21 August 2008

Back in Chicago

Arrived home yesterday, with 146 pounds of luggage in tow. (The Southwest folks were kind enough to fake the weight so i was charged $50 instead of $100 for the overage.) Now I'm re-adjusting to the size of my apartment, which seems so contained compared to the whole house I just inhabited. Also, my cat forgot me.

My last days in DC were some of the best, solidifying even more that I will be back, if only to visit. Several of my grad school classmates just moved there, with more on the way, and we hung out a few days before I left. Nice to see familiar faces. (The ride home from the bar is when my bicycle met its unfortunate fate.)

I ticked through my checklist of sites to see before I leave with a shocking degree of efficiency. Last Saturday (16th), I hit a matinee at the E St CinemaMan On Wire, which was fabulous, and not just because it was French (though, that always helps...). From there, it was off to explore Penn Quarter and Chinatown. My housemate (err... former housemate. sniff.) raved about the National Building Museum, so I had to check it out. Plus, there's an Eero Saarinen exhibit up. The museum is nice, the shop is fantastic, but the building is really the thing to see. Definitely one of the more photogenic structures in DC.

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They used to hold all the State dinners here

Post-NBM, I walked around Chinatown. All two blocks of it. Every Chinatown must be marked with a gate, and DC is no different, except for the Gallery Place shopping plaza encroaching directly upon it. Very commercial, very touristy, very blah.

Nestled in the madness is the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum, two museums housed in one space. Not knowing much about the collections of either, I was expecting room after room of presidential paintings and second-rate American art that didn't make it into the National Gallery. I was very pleasantly proved wrong. The Portrait Gallery had some fun exhibits -- Recognize! (hip hop and portraiture) and Bally Hoo (poster as portrait) -- in addition to the presidents.

Recognize!

bertoia sculpture for zenith
Harry Bertoia's daughter contacted me about using this photo!

Next: Sunday.

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