DC Holiday Part 6: The Library of Congress and Capitol

Monday I spent most of the day researching my next novel in the Library of Congress. Like most DC government buildings, they like to have a nice lobby display. Since this was the Madison Library of Congress building, it's a statue of James Madison:


When you visit the Library of Congress, you have to get a special Library of Congress picture ID card to enter some of the reading rooms, or have anything pulled from one of the stacks. I tried to take a photo of mine but I can't get a good one. It's very cool, even though there are signs admonishing you when you get one that this is not a souvenier. But I enjoy having my not-souvenier.

After hours starting at maps of Medieval European trade routes, I emerged and decided that since I was across the street from the Capitol I would look for a tour.


After some walking around a security check, the tour starts at the front on the Capitol steps. It's a good daylight view of the Capitol Christmas tree (a better tree than the White House tree, I think) and a magnificent view of the Mall down to the Washington Monument.



The first real stop is the Rotunda, the center of the Capitol. This is the area underneath the Capitol Dome, which connects the two halves of the building and where bodies often lie in state. The inside of the dome is amazing, starting with the painting at the top of the Dome, down to the windows, and a frieze depicting the history of the Colonies all the way up to the birth of aviation.




The floor is dominated by statues and paintings from history.


Beneath the Rotunda is the Crypt, which is now a gift shop with some more displays. One is a massive bust of Lincoln. The other is a table display showing the layout of Washington DC.



Between the Rotunda and the Crypt we visited the old House chamber, which houses a collection of statues sent by each state to commemorate two famous state citizens. The statues I saw either didn't ring any bells, or disgusted me (Huey Long was one). With 100 statues, they are spread throughout the building. On the way out, I saw a statue that finally impressed me - Jack Swigert, former Congressman and astronaut.


Apparently this statue was controversial, since it uses color paint instead of just marble or just bronze. But definately the best looking statue I saw among the state statues.

DC Holiday Part 5: The Museum of American History

The Museum of American History is quite nice, but it's made up of lots of small interesting exhibits instead of the massive and impressive pieces that the Air and Space or Natural History museums feature. Some exhibits are just kind of boring - this is one example of the exhibits I will NOT be blogging:


With that disclaimer, the Museum of American History follows the tradition of having big, bold, and iconographic displays in the foyer. Air and Space has the Apollo capsules, Natural History has the giant Elephant, and the Museum of American History has a truly breathtaking exhibit - the flag that was draped on the Pentagon on September 11th 2001:


One of the most interesting pieces they have, at least to me, is the uniform of George Washington. I've seen it depicted hundreds of times, but there it is for real. That's part of what makes the Smithsonian special.


Next up is an odd pair of WW2 memorabilia: A German Field Marshal's baton, which I've never even heard of, and a German MP40, which I've fired thousands of times in computer games.



One exhibit in the WW2 section that surprised me was a pinup collection. Pleasantly surprised me, I must say.


Next up is the musical instruments section, with a beautiful piano made in 1903 for the White House by Steinway and Sons, depicting America Receiving the Nine Muses.


Here is part of the Strativarius collection, with an interesting omission. I hope it's not because a curator's kid has a recital.


Apparently the Internet needs renovation. Probably long overdue.


We wind up in the pop culture section, with an homage to the power of Disney:

DC Holiday Part 4b: The Museum of Natural History Bones

The other major part of the Museum of Natural History, at least the photogenic bit, are the fossils and animal mock-ups, like the grand elephant in the foyer. The first thing I found is an exhibit of a Sperm Whale, followed by a now-extinct creature from the Bering Sea known as the Stellar Sea Cow.



Next up is a really interesting skeleton of a huge turtle and a swordfish skeleton. To do the swordfish justice I took a shot of it both coming and going.




Finally, we wrap up with the celebrated T-Rex. The gallery was dark, and the flash doesn't make much of a dent in such a large space. Sorry.

DC Holiday Part 4a: The Museum of Natural History Rocks

Right across the Mall from the Smithsonian Metro stop is the Museum of Natural History. Chock full of rocks and bones, it's my next stop.


Visitors are immediately greeted by a large elephant, silently trumpeting it's dominance. The best place to see it is from the second floor, which also houses the gemstones exhibit.



The gemstone exhibit is where I found all the cool rocks. Because many of them are behind glass cases, a lot of photos didn't come out usable - mainly because the glass confuses the auto-focus and I don't have a manual focus control on this gadget. I did capture some neat stones though.





This is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen - a rock that looks like a giant hairball.


And another crystal that looks like nothing so much as a giant plate of French Fries.


More cool rocks galore, including some of my favorites - geodes.










The display includes a batch of flourescent rocks.


And, saving the best for last - the most impressive rock in the place, the Hope Diamond.

DC Holiday Part 3: The National Gallery of Art

Finally today I visited the National Gallery of Art which houses some truly magnificent paintings. The pictures I took are only a fraction of what's within, and the quality of my pictures doesn't do the works justice. Thank God for blogs, or I'd have to turn these pictures into slides and bore the shit out of all my friends.

First, the lovely classical edifice of the building, along with the beautiful central atrium - dominated by black marble pillars - containing a fountain with what looks like a Christmas floral decoration scheme.



Next up, a couple of Rembrandt paintings I thought were both well-done and a little amusing. A version of Lucretia done in 1664, and A Polish Nobleman. Lucretia was a Roman maiden - a victim of rape who committed suicide. Rembrandt painted another version in 1666.



You just don't see enough knife-wielding chicks in fine art.

This is an interior of De Oude Kerk, which I blogged about previously. By Emmanuel De Witte.


This is an image of Saint George slaying a dragon, which figures in the book I'm writing.


I'm not much for religous art, but I thought the colors on this piece were wonderful. The picture doesn't really bring it out.


This is a statue of Aphrodite.


This is another perspective interior, this time of Saint Peter's in Rome.


In this photo, I was more impressed by the subject than the work - The Fortress of Königstein.


This bronze scultpure depicts Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, subject of the film Glory. This includes a shot from the side to show the impressive three-dimensional aspect of the piece.



This last painting impressed me because of the incredibly life-like depiction of sunlight peeking between clouds. Another example where the digital image just doesn't capture the piece.



At this point the batteries of my camera were almost dead, along with my feet. More DC fun tomorrow. Right now I have to go out and find some fun nightlife.

DC Holiday Part 2: The National Air and Space Museum

Now in DC I get to spend time in my favoritist museum ever. One of the first things you find as you walk in the door are some old Apollo capsules (click any picture for the full-size version):


The last time I was here, there wasn't a security checkpoint with metal detectors. (I apologize for the blurry photo - sometimes I forgot to take extra pictures for safety). There's another new addition above my head, this time a welcome one - SpaceShip One, winner of the X Prize:


One of my favorite mainstays in this museum is a full-size, two-storey Skylab that you can walk through:



Here's a model of the station, solar panels and all:


A full size model of the Hubble Space Telescope:


And a model of the Apollo-Soyuz hookup:


I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'P':


I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'M':


I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'E':


(Mouse over the photos for the answers). In fact these are rockets, starting with the V-2. If I get ambitious I will composite some photos I took to show you just how tall these are.

Now we move to first and second-floor views of a model Apollo landing:



On the second floor is an exhibit on astronomy, including an actual backup mirror for the Hubble. At this point my camera got set onto the wrong focus mode, so the next few pictures will be blurry. This is a hilarious accident considering that it started with the Hubble mirror - but I swear it's unintentional.


This is one of my favorite jets. The forward-swept wings and forward canards need computer controls to keep them stable. If the computers fail, the craft falls like a rock. Because of that, it was too fragile for production. Though it flies beautifully in simulators, if everything is working.


The museum has an art exhibit as well, including this stunning piece. Unfortunately the pictures are still blurry. I may go back and take another picture of this piece.


More rocket stuff: this is just one of the engine exhaust bells on the Saturn rocket. Now we can rejoice because the camera has been fixed.


This is a used Apollo module that ferried some astronauts to Skylab; it's hung from the ceiling at an angle so you can see inside.


A picture of my favorite prop plane - the P-51D Mustang:


This is a photo of three pioneering aircraft side by side: the Spirit of St. Louis, which crossed the Atlantic; the Glamorous Glennis, which broke the sound barrier; and SpaceShip One, which reached 100 kilometers above ground twice in two weeks.

Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho.


This is a "pointee talkee" book, where downed US pilots in China would communicate by pointing to the chinese text next to whatever English matched what they wanted to say. Chinese people could talk to the pilot the same way. My favorite is number 3, "Please help conceal me from the enemy and puppet troops."


There are a few Medals of Honor on display. You can see here that different branches of the service use different medals - I hadn't known that.


Speaking of machine guns, here's the biggest of them all - the Vulcan cannon, used to protect aircraft carriers from missile strikes.


Finally, my tour concludes with a really rare WW2 aircraft - the Messerschmidt 262, the Nazi's jet propelled fighter.

DC Holiday Part 1: Dueling Washington Monuments

I have taken a trip to the East Coast to visit family, with a week out by myself in DC to sightsee. I haven't been in DC since 2000, and I really love the museums here. When I was in college in Pennsylvania my roommate and I used to drive down here to the Smithsonian all the time for lectures and such.

On the way from my hotel to the Metro line, I passed the Washington Monument.



Well, a Washington Monument, at any rate. I wonder how many there are. This statue sits in the center of Washington Circle, next to the George Washington University Hospital. After a brief trip via Metro to the National Mall, we find the granddaddy of all Washington Monuments:



From here a quick turn 180 degrees reveals the Capitol, at the other end of the National Mall:



After a deceptively long walk up the Mall, you can see it a little better:



This is as close as we're going to get today, however, because we've reached our first destination for today's sightseeing:





Daddy's home.

Photos of the Xbox building

Last week Engadget visited Millenium Building D, where I worked for the Xbox team. I didn't take photos there because the last contractor to take photos at Microsoft got fired for it a few years ago.

The funniest thing, which took me weeks to notice, is that all the hallway lights are green.