Thursday, August 23, 2007

Kung Pao Chicken

Today, as a part of my effort to tour the exciting museum circuit, I visited the Museum of Contemporary Photography. [I wanted to visit the Shedd Aquarium and see the new baby beluga whale but the cost of admission is TWENTY FOUR DOLLARS AND NINETY FIVE CENTS. I'm sorry, but that is ridiculous.]

The photography museum (which is free) is hosting an exhibit called "Loaded Landscapes" right now. These are beautiful and still views that are rather savagely altered in the mind of the viewer when the captions are read. All of these locations are the sites of tragedy and violence. So, while some of it was quite powerful, it was not the most uplifting morning.

Another set of photos were beautiful and disturbing in a different way. Pictured below is a portion of the wall Israel is building to section off towns and groups of people - under the guise of protecting them from suicide bombers.


This Israeli wall, while very damaging, is decorated in such a way to make it substance for art.

And lastly, over a year ago, American troops started training for battle in mock-Iraqi villages. The same thing is going on over there in Israel and Palestine and the photo below if of one of these villages. Once I knew what I was looking at, it was nothing but creepy to me.


In other news: Iranian police close more than 20 barbers' shops in Tehran for offering Western hairstyles for men; The US state of Texas executes its 400th prisoner since the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976; Bill Murray is given a DUI for reckless driving of a golf cart; and I finished reading the last Harry Potter book last night.

2 comments:

Eliza said...

Hey, check your local library. When I lived near Boston, my library had passes to the Boston Aquarium that allowed you to pay $6 instead of $24. Museums, etc. too!

Aubrey said...

Thanks for the library tip! Maybe I'll head over there RIGHT NOW. This is my insane planning week, but if I'm not disciplined enough, I can easily see myself showing up at a museum!