alexandriacardinals

WARNING:  This posting contains art!  A regular among the tens of readers was totally disinterested by the previous art posting.  What can I say?  Girls’ hockey season is over.  Besides, I’m a Renaissance man – meaning I know absolutely nothing about a whole lot of stuff.  Enjoy the art from your nation’s capital.

[It’s January 31.  Our first day back in D.C.  Not unlike Boston, we had a bright, sunshiny day – with about 40 mph winds, making the windchill, again, very uncomfortable.  We were amazed at the condition of the mall, which had been “all fixed up” recently.  I think it was a first.  I lived there over 30 years, and for the better part of that the so-called grassy area of the mall was splotchy at best.  In the Park Service’s defense, the mall gets a lot of use (including various kinds of ball games) – it’s the nation’s front yard.  A million people were here less than 2 weeks before for the inauguration.]

[Expanding the supervisor’s horizons.  We heard the people who general occupy the domed facility in the background all fled town we they heard we were coming back!]

[Turning 180 degrees from the previous photo, there is an obelisk named for the first president of the United States.  The Smithsonian castle is the building on the left.  If you drew a straight line from here, through the Washington Monument, to about 3 miles on the other side of it, you would find our previous domicile.  It was an easy bike ride for us to go to the mall.]

[To escape the biting wind as soon as possible, we sprinted to the Hirshhorn Museum’s Sculpture Garden, which was just off to the left of where I was standing when I took the Washington Monument photo.  The “we” now included our D.C. host (yes, we inflected ourselves upon old friends again), Bill (and Anne) Gross.  The two statues in this photo are by Henry Moore, whose works are often described as sensual.  I concur.  😉 ]

[The same Moore, though the descriptive plate didn’t work out.  By pure dumb luck I just noticed the Washington Monument is nicely framed in this photo!  🙂 ]

[More Moore.]

[That’s better.]

[Down in the Sculpture Garden and thankfully out of the wind.  The building is the Hirshhorn.]

[I will now begin a series of photos of art.  I know art when I see it.  This has art written all over it.  Plus, it continues a pattern established from the art of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem!]

[Bill and the supervisor proceeded apace into the building to warm-up.  So I flew around the Garden, rapidly taking photos, often without identification.  I’m too tired to go the internet to try to identify all these.  Sorry, my bad.  (OK, I looked.  It’s Giacomo Manzu’s, “Self Portrait with a Model at Bergamo,” 1942.]

[I do prefer “sensual.”  It’s probably a guy thing.]

[Now I’ve been to the Hirshhorn many times before.  In fact, it’s just a couple blocks from where I worked.  We would occasionally have our lunchtime nosh in this vicinity to check out the displays in the Garden.  It isn’t a static place.]

[A best guesstimate would be statuary?]

[These guys are The Burghers of Calais.  It was also the first photo (above) down in the Garden.  In the background is the National Gallery of Art, on the other side of the mall.]

[My preferred early afternoon position.]

[Beyond comprehension.  No, that’s not the title, it’s just my description.  It’s Arman’s “Eros Inside Eros,” 1986.]

[My attempt at art?]

[Joan Miro’s “Lunar Bird,” 1966-67.  Nice grasses!]

[“Horse and Rider,” yup, that’s the name.  By Marino Marini, 1952-53.

[Manzu’s “Young Girl on a Chair,” 1955.]

[Willem De Kooning’s “Clam Digger,” 1972.]

[“Seated Yucatan Woman,” Zuniga, Francisco.]

[“Walking Man,” Auguste Rodin, 1900.]

[The Museum]

[View across the Garden.]

[“Kiepenkerl,” Jeff Koons, 1987.]

[“Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore),” Mark Di Suvero, 1967.]

[“Last Conversation Piece,” Juan Munoz, 1994-95.]

[“Two Discs,” Alexander Calder, 1965 (in honor of my high school graduation).]

[The supervisor and Bill enter the hallowed grounds of the Smithsonian castle.]

[National Museum of African Art.  We paid an extensive visit on our previous visit.]

[The castle, where soon we would be lunching!  🙂 ]

[The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, our initial destination.]

[And this is why.  We were there for the “Roads of Arabia.”]

[Just confirming that’s what it said.]

[“he Monkeys,”see the following.]

[“Monkeys Grasping for the Moon,” Xu Bing, 2000.  21 interlocking laminated wood pieces that suspend from the skylight to the reflecting pool on the bottom level.]

[Head from a figure of the Buddha.  That’s what the sign says.]

[“The Monkeys,” again.]

[Let’s eat!!]

[Bill and Ruth lead the way.  Anne?  She still works (“work” seems so long ago).]

[Pretty day; pretty cold.]

[Inside the castle.  Gift shops and a restaurant.  Bill selects aisle seating.  “Weakie” queried as to our bills of fare at dining places – here it was a sub.  😉 ]

[Sated, back to the Sackler.]

[What an isolated area!  Explained below.]

[Apparently only accessible by subway.]

[Before Tupperware.]

[Fine china.]

[The supervisor claiming she was “framed.”  We are now back at the Hirshhorn where we were reminded the Ai Wei Wei exhibit was on display.  Our timing was purely accidental, though we had recently heard of his work on national news when we were still home in Minnesota.  The artist (pronounced “Eye Way Way”) is a Chinese dissident who is forever getting in trouble there.  What’s not to like?]

[Ai in the photo, his art in the foreground.]

[This is what made the U.S. news.  He filmed himself dropping, and breaking, and priceless vase from antiquity – his point being it’s just a pot, take care of people.]

[Art students with their teacher.  Drawing stuff in the outside atrium.]

[This Ai stuff was really neat.  “Really neat” is a complex critics’ term used in the art establishment.  Anyway, it was literally “floor to ceiling” photos.]

[A snake snakes along the ceiling, with the view into “floor to ceiling” photos room.]

[Looks like Andy Warhol.  Don’t know if it’s suppose to be.]

[Here’s my man Henry again.]

[The beautiful panorama view from the Hirshhorn’s second floor across the mall.]

[Ditto toward the northeast.]

[Ditto to the northwest.]

[Let there be light – a Wei Wei.]

[Crabs!!  A Wei Wei.]

[The Dubliner.  Not far from the Department of Labor, we visited here occasionally.  😉  Came to set up a future lunch date with whoever wanted to join us.  The President made a campaign visit here , and the “Morning Joe” show broadcast from here for the week before the election.]

[Inside the Dubliner.]

[Where the supervisor worked.]

[The Air Force Monument by the Navy Annex.  You figure it out.  The Air Force Monument was new to us; the Navy Annex is older than dirt and is in the process of being razed.]

More D.C. ahead!

[The quintessential Salem photo.  Taken in The Burying Point on the 3rd day, just what one would expect from a ghostly graveyard photo.  I didn’t use it in the previous post because it needed to be a story lead.  Maybe this is where the spooky genre all began?]

[Our last day in Salem it finally snowed.  Not much, but it felt better – it fit the temperatures we had been experiencing all along.  Of course, shortly after we returned home, the East Coast got hit by the Big Dump!]

[Remember that previous “jail becomes a restaurant” set-up?  Well, here’s the supervisor trying to break “into” jail.]

[“The Great Escape” is the name of the restaurant.  😉 ]

[A poster in the restaurant.  We made sure we didn’t walk off without paying the check, something older people are wont to do in our forgetfulness.]

[Yup, the snow day had a negative impact on the lunch time crowd!]

[They put us in Cell Block D, for the hardened customers . . . like the supervisor and Rosie!  😉 ]

[The menu items ranged from gruel to cold porridge to week-old bread.]

[In case you wanted to do something kinky for dessert?]

[Well, unless you get away with it!]

[Fittingly, the bar had . . . bars.]

[Then it was on to the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM).  Although Salem “only” has a population of 42,000, the museum is big time major metropolitan due to its proximity to Boston.  Dick, the supervisor, and Rose lead the way – no doubt making sure we all get the senior rate!]

[A tourist photographing the same clock he uses for an alarm back home.  Always get clearance before taking photographs in a museum or art gallery – most times you can’t, but if you can, no flash!]

[As I recall, this was a contest.  Apparently, the work was never signed – so the museum believes it came down to two artists from that era.  I guessed Andy Warhol?]

[It really was a beautiful facility.]

[I do not know either of these people.]

[Oh, that’s it.  I was trying to capture the ship.  Remember, Salem is a harbor town.]

[Rose and Dick discuss the finer points of harpooning.]

[A masthead . . . maybe the reason ships are always “shes”?]

[Well, that explains “this” one.]

[Stayed tuned for the following explanation.  I took the photo because I liked it.  Seems a good enough reason.]

[The explanation.]

[The supervisor always thought I should take up a hobby like this.  I reminded her these were all done in the days before one could wile away the hours prone in front of a TV.  Well, it would be a good way to pick up a whole new series of swear words (something different from set I currently use in dealing with the computer!).]

[One of the Queen Elizabeths, as I recall.  And pretty darn big!]

[Apparently such vessels catered to the tuxedoed crowd – and I got too zoftig for mine years ago.]

[Another reason why I couldn’t build model ships.  I would find the avian creature on my shoulder distracting.  Oh, and the supervisor wouldn’t let me smoke a pipe.]

[How does one obtain an anonymous loan?]

[The supervisor examines the art work while . . .]

[A close-up reveals it is indeed a Queen Elizabeth.]

[Another masthead, another “don’t mess with me, I have a knife” figure.]

[Miss H.  I know that because that’s what it says below.]

[A movie on the Yin Yu Tang house, that was de-constructed in China and reassembled at the PEM.  Probably a first in museum-dom.]

[The theme at PEM, while we were there, was “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones.”]

[From the skywalk to “Hats.”]

[You could “try on” the Hats via computer.  Here the supervisor and I stand beside Rosie while she looks for the perfect fit.]

[Ah, perfect for high tea with the Queen.]

[Still searching for the perfect chapeau . . .]

[And when you find one, you can e-mail it to yourself!  😉 ]

[Back to the Chinese house.]

[The museum had a grand (and grande) ballroom.]

[Rosie holds a table for us.  Can you spot her?]

[There she is!  I only brought the snapshot camera for the trip – I didn’t feel like schlepping my photojournalist equipment through train depots, etc.  For the most part, the little camera did great.  I tried a telephoto for this shot, but it wasn’t quite up to snuff.]

[From the lower level.]

[Here is Minnesota’s most famous non-indigenous fish.  A cod.  Can you say, Lutefisk?]

[On the walk home from PEM.]

[That night, our last in Salem, we crossed the Common for a little nosh and a beverage at the Hawthorne Hotel.]

[A lovely winter’s eve . . .]

[New England Currier & Ives winter setting.]

[Goodnight, sweet Salem.]

[The next morning we were at the Boston train depot for the trip to D.C.  I took the camera out of a plastic shopping bag – that also contained my hat, gloves, and slightly used under garments – to shoot this photo.  Then the supervisor and I went for a coffee.  Some 15 minutes later I noticed my shopping bag was gone!  We reported it stolen.  Since there was really nothing of value in it (I kept the camera), we suspected the looter would just throw the bag in the trash.  It wasn’t in the lost & found, so the supervisor went around checking garbage cans.  She found it in a can right next to where I had taken the photo! I had placed the bag on the counter there – a security guard counter! – and they said when they saw the bag, they first had it scanned for explosives (my underwear?) and then just tossed it in the trash.  Well, the supervisor gave them a piece of her mind!  😉 ]

[A few shots just outside the depot . . .]

[The depot]

[Riding the rails between Boston and D.C., one discovers there is WiFi!  So, we were reading the “Cardinal Connection” somewhere along the Connecticut coastline and sent an e-mail to Sheree Oberg (the editor of the “Connection”) accordingly.  Her response was something to the effect of cool! ]

[It unfortunately was not a beautiful weather trip.  The Big Apple gloomily above and below.]

[Then we were in D.C., where pigs fly!]

After we got home, Rose and Dick sent the following 3 photos of the Northeast’s big snow (I think Salem got over 2 feet):

Next:  Another tour of your nation’s capital.

[Salem, day two, after noshing on Ziggy and Sons donuts.]

[Once considered as a possible domicile for our hosts.]

[I believe once a habitat for Nathaniel Hawthorne.  And I believe I could be wrong.]

[Somewhere along the way to, or in (?), Marblehead, just a few miles to the southeast of Salem.  Dick was driving the narrow colonial era streets, often one-way, and just having fun getting lost and musing, “Haven’t we been on this street before?”]

[We found water . . .]

[And the waterfront.]

[The Landing restaurant in Marblehead.]

[How New Englandy!]

[A little chilly for a dip.]

[Redd’s Pond in Marblehead.  Just over the “ridge” on the right side is the ocean.  Wilmot Redd was a victim of the 1692 Salem witch trials.]

[Or why the Northeast is doing so well in the Men’s and Women’s Frozen Fours.]

[Trying to wend our way out of Marblehead.]

[Marblehead]

[Over the bridge north to Beverly where Dick and I lunched at the local hotspot, the Depot Diner, where we had an appropriate wait that was worth it.]

[Back “home” to our place in Salem.]

[Day 3, the supervisor with “Grouchie” McMullen.]

[We decided as older people that it was a long climb up to their condo, but we could get down quickly merely by falling.]

[And witches!  Don’t forget the witches!]

[Dick and the supervisor peruse the headstones.  Yes, it was still uncomfortably cold.]

[Must have been a vampire on the left – a stake through the heart?]

[Spooky!]

[Creepy!]

[A witch (?).  There were a circle of these markers in the cemetery – 1692 was the epicenter of the witch hangings.  And these folks came to America to escape the religious persecution in Europe?]

[Distant relatives leaving flowers?]

[They got warlocks (?), too.  Though it’s likely he tried to save women in his family by refusing to turn them as witches while more and more stones were placed on his body.]

To clarify one point in your blog’s narrative about Salem – Gile Corey (your “warlock”) wasn’t really protecting his wife in being crushed.   In fact when she was first accused, he believed she might be a witch because all the respectable judges couldn’t be wrong.  I believe his wife was hung.  But then when he was accused, he began to figure it out.  He was crushed to death because he wouldn’t confess.  Of course, if he had confessed, he probably would have been hung and consequently would have
lost his property so his children couldn’t inherit.  So he was crushed without confessing and his children were able to inherit his property.  Most people who had stones put on their chests usually confessed. ~ Rose

[R.I.P., Harry Potter kin.]

[Witch alley – well, for commercial purposes.]

[As I understand it, only non-Red Sox fans are persecuted these days . . . 😉 ]

[Leaving Salem for a day trip West . . .]

[Past what once was the city jail – but is now a restaurant.  We will return here!  😉 ]

[To a glimpse of my personal history.  Joshua Eaton School, Reading, Massachusetts, where I matriculated for the 1956-57 school year, a/k/a, my 4th grade.  My first visit back since then!]

[Where we lived that year.]

[186 Summer Avenue, about 1/2 mile down the road to the school.]

[It’s on The National Register of Historic Buildings (internet photo, and below).]

[Along with the Little Red School House, in the vicinity of . . .]

[The grist mill, as part of . . .]

[OK, I already said that . . .]

[Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury.]

[A closer up of the photo above this photo.]

[Where we went for lunch . . .]

[Because life is always about the next meal.]

[Yup, we’re officially here now.]

[Not bad for a place built in 1716.  Why yes, it is America’s oldest still operating inn!]

[Rose is trying to figure out the famous “leaning candle.”  OK, I made that up.]

[Hi!]

[Ole Henry Wadsworth himself.]

[18th century jogging attire.]

[Serta perfect sleeper mattresses?]

[For goodness sakes, let’s eat!]

[Table 3?]

[I want Table 4!]

[Finally!  The supervisor, adventurer that she is, ordered the “Coow Woow,” which is, of course, America’s first cocktail, consisting of white rum and ginger brandy over ice.  I thought I was “local enough” with a Sam Adams.]

[Then, due to miniscule mid-week, mid-day, cold weather patronage, we were given a private double secret probation tour of the little-known haunted bedrooms in the place.  Eerie!]

[I feel the presence of ghosts!  Or, more likely, a draft.  We had some kind of geographic connection with our tour guide – she may have been Minnesotan?]

[Messages left by, or for (?), the ghosts in the rafters.]

[The Little Red School House]

[Then it was on to Concord, and Walden Pond.  The supervisor does a little window peeping in Thoreau’s replica home there.]

[They moved his original place someplace else?]

[Henry David himself.  We heard he moved to Walden Pond because it had WiFi.]

[Where we were.]

[This is Walden Pond.  I believe it could qualify as a lake.]

[The ladies looking for the path less taken (oh yeah, that was Frost).]

[Walden Pond beach – expansive enough to discourage skinny-dipping.]

[People were skating.]

[Goodbye, Henry!]

[Back home to Salem and the jailhouse restaurant, the Great Escape (more later).]

[Another Hawthorne abode?]

Up next, the next day in Salem.

Good memories of long ago! The family and I visited Lexington, Concord and ate at the Wayside Inn when Beth was maybe 9. The vacation was by van and lasted long enough that we started Camp Brosius the next year! We also vs. Claire Barker family in suburbs of Boston and a friend of Lyle’s from high school in New Hampshire. I still remember the hanging chickens on the old north side markets!  ~ Rita

[We boarded the train at Boston’s North Station for the half hour commute to Salem.  We were going to pay a visit to “old” D.C. friends, Rose (a native Minneapolitan) and Dick (a native of Massachusetts) McMullen, who had just moved their winter residence from Rockport to Salem.  Salem, of course, is famous for its witches – and look, here are two right now!  😉 ]

Editor’s Note:  It’s April 5.  Though temperatures have stubbornly remained 20 degrees below normal, we have had significant snow melt in the last two weeks because of sunny skies.  It was looking into the past – the remaining snow on the ground probably fell in December and January.  Today, it’s snowing again.]

[Salem, like all places in the Northeast, is noted for being really old.  There are some nice things that go along with that.  Rose and Dick bought a condominium in a 200-year old building.  The size of the rooms and height of the ceilings are impressive.  This was our bedroom – the guest bedroom!  We could have played a basketball game in here!]

[A fireplace therein.  And two floor-to-ceiling windows.]

[And a personal blogging area with wet bar!]

[From the wet bar.]

[The kitchen, just off our bedroom and bathroom, looking out into the dining room.]

[The entry/dining room.]

[Looking back to the kitchen.]

[The living room (and below).]

[The view out their living room windows, overlooking Salem Common.  Exactly the kind of place the supervisor and I are looking to for our Medicare years in Alex!  😉 ]

[The art in our bedroom.  Made us feel right at home!  🙂 ]

[Rosie and the supervisor lead us off for an exploration of Salem.]

[Rose had her Minneapolis blood working – I was freezing!]

[Their condo – the 2nd floor.]

[A monument arch in Salem Common.]

[Historic homes all around the Common.]

[Approaching the far side of the Common.  Our host house is directly across following the side walk.  And yes, that is a skating rink on the left side.]

[The Hawthorne (another famous name in our history) Hotel, directly across the Common from Rose and Dick’s.  A lovely place in which to enjoy Happy Hour!  😉 ]

[Spooky!]

[Scary!]

[Let’s go check for other eerie places!]

[Ghoulish!]

[A ghost ship?]

[Let’s see what we can find downtown?  The windchill is keeping attendance down.]

[Ye Old Town Hall]

[When you’re in Salem, you’re “Bewitched”!]

[Let’s do lunch!  Cutest young waitress with a nose ring . . .]

[Roger Conant, founder of Salem in 1626, or 286 years before Oklahoma became a state.]

[Ooooh, here’s those witches again!]

[“The House of the Seven Gables.”  If we had a gable above our garage door, all the snow wouldn’t slide off the roof blocking our egress!]

[The witches and me (photo by an adoring fan).]

[Duck!!]

[We’re overlooking Salem harbor here.]

[Salem trade in the olden days.]

[Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main . . .]

[Where many a stormy wind shall blow . . .]

[‘Ere the cub reporter comes home again.]

[And Rosie leads us home again.  Dick says county records list the house as actually being built in 1815.]

And that ends our first day in Salem.  But here’s a preview of Day 2:

[The next morning Dick and I went for some internationally-famous Ziggy and Sons Donuts!  🙂 ]

Loved the pics of Salem! I have a chair that is upholstered in the same fabric as Rose! It’s the wild but tasteful floral!  ~ Rita