Since the weather was spectacular yesterday and today, I took a lunchtime jaunt to my two favorite Smithsonian museums, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the National Air and Space Museum. I like them for two completely different reasons. The Sackler Gallery is an underground structure that is calming, quiet, uncrowded and contemplative. I'd love to live in a house of the same style. It also has the best gift shop of all Smithsonian Museums. The Air and Space Museum, on the other hand, is huge, wide-open, usually crowded, and loud and chaotic, but man, what cool stuff!
The Sackler Gallery houses permanent and temporary exhibits of Asian art. My favorite style of art is Japanese Ukiyo-e from the Edo period and the Sackler Gallery often features this style. The current temporary exhibit is "Edo Masters from the Price Collection, Patterned Feathers Piercing Eyes". Absolutely beautiful. Perusing this kind of exhibit is a great way to spend a lunch hour.
At Air and Space today, the highlight was not the air and space exhibits, but a temporary exhibit from the National Museum of American History which is currently closed for renovation. One of the recent acquisitions on display was a Magnavox Odyssey, the very first home video game from 1972! Holy crap, we had one of those! I imagine my mom may still have it. Had I known that it was worthy, I would have donated it to the Smithsonian long ago.
Edited to add: Credit to Martin Goldberg and Electronic Entertainment Museum (E2M) for the picture.
4 comments:
I thought the biggest advantage to working nearby the Mall was that you were near the Pro-Life rallies every January and could go listen to the rousing speeches about how God wants us to protect the life of sperm.
Well, that goes without saying.
Please be advised, the Magnavox Odyssey image is being used in violation of its license. As clearly stated in the licensing on Wikipedia, its free to use as long as credits to myself or E2M is maintained. Mentioning the National Museum of American History and then showing the picture of my display, gives the reader the wrong impression that signed Odyssey is on display there when it is not.
It clearly says that it's not at American History but at Air & Space. However, fair enough on the credit. I have edited the entry.
Post a Comment