national portrait gallery and smithsonian gallery of american art
this is a fascinating place that took me three afternoons to get through. images (photographs, busts, paintings, etc) of significant americans and their stories. the painting of jfk in green and yellow is perfect. it's a pity the gallery shop had such terrible prints.
the phillips collection
i think of this as the twin of the fricks collection in new york. the building itself isn't anywhere near as excellent as the fricks, but the artwork possibly surpasses it. you know that renoir painting of all those young people around a table? the prints are everywhere. well, the real thing is here, along with van goghs, monets, rothkos, etc. its just superb!
capitol, white house, supreme court, washington monument, lincoln memorial
just a bunch of neoclassical marbled monoliths stuffed inside full of statues and enormous paintings about washington and lincoln et al. i guess they are obligatory to visit. but the queues are just not worth it. the lincoln memorial reminds me of chiang kai shek's equivalent in taipei. except cks gets a tough looking guard with a dress uniform and rifle, and lincoln gets a couple of fat american cops chewing gum and loungeing about.
library of congress
what started out as a place to dump my bag (the cloakroom here saved me from dumping my bag in the bin while i went on a tour of the capitol building) turned out to be much, much more. the murals and frescos were worth the half-an-hour tour. the main reading room, which you can look at from the landing, is intricately decorated - if a bit over the top.
national gallery of art
like the metropolitan museum of art in new york, but less crowded. fewer picassos and monets, but more cezanne, sisley, renoirs etc. overall, i thought it was far more pleasant that the met. and, would you believe it, the section on eighteenth and nineteenth century european painting was being renovated. just my luck.
freer and arther sacks galleries, hirshhorn gallery, national museum of natural history
interesting places to spend a few hours. the gem collection at the latter is pretty popular, and to be honest, quite spectacular, with its tiffany diamonds and the hope diamond.
hamlet @ shakespeare theatre
hamlet was a touch overdone, gertrude was terrible, phelia was sensational. i enjoyed it immensely. for a tragedy though, it was rather funny. and the american accents just didn't seem right for the bard...
u-street walkabout
my lonely planet guide was beating its drum about this neighbourhood being the essense of culture and cool in dc, so i went for a look. the narrow, fairytale tower-like houses crowded together, painted in dark red or browns or blues or creams reminded me of brooklyn; trees clothed with their leaves green in all the glory of summer; soft tinkling piano and jazz bass floated out of bar doorways with the air-conditioned cool. it was wonderful. it was also really weird, with so many black dudes loungeing about the sidewalk, rattling their cups, asking for money.
dupont circle walkabout
much more than the phillips collection, this area (especially along massachusetts and connecticut avenues) has dreamy architecture and flags of the world hang in front of all the embassies. i also stumbled across the woodrow wilson house, where he lived for the three years after his presidency until his death. for a history buff, it was fascinating. the museum guides are very passionate about their favourite topic. some might even say fanatical, in that sweaty-palmed, glassy-eyed, role-playing kind of way. creepy but cool.
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