Washington - Week 1

   Well, here we are in the home stretch of this year's Marathon of House Sitting. We left North Carolina Wednesday morning and we're in Washington until the 24th.

  We're staying in the Petworth neighbourhood which is apt, given we are looking after pets. It's a great location, five minutes walk to the Metro and a twenty minute train ride to the National Mall. Today is our last day here as tomorrow we'll move three blocks down the road to our final sit on this trip. Two cats here and two dogs there.

  Within an hour of our arrival I got a taste of what's in store for us during this segment of our odyssey. More on that later.

  Like every other place we've been this year the weather has betrayed us once again. 20C when we arrived and it hasn't crept much above the low teens since. The forecast calls for more of the same next week with maybe a day or two when we'll approach 20 again. Of course, there's lots to see here even though Penny and I have been here many times before. We won't be bored, even with less than ideal weather. We'll be focusing on sights we haven't seen during previous visits and our first stop was the National Gallery of Art.

  Before I get into the details let me clarify that I do like art... when it actually represents something. When it comes to modern art my kids will confirm I don't understand any of it. "Oh look. A stripe. I'm sure the artist is using it to represent the lack of understanding for cultural differences in a brutal society on the verge of collapse. Or maybe it's just a stripe. Whatever. Here's two million dollars." The NGA comprises two buildings. We didn't enter the one dedicated to modern art. 'Nuff said.

  We spent two wonderful afternoons wandering through all of it and I must say I was more impressed with their collection than that of the Louvre! When we were in Paris in 2018 I found the Louvre was overkill. There was just too much on display and so much of it was repetitive. "Oh look, another three galleries dedicated to Christ on the cross!" or "Great! Another four galleries of Madonna and Child". Too much. The NGA shows enough of each genre to be representative without being boring and repetitive. Great for people with short attention spans. Like me.

  Now I'm going to go into art historian mode (puts on paint-splattered shirt, pastes on scruffy fake, beard, adjusts hipster hornrims and takes a sip of  French wine). Let's start with this, "The Reading Girl", by Pietro Magni.

  Note the incredible detail Magni carves into the marble. Perfection, right down to the stitching on her dress, the cane on the chair and the grain of the wood. Amazing.

  Here's another marble, this one entitled "The Veiled Nun" by Giuseppe Croff. The illusion of a veil created in marble. Again, amazing.

  There was an exhibition of 1970's photography that included one composition dear to my heart.

  Yes, if you've been following along the past two years you'll recognize it from our visit to Albuquerque, NM, in June 2023.

  Atlas Obscura wasn't a thing in the 1970's so I give the artist full marks for discovering this one on his own.

  During our second afternoon at the gallery we covered all the classical painters; Degas, Rembrandt, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, El Greco, Van Gogh... I could go on. Fantastic. Along the way there were a few noteworthy ones like the only da Vinci in the western hemisphere, a two-sided work entitled "Ginevra de' Benci", painted while still in his twenties.

  And the reverse:

  When I saw it I figured it was Latin for "Made in China" or "Eat at Luigi's" but it actually  translates to "Beauty adorns virtue". That Leonardo. What a guy. Unlike the last time I saw a da Vinci, in the Louvre, there was no crowd, no queue. It was peaceful and civilized. Sigh.

  Here's one you're likely familiar with:

  Read the explanation below and you'll see it's really a piece of propaganda.

  Long before the Internet painters were creating memes to advance political interests. What doesn't change remains the same.

  I found the next one interesting because of who the artist was:

  You probably don't recognize this depiction of an early session of the US Congress, painted by Samuel F.B. Morse. Yes, that Morse, who went on to create Morse Code and enable the use of telegraphy, just a few years before the Internet. If you expand the photo you'll notice the lonely indigenous man sitting in the right hand balcony. He was invited to the session but placing him so far from the action was a reflection of the disdain the Americans had for the natives.

  Okay. enough art. I'll assume you understand how impressed I was to devote this much of my blog to it. Let's move on. As we approached the NGA for our second visit a protest was taking place on the National Mall. Lots of yelling and upset people toting signs. And this:

  There were many signs. Here are the best:

  My guess is somewhere between 2,500 and 5,000 people were in attendance. In a space as large as the Mall it's a drop in the bucket. With the amount of BS that has spewed forth from Trump's mouth over the past 50+ days I expected at least one more zero on those numbers. I mean, really. If people are as upset as I've been led to believe then why hasn't there been an uprising? Throw the bums out! Off with their heads and all that. Disappointing. We hung around for an hour to listen to some of the speechifying and take in the crowd.

... and then there was this asshole wandering around wearing a DOGE hat and t-shirt. He was describing the scene to his phone so I'm assuming he was there to stir up shit amongst the crowd so he'd have some venom to spew in a right-wing podcast.

  I'm assuming there will be more of this while we're here. This was our first taste of actual action on the part of the local populace after noting the general dissatisfaction we've encountered in the U.S. this time around.

  After we were done with the gallery we headed off for a walk along the Mall to the White House. Along the way we passed the Department of Justice as Trump's motorcade was leaving after his latest rant about the unfairness of it all. We would have thrown eggs but we can't afford them. Anyway, after his Castro-length ramble at DOJ he was in a hurry to get back to the White House to catch the 5:30 taxpayer-funded express to Mar-A-Lago for a weekend of golf. As a result everything within three blocks of the White House was cordoned off so no eggs there either.

  We did find this Benjamin Franklin quote inscribed on the face of the Department of Commerce building:

  Yes. It's actually cast in stone. I guess ol' Ben doesn't carry much weight inside that building anymore. We also found this, which Mr. Trump should check out just around the corner from his current home, next time he doesn't understand that "artificial line on a map" he goes on about.

  Finally, we caught up with some of the afternoon's protesters who had camped out in another noteworthy location. Last week Congress threatened the city of Washington with a $1B reduction in funding unless they removed the giant "BLACK LIVES MATTER" artwork from the roadway on 16 St NW. As DC is not a state so has no representation at the Capitol and is funded by acts of Congress they don't have any choice but to do as they're told.

  Of course, this is all performative BS on the part of Republican politicians who are doing this because they can.

  With the weather slated to warm up a bit there's lots more for us to explore next week. Follow along with us as we bear witness to how Trump and his buddies are f--king up a great country. Stay tuned.