A leisurely stroll through the embassy district of WA DC in the snow this morning simply begged to be filmed but being unfamiliar with international protocol I chose to look only and take no pictures. Who knows what the Ambassadors of Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal, Estonia, Checoslovokia, Luxumborg, and China would think of a lone man in jeans, sneakers, NYPD scull cap, and gray carry on bag taking photograhs of their private quarters? Suffice to say, meandering the quaint neighborhood of dignitaries, world leaders, and spokespersons for international affairs reminded me how little I understand of our planet and its inhabitants. I couldn't find The Republic of Togo on a map if you paid me.
To make this blog post even more uninteresting, the famed Philips Collection of art, my destination of the day, forbade picture taking. How can I describe the Renoirs, Daumiers, Monets, and more Van Goghs without photos? Unlike the free public museums I visited yesterday, the Phillips is privately owned but easily worth the $12 entrance fee. It's not a huge museum but their holdings are world class. What brought me here was the "repetitions" theme in Van Gogh's work. He did repeated studies of his sitters, working out the details. And while he could complete a whole painting in one day, he did plenty of warm up sketches and rough draft paintings. Vincent is my hero. I did sketch several items but could not photograph what I was drawing.
I'd have drawn more but my train for Chicago was leaving at 4:00 so I felt a wee bit of stress. I pried myself away from these treasures and reboarded my tour bus. On the way to the train station we went past the homes of the famous Joe kennedy and Henry Kissinger and the infamous Watergate Hotel. Interestingly, there is one statue in WA DC that visitors are encouraged to touch, sit on, and even climb: the Albert Einstein bronze near the National Academy of Science. Look closely at this bootlegged snap shot off the web and note that his nose is shiny. Why? Folk lore says it's good luck to rub his nose in hopes that his genius will rub off. The king of rationalism would, I believe, croak if he knew of this superstition.
I am now at Union Station waiting for an 18 hour ride to the Chicago Art Institute. Sadly, this train does not have wifi so I won't be able to post until tomorrow. Until then, here are some goodies from today.
By the way, I also ran into two couples down town and boldly took my photo with them. Us tourists are a nervy lot, aren't we?
CHICAGO?! Oh man, have fun. Hope you meet interesting people on the train. If any teens tell you to shut up, you can teach them the squiggle game. It's humanized the surliest among us. Love you!
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