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Washington, DC
But no flame burns forever, oh no, you and I both know this all too well
From St Louis we’re now in Washington DC for the annual National Walk for Epilepsy (it’s not for epilepsy in the sense that we’re promoting epilepsy as much as just raising awareness and looking for cures). As always, I am a proud member of Team D, supporting my unstoppably awesome niece Darma. Normally the National Walk for Epilepsy is on either a beautiful day or the worst cold and windy day ever, and this year we lucked out both with the weather and by being there at peak cherry blossom season. If you can handle monstrous crowds and people taking pictures in every possible directions, then I highly recommend that you go down to DC (or up depending on where you are) to see the cherry blossoms in bloom at least once in your life. Spectacular in person.
I was in DC four times this year. It’s easy to get to (thanks, Amtrak) and there are always reasons to go. Although this time these pictures aren’t as much a reason but a bonus. If I find myself with extra time in DC, I’m almost always going to check out one of my favorite museums like this one. This is the Hirshhorn, the contemporary art museum of the Smithsonian, and specifically pictured below are are Belief+Doubt by Barbara Krueger and untitled (to Helga and Carlo, with respect and affection) by Dan Flavin.
One of the trips to DC was to specifically see this, Hot and Cold, an architectural model heavy exhibit by Bjarke Ingels. The models were displayed on the second floor balcony, and damn, do I love an architecture exhibit with a lot of architectural models.
Up close, each model and project was seemingly more interesting than the last one, and there were a LOT of models and projects in this show. I think I probably looped through the exhibit three or four times, staring at projects that I know would be future pilgrimages when (or if) they got built. This exhibit was just terrific, and it’s a shame that there isn’t an architectural model museum out there where you could go anytime and see and imagine upcoming projects from around the world, just like these. This was objectively the best architecture exhibit I have ever been to, hands down.
From a completely different trip to DC, here is the National Christmas Tree on the National Mall, decorated with what I imagine are National Christmas Tree Lights and National Gold Ribbons. I’m not too sure I agree with the National Gold Ribbons, they really take away from the actual tree and kind of look terrible up close. Maybe they look better at night. From far away.
Each of the four DC trips this year were for a reason, and this last reason was probably the worst. I wanted to get some extra miles to bump up my Continental, um, sorry, United frequent flier status for 2016, and this trip, on New Year’s Eve, was the best option. Flying to DC is not nearly as good an experience as taking a train and this trip, where I landed at DCA at 9:30 AM and left the same day at 4:30 PM felt excessive no matter how I tried to frame it. It gave me about three hours in the city, after you subtract the time on the Metro and the how early you need to be at the airport during holiday season. But at least at the end of all of this I’ll have my silver status next year, so at least that’s something.
We’re back in New York and it’s summer again. I hope you’re enjoying the ping pong nature of the slideshow so far.
These pictures are from my annual summer pilgrimage to Governors Island, usually on the same day I visit Warm Up at PS1 and spend as much time as I can on ferries. Governors Island has been transforming into a park for a few years now, and parts like the hammock grove (in a future actual forest) are already open, while other parts like the hills are starting to take shape. New York over the last 10 or 15 years has really transformed in so many ways, and of all those projects out there, one of the ones I remain most excited about are these hills. It’s kind of crazy to think they’re even getting built if you start to think about it.
One of the reasons that I go visit Governors Island isn’t just to check on park construction or to enjoy the views of the city and harbor, but also to check out whatever art installations they have up this year. And this summer there are two really good ones, presented below as panoramas. First up is the Billion Oyster Pavilion by BanG Studio at Figment NYC, and although I didn’t quite count, I’m not sure exactly how they’re going to fit a billion oysters in there. The second panorama features Organic Growth by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects. It actually (briefly) rained when I visited the umbrellas, so I guess I want to thank Izaskun Chinchilla Architects for providing so many umbrellas at exactly the right time.
