Still More Trapped

Almost exactly four years ago, I predicted that this statue behind the Ringling Museum would be completely obscured by the banyan tree it sat next to.  Well, I was wrong.  It's actually not that much more consumed, especially when you look at the difference from eight years ago.

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!

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...

Fakes

I know a fake when I see one. And that's how I knew that these two so-called Statues of Liberty weren't the real thing. For one thing, the one above is made of jelly beans. There's not way it could have survived sitting in New York harbor for all these years if it were made of candy. The seagulls alone would have reduced it to a shadow of it's former self. And the one below? Well, it's not in New York harbor, so how could it be real?

Yes, yes, I admit it, I actually shot both of these in Las Vegas, and both at the New York, New York resort. They try to fool you into thinking you're really in New York, but it's not so easy to do.

The Glass Ceiling

OK, I'm gonna start throwing up some of my Vegas pictures today. I'm still pretty beat from all the travel, but I feel the need to start sharing some of the pictures from Sin City. I'm sure some of you are familiar with these glass flowers that cover part of the ceiling in the lobby at The Bellagio. If you don't remember them from the last time I posted some pictures, then maybe you remember them from the movie Ocean's Eleven.

This vast forest of glass was made by Chiluly, a well known glass blower with a tendency towards the grandiose.

I have no idea how many flowers there are in this bouquet, but it's a lot. 500? 1000? I know that I wouldn't want to be the one who has to dust them. And heaven forbid you break one. I'm sure it happens pretty frequently, but it's got to look bad when you're the one that shatters a work of art.

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.

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.

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.

The Sailor

Here are a couple more shots of The Lone Sailor, a popular statue located in the Navy Memorial in DC. That happened to be the stop we got off the Metro at for the parade on Saturday morning, but you'll hear all about that later. I was just happy to be in a place that I recognized. I showed you this guy before, as well as his twin on the other coast at the North end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I walked by this fellow again on the Monday of my trip, and realized there's a whole Navy Museum in an adjacent building. I stuck my head in there for just a moment but didn't get to walk through as I was on my way out of town. They had another statue in the lobby by the same sculptor as this one, so I'll need to go back at some point and take a tour there.

A Different Kind Of Bird

I show you lots of birds here at the blog, but here's the first one I've shared with you who was also an admiral. This sculpture located outside the main gates of Arlington National Cemetery is Rear Admiral Richard Byrd. He was a well known polar explorer of the early 20th century.

Emancipation

As promised, here's the other big draw in Washington, DC's Lincoln Park. Sure enough, it's a statue of Abraham Lincoln where he's symbolically freeing the slaves. This statue was planned not long after Lincoln's death, and it was paid for through donations by former slaves. Sorry about the horrible light, I don't have too much control over the sun, and didn't know which way the statue faced before I got there. Note to self-Go in the morning! It doesn't seem to have an official name, but many folks call it Emancipation from the label across the front.



I guess there's a lot of controversy about this statue and it's representation of the slave at Lincoln's feet. All I can say is that you have to look at such things as they would have appeared to the people contemporary with it's creation.

Kennedy

I mentioned in my last post that I had some old pictures of a Robert Berks sculpture, and here it is. This is John F. Kennedy, found inside Kennedy Center. I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of this look. I think it seems a long way from finished. I suppose I have to give the sculptor a great deal of credit, though, for being able to capture the look of the subject even in such an apparently unfinished state.

I visited Kennedy Center back in September of 2009. I didn't share too many (any?) pictures of it, I'm afraid. I get in moods sometimes where I want to post every picture I take, and sometimes I don't want to post any of them because I don't think they're any good.

Mary McLeod Bethune

From the National Arboretum, I take you to Lincoln Park, a few miles from the Capitol building, but still on Capitol Ave. Mary McLeod Bethune is a hero of the Civil Rights movement, but I know her from the college in Daytona Beach that bears her name, Bethune-Cookman University.

Her memorial wasn't my main reason for visiting this park, as you'll see shortly. (Think about it, it's called Lincoln Park for a reason...) But it was a nice monument so I took some photos. It's in a pretty nice neighborhood, and there were lots of people playing in the park. Lots of kids and dogs, so if you're ever in DC, it's a nice place to visit.

The artist who created this artwork is Robert Berks. You'll see another sculpture of his later that I found on this trip, and if you're good, I think I have an old picture of one of this other works from an earlier trip to DC.

George (Not Washington)

I'm always on the lookout for places I've missed during my trips to DC, and that's how I found this memorial to George Mason. It's just off the Tidal Pool, very close to the Jefferson Memorial. But if you blink, you might miss it in your rush to get somewhere more well-known.

Mason was one of the founding fathers, but he seems to have been forgotten through the years. I'm sure the alumni of George Mason University would disagree with my statement that he's been forgotten, but I'm sticking to it.

He's located under a nice little pergola with a fountain in front. Nice out-of-the-way place to visit and rest for a few minutes before you brave the crowds at Jefferson.

Found It!

I mentioned a Stone Lantern that was from Japan in my last post, but I didn't have a picture to share. Well, I found this picture from my first trip to DC last May. It's not the best shot, but at least you can see what I am talking about, and I can link to someone who knows more about it than I do. I didn't know that they actually light it to celebrate the cherry blossoms every year. Something else I missed...

More Japan

The cherry trees aren't the only gift from Japan to be located around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. This stone pagoda was a gift from a former mayor of Yokohama Japan to a former DC City Commissioner. It was given in 1957 and dedicated in 1958. The age of the sculpture is unknown, but it is believed to date back to the 1200's. The different sections of the monument are supposed to represent Earth, Air, Fire and Water. There's also a stone lantern nearby, but I don't think I got a picture of it on this most recent trip.

Korea

These are some of the soldiers who's likenesses make up The Korean War Veterans Memorial. They are arranged as though slogging through a long hike across the battlefields of Korea.

This was the first time I'd been to the Korean Memorial during the day. I'd been there at night before, when spotlight illuminate each figure creating a very haunting effect.

The soldiers are both lifelike and unfinished, creating an odd conflict. The closer you look, the more unreal they appear.

It's an odd effect. The soldiers aren't the only elements of the memorial, but they are the most haunting.

Out Back

I don't think many visitors to the Lincoln Memorial walk all the way around the building. You may think there is nothing to see from back there, but you'd be wrong. The most obvious item is the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which leads across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia. That's General Robert E. Lee's house at the top of the hill on the other side. His family used to own all the property that became Arlington Cemetary. You can even see a few rows of gravestones in this shot.

On the DC side of the bridge, there are two large gilded statues by Leo Friedlander. This one is called Sacrifice.

And this one is called Valor .

Going off in a slightly different direction, and not directly behind the Lincoln Memorial is another road, this one flanked by two more statues.  I don't know what road it is, but that's not important. The two statues, however, are important. Collectively they are called The Arts Of Peace By James Earle Fraser. I believe this one is called Music And Harvest.

And this one, on the other side of the road, is called Aspiration And Literature. I didn't realize when I was actually in DC and looking at these four statues that they weren't all by the same artist. I guess that's what I get for not doing my homework ahead of time.  I've got lots more pictures of these statues coming up later, since I went down and actually got close to them.  I'm just sharing these now since they were shot from the Lincoln Memorial.  See, it does pay to wander around sometimes.