A Rare Burl

One of the great voices of Christmas is Burl Ives.  Right up there with Bing, Elvis, Dean and maybe Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Burl Ives just says Christmas to a few generations of Americans.  And this is some of his Christmas music that you've probably never heard.  He recorded this for the Caedmon label in the early Seventies, and as far as I can tell, it didn't go far.  Burl seemed to hop labels a lot, releasing albums for Columbia, Decca, Word, Disney and undoubtedly others, along with singles too numerous to count.  The theme of this record was Christmas music that was a favorite of certain presidents, or at least assumed to be.  Historical records are scant as to which president preferred Jingle Bells over I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day, but there are some and these are the ones they dug up.  I first shared this out in 2011 and it was one of my great prides of that season.  Please give a listen to Burl Ives, Music Conducted By Tony Mottola-Christmas At The White House (Caedmon TC 9102, Stereo, 1972).

1. The Little Drummer Boy (Richard M. Nixon)
2. Joy To The World (John Adams)
3. Adeste Fideles (Thomas Jefferson)
4. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Zachary Taylor)
5. While Shepherds Watch'd Their Flocks By Night (George Washington)
6. Silent Night (Lyndon B. Johnson)
7. Christmas On The Sea (Theodore Roosevelt)
8. We Three Kings Of Orient Are (Abraham Lincoln)
9. O Little Town Of Bethlehem (Ulysses S. Grant)
10. Shout The Glad Tidings (Andrew Jackson)
11. Silver Bells (John F. Kennedy)
12. Art Thou Weary, Art Thou Laden (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

Zippyshare

I'm convinced there is another version of this record that features narration about each of the songs in addition to the music.  I've never seen it, but I'd love to score a copy.  Anybody out there got one they can spare?  Anyone?

V For Victory

I had forgotten about this until I saw the short film at the opening to the Olympic games. I guess there is a similar statue to this somewhere in London, and in that film, Winston Churchill comes to life and waves at a helicopter carrying James Bond and Queen Elizabeth II. This statue is in front of the British Embassy in Washington, DC.  I shot it in 2011 when I went up for the Cherry Blossom Festival.  Technically speaking, I've now been to England, because the back half of the statue is considered to be inside the embassy grounds, and that's considered English soil.  So when I walked around the statue, I visited England!  And without a passport, too!

Nevermore

I didn't realize that yesterday was the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, and the date that an anonymous person used to visit this marker and leave roses and cognac. But now they say he hasn't shown up for three years and the tradition may be over. I visited the site last year when I was in DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival, it's a cool little graveyard, some of which is actually underneath a church. Note that Poe isn't actually buried there, but used to be. I seem to remember he was originally buried in an unmarked grave, but I guess they figured out it was him later on. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, I'm afraid.

Cracked Up

Now they're saying that yesterday's earthquake in Virginia damaged the Washington Monument. I guess there's a crack somewhere near the top. That's not a good thing. And trying to fix something that's 555 feet off the ground, that's not going to be a picnic by anyone's definition.  (Look in the window on the left and you can see someone taking a picture of me taking a picture.)

The Face Of Evil

I was thinking earlier today that there are a lot of pictures I haven't shared with you this year, since I've been neglecting the blog a lot. First one that came to mind was from my visit to DC back in April and this grotesque at The National Cathedral. Yes, that's Darth Vader peering down at you from way up high on the side of the church. He's hard to spot, but I managed it on this, my second trip to find him. It took a whole lot of lens to get this shot, and I'm not perfectly happy with it, but it will do. If you've got a little time to spend in DC, the National Cathedral is well worth the trip.

Shutdown

In anticipation of the government shutdown tonight at midnight, they've already gone and drained the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Hopefully they'll reach an agreement on the budget and be able to refill it. I guess if midnight comes and goes without a budget, they'll retract the Washington Monument into the ground and lower the garage doors between the columns on the Lincoln Memorial so no one will be able to look at them. Unfortunately, with the limited walking around DC I was able to do yesterday after arriving, it looks like they've already had to remove most of the cherry blossoms from the trees, as well as most of the green leaves. Now that's a tight budget!

(Problems still persist with Blogger not talking to Picasa.  Pictures may not display properly.  If they appear cut off, try clicking on them to see the full picture.  Google claims to be working on the issue.)

The Pentagon Pictures

OK, long story short. I'm in DC for the weekend. My first stop after getting off the plane at Reagan National was two stops up the blue line at the Pentagon. I went to the 9/11 memorial on the far side of the building. I shot some pictures of the benches that make up the memorial, then I started taking some shots of the block on the side of the Pentagon itself that is engraved September 11, 2001. After only ten or so pictures, a policeman wanders over and tells me I can't take pictures of the Pentagon and demands that I delete all my pictures. After a few half-hearted arguements, I comply.


But as I sulk away, I think to myself, those pictures aren't really deleted, they're just marked as deleted. So I pop out that chip and put in another one to shoot in any direction but the building. When I got back to my friends house tonight, I downloaded some recovery software, and viola! There are the deleted pictures. And here are three of the pictures that the Pentagon police didn't want you to see. Threat to National security? Hardly. Just some shots of a charred piece of sandstone through a pentagonal hole in an iron fence. Enjoy!

Make War, Not Love

Here's another site from the river cruise of DC last April. This time it's the National War College, located on Ft. McNair along the Washington Canal. I guess you're not really looking at the college, you're looking at Roosevelt Hall, which houses the college. You can see the US Capitol to the left of the building, but it's really far away. The telephoto lens makes it look a lot closer than it really is, plus it sits on a bit of a hill (yes, there really is a Capitol hill), so it tends to tower over everything for miles around. If you hope to have a long and fruitful career in the military, you'll probably wind up here for a while.

RMS Titanic

Did you know that Washington, DC, has a memorial to the men who died on board the Titanic? I didn't either, but if you spend enough time there, you'll find out that DC has a monument to everything and everybody. I spotted this monument from a boat while taking a cruise down the Washington Canal and the Potomac River last year when I visited for the Cherry Blossom Festival. I was thinking about that today, and remembered that I had thousands of pictures I never shared after my trip. In the springtime, there's something to do and photos to shoot almost each and every day, so I don't get them posted in a very timely manner. I think I only posted pictures from my first day or two in DC, then totally skipped out on the last day or two. And that was when I took this cruise up and down the channel and the river, where I spotted this monument on the shore. I learned that it used to be much closer to town, but was moved in the sixties to make way for The Kennedy Center. That's progress, I guess. Keep in mind that this sculpture was designed and built in the late twenties, then dedicated in the early thirties, so it greatly predates a certain scene in a certain movie you may have seen...

José

There are statues of hundreds of people around Washington, DC. Some of them, I don't even know why they are there or who they are. This is José Artigas, the father of Uruguayan independence, and I think I saw him in from of the Organization of American States. Who knew that the US capitol would celebrate heroes from Uruguay?

The Flaming Sword

One of the things I got to shoot on this most recent trip to DC that I had missed previously was this flaming sword. This is the Second Division Memorial in DC, not too awful far from the First Division Memorial. This one also dates from WWI and also features the amazing gold gilding.

Is it just me or is there something vaguely Soviet about this memorial? It just seems like something you'd see in old news footage from the cold war, and not something that's from our side. Perhaps it's just me.

I had to wait a long time to get pictures of this thing without too many people climbing on it. It seemed to be a popular memorial to climb for some reason. I guess they'll eventually have to rope it off and limit access. I saw my grandmother today, and she was telling me that she has pictures of herself sitting in the lap of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. I think they'd shoot you if you tried to do that today. I guess fame has it's cost.

This was the view I had on first walking up to the flaming sword from the rear. It almost looks like it's glowing.

Gilded

This statue sits high on a pedestal between the Old Executive Office Building and The Ellipse in Washington, DC. I believe this is a WWI vintage monument to the 1st Division, Army, but I'm not certain. Each time I've been near it, the base has been off limits due to construction on the nearby buildings. Someday I'll get close enough to it to get a better idea of what it's for.

But it's still a pretty awesome statue. All that guilding on a spectacular sculpture way up in the air. And they've cleaned it since the last time I was there. Before, it was covered in bird droppings, but now it's nice and shiny. Probably won't stay that way for long, but it was nice for a while.

No Cute Title

There's a little park across the street from the White House. I've been there three times now, and every time I've seen this guy sitting on a bench there. I don't know who he is, I don't know what hes doing there, I just know he's there and I don't know what to make of him. Perhaps he's a Representative from the State of Alaska...

Speaking Of Treasury

Since I just showed you some hockey players in front of the Department of the Treasury building, here's something else in front of the building. This is Albert Gallatin, the longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury for the US. Alexander Hamilton has a statue on the other side of the building, but I can't dig up a picture of that one right quick.

Pennsylvania Avenue

This is Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. I've shown you this street before, but this is the section in front of the White House. It's permanently closed off to most vehicle traffic for security reasons. However, I guess security doesn't preclude a little street hockey. This is actually more in front of Treasury than the White House proper, but it's close. Just full disclosure for you.

Saturday, Just After Noon

Just so I don't loose my place, I'm at Saturday, the 10th of April, 2010, just after noon in my DC pictures. That means I still have to share with you the rest of Saturday, all of Sunday and Monday until about 2. I've got a long, long way to go. I always thought this was the coolest clock tower, just up the street from the White House. I think I showed you an extreme close-up of the face before. No, maybe I didn't. I'll have to hunt that down.

Pershing

I think I just mentioned that I was shooting in Pershing Park, so here's a picture of old John J. himself.

This eagle was in the park, too.  I don't remember much about him, but looking close at the little plaque near the bottom of the picture tells me this is the Bex Eagle.

Bath Time

I found some birds bathing in a fountain in Pershing Park as we walked along Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House. I spent way too long photographing them, only to find that most of the pictures weren't as exciting as I imagined them to be. I probably should have bumped up the shutter speed a few notches to freeze the birds a little better, but live and learn.

Some of them aren't too bad though...

The water droplets in the air made for some cool bokeh at times.

J-Poppy

After the big, exciting Cherry Blossom Parade, we walked over to the Japanese American Festival, being held just a couple of streets over. Actually, it was on Pennsylvania Avenue, which you may have heard of before.

Seemed to me like the biggest part of the festival was curious Japanese trinkets, like these colorful origami cranes.

And of course pink teddy bears with bloody lips and claws.

There was no end to the Hello Kitty stuff.

And then there were the people who were taking the festival a little too, umm, frivolously. Alice in Wonderland ripoffs seemed to be quite popular for some reason. Maybe the recent new movie?

Lots of funny colored wigs and odd goth-inspired outfits with a hint of silly. You should see all the folks that I was too embarrassed to photograph.

Is Stitch Japanese? I had no idea.

Should I know who this is? I think I'm too old...

And Waldo isn't so hard to find if you know where to look for him.

Uncle Sam

I reckon you can't have a parade in the District of Columbia without inviting Uncle Sam. So here he is.