^{PART ONE  PART TWO  PART THREE  PART FOUR  PART FIVE  PART SIX}

^{Images link to Flickr where one may select "view all sizes" from the "actions" menu. These are tailored to the OS column width for less bandwidth consumption.}

If you have ever been to Washington DC, and had the good fortune to return, you can easily prioritize from the list of way too many things to do the next time.

For me, it begins with family. If it weren't for that reason we'd have gone to Margaritaville. Not the copyrighted/trademarked one. The real one.

Once in DC to have a long-postponed family reunion, the question of what to do after the complimentary breakfast at the hotel boiled down to the choice of sights to see: the ones built since our last visit, some accessible only with the expert guidance of our aforementioned, nay wonderful, family, and the ones forever embedded in the engrams.

It was a whirlwind, though great visit, and I don't intend to replicate all the commonly available stock photos. Rather, I will hope to give you a taste of the experience and try to save us all from bandwidth issues. For those on dial-up or a cheesy DSL (great band name too), I suggest engaging the page download and grabbing a virtual half-smoke from Ben's Chili Bowl.

And for those of you without a problem in that regard, I say mazel tov.

You should find the linking ability of the image itself to a Flickr version (letting you see the largest version uploaded) useful. Under the "actions" menu, select "view all sizes."

Might I suggest you "open in a new tab" so as not to have to reload this page any time you may wish to return.

Shall we begin?

An exhibit of Flemish tapestries depicting the Portuguese victory in Tangiers, in 1437 was an unexpected treat.  These lovingly restored works are not permitted to be photographed. The better to sell the guide, I'm sure.

If one is in the area, one will have to go for oneself - a shameless plug for the arts.

What do you call a person from Tangiers? I kid you not: a Tangerine. Which raises some serious questions regarding John Boehner's secret Muslimhood.

The Calder will be there until forever isn't even a metaphor.

The essence of the museum space is the beauty of coming around a corner and being drawn that way, as Jessica Rabbit famously said.

^{Jean Dubuffet
Facades d'immeubles
(Building Facades) 1946
Oil on canvas}

And you may lean in and catch the details, so long as you don't trigger the guard's stern voice or the infra-red eye of the curator.

Facades d'immeubles (close-up 1)

Facades d'immeubles (close-up 2)

Facades d'immeubles (close-up 3)

The curator made this shot as much as any camera setting.

^{Alberto Giacometti
The Chariot, 1950
Bronze}

Speaking of "No Photography Allowed," there was one more collection which was off-limits to me. It's what that banner in the big space of the museum refers to. In powder blue.

Warhol had taken thousands of photographs, around and about, and used media such as oil & egg emulsion to represent it on canvas.

It's dark in the room - the more to make the headlines pop I suppose.

Speaking of headlines...

^{Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound, 1914
Marble}