Library of Congress

One place I have never been in DC was inside the Library of Congress. The main show piece is the Jefferson building, which sits neatly nestled in front of the US Capitol building. I decided it was time to see if I could find page 47 of the presidents book for myself, and took a look.

I was amazed by the sheer amount of information and meaning embedded into the walls, the floors, the celling of the building. It is a stunning space, and well worth the trek to see it.

There are a number of quotes scattered around the walls, but two stood for to me (for obvious reasons):
Books Must Follow Sciences, and not Sciences Books --Francis Bacon 

Science is Organized Knowledge --Immanuel Kant

Oh yeah, and I took some pictures...HDR style I think they turned out very nice as well...take a look for yourself (click the picture to enlarge).

First Stab at HDR

I suggest you click on the picture to see the larger version. This is my first attempt at HDR photography. 

I am still working on fully understanding the post processing, but this is the first shot where it came out decent.

This was the original shot. 

Doldrums

This blast of winter weather is most unfortunate. I am very tired of this winter...it has waxed too long.

"It shall be unlawful, illegal, and unethical to think, think of thinking, surmise, presume, reason, meditate, or speculate while in the Doldrums."

"In the Doldrums, laughter is frowned upon and smiling is permitted only on alternate Thursdays." 

Hunter S. Quote

A passage from Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angles (1966): 

But in a society with no central motivation, so far adrift and puzzled with itself that its President feels called upon to appoint a Committee on National Goals, a sense of alienation is likely to be very popular--especially among people young enough to shrug off the guilt they're suppose to feel for deviating from a goal or purpose they never understood in the first place. Let the old people wallow in the shame of having failed. The laws they made to preserve a myth are no longer pertinent; the so called American Way begins to seem like a dike made of cheap cement, with many more leaks than the law has fingers to plug. America has been breeding mass anomie since the end of World War II. It is not a political thing, but the sense of new realities, or urgency, anger and sometimes desperation in a society where even the highest authorities seem to be grasping at straws. 

I am not really sure what happened to the generation that thought this, to me it seems they did not really do anything to "fix" the American dream. However, maybe that was the point, they just checked out and let the rest of the pieces fall where they may.

The Dust of Knowledge

Dense and intense musty yellowing tomes

Silently standing vanguards of collected knowledge, poetry, and prose

Who among you hath last imparted wisdom?

You forgotten and neglected codices

Much as the unattended tree may fall without sound in the forest…

Are its derived pages inked if unread?

Night Photography

Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat

A Little Something for Everyone

I found the time to link to YouTube videos for each song. Hopefully the links work.

You Tube	Title	Artist
LINK	Sagitarrius Silver Announcement	The Flaming Lips
LINK	I'm Bound to Pack it Up	The White Stripes
LINK	Desire Lines	Deerhunter
LINK	I Think I Like You	Donora
LINK	Ready to Start	Arcade Fire
LINK	Electric Feel	MGMT
LINK	I Was Born (A Unicorn)	The Unicorns
LINK	Ladies Of The World	Flight Of The Conchords
LINK	Honest I Do	The Rolling Stones
LINK	A Pretty Girl Is Like ...	The Magnetic Fields
LINK	1901 (acoustic)	Phoenix
LINK	So Insane	Discovery
LINK	The Most Beautiful Girl*	Flight Of The Conchords
LINK	Hooting And Howling	Wild Beasts
LINK	Jack-Ass	Beck
LINK	Memory Loss	The Radio Dept.
LINK	After Hours (Closet Mix)	The Velvet Underground