(I was on the right track, though.)
Tag Archives: Capitol
Men of a certain age …
W. H. Auden called the mid-twentieth century The Age of Anxiety. It was the title of a book-length epic poem that won him a 1948 Pulitzer Prize, and it depicted his perception of the loneliness and isolation of the mid-twentieth century. (I have not read it.)
Auden set it in a bar in New York City. (He actually immigrated there in 1939; many casual poetry readers are unaware that he had dual citizenship with Britain and America.)
I wonder what Auden would think of the early 21st Century, here at his adopted home. I t started with the September 11 terror attacks and has arrived at a pandemic that has killed 443,000 Americans (along with nearly 94,000 back in his native Britain). Evictions and unemployment have predictably risen right along with the deaths.
And America seems the closest now to civil war since … the actual Civil War began in 1861. (We did, after all, see one side storm the Capitol to attack its democratically elected government.)
I’ll bet our anxiety could give Auden’s a run for its money.
Jesus Christ — look at this newly released footage.
The terror attack at the Capitol was a lot more violent than many of us might have guessed from the first flurry of selfies and pictures of goofy costumes.
Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach.
MSNBC: “Must-see new video shows Capitol riot was way worse than we thought”
With Apologies to The Beatles
You say you want a revolution
Well, we all know
You just want to change the vote.
You tell me that it’s evolution?
Well, why follow
The dude dressed up as a goat?
But when you begin the violent destruction
Of the Capitol, you can count me out.
This country’s never gonna be
All white.
It’s never gonna be (all white)
It’s never gonna be (all white).
You say that Donnie’s the solution
Well, you know
He’s got really tiny hands.
You talk about the Constitution.
Well, we know
That you aren’t really fans.
Cuz if you riot for people with minds that hate
Biden’s still next president of the United States,
Which is never gonna be (all white).
Yeah, it’s never gonna be (all white).
Yeah, it’s never gonna be (all white).
A busload of bullshit.
Re: claims that Antifa “infiltrated” the Trump supporters and manipulated them into the attempted coup. Someone asked me to put my two cents in about this tonight (always a dangerous request), so here goes.
It’s preposterous. This appears to be a desperate conspiracy theory meant to mitigate the public relations catastrophe for the Trump administration following the Capitol insurrection. There is soooo much footage of the perpetrators, and nothing to suggest that they are somehow a multitude of brilliant, Oscar-worthy actors who are nefariously impersonating Trump supporters. (C’mon.)
Here’s a hint — anytime someone claims they witnessed a “busload” of actors or impersonators, there is a good bet it is colossal bullshit. The whole actors-on-busses scenario is a common conspiracy theory. The last time it was in play, I was hearing it from pro-Trump apologists of the Charlottesville violence perpetrated at the Unite the Right rally in 2017.
I asked them for evidence repeatedly for it. The best I got was an undated picture of two parked busses without passengers — the person who sent it to me couldn’t even name the vehicles’ location. It could have been any two empty busses, anywhere in America.
That’s it. That was the only “evidence.”
I would be extraordinarily surprised if there was even an ounce of truth to this new claim. Its appearance today simply underscores how desperate the Trump camp is to conduct damage control.
Here is the rundown from Snopes.com
Monet, the Dutch Masters, and Mussels. Ya gotta love D.C.
Here are just a few more shots of Washington, D.C. and the National Gallery of Art this past weekend. As I’ve lamented already, most of my photos did not turn out, so I am stealing many from my more talented friend. If any of the shots below appeal to you, rest assured that they are not mine.
I’ve come to understand that I simply do not enjoy Monet and Van Gogh as other people do. Their appeal is lost on me entirely.
But I damn sure enjoy Vermeer and Rembrandt. Even to an utterly unschooled like my own, the Dutch Masters’ method of rendering light was amazing. I told my friend that it almost seemed that sections of these paintings had light coming in from behind them … as though there were a hidden bulb beneath the canvas.
And I might have loved the incredible, sweeping, ethereal, dreamlike-but-detailed vistas of the American paintings even more.
That last shot should be recognizable to Civil War buffs, or even just those who can appreciate great war films. It’s Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ 1897 memorial to Robert Gould Shaw, who filmgoers might remember being portrayed by Matthew Broderick in “Glory” (1989). It’s huge. It actually is an immense sculpture that takes up an entire wall, and is much larger than you might understand from its inclusion during the closing credits of the film.
I am precisely the sort of weirdo who enjoys “people watching” too. And it’s easy at the Gallery, as visitors are so often occupied entirely by their objects of interest.
That gangly looking guy embarrassing himself in the video you see is me at the Canadian Embassy. (Do we really need embassies with Canada? We’re so chill.) The sly Canucks have actually incorporated an … echo chamber into the building’s superstructure. I know that sounds nuts, but it’s true. If you stand withing that domed structure, it sounds as though every word you speak is amplified down at you. It’s actually really incredible.
I was lucky enough to be treated by a rather generous friend to dinner afterward at La Belga. It is a fantastic Belgian restaurant in the gentrified Eastern Market area above the Capitol, and it’s modeled after traditional European sidewalk cafes.
Good lord! The “Mussels Diabolique” there were just … too damn good to describe. They were the best mussels I’d ever had. And that says a lot from a Long Island kid who grew up on seafood, working or chowing down in seaside restaurants. Really.
Go there. You’ll thank me for the recommendation:
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 