

Dad and I waiting for the fireworks to start.

Through it all dad was very cooperative and allowed me to take a lot of pictures. He even smiled in most of them for me.

Saturday morning dad and I finished packing up the car and started our drive back to Canada. Day one would see us travel through 6 states to Chicago. A very long day but so worth it.

My very last night in DC ended like this.

Julie

One of Washington's Finest

August 19, 2008

While the Newseum still remains my favourite the National Holocaust Museum is absolutely one of the best!!! It took me until my last week in DC before I finally got there and it was well worth the wait.

I can honestly say that the museum did not present much to me that I did not already know. Obviously it is about the rise of Nazi Germany and the Jewish Holocaust. There are lots of pictures, personal stories, very accurate historical timelines and all that kind of thing. The way the information was presented was the most important thing though. The museum is set up like a concentration camp (although I did not realize that until much later). You are forced down narrow hallways that open up into larger rooms and then more narrow hallways. The day I was there, there were a lot of people (maybe too many) and you really felt like you were being herded and forced to go where someone else wanted you to go. I got the feeling of being in a concentration camp, without even knowing that that was intended in the design. It was extremely effective. Of course they do not let you take any pictures so there is only one from the outside.

This swastika that been taken apart never to be put back together again…symbolizing that we must never forget but never repeat the mistakes of the past.

I would highly recommend this museum to anyone who makes it to the DC area. It is free like most museums but you do require a timed ticket and on very busy days you may not be able to enter when you want so you have to plan.

Julie

The Newseum.....seriously that's its name

July 29, 2008

A view of the US Capitol from the terrace level of the Newseum

Well, I think I have officially found a winner for my favourite DC area museum contest. The winner……the Newseum. Yes, it is the most recent addition to DC’s museum community (just opened late last year) but it gets its name due to the content. This museum is dedicated to the News and media.

This o-zi (drum) was used in 19th-century Burma to annouce community news. The beating drum could carry news farther and faster than the human voice.

Now it is one of the only museums you are going to pay for in DC (the $20 entry fee seems like a lot when you spend the year visiting free museums) but it is worth every cent. I spent 5 hours there (I had to leave because it closed and they kicked me out) but I would have stayed a lot longer if I could have.

This museum has a little bit of everything…movies, documentaries, history, old newspapers, stuff to play with!!! They say it is the most interactive museum in the world and so far it is the most interactive museum I have been to. Although it is really focused on US media it does have some international stuff as well. It asks a lot of questions and does not necessarily give you the answers. It allows you to make your own decisions which I really liked.

This map represents the level of free media throughout the world. Green means the media is completely free, yellow is partially free and red is no freedom.

It was also neat (and a little annoying) because the museum had several groups of kids coming through the museum (day camps and when I mean several I mean at least 2 on each floor) and instead of just looking at the stuff and taking them on a tour of the museum and helping them fall asleep very early like I have seen in other museums, the kids were given tasks to do in each gallery and a set period of time to do it. They seemed to enjoy it and hopefully they learned something. They even got to use journalism lingo.

This is one of the display cases full of artifacts from journalist. Several of these journalists were jailed, injured and even killed while reporting on stories in conflict zones. Items include a helmet worn by New York Times reporter John F. Burns while covering the conflict in Bosnia in 1993. Burns has also been jailed by the Chinese governement in 1986 and kidnapped in Iraq in 2004. You will also find a pillow case with the words "Please tell my family I love them" written on it. It was found near the body of Canadian TV journalist Clark Todd. Todd was hit by shrapnal while reporting on the Lebanese Civil War in 1983. He gave his passport and wedding ring to a cameraman to take to his family. His body was found by the Red Cross a week later.

Of course one the museum’s focus was the discussion of The First Amendment and the five freedoms that are guaranteed to all Americans. Can you name them all? Well apparently less then 3% of Americans can, although more than 20% of Americans can name all five Simpsons (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie by the way). Of course the five freedoms are 1) religion, 2) speech, 3) assembly, 4) petition and 5) press. In fact the First Amendment is written on a 22.5 metre (74 feet) tall marble tablet on the outside of the building. If you don’t make it into the museum you certainly cannot miss this.

Also outside the museum you will find the daily front page of a paper from every state in the US and a few from around the world. People are always stopping to see what is going on in other places. It also gives you an idea of how different cities cover the same story depending on its local importance. It was in fact from the front page of the Edmonton Journal posted outside this museum that I learned all about the increased incidence of syphilis in Alberta. Makes you think a little about how others will view our issues when looking at it from the outside.

An old printing press on display at the Newseum

Once again I also got to experience a 4D film as they seem to be all the rage in museums these days. I knew a little bit more what to experience this time so no rats running over my feet. This one was a little more like a rollercoaster as the seats moved a lot more as it took you through the history of news and journalism and some moments that changed news. One of the very interesting stories was one about a female reporter who went undercover to pose as an insane woman so she could report on conditions in a female insane assylum. It was neat in 3D and in motion.

There was also a special exhibit called, G-Men and Journalists about the sometimes cooperative, and sometimes combative relationship between the FBI and the news media. They talked about and had artifacts from many big cases including the Unabomber (his cabin was there), The DC area snipers (they talked about how tips from people based on the fact that the media had reported that the snipers were traveling in a white van kept officials very busy…looking the wrong way. The snipers were of course not in a white van when they were caught), the assault on the Davidian ranch at Waco Texas (apparently Davidians at the ranch knew the FBI and ATF were coming because one of them ran into media personnal following the FBI in a local store the day before....there are still debates about whether this knowledge contributed to the number of dead and injured during the assault) and a few others. It was also very interesting how J. Edgar Hoover used the media in attempts to discredit people or groups that he did not like including Martin Luthur King, JFK and many other special interest groups.

J. Edgar Hoover was on loan from Madame Tussaudes wax museum.

Another very neat exhibit was the Berlin Wall exhibit. There actually was a piece of the wall in the museum along with a rebuilt guard tower. The gallery of course focused on the movement of news and information into East Germany, mostly by word of mouth. Of course there were also a few pictures showing how people were smuggled out of East Germany. Very interesting.

The Pulitzer-Prize photographs gallery was also very neat to see. Basically every photograph that has won a Pulitzer Prize over the last little while (really don’t remember how long) as well as interviews with some of the photographers who took the photos. Although a picture says a thousand words hearing the photographers background stories really did add to the pictures.

And I could talk all day about this museum but there is just too much to tell. If you make it to Washington DC and you have a few days this museum is a must. Check out the website. http://www.newseum.org/

Julie

What I do best.....or perhaps just what I do most

July 9th and August 7th, 2008

Ships in a Gale from 1660, Artist: Willem Van De Velde, The Younger

Well with the wedding over and my days in Washington running out I was back visiting a few museums. Next on my list was the National Gallery of Art. Actually I visited the West building before I visited Alberta and the East building after my visit to Alberta.

To say the 2 buildings are very different would be an understatement. The West Building which I visited first is the larger of the 2. It is home to mostly late century art. All very nice to look at but not as interesting as to what you will find in the East building.

Let’s start in the west building though. Although this was not the first museum I discovered it the names attached to many of the paintings are not very creative. I am sure that most of these paintings originally were not given names. You will see many paintings named “woman” or “women in a fancy hat” or “woman sitting in a chair with child”. And just for reference I do not need to post pictures for you to know what they look like because the names are very accurate descriptions of the painting. Here is one of my favourites, “Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat” from the 17th Century. The artist is believed to be Jan Cossiers.

Here are a few others which give you an idea of what you will find in the West Building.

Madonna of Humility, made of marble in 1400, Artist: Jacopo Della Quercia

Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch, it is dated 1485/1490. I am not sure what the slash in the date means but I am thinking start and completion dates.

This is Vincent Van Gogh's Self Portrait. He painted it while in a mental institute around 1889. He died shortly after.

The East building on the other hand is full of mostly modern art which I am finding much more interesting and creative. There are all different types of very interesting types of art including paintings and sculptures and some other things that are hard to explain. Here are a few that I liked, yes there are a few paintings but I liked them.

This is Le Negresse by Henri Matisse. There was an entire room with wall sized pictures made of cut-outs. Reminded me of craft time in kindergarten but on a much larger scale.

This is The Tragedy, 1903 by Pablo Picasso. Yes it is a Picasso just not what you might think about when you see a Picasso.

This is Nude Women, 1910, also by Picasso. A little bit more what you would expect to see from Picasso. You can almost see the nude woman can't you. Check out this link so you can see his full name (I was not going to write it out.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

This is One Year the Milkweed (yeah that's correct) by Arshile Gorky

This is Angel of History. It is made of lead, glass and poppies. When you get close to it you can actually see the poppies. Artist: Anselm Kiefer.

The East building is also currently home to the Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. This exhibit was amazing to see…not just because of the items but because of the story behind them. These items were thought lost during the war that followed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. However, most of the items were secretly hidden in crates in the Central bank vaults of the Presidential Palace in Kabul. In 2004, the vaults were opened and the crates found revealing a nation’s history once thought lost. You can also watch the National Geographic documentary on the discovery of the items and the process to restore and put them on display. Very emotional for everyone involved and just amazing to see.

I could not take pictures in the Afghan exhibit but if you ever see it in a museum near you, I highly recommend it.

I also made stop at the Canadian Embassy. For those of you who don’t know the Embassy is home to a small art gallery whose exhibits change every few months. The current exhibit is 50 years of American Photojournalism: 1939-1989. It showcases images from Ryerson’s Black Star Historical Black and White Photography collection. There were 3 major categories: the civil rights movement, which is pretty self explanatory, personalities, which was pictures of stars in politics, music, TV and movies, and war and conflict, which was pictures from the Korean War, the Second World War and the Vietnam War. Also very neat to see and I learned that my ability to read French is still pretty well intact. Of course being at the Canadian Embassy any written information is in both English and French and I decided to practice by only reading the French headings. Worked out very well.

Julie

Independence Day

July 4th, 2008

You have to know I caught some great fireworks living in the DC area. Of course there was a lot of stuff going on down on the Mall all day and was going to check out a bunch of it and then thought better of it. The weather was hot and humid and there were about 16 million people (give or take a few million) so I actually spent most of the day relaxing at home and then headed down to the mall for the fireworks. My friend John (who I worked at Hopkins with...I escaped but he is still stuck there) joined me for the show. It was very crowded and once we made it through the security check point (yes purse/bag checks for all before you could enjoy the show) but we still managed to find a great seat under some trees about a block from the Washington Monument. We had a great view of the show. Here are a few pictures and a short video.

My friend John

Me hanging out with a few of the other million people.

Some fireworks. I was impressed with how there were not all Red, White and Blue.

They finished with a flurry. It really was a great show and fun to experience the 4th in the Nation's Capitol.

Julie

Canada Day 2008

July 1, 2008

Happy Canada Day!!!!

Well I managed to find myself a piece of Canadian soil this Canada Day......ok it was only at the embassy but it counts. The embassy here in DC was all dressed up looking its best. Lots of people around as well as they had a small party going on. There was music and a BBQ (some hoe I think the Canadian beef was missing though) and some hockey activities from the Washington Capitals. I have to admitt, I did not sample the BBQ as I had plans to head to Georgetown and do some shopping (the line was very long) but I did dress up in my best Canada shirt and carry my flag all over DC that day. My car has also been decked out with extra Canadian flags all week ( I always have at least one hanging from the rearview) so no one could mistake it. It was kind of fun because every once in a while some would honk at me and flash thier Canadian flag at me too. Turns out you are never that far from a Canadian (even if they have actually given up thier Canadian license plates).

Anyway, I spent a wonderful day shopping in Georgetown (I did not buy too much because I really can't afford to shop there) but it is always fun to check stuff out. I topped the day off with a nice Keiths (I still have a couple in my fridge).

Julie

Back in DC and loving it!!!!

June 26, 2008

The Martin Luthur King Library in DC. Just one the random buildings I wandered by the other day.

Well I made my way back into DC to make some repeat visits to a couple Smithsonian Museums. My first stop was back at the Museum of African Art. A couple new exhibits have opened since my last visit so I had to go back. I was unable to take any pictures (usually you can't in the temporary exhibits) but they were very good. One of them was Textstyles and had examples of African textiles, garmets and accessories. There were also a lot of stories about how they were used, made and the influences that have caused change over the years. Very interesting. The second exhibit was a exhibit with the works of a Ghanaian artist named El Anatsui titled Gawu. (Gawu is derived from the word "ewe" in Anatsui's native language. It has several potential meanings including "metal" and a "fashioned cloak".) Both of these meanings would make sense considering Anatsui's work. He works with mostly metal fragments of things that have been discarded. He makes metal "cloths" that are constructed with the aluminum wrapings from the tops of liquor bottles, three-dimensional sculptures made of the discarded tops of evaporated milk tins and a crumpling wall made of rusty metal graters and old printing plates for a few examples. The items were all gathered in Nigeria where Anatsui lived for 28 years. The work really was quite brillant and really makes you look at trash in a very different way.

From there I headed back to the Hirshorn Gallery to see Part 2 of The Cinema Effect: Realisms. I saw Part 1: Dreams, a few months back and had to go back to see the next portion. I am not sure which one was better. I found "Dreams" a lot more dramatic but "Realims" was much more thought provoking. I must say though that my true feelins of Part 1 were not really complete until I saw Part 2. I am very glad I was still in the area so I could see both parts.

Both exhibits were collections of mostly video art by many different international artists the were combined to make one big exhibit. In Dreams, artists used the technology of cinema to recall the dream-like state induced by film viewing, transporting viewers out of thier daily lives to a place where definitions and understanding of reality are questioned. Realisms continues to play on this and how what we are viewing in cinema (and TV) distort our depictions of reality. In one case I watched a film (in Itailian with english subtitiles I might add) that appeared to be fiction but then you realize that the entire script is written from interviews with film students that are being played on TVs on one side of the room. So the situations in the film are fiction but all the dialogue is the combination of the interviews. In another room you walk in and on 4 walls there were shots from New York City, or at least it appeared to be New York City until you look a little bit closer and realize that the shots are in fact from a film set, in Los Angeles. Very, very interesting. If there exhibits ever land in a museum near you , I totally recommend taking some time to check them out, but make sure you allow yourself some time. You cannot just walk in, take a look and walk out and still get the full effect. You usually need to watch the full thing and in some cases that could be 20 minutes.

I then made a stop at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. I had wandered by here quite a few times on previous visits to DC but never wandered through. Now that everything is so green and the fountain was up and running it was a very pretty place to stop and had quite a few interesting large pieces of art. In the winter the fountain is usually an ice rink I guess but I missed that. Here are a few pictures.

The fountain in the middle of the garden... and no I don't know who those people are.

This is Aurora by American artist Mark Di Suvero. It points to the gate to get out of the garden just in case you get lost.

This is Magdalena Abakanowicz's Puellae (Girls).

This one is called Typewriter Eraser, Scale X (cleaver I know). The artists are Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen.

The next stop was at the old Post Office. This was another place I had walked past many times and had been told to take a few minutes to go up the tower. It offers very similar views to those on the top of the Washington Monument but the windows are open so you want to go up there on a nice day.

The Old Post Office.

The Old Post Office was built in the 1890's. At the time it was DC's tallest building. Today it is DC's third tallest building (the Washington Monument and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception are taller). The building served as the city post office from 1898 to 1914 but eventually the building became to small and was moved. In the 1970's the government had plans to tear it down but there were protests and all that kind of thing and instead it was renovated. It now houses offices including the Board of Education (you still have to go through security to get in). The view from the top is very good. You can also stop by the level that holds all the bells. The bells are rung by the Washington Ringing Society (seriously I am not making that up) for American holidays and other special events and that kind of thing. Apparently they practice thier bell ringing on thursday nights (also not making that up).

One of the big bells.

Looking toward the Capitol through the protective wires. The observation level is open to air but there is still something in the way from those perfect camera shots.

This side of the building has glass not wires. The domed building behind me is the Natural History Museum.

Julie