Stuffs

So here is a look at some other Boston related stuffs. I'm getting kinda tired of posting about it individually.

The pups:





The foliage:

This totally reminded me of the dead duck day from About a Boy. I was on the lookout for kids with loaves of bread.







Along the Freedom Trail:

Bunker Hill



Took a walk through the North End. My mom was a little slow on the uptake here, at one point she said "so, the North End is predominately Italian, huh?" Yes, yes it is.



Stood in line and got some Cannoli from Modern Pastry. Turns out, I'm not so much of a Cannoli person.



If you ever decide to walk the Freedom Trail, I'd say a good 70% of it is cemeteries. FYI.



Salem:

Took a day trip to Salem, overall it was kind of meh. I did get to be a pirate though. Albeit a pirate who appears to have a shrunken head.



They had a Bewitched statue (Maggie!). I was kind of disappointed that they did not have a Stevie Nicks statute as well. Also, the Salem Wax Museum, not that impressive. The wax figures are on a platform so all you can basically do is look at them. You can't take photos with the figures or anything, which was disappointing. I was hoping to get a candid of me and Goody Proctor, like we was all hanging out at the clubs and stuff. ;)



Visited the Peabody Museum which I had high expectations for, but again turned out to be kind of meh. There were a few things that I enjoyed though.



Say hi to Jizo (Heather!)





We stopped into a bookstore before leaving Salem and I think this is likely to be what my apartment will eventually turn into.



Christmas:

Before we left Boston my sister put up her Christmas decorations. CHRISTMAS!!! EEEEEEEEEEE!!!





Like I said, Stuffs:





They had these chocolates at Ikea, I'm sure it's probably not pronounced this way, but I just love having these around so that when someone does something extraordinary I can say damnnnnn, and hand them one of these candies.



I had to take a photo of these shopping basket/cart things that they have at supermarkets in Boston. I was captivated by them and much to the embarrassment of my family, insisted on using them. They are like little shopping baskets, but with wheels and a long hand so you can pull it after you. I guaranty it will be a long time before shopping basket technology has another breakthrough like this.



Ikea, how I love thee. I have their latest catalog and I just keep looking at it over and over again longingly. I am a complete sucker for mid-century modern Eames style aesthetic. Why we do not have one here, I do not know. I was completely excited when I saw they were adding on a furniture store at Ala Moana called Design Within Reach. I thought great, maybe this will be really great design at an affordable price. No, the within reach part of their name means design that is within an arm's length away from you. Come on, unless you created the Barcelona Chair, you really should not be selling it for that price. And if I ever did scrape up enough money to buy something from your store, I guaranty what I purchase will not be within arms length of my guests. It will be partitioned off behind a velvet rope, perhaps with a little placard. But I digress...



FIN

JFK Library and Museum- Wicked Awesome!!

My favorite thing about this trip to Boston, aside from The Decemberist concert, was visiting the JFK Library and Museum. I can't express to you how amazing it was, I could have spent days in there looking at everything.

The museum moves along chronologically, so the first section showcases pieces that are pre-presidency; family photos of him as a young boy, report cards (he got a D in History as a kid!), college papers, and items related to his military service. There is also a 20 minute documentary of Kennedy's life leading up to the DNC wherein he is officially nominated as the Democratic candidate. The film was made especially for the museum and was put together really well, it was probably my favorite thing about the place.

As you move further along in the museum, you move into a corridor with a series of rooms that showcase some watershed moments in Kennedy's run for President. You can stop and watch his debate with Nixon or, if you move further along, watch his acceptance speech. There is also a room with the old red and blue state map that reflects the state by state returns for the election. I still can't believe that at one time Texas was Democratic and California, Washington and Oregon were Republican! Can that be right?!? Whoa JFK museum, you just blew my mind! My sister and I were both really impressed that along the corridor there were a series of newsstands from the national papers that took you through the chronology of events leading up to the victory. At the end of the hallway were all the headlines generated on inauguration day.

Next were a series of rooms showcasing items and events that occurred during JFK's presidency. They had a rooms devoted to political cartoons of the time, transcripts of his press conferences and one of his to do list (it was amazing how varied and substantive the things on the list were). There were also recreations of both JFK and Robert Kennedy's offices. My sister could not get over all of the gift that visiting dignitary's brought for the Kennedy family- a gold purse encrusted with emeralds and diamonds, or a six foot tall ivory tusk carved with the lineage of ancient African tribes. You know, small trinkets.

I really loved all the pieces dealing with Jackie O- the dresses, her travel journal, her famous white house tour. Did you know she attended the Sorbonne and worked as a photojournalist at the Washington Herald before she met John? She also loved drawing and poetry and would doodle little cartoons. Below is one she did making light of their life on the campaign trail. That's John washing his socks in the sink at their hotel room!



She also corresponded with Ludwig Bemelmans, the author of the Madeline books. Here is a postcard he sent to Carolyn:



There was also a piece of the Berlin wall, here a photo of my mom next to it:



For some reason this place had a lot of scaffolding:



I'm going to kind of glaze over the footage and news releases regarding the assassination because if I think about it too much I will get choked up. So instead, here are a few quotes that I loved:





If anyone watched Ted Kennedy's speech this year at the DNC, you might recognize the quote above. He ended this year's speech with the same words (after promising to continue battling against his brain tumor and to return to the senate floor to cast his vote for a universal health care plan- his lifelong work). Talk about getting choked up...

Anyway, what I can't really put into words is the feeling the museum evokes. I've always imagined that the Kennedy period in history was a time where hope and optimism reigned supreme and civil rights and human decency were paramount. You can't help get a sense of that by walking the halls of the library. I'm hoping that every time I put on my Youth For Kennedy t-shirt I can replicate some of that old Camelot magic.

The New England Holocaust Memorial

One of the stops along Boston's Freedom Trail is the New England Holocaust Memorial. The Memorial consists of six glass pillars atop a granite walkway. The six pillars are of significance and symbolically represent each of the six Nazi camps as well as the six million Jews who lost their lives. Others see the six pillars as a menorah or an eternal candlelight vigil for those who have passed.



The pillars themselves are illuminated at night from top to bottom and a metal grate is located at the bottom of each pillar. The grates release a stream of steam which wafts through the glass column.





If you look at the walls of the pillars, you find numbers etched in the glass. The memorial contains six million numbers which represent each of the victims who lost their lives during the Holocaust.



Contained on the granite walkway that leads through the pillars were factual statement about the Holocaust and on the column walls themselves are personal statements from some of the victims. I found this one to be especially touching:



It reads:

"ILSE, A CHILDHOOD FRIEND OF MINE,
once found a raspberry in the camp
and carried it in her pocket all day
to present to me that night on a leaf.

IMAGINE A WORLD in which
your entire possession is
one raspberry and
you give it to your friend"

Harvard and a NSFW Pooh?

While in Boston, we decided to take a walk around the Harvard campus. I had been there before to check out the Natural History Museum, but never really walked through the campus.



Below is a picture of the Widener Library. Apparently, the library was "built with a gift from Eleanor Elkins Widener, it is a memorial to her son, Harry, Class of 1907, an enthusiastic young bibliophile who perished aboard the Titanic". We also took a quick walk through the law library, which is huge. In comparison, I would approximate that our Supreme Court Law Library would likely fit in one of their bathrooms. It's okay though, I like my law libraries to have a homey feel to it.



While on the campus, we also came across this terrific find. A Pooh house. Awwwwwww.


But wait, it looks like there is something behind the door...


Is that...?!? No, couldn't be?!? Let's take a closer look...


Yup! That's Hasselhoff alright. As Pooh said “You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

Pooh knows how to get what he wants.

The Decemberists, in November?

So you may have thought that after the Obama victory I set out on a whirlwind celebratory trip around the world. Or you might have thought I was kidnapped by Don Henley. Perhaps you thought I just went to Boston. If you guessed the later, you are correct. Just got back, I'll fill you in on the trip through the next series of posts.

The day I got into Boston I had the pleasure of seeing The Decemberists in concert (orchestra seats!!). And (tuna fruit goddamn) was it awesome. It was a really high energy show and Colin Meloy has a fantastically dynamic stage presence. I think part of it was that Meloy was basking in the Obama victory, he's been an open supporter of Obama and played a rally in Portland for him previously. The only word to describe him at the show is jubilant. He even brought out a cardboard cutout of the president elect which was thrust into the audience and crowd surfed for most of the show. There was of course the "Yes we did" cheers and Meloy even mentioned that for him many of the songs he has written and frequently performs have taken on a more hopeful meaning since the election. Sixteen Military Wives and Sons and Daughters were the more overt examples of what he meant. They actually performed Sons and Daughters as their encore and Meloy asked people to join him on stage for the chorus. The show closed with Meloy leading a few dozen people in an increasingly hushed chorus of "Hear all the bombs fade away". Like I said before, awesome.

They even played some of my favorites, O Valencia (I think that's everyones favorite) and The Engine Driver. The only downside was that I basically had this chorus playing in my head on a loop the entire trip: And I am a writer, writer of fictions, I am the heart that you call home. And I've written pages upon pages,trying to rid you from my bones.

It's official!!!

The two most powerful American politicians are an African American man (Obama) and a woman (Pelosi). FANTASTIC!

... love train, love train...

Do Your Duty

Far be it from me to tell anyone how to cast their ballot, but while in the voting booth, keep in mind how awesome it would be to have a President running the malasada booth at the next Punahou Carnival. Something to think about...

I wanna rock and roll 'til 11:00 at nite, and party selectively on special occasions following that!!

As promised, here is a Halloween 2008 wrap up.

Just as we did last year, Heather and I had two costumes each this Halloween. The first was for the office. Since Halloween fell on an (Aloha) Friday this year, we thought it would be both timely and hilarious if we dressed up as tutus. The costume assembly actually went pretty smoothly. Although, we did encounter a slight problem with the hairpieces. We had originally bought what we thought to be silver hairspray, but in testing it out a few days before Halloween, I found it only to be a clear spray with silver glitter. It did not give the desired effect. The day before Halloween Heather decided she would buy a white spider web and could make it work as a hairpiece. I think it turned out pretty awesome. I, on the other hand, managed to find a long gray wig that night. Check it out:



Surprisingly, the most popular response we go to our costume was an inquiry as to where we got our mu'umu'u. People seemed to sincerely find them stunning and wanted to own one (Savers, $6.99). I personally enjoyed some of the costume accessories. Specifically, Heather's bus pass lanyard and my TheCAB bag. To all those who enjoyed our costume, mahalo nui loa. I'll be by later with some homemade guava jelly. (Elementary school Hawaiian totally paid off, I can also roll a mean 'ulu maika).

Later that night we changed into our second costume. We opted to do KISS face paint but to dress in Eskimo and French garb, thus being an Eskimo Kiss and a French Kiss.

Here is Heather as an Eskimo KISS ala Paul Stanley:



Here I am as a French KISS ala Gene Simmons:



Initially, I was afraid people would mistake me for a mime with poor face painting abilities. Once dressed, I was afraid that people would think I was Venetian rather than French. The only person who mistook me for someone else, however, was a drunk guy who came up to me and said "Hey, Richard Simmons, alright". To which I responded, sorry I'm neither wearing dove shorts nor sweating to the oldies, I think you mean Gene Simmons. To which he turned to Heather and responded "Hey, another Gene Simmons, alright". At least he got it sort of right. On the whole, Heather and I were pretty disappointed in people's creativity. The one redeeming factor was the girl we saw dressed up as a box of Franzia. Best costume this Halloween, hands down.