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...It would have been nice to have seen some of the old cars on display, but I was on a time limit. I had other places to see, and I really wasnt that intereste in automobiles (although I do wish they had had the munster-mobile or the dragula on display). On my way to the washington monument I ran into a homeless beggar with whom I had a fun conversation with. Homeless people, I have found, with the marked exception of drug addicts and space-cases, are some of the most fun and entertaining people alive, (and even the druggies and the nuts are interesting enough from a distance... hell, most of them should have their own TV show) always full of fun stories- regardless of if they are true or not. I find them engaging none the less.
The Washington Monument has been a symbol of many things, sadly too many of them are so far off. From the 1800s, it was a symbol of a catholic conspiracy, to modern times being a symbol of a masonic conspiracy or worse a phallic symbol. If one had brains, one would realize that the monument looks NOTHING like a phallic- just because its a pole doesnt mean it has anything to do with dicks. If anything, the Eiffel toweris more of a phallic symbol than the Washington Monument, being curved at the base and ribbed at the tip. And just because mason has a respect for geometric symmatry and craftmanship doesnt mean that they control the world! But I digress... The intention of the monument is exactly that- a monument to the greatest president of all time, a monument to rise above all others. At the time of its dedication, it was the tallest structre on the planet. And a little known fact- DC has a strict zoning law that prohibits buildings from being taller than the Washington Monument, which is just as well. Very few can measure to who and what Washington was and is.
Arriving, I learned that I would need to obtain a ticket first. Good news- tickets were free. Bad news, tickets run out like 10 in the morning. grrr. Looks like its even earlier mornings for me... Fortunatly, the rangers on duty were kind enough to squeeze myself and a few other people in. The view, despite the cramped quarters, was everything I expected it to be, a landmark in each of the four directions. And posted below the windows were before and after pictures of DC from the top of the Monument, so one could see the evolution of the city's land development. The folklore of the monument I have found rich in bizarness and fun, silly stories- ranging from items being buried in the walls, to cats being thrown off the windows and surviving. True, american folklore...
Next stop was to the reflecting pool memorials. 1st of which was the WWII memorial. Unfinished, and somewhat unimpressive I thought, but at least it was finaly some form of tribute to the last worthwhile war that the US was engaged in, where national world survival was at stake. Being in the final stages of construction and thus fenced off, I proceded to the next stop.
Walking along the reflecting pool, I became once again overwhelmed by the power of the history of decades gone by, reverberating through the waters of the pool. The civil rights protests, the war protests, countless marches and parades, etc. The pool was a longer walk that I had originaly anticipated, but I eventualy made it to the first memorial. At first,I thought it was the vietnam war memorial with new statues and with ALOT of smudges on the wall. Turned out that it was the Korean war memorial, and those smudges, upon closer inspection, were the artist's interpetation of the reflections of the soldiers who fought. Nice, but not really spectacular.
Next, to the Lincoln memorial. Along the way, I passed several tours being led bu who I assumed were VFWs... The memorial was up a tall and somewhat steep series of steps, and was indeed every bit the throne-like room that it has been protrayed as in pop-culture. No windows, just Lincoln, sitting calmly, with such potential power at rest, gazing, keeping watch over his domain. Like a giant king. Lincoln as never been one of my top ten favorite presidents, but none the less I was still awed, like I should kneel, such as agratefull peasant would kneel before an honered nobleman...
Then to the vietnam war memorial- capitol and shire to every right wing extremist ARA gun-nut anti-government conspiracy theorist tim mcvey wannabe or hippie in the US. And it showed too. Countless pro-war, POW-MIA sales boots and information stands, and the memorial itself. The comprimise status was covered for renovations, but the wall was still available for viewing.
The war was not fought for america, to protect the rights of america. It was fought for south vietnam... the US really has no business being there, but for the sake of pride we kept digging ourselves deeper. Our most embarrasing war (to date anyway). But for the soldiers, who despite their feelings, their own ojections whatever they might have been, still did their job, with loyalty and courage, dieing, etc. The war may have been wrong, but the soldiers deserved better than spitting, being looked down upon as baby killers, etc. At the very least, they deserved an apology for being sent where they shouldnt, to fight for something they didnt need, for dubious reasons. For that, I took my hat off as I passed.
By then, my feet were getting MAD painfull and tired. Unfortunatly it was about that time also that the busses stopped running, drink booths were closing, etc. So it was a long, pretty, painful trek to the FDR memorial. Granted FDR led us through the war and the depression, but I still dont think him so great as to give him his own memorial. After all, it was him that created the bloated beaucracy and social leech wellfare programs we have to day, not to mention also being an aldulturer. But with so much tawdriness in the world today, why not focus on the good instead of the bad in people? I forget the name of the archetect who designed the vietnam memorial, but apparantly she's the only one these days who is allowed to design ANY memorial. While granted, the vietnam meorial was well designed, BUT SHOW SOME FUCKING VARIETY!!!!! Some creativity! It seems all memorials these days are minimalistic- a statue, a quote etched in stone in the same style font, and a water fountain somewhere in there... Blah. No style at all... at least in the olden days, they knew how to make an awe-inspiring memorial, not an overly-pretentious water park...
Proceding to the Jefferson Memorial, a real memorial, and the grandest of them all. A beautiful gazeebo type thing, no windows, and Jefferson, standing there, in all of his glory... It really is too bad that America does not have leaders like Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson etc. anymore, but instead bumbling idiots, naive children who view the country as nothing more than a plaything, business interests, or well meaning people that end up getting scandle thrust upon them or seek it out. Its SO discouraging...
DUSTINGATE
Then the return trek to the metro. I stopped by the holocaust museum and the treasurey, unfortunatly both closed.Ah well, something for tomarrow. Despite being dead tired and thirsty, I figured what the hell? I still have hours left in the day... waste not, want not, right? That and assuming that it would be just a short hop, skip and a jump from the metro, I headed for Watergate. Not so apparantly. Nearest stop was about 4 blocks away. It might not seem like much, but when your feet are about to give out, 4 blocks might as well be 4 miles. But on the plus side, it was through the George Washington University district. To give an impression, GWU by *itself* has to be the approximate sive of the city of Haysville. But a lovely campus it was, complete with stores, plazas, gardens, statues, etc.
Past generations had Ford's theatre, The Grassy Knoll, Normandy, etc. The hawks and doves had watergate. Archetecturaly your typical 60s-70s apartment/hotel complex, it was nice looking but unimpressive. And worse yet, there were no gift shops of tourist traps (as a matter of fact, one would say that management had gone out of their way to discourage tourism.) They did have a 2nd level plaza/mall in the backyard. All the food places were closed for the day, but there was still a pharmacy open, so at least I could grab myself a 20 oz. After a rest and a drink on the watergate patio, I began my long journey back to the metro.
One day, I can see a statue of good old tricky dick erected there...
Of course, I still has to try one more stop- the king street shopping district in Alexandria. At the stop, I realized that it was just too far from where I was to go from the metro, so I crossed that one off for another day. Besides, by that time my feet felt worn to the bone. It was time to rest. Upon arriving home, it was time to get dressed for Dr. Dremo's goth night- Purgatory. Fortunatly, it was an easy place to find, just a couple of miles to Clarendon with no major turns from where I was lodged at. I stopped by there last night actualy, expecting Purgatory to be tuesday, but instead it was wednsday. No big deal, so I picked a comfy spot, wrote a little bit, and flipped through their equivilant of the F5. After a few pages I came across an ad for club 930, and concert schedule for the week. DJ Shadow played last sunday night, so it kinda sucked that I missed out on that. I noticed that sleater-kinney was scheduled for an early thursday show, so I thought that that would be a cool thing to go see. And then...
EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was scheduled to play friday!!!!! Of all the places!!!! Of all the times!!!!!! Of all the bands!!!! One of my most FAVORITE groups, in DC, THE SAME WEEK AS I!!!! WHAT ARE THE ODDS??!?!?!?!!?!? I had to call everyone back home and tell them about it... lol it was all I could do to keep from screaming like a 12 year old justin timberlake fan. Notice, in DC, bands like that play, they're discussed so non-chalantly... but in Wichita, if a band like Neubauten were to play, the whole scene would just be going out of their skin with excitement and buzz, etc... Figures....
Anyway, showing up at Purgatory, the group was conviently seated in the basement, watching subtitled Kill Bill 1 and Princess Mononoke synched with the standard goth/industrial ebm DJ fare. Oh yes, and I found out, or remembered to be precise, that the night was the main distributing point/hangout place for The City Morgue, a well done indy publication for nationwide distribution (including Wichita Kansas) for the goth culture. Doh! But it was cool getting to meet the staff, who were very gracious hosts. The night crowd was not that different from Wichita's except of course for the plesant lack of katty gossip and bitching that has been devouring the city as of late. And I wasnt the only newbie there either- there were people there who had just moved in from places like Pensacola FL and Houston Tx.
Having (more than) enough excitement for one day, I packed up and spent the rest of the evening taking a late night drive sight seeing tour, not really going anywhere, just seeing where the roads would lead me...
DC, and her suburbs, are very beautiful when lit at night. Screw Paris, THIS IS THE REAL CITY OF LIGHTS. Driving around in an empty city, late at night, aimlessly, one gets to know a city, understand its moods, structure, personality, forming an intimate bond with the place. And I was definitly bonding with DC. The history, the culture, the population, resources, everything I could ever want and need in a city. I began to get the feeling that leaving DC would be harder than I would had anticipated...
(pictures coming soon at http://www.angelfire.com/ks/latveria/washington.html)
The Washington Monument has been a symbol of many things, sadly too many of them are so far off. From the 1800s, it was a symbol of a catholic conspiracy, to modern times being a symbol of a masonic conspiracy or worse a phallic symbol. If one had brains, one would realize that the monument looks NOTHING like a phallic- just because its a pole doesnt mean it has anything to do with dicks. If anything, the Eiffel toweris more of a phallic symbol than the Washington Monument, being curved at the base and ribbed at the tip. And just because mason has a respect for geometric symmatry and craftmanship doesnt mean that they control the world! But I digress... The intention of the monument is exactly that- a monument to the greatest president of all time, a monument to rise above all others. At the time of its dedication, it was the tallest structre on the planet. And a little known fact- DC has a strict zoning law that prohibits buildings from being taller than the Washington Monument, which is just as well. Very few can measure to who and what Washington was and is.
Arriving, I learned that I would need to obtain a ticket first. Good news- tickets were free. Bad news, tickets run out like 10 in the morning. grrr. Looks like its even earlier mornings for me... Fortunatly, the rangers on duty were kind enough to squeeze myself and a few other people in. The view, despite the cramped quarters, was everything I expected it to be, a landmark in each of the four directions. And posted below the windows were before and after pictures of DC from the top of the Monument, so one could see the evolution of the city's land development. The folklore of the monument I have found rich in bizarness and fun, silly stories- ranging from items being buried in the walls, to cats being thrown off the windows and surviving. True, american folklore...
Next stop was to the reflecting pool memorials. 1st of which was the WWII memorial. Unfinished, and somewhat unimpressive I thought, but at least it was finaly some form of tribute to the last worthwhile war that the US was engaged in, where national world survival was at stake. Being in the final stages of construction and thus fenced off, I proceded to the next stop.
Walking along the reflecting pool, I became once again overwhelmed by the power of the history of decades gone by, reverberating through the waters of the pool. The civil rights protests, the war protests, countless marches and parades, etc. The pool was a longer walk that I had originaly anticipated, but I eventualy made it to the first memorial. At first,I thought it was the vietnam war memorial with new statues and with ALOT of smudges on the wall. Turned out that it was the Korean war memorial, and those smudges, upon closer inspection, were the artist's interpetation of the reflections of the soldiers who fought. Nice, but not really spectacular.
Next, to the Lincoln memorial. Along the way, I passed several tours being led bu who I assumed were VFWs... The memorial was up a tall and somewhat steep series of steps, and was indeed every bit the throne-like room that it has been protrayed as in pop-culture. No windows, just Lincoln, sitting calmly, with such potential power at rest, gazing, keeping watch over his domain. Like a giant king. Lincoln as never been one of my top ten favorite presidents, but none the less I was still awed, like I should kneel, such as agratefull peasant would kneel before an honered nobleman...
Then to the vietnam war memorial- capitol and shire to every right wing extremist ARA gun-nut anti-government conspiracy theorist tim mcvey wannabe or hippie in the US. And it showed too. Countless pro-war, POW-MIA sales boots and information stands, and the memorial itself. The comprimise status was covered for renovations, but the wall was still available for viewing.
The war was not fought for america, to protect the rights of america. It was fought for south vietnam... the US really has no business being there, but for the sake of pride we kept digging ourselves deeper. Our most embarrasing war (to date anyway). But for the soldiers, who despite their feelings, their own ojections whatever they might have been, still did their job, with loyalty and courage, dieing, etc. The war may have been wrong, but the soldiers deserved better than spitting, being looked down upon as baby killers, etc. At the very least, they deserved an apology for being sent where they shouldnt, to fight for something they didnt need, for dubious reasons. For that, I took my hat off as I passed.
By then, my feet were getting MAD painfull and tired. Unfortunatly it was about that time also that the busses stopped running, drink booths were closing, etc. So it was a long, pretty, painful trek to the FDR memorial. Granted FDR led us through the war and the depression, but I still dont think him so great as to give him his own memorial. After all, it was him that created the bloated beaucracy and social leech wellfare programs we have to day, not to mention also being an aldulturer. But with so much tawdriness in the world today, why not focus on the good instead of the bad in people? I forget the name of the archetect who designed the vietnam memorial, but apparantly she's the only one these days who is allowed to design ANY memorial. While granted, the vietnam meorial was well designed, BUT SHOW SOME FUCKING VARIETY!!!!! Some creativity! It seems all memorials these days are minimalistic- a statue, a quote etched in stone in the same style font, and a water fountain somewhere in there... Blah. No style at all... at least in the olden days, they knew how to make an awe-inspiring memorial, not an overly-pretentious water park...
Proceding to the Jefferson Memorial, a real memorial, and the grandest of them all. A beautiful gazeebo type thing, no windows, and Jefferson, standing there, in all of his glory... It really is too bad that America does not have leaders like Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson etc. anymore, but instead bumbling idiots, naive children who view the country as nothing more than a plaything, business interests, or well meaning people that end up getting scandle thrust upon them or seek it out. Its SO discouraging...
DUSTINGATE
Then the return trek to the metro. I stopped by the holocaust museum and the treasurey, unfortunatly both closed.Ah well, something for tomarrow. Despite being dead tired and thirsty, I figured what the hell? I still have hours left in the day... waste not, want not, right? That and assuming that it would be just a short hop, skip and a jump from the metro, I headed for Watergate. Not so apparantly. Nearest stop was about 4 blocks away. It might not seem like much, but when your feet are about to give out, 4 blocks might as well be 4 miles. But on the plus side, it was through the George Washington University district. To give an impression, GWU by *itself* has to be the approximate sive of the city of Haysville. But a lovely campus it was, complete with stores, plazas, gardens, statues, etc.
Past generations had Ford's theatre, The Grassy Knoll, Normandy, etc. The hawks and doves had watergate. Archetecturaly your typical 60s-70s apartment/hotel complex, it was nice looking but unimpressive. And worse yet, there were no gift shops of tourist traps (as a matter of fact, one would say that management had gone out of their way to discourage tourism.) They did have a 2nd level plaza/mall in the backyard. All the food places were closed for the day, but there was still a pharmacy open, so at least I could grab myself a 20 oz. After a rest and a drink on the watergate patio, I began my long journey back to the metro.
One day, I can see a statue of good old tricky dick erected there...
Of course, I still has to try one more stop- the king street shopping district in Alexandria. At the stop, I realized that it was just too far from where I was to go from the metro, so I crossed that one off for another day. Besides, by that time my feet felt worn to the bone. It was time to rest. Upon arriving home, it was time to get dressed for Dr. Dremo's goth night- Purgatory. Fortunatly, it was an easy place to find, just a couple of miles to Clarendon with no major turns from where I was lodged at. I stopped by there last night actualy, expecting Purgatory to be tuesday, but instead it was wednsday. No big deal, so I picked a comfy spot, wrote a little bit, and flipped through their equivilant of the F5. After a few pages I came across an ad for club 930, and concert schedule for the week. DJ Shadow played last sunday night, so it kinda sucked that I missed out on that. I noticed that sleater-kinney was scheduled for an early thursday show, so I thought that that would be a cool thing to go see. And then...
EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was scheduled to play friday!!!!! Of all the places!!!! Of all the times!!!!!! Of all the bands!!!! One of my most FAVORITE groups, in DC, THE SAME WEEK AS I!!!! WHAT ARE THE ODDS??!?!?!?!!?!? I had to call everyone back home and tell them about it... lol it was all I could do to keep from screaming like a 12 year old justin timberlake fan. Notice, in DC, bands like that play, they're discussed so non-chalantly... but in Wichita, if a band like Neubauten were to play, the whole scene would just be going out of their skin with excitement and buzz, etc... Figures....
Anyway, showing up at Purgatory, the group was conviently seated in the basement, watching subtitled Kill Bill 1 and Princess Mononoke synched with the standard goth/industrial ebm DJ fare. Oh yes, and I found out, or remembered to be precise, that the night was the main distributing point/hangout place for The City Morgue, a well done indy publication for nationwide distribution (including Wichita Kansas) for the goth culture. Doh! But it was cool getting to meet the staff, who were very gracious hosts. The night crowd was not that different from Wichita's except of course for the plesant lack of katty gossip and bitching that has been devouring the city as of late. And I wasnt the only newbie there either- there were people there who had just moved in from places like Pensacola FL and Houston Tx.
Having (more than) enough excitement for one day, I packed up and spent the rest of the evening taking a late night drive sight seeing tour, not really going anywhere, just seeing where the roads would lead me...
DC, and her suburbs, are very beautiful when lit at night. Screw Paris, THIS IS THE REAL CITY OF LIGHTS. Driving around in an empty city, late at night, aimlessly, one gets to know a city, understand its moods, structure, personality, forming an intimate bond with the place. And I was definitly bonding with DC. The history, the culture, the population, resources, everything I could ever want and need in a city. I began to get the feeling that leaving DC would be harder than I would had anticipated...
(pictures coming soon at http://www.angelfire.com/ks/latveria/washington.html)