Getty Garden

We took the Central Garden Tour at the Getty, which was fun, but I missed a good bit of it because I kept stopping to take pictures. Most of what I heard was "...and now we're going to move on to..." I don't know what most of the plants are because there are no signs in the garden due to aesthetics. My favorite part was the azalea labyrinth.

Fountain of Youth

This is three pieces of the same fountain at the Getty Center. It starts at the far end of the first picture, goes through the runner and goes into a pool. In the middle of the pool is a drain, featured in the second picture, that allows water to drip down in to another pool. I liked that the lower fountain looks like a spring one might find in an old monastery, while the top is very modern, like most of the Getty.

The Lone Wild Bird...

Rise and Shine!

Rent: The End

Stephen and Anji came out to New York for the final Rent performance last weekend. They actually had tickets, but we decided to go enter the lottery to see if Clay and I could get tickets. None of us won, but it was fun to go and see the very enthusiastic people. I heard many people say that it was insane, but I thought it was pretty calm. There were many, many people there, but process was orderly and well done.

The final lotto crowd.

Waiting for a Train

Breaking Dawn

I picked up Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer almost a week after it was released. However, I still managed to stay spoiler free until I finished. It just feels like an accomplishment. If you want to stay spoiler free you should not continue to read.

Breaking Dawn begins with Bella and Edward's wedding. Jacob returns from his self imposed exile to see Bella one more time and nearly gets into a fight with Edward when he finds out that they're going to try to have sex while Bella is still human. After the wedding Edward takes Bella to Esme's private island for their honeymoon and, as promised they finally consummate their relationship. After a couple of weeks Bella realizes that she is not only pregnant, but appears to be a few months along already. They race back home where she refused to allow Carlise and Edward to terminate the pregnancy in spite of her failing health. Once the baby is born and Bella becomes a vampire they learn that they will once again have to face the Volturi.

I have an overwhelming feeling of indifference towards Breaking Dawn. I didn't like it very much, but I didn't particularly dislike it either. As usual many of the plot elements were predictable and contrived. As soon as the child vampires were brought up it was pretty clear where the story was headed. This time the story was just not good enough to make me look past the problems, but on the bright side it was still better than New Moon.

The section that was narrated by Jacob was better than I thought it would be and it was nice to get a clearer picture of the wolves lives. I hoped for a little while that something might happen between Leah and Jacob, but that would have been too interesting. Having Jacob imprint on Renesmee so they could all be one big happy family is awfully convenient and really creepy. Meyer spends a lot of time assuring the reader that imprinting is not a sexual thing and that neither Jacob nor Quil is a pedophile, but all that aside that still means that he is going to be Bella's son-in-law. He intends to marry the daughter of his previous object of affection. It's all so very creepy!

It was good to get a look at some of the other vampires outside of the Cullens, but there were so many that I had some trouble keeping them straight. There were more interesting new powers introduced and then not really used. Renesmee's ability to share her thoughts and Bella's power to block the talents of other's are the only one's that really mattered in the end. It was nice to see Bella so empowered after being the human that everyone had to protect for three books, but the big confrontation with the Volturi was so anticlimactic. That's the thing that made the book so problematic, there were no real stakes. One vampire, who has only be talked about before and who caused the whole problem, dies. Everyone else escapes and there's never really any suspense to make the reader think that they won't.

As I said before Breaking Dawn was not all that bad, it just wasn't all that good. Everything was just tied up too neatly with everyone paired off and happy. For the entire series Meyer set up the triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob. Imprinting, no matter how well established as a plot device, feels like a cop out.

Eclipse

I actually read Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer while I was in Washington and wrote most of this review on the train, but between all the posting of pictures and some general laziness I haven’t taken the time to sit down and finish it. I’m planning to pick up Breaking Dawn this weekend so I wanted to get this done before I get influenced by the rest of the story. Anyway, the Twilight series was recommended by Stephen and Sylvie and, as always, spoilers follow.

Wow! Let’s start with wow. Eclipse is so many light years better than New Moon. This is the sequel I was looking for when I finished Twilight. How wonderful it is to regain the sensuality that made me love the first book. Sure the characters are still thinly drawn, but the story is too good for me to really care.

Eclipse picks up soon after New Moon left off. Bella is still grounded for running off to Italy and having a motorcycle and her father is still unhappy about her relationship with Edward. Soon she and her father come to an agreement, he’ll let her leave the house if she’ll spend more time with her other friends. This is complicated by Edward’s distrust of Jacob, who her father particularly wants her to see. After trying, and failing to keep Bella away from Jacob, Edward agrees that she should be allowed to see him. Reports of deaths and disappearances from Seattle complicate things and eventually warrant an uneasy alliance.

First of all I was glad to have a least some attempt to give Bella a reason to not want to get married. “I’m just not that girl,” is not the best reason in the world, but it worked well enough for me to go back to willfully suspending my disbelief.

I was worried early on that I was going to find Edward as irritating as Bella was in New Moon, but once he got over his refusing to allow her to see Jacob, I fell right back in love with him. Jacob spent a lot of time being annoying, but that’s his character so I can let it slide.

There was more interesting lore from both the vampires and the werewolves. Back stories were revealed for Rosalie and Jasper and Bella got to hear the Quileute tribe’s story of the werewolves’ origins.

The story was much less cliché and predictable which is not to say that is wasn’t at all, it was quite obvious that Victoria was the one coming after Bella and that there would have to be a vampire/werewolf alliance, but having Bella genuinely conflicted about her feelings for Jacob was nice. No, I never thought she would choose him, but I liked seeing the choice actually be made. The teasing at their chemistry was one of the few things I liked about New Moon and I welcomed its return. And that was quite an impressive kiss. I’m sure thirteen year olds everywhere are still swooning.

Just One More

The Vietnam Memorial

Tom's Memorial

The number of tries that it took for me to get this shot made me realize that, although my tripod is a pain to drag around, it may be worth it.

A couple of guys fishing in the Tidal Pool. I think they had 6 or 8 fishing rods between them.

Korean War Memorial

A couple of birds bathing in the Memory Pool

The Memory Pool

This friendly squirrel shared my pretzel when I took a break.

Holocaust Memorial Museum

One of my main reasons for making the trip to DC was to see the Holocaust Museum. I have had a mild obsession since I first saw The Diary of Anne Frank when I was 9 or so. It was also my main reason for going on the trip alone. Sure Clay can't get away for the weekend because of work, but it was all about going to the Holocaust Museum alone. I can't say that I enjoyed it, because it's not something to enjoy, but I learned a lot and was profoundly affected by the exhibit, which I spent 5 hours exploring.

The two part sculpture outside.

The sculpture's marker.

This is the magnet that I bought at the museum. It's a picture of the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance. I made it through the entire exhibit without any tears, but this is where I broke down. The flame is on top of a block that contains dirt from 38 of the concentration camps in Europe.

Some New Discoveries

In my wanderings I ran across a couple of landmarks that I hadn't seen before...

The Summer House at the Capitol

The Grotto at the Summer House

The Summer House Fountain

There is a Memorial to the Signers of the Declaration of Independence near the Vietnam Memorial. All of the signers' names and signatures are carved on granite blocks. George Walton, Lyman Hall, and Button Gwinnett are three names that I will never forget thanks to 8th Grade Georgia history. Mrs. Rogers suggested that we think of George Walton walking down the Hall while Buttoning his Gwinnett. It worked.

Museum Time!

I'd been to the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum before, but museum going is a very different thing when one is twelve and following a chaperone around. We got lost in the Natural History museum on my 6th grade trip and didn't have time to see the American History Museum. Unfortunately the it is currently closed for renovations so I still haven't really gotten to see it. I guess I'll have to go back someday.

The Castle

Ocean Views was my favorite exhibit. It's like someone sat down and created it just for me!

The manatees in the Mammal Hall

The Crystal Skull!

Thanks to Philip Roth I will never be able to think of Charles Lindbergh in the same way.

World War II Memorial

The World War II Memorial was built since the last time I was in DC so this was my first look at it. I thought that it was well designed and moving. I was glad to see for myself that it does not obstruct the sight lines between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

This dedication left me a bit teary.

The "Field of Stars"

Close-up of the stars

The fountain and Atlantic side from the Pacific

The fountain at night

Just the Beginning!

This past weekend I took a little holiday to Washington. I'd been twice before, once in the sixth grade on a class trip and once in college for about a day. There were many things that I had never had a chance to do as my itinerary has never really been in my hands. As I often do on vacation I took, many, many pictures. On Friday, my first day there, I did the traditional tour of Monuments and Memorials beginning with a trip to the Washington Monument, which I'd never seen close up.

The Capitol looking very cool in the morning light.

The White House from the base of the Washington Monument

The Washington Monument

The Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool

There are signs like this at many of the memorials asking people to refrain from throwing coins in the fountains or not walk on the grass. They all use this sort of language, emphasizing showing respect for those being memorialized.

As the title says this is just the beginning. Tomorrow, the WWII Memorial!

New Moon

I finally got around to continuing with the Twilight series, which was recommended to me by both Stephen and Sylvie. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer is the second book in the, so far, insanely readable series. Standard spoiler warnings apply especially if you haven’t read Twilight.

New Moon picks up in the fall after Twilight left off, on Bella’s eighteenth birthday. After a near miss involving a paper cut and Edward’s “brother” Jasper, Edward decides that Bella will be better off without him and his family around. He leaves and she is devastated. After a few months of nonstop moping, Bella begins spending time with Jacob Black and is rejuvenated by his friendship, until he begins to change.

I did not enjoy New Moon as much as Twilight. The best part about Twilight was Edward and Bella’s relationship and that was absentee for most of the book. The mythology of the series continues to be interesting. We have the addition of werewolves to the “monsters” involved. Jacob, whose information about his father’s beliefs helped Bella to figure out what was up with Edward, turns out to be descended from a line of werewolves who function as the protectors of their tribe. Again Meyer rejects common lore having the werewolves change as the result of anger instead of the moon. The idea of the werewolves coming into existence as a result having vampires in the vicinity is clever. We also learned more about the vampires, meeting the “royal family” the Volturi. Many of them have special gifts like Edward and Alice, although Bella seems to be immune to their powers, like she is Edward’s.

The book is structured as a loose allegory of Romeo and Juliet, with Edward and Bella playing the iconic couple and Jacob filling in as Paris. It would have worked better had Meyer not beat the reader over the head with this information. Still I liked the parallels with Rosalie filling in as Balthasar and Alice as Friar Lawrence.

The continuation of the mythology was good, but it could not save the story which was really subpar. As in Twilight most of the “twists” were obvious from a mile away and waiting for Bella to figure it out was annoying. I did not have much of a problem with Bella in Twilight, but I some trouble with her character in New Moon. She did some truly idiotic things, which is explained away by her desire to hear Edward’s voice cautioning her when she puts herself in danger and like so many heroines who have been dumped by the leading man for their own good; she actually believes that he doesn’t love her anymore. However my big problem with her (aside from having a female protagonist who is so entirely defined by her relationships to men) came at the end of the book. Am I truly supposed to believe that someone who is ready to give up everything and become a vampire to stay with the man that she loves and join his family has a problem with getting married to him? Really?

That said I did generally enjoy the book and once again couldn’t put it down. There is something compulsively readable about the series and some willful suspension of disbelief should take care of most of my problems with the book. There were good moments, such as the beginning when Bella dreams of being an old woman with a still youthful Edward. I hold out hope for the rest of the series and certainly won’t be stopping now.

Lies Across America

Lies Across America: What American Historic Sites Get Wrong by James W. Loewen is a book that I’ve been meaning to pick up and read for quite some time. I recommended and lent my copy of his other book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, to Amy a couple of months ago so it seemed like time to get on it.

Lies Across America is a study of selected historic sites and markers across the country. Loewen looks at the information given for and about the sites, points out incorrect or misleading information and makes suggestions for how they might be corrected. The featured markers and sites are from all 50 states, but the majority deal with either the slavery and the civil war or European settlers and the treatment of Native Americans.

Reading the book brought up some interesting questions in my mind. The chapter on Amerst, Massachusetts, which was named for Lord Jeffrey Amerst who historians say authorized the idea of giving blankets infected with small pox to Native Americans, suggests that it would be a good idea to change the name to no longer honor him. I agree that he is not someone who necessarily deserves to be honored, but I can understand the logistical difficulties of actually changing the name.

As someone who grew up in the South I was particularly interested in the sections on the Civil War. I was fascinated and saddened by the chapter on the Union League Club, which exemplifies the abandonment of the cause of civil rights by the Republican Party in the years following the war. The Union League was begun to “combat the pro-secession sentiment that dominated New York City early in the Civil War.” Over the years the club became more of an elite social club, barring anyone who was not white and protestant from membership.

Is there a bias at work here? Absolutely, but that does not change the fact that all over the country there is misinformation being disseminated. There are monuments and sites mentioned where the argument is purely bias, but Loewen still makes some very good points.