CO - DC - NJ - NY
my long overdue story:
note: you can click on the pictures for a larger view. also, there are some pics inside museums. the fact that pictures were allowable, i assume that it would be fine to make them viewable to the public. anyone out there who works in the places i've been to, you can
contact me if it's not cool, ok? no legal actions please, i'm poor. moving on...
so i took off for washington about two weeks ago. was an early morning flight, stopped at houston for about an hour then headed to DC. during my stay in the airports, i found it uncomfortable to be so comfortable in an airport. i loved the fact that no one knows me in an airport, then strike a conversation with some old lady or some guy who's read the book you are currently reading. i am never a sociable person, but it's different in an airport. people together, waiting for their planes, going somewhere else. in a sense, you are foreigners in the same foreign land.
but anyway, met up with natasha in the airport and took a cab together to georgetown university where we are staying. by the way, that university is goddam expensive! i heard tuition is $40K a year! well, it's catholic AND private. maybe that explains it. saw an early poster of clinton too, his poster when he was running for president in the student government. walked around with nat and ashley, and saw the exorcist stairs! remember that scene when the priest fell off the window and broke his neck? that's the place! and some guy wrote the lord's prayer on the side of the walls. and some jack ass wrote "don't trip" on the very top step! haha! very funny.
monday, the 6th, we first went to the west and east buildings of the national gallery of art. grabe! i haven't seen so many paintings in my life. the west building is for classic works. and when i say classic, i mean van gogh, rembrandt, monet, giacometti, cezanne, raphael, el greco, van eyck, vermeer, boticelli, and lots more! it was rather overwhelming, not only because of the vast collection, but because of the number of great works and masterpieces, many of which were but small pictures in textbooks to me before.
left to right: rembrandt's self-portrait; leonardo's only portrait painting in the US; el greco's saint jerome; van gogh's self-portrait; a monet, my favorite impressionist
i fell in love with this! georges de la tour's the repentant magdalene.went on to the east building which houses contemporary and modern art (there's a difference).
andy warholsthat tuesday wasn't really a fun day, if you ask me. went to hirshhorn, more modern art in this place. lots of warhols. i saw this ron mueck piece, it was freaking amazing! it was this huuuuge man, just sitting on a corner, and slightly looking at his right, giving this what-are-you-looking-at look. it was rather disturbing. now this is the main reason why i think art should be seen upfront rather than on text books, since some works are big, sometimes just the size gives this look-at-me presence to the work. here's mueck's work by the way:
wednesday, went to freer and sackler galleries. not fun as well, haha! these galleries show asian and african art, which by nature are very utilitarian. most of them are tools which are decorated. bad trip, i was expecting some works by hokusai, but there was none at all.
went to the renwick the following day. many classic work, with paintings shown in the classic salon way exhibition. and i wasn't expecting that i'd enjoy textile art! saw this work by holly junker. from afar, it looks like a big impressionist painting, but on closer look, it's pieces of cloth stitched together, ang galing!
also went to the white house. trip lang. bush passed by us, waved at us, too. it's a shame i wasn't wearing my "Don't blame me, I voted for Kerry" shirt.
went to the four memorials in DC as well: the vietnam, lincoln, korean and world war II.
l to r (shit, i look fat in all of these pictures): nam memorial wall, by maya lin. funny, she only got a B in this class. she describes the wall as a "scar on earth"; lincoln memorial; korean memorial; ww2 memorial, with the philippines included in the roster of "participants"; a nice view of the reflection pool, taken from abe memorial facing the washington monument.last day, friday, went to the phillips collection and the national cathedral:
l to r: two mondrians, my favorite modernist. i like his philosophy, that everything can be deconstructed to its basics, colors to red, blue and yellow, lines to vertical and horizontal, and values to black and white; the national cathedral facade; inside the cathedral; natasha and i fucking around in the metro, notice me on the reflection behind her.then it got exciting: i went to new jersey to see
ate i.n! stayed there for four days. saw mr. and mrs. smith (sidebar: angelina = hot). went to atlantic city. then i urged ate to go to MoMA to see more modern art. of course, i had to see
les demoiselle d'avignon by picasso! which i did :-) also saw van gogh's
starry night! grabe. plus saw monet's reflections series. also saw mondrian's
broadway boogie woogie, sayang, got no decent pic. kainis! i was soooo overwhelmed!
went to times square, saw a play (
i love you, you're perfect, now change, freakin' hilarious), then went back to NJ for sleep.
the following day, went to central park, the southern port to see the statue of liberty, saw teyhodz (a friend from lipa), went to wall street as well.
l to r: ate and i with the liberty behind us (if you squint real hard, you'll see it); teyhodz and moi at the union park; bull statue at the financial district.i know i can tell more stories, but by god, i'm so tired with all these html codes! but at any rate, i enjoyed my two-week trip :-)