NDBT

I think I hurt my bones from laying around and reading so much. I’ve been stratching today, and I used the hostel’s massage chair (yummy), but I’m all creaky and achy. I’ve been going out and doing some wandering around, but I find that sort o fdepressing, because I see things I’d like to take pictures of… and can’t. Like the giant peep tree. Someone put what look like flourescent pink peeps, grown to life size, all around a tree downtown. Maybe they are actual peeps. But then they’d melt in the rain. Or not. Peeps would probably survive a nuclear bomb.

That reminds me – part of the entomology exhibit at the museum had clips from giant bug movies, like Them and attack of the 50 ft Spider or whatever, while the museum ran facts underneath, like “spiders don’t eat humans.” It was hysterical.

Finished the Devil in the White City yesterday. It was – sort of odd. Good, but I got to the end and went, ‘that’s it?’. I think that it stems from being a historical account, and no one ever really figured out what all Holmes did, because he was killed and his castle burned down before he could go to trial for other deaths. The story of the fair is really fascinating though, and really the holmes story almost seems like it was thrown in to give a middle-class perspective on Chicago at the time. While Larson does a good job of noting how the fair influenced people as diverse as Walt Disney and Frank Lloyd Wright, I was left with a couple of questions at the end, like, I wonder if any world’s fair after Chicago ended up being bigger events. Obviously you still kind of wonder what did go on with Holmes. I did really like that Burnham, the architect in charge, built himself a bungalo on Twin Peaks in San Francisco. I also really enjoyed reading about Sol Bloom, who was sent by DeYoung to head up the Midway part of the fair. He had been told by De Young to name his salary, but Bloom didn’t really want to go, so he decided to ask for 50,000$, the salary of the president. “No less a sum could compensate me for my sacrifice in leaving San Francisco”. 🙂 Then later, he was ruined by the Pullman strike (hey – we had to act that out in history class in High school. I was a seamstress). He bought 2 nice suits and said, “Being broke didn’t disturb me in the least. I had started with nothing and if I found myself now with nothing, I was at least even. Actually, I was much better than even: I had had a wonderful time.” Wise words.

I’m on now to the Murder on the Orient Express, which I think may be the only Poirot I haven’t read. Because I sat down to watch the movie as a kid, and my cousin came in at the credits and told me whodunit. Kinda spoiled it. But, so far it’s an entertaining read, even if I know the ending. (It never spoils the Man in the Brown Suit or the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, either.)

Kinda bored. I did find out though – that I only saw half the art museum. Apart from the Aussie stuff is a free gallery of old masters, a Rembrandt and such. So I might go check that out tomorrow.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.