When It's Late, and It's Hot, And a Date With the Late Show Is All That You Got
On Friday, the Visual Literacy class went out for its much-heralded field trip to Austin. We saw the Ransom Center Galleries and a forum about the impact of the Watergate scandal, both on the University of Texas campus.
We left campus at 5 A.M. (bleh) and got to UT about 10 A.M. The Ransom Center had an exhibit focusing on all sorts of artifacts from American pop culture in the 1920s. Silent movies, Art Deco, bohemians and babbits, flappers, Ogden Nash, F. Scott Fitzgerald, flowery bathing suits, dozens of political parties, balloons, the first airmail letter, and muckrakers. Good stuff. It was like an art museum tailored to the inner history major.
The highlights of the galleries were the first photograph (yes, THE first one) and an original Gutenberg volume of the Bible from the 1400s.
The first photograph was taken in 1824, a simple countryside view out the French inventor's window. It has mostly faded by now, though if you hold your head at just the right angle, you can make out the edges of the fences lining the road.
The Gutenberg Bible was probably my favorite thing in the gallery. It was just a gorgeous work of art. Dr. Watson and I had a good time just huddled over the Latin for several minutes, trying to make it out. We had both decided the open pages were somewhere around Genesis 25 or 26, only to learn later that the open pages were of Exodus.
It was interesting to note that the vellum of the 600-year old Bible had held up far, far better through time than the yellowed, flaking pages of a 1920's paperback. Soooo cool.
And then, we ate lunch and then got in line for a forum about Watergate, attended by none other than Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. I had seen both of these guys on the covers of their books and on the national news, so it was really cool hearing them in person.
They are amazingly knowledgeable about American government and the presidents, and not simply the Watergate scandal that made them famous.
Woodward is obviously a personal acquaintance of the past several presidents, and has interviewed President Bush a few times for his books on the Bush administration. Bernstein was a good deal more forward with his criticisms of Bush, and was warmly applauded by the audience for those comments.
The talk itself was fascinating, and I took a couple of bad notes, but it was about the impact of Watergate on the powers of the president and how Congress and subsequent presidents reacted. Two other panelists were historians at UT and also had some interesting points to make.
And then, the field trip came to an end; more fun ensued. Sydney and I took her car downtown and saw the Capitol building, which was neato to see again. We didn't take any pictures, and the traffic was crazy, and we got lost several times that day, but it was great fun.
We ate at Spaghetti Factory, and walked up and down 6th street, just watching some of the live bands. We happened upon a sweet NIN listening party at one venue. There wasn't as much good live music as I had hoped, since last week was South by Southwest, but it was still sweet just to be there.
Then we crashed at my aunt and uncle's place (thanks y'all!). And then we slept really late and came back to Longview the next day. woooooooooo
Five weeks until graduation. Iiiiiit's straight-jacket time!
We left campus at 5 A.M. (bleh) and got to UT about 10 A.M. The Ransom Center had an exhibit focusing on all sorts of artifacts from American pop culture in the 1920s. Silent movies, Art Deco, bohemians and babbits, flappers, Ogden Nash, F. Scott Fitzgerald, flowery bathing suits, dozens of political parties, balloons, the first airmail letter, and muckrakers. Good stuff. It was like an art museum tailored to the inner history major.
The highlights of the galleries were the first photograph (yes, THE first one) and an original Gutenberg volume of the Bible from the 1400s.
The first photograph was taken in 1824, a simple countryside view out the French inventor's window. It has mostly faded by now, though if you hold your head at just the right angle, you can make out the edges of the fences lining the road.
The Gutenberg Bible was probably my favorite thing in the gallery. It was just a gorgeous work of art. Dr. Watson and I had a good time just huddled over the Latin for several minutes, trying to make it out. We had both decided the open pages were somewhere around Genesis 25 or 26, only to learn later that the open pages were of Exodus.
It was interesting to note that the vellum of the 600-year old Bible had held up far, far better through time than the yellowed, flaking pages of a 1920's paperback. Soooo cool.
And then, we ate lunch and then got in line for a forum about Watergate, attended by none other than Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. I had seen both of these guys on the covers of their books and on the national news, so it was really cool hearing them in person.
They are amazingly knowledgeable about American government and the presidents, and not simply the Watergate scandal that made them famous.
Woodward is obviously a personal acquaintance of the past several presidents, and has interviewed President Bush a few times for his books on the Bush administration. Bernstein was a good deal more forward with his criticisms of Bush, and was warmly applauded by the audience for those comments.
The talk itself was fascinating, and I took a couple of bad notes, but it was about the impact of Watergate on the powers of the president and how Congress and subsequent presidents reacted. Two other panelists were historians at UT and also had some interesting points to make.
And then, the field trip came to an end; more fun ensued. Sydney and I took her car downtown and saw the Capitol building, which was neato to see again. We didn't take any pictures, and the traffic was crazy, and we got lost several times that day, but it was great fun.
We ate at Spaghetti Factory, and walked up and down 6th street, just watching some of the live bands. We happened upon a sweet NIN listening party at one venue. There wasn't as much good live music as I had hoped, since last week was South by Southwest, but it was still sweet just to be there.
Then we crashed at my aunt and uncle's place (thanks y'all!). And then we slept really late and came back to Longview the next day. woooooooooo
Five weeks until graduation. Iiiiiit's straight-jacket time!
