Ignore the toy, play with the box.

[albadger]

Here I am in DC, first full day of the Little Trip, and the day was all about buildings more interesting than what's in them.

First, the Library of Congress, the Thomas Jefferson Building, a whacked-out Beaux-Arts fever dream -- sure, it's filled with a priceless book collection, but those murals! The statues! The fountain! I lived in DC for 3 years and I can't believe I never visited this place. So I got a magnet and a baseball cap.

Next was a place I never visited when I lived there, because it didn't exist yet -- the National Museum of the American Indian. I don't mean to diss the exhibits, which really are cool (esp. the Meso-American ceramics), but the building is eye-boggling inside and out -- kind of reminded me of the Guggenheim, but it has its own feel. I got another magnet.

Theater for tonight was Richard III at the Folger Shakespeare Theater. I'd been to that theater 24 years ago, but they've (temporarily) gutted the space to make an arena staging. Great cast, great costumes, but I had trouble paying attention for 2 reasons:

1. The clever set had no less than 9 trap doors in it, 5 of them underlit plexiglass -- this made for interesting coups de theatre but also tended to "give" when the heavier actors walked on them, and I feared I would be witness to a non-Shakespearean tragedy.


2. The role of Ratcliff was played by Andrew Criss. I meant no offense to the less attractive actor playing Richard, but I wasn't really focusing on the lead role most of the time.
   

Tomorrow I have a reservation for a special tour of the house of a famous beer baron. I seem to have forgotten where I wrote down the rest of the information about this, though. Any assistance would be welcome.